Lisa Macuja's Last Don Quixote

It is sad whenever an artist decides to retire from his art.  What’s more if she is an artist of remarkable talent who shared her rare gift to the world and gave great honor to her country.  Lisa Macuja-Elizalde, the Philippines’ foremost icon of dance, the ballerina of the masses, has finally danced her last full-length Don Quixote.

Her last performance of Kitri, the role which started her illustrious career with the Kirov Ballet, was still electrifying, entertaining and uplifting.  I was complete dazzled by her performance last Sunday, just as she completely enchanted me twenty years ago when I first saw her Juliet.  Her steps are still sprightly, her spins and turns still full of energy, and her leaps almost ethereal.  She was playful and flamboyant, childish and loving, witty and romantic.  She has completely embodied Kitri with her dance and her gestures that I can almost imagine what the Russians saw in her when they gave her a 25-minute standing ovation after her first performance of the role with the Kirov Ballet.

Just as she was extremely talented in her dancing, Lisa also exuded this charm that connected her with the audience – this blogger, definitely included.  The way she shook her tambourine the second time she was lifted on her side by her partner, as if to acknowledge the applause; the gestures she made to express her distaste for her wealthy suitor (I thought it was very Filipino and were the sort of gestures a maarteng kolehiyala would make – not that I’ve seen one do this to myself…hehe).

During the curtain call, I believe that Lisa was truly touched.  She was unabashedly crying and mouthed her ‘thank yous’ several times.  For a true artist of the masses bidding farewell to her most loved and most memorable role, the several minutes of standing ovation and thundering applause was all that a grateful nation could give her.

I am quite grateful that Lisa decided to dance the role one more time because I got the chance to see her.  I am already sorry I missed her Odette/Odile in Swan Lake and to have missed her in her signature role would have been doubly disappointing.  As she said in her video shown just before the final act, Lisa had already decided to dance her final Don Quixote last 2009 but went back on her word as she decided to perform the role of Kitri again as part of her Swan Song Series.

This year, the second of Lisa’s three years of saying farewell to her beloved roles, she will also dance Giselle and Carmen.  Both of these roles complete opposites of the playful Kitri.  I can’t wait to see Lisa perform Giselle; I’m sure I would see a different Lisa when she performs this dramatic role.  I just hope my sister D stays true to her promise that she will buy me a ticket for this show as well.

I have to add that the live music performed by the Manila Symphonic Orchestra also added to the magic.  Lisa made the right decision to dance to a live orchestra for her final Don Quixote, and a very good orchestra at that. Kudos also to the very talented Mikhail Martynyuk (he made a good Basilio opposite Lisa and quite supportive of his partner – and I don’t just mean that literally) and the talents of Ballet Manila.

Phantom of the Philippines

When I first heard several months ago that the Phantom of the Opera would be playing in the Philippines, I had hoped that they would get Filipino actors in the cast.  After watching several local shows, I’m certain that the Philippines has no shortage of local talent.  I can think of several known Filipino actors who would make great Phantoms.  As for Christine, it may be difficult to find a soprano who is already known to the public but I’m sure there are Filipinas who deserve the limelight.  I was able to watch “The Magic Flute” of the UP College of Music and I must say that I was myself surprised that we have quite a pool of talented young singers (and actors).

CCP’s Phantom did have a Filipino in the cast, Dondi Ong, the actor who played Ubaldo Piangi.  Not really a main role but I will have to say that his notes are difficult given that he was playing the principal tenor of the Paris Opera House.  The show also hired several musicians to be part of the orchestra.

The musical is to play up to October 17 at the CCP, after having been extended twice.  That’s more than Cats, another Andrew Lloyd Webber musical I saw at the CCP.  Perhaps ‘Phantom’ did strike a chord in Filipinos as it did in other countries. 

