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What are the prospects and limits to your power as a citizen?

As a citizen of a free republic, I am granted the privilege to enjoy my general freedom under the law and I am protected by my rights as a citizen. However, seeing that I am only a seventeen-year-old kid dependent on my family, there are still many restrictions that limit me from fully exercising my rights.

With that aside, my entitlement and rights enable me to contribute heavily to society in such a way that I can make a lasting change with one single vote that could possibly lead to the nation’s progression or regression. Other than my rights to vote, I can also use my voice to speak for the unheard wherein all our opinions and thoughts can be listened to in order for every single one of us can be involved with the events that take place in our society.

We must keep in mind that even though there are many limitations in our rights to general freedom as citizens, we have the power to shape and change society if we truly wanted to.

Mirella Arcenas

Power as a citizen

As a person who lives in a democratic country, have a lot of power since the democratic system is and should be ruled by the majority or the citizens. The representatives are there to make sure that the government addresses the concerns of the people properly. As a citizen I have the power to vote for the candidate who I think deserves the position. Though I have this right the effectiveness of some changes depends on the leaders of the state. People are sometimes too gullible to believe the fake masks that these candidates put on to win the position. As a citizen I can have the power to fight for what I think is right and voice out my concerns, but there is no guarantee that the government would address these issues. Sure it is great to live in a democratic country, but Filipinos tend to get lazy since they depend too much on the abilities of the leaders and the representatives when in fact they don't know everything. We, the Filipinos who are not part of the government should be active enough for this country to progress. As a citizen of a democratic country we are capable of doing a lot of things if we know how too. The democratic system is not for lazy people.

Santos

#Help #democracypls #are we even ademocratic country

My Power As A Citizen

As a citizen of a democratic state, we have the basic right to simply be made aware of the certain laws that are formed and the changes that are made in the system by which our lives depend on. Supposedly, the pro to having a democracy is that the people get to fight for their rights and for what they believe is right. Who better to tell officials what is best for the people than the people themselves? We have the freedom to express feelings without censorship and to say anything about the government whenever and wherever we want. But unfortunately, not everyone is made aware of the incidents that happen within. The problem in our “democracy” is that corrupt politicians always find a way out of the lawsuits filed against them because they are also the ones behind the system. And sometimes the media has the tendency to brainwash people. Communication between the government and the people is not always transparent. We need to be aware of all the issues that happen within and to be informed of what we could do to officials when they steal funds and mess up. We must appreciate the fact that not only do we get to elect our own leaders, but we also get to voice out our opinions on them afterwards, without soldiers pointing guns in our heads once we go against a certain rule. However, there are responsibilities that come with this freedom that should not be forgotten. And that is to abide by the laws and to not always blame the government when things go wrong. People of the democracy cannot blame their government officials for all the failure in the state because they themselves are what make the state and it is up to them to obey.

GATMAITAN

What are your prospects and limits to your power as a citizen?

As a citizen of a democratic state, my prospects and limits to my power are already expected of me. It is my necessary responsibility as a citizen to conform to the laws of the state. I expect to exercise my rights accordingly, without any unnecessary interventions from the state’s law enforcers in their intention to exploit their position.

Voting is a way to assert my power as a citizen. It is my right as well to determine whether who, in my opinion, will be the next leaders of our state. Although it is my right to express my opinions, I am a citizen raised with a respectable behavior to know the limits of my verbalizations. However, it is highly unethical or immoral for a citizen to abuse their rights, unfortunately, these kinds of people exist in our reality.

Given these rights, we, as citizens, also have duties and responsibilities to fulfill. An example of a mandatory duty of a citizen is our duty to pay taxes. Even though that it is to our knowledge that several corrupt officials in our government exist and rather inevitable to exist, we are still mandated under law to pay our taxes, without anyone exempted of this law.

As citizens of the state, our power is subject to our rights, making this also the limit to our power. It is however important that a citizen must have the knowledge and intelligence of how they could exercise their rights without abusing it.

