PC Games and desires

 The 90’s kid closes his eyes, excited to sleep because the next day is another full eye-soaring, butt-numbing computer play day. Kids like us who nurtured an inordinate relationship with computer games, forgetting the concept of time in the process, have all sorts of stories to share of how you destroyed this or killed that. It was the in thing.

Now, 24 summers after, I look back and can’t help but marvel at how these seemingly hypnotic electricity-wasters contributed so much in how I view life and the things I am passionate about. I do not know if it merely unlocked an “innate” interest but surely it opened a whole new world for me.

The internet is full of literature about the effects of video games. In my case, I can attribute much of my interest and even the choices I make to the games I obsess about.

My first genuine addiction was Age of Empires which was my first ever PC game when I was in 3^rd grade or so.  This is a classic-empire building game that combines both strategy and ancient history. You get to command a small tribe. Extract and gather resources and build cities and armies. And the narrative is quite familiar with conquest on one hand and getting of rich on the other. What were also interesting about this game are the historical campaigns where you get to roughly reenact real historical events. It introduced me to Carthage and Hannibal’s elephants, the Battle of Actium and the fall of the Roman Republic. It also introduced me what and where the fertile crescent was and its role in civilization. Then, I cared less about the historical facts. All I wanted was to destroy the enemy. But this interest led me to want to understand why these “computer players” rose and fell.

Then came Sim city. This “missionless” game is well, endless. You are given a vast track of terrain and you practically build your city on it and once you’ve reached your dream city then it ends there. You can either build another one or destroy it. Sounds dull? But the game is powerful in sense that it gives you endless possibilities of how to design, visualize, and manage a simulated city. The value of this game, I guess, comes from its engaging complexity. There are many variables to consider such as road access, traffic, electricity, water, crime rates, unemployment, economic growth, laws, taxes, or land value much like in the real world. The level of density for example has something to do with the level of population of the whole region. The crime rate has something to do with the unemployment rate which is also connected to the tax rates and policies set. It is an intricate game to say the least. This practically introduced me to the idea of “urban development” and seeing the city as a living organism. These are seeds I believe in my later interest in development economics and public policy.

Just two games I play the most and it have, I believe, influenced me tremendously in my choices now. But I would like to look at these as not the main source of what led me to things I do today. Obviously they are not. They are I guess merely reminders or sign posts - letting me now what I inherently like to do for the rest of my life. 

Critical Engagement: Youth and Local Governance

We had the opportunity to join the city executive branch during their Strategic planning sessions held in Marco Hotel, Cugman of this city.


In a nutshell:

That was one great conversation with the city leadership. The city mayor as well as the city administrator emphasized the need to develop a successor generation political leadership program that allows promising young leaders to sit in actual councils and hold actual responsibilities. And the push for a youth development council has finally made a great leap today with the earnest support of the City Social Welfare office head. We finally see great hope in youth participation in local governance. From Hapsay Dalan engagement to actual policy-making. 

To city officials from Ernesto Neri

Kick the Curve

It is time to take a break and reflect. I am already in my third year in Xavier Law. And if gravity remains constant, then I’ll be done in 2 years. But in all the midst of this mountain of readings and the base of the bar exam mountain looms at the horizon. I ask myself, how am I in this journey?

It seems the law on diminishing marginal utility pronounce itself in this period. I do not wish to deny it but as I compare myself when I was a freshman and today, I have realized stark differences. Before, I would wake up early and be able to finish two subjects before lunch break and every minute seems to count. Now, I start reading after lunch and my mind most often than not wonders in cyberspace. I cannot just blame this to economics but this at the end of the day is a matter of choice.

But this choice happens in a context.

And the context is becoming less interesting. But context is most of the time, a matter of perception. So this made me realize a truth that has been standing in front of me all the time. That how you see things will ultimately be your reality.

So I ought to see the labor I plow into these endeavor as a transformative learning experience that empowers me to reform my community. In my mind frame, this would be the most practical thing to do – connecting it the greater scheme of things.

So as I proceed to the next semester, I ought to sharpen this saw – which means I have to get into the spirit behind the words, the history behind the concept. And the engagements I gravitate towards as a sideline from my majors are the perfect seeds that will hopefully kick off the curve.

Do you believe in signs?

I do subscribe to this idea that a greater power communicates to us in so many ways. This includes giving signs - a series of seemingly random events purporting to give answers. And what gives it such enigma is the order and the timing of these events seem to be so orchestrated or designed to precision that it could never just be mere happenstance. It might be what most of us call the feeling of being at the right place at the very precise moment. It might just be the brain playing tricks but we can never discount the fact that it does happen.

