The ‘ber months—September, October, November, and December—are a period that signifies the winding down of the year. A beginning of new season, and a heightened sense of celebration, charity, and family time.
But this was how I feel when I was younger then and with a carefree attitude towards my personal life, my career, and everything about me.
But nowadays, there seems to be a complete 180 degrees turn in my outlook as the so called ber months come along.
For example, since the onset of the current month (September), there is no day that we have less than 3 very important activities to do or accomplish at AMAD.
That’s why I felt like the ber months we used to be excited about are actually moving us into this annual stressful season of work marathon just to cope with our annual targets.
Aside from the routinary report writing, attendance to meetings or training sessions, we are also dutybound to formally open our three-day Kadiwa for Locally Sourced Food Exhibits Usually done at any given time.
Apart from this, we also need to attend to interagency invitations and even our own agency’s program-level assessment and review to know how far we have been in our various program implementations.
So, that’s how busy we are during ber months time – day in and day out.
If before, we always look forward and eagerly wait for the ber months, but with the enormous task that comes our way, it would seem that we now dread for this period to come as swiftly as possible due to overwhelming workloads.
For instance, yesterday (September 9), Ms Cherrymae Cabatingan, one of our MDS Staff (also, our point person for Benteng Bigas), and myself, had to rush to Isabel, Leyte in order to attend another interagency Benteng Bigas rollout.
It was a DOLE-initiated activity, but our involvement is very crucial since we are the designated lead agency responsible for the overall implementation of the Benteng Bigas Program.
After that activity in Isabel, we prepared to travel back to Tacloban, but along the way, we have to drop by at BINAPRIMCO in Merida, Leyte, to monitor and routinely provide technical advice pertaining to their FCA accreditation as possible partner outlet in the selling of Benteng Bigas. So, we had to personally talk and explain to the Coop Chairperson and other Coop personnel as regards to the rationale of the entire accreditation process.
But before we call it a day, we still need to passby Ormoc City and join the Team of our Agribusiness Promotion Section who were conducting an Agribusiness Investment Forum.
So, that’s it guys! Working for the government is not always a walk in the park. It really doesn’t come easy as what is commonly perceived by many.
Certainly, not all public servants are enjoying an easy and affluent way of living. Like other workers in the private sector, many of us are also experiencing great challenges or difficulties in trying to perform our duties and getting measly salaries.
But we are consoled with the fact that every person’s perception on the nature of work depends on his or her intrinsic qualities, characteristics, and fundamental elements that define a particular job or task.
As government employees, we should be familiar with the nature of our work and always be ready to cover the duties you’ll be asked to perform, some routine tasks, and other responsibilities that may pop up during the course of your day.
We, Filipinos, are known to be the people in the world who start the Christmas Celebration during the ‘ber’ months. This is because the 100-day Christmas countdown normally occurs during this time and, as such, this has become part of our tradition and psycho-social preparations for the Christmas season,”
But on a lifhter note, many of my coworkers – especially at AMAD, are already complaining that whenever the ber months come, “waray na kuno hira lovelife dara hit kabusy ha trabaho.”
Are you feeling this way too?
9/11, 24 years after
The day of infamy where a coordinated Islamic Fundamentalist group Al Queda attacked Lower Manhattan, Arlington and other places in the United States killed thousands. It was sudden, strange and the world was caught by surprise. It’s is almost a quarter of a century now and many of our young people are quite unaware of them.
The whole thing is somehow like an old song that is heard but whose Message and Relevance is not felt, it came from a distant past far too distant I may say that it never carries a weight on its collective memory.
The 9/11 would sadly pass by without the worlds notice and it is a thing that Filipinos shrugged off as something that is not worthy of ones attention.
This tendency to forget is a curse and it’s a sad curse, we humans tend to forget the past and the lesson it brought, that is why we do repeat the mistakes of the past because we have not learned its lessons. We have not fully comprehended it’s weight so much so that it becomes irrelevant, now.
In our country , we are often referred to as people with a short memory.
We do not dwell on the past and its lessons because we do them reset and focus on what’s to come.
Thus, we suffer the brutal effect of our forgetfulness, we became victims of our own doing.
The 9/11 attacks, is a foul and unmistakably evil mass murderers ploy.
The violence it employed are barbaric and beyond comprehension
If we want to deter, stop and prevent this from happening again, we must never forget.