AUGUST 14 - 20, 2009
Mabuhay
LINGGUHANG PILIPINO MULA PA NOONG 1980
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Depthnews
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UAN
L. M
ERCADO
Unique vocation
Regarding Henry
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ENRYLITO
D. T
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Cebu Calling
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IMAGALA
Playing GodEight ways to die younger
“BECAUSE of the way she lived,the death of former presidentCorazon Aquino touched many:from cynical professionals, hard-nosed journalists to idealistic do-gooders,” a friend e-mailed.“What was remarkable to me,now in the twilight of life, washow she affected even ‘baby-boomers’. Most were born eitherafter imposition of martial law in1972 or eruption of ‘People Po-wer’ in 1986.“Soon, I will turn 80. For me,death will come sooner ratherthan later. Some stations airedCory Aquino’s prayer for a happydeath. That resonated perhapsmore for people like me .“Our memories tend to beswamped by those ‘who havebeen called from this life’, as thecanon of the Mass puts it: par-ents, siblings, relatives, formergirl friends. ‘Of all the girls I’veloved before,’ as the pop song puts it.“Prayers that they bebathed in ‘perpetual light’surge from deep within you.They do so more often as theI WAS dismayed recently when Igathered a number of newspapercolumns and started to read andstudy them in preparation for thetalk I had to give to a school clubof aspiring journalists. I was try-ing to get ideas on style and con-tent, but I think I got something else, something dreadful.I have been noticing this dis-turbing trend in the local scene,but it’s much worse in otherplaces like the US. There manywriters and columnists play God,completely lost in their ownworld. When I look for examplesof a holier-than-thou person, theyinstantly come to mind.It seems that they make theirown law of what is good and evil,proper and improper, fair andunfair. Their sense of balance andperspective, to be charitableabout it, resembles an abstractpainting. You have to be espe-cially motivated to discern beautyin the bizarre twists and turnsand tears.I know that I have to be opento any writing style, and I should
Forward to Basics
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NGKINGCO
Memorizing Mary’s face
LANDSLIDES and mudslideshave again victimized many partsof the country, a sad reality thatmakes me wonder whether haz-ard mapping data is really avail-able and accessible to our localgovernment officials. Availabilityis one thing, and accessibility isanother thing of course. To putthis discussion in the right per-spective however, I should saythat computers are just tools forpeople to use. Even if computersystems are available and acces-sible, these would be of no use if the people who are not supposedto use them would not do so.Running on their own steam,a group of volunteers are nowactively looking for used comput-ers here and abroad, with the in-tention of having these donatedto local communities for the im-provement of local governance,hoping to eventually connectthese computers into a VirtualPrivate Network (VPN) as I havepreviously suggested in my col-umn. In order to put this volun-teer power into good use, I amnow looking for local organiza-tions that could support the long term sustainability of the localcomputerization projects.Dr. Ernesto Gonzalez, Presi-dent of the National EconomicProtection Association (NEPA)
Fair & Square
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not be surprised if there arethings in others that are dia-metrically opposed to mine. Butthis is no excuse to go wild intopure malice and poor taste. When an article is simply drip-ping with sarcasm, insults, exag-gerated one-sided arguments,etc., all articulated in livid elo-quence, I can’t help but wonderwhat’s inside the heart of thewriter. Writers, being creative per-sons, are vulnerable to get com-pletely unhinged from the basicnorms of courtesy and humangoodness. When they don’t makedeliberate effort to be in God’spresence while writing, they cantend to run amok with theirviews and ideas, pitiable slaves totheir own passions. When they are not careful,writers can miss the crucial dis-tinction between persons and is-sues. They can easily fall to theaddictive world of creative intem-perance and verbal incontinence.They end up already with a poi-soned mind and attitude, some-times at a level that is invinciblyincurable.This ugly state of affairs ismost true among political opin-ion-makers. I suppose the natureof politics itself lends itself easilyto this kind of predicament.There, propelled by the will todominate others, shameless dog-matizing of issues subject to opin-ion is often made.One writer can claim to haveall the reasons, while the othersdon’t have any. He can project theimage of omniscience, while theothers are simply dumber thandumb. Rash judgments, leaky ar-gumentations are spewed out,and they fail to notice it.Restraint and respect for thepersons involved strangely do notmake it to their vocabulary. Butthey can have the latest versionin their armory of irony, hyper-boles, and other instruments of attack and abuse, etc., and areproud to flaunt them. It’s reallyheart-rending to see them sinkhelplessly in this hole.