There was some clamor from local musicians regarding the show.  “All I ask of you is to pay the fee” was how they put it in the newspaper.  I tend to agree with the OPM and the rest of the Filipino talents.  Given that ‘Phantom’ was extended a couple of times, it was inevitable that they ran over some local shows.  It’s not like the Filipino artists were asking a big chunk of money – just a trifle really to add to the local artists’ retirement fund.  If fees such as these are being collected from Filipino talents abroad where the performing arts are very much alive, all the more that it should be given here.  All that I’m saying is that local artists be given the respect that they deserve.

Mabuhay, Filipino artists!

The Phantom of the CCP

I have just watched Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera at the Cultural Center of the Philippines with the family courtesy of my sister D.  Such is the life of a penniless engineer and master’s degree holder.  I enjoyed the show and having my family along with me made it even more memorable.  I was able to catch the show on Broadway almost a decade ago and I think I was more impressed then with the actors and the production.  Still the company I was with made all the difference.  Back on Broadway, I was with someone whom I won’t even care to mention.

The show itself was more or less as I remembered it from years ago.  I was just surprised during the “The Phantom of the Opera” sequence as it featured less of the technical side.  It didn’t have the spinning spiral staircase from which the Phantom and Christine descended. There were also long moments when I could not see anything but a black stage with swirling smoke from the fog machine.  I don’t know if they somehow downgraded the production or maybe there were technical glitches that night.  Even the “Track down the murderer…” sequence has these ‘empty’ parts.

I don’t think there were enough trapdoors as I was able to see the Phantom runaway after taking Christine’s engagement ring.  I think he was supposed to drop down through a trapdoor at this point.  I think he and Christine are also supposed to disappear into thin air during the “Point of No Return” sequence.  The candle sticks during the "Phantom of the Opera" sequence are also supposed to rise through these trapdoors, they simply glided from the sides in this production.

The actress who played Christine was able to sing her notes (at least as I can tell) and she did enunciate her words very clearly.  I don’t know if the high note at the end of the Phantom of the Opera was sung live (I’ve read that it was recorded in some productions) but it seemed like it as there was some effort.  I just thought she could do more with breath control as well as singing some of the parts legato. (My voice teacher would be proud I remembered the term.  Hehe…)  At times, I did not sense emotion in her words while she seemed too melodramatic at other times.  I did like her singing “Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again”.  She sung it quite beautifully and with what I thought to be the right amount of emotion. Finally, this Christine was a graceful dancer - which reminded me that Sarah Brightman was a dancer before she became a singer.

Now, the actor who played the Phantom was just superb. His voice did sound muffled at times but he still sang and acted the role quite well.  I like his low notes especially in “Music of the Night” (I noticed some of the tenors who sang the role have difficulty with the low notes in this song) but he was able to handle the high notes as well.  I believe this is one of the hardest roles in the whole of musical theater and to be able to sing and act it as well as he did is quite a feat in itself.

We watched the show from the dizzying heights of Balcony II.  I would have liked to watch the show from a seat closer to the stage where I can at least see the expressions on the faces of the actors but someone as penniless as I cannot complain and should just be thankful for seeing the show.

Manila Ocean Park

When it opened several years ago, throngs of Filipinos – tourists and uziseros alike – flocked to the Manila Ocean Park.  The Oceanarium was to be the centerpiece of the new tourist hub which included other attractions as well.

I finally got to see the park a few weeks ago using a complimentary pass given to me by my parents who toured some relatives there several months ago.  I had visited two other marine theme parks – SeaWorld in San Diego, California and Ocean Park in Hong Kong.  I will have to say that the Manila Oceanarium still has a lot to improve on should it want to be at par with these other two attractions.  Still, the Manila Oceanarium is not without its own appeal.  The glass tunnel which bends twice along its length provides a good view of the marine creatures.  I was glad to have come a few hours before closing time as I got some alone time inside the tube, freely taking pictures (at least until a few other latecomers entered).  Just some minutes before, the tunnel was packed with people; I could hardly get a decent video of the marine animals swimming by.  But I guess it was also fun looking at the people, albeit less amazing.  There were plenty of excited children jumping excitedly at the sight of the big fishes, some teenagers donning their artista-inspired looks and doing their Facebook-worthy poses in front of the camera, and also some manangs gesticulating excitedly at the shark as it seemed to hover overhead.   When a diver in an air-filled suit with a bubble helmet came down the tank, the children became even more ecstatic.  I imagined an oversized obese toddler being taught to walk but I still wonder how it would be like to walk underwater among the fishes.

