Gubatnon ConnectionConceive. Believe. Achieve.

“Why are we poor?”  runs a line of an Internet post I’ve read in one of my groups in Yahoo? There’s so many reasons to it, but you could only answer this question based on your own perception.

When I was working as a Fiber Technician, and assigned at Gubat, I’ve met an abaca stripper (parahag-ot abaka) at Barangay Tugawe. This stripper was living in a small hut just the size of his height when he lies inside it. It was from this man how I learned that happiness is not all about money and luxurious things in life. He told me happiness is about contentment. When you’re contented with what you enjoy now, then, you’re happy. So, I asked him what makes him happy actually. He told me, once he’s in the poblacion watching the cockfight at Balag’s cockpit arena on Sundays, then, he’s happy and contented already.

The farmer was single and all alone in his life. That’s what I’ve learned further from him. As I went back home, driving my 100 cc Yamaha motorcycle, I told myself, “Maybe if I’m alone, too, in my life I could just be like him – as happy and as contented as him.” But I’m the eldest in our family, with 10 more brothers and sisters looking upon what I could do to help them. My father was just a lowly-paid government employee, while my mother was just a plain housewife. We’re as poor as self-supporting chickens we locally called “isang-kahig-isang-tuka.” With this situation, I could not be as happy and contented as the abaca stripper.

Going back to the question “Why are we poor?” my answer is actually on how we could afford to say how happy and contented we are in our lives. “Contentment” is the magic work.

Postscript:

Jim Carrie, a comedian actor, wrote on a dummy check $10 Millions issued to his name and placed it on his wallet all the time, to inspire him to get a real check with that amount in the future. When he became a successful comedian actor, he cashed out a real check more than the amount he wrote when he was poor and penniless.

Read more of my blogs at “Negosyong Pangkabuhayan, ATBP.”

Fellow GHS Alumni:

Here’s an invitation from the current GHS Alumni President, Nelson Fajardo. This request to post the announcement was emailed to me by my class ’74 classmate Leonora Funtanar.  Below is the content of her email:
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Please help us disseminate the info on the BARAGAT DINNER/DANCE FUNDRAISING initiated by the Gubat High School Alumni President Nelson Fajardo. The proceeds of which will support the association’ s scholars of the Meralco Foundation and the Gubat High School scholars.  Tickets are at P500.00 and P1,000.00 each. 

You may buy tickets at the gate of the venue or thru Ms. Bella Esparas Sanchez (class 73) cell no. 09298592085. The BARAGAT will be on June 5, 2010, Saturday, Kalayaan Hall, Club Filipino, Greenhils, San Juan.

As a backgrounder, the Meralco Foundation has so much respect and amazed by the performance of these scholars coming from our school.  Every year when they give these qualifying exams nationwide, they are awed by the outstanding results of the applicants from the Gubat National High School, surpassing other schools around the country.  As you may know, these scholars are from very poor families.    The Meralco Foundation shoulders only their tuition fees.  That’s why these kids are looking for sponsors on their lodging, and books.  Your assistance will be highly appreciated.

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As Gubatnon, I’m encouraging you to support this  Baragat 2010, and enjoy meeting old friends at the place.  So, whether you’re Anthonian or GHS graduate, please be part of this endeavor.

From childhood, I’ve always been touched by the sufferings of people who are in the level of poverty, because my family is among them until now. Since childhood, I’ve always dreamed on every election period that one day, my family’s sufferings from hunger and deprivation, could be resolved by new leaders elected. Now, I’m already on my middle-age, people shout for the same hunger and sufferings from poverty, because we have the same problem with corruption by politicians. We have always placed the solutions to our problems in the hands of politicians.

Thanks for my decision to join the Gubat St. Anthony Credit Cooperative (GSACC) at my hometown (Gubat), where members joined together with their little investments to put up a credit cooperative. Here, members help each other in building and managing a credit cooperative union which serve as source for micro lending when they need money for their business. Through this cooperative, I’ve learned the powers of self-reliance (by an individual) and cooperation from among people in order to change your social status from poor to financially stable. The money that I borrowed from this cooperative from 1986 to 1992 (before I migrated to America) were used by me to open a sari-sari store, and later to buy equipments for my growing three grocery stores, then buy the computer that I brought here in US.

