Crizzel Mae T. Maningo reflects on three experiences from her ethics course that relate to her daily life: 1) Understanding different perspectives on right and wrong through the concept of ethical relativism and how this helped her understand her angry brother's behavior. 2) Watching an Ivana Alawi video where she pretended to beg and was reminded of her responsibility to help others in need. 3) Registering to vote and realizing her role and obligations as a citizen to make decisions that benefit others in society.

1. My Journal
CRIZZEL MAE T. MANINGO
OBTEC M-1-2

2. Ethical Journey
What important events/experiences
that I can connect to the course Ethics?

3. What is an ethical experience?
To find that there are things that I am
not casually determined, but obligated,
to say and to do.

4. Journal Entry #1 - What "others" think
Journal Entry #2 - Who are the "others"
Journal Entry #3 - For the "others"
I have determined three (3) important
events/experiences in my daily life throughout
the term that I can comprehensively associate
to our course 2GED-SS04, which is Ethics;
The Journal Entries

5. What "others"
think

6. Looking back, I think this pool of words that I am inputting
in this journal entry is more of a realization and my
application to the real-life situations that I have
encountered and will be encountering in the future than an
important event or experience throughout the duration of
the course. However, I see it as a matter that holds the
same value to my understanding because all the while the
course effectively relayed its lessons to me as a student,
which made me ponder that resulted to positive
consequences.

7. The statement that marked in my mind during the early lessons that we
had in the course Ethics is extracted from the subject matter of Ethical
Relativism, which is, “There is no objective right and wrong.” Even
before I came to stumble upon the course Ethics, I am already conscious
of the same concept way back in my Senior High School years in our
subject Philosophy, which we discussed why the “Truth is relative”, and
I came to analyze within me that there are no universal standards of
how things work and later today I have found out through the course
that it works the same way with our beliefs of the rightness and
wrongness of our actions.

8. Upon finishing and coming into the conclusion of the course Ethics,
understanding and dealing with other individuals, in general, has
become a lenient task to me. The greatest application to these
realizations is when in the past I am really baffled with how my
brother could act in unnecessary ways every time his mad about
something inside our house, he does and blurt out words that are
way out of line. When there was also a time that I was in his position,
after bursting out my anger, I realized how my actions are like my
brother’s.

9. Now, I have understood where his coming from because I had a
glimpse of his lens. When I am angry and mad about something, I do
and say things that I thought was the most right during that moment,
my mind is clouded of anger that I could not see others’ perspective,
for me, it was the rightest thing to do and say, but for others, they see
it as a wrong action and behavior. When these facts sunk unto me,
that is when I understood other people’s feelings and behavior, that
not because I see it as something wrong, they will also see it the
same way I do, because there is ethical relativism.

10. Somehow, this concept of ethics is a way for people to
compromise their beliefs with others’, I think this is very helpful
for us people to be more open-minded and compassionate
towards one another. As a future educator, this helps remind me
to be more understanding to my learners. Not everyone thinks
and see things the same way as you, this is why we are meant to
respect one another’s opinions and views.

11. Who are the
"others"

12. As an internet person I have always been updated of what is
happening around social media almost 24/7. When another
Ivana Alawi’s vlog got into the top trending list in Twitter, I did
not really make an effort to watch the whole vlog to find out the
reason why it was trending by the time it was uploaded. Seeing
that it was another one of those vlogs that “helps” those who are
in need, I immediately thought it was sort of a marketing scheme
to gain views and subscribers to earn money, so I just shrugged
off the vlog for a few weeks and drowned myself with my
academic life.

13. Not until recently that I had so much time
to waste to laze around the internet,
because of PNU’s academic term break,
that I finally had the mood to watch her
vlog in YouTube titled, “PRANK ON
STRANGERS ON THE STREET!”, with 19
million views as of April 13, 2021.

14. As a regular viewer of Ivana’s vlogs, I do not just enjoy
her content but I also have come to know her life story
as well. Although people see her today as a successful
public figure and a wealthy heir to her deceased father’s
properties, her life in the past was not always like how it
is in the present. As what she said in the vlog, alam niya
rin kung paano ang buhay na walang wala, and this is
her reason of why she thought of this concept for her
vlog.

15. Pretending like a beggar in the streets, she wanted to
know how Filipinos will react in seeing their countrymen
who are in need. There are some who chose to not give
any attention about her situation, but the true gems in
the vlog was those few people who gave her even the
smallest amount they could give despite being also in
need. Ivana was just chill at the first part of the video
but when they came to the last person to prank, that is
when she shed tears.

16. Reflecting and relating this vlog watching experience to ethics, is
the commitment and responsibility that we have to other people.
As a personal assessment, I can see myself fitting with those who
ignored Ivana in the vlog. I have been also in those situations in
my life where I am put in the shoes where people like those reach
out their hands to beg for alms, but I chose to feign ignorance for
their cries of help.

17. Reasoning out that what I have is not even enough for my own
consumption, what more I could give when I am also in need, not
choosing to see their vision of life and only focusing my lens on
my own life situation. In this kind of experience, there is an ethical
dilemma that each person faces, to look at the eyes of these
“others” and lend a hand which is the right action and behavior to
respond, or look away and mind thy own business because that is
the “others” problems and you have your own problems to solve,
which is the most selfish thing to do.

18. Life is full of choices and every little thing we
do every day is a choice that we made from
various reasons we need to consider. From this
crucial experience, my eyes are now open to
see the importance of always choosing what
benefits the “others” because it is always the
right thing to do.

19. For the
"others"

20. The last lesson of the course Ethics, that I
had to read and understand is the morality
of election, where I discovered a lot of laid
reasons behind the decision of participating
or casting a vote during an election process,
in which these reasons are analyzed in order
to determine if the action of voting is a
rational action or not and can be classified
as a moral obligation by an individual or not.

21. The most common reason why people choose to vote, is
because they believe that their individual vote will make a
change, a change with how the country is being governed
which affects themselves and the “others” in general.
People believe that it is their duty to participate in an
election because it is their way of showing that they care
for themselves and the “others”, and I think I am of those
people who thinks aligned with these beliefs.

22. As a young adult that is now in the
stage of “adulting”, who needs to
commit to her responsibilities as a
Filipino citizen, I have been planning
to register to vote in the COMELEC
but unable to do so because of my
academic responsibilities, so I
decided to do it during the term
break. Recently, I successfully did it
in our municipality.

23. As I was told to put my two thumbs in the ink to record my
finger prints to validate the form I filled in, pouring
thoughts and realizations suddenly sunk unto my mind. I
realized that I am no longer the child who only think of the
simplest matters in life, and I am now currently in the
stage of my life where my opinion and view should not be
the only thing that matters to me, that I am now
responsible of the “others” as well, as a Filipino citizen to
my countrymen and as a human with a moral and ethical
obligation to fulfill.

24. Registering to vote for me is a symbol of the
starting point where I am already not my own
person, but an individual that is meant to be
with the “others” in this world and my actions
and behaviors should be for the sake of the
“others”. A person that is capable of making a
difference for the improvement and betterment
of everyone.

25. End!

26. Submitted to
Professor Lallen B.
Quismundo
Ethics Course Professor