JAOTEGAN

#analytical perspective of citizenship #rational point of view

The prospects and the limits to the power as a citizen

We are living in the democratic country.Paper #4: “What are your prospects and limits to your power as a citizen?” This is the FINAL INDIVIDUAL PAPER for CITIGOV which will be passed on December 3, on the blog again until 11:59PMPaper #4: “What are your prospects and limits to your power as a citizen?” This is the FINAL INDIVIDUAL PAPER for CITIGOV which will be passed on December 3, on the blog again until 11:59PM A Citizen of one country is the person who is legally accepted as belonging to that country. As a citizen of the democratic country, one can exercise his power by asserting his rights which are guarded and respected by the government. One has the right to vote, to be equally protected under the law, to express his opinion, to own the property, to be secured by the government, the freedom of religion and etc. Especially, when one votes, that is the time when one exercises his power strongly and when he can participate as a citizen. Moreover, citizens can express their opinions and ideas directly to the government by protest or demo which is the most common way to resist or against to the government these days globally. Sometimes, people are controlled by the government and the police; they try to express their ideas to change or to improve. As the citizen, our prospects would depend on our participation in the politics. If we are active in voting and strive much to improve the country, absolutely, our country will be changed for us into better country but if not, we cannot expect anything from the country and the government.

Mira Choi 11504269

The Reflection Paper for the movie'47 Ronin

Movie’47 Ronin’ is the American fantasy adventure action movie was shown in 2013. It is an original story with the fictitious character and Keanu Reeves acted as main character of the film. The film is based on the real story in Japan which is the revenge of 47 Samurais about the murder of their master named Chusingura. The filming was started in Budapest, Hungary in March 2011, also filmed in Shepperton Studios in London and ended in Japan. The title, Robin refers to the warriors, so basically the title of the movie, ’47 Ronin’ is that 47 warriors. To summarize the movie in one sentence, the number of Samurais had become the men who have wandered after the death of the master but at the end, with a sense of loyalty, the last 47 Samurais united and they regained the honor of their master with their own honors.

When I watched it, the first thing that came to my mind was that why did USA try to make the movie which is based on Japan’s history and even all the backgrounds were about Japan. This movie seems like the movie that Japan needs to show on their holidays. To give a hard-headed assessment, I get their point and purpose of making this film was good, but I don’t understand why they had to make this movie that way without emphasizing the originality and to add more, in my opinion, I think they interrupted in a wrong way since they have different culture. I saw that they invested a large amount of money to produce this film, but I think they missed the point and that leaded to fail attracting the people’s attention and interest. I think this could be a better movie if America is not the one who produces this movie and Japan instead with American supporting actors. The foreigners appearing or acting in one country’s movie are creative and fresh idea which can be the good opportunity for both, the foreign actors and the producing country or company. Foreign actors can have the opportunity to understand the other cultures and the traditions and to act that they cannot experience easily and usually. While the producing company can be benefited by foreign actors because they can act or interpret in better ways with better understanding and can share the culture and the traditions. Even this movie was not that bad at all, I don’t recommend this movie to others who are considering this movie to watch because of those reasons that I mentioned.

Thank You!

Mira Choi

#sorry for the late post #confused #thank you sir

47 Ronin

The movie 47 Ronin showed us the story of 47 valiant samurais. They did everything to take vengeance for the death of their leader, Asano though he died with honor since he committed hara-kiri or “honor suicide”. They were willing to do what it takes to defend what they believe is right. This is how I think everyone should be. We should never be too afraid to defend what we think is fair for everyone.

This can be applied to us Filipinos. We tend to be ignorant to the issues and not mind it anymore since it’s just a repetitive thing. It never ends. This is why the corrupt and ill minded politicians remain on their positions and continue on doing what they do while the Filipinos are suffering the consequences of their actions.

Santos

Reflection paper: 47 Ronin

The movie 47 Ronin, shows the ancient Japanese legend wherein brave 47 brave warriors fought to avenge their lord, Asano. These men fought with courage and honor to fight for justice. They all risked their lives to fight for the honor of Asano’s death (although he died with dignity through a ritual suicide.)

This is somehow likened to every corrupt government. This especially reminded me of the greedy politicians in the Philippines. These ‘politicians’ put themselves before the people they were supposed to provide for. They do not prioritize their own country, not even realizing the consequences of their own actions, even if these repercussions are ultimately permanent.

