A cousin in Canada e-mailed me one time, asking if I was proceeding with my intentions of applying to become a nurse in Australia or New Zealand, as he had learned from the grapevine. I told him no, because applying to become a nurse in these countries entailed raising a small fortune, which I simply am unable to do.

I added that many nurses here are becoming despondent over things like the visa retrogression in the U.S., and the virtual absence of nursing jobs locally which complicates the need for a minimum of a year's worth of nursing experience in order to apply for eligibility abroad.

I also wrote him that given my current situation, I simply can't be picky about jobs, taking whatever comes along, even those which are not related to nursing, just to make ends meet.

My cousin, ever the person with purely good intentions, e-mailed back and extolled the virtues of life here in the islands, mostly detached from the crass materialism of life in a first-world country. He is pursuing a "minimalist lifestyle", he said.

That brought a chuckle. In a first-world country, a minimalist lifestyle is an option, but in our poor, corruption and scandal - ridden islands, it is a lifestyle forced upon the great majority of the populace. It is a way of life, a philosophy even, that seems to nicely complement the Filipinos' deep religious beliefs, amongst them that suffering is one of the paths to our rewards in the afterlife, in Heaven.

Seriously, I believe that minimalists fall under two categories: Genuine minimalists, i.e. those who are minimalists from Day One; those who have always led simple, uncluttered lives; those who probably don't know that they are labelled as such. The other one is what I call the satiated minimalists, those who have been epicures to the fullest sense of the word; those who have engorged themselves on worldly pleasures of all kinds. Now, failing health and the pangs of conscience and guilt have caught up with them, and to reclaim some semblance of good health and to save their stinking souls from eternal damnation, they throttle down their previously unbridled consumption and now call themselves minimalists.

"" For those who wish to lay claim to fame, search the deepest recesses of your soul for even the slightest sign that you deserve it. "" - B. V. S.