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has agreed to bring together a group of Linux users and othercomputer literate people to sup-port the computerization of thelocal government of Sariaya,Quezon, including the barangayunits and the cooperatives in thattown. Hopefully, this will be thestart of an experiment where wecould actually learn lessons fromthe dynamics of interfacing theentry of computer infrastructureand the cooperation of local man-power.In my actual experiences of implementing computer systems,the cooperation of manpower hasalways been more difficult thanthe installation of computer hard-ware and software. In the end,content will always be the “king”,but suffice it to say that withoutmanpower, we could not easilybuild content. In the end, whatis going to matter is to have thepeople who will build and owntheir own systems, for their ownbenefit. People are more impor-tant than machines, as always.The volunteer group orga-nized by Ms. Elsa Bayani is alsoinclined to help in the provisionof computers to the local publicschools, similar to the GILASproject of Ayala Foundation. Ithink that this is a very good ob-
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Local computerization
years slip by. Soon, one realizesit has evolved quietly into a form of reaching out. RonRolheieser underscores thisfact in his column: “The Com-munion of Saints.”
(See below.)
“Is this a unique ‘vocation’ forus? We are what PresidentClinton once jokingly dubbed: the“near-elderly’. Are we called totouch, with the gift of prayer,those who once touched our liveswith their affection?“Grace builds on nature,welearned in classrooms of long-vanished youth. And nothing ismore natural than to grow old,hopefully in wisdom as well asgrace. Shouldn’t that drive us, inthe little time that remains, toserve more, as Corazon Aquinodid?“‘The work is never donewhile the power to work re-mains,’ Justice Oliver WendellHomes said on his 90th birthday.‘To live is to function, That is allthere is to living.’ As the Latinpoet said more than 1,500 yearsago: ‘Death plucks my ears andsays: ‘Live – I am coming.’”
The Communion of Saintsby Fr Ron Rolheiser, OMI
Growing up, as part of ourfamily prayer, we’d pray for a happy death. You died cradled inthe loving arms of family, friends,and church, fully at peace withGod and everyone. That’s a goodpicture, the ideal.But not everyone gets to diethat way. Randomness, contin-gency, and accidents often haveus die bitter, unforgiving, un-forgiven, alienated, some as sui-cides. Too often we die with un-finished business, too much of it. As the old
confiteor
says: we needforgiveness for what we’ve doneand left undone.Here are examples: I coun-selled a priest in his 50s, unableto forgive himself. As a frightenedboy of 7, he was too afraid to givehis dying mother a hug when sheasked for it. More than 40 yearslater, he still nursed guilt.In another case, I blessed thecoffin of a man who’d been hap-pily married for 35 years. He had
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MOST parents tell their childrenof things not do. But just thesame, children do the opposite. If a mother tells her daughter, “Iwill allow you to attend the party,but please to go home early.”Sure, she’s home early — earlyin the morning.Today, people don’t care any-more about rules. They do whatthey want to do. They have validreasons of doing such things. Thesame is true with health; theygamble. “Eat, drink and be merryfor tomorrow you will die” seemsto be their motto.“Give them what they want,”a television network executivetold his reporters. “If our view-ers want rape, gore, violence andeven death, then that’s what youshould report. Don’t worry aboutthose good news, only a fewpeople watch them.”For a change, here are tenways to die younger. The point-ers here will surely give you anedge of not dying older. You won’thave the problem of getting ar-thritis, osteoporosis, or even Alzheimer’s disease.1.
