I was asking myself if I should write this or not... I still do not know until now.
I was on my way home from OJT. It is my second day. I think to myself that I can get used to Makati pretty fast after a few trips. I am a country-side boy. I live in the province, and grew up there, in Laguna.
Before we went out of office, I asked my fellow interns and officemates a funny question (a line from a song, in fact, which was the closest to the thought I had that time). We then parted ways, and I went alone because I had a different route. I decided to listen to the song I quoted a line from.
On the bus stop at MRT Ayala Station, when I was about to board a bus, people were pushing, and I was just trying to stand there still and not push with them. They were undisciplined. Then, suddenly, I felt a fast hand move inside and outside my left pocket, as if picking something out of it. Without missing a beat, I grabbed the outside of my pocket to feel if I still have my phone in it. My other phone was gone. I immediately caught sight of a guy in white t-shirt, with a backpack, hurriedly walking in front of me, maneuvering his hands as if trying to hide something. I immediately ran to this guy and grabbed his right arm. I told him to give me back my phone and immediately cried for help as I am aware of the potential danger since he was aggressive and bigger.
The guy started punching me non-stop, as I was crying "help, thief!" It stopped when he punched me the last few times, and my hearing started to sound different. I thought it was a big concussion -- but it was just my MP3 falling off. I felt like I was so helpless that I was just like a Christmas tree that one can freely pick from at will, stealing anything they like without me being able to do anything about it. I thought I also lost my MP3 by that simple jab, and that he was too much of an expert. But, I realized that it just fell, and having a sentimental value to me, I immediately stopped and picked it up... I was glad it was not stolen too.
Just a few seconds after all that happened, recovering from a mild concussion, a man came to me telling me that he was shouting at me repeatedly. He saw the man running while I cried for help. He said he would accompany me, but he thinks he already rode a bus. I followed him. I asked him questions like what did he look like, where did he go, did he see everything, can he describe the person? He only said that he had a white shirt. I immediately became paranoid of every suspicious-looking/pretentious guy in white. I tried to point to one, and he said that, "no, he had a back-pack". I told him that the previous guy I was grabbing was who I thought was the thief. I told him that he was too "guilty for punching me". He commented that the person I was talking about "might just be humiliated in public" to do that. But, I am not sure if he really saw the scene where I got jabbed and pummeled by the guy.
Anyway, I thought that I grabbed the wrong guy, that in the middle of being punched the "real thief" was running away, and that I had to take whatever step I had to get back to the thief. But, coming to piece if together, the guy I grabbed was very suspicious, defensive, and started punching me right away when I attempted a talk. And, when I lost just a few-moments attention at him, he immediately disappeared. I might have got it correctly, but the police or people in charge I was expecting to help me control the situation just weren't there.
I felt so unsafe, so helpless, like people like the police weren't there when you needed them. There were lots of people who saw it, I got humiliated, and got no resolve. They all just watched there as I cried for help in the middle of the bus stop. I feel like Makati is too un-secure with all the criminals like that. I'd rather stay home in Laguna because it's much peaceful here. I think my earlier sentiments about not wanting to live a work life like this is very much satisfied by this situation. It just happened probably a half-hour before the incident.
The jabs were not painful. I just felt like I was being thrown away in different directions with different hooks. They only started feeling painful after all the action, when I was looking for the supposedly "other" thief, and when I was ready to give up and accept that I lost him. I think this time that I got him, but nobody was there in the middle of the crowd, and with the presence of the police, to help me. I have seen lots of suspicious people having different modus operandi in that station, yet there is no sufficient security going on. Will the government really care? Or will they only care for their own government?
PS
I stopped halfway the punching series, because I feared that I might lose more than just my phone, including my beloved MP3 player...
Showing posts with label security. Show all posts
Showing posts with label security. Show all posts
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Saturday, December 20, 2008
How Small The World Is: Internet Self-Defense
I just realized how small the world is... and it's all because of the net. Imagine yourself connecting real-time with people from Russia, the States, Europe, Africa, the mid-East, Asia, or anywhere in the world. I'm talking about the world anyway. Who knows, the future might open up the possibility of connecting with space.
Visit friendster and you're opening yourself up to the chance of meeting people even out the country where you belong. Open up a multiply account and you're also opening up a bridge to the people around the globe once you get to have anything in common with them through web-searches. A person may be able to get to know people from the farthest side of the country in a completely different walk of life through these kind of internet services. These tools can also be used to open up connections with people that they've never met before.
