The Evil's Advocate (Attack on an OFW Part 2)

So it's true what they say that you can never be too careful in the choice of your enemies. Sometimes, out of no where, people will just run into your life and hate you as if you have caused them their entire life's desolation and search for purpose. Honestly, I am just starting to regain and rebuild myself and dreams after a very long time when I decided that money alone wouldn’t make me feel happy as an OFW ( I quit my previous job that paid me more and where I did less almost nothing). Haven’t gone far enough though in my new job, then here comes the haters and bashers. Out of no where and out of just reasoning, suddenly I was nailed on the cross of indiscriminate internet assassination. It was desperately done, leaving no stones unturned and no acquaintance apprehensive.

Who is this person and why has devoted all his life trying to make me suffer? Well, I don’t know him personally but let us take a look at where his everest high abhorrence and pacific deep abomination is coming. During the many months that I was jobless in Dubai, I have made three exits to Kish (Iran). In all those times that I was there, I would have lost my sanity if not for the friends and company that I have met there. HE WAS ONE OF THEM. Some kabayans would arrive from Dubai and left the same day, some spent weeks, some stayed for months, while some, sadly, were forced to go back to the Philippines. But it never really matter, the amount of time couldn’t measure the bonding and camaraderie each of us felt while waiting for our visa back to Dubai. At each time that I would be back to Dubai, I was hoping that I could see some of them again.

So it happened, unexpectedly and untimely. Along the busy Al Riqa Street, our path crossed one time last June. He said hello and kumusta ka? I barely recognized him and I was having a hard time recalling where we have met. He reminded me that it was in Kish, he spent five days there and checked in the same building as ours though he's in a separate room. Before I could even recall and shook his hands back, my thought got blocked by some other ambiguities and I decided togo away. I left his hand hanging in the air. I have no idea that it's going to be the grounds of his relentless attack and passionate obsession to kill me at least on the internet. I never thought that he's going to take that simple lapse in judgment as a serious matter worthy of all his time and efforts.

A week after, I could no longer access my yahoo account. I didn’t bother. But the succeeding manipulations were just too obvious and malicious to ignore. I don’t know how he got the password to my account (he knew so much about me because he asked for my CV before he went back to Dubai). With the access on his hand, he started sending malicious and thought provoking emails to my friends and relatives. Then he took control of my friendster account and he posted there some very private pictures of mine he found on my email. He also made a very disturbing and destructive shoutout that somehow fell almost in the category of unbelievable. The he hacked into my Facebook account using the same ID, changing my profile picture and posting again a very malicious and front status. Then finally, he entered my life through my blogs. He changed my blog name and edited my profile. He deleted all the recent comments and left self destructing messages in my blogrolls' chatboxes. That’s the reason why I was forced to transfer my old blog and created this new one. Luckily, I have a back up of all my past entries, blog roll and widgets.

Me as a person, I know when to say sorry. So I apologized to him if I might have embarrassed him or caused him any harm or hurt without my knowledge. But he refused to accept my apology. It even fuelled his fascination and madness to create some more mess towards my complete humiliations. He created five more friendster account where he posted my alleged and photoshopped nude pictures. Then he joined forums and started threads saying that I have STD and I worked as a callboy ( and you know what callboys do, especially here in Middle East). He later transformed my old blog account that used to house the monologues of the desert dude into an empty blog that expressed the things that he's doing and made it show that I was the doing it. Inevitably, there would be people who have read and seen all the updates he's doing on my social networking accounts. I couldn’t help but explain. And I couldn’t explain to all, luckily, I have friends who know me better than the internet, I have a family that understand and I have faith in God that soon this will be over.

Now my blog is safe. As for the rest of my accounts, may he found time to think that he's doing more harm to himself than to me. I know God is watching him. I have apologized sincerely to him and I have rested my case. Whether he accepted or denied that, it's beyond my conscience to bear what's doing. I am working decently and happily. Some people are just too selfish and insecure to pester someone else as if I owe him a world for making him feel so unimportant and immaterial. I could not wish him to just die because I know it's bad. I just pray that he realizes sooner that he could not forever hurt me and destroy me. I am standing alone, complete, earning, capable, healthy (without any STD), trusted and most of all, LOVED.

