I've always believed that one should balance one's advocacy. My personal approach to saving the environment is balancing environmental activism with environmental education. Its just like advocating for solid waste management and at the same time encouraging green consumer responsibility. Of course, one's cultivation of environmental sensitivity and practice should always be in the middle. Come join the training by CEAE :) I took this workshop and really felt that all teachers, community leaders, and environmental activists, should be trained to teach these modules.
Come watch the film. I think entire Moonrise Documentary Film Festival is a powerful tool to reach to every individual - as we are a visual society. CEAE is screening some of last year's entries at 70's Bistro once a month. Last month they showed Moving Mountains, a film about MINING in Benguet, or in general - its dark effects to the communities and to the environment. Joey Ayala performed that night. Got myself a copy of his new album, Mga Awit ng Mandaragat, which i had him sign (i had my 16 love songs signed last year too). Not really sure if i wanted to buy this copy as this reminds me of someone i wish to erase entirely from my memory - one that reminds me of a popular joey love song- which, joey, (thankfully) called a popular "ITIM SONG" (theme song) hahaha :) (i secretly want to sing that song with him ssssh):) anyway, its a great mix of performers (including cynthia alexander) and has a "minus one" (instrumental) version of all of the songs which are nice to listen to when you want to wind down. ok, last! i dont know why but when joey was performing that night, i had a recurring vivid image of him in wet suit by the rocks, which i think i dreamnt of before. can you visualize? sexy diba? hee :) You can buy a copy at 70's Bistro or at Conspiracy Cafe at P250 only!
The Center for Environmental Awareness & Education will be holding a FREE!!! PLT & WET WORKSHOP
This is open to every volunteer who is not yet a certified educator of these two award winning programs and to those interested individuals who want to become a volunteer educator of CEAE. By attending this workshop you will become a certified PLT and WET educator and will be able to integrate the activities from PLT and WET that offers fun and excitement to classes and trainings.
Project Learning Tree (PLT) - will help make use of the forest as a window to the world which makes students and community members more aware of forest ecosystem and biodiversity through fun and hands-on activities.
Water Education for Teachers (WET) - will help students and community members to become more aware of wise water use and management through fun and interactive activities.
Workshop scheduled to take place at 8:00 am on April 7, 2006 (Friday) at CEAE's Office – 3A Gilmore Heights, 18 Granada cor. Castilla Sts. Brgy. Valencia, Quezon City.
Sign up now and be an environmental educator.
For more information about CEAE, visit www.ceae.org
Please confirm your attendance.For any inquiries regarding the free workshop you can contact us at 7217360 or email it to joan@ceae.org.
ASIN and Environmental Art at 70's Bistro
After the success of our first environmental night, the 70s Bistro Bar and the Center for Environmental Awareness and Education (CEAE) is once again inviting you to a night of images and songs entitled "Dive In!" We will feature the award-winning documentary Environmental Art by Lili Arivara. This will be followed by an open forum on diving and care of marine resources by Robert Arivara, husband of Lili and co-producer of the film. We cap the night with a live recording session with one of the biggest acts in the local music scene, Asin.
What: Dive In
Where: 70's Bistro Bar, 46 Anonas St, Project 2, Quezon City
When: April 5, 2006, 8 p.m.
Tickets:P150
Join us for a special night at 70s Bistro. Please feel free to invite your contacts who are keen about inspiring films and music, or simply just come for a night of meaningful entertainment. Environmental Art is a gallery of colorful, different species under the sea waiting to be seen. It is a journey worth taking. The Picturesque and breathtaking scenes below our shores are a fest to the eyes and a delight to the senses. Environmental Art is an experience that would last in everyone's memories.
For any inquiries please call CEAE on 7217360 or Bistro 70s on 434-3597
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Monday, March 27, 2006
Sunday, March 26, 2006
eye two eyes
it was as if it was the last day of my life yesterday. i had the cruel-est, evil-est, painful-est migraine that when i finally got relief from two emergency pills, i just had to take off to a simple adventure.i wandered around luneta after taking John Silva's wonderful wonderful Advocacy Writing Workshop (will post a separate reflection on his workshop soon). its funny how luneta has shrunk - but of course it didnt, i guess i just grew up. the last time i was at luneta was when i was a child.
my sugar coned sorbetero ice cream and i wandered through the chinese gardens and just relished my light headedness amidst the many strangers - families, lovers, loners, bums. i found myself in prison while observing what for me is the best spot in luneta - the pigeon houses with the two old fountains, bordered by metal railings. im reminded of a pigeon house by the centemetery across my village. these pigeons have homes whereas the humans who live at luneta or at the cemetary share living space with the dead or the bums. ah, but both animals and humans are so free compared to us sheltered ones.
so since it was my last day to live (or so i pretended) and inspired by john's slideshow of sunsets during the last part of the workshop, i headed off to baywalk to worship the setting sun. after asking the guard for directions, i boarded a jeepney to malate church. "saan po ba ang sunset?" i asked the driver. i wasn't sure if he was used to that question, cos he gave me a small snicker. jeepneys have fixed destinations so perhaps he thought of a girly bar. so yes, we stopped right in front of a bar. but no, it wasn't named "sunset". "diyan lumulubog ang araw", ( that, is where the sun sets), he said and then gave a dirty giggle afterwards. He was pointing to a skimpy dressed woman. my hair wanted to go in flames but i was just too lightheaded to give him a piece of my mind. and for that, ms. skimpy dressed woman, i'm sorry.
i got off right where i saw the orange sun. i tried to cross the street, waited for the traffic light and thought to myself, if i wanted to change the world, i should follow traffic lights first. just like art - one has to know the rules to be able to break them. if i complain about the government, i should also respect the laws that are supposed to keep this country in order. the others rushed to the road island midway when they saw no more vehicles passing through. i stayed on the spot and waited for the green man to light up. when it did, i found the same group who headed off earlier at the island. i thought to myself, my, there was no need to rush when you're only going to end up midway, so i guess patience really offers you a full pie, and headed to the baywalk.
so the ritual was about to start. beggars, bums. families, lovers, loners were all there lined up to watch the sun sleep. i found a spot between a man and two lovers and i thought i dont want to sit between them because i dont want to be seen as if i was the lone man's lover. so i sat by ninoy's statue and hoped his presence would make the sunset show meaningful... until i found a perfect spot by the baywalk border beside an old woman.
my sugar coned sorbetero ice cream and i wandered through the chinese gardens and just relished my light headedness amidst the many strangers - families, lovers, loners, bums. i found myself in prison while observing what for me is the best spot in luneta - the pigeon houses with the two old fountains, bordered by metal railings. im reminded of a pigeon house by the centemetery across my village. these pigeons have homes whereas the humans who live at luneta or at the cemetary share living space with the dead or the bums. ah, but both animals and humans are so free compared to us sheltered ones.
so since it was my last day to live (or so i pretended) and inspired by john's slideshow of sunsets during the last part of the workshop, i headed off to baywalk to worship the setting sun. after asking the guard for directions, i boarded a jeepney to malate church. "saan po ba ang sunset?" i asked the driver. i wasn't sure if he was used to that question, cos he gave me a small snicker. jeepneys have fixed destinations so perhaps he thought of a girly bar. so yes, we stopped right in front of a bar. but no, it wasn't named "sunset". "diyan lumulubog ang araw", ( that, is where the sun sets), he said and then gave a dirty giggle afterwards. He was pointing to a skimpy dressed woman. my hair wanted to go in flames but i was just too lightheaded to give him a piece of my mind. and for that, ms. skimpy dressed woman, i'm sorry.
i got off right where i saw the orange sun. i tried to cross the street, waited for the traffic light and thought to myself, if i wanted to change the world, i should follow traffic lights first. just like art - one has to know the rules to be able to break them. if i complain about the government, i should also respect the laws that are supposed to keep this country in order. the others rushed to the road island midway when they saw no more vehicles passing through. i stayed on the spot and waited for the green man to light up. when it did, i found the same group who headed off earlier at the island. i thought to myself, my, there was no need to rush when you're only going to end up midway, so i guess patience really offers you a full pie, and headed to the baywalk.
so the ritual was about to start. beggars, bums. families, lovers, loners were all there lined up to watch the sun sleep. i found a spot between a man and two lovers and i thought i dont want to sit between them because i dont want to be seen as if i was the lone man's lover. so i sat by ninoy's statue and hoped his presence would make the sunset show meaningful... until i found a perfect spot by the baywalk border beside an old woman.
it wasn't much of a sunset but the building-less horizon of sea and sky was enough. besides, i was still basking at the event and the state of being in a ceremony among the many people present. it was a little comfort to see the sea, even it if was oily and dark. the sound of the water lapping was close to comfort. i miss being with the sea. my two best memories with him so far was when i sailed onboard the rainbow warrior for a week to negros and when i had a wide wide wide stretch of shoreline all to myself at panglao island. the best sunsets for me are during plane flights. i always always book my flights during sunset and ask to be seated on the west side. we can't have everything of course, you may have the best view but you cannot breathe it nor breathe it.
sunsets and this baywalk reminds me of a stranger named griffin (yes, a stranger-named) i met here 3 years ago who painted abstract portraits and landscapes.
i walked the whole stretch of baywalk which was buzzling with excitement as the nightlife was about to start. i never realized that having dinner at the baywalk is interesting. i bought a smalll snack and found a small table right smack in front of the water. afterwards, i breezed through the entire walk, listened to the different bands performing from one section of the walk to another. it sounded like i was tuning in the radio, like switching stations. i wasnt really keen on listening to the covers so i wandered further and took a moment to stop where the haribol's were singing govinda hare in repeats. (it made me miss my hare krishna friend lia)
i was thinking of inviting someone to have dinner with me but then i forgot my phone at home and i enjoyed having a date with myself anyway. i passed by a docked boat, sort of like a floating restaurant, which i think sails around the bay for a certain period during the night. that i'd like to try sometime, i thought to myself. i worried a bit trying to figure out what i can eat at all these meat and seafood grills scattered about the walk until i found someone grilling eggplants and a figaro branch so i guess id end up with pasta or grilled eggplants in the future.
no, i am not asking anyone to ask me out sometime.
i forgot to write about an old woman.
i was really about to leave right after the sunset. she was right there, this 83 year old woman with her back hunched, holding up some magazines. i was across her, waiting for a bus, and found her staring at me, i stared back and tried to read her magazine from afar - on the cover, there was a woman and a little girl looking at each other . the magazine said, "do you want to find true happiness?"
i walked towards her, hoping to buy the dream she was selling.
i sat beside her
_____inhaled and i
looked
at her
she asked me,
if i knew,
that life,
was only
_____________temporary...
that's all folks, i dont know how to end this memoir. this is my first time to just write something personal in public. and besides, nobody reads my blogs anyway so i suppose i shouldn't worry so much :) im really used to writing in my journal and accompanying it with drawings and clippings and writing them in messy paraphrases...i know this isn't an advocacy piece, but i guess, after john silva's workshop i thought maybe id do a writing excercise or rather, excorsism! :O
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Flying within the atmosphere
these are really interesting :)
Aerial Mapping in Carpet
by Sarah Rich WorldChanging.com
There's an amazing installation in the pedestrian bridge that connects the terminal to the parking garage at the Sacramento Airport. It's an aerial image of approximately 50 miles of the Sacramento River between Colusa and Chico - represented in carpet.
Artist Seyed Alavi describes it as a piece that connects travelers geographically to the place they're passing through. This resonates loud and clear with us, given our affinity for all things map-related, and the use of technological tools for understanding ecology, history, and place.
Check out the installation here.
Aerial Mapping in Carpet
by Sarah Rich WorldChanging.com
There's an amazing installation in the pedestrian bridge that connects the terminal to the parking garage at the Sacramento Airport. It's an aerial image of approximately 50 miles of the Sacramento River between Colusa and Chico - represented in carpet.
Artist Seyed Alavi describes it as a piece that connects travelers geographically to the place they're passing through. This resonates loud and clear with us, given our affinity for all things map-related, and the use of technological tools for understanding ecology, history, and place.