“You cannot wait for politicians. Society must save its own self,” was said by Mexican author Carlos Fuentes, in a convention of writers at the McAllister Auditorium in New Orleans, USA. He was referring to the same sufferings by Mexicans and people from New Orleans, which is considered as “third world” state of USA. Related to this, let me tell the Filipino people who could read this article that they should rely on themselves, and stop waiting for politicians to help them. These politicians have their own elite groups and small groups joining together for their own interests, and simply using the poverty and sufferings of the people as their point of entries to their corruptions. Filipinos should start grouping themselves from small clusters and build their own organizations that could alleviate their own sufferings. The revolution, the change, should start from within ourselves.

Tired of the election fever? Tired of listening to black propagandas stoned by each warring parties? Now, let me change that worries, by sharing you a screamy story which I also shared in other Yahoo groups in the Internet.

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When I was a teenager at my hometown, I still believed on those aswangs, ghosts, and kapres, specially when I’m out on the road. Everything changed after my long years of stay here in New York City.

One night, I went home from the capital town of Sorsogon to my hometown at Gubat – driving my motorcycle. It was moonless night, and the wind was cold – sign of forthcoming rain on early morning. On that 20-kilometer driving from Sorsogon to Gubat, I was really scared to the bones, specially that I was the only one driving in a dark highway that’s cold and creepy.

When I passed, the barrio of Payawin, almost reaching the barrio of Carriedo, a very, very cold wind hit my body. Then, from the distant I saw silhoutte of giants waving their hands on me. I thought, they were the “Kapre’s” everyone was talking about. My hairs started to rise from my skin. My perspirations were as cold as melting ice on my face and on my back.

I thought, what if I reach the place where they’re standing, they’ll get into the asphalted road where I’m running and block my way? As they waved their hands from a distant, I knew, they’d be much bigger when I’m near them!

Being alone in a dark, and cold highway all I could do was pray the “Our Father,” and the “Hail Mary.” I can’t close my eyes, or else, I’ll get into an accident. After several repititions of the two prayers, as I moved forward to the waving giants, I finally reached the point where they were standing and waving hands at me. Then, as my motorcycle’s headlight hits these standing, and waving giants, I finally saw them in close-up range. As my motorcycle gets closer to them, I finally saw tall banana plants with their leaves waving on the air.

I didn’t know, if it was because of the powers of my prayers that the giants turned into tall banana plants. But after my long stay here in New York City, I certainly believe that those giants waving hands on me were products of my own imaginations.

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Fellow Gubatnon:

This blog’s subscribers had increased a lot since I redesigned this “Gubatnon Connection.” So, from here, I would like to thank you personally for your trust on my writing capabilities. Gubatnon Connection, as you may know, is different from other Gubatnon web sites or Gubatnon social networking in the Internet now. It’s been my objective when I created this blog, that you’ll come here not only for fun but mostly to learn something about doing business in the Internet, secrets of success by the rich and famous, and any postive ideas that could change our lives as Gubatnon.

Writing for blog is a hard work, specially that I have other blog sites to maintain. Aside from “Gubatnon Connection,” I’m managing also a blog site for digital photography in New York City, a web site for overseas Filipino workers, and a new blog about writers. Sometimes, I would even contemplate of closing this blog in favor of my other blog sites with larger subscribers like the bigapplecity.com blog and the overseasfilipinos.com blog with thousands of viewers every month. But I’m a Gubatnon, and I love Gubat. I feel different when I write something for this site. I feel I’m connected to my Kababayans even if I’m here in New York City – the reason why I finally changed it’s head title from “Gubatnon Blogger” to “Gubatnon Connection.”

Fellow, Gubatnon, I urge you to invite other Kababayans to come, subscribe to this blog, and participate in discussions by leaving comments on the posts and pages. Thank you very much.

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In the late 80′s Donald Trump was at the peak of success in real estate business. But suddenly, his success was distracted when he diverted his attention to clothing and fashion business in Europe. The US economy went bad, affecting the real estate business of Trump, and it was too late for him to realize that he was losing $9.2 billions in this business. All the banks from whom he owed billions of dollars were all running after him, and he could not even pay the interests for his loans. He worked hard to recover back his loses, that by the late 90′s he’s back and thriving again. In his book, “How to Get Rich,” he tells the readers about this incident in his life. So, he advised the readers, “Don’t make the mistake I made. Stay focused.”