At the end of the day, I could afford to smile. I could very well be a celebrity, with haters and bashers trying to stain my popularity and fame. Kalevel ko na si Katrina Halili na may sex video, pati yung ibang artista na may nude pics sa nga ninakaw nilang celfone. Am I that important? Am I that big? I am too busy to care about. But what’s this blog? Well, let's say I just want to let loose. Actually, this is the easiest blog that I have ever written, less than an hour. Why? Because I don’t have to think, it just comes freely and flowingly, and that is naked truth.

Attack on OFW (Part 1)

Looks like the world is getting darker and ruder. The light that was there in the beginning was so powerful that some were blinded and shunned away from it. Slowly, the world is being hostaged by people who, in their desire to profit the easiest way, have already traded cards with the devil to live the lives they have been desperately wanting to have, money from trusting and hard working people, instant spotlight by degrading the OFWs and even bad mouthing others to outlive their bitterness and anger. Everyday we witness the birth of someone conceived innocent and clean and now have manifested their alliance with the evil, not just in real life but in the blogosphere as well, not just in the Philippines, but in places like Dubai, where some Filipinos tricked fellow kabayans for money, for attention and self loath revenge.

OFWs are now called as our nation's new heroes. Just as we work hard to send money so that our loved ones back home could live in a decent house, eat a delicious meal, wear some nice clothes, go to decent school and enjoys some life beyond just surviving, some parties seemed to be not happy and please with that tag. Either by jealousy, bitterness, angst, own experience or plain insecurity why others can do this and they can only do that, it doesn’t really matter at all, for any heartless and hurtful opinions, false bearing against someone else and taking things that don’t belong to you shouldn’t at any time be tolerated and left at will.

Opinions can never be wrong or right because it's an opinion, plain and simple. When someone gives an opinion on something, he's expressing his thought however misguided, unintelligent or unfounded it is. To him and him alone, that's his view and we can never say he's wrong or right. But we can opine on their opinion to defend what their saying is in contrast with what we believe in. Especially if what they're talking down was about us, about the "profession" that we all try to endure and perfect despite the hard fact that it could never be, we can do more that just say a counter opinion, but share our lives and experiences to belie and disproof this opportunist's claims and hurtful atrocity against the image of Filipinos working overseas.

MUKHANG PERA, that is what he's saying about US. That money is the only thing that motivates people to work abroad. NO MORE NO LESS. That we are "makakapal ang mukha katulad ng sa dinosaur" because we are willing to do things we don’t normally do back home such as washing somebody else's ass so we could earn a living. That OFW deserved to be abandoned and fooled by their wives/husbands back home because we ourselves are more inclined to get involved with that kind of affairs with other people. That it is undue and unsolicited for politicians and people back home to sympathize when an OFW falls victims of their employers especially the maid and caretakers. That because OFW are paid to serve their sirs and maams, torture and inhuman acts come part of its package and that it should not stir anyone to complain or react. What a heartfelt opinion, really. I felt it in my heart because I am an OFW myself. I felt so offended, hurt and enraged.

Now here's my opinion on his blasphemous opinion he said he initially wrote down in pages of yellow paper. Hindi kami mukhang pera, rather MUKHA KAMING PAMILYA. Love for the family is the reason why we left them and we hope to provide them better future though it means sacrificing ours. It's not kakapalan ng mukha when we wash someone else's ass to earn money, it's TATAG NG KALOOBAN to do everything so that no one on our family will feel hunger, get sick, and everyone will feel happy and well provided. We didn’t decide to work abroad to find another wife or husband, we came for a noble cause of helping our family and country. When our loved ones traded us for another, we don’t deserve that gratitude in any way. When one of us gets maltreated and harassed by the people that we work for, we don’t deserve that either. Yes, we are paid, but that is to take care of their children and manage their homes, but not to serve as punching bags or sex slaves. When one of us suffers beyond measure and death, we are not asking to be objects of late commendations, political manipulations and kababayans' pity and sympathy. Just the same, we don’t want to get lambasted by our own fellowmen. With had enough pain and we don’t want to feel some more when people condemned our sad fate, we never had it coming.

