disclaimer: just a few opinions. no violent reactions please. just sharing.

i love talking with my practicum groupmates. i can talk to them about things that bother me-- the more serious ones without feeling like a dork because they share their opinions too and actually engage in debates.

today we were seated around the conference table again trying to work on our paper on HIV/AIDS. we started the conversation by talking about nonsensical things such as the latest gossip (*gasp* si Ramos? mastermind pala yung ate niya sa murder niya!) and some silly things. i don't know when it started but we talked about the present situation of the undying male vs. female issue-- the absurd television advertisements where women are degraded. remember that instant noodle commercial? the father and children wait for mom who's stuck in traffic on a rainy night. the father and children wait for mom until late in the evening, couldn't go to bed yet because they haven't had dinner? when mom comes (tired and haggard), she pulls out packets of instant noodles to feed her hungry family.

i mean... wtf? so the father would rather go starving along with his children than pulling cooking instant noodles himself? Filipino women of today carry a heavier load on their back-- they work and then when they go home they are expected to be the traditional Filipino mom-- they clean, they cook, they take care of the children... they basically take care of the whole household!

another advertisement: it's for a germ-killing soap. the first scene shows the daughter with her horrendous wrinkled school uniform, dad stands beside the toaster with burnt toasts, and the son... i don't remember. the second scene shows the mom inside the bedroom on her bed blowing her nose. mom is sick. she looks out the bedroom door as her family waves goodbye before they leave. a voice inside her head tells her that she can't afford to be sick because no one's going to take care of the family. i mean... she's SICK FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! but of course, she feels guilty because she's sick, she can't take care of her family's morning routine. sigh.

isn't it sad? i mean it's cool when you think that life revolves around women and life can't be easy without women because they take care of everything but sometimes it gets absurd-- the fact that too much dependency on women actually stagnates her growth as a person especially in a conservative country such as hours when tradition and religion still dictate society.

so yeah. that was our topic for today and we moved onto premarital sex and the use of condoms to abortion (both the pros and cons and how abortion would be justified). sometimes i think it's better to not care about present issues that stay afloat amidst the other problems of the country. but when you look at the big picture, these "small issues" aren't just issues at all because they do affect the society as a whole. like health, for example. tubercolosis and AIDS may be just an epidemic (my practicum adviser claims that it's already a pandemic) and the government is not even giving enough budget for health to solve the spreading of the diseases... but are they going to wait until the whole thing blows over? it's easier to control a smaller group than wait for the group of affected individuals to grow until you can't contain the spreading of the disease anymore, right? afterall, great things start from small beginnings. besides, these are also social issues because they affect (if not now..they will in the future) the society as a whole.

you won't believe how well-written our laws are but it is in the implementation of these laws we fail. and that is so sad. sayang ang talino ng mga Pilipino!