Desperate Housewives, desperate show, online anger, burning fire and cigarette smoke.

the famous "racial slur" made in an episode of Desperate Housewives on 9/30/07: In a scene in which Susan was told by her gynecologist that she might be hitting menopause, she replied, "Can I just check those diplomas because I just want to make sure that they are not from some med school in the Philippines."

link to the petition:

Filipino Americans demand for apology from ABC and Desperate Housewives Petition

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I previously held back on commenting on this because
1) It's a show
2) There are more important issues that the Filipinos should worry about
3) I found it sad that more people voted for the  Desperate Housewives Petition than the Burma petition (100+ thousand vs. 35+thousand)
4) But then I think it's a good thing. As shown by the Malu Fernandez incident,  people power is still going strong. (though not as politically inclined as Edsa I & II, I'd rather not use the term "mob rule").
5) Personally I think it's a publicity stunt. Its a season premiere episode. the 4th if i recall. So they need to keep the show alive. And what better tactic than have their clip passed around with heated posts.
6)Some of Sassy Lawyer's points I agree with. But still it's no excuse for the show to use it as a stunt. For all we know, one of their team drafted the petition in order to inflame the viewers. Fire travels faster after all.

I tell you the web is the new battleground. So why don't we channel this newfound people power to more important issues?

We, the Filipino people and our allies have shown our solidarity, the numbers speak for themselves. The number of signatories to the online petition against the “racial slur” depicted in the show, Desperate Housewives continue to rise despite the apology issued by the show’s producers.  And why shouldn’t it? The scene offended not only the Filipino-American community but also the Philippine medical schools, medical practitioners and their allies worldwide, their number ballooning to over 115,000. Now I wonder if our outrage will be the same, passionately fierce in defending our people when it comes to more important things than this tv show, most of the medical practitioners haven't even heard of. 

 
In this age of technology, such a move by Filipino health professionals is remarkable and it truly shows us what incredible power we have when we join together for a common cause.  However, like I said, some of the blog reaction (yes even FIlipinos) ask:  “what’s the big deal? It’s just a show. Where were you when real health and education issues rocked the country?”

How shall we answer this?

We have laid the foundation and shown the world how important health and education are for Filipinos worldwide. Let’s not stop there.  For example, Tobacco is responsible for one in ten adult deaths in the world or about five million deaths annually. This figure will double by year 2020, and if current tobacco consumption pattern persist, about a billion people will be killed by tobacco in the 21st century, with 300 million deaths to happen in Western Pacific Region, where the Philippines is located.

For those who signed the Desperate Housewives petition in defense of Filipino pride and dignity of the health profession, we call on you now to defend the right to life and public health of the Filipino people by signing the petition below for the passage of law to requiring graphic health warnings on cigaratte packages.  Let us show the world that we don’t just care about some tv show, we care about our countrymen we defend not only the medical schools and medical institution but the rights for which these stand, from which they stem –we care about the Filipino right to life and health.

Sign now.

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/ghwphil/

more about the petition here: FCAP calls for graphic health warning on cigarettes in the Philippines

stoned

a poem I wrote in la salle while waiting for crim. yeah so this is all I'm going to say bout the 3rd sunday.
==================

you are the stone I swallowed

small and smooth because it fell
with rain I never see coming

hard to catch in palms that bruise easy
the way it sat in my stomach long

after it slowly climbed up to sit
on top of the wall, a humpty dumpty

on a heart that needed
just one more

brick

===========================

anyweiz…. i didn't sleep the night before as usual.  When I got my crim exam paper I looked at the first question, skip, second, skip, flip the page, third, skip, fourth, skip, five, skip and then back to 1. Skip again, two, three, skip again. 

So I decided to rest my head on the armdesk thingie over my booklet…to think… and…. FELL ASLEEP. It was short, maybe 10 mins or so. But woke up and just started answering anything that came to mind, halfway through the sentences I would slip back to sleep and find the sentences I wrote jumbled like grammar and syntax wise! and like i answered the question with the facts from another question thinking it was still the same page i was writing on because i had already fallen asleep again in between sentences. 