This blogger's opinion on OFW was based on his experiences as an OFW himself. How ironic! He was there yet he never realized the real meaning of how it was to be there. He never looked beyond the window outside of his probably fruitless experience as a factory worker in Taiwan and a welder in Saudi. Maybe his opinion was for his experience alone, cause majority of us OFW are happy and happy being of help to our loved ones back home. Maybe he's just frustrated. Maybe he's just sour graping. Maybe he' just wanting more attention to his blog, if you may call it one. OR MAYBE HE"S JUST DRUNK.

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"A crusade against OFW is a crusade against HOPE, FAITH, SACRIFICE and LOVE."

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Dude's Dood

Some say I am in the dark hours.

But my heart and hands say otherwise.

Who would you believe and trust?

Damned they or me they cursed.

Let your mind open and eyes see.
Beyond hatred is love and glee.

Let colors live and darkness free.

And see a soul as beautiful as me.

*3 drawings i made last weekend. and a short poem inspired by the people who's trying to put a good "painter" down. :-)

Much of Less

Last night's sighting of the new moon has marked the beginning of the most holy month in the Muslim calendar – the Ramadan. And as the season begins, life will change for most of Dubai residents, not just for Muslims. People of other faith, including Filipinos, will see their usual routines altered, whether they like it or not. Beyond the fasting of our Muslim brothers, everyone else is goaled in finding more good with the "less" during the observance.

For Muslims, Ramadan is a time to come back home, to get closer to God as individuals, as family and as community. Fasting or less focus on food and earthly things teaches them self control and discipline while purifying the body, mind and soul. Abstaining from food seems to be the way God teaches how to gain control over other aspects of our lives, which in turn helps us focus on spiritual matters. During this month, Muslims must control their passions and desires, and perform extra prayers and good deeds with complete devotion to God.

It is a tough call for Muslims, but for us people of other beliefs, living in a country where the brand of faith is different from ours, we could only slow down on the way we usually do things as a sign of courtesy and respect. After all, not obliging with the guidelines is punishable and that leaves us not a single choice to act on our own less one wants to spend some time in jail or worst get deported. Since it's a time of piety and religious consciousness, one must dress up moderately and avoid animated behavior that could cause offense. I must say that discipline and accord is at their highest adherence at this times regardless of our identity and preferences.

The annoyances during Ramadan are aimed not to punish or discourage people at any level. Truth is, treasures could be found in the elected bareness and simplicity. During Ramadan, shpping malls and restaurants veil their windows and open only after sunset. So you'll get to learn how to cook. Eating, drinking and smoking during the day is strictly prohibited and it's a great way to diet and stay healthy. Nightclubs and discos are in hiatus for a month and that means less spending. Road is less congested during the usual rush hours and your patience while traveling home is somehow momentarily laid to rest.

Working environment during Ramadan is more relaxed while people find more reasons to postpone work or go home early. Working hours is reduced and in theory could be bad for the economy. Professional commitment is not maximized and office works tend to pile up unfinished in one's desk. But for the good part, having to go home early means more time to sleep, to blog, to read your favorite books, to movie marathon, to chat with family back home, to meet up with friends and just simply rest and plan ahead for your family's future. Bet no one's gonna argue with that.

Despite the many things reduced, curtailed and minimized during this Holy month, Ramadan works in a way far important than just losing some pounds due to eating prohibitions or saving money due to closed bars and entertainment options. It gives us the opportunity to learn a lot from other people's tradition especially the essence of fasting, to share more time with our beloved back homes even through that small webcam, to show respect for our Muslim friends and be one living proof that people, despite differences in color, race or religion can unite and live harmoniously as one big happy family.

Joke Lang!

NUN : Mother! I was raped! What shall I do?
Mother SUPERIOR : Here, take this calamansi.
NUN : Will this ease the pain?
Mother SUPERIOR : Sipsipin mo! Nang mawala ngiti sa mukha mo, gaga!