We often invoke it when we make big life decisions. In my case, I did not really ask for any signs, it just appeared.

It was in the morning of August 14, 2013. As I was scrolling down my facebook feeds, my brother’s chat message icon popped out.

Then my extraordinary experience started. This was beyond ordinary when a 24-year-old student applies alone for a Schengen visa. It is stressful and anxiety-ridden experience, not to mention the long wait for the news. Anyway, I considered this event my first sign because minutes, just minutes before my brother’s chat. I watched a Rome Reports clip on Pope Francis waiving at the crowds in St. Peter’s Square. Mere coincidence but things got a bit interesting. 

The second sign appeared after I submitted all my papers. It was around 2:30 in the morning. I was about to settle in bed after a long tedious study night. I turned on the tv just to ease my senses. Then as I traversed from channel to channel, I landed on Fox news at the most perfect time. The announcer said “buongiorno! To the people watching in Italy, thank you for watching fox news through Italiano tv!”what are the odds? Right as I landed on fox, this message appeared. Come on! Maybe again it’s my mind just trying to connect patterns.

Surprisingly, the morning after, the Italian Embassy called asking for some clarifications. And they called just seconds before I arrived from a chore in Copya de Oro. What would have happened if I stayed longer?

The final sign came 2 days after that call.  After my NSTP processing session, I hurriedly looked for some food to eat. I was starving so as hundreds of other students. No seats were available but luckily I managed to squeeze myself in one table with some 2^nd year law students who are also my friends. As we were so busy eating and chatting, a friend seated in front of me opened her bag and removed her sachet of coffee. And behold, it was the Italian flavor of Kopiko’s European coffee series named Kopiccino. And to top it of, the colors of the Italian flag shimmered in the choco granule sachet. I just laughed the moment I saw it. I even kept the sachet with the Italian flag out of wonder and fascination of how these things could even be possible.

On Tuesday, October 8, I got my passport back at around 10:30 am – approved.

Will someone notice the empty chair? SK abolition

Like in a Frankenstein movie, this institution is thrown back to the laboratory so its creators can assess whether it’s best to just kill it altogether or reincarnate it into a new body.

The nature and impact of the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) has been the subject of a long drawn debate with all-too-familiar arguments, but let us just take a minute to see if one day, it will come to an end. Congress finally decided to kill it. Will our society be any different? Will it be better off? It can only keep us guessing. But let us try to imagine what would it be like if it would happen.

For a start, it would save a lot of money. For postponing the SK elections alone, COMELEC is said to have saved P 100 million. Furthermore, if we consider the yearly cost of the Sangguniang Kabataan, which is 10% of the Barangay fund, it would be a staggering aggregate amount of cost reduced or diverted into other expenditures. Let us not forget about their honorarium and educational trip counter parts, which may now be added on to the salaries of barangay tanods and street cleaners. Bottom line, the financial breather would be a definite practical consequence of the SK’s death. Will this make us better off?

With no more “barangay-based” political leadership formation opportunity, the army of 420,028 SK officers will be looking for leadership experience elsewhere if they so desire. They could find it in schools, churches, advocacy groups and so many other youth volunteer groups. It would at least free them from the unavoidable negative influence of barangay politicking, which would tend to pollute their concept of public governance. They could release their energies without thinking of any political calculation and reputation. Much more, they can freely form organic groups – one thing the youth does best - unburdened by their parents’ political plans for them. Will this form our future leader better?

Barangay Sports tournaments would nose dive. In a 2007 study conducted by UNICEF, sports tournaments are the number one reported activity of SK. It comprises 32% of all SK projects nation-wide followed by infrastructure and the environmental projects, which are only 19% each – almost a mile apart from the top 1. This number speaks of volumes. It speaks about priority and quality of representation or the lack thereof as well as where the money is being poured in. So when the SK is gone, so as our beloved sports events. Would an unutilized barangay basketball court be such a depressing scene?

With these rough projections, I do not know if it would be enough to paint a reasonable answer to whether we are better of without the SK. Surely in principle, the death of the SK is a national tragedy. It would be a departure from a proud tradition of youth empowerment, which is not only constitutionally commanded, but also internationally praised. On the other hand, sustaining it with its present form would produce mixed results and a whole lot of division.

In the end, we all agree that the soul of this body should be kept warm and true. Time has come that its reincarnation into a better form is an utmost national concern. Our communities might feel no different in its absence but it does not mean we should forge its worth. There is always a social good in building a lasting mechanism that converts the youths’ ideas and energies into public policy and communal action.

