Love in the time of Dengue and Tragedy

by Arch. Kirby Zalameda, uap

The onset of the formation of the committee for communications and information along with putting together the chapter’s journal came about the time my family and I were about to take our vacation back home. Needless to say, this is being written after a full day of going out with the family and feasting in gastronomical delights only available in Pinas.....Writing this while on vacation also placed me in a very profound vantage point to give insight in the events that surround our much celebrated founding.

Full of excitement and zeal, affected to a high degree with messages delivered by the highest personalities of our affiliation, one can’t help to be delivered to a state of anxiousness mesmerizing on things planned for architects in the UAE. Indeed the three year program to levitate our profession in the local scene in the UAE has profound effects already at this stage. It is indeed an exciting time for us.

Here in the Philippines. We have an outbreak of Dengue reaching a historical high. Scary. The news tells of how it attacks and how it affects the system. Scary to ponder that you only have Off Lotion as the first line of defense and if gets in, you’ll have to hack it with the meds and the IV. Very saddening to see most of the affected are kids.

Here in the Philippines. We’re dealing with the recent tragedy of the Quirino Grandstand-Tourist Bus hostage taking: Everything in shambles. Looking for some clear direction. The government’s investigation almost looking like a witch hunt. Too late. Embarrassed to international proportions. Tragedy. Very tragic. Lost of innocent lives. Let’s not discuss how they were lost. It’s just too tragic.

Here in the Philippines. It’s almost a year since Typhoon Ondoy and Typhoon Pepeng.

Sigh. That’s a lot to digest.

How do you go on? How do you move from these? Simple, you just do and you just have to believe in what is eternally good. You have to find your corner of strength and invest in it fully.
Our strength is in family. Our strength is in love for our family. It is the very reason why we are here. Then we are gifted with a persevering love for our profession. That uncanny sense
of betterment, always on a striving for perfection mode. The long-awaited chartering has opened the gates for us, much like race gates being raised in front of eager-to-run pure-bred
stallions. Now we can run and see how fast we can go.

Don’t forget to raise your heads up high when you run. We can do this.