Facebook and Foul Language Par 2

[hill roberts]

"Fancy titles = lackadaisical performance = nought." Meaning, what's the good of those titles if these politicians aren't performing well to put the country where it should have been, twenty-five years ago? So, on and on the argument went and this man never let up. He kept saying and defending them and never gave any form of objectivity to his observation, rattling away, repeating that President Arroyo did nothing! Oh, really, I said. What about the huge success of the BPO? Two nieces and a nephew are gainfully employed as Senior Supervisors. Employment matters, and if people aren't employed in their own backyard, naturally a backlash of sorts happen: civil /social unrest, migration, and a whole rigmarole of petty crimes, kidnappings, murders. The usual ills when there's no food on the table, which takes me back to this fb friend who keeps reminding me about earthquakes, natural catastrophes and Al Gore's Climate Change.  This man is also a lawyer, and for him never to answer the questions testily put to him, and he is responsible for grooming the next female political leader who has an Indian surname, makes me reflect on the horrid, the stampede, and the stupidity. I mean, are these the same people who  are bent on ruining the country? Why are they hell-bent in making matters worse, thinking that their ideas are made in heaven, whose very idea of democratic principles is devoid of substance, let alone far-fetched from its true form that we know today? ::)Part 3 follows.

[hill roberts]

Part 3. This lawyer, who is based in the States, has completely veered away from the thread at hand, and rather than discussing it, he began to resort to personal attacks in another fb friend's page. To top it all, he made threats, i.e., "I'll find you, just name the place...I will make sure you'll get a bloody nose and more..."along with a long list of expletives which I don't need to type out. For a couple of days, the Ides of March had indeed been an omen, since all the anger poured into other fb pages had become chaotic, mindless and personal attacks came like a lava, unstinting in its efforts to hit other fb friend's jugular. One of my American fb friends, who was the recipient of threats, reported him to the FBI. I doubt if this has ever happened before. My accute consciousness of what this lawyer really is has made me reflect on previous postings between him and yours truly, since I was too slow to notice that this man, was, after all, bonkers in the true sense of the word! (Yes, he also hit me below the belt, along with dirty language), so I struck  him off my list pronto. He isn't just a danger to me, but to himself. It is unfortunate that this happened but there are times when the meaning,"blessing in disguise" becomes a realisation of more appendages, reminding us to be aware that there are things that make you recognise that enough is enough. His apparent manifestation of being superior to everyone around him makes it all the more strange, or even funny, since no one was trying to compete with him--especially not with his glowing academic titles. I mean, Facebook is a place to socially interact, to have a few good laughs along the way,a cyber-camaraderie in space. This man went beyond that idea of what Facebook should be.Part 4 follows.

[hill roberts]

Part 4. It is indeed sad that it happened. I, for one, didn't anticipate striking this man off my fb list of friends. If only for the fact that we hit it off well, and end up having an ugly argument. If only he didn't use threats and foul language, thinking it was the right way to win an argument,if only, if only...we say that we just can't allow miscreants, no matter how educated they are, no matter how academically-inclined they are, believing that this is the way forward: be rude, be nasty, use foul language...I could weep thinking that it shouldn't have happened. This man professes to be religious too, whose own first cousin "unfriended" me without even giving any reason. But I know why. She had been reading my posts and deep in my heart, she didn't like my views on God, religion and Christianity. She, in fact, started it when I posted an innocent song of Billy Joel, "I Love You Just The Way You Are"---the lyrics for me was just that. Yet, she put malicious meaning into it by telling me to look deeper into the song. I mean, am I that stupid not to realise that the song's lyrics didn't have any kind of metaphor to make me think it was a dirty song and that for her, "you should look deeper Hill! How slow are you to understand that that song is a bad song!" For one whole week or so,she nagged me about the lyrics and I stayed calm in the face of  her malicious attitude. Another fb friend sent me a message wondering why she was being obnoxious about a song, that really, was above-board! So, I stopped replying to her comments. It was a fortnight later that it dawned on me that she "unfriended" me. And for what? That stupid song which had nothing to do with religious beliefs, God, priests.