Check out the installation here.
Recovery Happens
Jamais Cascio WorldChanging.com
In the immediate aftermath of the December 26, 2004, tsunami, we pointed to satellite photos showing the before-and-after of coastal regions of Thailand, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India and other affected locations. These images were among the most powerful representations of the disaster, as viewers could easily trace the path of destruction. New before-and-after images are now available, but these tell a very different story.
Photojournalist Zoriah covered both Sri Lanka and Thailand in the days following the tsunami; earlier this year, Zoriah returned to Thailand, and took pictures at the exact same sets of locations. WarShooter.com, a web portal for photojournalists covering conflict and disaster, posted the resulting side-by-side comparison. Some of the changes are subtle, but it's clear that much of Thailand is well on the road to recovery.
John Stanmeyer also posted before-and-after shots, this time of Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Aceh still has much further to go than Thailand, but these images stand as record that human beings can, and will, choose to survive and flourish even in the wake of unthinkable disaster. (Warning: the first image of Stanmeyer's collection includes a fully-visible corpse; the subsequent images aren't nearly as disturbing.)
plug: Red Constantino Book Launching : The Poverty of Memory: Essays on History and Empire at UP Balay Kalinaw tomorrow 24 March, at 4pm. I think reservations are required. Email Red at red_constantino@yahoo.com
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Baby Hippo Orphan Finds a Friend
I know this is an old article. Ive heard about this but never really looked it up until Cute Overload featured it today. We just can't help but feature it (again). ( sigh :)) now let's have an animal planet moment and take a break from human chaos...
Baby Hippo Orphan Finds a Friend
By Catherine Clarke Fox / National Geographic Kids News
By Catherine Clarke Fox / National Geographic Kids News
Have you noticed that sometimes the most unlikely pairs form the best friendships? Late last December, flood waters in the East African country of Kenya swept a herd of hippopotamuses down the Sabaki River and into the Indian Ocean. After a few days, most of them struggled to shore and returned inland.
Then, right after the Asian tsunami hit on December 26, local people spotted a baby hippo in the rough surf, apparently left behind by the herd. They were worried.
Owen and Mzee spend time together sleeping, eating, and roaming. Photograph by Peter Greste
Hippos live around fresh water, and the people figured the salt water wasn't good for the little fellow. Besides, he had no mother to look out for him.
After hours of effort, they caught the big baby (about 600 pounds, or 270 kilograms). They named him Owen after one of his rescuers.
Wildlife officials took Owen the hippo to the safety of Haller Park, a sanctuary for wild animals in the port city of Mombasa. To their surprise, Owen, about a year old, trotted right up to a giant gray tortoise.
Tortoises are among the longest-living creatures on Earth. This one's name is Mzee, which means "old man" in the Swahili language. He is more than a hundred years old.
"Mzee hissed, lifted himself up off the ground, and tried to run," reported Paula Kahumbu, an ecologist in charge of Haller Park. (Ecologists study how living things relate to their surroundings.) "But by the next morning, they were together!"
They have been together ever since, even staying close and touching when they sleep.
Owen could weigh more than 6,000 pounds (2,700 kilograms) when he is grown—heavier than a minivan. Eventually he will be introduced to Cleo, an adult hippo, so he can be with his own kind.
But Kahumbu said Owen and Mzee will still spend time together if they wish. To find out what happens next, check out the caretaker's diary at the Lafarge Eco Systems Web site.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Yours or Mine at 70's Bistro
Center for Environmental Awareness & Education (CEAE) in partnership with 70's Bistro Bar will hold an environmental night titled YOURS OR MINE?. It will feature an award winning documentary film showing of Moving Mountains followed by a special performance by Joey Ayala, famous for his songs with environmental themes.
What: Yours or Mine
Where: 70's Bistro Bar, 46 Anonas St.Project 2, Quezon City
When: 22 March, 8pm
FEe: P150
hope you can join us for a special night at 70s Bistro. Please bring your friends who are into films or music, or simply just come for a night of entertainment. Be involved and Be there.Moving Mountains is produced and directed by Boyette Rimban, whowill also be present on the night for an open forum on mining.
For any inquiries please call CEAE on 7217360 or Bistro 70s on 434-3597.
What: Yours or Mine
Where: 70's Bistro Bar, 46 Anonas St.Project 2, Quezon City
When: 22 March, 8pm
FEe: P150
hope you can join us for a special night at 70s Bistro. Please bring your friends who are into films or music, or simply just come for a night of entertainment. Be involved and Be there.Moving Mountains is produced and directed by Boyette Rimban, whowill also be present on the night for an open forum on mining.
For any inquiries please call CEAE on 7217360 or Bistro 70s on 434-3597.
Monday, March 20, 2006
Saturday, March 18, 2006
moonrise draft
Here's one of the designs im working on for the Moonrise Film Festival poster. I'm posting this for Marge since she can't open the email version. Anyway, you can also give me feedback if you want to. I might post the other designs soon.Is there anyone who has filming equipment who's up to work with me in writing, directing and producing a documentary entry for the festival? here are my ideas:
- the sachet lifestyle generated for the sari sari poor. most importantly the pollution it creates. what is the responsibility of the manufacturers of the products? will also explore on the localization of products of multinational companies - measuring the scale of production and pollution. hmmm... does it make sense ba? haha
- cradle to grave. how things reach us. from the farmer to the merchant to the middleman, to the supply truck driver to the wholesale retailer to the factory buyer to the factory worker to the package division to the distribution to the supermarket buyer to the supermarkets to our refrigerators through our intestines to our garbage to the garbage collector to the dumpsite. years after? i just want to communicate how we take this cycle for granted and how knowing facilitates in responsible consumerism.
anyway, all these are just ideas that can be developed further. other ideas are welcome too. you can reach me through sqborealis@care2.com
Click here to know more about CEAE's Moonrise Film Festival
Monday, March 13, 2006
Ideals and betrayals
To be honest, I really don't know where to place myself in this political crisis that's going on or that has been going on for the past 40 years or so. I don't belong to any political organization nor identify myself to any specific ideology. I have friends from the right and more on the left (but sometimes when you look at the mirror, right is left and left is right isn't it?) I have more firends from the civil society from non-profit groups who are also activists, political writers, et al. So where do I place myself? Perhaps I'm leaning more on the call for genuine change like those from PAG-ASA - People's Assembly for Genuine Alternatives to Social Apathy ( check out www.truthforce.info) or with Laban ng Masa's Blueprint for a Viable Philippines. Do I want an armed revolution? To be honest, I'm not sure. Yes, I believe in equity and some socialist principles but also believe in genuine service and leadership that can evolve the country into peacful holistic development. The cause of revolution is really just social change and equality, so if we will be heading there, violence need not be required. Given that power is given to state and the people still. Hmmm, what and how about Hugo Chavez? Right now I'm thinking, who am I to talk about such things? I don't belong anywhere and I don't know the entire stories of political ideologies. Do not criticize me as I am merely, shelling (bullets) out my confusion. I just want to share my efforts in change through whatever means I can contribute. I joined the rally last EDSA 20 anniversary. I was there right in front of the police at Ayala Avenue beside Cheese Escudero ( God knows what his intentions really are hopefully he doesn't get persuaded to join the devils full-time) and Bishop Bachani. I was there, I prayed, I felt the confetti, I heard the heartbeats, I felt the rush but I also felt there should be more of us there. and that, there has to be another form of revolution.
Ok, transition government it is. You have my vote on that. I am encouraging everyone to share your vote on that. Let us all please do something! Do your change. Help everyone you could, you don't need to be apathetic just because you feel you can't change everything. Change something. Do some thing. Just little bit at first, then do more. I used to frown upon Bb Pilipinas doing their charities at orphanages every year and having them publicized. But I started to realize, at least they do something to change. But of course, they could have done more - perhaps go to the streets and really embrace dirty street children hehehe. Join the rallies! Bring your friends! You don't need to be part of whichever movement, just be there and get to know people's views. Participate. Do not taunt or mock of course. You don't talk justice if you are unjust yourself. Just be there. Hope that your ex is not there (maybe hide hehe) and just be. At least you can say you are helping your family, you are helping the streetchildren, you are helping the environment MORE. Because you know very well that the taxes you pay ( or rather, DONATE to the pockets of government officials) or the causes you adovocate will be in good hands and become effective if you vote for good governance.
I'm tired of listening to the news and to government spin doctors. I'm also tired of taunts and mockery and anti-government bashing as well. I'm tired of the same politicos in the limelight of the issues. Sometimes, I don't understand how Cory and Imee Marcos can be seen together nor see Ping Lacson, Erap and Susan Roces together with Satur Ocampo and other militant leaders. I'm not part of a telenovela, right? I respect Satur and other genuine individuals but I do not respect those who claim to be clean and proclaim dirt upon other officials. I do hope that whatever their motives are, that they know that they're going to die someday and whatever popularity or funds they have hoarded for their own glorification will eventually be useless in hell.
Reading all those open emails from silent middle class citizens, teachers and articles about the poor's everyday being a state of emergency, just lead to one conclusion - we are all tired and we might as well be apathetic.Well I don't want to be part of that kind of society. I still believe in people power. I'm proud of the Philippines. Even if we ousted too many presidents, at least we have the democracy to choose and the capacity to participate, that we have power in our own hands. Isn't that proof enough that we can still do something? We're lucky not to be Burmese nor North Korean at this time and age. We elected these people, hell we can strip them off their titles as well! Maki-baka! este, Maki-gulay! :) Update yourself with the news. Read opinion columns, discourse on the issue with friends.aim for the truth.
I've always frowned on politics. I believe in genuine service and leadership instead. But of course, bittersweet me, there is no such language in our government or maybe there are a rare few who cultivate such lives. Randy David reveals a few cigarettes of HOPE that we can puff on. So, we learn our lessons, now let's kick butt.
Public Lives : Ideals and betrayals
First posted 02:53am (Mla time) Mar 12, 2006
By Randy David
Inquirer Editor's Note: Published on page A11 of the March 12, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
ALMOST everyone will probably agree that our national life today is pervaded by a sense of exhaustion. This is best indicated by the weariness we exhale at seeing the faces of the same persons who have dominated the political stage in the last 40 years. Instead of finding in them traces of the values we once fought for, we see only reminders of ideals betrayed. Instead of drawing strength from our past, we burden ourselves with its disappointments.
When the history of our country in the last four decades is finally written, I am sure it will be filled with references to four individuals: Ferdinand Marcos, Cory Aquino, Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Each one of them represents a powerful impulse and the promise of a decisive break from all that came before. Each one of them also symbolizes a point of decadence. If we desire to rise from the corruption and move forward, we must patiently retrieve the sources of vitality in our national life. A good way to start is to
clarify the ideals we have fought for, using as guides the discontinuities in the nation's recent past.
Here I examine four such moments of discontinuity: 1972, 1986, 1998 and 2001. They correspond, respectively, to the rise of Marcos, Cory, Erap and GMA.
We mostly associate the Marcos regime today with tyranny and corruption. We forget that this government rose and was initially supported by the people precisely on its promise of a modern dynamic economy run by entrepreneurs and industrialists and freed from the grip of a parasitic land-based oligarchy. At great costs to human rights, Marcos partly delivered on this promise. It was during his time, for example, that the infrastructure for sustained development was first laid down. Indeed Marcos buried the country in debt-partly because of corruption, but partly also because of the massive financial resources that a state-led development program required. None of this, however, should dim the vision of economic development that, at one point, the Marcos regime represented for our people. It remains a vital goal.
The message that Cory Aquino symbolized in 1986 was that basic political freedoms and human rights must never be sacrificed at the altar of economic development. That message-the message of liberal democracy-became the driving force of Edsa I. The program of re-democratization that Edsa I jump-started was unfortunately hijacked early by the impresarios of traditional politics. Instead of building the foundations of a liberal constitutional order on an empowered polity and on new and expanded forms of democratic expression, the Edsa State paved the way for the return of oligarchic politics. The nation found itself mindlessly returning to the security offered by the familiar.