By 3:30 I got my hanky and wet it with water from my bottle and splashed my face right there on the seat and just started editing. I erased most first paragraphs of my answers and tried reparing everything in the time I had left. Anyway suffice it to say, I gave up adding more to each answer when I ran out of space to write. (Since I had only allotted 1 page each when I skipped).  So i passed my paper and went straight to the bathroom to breakdown. So there. That was my 3rd sunday. crim is my weakest subject in law school you see. sigh. anyway at least its over.

Caveat Emptor: Big Apple Express Spa

I'm thinking of starting a series of articles for customers to share their not so wonderful experiences with the service. For all the advertising they do and the fact that most of us believe what they say, its just frustrating when we really don't get the kind of service/product they promised us. As I'm in the middle of the bar, my classmate Kaka shares her horrible experience at Big Apple Express Spa.

================

 I went to SM Mall of Asia yesterday after my bar examinations hoping to get a well-deserved break. The bar exams in civil law and taxation harassed me and so I scouted SM MOA for a spa offering affordable massage services. And that's when I chanced upon Big Apple.
 
The P299-poster caught my eye. (It's the TipidTips girl in me!) I went inside and talked to the Chinese-looking woman with curly hair. I asked her if I could be accommodated that day. I asked for the P299-massage asking what it entailed. She offered me instead the P590-massage since it was a combination massage. I told her this was the first time I would to go to Big Apple so I would like to try it out with the cheaper version.
 
She said the only available slot was 9pm. It was only 6:30pm at the time but since I sooo needed a massage, I told her I'll go get that slot and would go watch a movie to wait for my appointment. She said that there was only a 10-minute grace period and if I weren't there at the scheduled time, I would lose my slot. I gave her my cellphone number so that she could text me if there was an opening and I could rush to the spa immediately. She wrote it in a piece of paper along with the kind of massage I wanted (Manhattan) and my scheduled appointment. She said she would text me even earlier if there was a sudden opening so I could be squeezed in. I said thanks and off I went.
 
After the movie, I went to the Big Apple for my appointment. I came at around 9:15pm. I was wondering why she hasn't texted me yet so I just went inside. After standing around for 5 minutes, the Chinese-looking woman without so much as a glance at me since she was giving a receipt to this other girl, finally looked at my direction. I said I was there for my appointment. She said I lost my slot since I was late and the 10-minute grace period applied. I told her I never received a text message from her and I even watched a movie so I could pass the time waiting for my appointment. She said that since I wasn't there at the scheduled time, she gave my slot to someone else. I tried to peek inside, saw the girls in uniform eating, another one on the phone and no other customer in sight. I asked her if that was it and she said yes.
 
So "that was it" was all she could say when I wasted almost 3 hours to wait for an appointment. An appointment that I lost by a mere lapse of 5 minutes after the grace period even when I specifically left her an instruction to text me so I could rush from wherever I was in the humongous Mall of Asia to get my much-deserved massage. I said that if this was the way they do their business, it definitely left a very bad impression on me. It was my first time to try Big Apple Express Spa and I am very much disappointed. And angered. How dare she waste my time?!
 
People go to massage spas because they are stressed and they want to be relieved from that stress. They don't enter a spa wanting to get into an argument and to get angry. But that's exactly what happened to me in my Big Apple encounter. I had a really tough day like you wouldn't believe. My experience in this "spa" was the most horrible way to end my day. I didn't deserve it. Even my toughest enemy didn't deserve it. If people in the service industry were all like this person I talked to, heaven forbid, we are all in a very pathetic situation.
 
My family owned a spa business like this a few years ago. We had to close it down because after 6 productive and income-generating years, the proliferation of spas and massage parlors everywhere took its toll. But we survived and earned so much during those 6 years because we took care of our clients like family and they would always come back, if not alone, with their friends and families.
 