[hill roberts]

Part 5. As I end this topic, I'd just like to say that Facebook has changed my life--for the better, in the sense that I have truly met wonderful people from around the world. Frankly, I was adamant to join it, until I succumbed for some unknown reason. ;DStill, there will always be people who will not give an inch of showing some understanding of other people's culture, background, location, and the ubiquitous, "What do you do?" When I make fb friends, I carry on with the task of the "Status" and "Links" at hand---why do I need to know what they are doing? Who am I to interrogate them about their social standing? Academic background? How many kids they have? Their age? Their work? For me, these are things I do not want to ask, rather, enjoy their company while we're at it, without having to get too personal with what they do in their daily life. I couldn't care less if that fb friend didn't go to college/university for as long as that person is funny, smart in repartee, not rude, knowing what he/she thinks about the issue presented to him/her. In my opinion, everybody is on equal footing in cyberspace. There is no race, colour, creed, superior/inferior. Ther are others, though, who think it is the place to show arrogance, superiority complex, making stupid comments. There are also those others who are in the business of wanting to be popular. From the very beginning, I kept emphasising to my new fb friends that " Look,I'm not here to be popular. I'm here to  listen, have a few good laughs along the way, gain knowledge which is truly amazing and plentiful, appreciate their thoughts/ideas, above all, just have a wonderul time socialising with them. After all Facebook is a social networking site, nothing more.

[hill roberts]

A Surge of Acute Loneliness. Somehow, all seemed OK. Then, inexplicably, I felt sadness creep through my being. I am a very flexible, level-headed person, however, yesterday, the pangs of feeling alone but not being alone made sense. Since my parents' death, and that of my youngest brother a month after that, I put death behind me. I visited my father two months before his death on the 25th December 1995,which was followed by mother (deep inside I knew she died of loneliness, but the official death was aneurism) then a month later, Terry died of a heart attack. I was there for my mother's funeral, and so was Terry. Who would have thought that my brother would soon die? To top it all, for the second time in my life, I had chicken pox It was this very reason that I couldn't be at the funeral of my brother: I looked hideous. But why did I get chicken pox and why for the second time? It was around one o'clock in the morning that my eldest sister (stricken with breast cancer)noticed rashes in and around my neck, but I , as usual, I ignored the signs since I was travelling and didn't want to believe that after my parents' death and Terry's recent funeral, here I was catching chicken pox! Still, my sister rang up her dermatologist, explained it to him on the phone while we were in the emergency room of a local hospital. When he arrived, he looked at me and confirmed that "....yes, of course it's chicken pox!" I was speechless, thinking of my plane ticket since I was booked for Spain in two days' time. This piece of bad health news added to the misery and sadness that I was already going through. The questioned remained: how did I get chicken pox? Part 2 follows...

[Joe Carillo]

Hill, when you're done giving vent to your grief, may these lines from William Wordsworth's “Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood” give you comfort and help you snap back to the cheerful, assertive person you were in this Forum and in Facebook just a few weeks back:

What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
   Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
   We will grieve not, rather find
   Strength in what remains behind;
   In the primal sympathy
   Which having been must ever be;
   In the soothing thoughts that spring
   Out of human suffering;
   In the faith that looks through death,
   In years that bring the philosophic mind.   

[hill roberts]

Good morning, Joe! What a beautiful poem from one of my favourite poets. Thank you. So apt indeed. ;)Yes, isn't it strange that we go through life sometimes feeling immense loneliness? Still, I have recovered now from that gust of wind, and thank you Joe for the reassurance! So, why did I get chicken pox, the second time around? I think it was when I stayed overnight in London to catch my  evening flight and some people at  the airport hotel I was staying in had it. Then, when I rang up my husband a fortnight after my arrival in Manila, he mentioned that a son-in-law of our friend and his little son also had chicken pox. It was that particular year in the UK that many were inflicted by it, unfortunately, I, too, was affected since there were many Brits on the plane on that long-haul flight. The chicken pox attacked mainly my face! I looked truly hideous and couldn't even leave the house. it took another five years to clear my face of the scars, with three simple remedies: water, soap and a towelette. I didn't go to any fancy , expensive dermatologist. It was al DIY (do-it-yourself) and it worked well, thank goodness. I jus scrubbed my face daily using the same soap and the "mooncraters" disappeared, bit by bit, over the years.