There were plenty more aquariums and large tanks.  I remember the lionfish with their defensive spines, the clownfish which the kids called Nemo and also Dory in a separate tank, the small seahorses looking like yellow ornaments floating with the mild current as they cling on the bare branches of a seaweed.  There were several blowfish, locally called butete (quite confusing as we also call tadpoles the same thing), but they were relaxed and deflated.  I wondered then if there was anything I could do to see them expand to full size, short of knocking on the glass to rattle the fish.

The arrowanas swimming gracefully in a big tank near the entrance with their large, uniform scales glistening in the dim light could be easily imagined as the fabled water dragons.  There were also Philippine crocodiles just under the wooden stairs, not-so-hungry or as big as the recently caught Lolong in Palawan which measured 21 feet – the longest in the world.  Still, they made me think twice before extending my arm over the railing to take my own snaps at them.  There was also one tank I liked where there were hundreds of silver fish swimming clockwise around some plant.  If they did not get dizzy with their circular motions, I could only wonder.  One spacious room featured larger tanks with the bigger fishes.  The illusion of seeing them swimming through the remains of a sunken ship was reinforced by the Titanic-inspired soundtrack (or was it really from the official soundtrack? I honestly don’t know).  There was one tank where a remora has attached itself to a shark. 

Of course, there was also the shark tank.  Seeing the great whites and hammerheads up close reminded me of that soundtrack of Jaws.  The sharks seemed docile enough and I wonder how they would look in a feeding frenzy (yes, I also got addicted to the computer game.)

There are other attractions in the Manila Ocean Park which I didn’t get to visit.  Aside from the fact that I got there just a couple of hours before closing, I also could not spare any more money.  There was the fish spa where you could have your feet picked and cleaned by little fishes.  There was the jellyfish attraction which I guess was not unlike the one I saw in HK.  Glad they also got it as I enjoyed the HK attraction immensely – it was like walking in an alien world inhabited by these flying, luminous creatures (it’s either that or a scene from The X-Files).  The Antarctic Adventure was another missed attraction.  Honestly, I don’t know what it is but there were probably penguins.  As I left, the musical fountain has just started.  From the sound of it and the top of the water spouts I could see from outside, it seemed like a mesmerizing show.  Too bad I lacked the money, the time and good company.

Face-to-Face Interview

After the phone interview, I was finally called for a face-to-face interview with the global business development manager.  The interview was scheduled at 10 AM but I decided to arrive in Makati two hours earlier.  The traffic can be quite terrible in the morning and I would not want to be late. 

I did not want to appear overexcited (I wasn’t actually) so I had breakfast at Jollibee and ate my meal leisurely.  I was calm and composed when I left the restaurant 30 minutes before my scheduled interview, which was what I really wanted.  What I was not able to consider was the weather.  The building I was to go to was just across Ayala Avenue but it was hot and I was wearing a long sleeved shirt with tie.  Factor in the fact that I perspire a lot at the least physical exertion.  That short walk in the underpass made my sweat trickle down my face and neck.  The result – a dark ring of sweat around the snugly fitting collar of my shirt.

The interview lasted an hour.  After the pleasantries, when I mentioned that it was hot outside to account for my sweat-drenched collar and he said that he also felt hot when he arrived, we got down to business.  The interviewer first made me recite what was already on my resume (quite a waste of time, I thought).  Then it was all situational questions. 

