On Muay Thai

It is not just a sport. It is a test of courage. You have to be ready, especially after a lifetime of waiting. In fighting, you have to give it your best shot. You have to overcome your anxieties and look fear straight in the eye and just live the moment. It is a game of trust, in which one sets up the opponent to attack at the right moment. For five rounds, if he makes it, the fighter maintains this stance. He is tested based on his talents and the extent to which he carries himself in the ring as a fighter. There is no room for hesitation or sympathies. Even the underdog shall never stay down. Whether or not you intend to physically hurt your opponent, one has to come to terms with that, for that is the nature of the game.

If anything, it is brutal, even dangerous. Others will adamantly argue that it is nothing more than a human cockfight with bettors yelling from all sides of the arena, directing every step, calling out every move. There will be injuries – not the ones that can be treated at a moment's notice, but the really serious ones that could keep you shelved for months, the ones that are known to have claimed lives. The fighter shall not dwell on it while the match takes place. There is only do or die. When he is knocked down on cold cement, there is nothing to do but to get up just as quickly. After that, win or lose, when he looks back at that instant, he will see just how satisfyingly real it was and how good it felt to have done it all.

At the end of the day, it is all about proving oneself to the world, to the ones you love, and most importantly, to oneself. It is both excitement brewing within you throughout the fight, and adrenaline rushing out after. Anyone can try if they set their heart to it: those who feel that they have to prove something despite of dire prospects, those who feel as though they need it, those who need the money, and those who are just looking for the experience. A kid from the slums, a woman from the fields, and even an educated man from a completely different world had already proven so much in the time that they have invested in it.

Muay Thai then is not just a sport. It runs deeper than that. Only when you have managed to look past the costs and the risks and everything else in between, only when you have begun to understand just what it is that Muay Thai is about, when you have reflected on the deeper aspect of what the world knows as merely a sport, only then will you be prepared for the battle. Only then, will you be able to say that you were born a fighter.

Antas ng Edukasyon sa Pilipinas

Okay, I must dissect this video.

In the documentary, we were exposed to the practice of placing two or three grade levels in one classroom, simply because there weren't any other schools in the barrio. In some cases, a barricade is placed between two parallel sides of the classroom in the hopes of developing two different rooms. But this doesn't work. There would be times when the teacher is having a discussion with her grade one pupils while her grade two pupils take a test. This method becomes distracting to the latter, and will most likely result to poor output. Or, a teacher will be discussing in one classroom while another one discusses in the next room. This might actually be worse because both classes now cannot concentrate on their lessons. The students will have to endure this bargain.

The decrease in the number of teachers is becoming a growing problem in our country. No teachers, no students. Also, there aren't many teachers who would choose to volunteer in the remote areas of rural Philippines to teach only a handful of students without much support from the government. That would be a win-lose situation with the teachers gnawing at the short end of the stick. In the documentary, we met only one or two teachers for each different documented barrio. This is a big deal; these people are eventually hailed as fallen angels by the native elders.

This is the most distressing problem because one still cannot figure out how this could possibly be resolved. Both teacher and student, regardless of medical status or stature, endure a three-hour travel (by boat or by foot) just to get to the nearest school. Emphasis on “nearest”.

In the documentary, the kids didn't have notebooks, much less a piece of paper to write on. This simple school necessity is substituted with banana leaves, which both teacher and students also pick by themselves on their way to and from school. And, instead of a pencil or a pen, they write with coals. This is an extremely hard practice, and I could only imagine so much. Books are already out of the question. This problem cannot be neglected because when a classroom lacks these vital tools for teaching, then most hands-on activities will not be possible, hindering whatever creative processes our left brain imposes on each and every one of us.

Due to financial worries, most kids cannot go to school. Some of them even have to stop, increasing the number of dropouts each year. This is a sad undertaking for those students, especially because they seem to be the ones who enthuse about learning. Then there is the curious case of hand-me-downs, which isn't relatively wrong. But, when I watched in the documentary the siblings who exchanged shoes as the other was on his way home and the other only on the way to school, as a fellow youth, I felt extremely sad, as though all the evils in Pandora's box enveloped around that moment alone, and there was only sorrow and sympathy to hang on to. There are those who have to repeat a grade level again and again because they can't finish a schoolyear because of money troubles. Some of these kids have to work, even before the classes themselves begin.

What can I, as a youth, possibly do?

It would seem that numerous documentaries have already been created to voice out these concerns. Evidently, Secretary Armin Luistro has a few ideas, but when will these sentiments be presented and implemented in actuality? We can't let learning wait anymore. If our adults are having a hard time concocting a solution, what more are the youths, such as myself, capable of?

These days, I can only consider one major thing for us, youths, to do for situations like these, and that is to write. Write to the newspapers, write to the government offices, write to the President. We write until someone listens. The power of the word is a very sharp and influential tool, but we don't get to see that as much. If we actually get these writings out there, maybe some act of God be kind enough to help because, obviously, the youth cannot always be there in the remote parts of the country to say, build a school, or teach. We simply cannot shoulder the problem with the decreasing number of teachers and the distance between home and school.

Perhaps, we could have a fund raising! If we earn enough money from this activity, then maybe we can have another classroom or two erected for the kids. Perhaps we can have it built near their houses so that they don't have to travel anymore. Anything seems possible. Better yet, we can donate. It wouldn't hurt to give our crayons, old notebooks, or pencils to the rural areas; I'm sure it will be greatly appreciated. Child sponsorship is probable – this is what my adviser in high school is doing to an estranged relative, and it has done the kid wonders – but perhaps that is a little too outlandish?

I wish I could say something else, something profound. Anything that might seem insightful to see past this social issue. But right now, unless a deus ex machina shows up and the government doesn't strain its neck too far anymore in aiding with these problems, I can only let things be.