Bully Us All You Want, But There Are Many Reasons Why You Should Love Filipinos

Wazzup Pilipinas!

There are so many reasons why to love my country, the Philippines. But the best reason why it is more fun in the Philippines is because of its people.

Thus, it is surprising why some would think negatively of my countrymen.

In particular, there was this recent trending topic involving Filipina Tiktoker Bella Poarch involving her tattoo with the Korean symbol that offended Koreans. The Tiktoker apologized, but the hate of those certain Koreans were too toxic to quickly forgive this she got bullied on social media....and among the hurtful words were thrown towards the Filipino people, generalizing us as a whole with unflattering words such as "uneducated" and "short."

Pinoys relationship with each other is sibling like. We fight, mock, and insult each other. But when other people say bad things about us, we are ready to even lift Thor's hammer just to hit on the head those who belittle our race.

Insulting any race and country is never right. We Filipinos may have good hearts and friendly in nature, but we are never silenced when we are not treated just. We strongly stand and raise our flag.

Yes, we are proud to be Filipino. We are proud to be Pinoys and would always raise our flag wherever we go, whether to visit or stay for good, we would never turn our backs to our fellow Filipinos, and we will never ever feel disgraced of our country, the Philippines.

Aside from making the hashtag #CancelKorea trend on Twitter, Filipinos also made the hashtag #Philippines trend as well by flexing several photos of the different destinations in the country.

Now that Koreans are apologizing with the hashtag #SorryToFilipinos, I hope Filipinos likewise stop from making racists comments about them too. We should trend the hashtag #CancelRacism instead of cancelling out the entire country of Korea since we are sure those who bashed Bella do not represent the entire country. Let's learn, forgive and move on. Enhance our diplomatic relations with each other instead.

We can't beat racism with racism. Neither can we defeat one's stupidity with another stupidity. Why cancel the whole country for the idiocy of some of their citizens?

Criticizing a whole country for what some said is prejudice. Acting as if all Koreans believe in this way. How they approached the situation and said was absolutely out of line, but that is not Korea and never will be.

Filipinos shouldn't be toxic either. We also have oyr shortcomings - addiction to social media and other online content including games and online kasyno, over infatuation to foreign entertainers like KPop and JPop idols, excessive splurging on the latrst mobile phone models, and overeating since there are so many food establishments that opened up in our country.

There are racists & idiots everywhere. Were you among them? Well it is never too late to change as well.

After all, we are Korean KPop's biggest fanbase. The KPop artists do not deserve to be included among the hated Koreans.

Here are more reasons why many people all over the world loves the Philippines:

We have the longest and the happiest Christmas Celebration (starting from September to December)

Filipinos are hospitable (magiliw sa pagtanggap ng panauhin) - we would gladly receive you in our homes and serve you with the best that we have.

Filipinos are respectful - we use "po" & "opo" whenever we talk to someone older than us and we do the "mano" gesture as a sign of respect to our elders. This is why foreigners prefer Filipinos to take care of them.

Filipinos are resilient - no matter what challenges, disasters, and failures we face, we always rise up from any calamity or tragedy with a smile on our faces. Always.

Filipinos are creative and resourceful - we improvise and make use of the resources available on hand to create and produce what we need.

Filipinos are generous and helpful - we share even the littlest we have to others who need it the most. This can also be witnessed during disasters when the spirit of "Bayanihan" is awakened in the hearts of Filipinos.

Filipinos are responsible, dependable, dedicated, and hardworking - we are proud to have these genuine traits which makes us the preferred workers of many employers

We will keep using the hashtag #Philippines to promote how beautiful and amazing our country is. Of course, as mentioned earlier, It's more fun in the Philippines because of the Filipinos.

Join us in sharing on social media what we love about the Philippines or what makes us proud to be a Filipino! Let's all show the world that there are a multitude of reasons why everyone should love, and not hate, Filipinos.

Save the Children Philippines, DepEd promote Positive Discipline for children’s effective learning at home

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Save the Children Philippines partners with the Department of Education (DepEd) in holding a month-long webinar on positive discipline to help parents and guardians support children’s learning at home during the pandemic.

The collaboration supports DepEd’s Basic Education Learning Continuity Plan to ensure that children’s rights to education is fulfilled, while protecting their health and safety during the pandemic.

“Parents and guardians play a critical role in the continued education of their children despite the challenges of this pandemic,” said Atty. Alberto Muyot, Chief Executive Officer of Save the Children Philippines.

The webinar will run on September 9, 16, 23 and 30, and October 7 and can be viewed for free through the Facebook pages of Save the Children Philippines and DepEd Philippines, as well as on DepEd TV.

