Freedom of expression

When you exercise your right to express yourself and your opinion, it does not stop others from exercising theirs. So when others hold unfavorable opinions about your opinion and openly express them, they're also just exercising their right. It is not a case of people forfeiting or trampling on your right. Not especially after you have already exercised it. That is democracy at work.

Photographers as defenders of truth

Still on portraiture: It is my personal belief that when a photographer takes portraits, photos that are supposed to reveal a person's personality and character, that photographer has a responsibility to be honest to the person he/she is taking a picture of.

I mean, yes: people will always want to look great in their photos. But helping them deceive themselves by forming a mental image of themselves different from who they really are is quite wrong. So hiding some scars and blemishes and pimples and all that stuff may be fine. But there has got to be a fine, thin line somewhere. A line that every photographer must be careful in crossing.

Portraits should make people appreciate themselves more -- know themselves a little more through the eyes of the photographer -- not dislike what they see when they look at themselves in the mirror.

On portrait photography

Despite the popularity of cameras, portraits remain difficult to do. Portraits don't only show the person being photographed (a.k.a. the "subject") but also the attitude of the photographer towards that person. If properly done, the attitude (the viewer can infer) is usually of admiration or respect. So please, photographers: think long and hard before posting portraits that will make the people you photograph (ESPECIALLY IF THEY'RE PAYING CLIENTS) subject to ridicule or seem loose and/or perverted. Choose photos that you upload well. That is a power you actually have in your hands.

A teacher's work

A teacher's work is never done, only started. It doesn't end with the student getting high scores, passing the subject, graduating on time, landing a good job, getting good pay, or becoming rich. These successes are for the student to claim. The teacher's is in stirring the students to think. And when the students have been stirred, it's something that cannot be undone.

On bullying and "protecting" the bullied

While I'm not saying that bullying is okay nor that it should be tolerated, I think that the media's and the general Filipino population's take on the subject today is a little, in my opinion, misdirected. Why? Because the general call is for more punishment for the bullies and more protection for the bullied. This is a little too artificial. There will always be bullies and, sometimes, the bullied themselves are also simultaneously bullies; there's a pecking order. So instead of "legislatively" and "externally" protecting the bullied, the bullied and the may-be-bullied should be taught how to deal with the bullies and handle the situation themselves -- because bullying and getting bullied (intimidating and getting intimidated) are social interactions that we all will experience at least once in our life, and legislating protection for the "potential bullying victim" may actually deprive us necessary life skills.

Remembering our dead

When we celebrate our dead, we acknowledge our own transience and mortality. When we offer flowers, candles, and prayers to their memories and tombs, we make the offering actually to ourselves. We weep over the thought that we can never truly know -- because we cannot inherit -- what our ancestors have seen with their eyes, touched with their hands, loved with their hearts, and come to with their minds. It is the greatest tragedy that memory cannot be transmitted, that knowledge cannot be inherited. We and the future generations always have to learn by ourselves. Because whatever could have been passed on to us through genes, our ancestors have taken with them to their graves. So what lay in the grave are not only our ancestors and their bones but the lost potential for greatness.

Long live the dead! Tears for the living!