The questions themselves were not really that hard because I have quite a number of personal experiences to choose from.  After all, I have graduated more than a decade ago and I have worked in a number of different fields.  What was difficult was to think of the best example that would highlight my strengths, my decision-making skills, and other personal characteristics that would also be useful in the job I was applying for.  I had to sift through all my experiences in just a few seconds.  My mental faculties, especially memory and quick recall, seemed to have declined sharply these last few years and it was a bit of a struggle to come up with the examples in such a quick span of time but I was able to cite examples I believe to be the best.  It was in the delivery where I had some bit of a problem. 

I am not that articulate to begin with.  As a self-confessed introvert, I am more comfortable writing down my thoughts when I can pause and reflect on how I can best express an idea.  Especially now that I had no real practice speaking in English.  Writing which could have been the next best thing would have been nice, but I couldn’t find the time nor the mood to sit down and compose my thoughts.  In the end, it was just plain laziness, I think.  I read an article just a few weeks ago (I don’t know how true) about women being more likely to be nervous before a job interview but this makes them more prepared than men to face the interviewer.

I thought I was able to answer the questions right enough, at least to the best of my abilities and whatever experiences I had.  Perhaps, I should have played more of an actor and tried to charm my way. But hey, I’m certainly no actor and as charm goes, I’m probably as charming as a grinning skull and bones.

Phone Interview

I was surprised that I was contacted by the HR staff of the prospective employer where I had the personality test.  Maybe this is the time that I should swallow my own words from my previous entry, one of those times when I did not follow the think-before-you-click mantra of responsible bloggers.  But no one’s complaining (so far) and I still think that some of my concerns about such personality tests are valid. I won’t specify which ones though… haha!

So I was scheduled for a phone interview, the HR being in another Asian country.  I found it difficult at first since the caller’s accent was just too different from mine.  Add to that that we were talking over the phone where the sound was a bit muffled and there were no gestures or facial expressions to give additional cues.  It also did not help that in my concern that the interviewer hears the ambient noise in my neighborhood – the cawing of the roosters, the gossip of the idle neighbors (as if I wasn’t idle myself!) hammering noises, and all the other cacophony of sounds – I opted to go to the food court of a mall.  Okay, call me foolish or stupid or whatever, but I thought it was a better environment for an interview.  Well, I earnestly thought it was.  I had the unfortunate late-night experience quite recently when I woke up to the sound of neighbors fighting.  There was a brief but noisy squabble accompanied by breaking bottles, followed by the sound of a herd of people on a stampede, and then very loud shouts of obscenities, threats and curses.  Anyway, I thought it was wise trading the possibility of that happening as I was being interviewed to the noise of people chatting over brunch and the loud whirr of the blender from a nearby stall.

Well, we did manage.  The interview lasted an hour, my left ear (the better of the pair) aching slightly afterwards.  I found the questions more difficult than the usual interview questions I had been asked.  They were situational, almost always starting with ‘Describe a time…”  It was a good thing that I have worked for so many companies already, many of them part-time or project-based, and I could choose from so many situations and examples.  In fact, the bigger problem for me then was which situation I should talk about.  I know that these types of questions are really the best interview questions to ask during recruitment.  The historical perspective also gives a more accurate picture of the applicant’s profile; following the philosophy that history would repeat itself.  Still, I believe that people do change, especially after such critical situations and it is important in answering these type of questions to state the outcome or how these situations affected one’s own principles and beliefs.

Knowledge of how to answer such questions is one thing but actually answering them is another.  After what seemed to be an interminable barrage of situational questions and digging my memory for past experiences and choosing the best among them, we finished the interview.  The HR staff then enumerated to me the findings based on the personality test I took.  At least the interviewer began by saying that such profiles have a tendency to change depending on the job.  Then, the findings were read to me one-by-one and I was given the opportunity to react to each.  In the end, I had to concede that the results were fairly accurate.  I said fairly because the findings indicated that I liked to be the center of attention.  Hmm… an introvert who is also egocentric, narcissistic and a control freak.  I don’t know, maybe that was part of my Johari window I was blind to.  The results also indicated that I have trust issues and have difficulty meeting people for the first time.  Maybe I do have trust issues now but mainly due to the bad experiences I’ve had when I delegated responsibilities to people whom I thought I could trust.  I did thought that people are inherently good but such naivete had led me several times to tight spots and difficult situations.  I think I have been betrayed too many times already and I had to learn to be wary of people and to take their words always with a grain of salt.  I realize of course that the higher up in the organization’s hierarchy, the more that one has to trust his subordinates, does this mean that I am a bad manager or that conscientiousness takes precedence over trust.  I’m afraid I painted myself to be a disagreeable manager in the personality test.

