in English : precision speed ...s..l..o..w...m..o..t..i..o..n.. procrastination
We are now on the third part of my infamous game called... (drum rolls please ) the opposites game! Allow me to start it off moving back to Aesop's Fable about the Ant and the Grasshopper.
( If you are suddenly asking yourself - ' What is that story again? ' then just click on the title above)
There goes Aesop's story of the lazy Mr. Greengrass O'Hopper and you must be wondering what happened next... So if you may, I will carry on with the actual events that indeed happened to O'hopper after he realised 'the necessity of preparing ahead of winter' :
From a distance, he made a watchful survey of Aunty Ant's shelter that had a full stash of supplies. Slowly afterwards, his huge gaze turned towards the view of his empty home . Knowing his condition, the green creepy crawly was no longer cheerful. All at once he became very sad but worse than that, he felt remorse then despair and worst of all, he felt hunger. His little stomach eagerly rumbled so out of desperate measures, the once gracious grasshopper hovered carelessly into assiduous ant's place. He took as much food as he could and gulped everything he had on his bare jumping legs!
Scrunch. Gobble. Nibble. Swallow.
THAT made him full, complete and energetic. Once again the gracious grasshopper, keen to continue with his improvident ways maneuvered to leave but then, this bulky-eyed green bug came into a silent halt. He was as still as ice, staring at Aunty Ant whose wrath was imminent from her multi-layered eyes. Dropping to his thin green legs, poor O'hopper shivered in flood of tears as he cried, "Forgive me Aunty Ant! I know nothing about winter until I start to live here because back in my homeland it was always sunny"
Readers, I know that all of you are pointing your fingers to the miserable foreigner , Greengrass O'hopper and with no doubt consider him a victim of his own predicament. Well what shall we say? It is the most unthinkable thing to do in the first place, to fly across the globe and for choosing among all the places- the one with the harshest weather conditions. What else does this green insect would ever ask for? When warmth is available all year round in the homeland he used to belong.
( If you are suddenly asking yourself - ' What is that story again? ' then just click on the title above)
There goes Aesop's story of the lazy Mr. Greengrass O'Hopper and you must be wondering what happened next... So if you may, I will carry on with the actual events that indeed happened to O'hopper after he realised 'the necessity of preparing ahead of winter' :
From a distance, he made a watchful survey of Aunty Ant's shelter that had a full stash of supplies. Slowly afterwards, his huge gaze turned towards the view of his empty home . Knowing his condition, the green creepy crawly was no longer cheerful. All at once he became very sad but worse than that, he felt remorse then despair and worst of all, he felt hunger. His little stomach eagerly rumbled so out of desperate measures, the once gracious grasshopper hovered carelessly into assiduous ant's place. He took as much food as he could and gulped everything he had on his bare jumping legs!
Scrunch. Gobble. Nibble. Swallow.
THAT made him full, complete and energetic. Once again the gracious grasshopper, keen to continue with his improvident ways maneuvered to leave but then, this bulky-eyed green bug came into a silent halt. He was as still as ice, staring at Aunty Ant whose wrath was imminent from her multi-layered eyes. Dropping to his thin green legs, poor O'hopper shivered in flood of tears as he cried, "Forgive me Aunty Ant! I know nothing about winter until I start to live here because back in my homeland it was always sunny"
Readers, I know that all of you are pointing your fingers to the miserable foreigner , Greengrass O'hopper and with no doubt consider him a victim of his own predicament. Well what shall we say? It is the most unthinkable thing to do in the first place, to fly across the globe and for choosing among all the places- the one with the harshest weather conditions. What else does this green insect would ever ask for? When warmth is available all year round in the homeland he used to belong.
Although in truth , who are we to blame Mr. Greengrass O'Hopper? Though with all due respect we know him well enough to label him the villain. Lazy. Bad influence. A thief caught in the act . But then again, there is more than meets the eye as there are circumstances far-reaching than our eyes can visibly see. Why did he decide to leave his native roots? We do not know his real intention for setting foot on a foreign land as there could be one too many reasons . In fact, there are several factors that may have pushed him to leave. Maybe he is in search for love, maybe freedom or perhaps a risk-it-all adventure. Is he just one plain, proof-risk lunatic?
Greengrass O'hopperS. There are many of them. Here is one, writing this blog entry. All of us - O'hoppers are outsiders trying to fit in. Each one of us may have varying reasons for moving out but in commonality, we all share a mutual understanding whilst beginning a new life in a foreign land. It is an understanding that is similar to opening a package where we virtually unwrap manifolds of differences and opposites. Yet right at the bottom of that package there is a surprising item waiting to be unfolded. Once this bonus item is found then an O'hopper's moment of languishing is about to come to an end.
So what is this hot item I just mentioned? Let's travel way back to the history of mankind and revisit the idea of natural selection. Remember how Charles Darwin and his naturalist brotherhood society explored the existence primeval people, the cradle of mankind? Like O'hoppers, they also traveled from the African Savannah all the way to the north in search for 'greener pastures'. True enough, they left their homeland and opted to migration which was even of greater risk during the prehistoric age that was 100,000 years ago. That was epochs ago but still, doesn't that sound very legit? Their move 'Out of Africa' according to sociobiologist J. Philippe Rushton opened new problems because in the Eurasian regions where they settled in, the harsh climatic conditions posted greater demands. The more they moved , the harder it was for them to get food, gain shelter, make clothes and raise children. Further to this, Professor Rushton identified the influence of geographical conditions to human intelligence as he elaborated in his book ' Race, Evolution and Behaviour- A Life History Perspective'. He pointed out that climate differences influence mental abilities hence in effect , the population of people who moved northwards became more inventive and developed complex survival methods .