This in turn, has made me realize these corrupt officials are numbed by their own selfishness and how the citizens of the Philippines disregard the consecration of the laws in our country. Hopefully, our country would prosper in a way that its government system and its citizens honor their own country by simply obeying the law, and the authority to attend to other needs of the country before their own.

JAOTEGAN

Reaction Paper: 47 Ronin

The Ronin who fought and risked their lives to avenge Asano’s death reminded me of the many things that are unfair in this world. But also how much the Japanese valued honor. Especially when the Shogun allowed the men to die in the seppuku way. Their rules are sacred to them and the punishments were not distorted for mercy. Given the fact that Oishi and Kai had to suffer with the consequences of giving justice to Asano, I’m impressed that they pushed through knowing that the consequence was the ritual suicide.

Corruption is always inevitable in a system. Evil will always find a way to mess things up. And in the Philppines, corrupted politicians will always find a way out of the lawsuits filed against them because they are also the ones behind the system. I just hope that one day, it would be the same here, or maybe just have the citizens of this country value the law just as much as the samurai obey the Bushido, to say the least.

GATMAITAN

Reflection Paper: 47 Ronin

The film, 47 Ronin, tells of the 47 men that fought valiantly for honour and justice, and how their determined efforts to stand up for what is right cost them their lives. It’s unfortunate that these men had to face doomed circumstances to the abuse and manipulation done by those in power because of their selfish desires. They had the courage to sacrifice themselves to give justice to the death of their master and to the land of the rising sun.

More so, that this is not far from the reality wherein our government and those who are in power over us tend to put their needs before own. They don’t realize the long-term damaging effect caused by their parasitic ignorance, lack of compassion and poor decisions on the nation and our people.

At the end the film, all 47 men were commended for their efforts and were given the opportunity to die with honour because they followed the Bushido code. It shows that everyone is equal in the eyes of the law, where one must accept the consequences of his or her actions written in the fine print.

To this day, people still pay their respects to the 47 Ronin at the Sengaku-ji Temple on the 14th of December every year.

Mirella Arcenas

#Reflection Paper: 47 Ronin

What major insights I gained after visit to LTO

After visiting the LTO (Land Transportation Office), I gained two major insights, cooperation with group mates and the interaction with other people which can be similar but has minute difference. Cooperation taught me how to work with others and help each other by dividing the tasks while interaction with other people taught me how to deal with people.

For the project, we had been to LTO which located in Malate. Preparing interview was not that easy since we had to set everything like choosing organization, getting permission to the organization, setting time, preparing the letter, making questions, and meeting the group mates to check. I thought preparing would be just simple and we don't have much things to prepare at first, but it was not. Since there were many tasks, we divide the part. Choosing organization was not that hard since we chose the nearest organization in our list. Contacting the organization and getting permission were done by Mika who contacted to her aunt and scheduled the date for interview. Preparing the letter was done by Janella and we got signature to sir by email. Asking questions during interview was done by Beth and me. I think it was possible to accomplish because we were together and every of us took part.

For the interaction with other people, I gained this while we prepare for the interview and mostly during the interview. To interview the officer of LTO, we should have adjusted him and prepare much not to make him disappointed and entertain him. We strived to make good questions and to interact well.

In my opinion, this project was not just to be familiar with the office that we need help or the one has responsibility with the biggest problem in the Philippines according to our group but also to know how to cooperate with group mates and interact with the people around.

Mira Choi

11504269

#hardwork

Goals achieved?

We went to Land Transportation Office (LTO) for our org visit. We visited the organization last November 2, 2015. When we arrived the place people from LTO welcomed us. They were so accommodating and they asked us what is our purpose of going there and they offered help in talking to the main workers of LTO. They lead us to the office and they talked to some people for us to get entertained they are really nice people. We waited for 5-10 minutes for us to be able to interview someone from their org. They let us interview an evaluator from the office he was nice and open in answering our questions. We did get some of the information that we wanted but it wasn’t the information that we needed for our issue, which is traffic. The LTO evaluator that we interviewed told us truthfully that LTO wasn’t really the organization that would focus on traffic and he told us that there are better organizations that can address this issue. He suggested some orgs like MMDA, LTFRB, and Highway patrol group. We did learn some new information but it wasn’t just the right ones for the issue.

