Toblerone's Thank You Day Contest

SPREAD THE SWEETNESS OF GRATITUDE PHOTO COMPETITION

There are more than a thousand reasons why I should be thankful for - my family, friends, blessings, studies, career, etc; and at the same time, there are that much ways I can express my thanks and gratitude for all of these. Chocolates, flowers, thank you card, a kiss, what have you.

I guess, I would like to thank my cousins, for being always there, in good times and in bad times, for sticking with each other always. :) (P.S. Happy Birthday Lujean!)

Once again, October 20 marks the National Thank You Day, an event spearheaded and sponsored by Toblerone, a popular international Swiss chocolate brand, for the third (3rd) time.

This event highlights two simple yet powerful words - THANK YOU. We have seen how the Filipino people have expressed their love and gratitude to an international icon of democracy. Thank you President Cory Aquino. This is why, the thought that we, Filipinos, are well known to be very accommodating and hospitable people in the globe.

In the previous National Thank You Day, the Filipinos proved to the world that the country is united in gratefulness – debunking the Reader’s Digest survey which claimed that the Philippines is one of the least courteous nations in the world.

In line with this, The Philippines and Beyond, with Kraft Foods (Toblerone) and GeiserMaclang, Inc. will be launching this contest, "Spread the Sweetness of Gratitude Photo Contest," on how Filipinos can come up with creative ways to spread the gratitude fever by getting people to say ‘thank you’.

Toblerone wants this spirit of thankfulness to extend further to the whole country. And you can join in by showing us how you say Thank You.

WHO CAN JOIN?

• All Filipinos of legal age (18 years old) and who lives within the GREATER MANILA (Metro Manila, Bulacan, Rizal, Antipolo, Cavite and Laguna) AREA ONLY.

HOW TO JOIN?

• Take a photo that shows how you can creatively say thank you or express your gratitude. Think out of the box, be as creative as you can be! Make it alive, exciting and extraordinary!
• Participants must post their entries in their own website (blog, Multiply, Friendster, Facebook, etc.) and link these photo entries to the gallery found in www.thankyoudayphilippines.com.
• You should also post the link as a comment in this blog post. Make sure that I can access and view your entry.
  
• Please provide a valid email address or and your contact detail/s when posting your link/ comment in this post, so that I may be able to get back to you (for the finalists who will be chosen).

PHOTO ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

• The entry must be the entrant's original work.
• Limit of one entry per person. Incomplete, illegible, or corrupted entries will be disqualified. The Sponsor is not responsible for lost, late, damaged, incomplete or misdirected entries. All entries become the property of the Sponsor and none will be returned.
• By submitting an entry, the entrant agrees to have his/her entry posted on www.thankyoudayphilippines.com and used for advertising purposes (TV, print, out-of-home, radio, PR, etc.)

SELECTION OF WINNER

• I will select five (5) finalists from all the entries submitted.
• Three (3) top winners among all shortlisted entries will be selected by Toblerone (Kraft) and GeiserMaclang, Inc.
• The three (3) top winners will receive a Toblerone gift pack each (while all shortlisted entries will be given a "thank you" kit).

CONTEST PERIOD

• This photo contest beginas today, Monday, Sept. 7 at 2PM and ends on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 5 PM. Comments will not be permitted after the contest period has expired.

For more details on the contest rules and entry requirements, please visit www.thankyoudayphilippines.com.

+Former President Corazon C. Aquino (1933-2009)

Former Philippine President Corazon C. Aquino passed away 03:18am today. Cory Aquino, the icon of democracy and courage in the Phiippines, united the Filipino nation in the struggle to rebuild our institutions after the ouster of Dictator Ferdinand Marcos. The death of this simple and Godly woman made news in both local and international media. Tonyo Cruz does a Media Roundup: Former President Corazon Aquino dies.


PGMA shares her message on the death of Former President Corazon C. Aquino; declares 10 days of national mourning.



Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon her. May she rest in peace.

Philippine Political System: An example of an Elite Democracy

Democracy in the Philippines is not a product of internal class struggles, but instead, it is said to be a set of political practices imposed by the outside colonial power, the Unites States.



In the "Democracy" that the Philippines got from the Americans, the electoral process we have now in our system is one of the "political practice" that's imposed to us. Since then, we have instituted a system of electoral competition, which served as a mechanism for the transfer of power among the elites while it gave the illusion of democratic freedom and choice among the masses.



"Elite democracy drives its strength from the fact that no matter how cynically the Filipino citizenry might view the electoral process, most Filipinos see no alternative to the ballot as a legitimate means of succession" (Bello and Gersnman, 1990)



In form, the "Philippine political system was a mirror image of the American in terms of presidential leadership, separation of powers and two-party system" (Curato, 2009), but in substance, "it's a marriage between feudal paternalism and Chicago-syle 'machine politics'" (Bello and Gersnman, 1990)



Martial Law came, and temporarily interrupted the pre-existing modes of elite rule and succession by establishing a dictatorship. If we looked back, we only see how bad that point in time was and the imposition of martial rule. But during that time, Martial Law was allowed by the Filipino people, meaning they consented to it, at first, probably because they saw the need to give the president such powers with what was happening that time.



There came a point that a lot of people were fed up and didn't like what was happening, so it all resulted to the EDSA Revolution that the Philippines was known for all over the world.



But see, EDSA Revolution terminated a dictatorship but it never gave us a clean break. "There were discontinuities as well as continuities: some old faces in new roles, some new faces in an unchanged bureaucracy. Movement leaders became bureaucrats overnight, isolated from one another by intimidating chores of running a government from day to day. They could not initiate meaningful changes within their own departments and offices because they discovered, to their dismay, that the very things they wanted to change fulfilled certain functions. And the alternatives were not available." (David, 2001)



End-all it just displaced the elites Marcos put into place, and those who were elites back then got their power and place back in the "grand scheme of things". A classic instance of the way elite democracy defuses and derails mass dissent was provided by the debate over land reform.



Despite the massive clamor for land reform, 90% of the House of Representatives during Cory's time were big landlords. While the House didn't officially oppose land reform, "it adopted a land reform bill that stipulates enough loopholes, evasions and contradictions that its implementation was castrated." (Bello and Gershman, 1990)



And at present, the Elections we have is one way for the elites to legitimize their power, to get voted at large by the masses, whose choice is both an illusion of "democratic power" and a manufactured one, because of predetermined set of candidates by the elite (also).



This relatively peaceful competition of power by the elite still exists up to the present, and I think will still continue unless the masses get educated, and clamor for genuine change in the system, or with our kind of democracy.



Sources:

Editorial Cartoon from NYU and Bertell Ollman

Some text and quotes are from Neeks Curato's Lecture 7: Political System, 2009









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