I cannot find the exact words to thank Mr. Rushton enough. His study is so relevant that it made my mental light bulb buzzed while I proclaimed, 'Eureka!' because I have definitely found the answer that I was looking for. I felt like stepping on gas pedals whist drawing nearer to the idea that speed is strongly associated to temperature. My verdict is that these variables are guilty of the crime : contrasting living conditions in tropical and maritime places. Don't get me wrong readers because I am not a pro like Professor Rushton or Charles Darwin so my analysis are not at par to their excellent academic standards. Just accept me more like a testing guinea pig because the bite of cold winter frost as well as the blast of scorching summer heat- my skin felt both of those, enough to validate my account of how temperature can affect speed. Upon deep contemplation, I am really convinced that those two variables are inversely correlated and from observation alone, I can attest that when the temperature falls down, speed accelerates. Take for instance how fast Europeans walk not because they have long legs but also due to the fact that they are just made to move faster. On the contrary, a skyrocketing temperature enables speed to decelerate so you may well imagine the streets of Manila, boiling hot in 35° Celsius and who would ever dare go race walking there?! no way! For a sweaty pinoy like me that is obviously unfathomable.
So what is this hot item I just mentioned? Let's travel way back to the history of mankind and revisit the idea of natural selection. Remember how Charles Darwin and his naturalist brotherhood society explored the existence primeval people, the cradle of mankind? Like O'hoppers, they also traveled from the African Savannah all the way to the north in search for 'greener pastures'. True enough, they left their homeland and opted to migration which was even of greater risk during the prehistoric age that was 100,000 years ago. That was epochs ago but still, doesn't that sound very legit? Their move 'Out of Africa' according to sociobiologist J. Philippe Rushton opened new problems because in the Eurasian regions where they settled in, the harsh climatic conditions posted greater demands. The more they moved , the harder it was for them to get food, gain shelter, make clothes and raise children. Further to this, Professor Rushton identified the influence of geographical conditions to human intelligence as he elaborated in his book ' Race, Evolution and Behaviour- A Life History Perspective'. He pointed out that climate differences influence mental abilities hence in effect , the population of people who moved northwards became more inventive and developed complex survival methods .
I cannot find the exact words to thank Mr. Rushton enough. His study is so relevant that it made my mental light bulb buzzed while I proclaimed, 'Eureka!' because I have definitely found the answer that I was looking for. I felt like stepping on gas pedals whist drawing nearer to the idea that speed is strongly associated to temperature. My verdict is that these variables are guilty of the crime : contrasting living conditions in tropical and maritime places. Don't get me wrong readers because I am not a pro like Professor Rushton or Charles Darwin so my analysis are not at par to their excellent academic standards. Just accept me more like a testing guinea pig because the bite of cold winter frost as well as the blast of scorching summer heat- my skin felt both of those, enough to validate my account of how temperature can affect speed. Upon deep contemplation, I am really convinced that those two variables are inversely correlated and from observation alone, I can attest that when the temperature falls down, speed accelerates. Take for instance how fast Europeans walk not because they have long legs but also due to the fact that they are just made to move faster. On the contrary, a skyrocketing temperature enables speed to decelerate so you may well imagine the streets of Manila, boiling hot in 35° Celsius and who would ever dare go race walking there?! no way! For a sweaty pinoy like me that is obviously unfathomable.
One other prominent figure is guilty and it is none other than Mr. Sunshine. He is an impostor all along. Come to think of it, this Mr. Sun is just a low-down , bastard ball of fire playing favorites at all times. He is shining more on one half of the globe and is shining less to the other half. That is just not fair. All my life I have been deceived for thinking he works hard like a farmer, up and about at 6 am and exhausted by 6 pm. But no! He behaves differently on this side of the world. He is more like an arrogant, expensive doctor who is only available for a 10 minute-consultation then after that God only knows when he will be available again.
Due to this scarcity to warmth, I realise that people at this side of the world adapted to a life of speed and precision. Technological breakthroughs were developed to make life convenient and efficient, or fair enough, to make life bearable. In other words, people who moved northwards have indeed evolved. They threw away their procrastinating ways and enthused procaffeinating ways with desirable end results- snel en precisie. They are quick and precise and all I can say is - OMG that's so anti- Filipino time!
What is Filipino Time? Here is one example to describe it. Let's pretend I have an appointment at 8 am and when I arrive :
Early - means I made it at 7.59
On time- I made it there between 8.00 to 8.05
Late- 20 minutes have passed , I still haven't arrived because of traffic, maybe will be there in another ten minutes
Very late- - one hour have passed, still not there because there was no Taxi available and traffic was bumper to bumper
Here in the Netherlands, everything is laid out in detail of quantity and quality and I have come to realise that here, time is equally precious as gold. It costs money and for a standard dutch treat, it can be very expensive. Because of that, everything must be accurately calculated. For instance, how much time you have to bike from home to the train station, how far the distance you have to travel from one city to the next, how much longer in minutes and seconds you have to wait in a queue, at what time the rain will pour and end, how much a kilo of meat costs so therefore it costs this much in x grams, even how many kilowatts of electricity you have to consume in a year! (wheew!) When back in the Philippines the only way to tell that I consumed a lot of electricity was because my bill from Meralco went over 3,000 pesos or I could tell I travelled a long way was because I sat in the bus for eight hours (geeessh)
To sum up this third part of my opposites game as Greengrass O'hopper , I have unraveled important things beneath the surface and have come to realise them clear as crystal. The need to refrain from a rather slow-motion, laid-back life which is a luxury and the need to reconfigure, to reboot , to adapt , to be reinvented and be like snappy and precise Aunty Ant.
No comments:
Post a Comment