The HBS or Book Hoarding Syndrome, and undemocratically listening to people belting out of tune songs

I really don’t update my blog as often as I want to because I’m finding it increasingly more difficult to have the time to write.  However, from time to time when I stare blankly at my blog site, I tell myself, “Hey bud, you better write something or you’re gonna get rusty soon.” Today is that time.

As a writer, I read a lot. So because I read a lot, I have a lot (of books).

However, most of my books have been gathering dust.

I probably have what I call the book hoarding syndrome (HBS), especially when I see books on bargain. Unlike stocks, you aren’t catching a falling knife when you get something that’s 50% off its original price. And mind you, there are a lot on sale these coming weeks at the National Bookstore due to their annual September sale. I also can’t wait for the upcoming Book Fair.

I’m glad that there are now a lot of people flocking to bookstores, probably because of how Fully Booked redefined book reading and book selling. It’s also probably due to the proliferation of books to movies like Harry Potter and Twilight. I saw how teens save up money just to buy copies of the said series. At least people respect intellectual property rights when it comes to the printed media.

Going back to HBS, I found myself in book heaven recently due to the ongoing sale in National (Powerbooks recently ended theirs). I loitered around looking for great bargains.

I am especially drawn to hardbound business books that have lost half or more of its value. Business books are expensive and getting them at dirt cheap prices comes only once a year. So now I have a pile of books sitting on the floor just waiting for my curious eyes to take notice of their words.

During a recent trip to the Robinsons Ermita branch of National, I couldn’t help (actually, you really cannot) noticing (actually, hearing) a girl singing to her heart’s content at the Magic Sing kiosk. She belted one out out-of-tune song after another. I wanted to approach her and ask her if it was really part of her job description.

It’s one of the biggest mysteries of the universe. How do you attract people to buy something when the live testimonial for it is soooo bad? Maybe that explains why there are more people buying Magic Sing at Odyssey Record Bars than in National Bookstore. Or, it can just be a simple case of bad distribution strategy. I could be wrong.

Leadership 2009

I feel passionately about leadership and perhaps the passing of the late President Cory has inspired me to hammer away at my keyboard to reflect on the word leadership.

It used to be that leadership was summed up by having the biggest set of balls in the court. Being a leader meant someone who could order others around without having to listen to opinions – differing or not. I imagine that most organizations before succeeded because the underlings running it had their carrots in front of their eyes.

These days, that just doesn’t do it anymore. Today, leaders must inspire, not coerce. That is probably the reason why most authoritarian states have converted to democracies. There are still plenty of countries run by a single person or party but pockets of resistance are there. And, even if there is none, protests to the prevailing authority can be in the avenues of art, music or science.

Whatever the cause of this shift – be it women’s rights, more educated populace, the Internet, news, inherent human desire – what is in vogue today is consultative leadership. Unfortunately, change has been slower in this country when it comes to this new form of leadership. As yet, it has only been lip service.

Perhaps it is because the need for survival usurps the need for inspirational leadership. It is both a flaw and a puzzle that we allow ourselves to be subjected to abuse – oftentimes verbal – that we follow blindly and aimlessly so called leaders who we think provide us with our basic needs.

Imagine the employee who gets criticized heavily by his employer. Does he risk shouting or fighting back only to lose income for his family of 10?

Far too common is such a story that it remains the fabric of our lives here. Unless we are born of privileged pedigree or opulent wealth, we work in order to survive. In effect, we give power to already powerful people in high positions.

This is not a call to revolt as revolts do not always end in happy ever afters. This is just a slap on your face to wake up and realize that you do not have to subject yourselves to pity. There are better pastures out there and you need not go beyond the shores of these islands.

When your person is maligned, resign. People have a right to opine, but we do not have the right to shred the self-esteem and dignity of another.

In living, we can inspire. But when in death, to be able to draw hundreds of thousands of people to follow you, that is the consequence of true leadership. Only a few can claim to such immortality.

Thank you indeed Madame Cory. May you rest in heavenly peace.