Or maybe I have always believed myself to be too trusting and in my haste to shield this quality (I’d like to say unknowingly), I made choices pointing to the opposite pole.

Egocentric.  Narcissistic.  Of course, the interviewer did not mention these adjectives to me but what else would I think when she said that my personality profile indicated that I like to be the center of attention.  I wanted to laugh out loud when I heard that.  Maybe I did, but I had to say that the results were not true.  I do want to lead, additional proof during my recent stint at the university that I almost always wanted to lead my own group of selected members, but you would not see me in parties or other social ritual.  In this case, I only wanted to be the center of attention in my own comfort zones, social gatherings not among them.

The profile also indicated that I was conscientious (did I choose my answers specifically to show that, or am I really?) and analytical (this I can believe as my superiors in two separate companies have made this remark of me and I believe I would not have made it in my job if I weren’t… Hmm… is it pride talking?

To cut the story short, the phone interview ended. I peeled the phone off my left cheek, stretched my left arm, shook the residual tension off, and left for home - back to the cacophony of fighting cocks and neighbors.

Personality Test

This does not bode well.  Two of the more promising applications I’ve made this past month have just been reposted on the job website.  One of them was, in a way, expected after what transpired during the job interview.  It turned out that my background is really far from what the position demands.  What I can’t figure out is why they would specify manufacturing experience when the position clearly calls for a service industry professional? 

As for the other company, I only got as far as the personality test.  They reposted their vacancy a day after I submitted to their online personality test.  Does this mean that I don’t have the personality that companies want in their management team?  I answered the personality test during a failed bout with insomnia at 3 AM.  I wonder if my answers were in any way affected.

The first time I encountered a personality test such as the one I took, I was being considered for a promotion.  As part of HR’s new requirements, I had to undergo an online personality test.  I had a difficult time then (as I had a few days ago) as the questions were asking me to make choices when decisions were not always clear cut.  Fortunately, I passed the test barely ten points from the passing rate, or so they told me.  When the results came out, there were many complaints from employees as to the reliability of such tests and why it was necessary to go through them to get promoted.  The company administering the test even stated in their website that the test was only predictive and not prescriptive. (I wonder what the HR would do if the test predictions were not exactly favorable.  Would it not be tantamount to a prescription not to hire or promote the employee?)

The HR countered that there were no really correct or wrong answers and that the test would not be really be used for promotion purposes.  Yet in the end, they had to delay the promotions of the candidates who ‘failed’ and had them to retake it after a few months.  I don’t know if they were able to ‘pass’ the second time they took the test.  As far as I know, these tests tend to give the same results even if they are taken repeatedly.

From my HR Management and Organizational Behavior classes, I found out that such tests were mainly administered to assess the personality traits of people and to what extent they possess the Big Five Personality Traits.  The Big Five were extraversion, emotional stability, openness to experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness.  According to research, these five traits are strongly correlated to effective management. 

Okay, I don’t think I can challenge data but I wonder if there is something can go wrong as to how a test was designed and administered, e.g. if I take the test when I’m in a certain mood, such as when I am too busy to do administrative tasks for HR or when I am cranky and groggy from insomnia.  Then, there’s Hofstede’s Theory of Cultural Dimensions that shows how values of people from different geographical locations can differ according to their culture.  Will the test be valid for a Filipino of a certain age and background as it was for Americans or to whatever citizenship of the sample used by the test designers? 
And why force people to make choices when they can be flexible and choose differently depending on the situation or, as I mentioned above, their mood.  For example, I often take a participative management style when I am leading a high performing team whom I have worked before and already trusted.  When in a crisis mode, however, or if there is a change that I immediately had to implement, I had to take an authoritative stance.  How would I answer the test given two opposing decisions I made in the past and both turned out positively.