Full attention to one direction is very important even in driving a car. Losing your focus on the direction where you are running will surely place in you and others in danger, even to death. Students in colleges, who found freedom from being away from their parents, lose their focus on their studies when they start joining their bad friends in drugs and other funs. Some overseas Filipinos lose their focus towards the family and loved ones they left in the Philippines, due to bad influence by other co-workers in their place of work.

Robert Kiyosaki, author of the book “Rich Dad Poor Dad” have 10 tips in order to get out of the “rat race” or working for others on a nine-to-five job. The number 9 advise in his book was about FOCUS as an acronym for Follow One Course Until Successful. The “course” he was referring to in his book was about attention or direction. As an extra bonus for reading this article, let me give you the full list of these ten secrets to get out of the rat race.

1. Know the difference between an asset and a liability.
2. Make mistakes, learn from them.
3. Never say, “I can’t afford it.” Instead ask, “How can I afford it.”
4. Surround yourself with like-minded people.
5. Teach others.
6. Play the CASHFLOW board game to learn how the cash flows.
7. Mind your own business, your ASSET column.
8. Learn the vocabulary of investing and finance.
9. FOCUS – follow one course until successful.
10. Never stop learning.

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This article is a reprint from http://onewebplaza.com . The reason why I’m posting this here, because I wanted to emphasize to my fellow Gubatnons how important is owning a web site now and in the future. If millions of other computer users and Internet hobbyists from around the world are earning now, while they are at their own homes, then, why not other Filipinos? Why would Filipinos sell their properties to pay unscrupulous job recruiters, to work abroad for their families, when they could stay with their families and earn money by using the powers of the world wide web? Below, follows the reprint:

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Top 7 Reasons Why You Need a Personal Website
Having a website of your own equals entering into an invaluable communication environment. There are at least 7 reasons why it is highly advisable for you to be present online:

1. Represents your personal profile
A website can be your virtual portrait, showing off your personal self to the world on a 24/7 basis. Among the most popular ways of presenting your personality online is keeping a webblog (otherwise known as online diary) or a photo gallery, where your friends can stay up-to-date with your daily living.

2. Spreads your voice across the world
A website can be your global “tribune” where you are able to share your knowledge, experience and enthusiasm with people who have common interests, but with whom you might not otherwise have crossed paths. A very popular idea-voicing tool is the discussion board, better known as “forum”. You can also have a guestbook on your site, where people can discuss your postings.

3. Lets you be in touch with people at a distance
A website can be a meeting place for making new acquaintances with people of different religion, nationality and age, as well as for keeping in touch with friends who may be on the other side of the world. Thanks to the almost unlimited online communication possibilities you can conduct one-to-one conversations with many different people directly from your website.

4. Broadens disabled people’s interaction with the world
A website empowers people with limited access, due to handicap or illness, to broaden their communication with others. A website can be a physically disabled person’s door to the dynamic world, allowing him/her to bridge over the difficulties of having a “different” everyday life. It can even be their office, where they can present and deliver certain home-made products/services directly from their living room.

5. Creates a web skill development environment
A website can introduce you to the secrets of www. The contemporary web design technologies have brought the art of creating a website just a few clicks away from the inexperienced user. Thanks to the popular WYSWYG (what you see is what you get) web design tools, absolutely everyone (irrespective of age or education degree) can build their own web page without any previous experience.

6. Makes extra profit for you with minimum investment on your part
A website can make residual profit for you, while you are sleeping or enjoying your free time. Thanks to the up-to-date techniques for bringing traffic to your website, you can earn easy money by simply having visitors click on certain product/service promos or links that are relevant to your site content pages (e.g. Google Adsense/Adwords ad solutions) without any initial investment.

7. Makes you a member of the biggest community of the world
A website is a must-have personal attribute nowadays, just like mobile phones and computers are. The fast developing technologies have converted having a website from a whim into a modern necessity. As of today, almost everyone has a web site, whereas twice as many people are expected to be having their own personal space in the global World Wide Web cosmos in the near future. Be forward-thinking, join this trend.

