“Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy”
- John Denver, Sunshine on my Shoulders

“I’m gonna soak up the sun”
- Sheryl Crow, Soak up the Sun

“I’m walking on sunshine, and don’t it feel good”
- Katrina and the Waves, “Walking on Sunshine”

I’m not really sure if John Denver, Sheryl Crow or Katrina and the Waves have ever been to the Philippines, but I’ll bet that they weren’t talking about the Philippine sun when they wrote/sang the songs above. Maybe California, even Florida sunshine, but definitely not Philippine sunshine.

I’ll tell you why. If you’re in the Philippines:

1. Sunshine on your shoulders makes you sweaty, not happy;
2. You take pains to not soak up any sun;
3. Walking on sunshine feels good—for about two seconds

Now let me backtrack here for a second and admit that I may be exaggerating a bit. After all, the Philippines is renowned worldwide for its sun, sands and surf. Definitely no arguments here: if I were in Boracay right now, sipping on a pineapple juice by the beach while being attended to by a masseuse, all that sunshine that I soak will definitely make me feel good and happy.

The sunshine that I was referring to—the sweaty, non-soakable, two-second-good kind—is the kind that you get while walking on the streets of Metropolitan Manila, trying in vain to get a taxi cab. It’s the kind that blinds you with its brightness, burns through your skin, and, coupled with the humidity and pollution, renders your shirt unfit to wear.

Which is the reason why I find it mildly amusing that people in Upstate New York (and maybe in the other colder states too) actually look forward to getting sunshine. When the sun’s out, so are the people. They take pains to get out of the office at lunchtime just to get a little sunshine. People actually move away from the shade to stay in the sun. And people will be driving with their sunroofs open.

A friend of mine who stayed in Amsterdam told me that they get so few sunny days there that companies actually let their employees take the rest of the day off when the sun is out. They must be praying for more sunny days in a year

While the title might connote a political meaning given that 2008 is a presidential election year, this post in fact has nothing to do with bridges to nowhere and links to terrorists.

Growing up in a warm, tropical country like the Philippines fries your brain and makes you wonder about a lot of stuff. Take the car thermostat for example. I remember thinking, for the longest time, why anyone in their right frame of mind would bother putting a “warm” setting. What, air outside not hot enough for you? I remember staring at that knob that goes from blue on the left to red on the right, and saying to myself, ‘why even put a red side when nobody will ever use it?’ In fact, nobody will even move the knob from the leftmost setting; if it were up to me I’d just superglue it in place. Can’t they just change it to blue on the right and dark blue (or even black) on the left? You know, “cold” to “frigid” (if that’s even possible in the Philippines).

Of course, this was all before I realized there are some places in this planet where they actually value heat more than cold air, and inasmuch as car manufacturers would like to tailor their car models to the local market, customizing the car thermostat apparently isn’t high on their list. But come to think of it, I guess it wouldn’t be so bad to be prepared just in case of a global shift and the Philippines suddenly finds itself on the north pole (and then we can finally stop dreaming of a White Christmas).

And so, upon migrating to Upstate New York and experiencing winter for the first time, what an awakening it was for me to discover that yes, Virginia, there is indeed a use for that red side of the car thermostat.