WATCH: Seoul-Incheon, South Korea


Here is my video on my short trip to South Korea.


For more blogposts on Seoul, click the links below.


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Welfare State like Norway - Philippines?

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It has been several months that I have been living in Norway, a rich welfare state. I have seen Norway is indeed blessed with natural resources like fish, oil and with other industries. On the other hand, the Philippines has no significant oil deposits, but has a massive supply of minerals, marine and agricultural products. I could not refrain myself but compare this two resource-rich countries. What most interests me with Norway is that it is a welfare state. This concept of equal distribution of wealth among people, I hope that exists in the Philippines, even at a lesser extent. It made me ask myself if it is possible. If so, how will it change the Filipino society. A country of 100 million Filipinos. The richest Filipinos are one of the richest in the world, while poverty rates are steady at a high level in decades. We Filipinos blame it to many things and worse, majority of us just accept the fact that nothing can be done in our lifetime about this deplorable situation. How...
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In a beautiful garden, a man found a cocoon of a butterfly. It has a small opening in it. Very eager, the man sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then, it seemed to stop making any progress for although it appeared as if it had gotten so far as it could, it could go no further. So the man decided to help the butterfly using a pair of scissors by snipping the remaining bit off of the cocoon. The man saw as expected the butterfly emerged easily from the cocoon but to his dismay, the butterfly it had a swollen body and small shriveled wings. Moreover, the wings never enlarged and expanded to be able to support the body. From then on, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around and never was it able to fly. The man in the story did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God’s way of forcing fluid from the body...
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Bullying became a hot topic in Norway today after a young teenager died of emaciation due to eating disorder that was primarily linked to anxiety from bullying at school. This was quite taboo in this Scandinavian country, given the nation is very keen on respecting socio-cultural differences and on protection against any form of discrimination. Discussions have been made on how to handle and prevent bullying and who takes the responsibility in these cases, whether the family, school or the State. Personally, I was not reacting in anyway as my mind says the concept is remote and almost impossible to happen in the Philippines. Perhaps, I was referring it to death, but not to bullying. However, after several days I was quite uneasy on the topic and further asked myself if I was ever bullied before and what it has caused me in the long-term basis. To my surprise, bullying was a crucial point in my childhood. My coping skills allowed me to hide in my consciousness what had happened...
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Living in Norway for over 2 years, I have often encountered questions about the languages I speak. I usually answered I speak Norwegian, English and two Filipino languages. Then, people start asking if the second Filipino language is a dialect of the other. Given my mother tongue is Cebuano, the second language referred, I abruptly debunk the misconcept that it is a mere dialect. My most common explanation is that all Filipinos speak the Filipino language, but those who only learn to speak Filipino have difficult time understanding or communicating with one speaking Cebuano. Throughout the span of my childhood, I got to grasp the political and cultural differences of Filipinos speaking Filipino language or Tagalog as referred by most, and those coming from the Southern Philippines speaking Cebuano. The language in itself has become the boundary between the two groups of people. Due to their innate differences, misunderstandings result, not because of mere language confusion, but of cu...
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