There's no worse aggrieved customer than one who is an uber-stressed bar exam taker.
 
And with that, I end this. This has taken soo much of my precious time off studying for criminal and commercial law.
 
PLEASE LET YOUR FRIENDS KNOW AND BE FOREWARNED.

 ==============

I'm not sure if the Consumer Act of the Philippines applies to spas or salons. But I know that one should at least be made, especially because of the proliferation of these high-end establishments, who charge a lot mind you, and advertise in such enticing ways. (I'm a sucker for massages, thai, swede, acupressure, sports massage, u name it I've tried it) Some sort of consumer protection must be done. I know a lot of stories of salons that mess up people's hair and skin because of it. There are always the tort, contract, damages laws we can fall back on, but really it should be time to have a special law for bad services and not just for goods. I particularly like this provision in the consumer goods act, it's couched in liberal terms capable of wide interpretation:

Sec 52. Unfair or Unconscionable sales acts or practices- An unfair or unconscionable sales act or practice by a seller or supplier in connection with a consumer transaction violates this Chapter whether it occurs before, during or after the consumer transaction. An act or practice shall be deemed unfair or unconscionable whenever the producer, manufacturer, distributor, supplier or seller, by taking advantage of the consumer's physical or mental infirmity, ignorance, illiteracy, lack of time or the general conditions of the environment or surroundings, induces the consumer to enter into a sales or lease transaction inimical to the interests of the consumer or grossly one-sided in favor of the producer, manufacturer, distributor, supplier or seller.

in determining whether an act or practice is unfair and unconscionable, the following circumstances shall be considered:

xxx

c) That when the consumer transaction was entered into, the consumer was unable to receive a substantial benefit from the subject of the transaction 

 =====

I find it frustratingly ironic that Kaka went to a spa for relaxation and got the opposite. Instead of relaxation, it turned to frustration. Now that kind of mental injury, especially from someone coming from a stressful 2nd sunday bar exam just sucks. Should this be a case of damnum absque injuria? I don't know, I'm no lawyer. I certainly hope it isn't. But for practical purposes, no one really goes after them. So we turn to blogging instead. I'm just ranting but I for one know that there are more serious injuries out there because of these establishments. Send in your stories. It's all just advertising anyway. Seller beware.

round 2

my whole body, (especially writing hand), mind, pocket, ego hurts. Defeated by that question on Insolvency in civ and the BIR ruling and a lot more open and bleeding wounds from all the other questions that my mind has conveniently forgotten. so are trees and flowers planted on a platform of wood and metal immovable property? Wait… if I had LBM and had to run to the bathroom, can I still witness a will signing? I wanna throw up. Tax had too many estate tax in it, i just stopped breathing coz I conveniently skipped that chapter to study remedies which was nowhere in sight. egad, i wonder what next sunday will be like… I have a feeling the examiners for this year got a hold of Beda's tally of frequently asked questions and decided "hmmmm, lets ask something thats NOT on here."

commercial law: my knees quiver
criminal law: you think they'll ask about illegal logging and dynamite fishing and some other obscure law?

sigh

Round 1

My first Sunday was a very spiritual event. It all started 7 years ago. I decided I would be a lawyer. Something happened that made me want to be one so I took the steps and am now almost there. The biggest hurdle is coming up.

    Funny back then I started playing basketball again for UP dorms and teams. I chose the #77 for my jersey. 7 was my favorite number. Always has been.  Funny that it would take 7 years for me to finish law school. Take the bar in the year 2007. But hey, I think it’s a good sign. So last April I enrolled in the bar review class. Had to sign up on a notebook thing. Funny when it was my turn to sign, the slot on the notebook was #77.  And so my law center review ID bears that number. Looks like I’ve been branded.So I found it also funny that in Manila Bulletin when the list of bar examinees came out I’m conveniently #763. In numerology one adds those numbers together until you get a single digit. 7+6+3=16, then 1+6=7.  7 again.  Funny.