Mister: Kung gagawa ako ng pelikula , gusto ko , ako si ZORRO!
Misis: E ako , sino?
Mister: Si DACOS!
Misis: Dacos? Sino ' yun?
Mister: DA COS of all my ZORROs!

Tomas: Sobrang tabatsoy ang misis ko , kaya gusto niyang magbawas ng timbang. Nag-horseback riding siya...
Jorge: Ano ' ng resulta?
Tomas: Nabawasan ng sampung kilo ' yung kabayo!

Ama: Kumusta ang pag-aaral mo?
Anak: Nag-lesson at test po kami tungkol sa mga manok.
Ama: Ano, madali ba?
Anak: Chicken na chicken!
Ama: Anong grade mo?
Anak: Itlog po.




Pasyente: Okey ba ang services sa ospital na ito?
Doktor: Oo naman. Sigurado ' yon.
Pasyente: Paano kung hindi ako satisfied?
Doktor: Ibabalik namin ang sakit mo.

Dear Dodong ,
Sa susunod anak , Nido non-fat na lang ang ipadala mo sa tatang mo. Nasisira kasi ang tiyan niya sa pinadala mong Nivea Moisturing Milk....
Nagmamahal - Nanay

ANAK: Tay , penge ng pera. May project kami. Bibili ako ng 'cocomban ' ..
TATAY: Ano ka ba naman. Hangga ngayon ' cocomban ' pa rin ang tawag mo!
ANAK: Ano po ba ang tama?
TATAY: Bomb paper!

PEDRO: Galing ako sa doktor , nakabili na ako ng hearing aid. Grabe ang linaw ngayon nang pandinig ko!
JUAN: Wow , galing! Magkanong bili mo sa hearing aid?
PEDRO: Kahapon lang!

PULIS: Lola, bakit nyo pinagsasaksak yung rapist?
LOLA: Aba! Pagkatapos niya akong hubaran, bigla siyang tumayo at nagsabi na, „Joke-joke lang, lola!Eh hindi naman ako nakikipagbiruan sa kanya!!!

SIR: Inday, naalis mo na ba „yung mantsa sa barong Tagalog ko?

INDAY: Yes, sir!
SIR: Good! Ano'ng pinang-alis mo?
INDAY: Gunting po, sir!

EUGENE: Pare, walang hiya ‘yung mga kondoktor sa bus!
REGGIE: Bakit?
EUGENE: Ayaw akong papasukin sa bus! ‘Yung iba, ang daming ibinebenta… mani, kasoy, puto, balot, itlog ng pugo, pinipig, chicharon, espasol, puwedeng pumasok!
REGGIE: Ano ba ang ibinebenta mo?
EUGENE: Papag!

Magsyota naglalakad sa park:
GF: Hon, ihi muna ako
BF: Dyan ka nalang sa damuhan.
Umiihi, kinapkap ni BF ang legs ni GF nang may mahawakan syang mahaba sa gitna nito...
BF: Anak ng?! Bading ka ba o nagpalit na ng kasarian??
GF: Sira! Nagpalit lang ako ng desisyon. Tumatae na ako.

JUDGE: Ano ba talaga nangyari?
ERAP: . (di nagsasalita)
JUDGE: Sumagot ka sa tanong.
ERAP: Naman eh!!! Kala ko ba hearing lang to??? Bakit may speaking?

NARS: doc, bat tinanggihan nyo yung pasyente?
DR: alin, yung bakla?
NARS: opo. Baka sabihin namimili tayo, porket bading siya.
DR: ano naman raraspahin ang ko sa kanya ambisyosa siya?

DOC: umubo ka!
PEDRO: ho! Ho! Ho!
DOC: ubo pa!
PEDRO: ho! Ho! Ho!
DOC: okay.
PEDRO: ano po ba sakit ko doc?
DOC: may ubo ka.

Sexy girl nagkukumpisal:
PARI: iha, ano ang iyong ikukumpisal?
SEXY: father, pag nakakarinig po ako ng lalaking nagmumura di ko mapigilan sarili ko na yayain siya magsex!
PARI: ' tang ina! Di nga?