No matter how advantageous these may be, they'll always have a side-effect. People may use these tools as weapons to wreak terror. Persons with evil intentions may snoop and grab personal information from others. They may also steal them and use them as their own. These issues, to top that off, are even left without any security. Up to date, there are no written laws that protect people who use the internet from fraudulent schemes and issues on privacy. People mark the net-space as a public domain and they can do anything they want. Anything may also mean everything evil as long as people want to do it. There are no such laws.
Freedom of speech is a right that gets abused. It is also a right, when expressed, that occasionally puts people in danger. People may black-list and hunt down people that they hate. When a person makes a statement about something controversial, even a personal and private one, he or she is in great danger of being dropped by immediate connections. Issues of trust and integrity also surface out. What people may say can be controlled by others. Instead of being a place for releasing one's thoughts and expressing one's self, it becomes a place of imminent peril.
As far as some people are concerned, the internet can be a venue for personal destruction. Today, the internet controls the life of some individuals. It can also be their end. It affects people that much today. It honestly is safe to say that the internet itself is a lifestyle. Who knows when it will do the same to a larger number of people? A lot of people might actually have it as a part of their daily routine -- from checking their emails, social networking accounts, and et cetera, they're definitely hooked by an invisible strong-binding string of addiction, and in more soft core terms, of necessity. People might see tomorrow more and more third-world and heavily poverty-stricken countries arise and embrace this trend and generation. The internet may also soon be a major part of the people's personal social lives, if not totally replacing it.
The internet is a slum, a wild and dangerous place. Only those who know how to take care of their selves will be able to make it through and not be taken advantage of. People who use the net, an exponentially-growing number, must also educate themselves and acquaint themselves very well with the environment so that they can be able to survive that kind of world. They must learn how to safeguard themselves. They must themselves create guidelines as how to use the tools the internet offers because nobody else would do it for them. When people learn practicing internet self-defense, they're increasing their chances of enjoying the tool more and they'll be able to maximize its power. Let's all start enjoying the use of the internet. Let's not make it a menace. Instead, lets' use it for our advantage.
Visit friendster and you're opening yourself up to the chance of meeting people even out the country where you belong. Open up a multiply account and you're also opening up a bridge to the people around the globe once you get to have anything in common with them through web-searches. A person may be able to get to know people from the farthest side of the country in a completely different walk of life through these kind of internet services. These tools can also be used to open up connections with people that they've never met before.
No matter how advantageous these may be, they'll always have a side-effect. People may use these tools as weapons to wreak terror. Persons with evil intentions may snoop and grab personal information from others. They may also steal them and use them as their own. These issues, to top that off, are even left without any security. Up to date, there are no written laws that protect people who use the internet from fraudulent schemes and issues on privacy. People mark the net-space as a public domain and they can do anything they want. Anything may also mean everything evil as long as people want to do it. There are no such laws.
Freedom of speech is a right that gets abused. It is also a right, when expressed, that occasionally puts people in danger. People may black-list and hunt down people that they hate. When a person makes a statement about something controversial, even a personal and private one, he or she is in great danger of being dropped by immediate connections. Issues of trust and integrity also surface out. What people may say can be controlled by others. Instead of being a place for releasing one's thoughts and expressing one's self, it becomes a place of imminent peril.
As far as some people are concerned, the internet can be a venue for personal destruction. Today, the internet controls the life of some individuals. It can also be their end. It affects people that much today. It honestly is safe to say that the internet itself is a lifestyle. Who knows when it will do the same to a larger number of people? A lot of people might actually have it as a part of their daily routine -- from checking their emails, social networking accounts, and et cetera, they're definitely hooked by an invisible strong-binding string of addiction, and in more soft core terms, of necessity. People might see tomorrow more and more third-world and heavily poverty-stricken countries arise and embrace this trend and generation. The internet may also soon be a major part of the people's personal social lives, if not totally replacing it.