The excesses of a rentier economy driven by elite politics not only constrained economic growth, it also aggravated mass poverty. More and more poor people were excluded from the circuits of the nation's life. The accumulation of the grievances of the poor in the mid-'90s prepared the way for the emergence of Joseph Estrada, the movie actor who championed the cause of the underprivileged in countless movie roles.
View the rest of the article here
Ok, transition government it is. You have my vote on that. I am encouraging everyone to share your vote on that. Let us all please do something! Do your change. Help everyone you could, you don't need to be apathetic just because you feel you can't change everything. Change something. Do some thing. Just little bit at first, then do more. I used to frown upon Bb Pilipinas doing their charities at orphanages every year and having them publicized. But I started to realize, at least they do something to change. But of course, they could have done more - perhaps go to the streets and really embrace dirty street children hehehe. Join the rallies! Bring your friends! You don't need to be part of whichever movement, just be there and get to know people's views. Participate. Do not taunt or mock of course. You don't talk justice if you are unjust yourself. Just be there. Hope that your ex is not there (maybe hide hehe) and just be. At least you can say you are helping your family, you are helping the streetchildren, you are helping the environment MORE. Because you know very well that the taxes you pay ( or rather, DONATE to the pockets of government officials) or the causes you adovocate will be in good hands and become effective if you vote for good governance.
I'm tired of listening to the news and to government spin doctors. I'm also tired of taunts and mockery and anti-government bashing as well. I'm tired of the same politicos in the limelight of the issues. Sometimes, I don't understand how Cory and Imee Marcos can be seen together nor see Ping Lacson, Erap and Susan Roces together with Satur Ocampo and other militant leaders. I'm not part of a telenovela, right? I respect Satur and other genuine individuals but I do not respect those who claim to be clean and proclaim dirt upon other officials. I do hope that whatever their motives are, that they know that they're going to die someday and whatever popularity or funds they have hoarded for their own glorification will eventually be useless in hell.
Reading all those open emails from silent middle class citizens, teachers and articles about the poor's everyday being a state of emergency, just lead to one conclusion - we are all tired and we might as well be apathetic.Well I don't want to be part of that kind of society. I still believe in people power. I'm proud of the Philippines. Even if we ousted too many presidents, at least we have the democracy to choose and the capacity to participate, that we have power in our own hands. Isn't that proof enough that we can still do something? We're lucky not to be Burmese nor North Korean at this time and age. We elected these people, hell we can strip them off their titles as well! Maki-baka! este, Maki-gulay! :) Update yourself with the news. Read opinion columns, discourse on the issue with friends.aim for the truth.
I've always frowned on politics. I believe in genuine service and leadership instead. But of course, bittersweet me, there is no such language in our government or maybe there are a rare few who cultivate such lives. Randy David reveals a few cigarettes of HOPE that we can puff on. So, we learn our lessons, now let's kick butt.
Public Lives : Ideals and betrayals
First posted 02:53am (Mla time) Mar 12, 2006
By Randy David
Inquirer Editor's Note: Published on page A11 of the March 12, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
ALMOST everyone will probably agree that our national life today is pervaded by a sense of exhaustion. This is best indicated by the weariness we exhale at seeing the faces of the same persons who have dominated the political stage in the last 40 years. Instead of finding in them traces of the values we once fought for, we see only reminders of ideals betrayed. Instead of drawing strength from our past, we burden ourselves with its disappointments.
When the history of our country in the last four decades is finally written, I am sure it will be filled with references to four individuals: Ferdinand Marcos, Cory Aquino, Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Each one of them represents a powerful impulse and the promise of a decisive break from all that came before. Each one of them also symbolizes a point of decadence. If we desire to rise from the corruption and move forward, we must patiently retrieve the sources of vitality in our national life. A good way to start is to
clarify the ideals we have fought for, using as guides the discontinuities in the nation's recent past.
Here I examine four such moments of discontinuity: 1972, 1986, 1998 and 2001. They correspond, respectively, to the rise of Marcos, Cory, Erap and GMA.
We mostly associate the Marcos regime today with tyranny and corruption. We forget that this government rose and was initially supported by the people precisely on its promise of a modern dynamic economy run by entrepreneurs and industrialists and freed from the grip of a parasitic land-based oligarchy. At great costs to human rights, Marcos partly delivered on this promise. It was during his time, for example, that the infrastructure for sustained development was first laid down. Indeed Marcos buried the country in debt-partly because of corruption, but partly also because of the massive financial resources that a state-led development program required. None of this, however, should dim the vision of economic development that, at one point, the Marcos regime represented for our people. It remains a vital goal.
The message that Cory Aquino symbolized in 1986 was that basic political freedoms and human rights must never be sacrificed at the altar of economic development. That message-the message of liberal democracy-became the driving force of Edsa I. The program of re-democratization that Edsa I jump-started was unfortunately hijacked early by the impresarios of traditional politics. Instead of building the foundations of a liberal constitutional order on an empowered polity and on new and expanded forms of democratic expression, the Edsa State paved the way for the return of oligarchic politics. The nation found itself mindlessly returning to the security offered by the familiar.
The excesses of a rentier economy driven by elite politics not only constrained economic growth, it also aggravated mass poverty. More and more poor people were excluded from the circuits of the nation's life. The accumulation of the grievances of the poor in the mid-'90s prepared the way for the emergence of Joseph Estrada, the movie actor who championed the cause of the underprivileged in countless movie roles.
View the rest of the article here
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Alice in Nuclear Blunderland
I have been attempting MANY TIMES! to write about the current political chaos in our country especially after participating in the Ayala Avenue rally last February 24th.... but I always always got too tired of elaborating my feelings towards the government...haha.. maybe ive just been too lazy and that reading about the issues, other people's blogs and articles, email rants about take up most of my time... I just wish there was another way... anyway, i might post some thoughts soon...
Here's a very witty lampoon-ish satirical description of the recent issues regarding nuclear power by Greenpeace (Bush and Iran and India et al)...I've always loved Alice in Wonderland so I enjoyed this very much. Even kids will understand the issue after reading this ... On a serious note, its scary to think, or rather, know, that since we are running out of oil, powerful countries use their power to garner security for their energy by waging war and by bullying countries who still have oil deposits or have capacity for uranium enrichments for nuclear power... there is war for energy or energy for war? its scary to think that countries who do not have such capacities will continue to be dependent for such resources in the future ( since the powerful countries who control the market will ensure the demand of such forms of energy) ... other resources such as water will be fought for as well... so, there goes our fucked up futures...
Vienna, Austria — Editor's note: In preparing this article about the meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, we read the news stories from all of the most reputable sources, we read the reports from all of the best institutions, we read the statements from all of the governments and agencies, but nowhere could we find a reasonable, rational, or plausible explanation of what was happening. We decided the only answer was the absurd.
Ever since Alice had slipped down the Rabbit Hole, the news had been getting curiouser and curiouser. She found herself at a very large table where the March Hare, a dormouse, a hippopotamus, and the Mad Hatter were having tea.
The Hatter was telling a story about how George W. TweedleDum had just got back from a trip to India, where he was promising to give away shiny new nuclear technology. At the same time, TweedleDee had been getting very red-faced at the United Nations about some shiny new nuclear technology in Iran that he wanted taken away. He broke off his story to wave an empty teapot at Alice.
"Would you like less tea, my dear?"
"Don't you mean more tea?" asked Alice politely.
"No no no no. We don't have any "more tea" we only have "less tea." And it's very rude to ask for what we don't have. Now, would you like some more Peaceful Nuclear Technology and Less Nuclear Weapons to go with that?"
"Umm, yes please" said Alice, thinking this must be the correct answer and not wanting to upset the Hatter again.
"There you go again, asking for what we can't possibly give you!" cried the Hatter, springing to his feet.
"How about some safe, clean nuclear power instead?" offered the dormouse helpfully.
"That sounds quite nice, I suppose," said Alice with some hesitation.
"Wrong answer! No such thing!" the Hatter shouted with glee, politely adding "One lump or two?"
Alice was quite put out. "Isn't it rude to offer something you don't have?" asked Alice. "And even ruder to offer something that doesn't exist? What kind of a tea party is this?"
"Why this is an IAEA Board of Governors meeting, my dear, and we're having an NP Tea Party!" said the March Hare, glancing nervously at a very large watch which was chiming the hour by barking loudly.
"An NP Tea Party? What's that?"
"It's all very simple," said the Hatter as he handed out slices of cake and then went around smacking everyone's hand when they started eating it, "the NPT is a treaty in which the parties that have nuclear weapons agree to get rid of their nuclear weapons in exchange for the parties that don't have nuclear weapons promising not to get nuclear weapons. As part of the incentive for not getting nuclear weapons they're rewarded with the means to make nuclear weapons. Slice of Cake?"
Alice eyed the yellow cake suspiciously. She heard a distant voice shouting "Off with their heads!"
"Now, at the moment we're discussing the case of Iran, which has signed the treaty and promised not to build nuclear weapons and so has been rewarded with the means to make nuclear weapons. But there are some people at this party who think that they're actually using those means to make nuclear weapons as a means to make nuclear weapons."
"Which they've said they don't want..." said Alice.
"Oh yes, but as you of all people should know, my dear, saying what we mean isn't always the same as meaning what we say. Saying that they aren't making nuclear weapons is just what you'd expect them to do if they were making nuclear weapons. Proof enough."
The Hatter took a slice of cake and pushed it into the face of the Hippo, who already had his mouth full. "You shouldn't eat so much cake," he sputtered.
George W. TweedleDum suddenly appeared. "Personically, I'd like to see less nuclear weapons in the world. Which is why I'm building more."
View the rest of the article
Here's a very witty lampoon-ish satirical description of the recent issues regarding nuclear power by Greenpeace (Bush and Iran and India et al)...I've always loved Alice in Wonderland so I enjoyed this very much. Even kids will understand the issue after reading this ... On a serious note, its scary to think, or rather, know, that since we are running out of oil, powerful countries use their power to garner security for their energy by waging war and by bullying countries who still have oil deposits or have capacity for uranium enrichments for nuclear power... there is war for energy or energy for war? its scary to think that countries who do not have such capacities will continue to be dependent for such resources in the future ( since the powerful countries who control the market will ensure the demand of such forms of energy) ... other resources such as water will be fought for as well... so, there goes our fucked up futures...
Check out the locations of known nuclear testing facilities, weapons facilities, et al here
Anyway, enjoy the article :) and sign up for clean power here.
Alice in Nuclear BlunderlandVienna, Austria — Editor's note: In preparing this article about the meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, we read the news stories from all of the most reputable sources, we read the reports from all of the best institutions, we read the statements from all of the governments and agencies, but nowhere could we find a reasonable, rational, or plausible explanation of what was happening. We decided the only answer was the absurd.
Ever since Alice had slipped down the Rabbit Hole, the news had been getting curiouser and curiouser. She found herself at a very large table where the March Hare, a dormouse, a hippopotamus, and the Mad Hatter were having tea.
The Hatter was telling a story about how George W. TweedleDum had just got back from a trip to India, where he was promising to give away shiny new nuclear technology. At the same time, TweedleDee had been getting very red-faced at the United Nations about some shiny new nuclear technology in Iran that he wanted taken away. He broke off his story to wave an empty teapot at Alice.
"Would you like less tea, my dear?"
"Don't you mean more tea?" asked Alice politely.
"No no no no. We don't have any "more tea" we only have "less tea." And it's very rude to ask for what we don't have. Now, would you like some more Peaceful Nuclear Technology and Less Nuclear Weapons to go with that?"
"Umm, yes please" said Alice, thinking this must be the correct answer and not wanting to upset the Hatter again.
"There you go again, asking for what we can't possibly give you!" cried the Hatter, springing to his feet.
"How about some safe, clean nuclear power instead?" offered the dormouse helpfully.
"That sounds quite nice, I suppose," said Alice with some hesitation.
"Wrong answer! No such thing!" the Hatter shouted with glee, politely adding "One lump or two?"