When I took the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Assessment, it revealed that I have an INTJ personality which is one of the rarest personality types at 1 - 4% of the population.  I wonder if the personality still holds true, that is if they designed the test based on the general population or did they also consider rare personalities. 
As for extraversion, the Big Five studies showed that high extraversion leads to emergence of leaders but it does not mean that they are going to be effective.  It may even be dangerous to make leaders of people just by virtue of their extraversion, as influence and charisma can only take them so far.  In my case, MBTI showed that I am deeply introverted.  I can say that that is true as making speeches, attending parties, going to social gatherings, and other social rituals make me uncomfortable, but I can still perform on the job.  I can still communicate with people from all levels, conduct meetings, make presentations and perform activities that normally would call for extraverts, albeit I can do them with greater emotional labor. 

Personality tests seem to be the trend nowadays in hiring and promoting for managerial and supervisory jobs.  I just hope that HR officers understand that these, unlike mathematics and physical sciences, are not exact and should be treated with some wariness.  After all, we are talking about human beings here with their own free will and can act unpredictably in most unexpected ways in specific situations.

The Rat Race

Source: Wikimedia

I remember watching this film many years ago and it was the first time I heard the phrase.  In this 1960’s film, two characters – Tony Curtis playing a saxophonist and Debbie Reynolds, a dancer – were faced with the problem of unemployment and the many unscrupulous persons who take advantage of young inexperienced professionals trying to make it big in New York City.  Thinking about it, the year could be 2012 and the place, the Philippines.

I may not have the dashing looks of Tony Curtis nor his talents but I will have to admit the same inexperience and naiveté in landing my first job many years ago.  I had just earned my engineering license after passing the board exam and was expecting companies to scramble over this new graduate (the foolish pride and optimism of youth).  Well, I thought I had a right to be proud.  The university I graduated from was well-admired in the country and my board exam rating was not bad at all.  I was overjoyed when I received the first call for an interview and exam.  It was from a manufacturing company located in a province a few hours from Manila.

I was given a battery test and it was not termed as such for nothing.  Even up to now, I don’t think I’ve had a more grueling pre-employment exam.  There were tests for language ability, numerical ability and abstract reasoning, all taken under time pressure.  I was given pictures to arrange according to what I believe to be the right sequence of events.  I was interviewed to assess my personality, asked to interpret pictures, and even made to draw pictures of certain themes which I guess would give them a psychological portrait.  There were even two-dimensional puzzles as well as a memory test wherein I had to repeat numbers given to me, first in the correct order and then in reverse.  Finally, just when I thought it was all over, I was made to write an essay on any topic that I want to write about.  I simply wrote about the novels that I have read.  Quite a flimsy topic, in retrospect, but I was tired and bored and most of all, inexperienced.  The whole process of exams and interviews started at 8 AM and ended close to 6 PM.  At the end, my head felt heavy and the fingers of my right hand numb from writing, but I was happy to have survived such mental battery.

After the grueling exam day, I was interviewed by one of the managers.  After that was a panel interview, which to me was like a mock trial as the managers were throwing questions one-after-the-other in quick succession - more in an attempt to rattle me than to extract information.  Still, I thought I was prepared and handed it well.  In a few days, I received a call offering me the job.