The internet is a slum, a wild and dangerous place. Only those who know how to take care of their selves will be able to make it through and not be taken advantage of. People who use the net, an exponentially-growing number, must also educate themselves and acquaint themselves very well with the environment so that they can be able to survive that kind of world. They must learn how to safeguard themselves. They must themselves create guidelines as how to use the tools the internet offers because nobody else would do it for them. When people learn practicing internet self-defense, they're increasing their chances of enjoying the tool more and they'll be able to maximize its power. Let's all start enjoying the use of the internet. Let's not make it a menace. Instead, lets' use it for our advantage.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Back in Your Arms
I have now come back
To the original arms of love
Where You have found I
In a night filled with stars
I've fallen back again
And I will ever be
Till I return to where
I belong, where I don't fear (It's unto thee)
And I have realized
That I am always wrong
If I try to run away
Cos in Your arm's where I belong
I am glad that though
I've fallen this much low
It's in you I've land
And I am on safe ground
I've known this always
In Your arm's where I am safe
And I am much more sure
That It'll be my resting place
It will never really end
How bad I want to say
For I am in deep awe
In Your arm's where I belong
Knowing this one thing
That if I ever dream
In my nightmare you'd be there
And rescue me again
It's the safest arms that I
Have ever known and is
But, though I am afar
It's in You I'll still belong
To the original arms of love
Where You have found I
In a night filled with stars
I've fallen back again
And I will ever be
Till I return to where
I belong, where I don't fear (It's unto thee)
And I have realized
That I am always wrong
If I try to run away
Cos in Your arm's where I belong
I am glad that though
I've fallen this much low
It's in you I've land
And I am on safe ground
I've known this always
In Your arm's where I am safe
And I am much more sure
That It'll be my resting place
It will never really end
How bad I want to say
For I am in deep awe
In Your arm's where I belong
Knowing this one thing
That if I ever dream
In my nightmare you'd be there
And rescue me again
It's the safest arms that I
Have ever known and is
But, though I am afar
It's in You I'll still belong
Friday, February 16, 2007
'A Speech'
This passage is for someone I know who I think is very, very special (as is everyone to somebody). I just want to share with you the content:
"People with wasting lives are like that, trying their very best to find comfort and security but they still search for it through their old ways (take note: OLD WAYS). But Chance isn't nothing to be called what it is. It itself acquaints with the people in need. When they (the people in need)come to meet their chance for real security and salvation from all they are, they walk away to their temptations, and there they are again, much worse than before. They're searching in all the wrong places but what they don't know and understand is that security and comfort and salvation from LIFE itself doesn't need to be sought anymore. It was sought way too much that they miss it instead. You've done too much searching but there's still nothing, isn't it obvious? What they should know is salvation itself is looking after them, running after them, but most commonly is it too late when salvation finds itself with no room when the person seems to have found something in its place, something that looks like the same but more likely a decoy to save them and make them breathe temporarily. They go over on a loop, going back again, falling again, crying again, and seeking for a cure again. Their life cycle should be called an 'again' life cycle instead of a 'life' cycle that means a lot-it's a matter of vital importance. In my words, life is LIVING, a gift, a blessing from the One who created it. To them that I know and see everyday, and talk to everyday, their life is death instead. They live a life of death, and got used to it. Salvation, on the other hand, still doesn't stop from following the person in need. It [I] will always wait, cos it's [I'm] not satisfied with life just wasted over and over again.
What am I for if not to help and do my job? I've decided not to live for myself but to live for God and other people. My subconscious mind is enough to take care of myself. Believe me, it works very well..."
"People with wasting lives are like that, trying their very best to find comfort and security but they still search for it through their old ways (take note: OLD WAYS). But Chance isn't nothing to be called what it is. It itself acquaints with the people in need. When they (the people in need)come to meet their chance for real security and salvation from all they are, they walk away to their temptations, and there they are again, much worse than before. They're searching in all the wrong places but what they don't know and understand is that security and comfort and salvation from LIFE itself doesn't need to be sought anymore. It was sought way too much that they miss it instead. You've done too much searching but there's still nothing, isn't it obvious? What they should know is salvation itself is looking after them, running after them, but most commonly is it too late when salvation finds itself with no room when the person seems to have found something in its place, something that looks like the same but more likely a decoy to save them and make them breathe temporarily. They go over on a loop, going back again, falling again, crying again, and seeking for a cure again. Their life cycle should be called an 'again' life cycle instead of a 'life' cycle that means a lot-it's a matter of vital importance. In my words, life is LIVING, a gift, a blessing from the One who created it. To them that I know and see everyday, and talk to everyday, their life is death instead. They live a life of death, and got used to it. Salvation, on the other hand, still doesn't stop from following the person in need. It [I] will always wait, cos it's [I'm] not satisfied with life just wasted over and over again.
What am I for if not to help and do my job? I've decided not to live for myself but to live for God and other people. My subconscious mind is enough to take care of myself. Believe me, it works very well..."
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