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J.Santos

“What major insights have you gained after your visit to the organization your group chose?”

The most important insight that I have gained from our field work experience was learning that the LTO in Malate, Manila is a renewal licensing center. It is the most important insight because I had high hopes of learning about what the government is doing to alleviate traffic and to diminish the number of irresponsible drivers, only to find out that they do not really specialize in that department.

It was somewhat disappointing because their operations did not mainly relate to the issues that my group has raised in our group paper: Traffic. Nonetheless, I am now aware of the importance of renewal licensing centers in the country. I have also learned to do a complete background check on an organization before visiting it.

GATMAITAN

Did your initial ideas match the actual visit?

Mirella Arcenas

I don’t think it did because we visited the wrong agency regarding the issues and concerns we raised in our questions. However, we still managed to pull through with our interview with the answers given by the interviewee.

We learned about the rules and regulations on license requirements, renewals and how the office operates on a daily basis. Even though these things don’t necessarily concern our main issue, they still have a big contribution on the traffic congestion here in the Philippines.

What do you hope to achieve in visiting your particular agency? (REVISED)

Mirella Arcenas

I hope to achieve a sense of awareness on how the organization operates in order to see how it functions in serving the public on a daily basis. By knowing how it works, it would probably somehow alleviate the public perception on government organizations and agencies.

For those who have been to LTO, regardless of the branch, long lines and waiting are inevitable even if they have an automated system. It would be great to be well-informed on how they handle the transactions and other forms for use to be aware and more patient when we make our own personal visits.

Aside from that, I expect to learn more about how some of the rules and regulations that concern our issue are being implemented.

“What do you hope to achieve in your visit to the organization that your group chose?”

It goes without saying that I hope to learn more about the Land Transportation Offices. I expect to know how the organization works, how they address the issues assigned to their department, and how they handle issues that are brought up by the public.

I have already been to an LTO office in the past, but I honestly do not know how the operations work. Although we would not be visiting the same office, I am looking forward to seeing familiar steps when applying for a license. I will finally get to see why the lines take a little long and what they do for every window.

Also, it would be insightful to learn how they address the issues assigned to their department. I am assuming that since the people from LTO work on things related to land transportation, they probably address the issues relating to land transportation (e.g. Traffic, PHP 10.00 flag down rate in taxis and color coding). I hope they can explain their relevance, not that I do not see the purpose of any of the examples mentioned above, but it would be great to know what they envisioned for our country while thinking of these projects.

Lastly, it is important to know how they handle issues that are brought up by the public. I do not know what to demand from people who work at a government agency simply because I do not know what it is like to serve the public in this level. However, I do hope that they will be accommodating and welcoming once we get there since we sent a prior notice of our visit anyway.

GATMAITAN

Organization Visit Expectations and Goals

Our group chose the issue of traffic, since it is one of the main issues that our country is suffering to right now. Going through some organizations that handle this issue or at least would contribute in lessening the problem, we first wanted to go to MMDA since they really are the ones who are handling traffic. However, their organization is not answering to us so we had to change our organization. So, we chose LTO since we knew that there is one branch near DLSU. So we contacted them immediately so we could visit them early and conduct the interview early.

I was expecting people to be kind of not in the mood to talk to us since probably they are all busy doing their jobs. I also expected that they wouldn’t be really open in answering our questions because they might spill out some informations that should not be shared. I also expected them to be really into what they are doing and they would really have an idea on what their office really does and the importance of their office to society. One of our goals to accomplish in this org visit is to know in what ways do they help in alleviating the issue of traffic. Also, we wanted to know what kind of programs they implement to address this issue. There are couple of things that we want to ask them about the processes that they do everyday, or what are the usual complaints that they receive everyday and how are they coping with it. We also want to know what is the difference between LTO and MMDA. Another goal of ours is to get enough information so that we would thoroughly understand what they really do. Lastly, I’m hoping that they would be nice and accommodating since we are going to visit the organization on November 2, 2015 which is all soul’s day wherein they should be visiting their loved ones.

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J.Santos

#expectations

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