    Then come saturday check-in time I am handed my hotel key. It was near the elevator so I knew it would be disturbing to have that bell going off once in a while when the elevator reached my floor and barristers would be chatting all the way to their rooms. I didn’t mind though. I was absorbed. I didn’t forget to hear mass. I felt the need to. It would be the only saving grace, having not finished 1st reading for labor. So I prayed. Then on my way up I struggled with the keycard and as I stood there outside my door I stopped and stared at my room number. #502.  5+2= 7. I calmed down and took it as a sign God will be with me during my first Sunday. And I should trust and believe.

    So I crammed my usual way. My bestfriends arrived and I had the best resources for asking explanations for difficult concepts like party-list computation and illegal recruitment and injunctions. By this time, the text messages were pouring in… well wishers and prayers. I’m really lucky to have a good support system. (Multiply friends included of course) Thank you so much everyone, you guys gave me strength when I was about to break down again at the hotel and at mass. Hehehe yes jam, umiyak ata ako sa mass. Anyway I didn’t sleep. I crammed and I crammed, all those advice about what to do the night before I didn’t follow. I crammed, I didn’t sleep, I ate A LOT. I lit a candle in my room and would stare at it when I couldn’t absorb information and would just pray.

     By 3 am I couldn’t take anymore so I just listened to praise songs on my ipod while going through the codal. (did I forget to mention the song at mass was one that had been playing in my head the day before and almost everytime I think of the bar)    Had a shower and went down to the LSG and PY saw me and shoved the tips right at me. "Read that" she says. And so I crammed some more. On the elevator, while eating breakfast, on the bus, in the queue on the way inside La Salle. I was so nervous. I think my heart was as loud as the gong drums that was playing in the background. I forgot which school. Then I went inside my building St. La Salle and had to look for the list of rooms and which one I had to be in. So here comes another list. I searched for my name.  There it was. #124.  1+2+4 = 7. I’m not kidding. You can check.

    So I crammed some more in the classroom, at lunch, by the stairwell, in the bathroom. And for me I think it was all these factors that made me survive my first day. God, my family, my friends. It’s humbling to be at an emotional point when you know you can’t do anything anymore. It’s miraculous to find someone else pick you up and carry you to the next post like a pass the message thing or those concert style passed around to the next person high up in the air to get to the stage. Anyhow as for the exams I didn’t really think about it after, whether my answers were right or wrong. But I’m so thankful my mind wasn’t blank at all. It would be safe to say I wouldn’t be disqualified on the very first Sunday. That at least I can now fight and cram just a bit earlier for the next Sunday.

Stats:
(for poli I read bernas a month ago and half of nachura and stopped studying. labor I didnt start at all till just last Tuesday and took Wednesday off to sleep after breaking down, then crammed again the next day, Friday I went to Quiapo church and the chapel in recoletos. Then went home to cram all the way to bar day. A total of 5 days for my 1st reading mind you)

time finished
poli: 10:53 am
labor: 4pm
hours spent awake: 40 (from Saturday 4am-Sunday 9pm)

Maybe next entry I’ll talk about the number 9 the number of completion. That’s the other number that keeps popping up in my life.

Chronicles of a bar crammer

    It's official…. I finally got my permit to take the exam from the Supreme Court, I guess this means I really am going to take the exam (albeit unprepared). But with 13 days to go and no subject I've completely finished reading, there is not much hope to pass.  Now the only thing left to do is to not go gently into the not so good night. I'll be kicking screaming and fighting -allotting 2 days for each subject (there are 8 )  using codal and reviewers and leaving the major cramming for the pre-week of each exam day and I cross my fingers, pray to god, touch my ear and nose and turn around to the left 3x believe that my doubtfully good foundation and semi photographic memory will get me through. Now all I need are super fast reading techniques so I'll know enough to bluff not to leave blanks.