During the whole application process, I believe I had asked the recruitment staff about the salary and I was always told that we were going to talk about it in time.  The day that I found out was on my first day at work.  They had dormitories within the company premises just a stone’s throw from the plant and I already had my bags, prepared to settle in.  When I entered the HR Office I was shown the employment contract.  The salary was lower than what I expected (but I know now that it was still competitive).  There was no overtime pay as I was to hold a supervisory position. Benefits were non-existent except for those mandated by law.  In addition, they were requiring me to sign a two-year bond wherein I had to stay with the company or return 50% of all salary received (or to that effect).  When I asked the HR Officer the reason behind the bond, she smilingly replied that the company shall be training me anyway.  Well, they did give a lot of trainings and seminars in the first six months but they were all internal – the kind that any company should give their employees in the first place.  I found out later that the position I occupied was one with the highest turnover, thus the real reason for the bond.

Last week I appeared in another interview.  There were no battery tests, just the HR staff eyeing me and asking me questions about my job experience.  I have no idea about the salary range as I don't have any experience working in their industry and the job title and description was vague to the effect that it didn't appear in any of the salary survey websites I visited.  The interviewer did not give a salary range either.  Again, there were no benefits other than those required by law and work hours exceed the normal 40 hours per week.  I don’t think I’ll get any offer from them any time soon as my credentials are really too far from the job but maybe it's for the best if I don't get to proceed to the next step of their recruitment process.

“The Rat Race” ended positively with Tony Curtis and Debbie Reynolds falling in love and deciding to go on with life as best as they could.  I could use a happy ending right now, if not with a lady as pretty as Debbie Reynolds, at least a well-compensated job where I can use my talents and be happy with until retirement.

Unemployment Rate

I read an article a couple of weeks ago about a PhD graduate in the US who had to deal with unemployment for the past two years.  I only have a master’s degree and the frustration of not getting a job sometimes gets to me.  I can only imagine what this guy must be feeling, living on food stamps and temporary teaching gigs – not a good example to show kids who are breaking their backs studying.  For me, more than the disappointment that higher education could not get companies to take me in was the frustration of not being able to use what I’ve learned.  It’s either the companies are undervaluing my degree or that I have placed too high a value on education.

Just a few days ago, the Social Weather Station released a report based on a survey they conducted stating that the unemployment rate in the country is at an alarming 34.4%.  According to the Labor Force Survey of DOLE, on the other hand, unemployment rate is only at 7.2% or 0.2% lower than last year.  Quite a large variance even if, as they say, social surveys were historically larger than the government-conducted study.  Whichever is the more reliable measure of the real unemployment condition, one thing is still clear to me.  After more than a year of looking for a job, I am still unemployed and I am officially part of this sad statistic. 

Aside from the economy still not producing enough jobs in the country, I will have to admit that there are still reasons why I still haven’t landed a job.  First, I have become too picky in applying for my next job.  It’s just that I have had too many jobs already with different companies and my experiences have not been all too good with regards to the management, working conditions and sometimes the compensation.  Second, there were also months, especially during the first several months after graduation, that I did not make any applications at all, confident enough that my new degree will attract employment.  I wonder if this confidence is really complacency in disguise… I hope not.

Well, there may have been plenty of opportunities I let pass by but I am also with the reasoning that at my age, I cannot afford to get into one company and just leave after a couple of years.  I’m still searching for that elusive green pasture where this old goat can graze peacefully without fear of getting butchered.

Like the unemployed PhD I mentioned above, I turn to part-time or project-based work.  I’ve worked as a ghost writer/editor for some professional journals.  I was also recruited as a consultant for one month.  The money was good but in the end, I still have to contend with the fact that the money, like the jobs, were fleeting and would not sustain me for long.

So, back to the rat race.

Chinese New Year (January 23, 2012)

My siblings were happily celebrating the Chinese New Year in Hong Kong.  Penniless as I am, I had to content myself in Binondo, Manila which happened to be the oldest Chinatown in the world.  The enclave was established in 1594 which makes it 418 years old.  Archaeological evidence though shows that the Chinese have been trading in the Philippines as far back as the 10^th century.

