We Should All Be Informed (ABC of FOI Bill)

Why haven’t you availed your yellow/green/red card yet? I do not know how to.
Why did you not vote? I cannot decide whom to vote for because I do not know enough about the candidates/party lists.
Check if you are paying the right amount of tax. I do not know how.
No, do not turn right yet, that is against the law! What? I did not know that.
Why did you do that, that is considered as corruption? It's okay, no one will know anyway.

The most common excuse that I hear people say for failing to do the “right” thing is, “I don’t know” or “no one will know anyway.” Sure ignorance of the law excuses no one, but what if the law is not showing itself? What if the citizens are uninformed because information itself is elusive? I see people who could avail so much more from the Government, yet are unable to do so because they don’t know how to. I have witnessed people commit unlawful acts, because they have no idea that the acts were unlawful in the first place. I can imagine officials who are tempted to be corrupt because they think, “no one will find out anyway.”

This kind of ignorance should end (or be drastically lessened). And I believe that the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill can address this issue.

A. What is FOI bill?

DIY cropped top with back details

Just a few days ago, I needed to sort out my closet for clothes that I could do without. While doing so, I found a statement shirt that was given during the first TAYO youth camp. I like statement shirts and this was no exception, but it was just too big for me. Thus, a DIY project!

Tip: Begin with the end in mind (from 7 habits of highly effective people)

 #LookbookAngPeg HAHAHAHAHA

1. Get a shirt that you want to crop

2. Cut to your desired length and look. Make sure that you are completely positive about the resulting look before cutting the shirt. I recommend having a half-inch allowance for edging.

Cut the left sleeve

Cut the right sleeve by using the left sleeve's cut pattern

Because I will die

I'm not being an asshole when I say that we will all die; death is certain after all. Thus, it is one of those topics that have to be pondered upon.

I've seen my friend's father died years ago. I've seen how that particular death sucked the life out my friend. In an instant, he became the breadwinner; his problems grew from college algebra to mortgage payment.

Everyone knows that death is inevitable, but no one bothers to talk about it. People just shrugged the thought off believing that it couldn't happen to them, at least not now, not in the next years to come. That mentality is typical; I've seen people say bad things can happen, yet act as if such bad things won't befall them. "Not to me," they thought.

I know that I will die; I just don't know how or when. But when I die, I don't want to leave my loved ones in a similar state that my friend underwent. I don't want to be like an unannounced typhoon that leaves its victims devastated and lost.

Chances are, I will not have control over how I will die, but it can only be 1 of 4: death out of terminal illness, organ failure, frailty, or sudden death.

Figure 1. Trajectories of dying. Reproduced with permission of Blackwell Publishing (Lunney JR, Lynne J, Hogan C. Profiles of older Medicare decendents. JAGS. 2002;50:1108-1112). as cited in ScienceDirect.com

Yet even with this knowledge, it is highly improbable to prepare for death, but I can try. I'm far from depressed or anything, I just had some free time to think about my life, and death is part of it. Instead of my pseudo "last will and testament", allow me to just post here my work on death, and how I want to feel about it.

Look me in the eye

EDIT (March, 2015)

I have a life insurance with Sunlife that I will hopefully not claim, but just use as savings/extra fund years from now. My financial advisor is Fely Tio, and my dependents are my parents. I already told my parents and my sister about this, but I'm writing it out here for documentation purposes.

See you around!
Arlet