    For those who don't know what the bar exam in the Philippines is like, here's a little bit of info,  which will probably help people understand why we reviewees rant about it so much. Personally it's the cost of failing that stresses me out. (and I'm not talking bout just the financial)

    Last September 2006, more than 6,100 examinees took the Philippine Bar exam. Last April 3, 2007, the bar exam results was published after 6 months of waiting. 1,893 examinees or 30.6% of the examinees passed the bar. The other 4,294 or about 69.4% of the bar examinees did not make the grade. Good for those who passed, better luck next time for those who failed. Life must go on. And what would failure mean? Here's a breakdown of the costs of taking the bar exam.

For a person who earns 20,000 pesos a month, he needs to let go 120,000 pesos of income to review for 6 months. For a province-based person, he needs to rent a place in Manila for an average of 10,000 pesos per month or a total of 60,000 pesos. Plus a budget of 10,000 per month for meals and living allowance, this means another 60,000 pesos. Include the plane fare, communication and school supplies and bar exam fee of about 20,000 pesos, a total budget of 250,000 pesos is a fair amount. All of these you spent in order to take the bar exam and get the chance to practice law.

    Now you add all that that to one's health cost: The sleepless nights, the deep anxiety and nervousness is part of the game during review. Then comes the examination month. The examination takes four days, 8 hours a day. Examinees tackle 8 subjects 4 hours per subject. After that, the examinees go back to their old life and wait for 6 months for the results.

soooo 

    Rumor has it that it's the hardest bar exam in the world since flunkers here easily pass the California bar (reportedly the hardest in the US) but I still think it's a hit and miss and that Lady Luck and God will help this sad lazy ass to hurdle it. Why? because the social stigma is great, especially if you come from the upper ranked schools. Every one expects you to do your best and failing isn't an option. (the bar exam also has the highest mortality rate -due to stress, depression, failure) Because in a sense it is a competition.

Since about 1913, the Bar exam in the Philippines is among the news maker in country. The highlight of every bar exam results are the names of Bar topnotchers and the names of their respective schools. Today, topping the bar exam means fame, honor and good fortune for the persons and their alma matters.

I heard that Bar exam in the United States Bar exam do not post the names of topnotchers. You only get a "pass" or "fail" grade. I'm sure the United States Bar has strong reasons not to publish topnotchers. And I'm sure among the two reasons are (1) to prevent fraud and taking advantage of the fame as topnotchers and (2) not to over hype the result of the exam because an exam score does not determine the greatness of a person…

    Now if only we could anonymously fail then it wouldn't be so hard…. baH! Enough about results and top notchers and being on tv and fame and fortune… I just need to pass. So I'm tackling Civ law tonight… what that means is….

The Civil Code of the Philippines contains more than 2,000 articles. The family Code of the Philippines contains about 200 articles. Not to mention the countless other special civil laws, Gods knows how many landmark civil cases resolved and decided by the supreme court. All of them are possible topics in the bar exams under the subject of Civil law and given four (4) long hours per subject to answer a maximum of 40 questions. (handwritten mind you)…

    SOOOOO for this zombie crammer, I'm stocking up on vitamins, racking up some living expenses bills, having spurts of emotional breakdowns in the midst of reading chapters.  Luckily writing for me is my therapy. And well, sitting back and bloghopping … Which led me to the blogs that provide support for this emotional supertyphoon to come next month.  Among the gems I found and haunted… well i still do

1. Atty Fred's blog  where he also runs a forum to discuss strategies and tips
2. Macka whose commentaries on recent issues have been quite helpful.
3. Punzi's corner blog - some good experience articles about tackling it
4. Barops blog - thank you for the super tips.

If anyone else knows of more blogs, feel free to drop your link. Technology has become my support system since I've decided to live as a hermit.