Alice was quite put out. "Isn't it rude to offer something you don't have?" asked Alice. "And even ruder to offer something that doesn't exist? What kind of a tea party is this?"
"Why this is an IAEA Board of Governors meeting, my dear, and we're having an NP Tea Party!" said the March Hare, glancing nervously at a very large watch which was chiming the hour by barking loudly.
"An NP Tea Party? What's that?"
"It's all very simple," said the Hatter as he handed out slices of cake and then went around smacking everyone's hand when they started eating it, "the NPT is a treaty in which the parties that have nuclear weapons agree to get rid of their nuclear weapons in exchange for the parties that don't have nuclear weapons promising not to get nuclear weapons. As part of the incentive for not getting nuclear weapons they're rewarded with the means to make nuclear weapons. Slice of Cake?"
Alice eyed the yellow cake suspiciously. She heard a distant voice shouting "Off with their heads!"
"Now, at the moment we're discussing the case of Iran, which has signed the treaty and promised not to build nuclear weapons and so has been rewarded with the means to make nuclear weapons. But there are some people at this party who think that they're actually using those means to make nuclear weapons as a means to make nuclear weapons."
"Which they've said they don't want..." said Alice.
"Oh yes, but as you of all people should know, my dear, saying what we mean isn't always the same as meaning what we say. Saying that they aren't making nuclear weapons is just what you'd expect them to do if they were making nuclear weapons. Proof enough."
The Hatter took a slice of cake and pushed it into the face of the Hippo, who already had his mouth full. "You shouldn't eat so much cake," he sputtered.
George W. TweedleDum suddenly appeared. "Personically, I'd like to see less nuclear weapons in the world. Which is why I'm building more."
View the rest of the article
Friday, March 03, 2006
Armed Forces Are Put on Standby to Tackle Threat of Wars over Water
Armed Forces Are Put on Standby to Tackle Threat of Wars over Water
by Ben Russell and Nigel Morris
Published on Tuesday, February 28, 2006 by the Independent / UK
Across the world, they are coming: the water wars. From Israel to India, from Turkey to Botswana, arguments are going on over disputed water supplies that may soon burst into open conflict.
Yesterday, Britain's Defence Secretary, John Reid, pointed to the factor hastening the violent collision between a rising world population and a shrinking world water resource: global warming.
In a grim first intervention in the climate-change debate, the Defence Secretary issued a bleak forecast that violence and political conflict would become more likely in the next 20 to 30 years as climate change turned land into desert, melted ice fields and poisoned water supplies.
Climate campaigners echoed Mr Reid's warning, and demanded that ministers redouble their efforts to curb carbon emissions.
Tony Blair will today host a crisis Downing Street summit to address what he called "the major long-term threat facing our planet", signalling alarm within Government at the political consequences of failing to deal with the spectre of global warming.
Activists are modelling their campaign on last year's Make Poverty History movement in the hope of creating immense popular pressure for action on climate change.
Mr Reid used a speech at Chatham House last night to deliver a stark assessment of the potential impact of rising temperatures on the political and human make-up of the world. He listed climate change alongside the major threats facing the world in future decades, including international terrorism, demographic changes and global energy demand.
Mr Reid signalled Britain's armed forces would have to be prepared to tackle conflicts over dwindling resources. Military planners have already started considering the potential impact of global warming for Britain's armed forces over the next 20 to 30 years. They accept some climate change is inevitable, and warn Britain must be prepared for humanitarian disaster relief, peacekeeping and warfare to deal with the dramatic social and political consequences of climate change.
Mr Reid warned of increasing uncertainty about the future of the countries least well equipped to deal with flooding, water shortages and valuable agricultural land turning to desert.
He said climate change was already a contributory factor in conflicts in Africa.
Mr Reid said: "As we look beyond the next decade, we see uncertainty growing; uncertainty about the geopolitical and human consequences of climate change.
"Impacts such as flooding, melting permafrost and desertification could lead to loss of agricultural land, poisoning of water supplies and destruction of economic infrastructure.
"More than 300 million people in Africa currently lack access to safe water; climate change will worsen this dire situation."
He added: "These changes are not just of interest to the geographer or the demographer; they will make scarce resources, clean water, viable agricultural land even scarcer.
"Such changes make the emergence of violent conflict more rather than less likely... The blunt truth is that the lack of water and agricultural land is a significant contributory factor to the tragic conflict we see unfolding in Darfur. We should see this as a warning sign."
Tony Juniper, the executive director of Friends of the Earth, said: "The science of global warming is becoming ever more certain about the scale of the problem we have, and now the implications of that for security and politics is beginning to emerge."
He said the problems could be most acute in the Middle East and North Africa.
Charlie Kornick, head of climate campaigning at the pressure group Greenpeace, said billions of people faced pressure on water supplies due to climate change across Africa, Asia and South America. He said: "If politicians realise how serious the problems could be, why are British CO2 emissions still going up?"
Tony Blair will be joined by the Chancellor Gordon Brown, the Environment Secretary, Margaret Beckett, and the International Development Secretary, Hilary Benn, at today's talks in Downing Street.
They will be meeting representatives of the recently created Stop Climate Chaos, an alliance of environmental groups including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and Oxfam. It will also meet opposition parties.
The alliance will call for the Government to commit itself to achieving a 3 per cent annual fall in carbon dioxide emissions.
The facts
* On our watery planet, 97.5 per cent of water is salt water, unfit for human use.
* Most of the fresh water is locked in the ice caps.
* The recommended basic water requirement per person per day is 50 litres. But people can get
by with about 30 litres: 5 litres for food and drink and another 25 for hygiene.
* Some countries use less than 10 litres per person per day. Gambia uses 4.5, Mali 8, Somalia
8.9, and Mozambique 9.3.
* By contrast the average US citizen uses 500 litres per day, and the British average is 200.
* In the West, it takes about eight litres to brush our teeth, 10 to 35 litres to flush a lavatory, and 100
to 200 litres to take a shower.
* The litres of water needed to produce a kilo of:
by Ben Russell and Nigel Morris
Published on Tuesday, February 28, 2006 by the Independent / UK
Across the world, they are coming: the water wars. From Israel to India, from Turkey to Botswana, arguments are going on over disputed water supplies that may soon burst into open conflict.
Yesterday, Britain's Defence Secretary, John Reid, pointed to the factor hastening the violent collision between a rising world population and a shrinking world water resource: global warming.
In a grim first intervention in the climate-change debate, the Defence Secretary issued a bleak forecast that violence and political conflict would become more likely in the next 20 to 30 years as climate change turned land into desert, melted ice fields and poisoned water supplies.
Climate campaigners echoed Mr Reid's warning, and demanded that ministers redouble their efforts to curb carbon emissions.
Tony Blair will today host a crisis Downing Street summit to address what he called "the major long-term threat facing our planet", signalling alarm within Government at the political consequences of failing to deal with the spectre of global warming.
Activists are modelling their campaign on last year's Make Poverty History movement in the hope of creating immense popular pressure for action on climate change.
Mr Reid used a speech at Chatham House last night to deliver a stark assessment of the potential impact of rising temperatures on the political and human make-up of the world. He listed climate change alongside the major threats facing the world in future decades, including international terrorism, demographic changes and global energy demand.
Mr Reid signalled Britain's armed forces would have to be prepared to tackle conflicts over dwindling resources. Military planners have already started considering the potential impact of global warming for Britain's armed forces over the next 20 to 30 years. They accept some climate change is inevitable, and warn Britain must be prepared for humanitarian disaster relief, peacekeeping and warfare to deal with the dramatic social and political consequences of climate change.
Mr Reid warned of increasing uncertainty about the future of the countries least well equipped to deal with flooding, water shortages and valuable agricultural land turning to desert.
He said climate change was already a contributory factor in conflicts in Africa.
Mr Reid said: "As we look beyond the next decade, we see uncertainty growing; uncertainty about the geopolitical and human consequences of climate change.
"Impacts such as flooding, melting permafrost and desertification could lead to loss of agricultural land, poisoning of water supplies and destruction of economic infrastructure.
"More than 300 million people in Africa currently lack access to safe water; climate change will worsen this dire situation."
He added: "These changes are not just of interest to the geographer or the demographer; they will make scarce resources, clean water, viable agricultural land even scarcer.
"Such changes make the emergence of violent conflict more rather than less likely... The blunt truth is that the lack of water and agricultural land is a significant contributory factor to the tragic conflict we see unfolding in Darfur. We should see this as a warning sign."
Tony Juniper, the executive director of Friends of the Earth, said: "The science of global warming is becoming ever more certain about the scale of the problem we have, and now the implications of that for security and politics is beginning to emerge."
He said the problems could be most acute in the Middle East and North Africa.
Charlie Kornick, head of climate campaigning at the pressure group Greenpeace, said billions of people faced pressure on water supplies due to climate change across Africa, Asia and South America. He said: "If politicians realise how serious the problems could be, why are British CO2 emissions still going up?"
Tony Blair will be joined by the Chancellor Gordon Brown, the Environment Secretary, Margaret Beckett, and the International Development Secretary, Hilary Benn, at today's talks in Downing Street.
They will be meeting representatives of the recently created Stop Climate Chaos, an alliance of environmental groups including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and Oxfam. It will also meet opposition parties.
The alliance will call for the Government to commit itself to achieving a 3 per cent annual fall in carbon dioxide emissions.
The facts
* On our watery planet, 97.5 per cent of water is salt water, unfit for human use.
* Most of the fresh water is locked in the ice caps.
* The recommended basic water requirement per person per day is 50 litres. But people can get
by with about 30 litres: 5 litres for food and drink and another 25 for hygiene.
* Some countries use less than 10 litres per person per day. Gambia uses 4.5, Mali 8, Somalia
8.9, and Mozambique 9.3.
* By contrast the average US citizen uses 500 litres per day, and the British average is 200.
* In the West, it takes about eight litres to brush our teeth, 10 to 35 litres to flush a lavatory, and 100
to 200 litres to take a shower.
* The litres of water needed to produce a kilo of:
- Potatoes 1,000
- Maize 1,400
- Wheat 1,450
- Chicken 4,600
- Beef 42,500
Monday, February 27, 2006
Bring back the rainforest
Bring back the rainforest
NATURE FOR LIFE
By Anabelle E. Plantilla
From Manila Times Internet Edition
HARIBON deeply sympathizes with the victims of the massive landslide in Guinsaugon, Leyte.
At the same time, we commend the rescue measures and support being provided by almost all sectors of the society and even by the international community to ease human suffering in the devastated areas.
It is unfortunate indeed that Southern Leyte lies within a fault line. Its location makes it a geologic hazard area, which is susceptible to landslides. According to the Mines and Geosciences Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, there are usually four causes of landslides and floods in Leyte and Surigao: unusually heavy rains, numerous faults/fractures and badly broken rocks, steep slopes and the absence of effective vegetative cover.
Guinsaugon had experienced an unusually high amount of rainfall when the tragedy happened. Weather experts attribute this to climate change, one of the contributory factors being deforestation. Its steep slope also makes it highly susceptible to landslide, especially with the absence of a forest cover. While experts look into the geologic causes, it is also equally important to point out that Guinsaugon was once a forested area. In less than a century though, it has been transformed into coconut plantation and human settlement.
Despite its dangerous location, a forest cover and humus on the forest floor could have possibly lessened the impact of heavy rains. Thick forest canopy absorbs the first heavy impact of rain, such that water slowly trickles down the forest floor and rock crevices. The forests also have a very important role in mitigating climate change since they act as carbon sink for greenhouse atmospheric gases that can alter the weather patterns.
While there are many causes of landslides and floods, we should focus on interventions that can be addressed by humans, one of which is ensuring ample and effective forest cover. Another is ensuring that proper land-use zoning is effected now so that no settlements will be situated within identified geo-hazard zones or disaster-prone areas.
We are racing against time. More environmental disasters can happen at a rate more frequent than before, and with impact that can devastate the human spirit. It is time to act now. There is no mWhile opportunity to act still presents itself, we call on every Filipino to help in any way they can to revive our dying forests. Let’s all join hands now in planting seeds of hope in denuded forestlands before another land is wiped out and before another community becomes lifeless. Please join us in bringing back the rainforest. Let us plant indigenous tree species today.