Eat what you want
. Youare what you eat. Since your con-cern is to die younger, eat any-thing, especially those choles-terol-laden foods. Major dietarysources of cholesterol includecheese, egg yolks, beef, pork,chicken, and shrimp. Cholesterolis not present in plant-based foodsources unless it has been addedduring the food’s preparation.Excess cholesterol settlesalong arterial walls, and that ex-cess can clog arteries and restrictblood flow, leading to angina pain,heart attack or stroke. Choles-terol is also a leading cause of gallstones. Also, enjoy eating those foodssaturated heavily with salt. Ac-cording to the World Health Or-ganization, salt is the major con-tributing factor to high bloodpressure. “If we could only reduceour salt consumption by even sixgrams, it would reduce deathsfrom strokes by nearly 25 per-cent,” it said. “This level of re-duction would also reduce heartdisease by nearly 20 percent.”Health disease, though, isn’tonly the disease which worsensin the presence of salt. Excessivesalt intake is also associated withan increased risk of osteoporosis,asthma, obesity, and cancer of thestomach.2.
Drink like there’s no to-morrow
. Alcohol drinking is a big part of the Filipino merry-making activities. Beer is an es-sential part of fiestas, birthdays,and parties. Even when there isno special occasion, many Filipi-nos hang out together in thestreets, in front of their housesand convenience stores drinking gin and tonic, which is a consid-erably cheaper alcoholic drink. According to the 1997 FamilyIncome and Expenditure Survey,an average Filipino family spendsone per cent of its income on al-coholic beverages. Unknowingly,drinking alcohol is a serioushealth issue and among thephysical health effects associatedwith alcohol consumption mayinclude cirrhosis of the liver, pan-creatitis, epilepsy, polyneuropa-thy, alcoholic dementia, heart dis-ease, increased chance of cancer,nutritional deficiencies, sexualdysfunction, and even death.“A journey of a thousand milesbegins with the first step,” sogoes a Chinese proverb. Anddrunkenness begins with the firstdrink. It is estimated that 40 per-cent of those who started drink-ing became problem drinkers.3.
Drive like crazy
. “If youdrive, don’t drink. If you drink,don’t drive.” But in a countrywhere drunk driving is tolerated,that caution is irrelevant. “Per-haps this is one of the reasonswhy foreigners love to stay in ourcountry,” one Filipino wrote inhis blog. “Here, they can drink
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“JAMES, what are you doing?” Iwas curious to find out what hewas up to inside the chapel as hestood at the center of the nave.He was intensely staring, eyessquinting in concentration, atscenes of Mary’s life on the altar-piece.“Oh, I’m just trying to
memo-rize Mama Mary’s
face,” his facerelaxed for a second as he smiledto answer me.“Memorizing Mary’s face?” Iwas a bit surprised to hear some-thing so odd. “What exactly do you mean by that, James?”“Well, I figured that if Ikindda’ stared long enough atHer image, I could easily see Herface in my mind every time Ipray,” he said while appearing todigitally scan the colorful sceneof the Annunciation.“But there are so many repre-sentations of our Lady, James,”how is this supposed to help yousee Her face.“That’s what I mean, Father,”his eyes didn’t budge a centime-ter away from the altarpiece. “Re-membering every image of Mama Mary will help me to see Her facein different ways and love Hermany ways too!”
* * *
Who said images aren’t help-ful in making us pray with morelove and devotion. Thanks to Godwe are able –through the gift of our sight and imagination– to seeMary’s face as we pray.Of course, this doesn’t meanthat prayer quality only dependson looking at images. It is aboveall the movement and conversionof the heart to see and do ourFather’s loving will. But in a world filled with numerous visualdistractions, it is sometimesharder to focus when we pray.That’s when it’s advisable to havesome sensible reference thatwould help orient and focus ourminds, hearts and souls towardsa more fruitful contemplationand dialogue with God throughMary. John Paul II, in his apostolicletter about the Holy Rosary thatalso inaugurated the Mysteries of Light, tells us how important itis to contemplate our Lady’s life–Her example of prayer and self-surrender– so that we can deepenour contemplation of Jesus’ life.The reason for this, he says,is that the “contemplation of Christ has an incomparablemodel in Mary. In a unique waythe face of the Son belongs toMary. (…) No one has ever de-voted himself to the contempla-tion of the face of Christ as faith-fully as Mary. The eyes of herheart already turned to him atthe Annunciation, when she con-ceived him by the power of theHoly Spirit. In the months thatfollowed she began to sense hispresence and to picture his fea-tures. When at last she gave birthto him in Bethlehem, her eyeswere able to gaze tenderly on theface of her Son, as she “wrappedhim in swaddling cloths, and laidhim in a manger”
(Lk 2:7).
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