Red and Blue

Oh, the case of an inverted flag.

During the meeting of Pres. Obama with the ASEAN leaders in New York, it was noticed that the Philippine flag flown upside down, meaning the red stripe was on top and the blue stripe was at the bottom.

Regulations dictate that flags are flown inverted only in times of distress or as a sign of protest. Or in time of war. Hmm.

The US Embassy has since issued an apology saying it was “an honest mistake” and the DFA spokesperson Ed Malaya said that the incident should not “detract from the true significance of the summit”.

But still. Utmost care should have been undertaken by the organizers such as checking more than once if flags to be flown during the meeting are in correct position. Had it been the other way around and the US flag was done the mistreatment, what would have happened? I can only imagine.

At yours own

Living in this place for more than two years now, I am still taken aback by the sometimes confusing signage. They do make sense, if you really think hard. Just stop and read for 10 seconds.

Spoken English here is confusing. Some people may pronounce a certain word very differently from what you’re used to. Some may use words that are on the brink of obsolescence, that you need to Google them to be enlightened.

I constantly remind myself to be on guard all the time, and not succumb to the ways of the weak. One time I had to slap myself in private just to snap out of it.

Bits

So after a long while i'm back to blogging again. Recently my life has been uneventful, hence the silence of this blog.

I have been really busy with work. A new manager came, so i expect a lot of changes in the existing processes, policies need to be "tweaked". Hmm what was the statement he used...? "I need to dig deep into the policy in order for me to know what changes need to be made".

Summer is just finishing in this part of the world. I expect my sinusitis to kick it up a notch in terrorizing me, because of the weather change. But the very welcome change is, no more sweltering days!

I am planning to go home for Christmas, yet my leave has not been approved yet. After all that drama two departmental meetings ago, i have lost my interest.

The Peso also strengthened against the US dollar which is a great thing for Pinas, sad for us working abroad because exchange rate also dropped. We were joking last week in the office, if this continue and drop steadily, all OFWs might be able to go home at last *wishful thinking*.

Bye for now, time to go to work.