Never underestimate the power of spoiled fish! It defied reality for a long long time

There has got to be something in a local fishball that sets it aside from all other marketable products in the country. Aside from the fact that it's dirty, full of germs, tasty, versatile, it has one characteristic that made it excel on top of the food industry (and on top of all industries who produces for that matter)--it's unchanging price.

If there is a world record that could be set for "World's longest running same priced product" I would definitely have to vote for our local fishball. Why, in more than a decade, the local jeepney fare wen't up from Php 1.00 up to Php 7.50; in more than a decade, common rice rose up to Php 20.00 per kilo from the usual Php 5.00~7.00 per kilo; in more than a decade, the price of gasoline ballooned from what-not-price (hey! I don't care about oil and diesels back then. I was just a kid) up to Php 50.00 something per litre (I don't know but I kept hearing it inflated plus I don't own a car and I don't watch TV that much); in more than a decade, the price of pandesal came from 25 centavos a piece to Php 1.00~2.00 a piece; in more than a decade candies can be bought at 25 centavos a piece but nowadays, it's Php 1.00 or Php 2.00 per piece. In more than a decade every consumer product inflated except for one thing:

The legendary Local Fishball holds it's seat on the 50-cents-per-piece spot for years on. Of course you can't count those capitalists who invests on this wonderful "for-mass" commodity and then sells it at Php 1.00. No no no! The bases are still the sidewalk peddlers who toils all day long besides roads, bearing the heat of the sun and chilling in the evening wind. They are the ones who set the true price. Of course there was a time that it was 10 cents per piece, then went up to 25 cents per piece then eventually, as if some council has been formed and an alliance between the concerned fishball peddlers of the country had a meeting and agreed that 50 centavos was the correct price. Perhaps up until now, there had been no other meetings or maybe, the chairman of the council did not veto on any proposition to raise the price. Who knows? The world of fishballs is a mysterious one after all.



Anyway, in all honesty, I don't even know, how fishballs managed to retain its price. But now I'm starting to wonder, why is there no change in its price? It's like it defies the very nature of reality: All things change. The only thing permanent is change. Of course we all know that it'll be a matter of time for fishballs to raise it's price or maybe to lose it's hold on the mass market (...nah! quite impossible as of the moment), but seeing now that it's a record holder (at least in my book), don't we wish that it could just stay the same forever?

But all things change...


Change is a very tricky thing. I once was watching Samurai X on Studio 23 back then and got hooked on it and watched it every week. I happened to notice the opening song of the series and was quite annoyed at the voice of the Japanese girl singing. Her voice was so coming all over from her nose. So after a few weeks of watching, I eventually got to like the opening song and a few more weeks later, I was trying to sing with it (even though all that you can hear from me back then was nonsense mumbling). As soon as I got hooked on the song and was able to keep up, with the pace at least, a new opening shows up and I went : "~Ohhh!" That bummed me. Here I was all practiced and I was trying my best to keep up with it and then suddenly it changes.

How cruel change can be?

We can never be complacent in any situation that we are in as of the moment. We all know the rule. Expect some things to happen. Everyday life cannot rotate around you the same way over and over. There will definitely be some force that would disrupt this balance and in the end, a transformation occurs. One time we're all happy, the next day, you see yourself crying yourself to sleep. Or for more than twenty years of schooling, you finally get out of it, tired and sick of it only to see yourself burdened with more responsibility.

For better or for worse...it's all up to us on how to handle that force.

Homeostasis and transistasis.

Homeostasis means the ability of an organism to maintain its physiological processes when some external condition presents a threat of variation. Transistasis on the other hand is the opposite. An organism freely adapts and undergoes changes in its functionality in reference to circumstances outside.

This applies to our everyday life. Some of us are rigid to change saying: "I refuse!" with a very good conviction while others are flexible and malleable accepting changes and learning new things from it. While both are present in everyone, we should be aware that control of these two principles should be balanced in accordance to our limitations. Fight if the enemy is within your capability. Flee if you cannot go head to head with it.

Those who know when to fight and when not to fight is always victorious. ~an excerpt from the Art of War by Master Sun Tzu




I wonder how people would react if the time comes for fishballs to raise its price? Say for example if they bought a piece and paid Php 1.00, would they be expecting a change?