Original Link to Article
NATURE FOR LIFE
By Anabelle E. Plantilla
From Manila Times Internet Edition
HARIBON deeply sympathizes with the victims of the massive landslide in Guinsaugon, Leyte.
At the same time, we commend the rescue measures and support being provided by almost all sectors of the society and even by the international community to ease human suffering in the devastated areas.
It is unfortunate indeed that Southern Leyte lies within a fault line. Its location makes it a geologic hazard area, which is susceptible to landslides. According to the Mines and Geosciences Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, there are usually four causes of landslides and floods in Leyte and Surigao: unusually heavy rains, numerous faults/fractures and badly broken rocks, steep slopes and the absence of effective vegetative cover.
Guinsaugon had experienced an unusually high amount of rainfall when the tragedy happened. Weather experts attribute this to climate change, one of the contributory factors being deforestation. Its steep slope also makes it highly susceptible to landslide, especially with the absence of a forest cover. While experts look into the geologic causes, it is also equally important to point out that Guinsaugon was once a forested area. In less than a century though, it has been transformed into coconut plantation and human settlement.
Despite its dangerous location, a forest cover and humus on the forest floor could have possibly lessened the impact of heavy rains. Thick forest canopy absorbs the first heavy impact of rain, such that water slowly trickles down the forest floor and rock crevices. The forests also have a very important role in mitigating climate change since they act as carbon sink for greenhouse atmospheric gases that can alter the weather patterns.
While there are many causes of landslides and floods, we should focus on interventions that can be addressed by humans, one of which is ensuring ample and effective forest cover. Another is ensuring that proper land-use zoning is effected now so that no settlements will be situated within identified geo-hazard zones or disaster-prone areas.
We are racing against time. More environmental disasters can happen at a rate more frequent than before, and with impact that can devastate the human spirit. It is time to act now. There is no mWhile opportunity to act still presents itself, we call on every Filipino to help in any way they can to revive our dying forests. Let’s all join hands now in planting seeds of hope in denuded forestlands before another land is wiped out and before another community becomes lifeless. Please join us in bringing back the rainforest. Let us plant indigenous tree species today.
Original Link to Article
Monday, February 20, 2006
Priest: A woman foretold tragedy
I remember when I was eight or nine when the Ormoc tragedy happened and our homeroom teacher told us a story of an old woman in Ormoc, asking for water. She was shunned away by the villagers. The floods and landslides occurrsed soon after... (?) Anyway, be it true or not... such tragedies could have been prevented. Studies from geological and mining groups as well as the denr's surveilance should have been able to foretell and warn these residents.
Priest: A woman foretold tragedy
Published: 19 February 2006
by Malou Apalisok
Cebu Daily News
THREE days before the mountainside collapsed on a village in St. Bernard, Southern Leyte, an old woman went to see the parish priest to warn of a coming calamity.
Her name was Carmen and she was known to be a devout woman in barangay Giunsaugon, said Fr. Bonito Labrador, parish priest in an interview with radio station dyRF in Cebu City.
She came to see him in the afternoon of February 14.
"Padre naa koy isulti nimo.Gisugo ko sa Ginoo. Tulo ka adlaw gikan karon ang Ginoo mokuha og daghang mga tawo. (Father, I have something to tell you. God told me to tell you this. Three days from now God will take the lives of many people)," she said.
Fr. Labrador said he didn't think the woman was serious so he replied, "Ingna lang ang Ginoo di lang ipalahos (Just tell God not to let it happen)."
"Pero kagahapon, pagkahitabo, akong giihap three days gikan sa Feb. 14. (But yesterday, on Friday, when it happened I counted and it was three days after Feb. 14.)
The priest said his hair stood on end when he heard about the tragedy and recalled the woman's message.
Fr. Labrador, who lives in Cebu City, was in Cebu when the tragedy happened. He belongs to the Diocese of Maasin under Bishop Precioso Cantillas.
Although he couldn't remember her last name, he recognized Carmen as a member of a charismatic group and the Holy Face community. Her message, according to the priest was "prophetic."
Fr. Labrador said he believed Carmen perished in the tragedy.
The priest said he had spent the whole day blessing the dead, praying over corpses in groups of five and six. As of 4 p.m. yesterday, he placed the dead at 43 and survivors at 57. He described efforts to rescue victims as "impossible" because the mud that covered Ginsaugon reached 20 feet deep.
Leyte Vice Gov. Miguel Maamo in a separate interview over radio dyRF confirmed this, saying rescue teams decided to undertake a "surface retrieval."
This means only bodies seen from the surface would be taken. The barangay has a population of a little more than 2,000.
Original Link to Article
just a little tribute to those who have not been rescued yet, especially these children. i was looking for inspiring features about the landslide so i can see a different light amidst all the grim articles. i still hope that they are still alive. please say prayers and wishes for their immediate resuce because they really work - especially if in a herd.
Buried school was home to math wizards
First posted 02:09am (Mla time)
Feb 20, 2006
By Volt Contreras
Inquirer Editor's Note: Published on page A22 of the Feb. 20, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
ST. BERNARD, Southern Leyte -- It was one of the town's best performing public schools, its pupils especially excelling in math competitions and academic exams.
That was Guinsaugon Elementary School before it became a virtual tomb last Friday.
Three days after a massive landslide, the fate of pupils full of promise despite their poverty, and of teachers dedicated to their calling despite their meager pay, remained uncertain.
Earlier, rescuers retrieved the remains of Gloria Navos, the teacher-coach of the Grade III pupils that emerged as champions in last year's Math Challenge. She also mentored this year's team that won 3rd place in the same competition.
Team of wizards
Along with more than 50 bodies taken to a barangay hall now serving as a makeshift morgue, Navos was positively identified through her wedding ring, District Superintendent Erlinda Diaz said in an interview yesterday.
Presumed trapped in one of the four GES school buildings are Navos' 2006 team of Grade I math wizards, Aira Mae Solis, Jeffrey Coquilla and Marvin Berdon, according to Diaz, citing records of the annual contest among the 27 public elementary schools in St. Bernard.
The Grade I pupils' victory was no fluke: Also this year, the GES teams from Grades II, III and V all placed 2nd in their respective categories, Diaz noted.
The school has long built a sterling reputation with its classroom aces.
Diaz said it ranked No. 2 in terms of the average scores posted by its pupils across all levels during the District Achievement Test last school year.
If other major indicators are considered, like the Division and National tests, GES was ranked 3.5 overall that same year, she said.
"It's never far behind when it comes to academics and teachers' performance," she said, noting that while Barangay Guinsaugon may be relatively poor compared to urban villages, she doesn't recall it having alarming cases of malnutrition or dropouts among its pupils.
'Idyllic spot'
The school official said GES pupils must have been "reviewing" for this year's division test scheduled on Feb. 24 covering the key subjects English, math, science and Makabayan -- when disaster struck.
She believed the majority of the pupils finished with their morning recess and were inside their classrooms when portions of nearby Mt. Kan-Abag came tumbling down on the village at around 10:30 a.m. that fateful day.
Official figures placed the number of GES students at 246.
Diaz said the campus was already there, occupying its otherwise idyllic spot by a lush mountain, the day she first moved to St. Bernard in 1968.
This means the villagers had never considered the school -- or their homes -- to be in a dangerous location, she noted.
That was until Mt. Kan-Abag moved and bitterly snapped the winning streak of the school's fledgling math Olympians and budding topnotchers.
Original Link to Article
Priest: A woman foretold tragedy
Published: 19 February 2006
by Malou Apalisok
Cebu Daily News
THREE days before the mountainside collapsed on a village in St. Bernard, Southern Leyte, an old woman went to see the parish priest to warn of a coming calamity.
Her name was Carmen and she was known to be a devout woman in barangay Giunsaugon, said Fr. Bonito Labrador, parish priest in an interview with radio station dyRF in Cebu City.
She came to see him in the afternoon of February 14.
"Padre naa koy isulti nimo.Gisugo ko sa Ginoo. Tulo ka adlaw gikan karon ang Ginoo mokuha og daghang mga tawo. (Father, I have something to tell you. God told me to tell you this. Three days from now God will take the lives of many people)," she said.
Fr. Labrador said he didn't think the woman was serious so he replied, "Ingna lang ang Ginoo di lang ipalahos (Just tell God not to let it happen)."
"Pero kagahapon, pagkahitabo, akong giihap three days gikan sa Feb. 14. (But yesterday, on Friday, when it happened I counted and it was three days after Feb. 14.)
The priest said his hair stood on end when he heard about the tragedy and recalled the woman's message.
Fr. Labrador, who lives in Cebu City, was in Cebu when the tragedy happened. He belongs to the Diocese of Maasin under Bishop Precioso Cantillas.
Although he couldn't remember her last name, he recognized Carmen as a member of a charismatic group and the Holy Face community. Her message, according to the priest was "prophetic."
Fr. Labrador said he believed Carmen perished in the tragedy.
The priest said he had spent the whole day blessing the dead, praying over corpses in groups of five and six. As of 4 p.m. yesterday, he placed the dead at 43 and survivors at 57. He described efforts to rescue victims as "impossible" because the mud that covered Ginsaugon reached 20 feet deep.
Leyte Vice Gov. Miguel Maamo in a separate interview over radio dyRF confirmed this, saying rescue teams decided to undertake a "surface retrieval."
This means only bodies seen from the surface would be taken. The barangay has a population of a little more than 2,000.
Original Link to Article
just a little tribute to those who have not been rescued yet, especially these children. i was looking for inspiring features about the landslide so i can see a different light amidst all the grim articles. i still hope that they are still alive. please say prayers and wishes for their immediate resuce because they really work - especially if in a herd.
Buried school was home to math wizards
First posted 02:09am (Mla time)
Feb 20, 2006
By Volt Contreras
Inquirer Editor's Note: Published on page A22 of the Feb. 20, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
ST. BERNARD, Southern Leyte -- It was one of the town's best performing public schools, its pupils especially excelling in math competitions and academic exams.
That was Guinsaugon Elementary School before it became a virtual tomb last Friday.
Three days after a massive landslide, the fate of pupils full of promise despite their poverty, and of teachers dedicated to their calling despite their meager pay, remained uncertain.
Earlier, rescuers retrieved the remains of Gloria Navos, the teacher-coach of the Grade III pupils that emerged as champions in last year's Math Challenge. She also mentored this year's team that won 3rd place in the same competition.
Team of wizards
Along with more than 50 bodies taken to a barangay hall now serving as a makeshift morgue, Navos was positively identified through her wedding ring, District Superintendent Erlinda Diaz said in an interview yesterday.
Presumed trapped in one of the four GES school buildings are Navos' 2006 team of Grade I math wizards, Aira Mae Solis, Jeffrey Coquilla and Marvin Berdon, according to Diaz, citing records of the annual contest among the 27 public elementary schools in St. Bernard.
The Grade I pupils' victory was no fluke: Also this year, the GES teams from Grades II, III and V all placed 2nd in their respective categories, Diaz noted.
The school has long built a sterling reputation with its classroom aces.
Diaz said it ranked No. 2 in terms of the average scores posted by its pupils across all levels during the District Achievement Test last school year.
If other major indicators are considered, like the Division and National tests, GES was ranked 3.5 overall that same year, she said.
"It's never far behind when it comes to academics and teachers' performance," she said, noting that while Barangay Guinsaugon may be relatively poor compared to urban villages, she doesn't recall it having alarming cases of malnutrition or dropouts among its pupils.
'Idyllic spot'
The school official said GES pupils must have been "reviewing" for this year's division test scheduled on Feb. 24 covering the key subjects English, math, science and Makabayan -- when disaster struck.
She believed the majority of the pupils finished with their morning recess and were inside their classrooms when portions of nearby Mt. Kan-Abag came tumbling down on the village at around 10:30 a.m. that fateful day.
Official figures placed the number of GES students at 246.