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You could start owning a free web site (or blog) by opening accounts in either Google.com or WordPress.com and start your own free personal blog as a starter. Don’t force yourself by buying immediately a domain and build professional web site until you’re already comfortable doing your blogging from free sites in Google and WordPress.com. If you know how to use Microsoft Word or WordPerfect, you could surely do blogging by your own. It’s really fun, specially when it starts earning an extra money for you.

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Ka-tribung Gubatnon:

I’m currently writing a book, and I’m posting here the drafts of whatever chapter I’ll finish.  Please read them, and write your comments after reading the article.  This is an ambitious plan.  But be watchful on reading these very informative chapters.  They may be drafts, but once I’ve completed the whole book from the series of postings here, I’ll be selling these information online.  You’re lucky, you’ve read them here in my blog for free.  To start with, here’s my first draft, “Secrets of Success:”

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Different people have unique ways of achieving success.  Great men achieved the laurels of victories using their own tactics and strategies.  But no matter how unique these strategies were, victories can not be attained without  nurturing these basic three D’s of success. Remember this, one of them can not help you succeed in life without the other. So, nurture them all to reap the fruit of success.

First, you need the DESIRE, the motivation to achieve your objective. The starting point of all achievements is desire, the dream. Some people might say your dream is impossible to achieve. But with your own desire to reach that dream, there’s nothing you can’t attain without the power of desire within you. A poor man becomes a millionaire because of his desire to have more money. An NBA star believes he could fly to shoot a ball in the ring, because of his desire for fame. A writer never sleeps at night, as long as ideas come out of his mind, because of his desire to become a blockbuster novelist and movie screenwriter.

The desire (motivation or passion), on the other hand, should be strengthened by DISCIPLINE. There are people, who in the midst of their near-success, meet temptations that lead them to the wrong direction. A student who’s almost graduating in college failed to finish his course, because he joined a fraternity that buried him into the ravine of drug addiction. An entrepreneur who’s almost becoming a millionaire with his innovative marketing ideas, went bankrupt when he associated with gamblers who turned him into compulsive gambler. These are simple examples of temptations, that lead people to failure when someone’s discipline is not strong enough to achieve one’s objective to succeed. So, strengthen the discipline in you by surrounding yourself with like-minded people.

DETERMINATION is the father of desire and discipline. You can never achieve and win what you desire if you have no definiteness in acquiring such victory. But simply having determination doesn’t mean you’re already on the road to success. Determination should be powered by knowledge of the skills needed to achieve an objective. You need to learn about the skills and place them into practice. Then, when you have enough training to strategize your steps, you need to develop your experiences into expertise. It is these expertise that strengthens your determination to achieve success.

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Chibilicious - Really Delicious!

Mga ka-tribung Gubatnon:

I would like to announce the birth of a new mini-eatery in the heart of Naga City, which is owned by one of our Gubatnons living now in Naga City. Si Lorna Hidea-Amilano an tagsadiri sini. Kun diri pa niyo kilala ini, an kamanghod ini san sayo nato na magayon na majorettes sa GHS san dekada 70 – si Myrna Hidea. Naka-estar sira sa harap san Facoma compound, na naging Annunciation compound sa Dangkalan.

Yaa tabi an short description ni Lorna san kaniya karihan:

“Karehan lang ini, diri restaurant. Sa Ojeda IV street ini, san likod san Fiesta Hotel. Lumaon na ini na balay na may pintura. Pero, part lang sini an occupied ko. May pintura na green, may mga bala na dingding an atubangan. Pangaran niya CHIBI-LICIOUS.
Diri talaga ako nagpapainum, kaonan lang ini.”

Chibilicious: REALLY DELICIOUS!

Dagdag pa ni Lorna:

“An mga luto dini: relyenong kasag, adobong tahong, soli na gaway, soli na langka na may bangot na kasag o kinis,mga isda, linumpan na native na manok, steamed na isda (kun pa order). Saday-saday man hamok ini na karehan an pangaran niya after sa adopted ko na bata (CHIBILICIOUS). Kun mauruli kamo nan pauli kamo sa Gubat, puwede man kamo maghapit dini. An contact no. ko 09228846952 (sun), 09209063843 (smart), 054-811-5981 (digitel).”

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