Roots and Wings

If I had two wishes, I know what they would be.
I'd wish for roots to cling to, and wings to set me free;
Roots of inner values, like rings within a tree,
And wings of independence to seek my destiny.
(from A Child's Bedtime Song by Denis Waitley)

I was reflecting on the past events. It was nice to see old faces as well as new ones gathering together once a year during the school's Christmas celebration. I noticed that many past pupils take this opportunity to visit their former school and get in touch once again with their classmates of yesteryears. When you see them in their seemingly-endless boyish and girlish chatter, you wouldn't even think they're men and women who work in NGO's, schools, or banks. They simply have that need of revisiting their roots in order to gain their wider wings.

Today, the last day of 05, You remind me once again of my roots - all those things you've sent me since I was in my mother's womb until the present. I am indeed grateful for them - they have shaped me into what I am today.
And as I look forward to 06 - "as I face my fear of falling when I test my wings in flight... Just be there when I need you, to tell me it's all right!"

Don Bosco SHV Christmas Presentation

Season's Greetings to All!

The picture portrays the Christmas Nativity scene adapted to the Cambodian way of life.
May Peace reign in us all! (photo courtesy of CCCC)

រីករាយបុណ្យនូអែល​និង​សួស្តីឆ្នាំថ្មី

Merry Christmas to all our readers:
As of this Christmas Day, this blog has been visited by 771 unique visitors with 1911 hits so far. It has managed to rank 50th in Pinoy Top Blogs (page 1) and 50th in the Personal category of Blog Audit.
It's Google Page Rank is 2/10.
We thank you very much for your support.

Christmas is Family

They say that: “The best Christmas of all is the presence of a happy family all wrapped up with one another.” After all these years, I still feel homesick every Christmas because I'm away from my “natural” family. But I do have my “acquired” family here at Don Bosco. Both students and teachers are so enthusiastic preparing for this day’s celebration. I do believe that even if they are not Christians, they have earned the spirit of Christmas in their hearts – that of loving and sharing… and most of all that of family.

Christmas is when You left your family “up there” and was born to your family “down here.” By doing so You did not lose your family but rather You gained another… nay more, You got the latter family to join the former. Thus You made Christmas one big family reunion.

Computer Ethics at UPOU

This semester I'm enrolled at the University of the Philippines (Open University) via distance learning for a subject elective called "Computer Ethics" (IS 201). Besides the usual moral and ethical discussions on the uses and abuses of the computer today in cyberspace, resources and links are also given for us to read and further our worldview of what's happening globally and how ethical principles are applied locally.

As I do the study, I'm becoming more convinced of the saying "Think Global, Act Local" as a prime principle for approaching the subject of computer ethics and the formulation of its local policies.

And they also require us to put our thoughts down in web format. I've created another website for it and entitled it: "My Academic Journey" (PS. posting of Mr King's cartoon under "Fair use of copyright materials")

Amazing how amidst such technological change, universal ethical principles remain virtually intact. People long for an ordered universe to make this world a place worth living. In their search for the unchanging values of truth, justice, and order, will they find the Unchanging You as the Root, the Cause and the Source of it all?

I'll be Home for Christmas

"I'll be home for Christmas," so goes the song...
I met some Filipinas in Church this morning, two of them have finished their contracts with their garments company and will be back home for Christmas.

Meanwhile, the others (like me) will have to finish our Christmas song with "... if only in my dreams!"

Plinius once wrote: "Your home is where your heart is." This morning all of us were at home here with You in the Eucharist, for after all that is where our heart is. I need look for home nowhere else.

What is it with color?

A few years ago I was at the market in Phnom Penh with my two friends. They were our tall fair-complexioned male volunteers, one Dutch and the other French. Strangely some people accosted us and got interested talking to my two friends (whose first language was not English). And the Cambodian fellow said to them: "Oh you are Europeans, you MUST be very good in English. Would you like to teach in our English school?" My friends politely refused and told him that English is not usually spoken in their respective countries. No wonder many foreigners teach English here even without proper credentials.
Sometimes there are some Cambodians who see white-colored foreigners as rich (regardless of the reality). So if there's a gimmick or friendly gathering, the foreigners usually pay for the "poor" Cambodians.

This week I got my paradigm shift. Three days back, one Cambodian classmate of mine from our MBA class called me up by phone and we had a nice chat (in English). He didn't mind the cost.

The following day, another Cambodian classmate of mine visited me here in Sihanoukville (he had some business along the way). Then he treated me out for lunch and dinner in a good seafood restaurant. All for frienship's sake.

And oh, I remember, a month ago, I invited one of my classmates from UNICEF to give a one-day seminar to our teachers, and he didn't ask for even an honorarium. There are many Khmers that I know who are really great friends. They must be color blind!

I know YOU often sing that song: "Jesus loves the little children, red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight." It's consoling to know that many of these children are color blind too (won't distinguish between race). And oh, yes, and so is love!

My Experimental Video Blog

Today, I've updated "Sounds & Sights of Journeying" - my videoblog. Last time I showed you Don Bosco Poipet. Now you'll see a bit of Don Bosco Sihanoukville.

Click on the sidebar or you can click below:
Sounds & Sights of Journeying

and you must have Quicktime on your computer to view this:
Download Quicktime 7.0 for windows (32MB)

Building a website

After some experimental blogs and a freebie website, I felt its high time that our organization should have its own web presence. They say the best things in life are free! So I tried to negotiate with some people in the other end of the world who agreed to register us a domain name as well as host the site (yes, they're paying and with no banner ads attached). After a week of haggling for the domain name (got a TLD! but could not get a .kh which I wanted) and setting the conditions with them, I decided to give it a test run. So I used old contents (from the www) just to see how the links would flow. Ok I'm getting too technical.
In short, I've been working late nights on it. I hate "page under construction" so you'll find lots of potpourri pages even in the khmer language. I just needed to see how it would come out in the other side of the fence in order to further tweak it. And oh, you'll find lots of dead ends. Don't forget to e-mail your comments about www.donboscokhmer.org and enter at your own risk! lol :)

You (owner of 3W-Whole,Wide,World) know what that reminds me of? that my life is somehow like this website... with many pages under construction, with some good links and broken ones, and with a lot of dead ends too. But just like a web page, I could always click the "back" button and go back to You where it's cozy and safe!

He said, she said... whatever!

We opened our schoolyear two weeks ago. A very unique incident (for DB Cambodian schools) happened. One of the students accepted for the girl's sewing department passed off for a girl (looks like a girl, dresses like a girl, but really a boy- check out the picture!). She/he even got a place in the girl's dormitory until the girl's found out that she/he was not of their kind.

So the rector searched out the documents after a complaint from the girl's hostel. All school documents registered him/her as female.... but the family book entered his birth as a boy. After meeting with the parents, the rector concluded that obviously and definitely he/she could not be accomodated in the girl's hostel.

As for studying in the sewing department, the rector allowed him/her to continue on one condition (school policy)... that he/she dresses up like a boy. But he/she couldn't give that up cause "she was a girl trapped in a boy's body" and decided not to stay. So we wish him/her good luck in her next course of action.

I know You love us all for what we are, but sometimes we're never really contented with what you give and what we have. And as they say, true peace can only come with contentment.