Sinoli ni Erap ang libro sa library.
ERAP: sobrang dami ng characters wala naman storya.
LIBRARIAN: kayo pala kumuha ng telephone directory namin!

Sa sabungan, walang entrance fee ang may dalang panabong.
Si Juan para makalibre pumasok may dalang inahin.
BANTAY: [sinita si Juan] ano yan?
JUAN: [galit pa!] manok!
BANTAY: alam ko, eh bakit inahin?
JUAN: may laban ang mister niya, siyempre moral support bobo!


GF: magaling! At sino tong baby na nagtext sayo?
BF: ah eh kumpare ko yun! Lalake yun! Baby lang palayaw.
GF: oh eto replyan mo. Hindi daw kayo tuloy at may mens daw ang tarantado!

DORAY: mare, kulang pa kami ng isang miyembro. baka gusto mong sumali sa paluwagan. PINANG : hindi pa ako pwede, mare.
DORAY: bakit mare?
PINAY: virgin pa kasi ako

BOY: Wala akong kwentang anak para sa inyo! Lahat ng ginagawa ko puro mali!Lagi nalang ako mali!!! Di 'nyo na ako mahal!
DAD: HIndi Anak! Nagkakamali ka!!
BOY: Shet! Mali na naman ako!

Bringing a Good Man Down

I really don’t know which way to feel. Being so preoccupied with my current job, I have almost lost all the time in the world to update my blogs, check on my emails and see what's the latest in friendster and facebook. Thought I could just leave the world unattended and focus on what's essential – my job. Well, evil really works its way when no one's watching. With the latest assassination that surprised the unsuspecting character in me, I really don’t know which way to feel . Should I be proud that someone is so negatively OBSESSED with me or should I be bothered that someone is weaving up trouble out of his OBSESSION.

What started out casually is raging on bloodily. Plagues of malicious emails, disturbing forum subjects, snatching control of my humble life's sanctuary, deleting the comments of my friends and even my own Friendster account, as if an apology would be not be enough to appease the bitterness and frustrations that is totally consuming this obsessed soul. Such another triumph for the evil monarch as another lost soul has taken the dark path and is blinded miserably by his congenital hatred and resentment of other people's successes.

While I work hard to earn a decent living, inevitably someone will just come along and speak evil without any just cause. But no matter how unsettling his words and his actions, I have always reserved in my heart a piece of understanding and console for people who are less loved. Sadly, people who are less loved most often are being used by the devil to spread their havoc in this world where we all try to live peacefully. And the battle just goes on. Damage will be inappropriately caused but God sees the truth and waits. He allows evil people to live longer, not because He wants them to spread more of their wrong doings but to give enough time to contemplate and repent for their transgressions.

I have always been a good man and a good friend to many. I am not a perfect human being. I have also flaws and vulnerable to mistakes and pains but I always know how to ask for apology for something that I have done knowingly and unintentionally. We live in an imperfect world, sometimes, what we want we won't get, who we love wont love us back the way we want it to be, we can never wish to be just successful, we have to work hard for it. At times when things don’t fall into place, there's no reason to blame others or feel bitter.

I have no enemies in life, aside from the loneliness that sometimes I feel from being far away from home. As an OFW, in time and in this place, that's the least that I would care about. But for some, there must be pleasure in evil speaking of others and spreading demeaning thoughts. I really don’t know which way to feel. How could some people be just so obsessed with someone so as to devote so much time trying to destroy him? Good luck. But they can never put a good man down. I have been through a lot in this life. I know as long as I am with God, this evil can try but they can't take that faith away from me.

"A man can never be too careful in the choice of his enemies” - Oscar Wilde

Never Say No

My sister texted me yesterday. How sweet noh?! But wait, she didn’t text to say hi or how I am, or to thank me for my last padala. Text from the Philippines is quite expensive so she cut it off, she needed three thousand pesos for a project she's doing in school. "Fine" I said, I'd send right away. So I did. After, I called her to give the reference number and she thanked me. I smiled and I said to myself, I don’t need to be thanked. As an OFW, I am believed to have lots of money, though the inside of my wallet, the place where I live, the roads that I walk, the food that I eat and the way I spend my weekend would say something else.