Diaz said the campus was already there, occupying its otherwise idyllic spot by a lush mountain, the day she first moved to St. Bernard in 1968.
This means the villagers had never considered the school -- or their homes -- to be in a dangerous location, she noted.
That was until Mt. Kan-Abag moved and bitterly snapped the winning streak of the school's fledgling math Olympians and budding topnotchers.
Original Link to Article
WHAT WE CAN DO :
Donations - clothes, banigs, food, medicine to your local churches or deposit donations to your local banks ( they will have account numbers for GMA foundation or ABS CBN or other account holders where you can deposit). Will post other deposit sites soon.
What's with La Niña? What's causing it? One key and major cause is the rise in global warming levels which fuels intense weather like el niño and la niña, forest fires, drought, extreme winters ( you need not read too much, just feel the weather!!!!, well, check out the news too!)
Sign up for clean energy! Dirty energy like oil and coal is adding up to global warming. Click here to join the Star Power for Clean Power Campaign by Greenpeace and ask our government to make at least 10% of our energy to be produced from clean and renewable resources.
Also, join the virtual march on Stop Global Warming.org
Well, let's minimize our use of energy - commute and don't pollute! hehe
Friday, February 17, 2006
The miracles we miss every minute
The miracles we miss every minute
Rob Brezsny
This article appeared in Ode issue: 31
Rob Brezsny has been diagnosed with pronoia—the opposite of paranoia. He sees a conspiracy of goodness in the world and invites you to become co-conspirator.
Thousands of things go right for you every day, beginning the moment you wake up. Through some magic you don’t fully understand, you’re still breathing and your heart is beating, even though you’ve been unconscious for many hours. The air is a mix of gases that’s just right for your body’s needs. You can see! Light of many colours floods into your eyes, registered by nerves that took God or evolution or some other process millions of years to perfect. The gift of these vivid hues comes to you courtesy of an unimaginably immense globe of fire, the sun, which continually detonates nuclear reactions in order to convert its body into light and heat and energy for your personal use.
You can walk! Your legs work wonderfully well. Your heart circulates your blood to provide the energy for the muscles in your feet and calves and thighs, and when the blood is depleted, it finds its way back to your heart to be replenished. This blessing recurs over and over again without stopping, every minute of your life.
In your bathroom, the toilet is functioning perfectly, as are several other convenient devices. You have at your disposal soaps, creams, razors, clippers, tooth-cleaning accessories—a host of products that enhance your hygiene and appearance. You trust that unidentified scientists somewhere have tested them to be sure they’re safe for you to use. Amazingly, the water you need so much of comes out of your faucets at the volume you want, and runs as cold or hot as you desire. It’s pure and clean; you’re confident no parasites are lurking in it. In your closet are clothes you like to wear. Who gathered the materials to make the fabrics they’re made of? Who imbued them with colors, and how did they do it? Who sewed them for you?
In your kitchen, appetizing food in secure packaging is waiting for you. Many people you’ve never met worked hard to grow it, process it and get it to the store where you bought it. The bounty of tasty nourishment you have to choose from is unprecedented in the history of the world.
Your many appliances are working flawlessly. Despite the fact that they run on electricity, which could kill you instantly if you touched it directly, you feel no fear. Why? Your faith in the people who invented, designed and produced these machines is impressive. It’s as if there was a benevolent conspiracy of unknown people who are tirelessly creating hundreds of useful things you like and need.
And there’s more. By some improbable series of coincidences or a long-term divine plan, language has come into existence. Millions of people have collaborated for many centuries to cultivate a system for communication that you understand well.
You’ve been awake, and a hundred things have already gone right for you. If three of those hundred things had not gone right—your toaster was broken, the hot water wasn’t hot enough, there was a stain on the pants you wanted to wear—you might feel that the universe was against you, your luck was bad, nothing was going right. Yet the vast majority of things still would be working with breathtaking efficiency and consistency.
Rob Brezsny is one of America’s most widely read astrologers. His syndicated column, Free Will Astrology (www.freewillastrology.com), stands out from the others with its poetic sensibility and philosophical depth.
Taken and adapted with kind permission from the publisher of Rob Brezsny’s book Pronoia is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings (Frog Ltd./North Atlantic Books, June 2005), excerpted in the superb literary magazine The Sun (November 2005).
Original Link to Article
Rob Brezsny
This article appeared in Ode issue: 31
Rob Brezsny has been diagnosed with pronoia—the opposite of paranoia. He sees a conspiracy of goodness in the world and invites you to become co-conspirator.
Thousands of things go right for you every day, beginning the moment you wake up. Through some magic you don’t fully understand, you’re still breathing and your heart is beating, even though you’ve been unconscious for many hours. The air is a mix of gases that’s just right for your body’s needs. You can see! Light of many colours floods into your eyes, registered by nerves that took God or evolution or some other process millions of years to perfect. The gift of these vivid hues comes to you courtesy of an unimaginably immense globe of fire, the sun, which continually detonates nuclear reactions in order to convert its body into light and heat and energy for your personal use.
You can walk! Your legs work wonderfully well. Your heart circulates your blood to provide the energy for the muscles in your feet and calves and thighs, and when the blood is depleted, it finds its way back to your heart to be replenished. This blessing recurs over and over again without stopping, every minute of your life.
In your bathroom, the toilet is functioning perfectly, as are several other convenient devices. You have at your disposal soaps, creams, razors, clippers, tooth-cleaning accessories—a host of products that enhance your hygiene and appearance. You trust that unidentified scientists somewhere have tested them to be sure they’re safe for you to use. Amazingly, the water you need so much of comes out of your faucets at the volume you want, and runs as cold or hot as you desire. It’s pure and clean; you’re confident no parasites are lurking in it. In your closet are clothes you like to wear. Who gathered the materials to make the fabrics they’re made of? Who imbued them with colors, and how did they do it? Who sewed them for you?
In your kitchen, appetizing food in secure packaging is waiting for you. Many people you’ve never met worked hard to grow it, process it and get it to the store where you bought it. The bounty of tasty nourishment you have to choose from is unprecedented in the history of the world.
Your many appliances are working flawlessly. Despite the fact that they run on electricity, which could kill you instantly if you touched it directly, you feel no fear. Why? Your faith in the people who invented, designed and produced these machines is impressive. It’s as if there was a benevolent conspiracy of unknown people who are tirelessly creating hundreds of useful things you like and need.
And there’s more. By some improbable series of coincidences or a long-term divine plan, language has come into existence. Millions of people have collaborated for many centuries to cultivate a system for communication that you understand well.
You’ve been awake, and a hundred things have already gone right for you. If three of those hundred things had not gone right—your toaster was broken, the hot water wasn’t hot enough, there was a stain on the pants you wanted to wear—you might feel that the universe was against you, your luck was bad, nothing was going right. Yet the vast majority of things still would be working with breathtaking efficiency and consistency.
Rob Brezsny is one of America’s most widely read astrologers. His syndicated column, Free Will Astrology (www.freewillastrology.com), stands out from the others with its poetic sensibility and philosophical depth.
Taken and adapted with kind permission from the publisher of Rob Brezsny’s book Pronoia is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings (Frog Ltd./North Atlantic Books, June 2005), excerpted in the superb literary magazine The Sun (November 2005).
Original Link to Article
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Thousands of child 'witches' turned on to the streets to starve
I think the witches are the parents or singles who don't practice family planning and blame their children for their misfortunes. I bet these children wish they really knew how to fly.
Thousands of child 'witches' turned on to the streets to starve
Kinshasa sects make fortunes from exorcisms
Richard Dowden in Kinshasa
Sunday February 12, 2006
The Observer
Original Link to Article
Naomi is 15 but looks 10. A horrible burn scar shrivels the skin across her chest and shoulder. She had a broken leg, now reset. But her face is calm; she speaks clearly. The physical scars are nothing compared with the trauma she has been through. She is one of the so-called child witches of Kinshasa, rejected by her family and community at six years old and left to survive on the streets.
Once she had four siblings and lived with her parents across the river in Brazzaville. Her father died and then her mother. She had to live with her grandfather and aunt, who did not want her. 'Grandfather become sick and my aunt accused me of being a witch. She said, "Why is everyone around sick? They are suffering because of you." Grandfather gave me special water to drink, but it made no difference.
'My aunt said I must leave. The neighbours beat me and burnt me. They said either you must admit to being a witch or we will kill you. There is no place for you here. I went to the church, but they gave me water to drink that made me sick. I said to neighbours, let me sleep somewhere, even in your toilet, but they refused. I was caught by some soldiers and they said, you are a witch - we saw you flying with birds. They said they were going to kill me, but I escaped.'
Naomi gives a smile as she recounts how she found another church which took her in and sent her to Kinshasa. She has ended up in a hostel run by War Child. She is lucky. Tens of thousands of children live in the cemeteries, markets and streets of Kinshasa feeding on rubbish, begging and stealing. Most are there because of witchcraft accusations - mostly from their own families. The phenomenon is spreading, with recent cases of child abuse motivated by the belief that the child is possessed by evil spirits, showing up in London, Paris and Amsterdam.
I found Nelphy Lelu, a lanky 14-year-old, in another Kinshasa hostel. He has British citizenship and until recently he went to New Rush Hall School in Hainault, north-east London, and speaks with a soft London accent. He dreamt a man in black was trying to kill him and told his mother, who took him to a church in Tottenham, where the pastor declared him to be a witch. His mother beat him and he was taken into care before his mother brought him to Kinshasa. There he was sent to his grandmother, where the beatings continued.
As Congolese society has disintegrated, undermined by the country's rulers and ravaged by Aids and poverty, the family has collapsed. Children have been the main victims, often accused of witchcraft when families suffer misfortunes.
'Thirty years ago this did not exist,' says Remy Mafu, the director of the Rejeer project for street children. 'Now it's a huge problem and difficult to know how to deal with it.'
He estimates there are between 25,000 and 50,000 children on the streets of Kinshasa, a city of seven million. Many - if not most - have been accused of witchcraft and rejected by their families. The roots lie in a distorted development of African culture. Witchcraft does not mean in Africa what it means in Europe. Traditionally in Congo, every community had mediums who communicated with spirits in the other world. These were usually older people, revered and respected. The spirits they communed with or were possessed by were usually neither good nor bad, simply powerful.
'In African culture, when something goes wrong, we ask the spirits to find the human cause,' Mafu explains. 'These days children are accused. They can be persuaded to accept it's their fault. They tell themselves "it is me, I am evil".'
Then there are the new fundamentalist Christian sects, of which there are thousands in Kinshasa. They make money out of identifying 'witches' and increasingly parents bring troublesome children to the pastors. 'It's a business,' says Mafu. 'For a fee of $5 or $10 they investigate the children and confirm they are possessed. For a further fee they take the child and exorcise them, often keeping them without food for days, beating and torturing them to chase out the devil.'
Children who do well in school can also be accused of witchcraft. The common charge is they have been seen flying or eating human flesh. Their confessions of killing and eating relatives are broadcast live on TV channels owned by evangelical churches. What once seemed aberrations from extremist sects now seem to be becoming commonplace.
Thousands of child 'witches' turned on to the streets to starve
Kinshasa sects make fortunes from exorcisms
Richard Dowden in Kinshasa
Sunday February 12, 2006
The Observer
Original Link to Article
Naomi is 15 but looks 10. A horrible burn scar shrivels the skin across her chest and shoulder. She had a broken leg, now reset. But her face is calm; she speaks clearly. The physical scars are nothing compared with the trauma she has been through. She is one of the so-called child witches of Kinshasa, rejected by her family and community at six years old and left to survive on the streets.
Once she had four siblings and lived with her parents across the river in Brazzaville. Her father died and then her mother. She had to live with her grandfather and aunt, who did not want her. 'Grandfather become sick and my aunt accused me of being a witch. She said, "Why is everyone around sick? They are suffering because of you." Grandfather gave me special water to drink, but it made no difference.