Getting off the jeepney in front of Binondo Church (officially the Minor Basilica and National Shrine of St. Lorenzo Ruiz), it did seem like I was in Hong Kong.  Establishments have their names in both English and Chinese.  And there were many Chinoys walking around.  The old church, however, was a dead giveaway as well as the jeepneys and the occasional kalesa.

The centuries-old octagonal belltower of Binondo Church (1596)

It was difficult walking along Ongpin as a crowd had already built up.  A lot of people were wearing red, I guess many really wanted to be lucky this year.  Given all the bad luck I’ve been having, maybe I should have donned myself in red from head to foot.

I witnessed a number of lion and dragon dancers with their bright costumes.  Some of them were entering shops to the delight of the owners.  Drums and cymbals accompanied the dancers and there was a definite air of festivity.  It was just disappointing to see some outsiders taking advantage of the occasion to earn money.  There was a fat man with his skin smeared with charcoal wearing a shaggy wig and a gold breechcloth walking around with scrawny gay escorts in red long johns.  I couldn’t see if there was any cultural significance in what they were doing but they were ostentatious enough in asking for donations.  Perhaps if there were any evil entities that should be driven away, they're it.

Face-to-face with a lion

Children accompanying the dragon and lion dancers

After reading a few travel blogs, I wanted to sample some of the cuisine myself.  I was not bold enough to try the infamous Soup #5 but I did brave the thick crowd and the long lines to buy the special tikoy from Eng Bee Tin.  (Yes, I know I can buy tikoy from the department store but it felt different buying it from the source.) I wanted to eat at Wai Ying Fast Food as I read that they serve really good congee and chong fan but it seemed that a lot of people wanted to eat there too.  I had to go to another restaurant – Wan Chai Tea House – which served good meals at inexpensive prices.  The place was alright except their comfort room was dirty and the service was not as responsive as I would like.  They’ve ran out of Peking duck and hakaw but I got to sample their seafood congee, wanton soup, beef rice roll and beef hofan (a bit greasy, this one, but delicious!).  The great thing about Wan Chai is that it was also the name of the place where my siblings stayed in Hong Kong.  At least I could tell them that I also had lunch in Wan Chai.

Wan Chai, Hong Kong? Nah... Wan Chai, Binondo!

Wan Chai's beef hofan

Wan Chai's beef rice roll

I couldn’t leave Binondo without tasting the famous dumplings of Dong Bei.  It took me a while to find the place as it was small and inconspicuous but when I finally found it, there was again, a long queue of people waiting.  I think it would be safe to assume that Dong Bei does not actively advertise so they have the blogosphere to thank for free publicity.  As it was nearing evening and I did not want to scramble for a ride home, I had to buy uncooked dumplings and stuffing pancakes.  I cooked them at home but I think I did not get to fry them properly on my non-stick pan.  Still, they were quite flavorful and I couldn’t wait to go to Binondo again to buy some more.

Fried stuffing pancakes from Dong Bei

The Wayward Wind

After taking a considerable amount of time thinking of a title for this blog, I came upon this song written by Stanley Lebowsky and Herb Newman.  It’s an old song first made popular by Gogi Grant in 1956.  (No, I’m not that old and as far as I know, today is the first time I heard the song.)  It has a catchy tune and the words may not be entirely far from how I would describe myself.

The wayward wind is a restless wind
A restless wind that yearns to wander
And he was born the next of kin
The next of kin to the wayward wind

In a lonely shack by a railroad track
He spent his younger days
And I guess the sound of the outward-bound
Made him a slave to his wand'rin ways

Oh, I met him there in a border town
He vowed we'd never part
Though he tried his best to settle down
I'm now alone with a broken heart

I wasn’t born in a lonely shack but in a crowded hospital; and I don’t think that hospital was anywhere near a railroad track. But restless and yearning to wander, that I probably am. As for the broken heart... hmm...

Here’s a link to the song I found on YouTube. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFhwxZeq6g4&feature=related

And a live version in 2004, still from the incomparable Ms. Grant who at the age of 80 still knows how to rock it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUx5QuIRwNY&feature=related