YOUTH AND CITY-BUILDING

(My 2nd contribution to mark.com.ph)

Every time Barangay elections loom, so as the debate to abolish or reform the Sangguniang Kabataan.

In its bare design, the Sangguniang Kabataan is said to be a source of Filipino pride.  Other nations point to it as a lead example of a nation’s commitment to youth empowerment in public governance – an institutional innovation that is in the forefront of the world. However, this source of pride abroad has an all too familiar murky reputation at home which includes being tagged as the training ground of corruption or derided as merely an expensive unit of sports event organizers. But as all institutions are, there are the good and the bad practices. So as the nation debates on the direction of much needed reforms, there is no reason why in the local we cannot push through our own reforms.

The Youth Council

Several bills such as Senate Bill No. 131 authored by Senator Francis Pangilinan and House Bill No. 591 authored by our own Representative Rufus Rodriguez and Abante Mindanao Representative Maximo Rodriguez, Jr have been filed mandating local government units to create a youth development council. But up to this day, they have stayed as bills. But this did not stop several Local Government units to adopt the idea through a local ordinance. This policy-recommending body is an assembly of the varied sectors of the youth namely: (1) the out of school (2) student councils of colleges and high schools (3) faith based youth (4) community based youth (5) Sangguniang Kabataan and joined by senior city hall officials. The details on the number of representatives, accreditation and internal procedures are dealt with by the individual ordinances.

The proposed City Youth Council

Representation and Synergy

This design recognizes one vital fact – the youth naturally organize themselves be it in churches, schools or barangays. The council finds its strength in the inherent quality of the youth to socialize, organize and specialize. Harnessing this cohesion and elevating it into formal sources of governance ideas hold promising potential. In this approach, determining youth policy and its resource allocations is not left to the Sangguniang Kabataan alone but it is now shared by these varied sectors whose own unique and immersed perspective in their specific area of advocacies brings rich policy discussions. With this close proximity between the youth and the city leaders, s youth group specializing in indigenous craft-making can raise a point on needed market access while a youth group specializing in digital marketing can contribute in city tourism promotions. Aside from engaging with city leadership, this also opens an opportunity for youth groups to complement each other to add value to their efforts. In the example, the marketing group can help promote the craft-making group which will in turn help the city promote its youth livelihood program. The combination of talents to produce good fruits is endless if only such venue to meet and engage is provided. The council is a laboratory of youth synergy combining talents and bringing fresh ideas to city hall.

Mobilization and Integration

More than just recommending things on paper, the council also acts as the pivot for massive and integrated youth mobilization. Generally youth groups are organized to forward a social cause or set of ideals but most often than not, they are made manifest in sporadic and one-shot outreach activities. One example is a tree planting activity that is made without considering the city reforestation plan, or a tutorial program in a community that is better off if served with a feeding program. These are good efforts that could have made greater impact if such are well placed inline with a city strategic intervention plan. The council can craft a master plan that outlines the various needs of barangays such as tutorial services, sports clinics and the like. The youth groups, equipped with their specialization can then choose among these specific barangays their area of intervention. The council is designed to funnel and guide the scattered energies of organized youth groups into an integrated and strategic movement that hopes to yield greater impact.

Political Education

The natural consequence of youth involvement in governance is political education. Through the council, the youth base can push the tipping point in elevating our city’s level of political engagement. And more so, the bias towards this kind of participatory-democracy will hopefully produce political leaders whose experience in such a youth council made him or her see the value of collective owning and citizenship engagement in defining our city’s priorities and direction.

A Call for Reform

Our city is home to countless of youth organizations housed in schools, communities or places of worship. In recent years, we have seen STREAMS, an education support and scholarship program and DIRE HUSI, a youth formation and entrepreneurship organization rise to be one of the Top Ten Most Accomplished Youth Organizations in the whole nation. We see others station on parks teaching street kids basic math and others deliver health products to far flung communities. The energy of the youth in the city is powerful. Once given a formal mode to craft and push the city’s youth agenda, they are given a profound sense of communal ownership in the direction the city takes and a clear reason to commit in fulfilling the agenda’s goals.After all, the youth has led this nation before at its rearing. And it is youth that will lead the nation to its destiny.

(Ernesto Baconga Neri is a 3rd year Law Student of Xavier University. He is a volunteer of the Kagayanon Youth for Good Governance and resident intern of the Xavier University Center for Legal Assitance)

Mark.com.ph