'My aunt said I must leave. The neighbours beat me and burnt me. They said either you must admit to being a witch or we will kill you. There is no place for you here. I went to the church, but they gave me water to drink that made me sick. I said to neighbours, let me sleep somewhere, even in your toilet, but they refused. I was caught by some soldiers and they said, you are a witch - we saw you flying with birds. They said they were going to kill me, but I escaped.'
Naomi gives a smile as she recounts how she found another church which took her in and sent her to Kinshasa. She has ended up in a hostel run by War Child. She is lucky. Tens of thousands of children live in the cemeteries, markets and streets of Kinshasa feeding on rubbish, begging and stealing. Most are there because of witchcraft accusations - mostly from their own families. The phenomenon is spreading, with recent cases of child abuse motivated by the belief that the child is possessed by evil spirits, showing up in London, Paris and Amsterdam.
I found Nelphy Lelu, a lanky 14-year-old, in another Kinshasa hostel. He has British citizenship and until recently he went to New Rush Hall School in Hainault, north-east London, and speaks with a soft London accent. He dreamt a man in black was trying to kill him and told his mother, who took him to a church in Tottenham, where the pastor declared him to be a witch. His mother beat him and he was taken into care before his mother brought him to Kinshasa. There he was sent to his grandmother, where the beatings continued.
As Congolese society has disintegrated, undermined by the country's rulers and ravaged by Aids and poverty, the family has collapsed. Children have been the main victims, often accused of witchcraft when families suffer misfortunes.
'Thirty years ago this did not exist,' says Remy Mafu, the director of the Rejeer project for street children. 'Now it's a huge problem and difficult to know how to deal with it.'
He estimates there are between 25,000 and 50,000 children on the streets of Kinshasa, a city of seven million. Many - if not most - have been accused of witchcraft and rejected by their families. The roots lie in a distorted development of African culture. Witchcraft does not mean in Africa what it means in Europe. Traditionally in Congo, every community had mediums who communicated with spirits in the other world. These were usually older people, revered and respected. The spirits they communed with or were possessed by were usually neither good nor bad, simply powerful.
'In African culture, when something goes wrong, we ask the spirits to find the human cause,' Mafu explains. 'These days children are accused. They can be persuaded to accept it's their fault. They tell themselves "it is me, I am evil".'
Then there are the new fundamentalist Christian sects, of which there are thousands in Kinshasa. They make money out of identifying 'witches' and increasingly parents bring troublesome children to the pastors. 'It's a business,' says Mafu. 'For a fee of $5 or $10 they investigate the children and confirm they are possessed. For a further fee they take the child and exorcise them, often keeping them without food for days, beating and torturing them to chase out the devil.'
Children who do well in school can also be accused of witchcraft. The common charge is they have been seen flying or eating human flesh. Their confessions of killing and eating relatives are broadcast live on TV channels owned by evangelical churches. What once seemed aberrations from extremist sects now seem to be becoming commonplace.
Saturday, February 11, 2006
World Press Photo Releases 2005 Winners
I've always recognized photojournalism as an artform and have always wanted to be a photojournalist since I was sixteen heee :) I only got my first camera, a Nikon FM 10 when I was eighteen and experimented with my best friend for nude photos then eventually overexposed photographs of streetchildren Ive worked with I dont know if I will ever be good as these photojournalists... sigh ... Anyway, view the winning photos for this year here. Also, don't miss the World Press Photo Exhibit at the Ayala Museum this May.
Photographer Finbarr O’Reilly wins premier award
The international jury of the 49th annual World Press Photo contest selected a color image of the Canadian photographer Finbarr O'Reilly of Reuters as World Press Photo of the Year 2005. The picture shows the emaciated fingers of a one-year-old child pressed against the lips of his mother at an emergency feeding clinic in Niger. A devastating swarm of locusts and the worst drought in decades left millions of people short of food in the African state. The picture was taken in Tahoua, northwestern Niger, on 1 August 2005.
World Press Photo jury chairman James Colton described the winning image: "This picture has haunted me ever since I first saw it two weeks ago. It has stayed in my head, even after seeing all the thousands of others during the competition. This image has everything - beauty, horror and despair. It is simple, elegant and moving."
text sourced from www.worldpressphoto.com; photo sourced from www.reuters.com
Greenpeace wins World Press Photo award for effects of climate change and nuclear power,- no prizes for those who cause them
Amsterdam, 10 February 2006 -- Greenpeace International has won two prizes at the prestigious World Press Photo awards for images depicting the drought in the Amazon last year and the lingering effects of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.The awards come on the day that scientists revealed the climate is at its warmest in the Northern hemisphere for more than 1,200 years (1) and just two months before the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl explosion. The photographs are a timely reminder of the failure of governments and corporations to act in the past, and the job still to be done to stop dangerous climate change and the ugly reality of nuclear power. "There are no prizes for those who made these photographs a reality," said International Executive Director Gerd Leipold. "The images are a graphic warning of the consequences of the global obsession with dirty energy at the expense of communities and the environment." The photographs were taken by Greenpeace commissioned photographers Daniel Beltra and Robert Knoth."The pictures are all the more powerful, not just because of their quality, but also because of the message they send. They are a view of the present, but also a glimpse of what the future might look like unless action is taken now," said Greenpeace International photo editor John Novis.
NOTES:(1)The Spatial Extent of 20th-Century Warmth in the Context of the Past 1200 Years -Timothy J. Osborn and Keith R. Briffa; Science 10 February 2006
Greenpeace demands Governments and corporations invest in renewable energy and energy efficiency and massively reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, to combat dangerous climate change.
April 26th is the 20th anniversary of the world's worst nuclear accident, at Chernobyl.An exhibition of Robert's portraits of nuclear devastation in the former Soviet Union will be launched internationally in April.
Robert Knoth won an 'Honourable Mention' - Link to Photo
Daniel Beltra won 3rd Prize in the Nature category. - Link to Photo
For more information please contact:Sara Holden, Greenpeace International Communications, Amsterdam +31 615 007 406John Novis, Greenpeace International Photo editor - in Beijing, China: +86 139 100 98563
Friday, February 10, 2006
Anatomy of Humiliation in Desire
Anatomy of Humiliation in Desire
choreographies nina hayuma habulan / donna miranda / jethro pioquinto
visual design future prospects
sound design ria muñoz and pow martinez
with kit sanchez / proseso gelladuga / ava maureen villanueva / issa lopez
16-17 FEBRUARY 2006 / 9PM
GREEN PAPAYA ART PROJECTS
TICKET P100
Anatomy of Humiliation in Desire (Anatomy Project 3) is a collaborative research project by artists from diverse disciplines as contemporary dance, video, new media and sound, that captures the awkward, hesitation and poignant in human relationships. It aims to investigate the paradox of love by venturing into the ambiguous space that separates love from hate, violence and tenderness, anticipation and hesitation, fear and bewilderment. Dancers research on the physicality of naïve and inexplicable emotions by exploring the gestures, movement and bodily attitude suggesting the violence, fear, irony, humor and humiliation of falling in love. Both audience and artists attempt the cartography of humiliation in desire in an evening of frenzied awkwardness, anxious hesitation, laughter and frustration.
A collaborative project of Green Papaya Art Projects and Future Prospects with support from the National Commission from Culture and the Arts (NCCA) special thanks to Airdance
Green Papaya Art Projects www.greenpapaya.org
124A Maginhawa St., Teachers Village East, Diliman, Quezon City Phone/Fax 9262096 or 0917 5013401
choreographies nina hayuma habulan / donna miranda / jethro pioquinto
visual design future prospects
sound design ria muñoz and pow martinez
with kit sanchez / proseso gelladuga / ava maureen villanueva / issa lopez
16-17 FEBRUARY 2006 / 9PM
GREEN PAPAYA ART PROJECTS
TICKET P100
Anatomy of Humiliation in Desire (Anatomy Project 3) is a collaborative research project by artists from diverse disciplines as contemporary dance, video, new media and sound, that captures the awkward, hesitation and poignant in human relationships. It aims to investigate the paradox of love by venturing into the ambiguous space that separates love from hate, violence and tenderness, anticipation and hesitation, fear and bewilderment. Dancers research on the physicality of naïve and inexplicable emotions by exploring the gestures, movement and bodily attitude suggesting the violence, fear, irony, humor and humiliation of falling in love. Both audience and artists attempt the cartography of humiliation in desire in an evening of frenzied awkwardness, anxious hesitation, laughter and frustration.
A collaborative project of Green Papaya Art Projects and Future Prospects with support from the National Commission from Culture and the Arts (NCCA) special thanks to Airdance
Green Papaya Art Projects www.greenpapaya.org
124A Maginhawa St., Teachers Village East, Diliman, Quezon City Phone/Fax 9262096 or 0917 5013401
Thursday, February 09, 2006
The Other Philippines
I participated in the first Karangalan Festival Conference last year and found the entire vision and delivery of the Conference team very inspiring and hopeful especially when we Filipinos are now in the brink of losing our respect to the nation, to other citizens of this country, and most unfortunate, the way we see ourselves independently. I failed to join this year's conference as i had extreme migraine for 3 days. Anyway, Karangalan for me provides another alternative at nation building - the simplest way - to regain pride and appreciation about the Filipinos efforts to be able to change themselves as well as use Integrated Sustainable Methods in social development. I believe we can't just sit around and complain or just go to the streets and create chaos for change. I personally believe in doing something, even just in our little ways. By mere picking up of garbage or telling someone about to throw their trash on the streets not to do so and tell them why; by helping the government - not hate and criticize them and DO NOTHING. I am neither right or left, I just want to do my share to contribute to change. I want to live in the Other Phlippines, how about you?
Nicanor Perlas was a recipient for the Right Livelihood Award or the Alternative Nobel Prize in 2003 for laying the theoretical and practical basis for creating a better world as well as the Global 500 Award by the UN Environmental Program in 1994 He's a very inspiring man, someone I look up to. Here's his article about the conference last week, well, the other Philippines in general. Hope you can join next year! more info about the Karangalan Conference can be found on www.truthforce.info
The Other Philippines
Posted on February 6, 2006 - 2:10pm
By Nicanor Perlas
05 February 2006
Original link to Article
Are we ready to think and act outside the box? Are we ready to explore the possibility that we are living in a country inhabited by individuals and organizations with promise and achievements? Can we see that these islands of light amidst the darkness are starting to be interconnected, slowly unleashing their power to birth a country of our dreams? Can we see this force growing despite all adversities, preparing to emerge with full force under more favorable societal conditions?
Some may say this vision is hopelessly naïve in the face of the many problems plaguing our nation. One need only recall the coup rumors, the bombings, the tales of government corruption, the oil spills, the flight of physicians to other countries, the rise of poverty and hunger, the plight of indigenous peoples, and the litany of other challenges facing our nation.
True, we have these problems. But we definitely are not hopeless! We have come up with innovative solutions to these challenges. As we respect the authentic achievement of other nations, we can objectively say that Filipino talents and achievements can compare with the best in the world! Furthermore, many ordinary Filipinos are doing amazing and unbelievable things, today, despite overwhelming odds!
Recall the recent example of a 12 year old student who returned P300,000? How is it that Christina Bugayong escaped the deadly influence of a culture perceived to be suffering from an epidemic of greed and corruption? Only a journey to the "Other Philippines" will reveal to you the answer.
Christina is a citizen of the "Other Philippines", visible only to eyes that can see subtle connections and hidden patterns. This is the Philippines of vision, moral courage, compassion, competence, and achievement. And she is not alone. Hundreds of artists, entrepreneurs, journalists, executives, athletes and other Filipinos have received global and national awards for their achievements. And, unknown to most and without any longing for recognition, thousands more at the local level exemplify lives of moral courage and practical achievements. There is honor in the Philippines.
Last week, a modest crowd of over a thousand people attended one or both days of the two-day national conference and festival of Karangalan 2006 which showcased this Other Philippines. The event, which was held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, had the theme, "Lakas ng Loob: Harnessing Inner Strength to Create Successes Out of Societal Challenges".
Achievers and doers of the Other Philippines, some with global reputation, others relatively unknown, came together to inspire us to build a better country. They told inspiring, successful and personal stories about transforming adversities into achievements.
