Dear Librarian: SLIA's REPLY for Baking at the National Library

Here is my reply for Barefoot Baklesa's lament on the state of the country's biblioteque. I will make this short and sweet.

One can't change a system that has been damaged and neglected over the decades. The state of art and culture, and yes, education and library system included, in this country is in a dismal condition. We can cry and bewail to the heavens; gnash our teeth and pull our hair. At the end of the day, it remains as is.

What one can do, despite this, is to continue working on ways to uplift the dismal status of arts, culture, education and library system in the country.

The duly elected President of the Philippines will be inaugurated on Wednesday, 30 June 2011. I like to believe that he won by a stroke of great hope set upon him by many of us. His ascension to the presidency is influenced by a choice of character over competence. We all need to dig deep into our own character and find strength there in order to continue pushing for the advocacy we support in -- arts, culture, education, socio-civic development, library system in the country, etc.