Never say no. that’s probably the motto OFWs like me have come to breathe and live in as far as family back home is concerned. Whatever they need, whenever they ask, however they want, we try hard to provide and fulfill every promises and every hope in as much as we can. When sometimes it requires going beyond our capacities, we still make up ways not to frustrate and upset our beloved. Though it means we need to swipe that card, borrow from friends, avail of company loans, sell personal properties or engage in extra sidelines, we are more willing to do that so we could be that ever dependable anak, kuya, tito, kaibigan at kapitbahay.

It hurts sometimes when we are too misconceived. They think that when someone left the country to work abroad, success is a guarantee. It may or may not be, but whatever happens, we cling on to our missions and sanguine that the next time will be better. Yeah, we are heroes, but not super ones. Hence, we have limitations and inabilities that oftentimes we conceal beneath our tears and under the pillows when we sleep at night.

I counted the change in my wallet when I arrived home, it's enough to last till the next payday, only I just have to take meals twice a day and spend nothing else for other things, not even for a piece of toblerone that I terribly love to grind. But I am not saying these to make someone feel guilty or to solicit any form of pity. I love to be of help to my family, and that’s basically the reason why I am here working far from them, away from friends and bare of a comfortable life that I want my loved ones to have.

Actually I can say no. But I have chosen never to say it. More than a motto, I have come to love and live with it, like a destiny, a bitter sweet destiny.

mtv featured was Jim Paredes "Sa Aking Padala" for Western Union.

Home is Where the Toilet Is

I was sitting on the toilet bowl for almost thirty minutes. Had it been a weekday, in the same span of time, I wouldn’t have only emptied my tummy from last night's full meal, but have also taken a shower, dressed up and gelled my hair. But since it's a weekend, I was spared of that obligation to enslave myself to another day of never ending early morning wake up calls and pressuring office works. So for thirty minutes, I have afforded myself to sit on the toilet bowl, releasing my thoughts of boredom and homesickness yet again. Been here in Dubai for more than a year now, it's kind of odd that after many battles and consecration to fulfilling my dreams in this land of sands and the guinesses, I was actually feeling sad and missing home.

The toilet was as bare as me. Aside from the bowl, the water hose and the tissue holder, there was nothing else to see inside. The walls and floor was made of white shiny marble tiles whimsically resembling a huge folded unpainted canvass whose master's artistry has lost ever since he left his silent sanctuary back home. The toilet and the bowl was nothing similar to the one we had back home. This one was so closed out and unforgiving, while ours in the province was meters away from our house, a place without out a roof and where the sky and heaven freely falls and where the birds and the tress fly and sway abandonly from above without even care at what you are doing.

Such a great pleasure from simple things. I missed that and I missed home. Sometimes I wish if only toilet bowls could be like time machine that could transport someone back to the past or bring someone closer to the future, then I'd probably spend frequent times to happily do both. I wanted to go back to the days when our toilet bowl was stll that ground level type, much like me, so young, so trivial, so jologs, funny and innocent. Yet all the more that I wanted to go forward to the future. I missed home, family and friends. If I could travel to skip many pages in the calendar and many months of sacrifices alone here outside of my own familiar confinement, my thoughts of home and all the feelings of boredom would be flushed away with all my hesitations and unsaid feelings for my loved ones.

There was peace and solace in the toilet room, the deafening silence is a treat away from the seemingly inescapable lack of privacy that is Dubai. Yet the noiselessness was just suffocating in a sense that when you have nothing else to see, what you saw was a picture of yourself back in time in the same moments and mersmerized how things have changed since the time that you'd enjoyed some private yet public moments in that roofless toilet nestled below the leafy towering calumpit trees. There were no flush, tissue paper or exhaust whatsoever, but there was joy in seeing the birds and airplanes flew from above, there was pleasure hearing the birds' noises from the trees, there was sweetness in the scent of the fields and farms. There was hapiness, simply in being at home.

Cory Aquino - In Memoriam

To the woman who brought back democracy.

To the Mother who'd unselfishly loved her country & family beyond measure.

To the President who would always be remembered.

To you, Cory Aquino, my humble tribute.