Philippine Asian News Today Vol 19 No 17 | Page 9

September 1 - 15, 2017 PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY So much for experience Life etc. by Jun Cordero Part of my job involves ensuring that our staff always have their curriculum vitae (CV or resumé) current and updated as these are required when bidding for projects. It’s always a challenge when I come across CVs that are like twenty or more pages long. Who in the world is going to read a CV that long without falling asleep, I always ask myself. Guess it’s just normal for people to be proud of their accomplishments that they lose sense of practicality. Experts always suggest keeping the CV no more than two pages long when applying for a job. In our case I always insist that when bidding for projects a one-page CV is enough but most of our staff S.E.L.F ...  who have abundant technical experience always get carried away describing minute details of things they designed that their CV is more of a technical book than a qualifications brief. I was trying to remember a passage from a poem of some sort that derides what we call “experience”. The author suggests that man is never satisfied but is so obsessed on acquiring more experience that by the time we have enough we’re too old to benefit from it. In his words, “experience only finds it in dead men”, which bring me to my case in point. Sometime ago I had an x- ray done in the hospital and the technician who attended to me turned out to be a young Filipino fellow, which, from his perfect English pronunciation transformation, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this month with activities that include seminars for local trainers and international and local experts. Its theme for the celebration is “Rekindling Hope and Rebuilding Lives” and leading the panel of speakers is Dr. Gregory C. Bunt, M.D. an expert in addiction medicine. On Sept. 14, an international panel of experts will discuss therapeutic community approaches at the SMX Aura Function room 1. Residents and families of the SELF community, medical practitioners, and students will attend. (Wouldn’t it be nice if PNP’s top brass can attend to find other ways of dealing with addictions to illegal drugs aside from having and enunciation, I was pretty sure is a typical locally born or Canadian-grown kid of immigrants like us. The funny thing was when he found out I was a Pinoy he tried instructing me in his funny Tagalog, on which he obviously was really trying his best. I kept on responding in English to let him know that I do speak and understand English. Then just a few days ago I was in my Eye specialist’s clinic whose new assistant was a nice young girl from the Philippines who spoke really good English. But, again, when she saw I was a Pinoy she started giving me instructions in her funny Tagalog.  Coming home that day I asked my wife what she sees in me. What do you mean, she was wondering what I was up to. I meant, I said, do I look dumb or like an idiot who doesn’t know how to speak and understand English? Yes you do look like an idiot, she was enjoying them executed outright?) SELF introduces the therapeutic community approach here and it has helped its clients over the years, Martin told us. They combine clinical intervention and the TC approach, but all residents have individualized programs, according to their needs. On Sept. 14, there will be an international round table of experts to discuss the future of the TC Federation of South Asia, and on the 16th, there will be a grand show directed by Fritz Ynfante at the SELF facility in Talisay. Participants are all SELF residents. Cheers to SELF! (mb. com) HOPE Martin Infante at the Bulong Pulungan special forum with core group members at the XO Heritage Bistro at S’Maison WWW.PHILIPPINEASIANNEWSTODAY.COM herself. My point, exactly, I said. Doesn’t matter how many years of academia or work experience I have, or how many rockets and atom bombs I designed, these young people just see an old stupid guy who can’t even understand English. And how right that author is - experience only finds it in dead men!