A light-hearted discourse on being significant

WHILE I was thinking about this piece a couple of days ago, early birthday greetings started trickling into my inbox. I was pleasantly, but also in a discomforting way, reminded that I am about to be only two years shy of becoming what others jokingly call a dual citizen, i.e., a Filipino and a senior! On a high note, becoming a senior citizen in a couple of years wouldn't be so bad, as I will finally be entitled to some benefits that include skipping the queues at the payment counters and getting free movies. Not exactly the ROI I expect on my tax payments over the years, though better than nothing, I suppose! But on the more significant aspect of it, where reality bites most, there is the uncertainty of health care access and pension payments in post-retirement. Many of the published retirement indices we see online don't necessarily include the Philippines in the top brackets of most desirable. IMHO, this dimension of public welfare is one of the least addressed and prioritized. As for me, my goal is to keep being a productive citizen and provide for my own needs, as I am not too hopeful that government will ever be able to make some progress given its always full plate, or is it?

This year, I celebrate life and being alive on many counts — it's my 25th year of graduating from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, which had largely solidified the course of my professional track, and it is my 37th year of serving the country's public sector as a development economist. I cite these two milestones because I find that they are most relevant to the life I have chosen, my thoughts on Philippine politics and governance, and my overall perspective of what it means to be Filipino.