On the first day, Fr. Albert Alejo, SJ, PhD, gave a moving talk about the different kinds of lakas ng loob mobilized by silent graft-busters in government and other institutions and how they overcome corruption amidst bruising battles for moral and spiritual integrity. When everything seemed to conspire against do-gooders, Atty. Tony Oposa, an awardee of UNEP's Global 500 Award, exemplified the power of one individual to mobilize an unusual alliance to protect the world-renowned biodiversity hotspot in the Visayan Sea. Governor Grace Padaca inspired the audience with her intimate and unusual insights on how a neophyte can overcome a powerful political dynasty against impossible odds. And Al Mayoralgo, speaking on behalf of Mayor Santiago Barcelona, 2002 Outstanding Mayor of the Philippines, detailed the rise of Escalante City from the ashes of a traumatic massacre to its current status as a miracle in local governance.
On the second day, Al Santos, Executive Director of the School for Indigenous Knowledge and Tradition, spoke on how indigenous peoples all over the country are starting to take control of their destiny by developing educational systems based on their own culture. Dr. Vicente Perlas, CEO of multi-awarded Lifebank, deeply touched the audience when he explained why micro-finance is ultimately not about lending to the poor but restoring human dignity and continuing the work of Christ. Professor Chi-Chi Sur, Secretary of the UP School of Medical Science, a global center of excellence in medical education, detailed the exciting formative process they use in producing community-based visionary doctors who top medical board exams, refuse the lure of riches in foreign lands, and remain in the villages to service the needs of the poor.
But that was not all! The Philippines is overflowing with artistic talents. The audience was wowed by outstanding artists like CV Garrucho, Bart Guingona, Irma Adlawan-Marasigan, Noni Buencamino, Mae Bayot, Edru Abraham and exciting artistic groups like Madrigal Singers, PETA, CCP Choral Group, Kontro GaPi, and over a dozen other artists and artistic groups. They expressed similar messages of hope and inspiration but through the powerful medium of art!
The Karangalan 2006 event is a strategic microcosm of the Other Philippines. If you think that the country is sinking into oblivion, burdened by all the problems it is currently facing, think twice! Indeed there is the Philippines with all its familiar problems. But there is also the Other Philippines with its exciting and widespread diversity of achievements. This Other Philippines is slowly but surely taking hold of the problematic Philippines and transforming the latter into its own image and intentions.
Focusing on the Other Philippines is not running away from the harsh realities of our current situation but facing it head on from a different angle. If you think there is nothing we can do about corruption, just think of Fr. Albert Alejo and his network of graft busters. If you despair about the state of our environment, just think about Tony Oposa and how the drive, power and will of one can snatch victory from certain defeat. If you are fed up with traditional politicians and bad governance, just think of Governor Grace Padaca and Mayor Santiago Barcelona. And you will be convinced that some of the most promising political developments today are occurring at the local level, away from the decadence of national government.
Nurturing the Other Philippines does not mean being naïve. Nurturing the Other Philippines means a sophisticated understanding of how individual and societal transformation takes place. No amount of harping on the negative can change a problematic state of affairs. But demonstrating an innovative solution will go a long way towards creating a better country.
So, highlighting the revolutionary achievements of strategic microfinance can do more to eradicate poverty than all the negative statistics about the poor. Lamenting the brain drain of our medical talents will not stop the erosion of human capital. However, telling the story of a new breed of avant-garde medical doctors who live and work in the village, will inspire others to serve the health needs of the poor.
The Other Philippines operates on a simple but powerful principle. It is known in social science as "social constructionism" and in management and leadership circles as the Pygmalion Effect. In plain language, it says that our images of the future tend to be self-fulfilling. Focus on the negative and you will reap the negative. Focus on the positive and you will energize yourself and your institutions to materialize the positive future you want.
There is only one limitation. That positive image has to be an authentic and true image of current realities and future possibilities. It should not be a media or political spin that hides the stink of a scandal. That kind of false positive will only backfire.
With Karangalan, the Other Philippines is now visible in the minds of those that were inspired to see it. Karangalan can cause an "epidemic" of vision that could start to cascade thru the archipelago. The Other Philippines only awaits one thing before it finally becomes the overwhelming reality of this nation. Filipinos have to make the conscious decision to place their energy and talents in support of the Other Philippines.
We can choose to be mediocre with our apathy and pessimism. Or we can choose to participate in the most exciting possibility that awaits us today. With an enthusiastic heart and mind, we can choose, with courage, to embark on a journey to the undiscovered territories of the future where the full blown version of the Other Philippines awaits us. If our voyage is successful, then there will only be one Philippines. And that will be the Philippines for which many generations of Filipinos have fought and sacrificed to realize: the sustainable Philippines of spirit, creativity, honor, freedom, solidarity, justice, love, prosperity, and harmony with Nature.
Nicanor Perlas was a recipient for the Right Livelihood Award or the Alternative Nobel Prize in 2003 for laying the theoretical and practical basis for creating a better world as well as the Global 500 Award by the UN Environmental Program in 1994 He's a very inspiring man, someone I look up to. Here's his article about the conference last week, well, the other Philippines in general. Hope you can join next year! more info about the Karangalan Conference can be found on www.truthforce.info
The Other Philippines
Posted on February 6, 2006 - 2:10pm
By Nicanor Perlas
05 February 2006
Original link to Article
Are we ready to think and act outside the box? Are we ready to explore the possibility that we are living in a country inhabited by individuals and organizations with promise and achievements? Can we see that these islands of light amidst the darkness are starting to be interconnected, slowly unleashing their power to birth a country of our dreams? Can we see this force growing despite all adversities, preparing to emerge with full force under more favorable societal conditions?
Some may say this vision is hopelessly naïve in the face of the many problems plaguing our nation. One need only recall the coup rumors, the bombings, the tales of government corruption, the oil spills, the flight of physicians to other countries, the rise of poverty and hunger, the plight of indigenous peoples, and the litany of other challenges facing our nation.
True, we have these problems. But we definitely are not hopeless! We have come up with innovative solutions to these challenges. As we respect the authentic achievement of other nations, we can objectively say that Filipino talents and achievements can compare with the best in the world! Furthermore, many ordinary Filipinos are doing amazing and unbelievable things, today, despite overwhelming odds!
Recall the recent example of a 12 year old student who returned P300,000? How is it that Christina Bugayong escaped the deadly influence of a culture perceived to be suffering from an epidemic of greed and corruption? Only a journey to the "Other Philippines" will reveal to you the answer.
Christina is a citizen of the "Other Philippines", visible only to eyes that can see subtle connections and hidden patterns. This is the Philippines of vision, moral courage, compassion, competence, and achievement. And she is not alone. Hundreds of artists, entrepreneurs, journalists, executives, athletes and other Filipinos have received global and national awards for their achievements. And, unknown to most and without any longing for recognition, thousands more at the local level exemplify lives of moral courage and practical achievements. There is honor in the Philippines.
Last week, a modest crowd of over a thousand people attended one or both days of the two-day national conference and festival of Karangalan 2006 which showcased this Other Philippines. The event, which was held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, had the theme, "Lakas ng Loob: Harnessing Inner Strength to Create Successes Out of Societal Challenges".
Achievers and doers of the Other Philippines, some with global reputation, others relatively unknown, came together to inspire us to build a better country. They told inspiring, successful and personal stories about transforming adversities into achievements.
On the first day, Fr. Albert Alejo, SJ, PhD, gave a moving talk about the different kinds of lakas ng loob mobilized by silent graft-busters in government and other institutions and how they overcome corruption amidst bruising battles for moral and spiritual integrity. When everything seemed to conspire against do-gooders, Atty. Tony Oposa, an awardee of UNEP's Global 500 Award, exemplified the power of one individual to mobilize an unusual alliance to protect the world-renowned biodiversity hotspot in the Visayan Sea. Governor Grace Padaca inspired the audience with her intimate and unusual insights on how a neophyte can overcome a powerful political dynasty against impossible odds. And Al Mayoralgo, speaking on behalf of Mayor Santiago Barcelona, 2002 Outstanding Mayor of the Philippines, detailed the rise of Escalante City from the ashes of a traumatic massacre to its current status as a miracle in local governance.
On the second day, Al Santos, Executive Director of the School for Indigenous Knowledge and Tradition, spoke on how indigenous peoples all over the country are starting to take control of their destiny by developing educational systems based on their own culture. Dr. Vicente Perlas, CEO of multi-awarded Lifebank, deeply touched the audience when he explained why micro-finance is ultimately not about lending to the poor but restoring human dignity and continuing the work of Christ. Professor Chi-Chi Sur, Secretary of the UP School of Medical Science, a global center of excellence in medical education, detailed the exciting formative process they use in producing community-based visionary doctors who top medical board exams, refuse the lure of riches in foreign lands, and remain in the villages to service the needs of the poor.
But that was not all! The Philippines is overflowing with artistic talents. The audience was wowed by outstanding artists like CV Garrucho, Bart Guingona, Irma Adlawan-Marasigan, Noni Buencamino, Mae Bayot, Edru Abraham and exciting artistic groups like Madrigal Singers, PETA, CCP Choral Group, Kontro GaPi, and over a dozen other artists and artistic groups. They expressed similar messages of hope and inspiration but through the powerful medium of art!
The Karangalan 2006 event is a strategic microcosm of the Other Philippines. If you think that the country is sinking into oblivion, burdened by all the problems it is currently facing, think twice! Indeed there is the Philippines with all its familiar problems. But there is also the Other Philippines with its exciting and widespread diversity of achievements. This Other Philippines is slowly but surely taking hold of the problematic Philippines and transforming the latter into its own image and intentions.
Focusing on the Other Philippines is not running away from the harsh realities of our current situation but facing it head on from a different angle. If you think there is nothing we can do about corruption, just think of Fr. Albert Alejo and his network of graft busters. If you despair about the state of our environment, just think about Tony Oposa and how the drive, power and will of one can snatch victory from certain defeat. If you are fed up with traditional politicians and bad governance, just think of Governor Grace Padaca and Mayor Santiago Barcelona. And you will be convinced that some of the most promising political developments today are occurring at the local level, away from the decadence of national government.
Nurturing the Other Philippines does not mean being naïve. Nurturing the Other Philippines means a sophisticated understanding of how individual and societal transformation takes place. No amount of harping on the negative can change a problematic state of affairs. But demonstrating an innovative solution will go a long way towards creating a better country.
So, highlighting the revolutionary achievements of strategic microfinance can do more to eradicate poverty than all the negative statistics about the poor. Lamenting the brain drain of our medical talents will not stop the erosion of human capital. However, telling the story of a new breed of avant-garde medical doctors who live and work in the village, will inspire others to serve the health needs of the poor.
The Other Philippines operates on a simple but powerful principle. It is known in social science as "social constructionism" and in management and leadership circles as the Pygmalion Effect. In plain language, it says that our images of the future tend to be self-fulfilling. Focus on the negative and you will reap the negative. Focus on the positive and you will energize yourself and your institutions to materialize the positive future you want.
There is only one limitation. That positive image has to be an authentic and true image of current realities and future possibilities. It should not be a media or political spin that hides the stink of a scandal. That kind of false positive will only backfire.
With Karangalan, the Other Philippines is now visible in the minds of those that were inspired to see it. Karangalan can cause an "epidemic" of vision that could start to cascade thru the archipelago. The Other Philippines only awaits one thing before it finally becomes the overwhelming reality of this nation. Filipinos have to make the conscious decision to place their energy and talents in support of the Other Philippines.
We can choose to be mediocre with our apathy and pessimism. Or we can choose to participate in the most exciting possibility that awaits us today. With an enthusiastic heart and mind, we can choose, with courage, to embark on a journey to the undiscovered territories of the future where the full blown version of the Other Philippines awaits us. If our voyage is successful, then there will only be one Philippines. And that will be the Philippines for which many generations of Filipinos have fought and sacrificed to realize: the sustainable Philippines of spirit, creativity, honor, freedom, solidarity, justice, love, prosperity, and harmony with Nature.
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