Wilma Banaga, Child Protection Advisor and Jerly Villanada, Child Protection Manager of Save the Children Philippines will guide parents and guardians in supervising their children’s learning under the online and modular set-up through a series of courses promoting positive discipline.

“Positive discipline is an approach that helps build stronger relationships between parents/guardians and children,” said Banaga.

The second course on Identifying long-term goals will focus on the characteristics, values, and the kind of relationship that parents would want their children to have when they reach adulthood.

“The session provides parents and guardians with tips in managing stress since it is one of the factors that affect parents’ disciplining practices,” said Banaga.

The third webinar on September 23 will introduce two powerful positive discipline tools-Warmth and Structure.

“Warmth is creating a loving and safe environment where children feel and learn trust, security, and respectful communication,” Villanada said. “Structure is scaffolding children’s learning by providing them with information and guidance they need to perform what is expected of them, to learn from their mistakes, and solve problems.”

The webinar will also guide parents, guardians to understand how children think and feel to help them empathize with their children by understanding the stages of their development.

The last session on Responding to Challenges using Positive Discipline seeks to help parents, guardians to manage their stress, and understand why children are behaving the way they do.

Save the Children Philippines is campaigning for Positive Discipline as a national policy to protect children from physical and humiliating punishments.

According to the National Baseline Study on Violence Against Children in 2016, three out of five children experienced physical violence during childhood and most of them happened in the home. The study also showed that 14.3 percent of those who attended school experienced physical violence in school.

"Take Action" from home with NASA

Wazzup Pilipinas!

On October 2-4, The United States space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) invites coders, entrepreneurs, scientists, designers, storytellers, makers, builders, artists, and technologists to come together in a global, virtual hackathon. During a period of 48 hours, participants from around the world will come together to create virtual teams and solve challenges using NASA’s open-source data.

Designed for those interested in space science and exploration, this hackathon allows the next generation of scientists, technologists, designers and engineers to showcase their creativity and problem-solving skills through inspired collaboration and critical thinking.

As part of Space Apps, everyone belongs to a global hackathon community which embraces collaboration across borders, sectors, and cultures to bring about paradigm-shifting innovation.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic and in the interest of the global community’s health and safety, this year’s hackathon will be an all-virtual event. In other words, all events shall be moved online. In this unprecedented time, the Space Apps community exists as a reminder that everyone has the tools and talents to tackle the challenges facing the planet, as well as the ability to unite across boundaries and borders of all kinds.

The theme for this year -- "Take Action" -- is a critical reminder that anyone can make a difference, even from the comfort and safety of home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7RBlB9iYyQ

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) of France, and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) will be partnering again with NASA for this hackathon.

Since Space Apps is brought to the Philippines by developer and technology community leader Tzar C. Umang from Pangasinan last 2016, the country witnessed on how the community grew from a group of volunteers to forging partnerships with collaborators and stakeholders. The Philippines produced global winners like the dengue hotspot predictor Project AEDES and information portal G.I.D.E.O.N. measuring COVID-19 impact, both developed by CirroLytix. The country also has global finalists like Celestial Snails from De La Salle University addressing social isolation and Sentinellium, an epidemic predictor using population density data, both addressing problems caused by the coronavirus pandemic. 

Space Apps throughout the years in the Philippines.

While recognition and honor was given to the Philippines by NASA and partner agencies, lead organizer Michael Lance M. Domagas hopes that the country would soon realize the importance and value of giving support and assistance in the development of these winning projects, so that fellow Filipinos would benefit from these technologies coming from outer space in times of emergencies like COVID-19 and dengue epidemic. "Space Apps is a perfect venue which can arouse curiosity and interest of Filipinos to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), including space and Earth sciences. Our own country's support should have been a way to inspire more Filipinos and further develop winning projects," he said. Space Apps can be a program in developing "space education and promote public awareness" stated in Section 8 of Republic Act 11363 otherwise known as the "Philippine Space Act."

"The Global Organizing Team is inspired by the journey the Philippines has with the Space Apps program. In particular, we appreciate the development of STEM in the Philippines and elsewhere, because one goal of Space Apps is to foster interest and learning in these fields worldwide," according to Matt Scott, the Global Community Director and Storyteller.

Register now on these sites:

• Central Luzon: https://2020.spaceappschallenge.org/locations/pampanga
• Northern Luzon: https://2020.spaceappschallenge.org/locations/mapandan-pangasinan
• Manila and the rest of the Philippines: https://2020.spaceappschallenge.org/locations/manila

Space Apps is a NASA-led initiative organized in collaboration with Booz Allen Hamilton, Mindgrub, SecondMuse, and the NASA Open Innovation Applied Sciences Program.