Thesis blog 13: Writing youth narratives

I always find writing narratives fun because I like telling and listening to stories. I like reading books, articles, documentaries and watching films. I consume stories everyday from news to interviews to reality TV to sitcoms to music videos to audio documentaries to paintings to cartoon sketches to internet chats to text messages to phone [...]

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Thesis blog 11: Hindi Lahat (Not All)

Below is a reflection poem I wrote last December 2005 during Philippine fieldwork after all the interviews with youth, parents and teachers and focus groups (youth) were done in two case study sites for my istambay thesis. Originally, I wrote this poem in Filipino but I personally translated it into English as this (possibly) would [...]

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Thesis blog 11: Istambay and the higher odds of smoking and drinking

Over the last few days, I have been thinking about why istambays smoke and drink a lot. After analyzing my data, I find it too simple to say that the reason why they engage into these socially-problematized behaviours is just mainly due to their lack of work and employment. The effect of gender in the [...]

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Thesis blog 10: Happy crunching numbers

While I fully enjoy writing the qualitative part of my thesis, yesterday morning, I find it difficult to do quantitative analysis. I do not think in numbers but my adviser and my friend Margaret have always been patient in teaching me the rudiments of social statistics since 2002.  Amongst the many multivariate analytical techniques, I [...]

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Damaging flood in the Philippines and my research site

Yesterday morning, I was interviewed by Don Connolly and Elizabeth Logan on their radio program, Information Morning at CBC Radio One (90.5) about the damaging flood that struck the Philippines last September 26.
(Click the image to go to my website and listen to the radio clip.)
While the condition of my family and relatives is [...]

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Thesis 9: Dreaming thesis defence

I woke up at 4:00am smiling. I felt a mixed feeling of excitement and happiness. I dreamt that I successfully defended my thesis. I was so happy sharing this news to my Mama Volet and my aunt, Mommy Margie. The exchange of emotions was so ecstatic that it aroused my consciousness. I am just dreaming.
I [...]

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Thesis 8: A moment of thesis grace

For four straight days, I wrote the last part of Chapter 4, which is all about exploring who and what the Filipino youth istambay is all about. The process of writing was both challenging and fascinating. I devoured all related information from various sources and endeavoured to produce a systematic understanding of why some Filipino [...]

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Clarity and doubt

Yesterday, I went to see my adviser to know his opinion about my Chapter 4. While he was not able to finish reading all my text, he was pleased with the clarity of my work. He said that he is happy to witness the improvement in my academic writing and see my ability to present [...]

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Thesis blog 6: Istambay song

In their meaningful depths, the songs written about the istambay are undeniably, social commentaries about the persisting problem of inactivity in the Philippines, particularly of Filipino youth. Although the initial understanding of istambay often relates to unemployment and underemployment, the issue of inactivity is a totally different ballgame. It is an issue that sings a different [...]

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Thesis 5: Hypothetical istambay

I find it interesting to use a secondary data (YAFS 2002) to describe what I term as the ‘hypothetical istambay’. I call it ‘hypothetical’ because I base my argument on a main activity question, which did not include the question if the respondents identify themselves as istambay or not. Given this methodological limitation, I focused [...]

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