No holds barred

These are times indeed when we are so conscious and excessively obsessed with reforms and changes in our country especially in our government because of rampant graft and corruption that have kept almost 90% of our people still deeply mired in poverty. Obviously corrupt practices continue to prevail in our midst because our sense of right and wrong has been consciously or unconsciously perverted. While there are people who remain morally upright and principled, their breed is slowly vanishing and in danger of disappearing especially in government. Hence, in the present milieu, our desired reforms are not about to happen instantly or even in the near future.

It is really difficult to still convert people who have already been used to the kind of morality now prevailing in our society. As they say, it is hard to teach old dogs new tricks. So, if we want true reforms in our society we have to start with our country’s youth. Rizal was thus correct in reminding us that they are the hope of our motherland. Our country’s future indeed largely depends on them more specifically the present adolescents or the teens ranging from 15 to 21 years of age. This is the best period in their life for character building, for imbuing them with proper values and teaching them good habits and right conduct.

But the generation of this modern day and age is admittedly living in an entirely different world where everything seems to be so convenient, easy and instant. With the advent of modern information technology, character building and values formation among the youth are not as easy as in our generation. To properly raise today’s youth, somebody who thinks, acts and talks like them is more effective. And this is precisely what a young professor from UP Diliman had in mind when he decided to record his various chats with some of his students and wrote a book about it.

Aptly and captivatingly entitled “No Holds Barred,” the book contains the various conversations of the author with his students done in a question and answer form and in a free and easy manner like in a bull session with no holds barred. The author’s main idea was to devise some sort of a moral compass to guide today’s youth on various relevant topics confronting them in their daily life. He wrote one chapter each for their conversations about: “Provocative Ads”, “Sex”, “Falling in Love”, “Internet and Gaming”, “Bored to Study”, and “You are What You Read”, “Face to Face Book”, “What Makes You Attractive,” and “Condom Conundrum.” Written in a clear and simple language and in a straightforward manner, the book will really capture the minds and hearts of the youth of today. It will also be a useful guide to their parents or guardians.

For a more credible assessment of the book, it would be better to get it “straight from the horse’s mouth” as they say, from one who belongs to this generation who read it and even wrote its foreword. He is a young guy who has carved out a great name for himself in the field of sports, particularly in basketball, no other than Master Christopher Tiu who says:

“No Holds Barred is fitting to our generation. Our generation is built upon the media. Our minds, opinions and moral standards are shaped by what we see; celebrities wearing plunging tops and micro mini-skirts; movies portraying illicit affairs, rampant sexual activity and extreme violence that pervade society incessantly — leading some of us to think that these things are perfectly acceptable. Whatever moral standard society once held seems to have vanished and left with it, a relativistic morality built upon impulse and feeling. This book brings to full force the reality that is our ‘instant generation’. It wakes us to a world wrought with confusion, with misguided ideals and aspirations, with people and organizations who deal with truth as if it were a commodity, sold to the highest bidder or to the ones with the most societal power.

And yet this book is also about power, but of a different kind.

There is a beautiful chapter that talks about how love is misunderstood to be always romantic. The author... wrote that love has consequences — and that you embrace the happiness as well as the struggles that come with it. In other chapters, the author speaks about sacrifices. The capacity to sacrifice ourselves builds within us fortitude of spirit, enabling us to courageously face challenges and adversity head on.

That is why this book is so beautiful. Some may find it conservative, but we need to balance out the plain absence of values and virtues in our society that grows sicklier by the day. This book can serve as a moral compass in our everyday journey, nourishing the soul, emboldening the spirit to make decisions that compromise nothing and enliven everything”.

Of course it is also good to know more about the author and find out from him what the book is all about. He is Oliver M. Tuason, a UP Diliman professor who has also been involved in youth oriented projects and societal outreach programs since his college days and more intensely after he was chosen as one of the finalists in the 1996 search for Ten Outstanding Students of the Philippines (TOSP). He is also the program author of “Back to Basics: The Essential of Leadership” and the co-author of “Leading Leaders: Uniting the Nation in Virtue (UNiV). Presently he is the Director of Kapuluan Study Center, a supplementary education center that aims to promote personal and professional excellence among young men. He says that the common thread connecting the different chapters of the book is the “reality, joy and attractiveness of a virtuous life. Many people prefer to talk about values — those things we hold dear in life. But what really builds up character and perfects human nature are those habitual dispositions to be and to do good which are called virtues. They are true to all men and women of all times regardless of color, race or creed”. So he fervently hopes that “many young people get to read this book which may be instrumental in helping them firm up their conviction and life-long commitment to live a virtuous life-an open secret to a happier life.”

“No Hold Barred” is now off the press and available at leading book stores.