Fazeelat Bibi

Fazeelat Bibi, 22 years old wished she was dead.

Violence against women in Pakistan.

Click on the link.

America got lucky.

A passenger on the Northwest Airline was subdued by other passengers when he failed to detonate the bombs strapped on his body.

This time America got lucky. Click on this link.

http://bit.ly/91ZBze

Events that keeps changing the world

Events that marked the start of the 21st century

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer, 28 Dec. 2009/

PARIS, France—Stories that defined the first decade of the 21st century:

SEPTEMBER 11 From a lair in Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden shook the United States to the core on a clear morning in 2001, setting the stage for a decade of conflict.

Nineteen Al-Qaeda hijackers took over four passenger jets on innocuous domestic flights: two crashed into the World Trade Center towers in New York, one into the US Defense Department headquarters in Washington, and one into a Pennsylvania field after passengers fought the gunmen. Altogether 2,973 people and the hijackers were killed; the towers crumbled, leaving New York with deep scars, and the US vision of the world changed immediately.

Bin Laden remains free but 9/11 transformed George W. Bush's presidency and scarred the United States, setting about a security revolution at home and costly wars abroad.

The United States received enormous world sympathy after the attacks. But the US image has been damaged by the Guantanamo “War On Terror” prison camp, the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, and other acts in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are still 210 inmates at Guantanamo, many of whom have been held without charge since 2002. Many will eventually be sent home. Some could end up at a jail in Illinois.

CONFLICT Within months of the Twin Towers falling, the United States and other western powers helped an Afghan coalition overthrow the hard-line Taliban government in Afghanistan. On March 19, 2003 US planes fired bombs in a bid to kill Saddam Hussein and within 24 hours had begun an invasion of Iraq with allies such as Britain that badly split the Western world. Whether it was justified remains a topic of bitter debate but the toll has been huge.

There are still 115,000 US troops in Iraq, where tens of thousands of civilians have died, along with nearly 4,400 US troops and about 320 from other nations. US numbers should fall to 50,000 by the end of August 2010 ahead of a promised withdrawal by 2011.

More than 500 foreign troops have been killed in Taliban and Al-Qaeda attacks this year in Afghanistan, which has become the top geo-strategic priority. There are currently more than 100,000 foreign troops—more than 70,000 of them US—battling the resurgent Taliban and US President Barack Obama has ordered 30,000 more to go there.

TSUNAMI A huge “mega-thrust” earthquake off the coast of Indonesia on December 26, 2004, set off a tidal wave up to 30 meters (100 feet) high around the Indian Ocean that killed around 220,000 people.

The event still haunts the beaches and coastal villages of the countries devastated by one of the worst natural disasters of the past 100 years.

Poor villagers in Indonesia—which suffered three quarters of the deaths—Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand were worst hit, but supermodels, sports heroes, and business tycoons lapping up the winter sunshine all told of their narrow escape clambering up palm trees or onto hotel roofs.

There were unlikely tales of heroism, such as 10-year-old British girl, Tilly Smith, who saved 100 lives when she used her knowledge of tsunamis from a recent geography lesson to clear a beach at Phuket in Thailand. Billions of dollars were donated in humanitarian aid, but on top of the huge damage caused to mangroves, coral reefs, forests, coastal wetlands, and vegetation, for most of the communities it is an event that will take more than a lifetime to get over.

CHINA QUAKE The earthquake that tore apart China's Sichuan province on May 12, 2008 was a once-every-4,000-year event, experts say.

The tremor rippled along a fault line below the cities of Yingxiu, Beichuan, and Nanba, killing 88,000 people who were trapped in buildings or caught in landslides and floods sparked by the 7.9-magnitude event. Millions were left homeless.

Seismologists say the strong seismic wave, unusual geology, and the failure of three subterranean "barriers" against the shock added to the potency, making the quake so rare.

But the collapse of schools, hospitals, and factories in several areas raised questions about how rigorously new building codes have been enforced since China's 1974 Tangshan quake which killed hundreds of thousands.

In the latest fallout, Huang Qi, a dissident who campaigned for the parents of children killed in the quake, was sentenced to three years in jail on a state secrets charge in November.

GLOBAL WARMING The world was late to recognize the dangers of rising temperatures and the leaders of the main world powers and the rising economies took it down to the wire to make a vague accord on how to battle climate change when they met at a summit in Copenhagen this month.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has concluded that most of the temperature rise over the past 60 years has been caused by increasing emissions of greenhouse gases generated by human activity such as fossil fuel burning and deforestation. Scientists have warned the world now faces severe flooding, drought, storms, and other phenomena because of global warming. The polar ice sheets are already retreating.

There is still much disagreement over how to act. The US Congress rejected the Kyoto Protocol which was a first attempt to limit emissions. The question now is how to make the United States and China (the world's top two polluters), Europe, India, Brazil, and South Africa reconcile their different visions and economic needs to work together on the climate crisis.

A new attempt on a global accord is to be made before a new summit in Mexico in
December 2010.

ECONOMIC CRISIS Ignoring repeated alarm bells, the US carried on living off international credit until the "sub-prime" crisis erupted and brought down iconic US investment bank Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008.

Stock markets plunged, international credit markets froze, and high-profile banks that had bought or repackaged bad-risk US mortgage accounts fell like skittles—Merrill Lynch had to be taken over, while American Insurance Group needed a $170-billion injection.

The credit crisis quickly engulfed every corner of an increasingly globalized financial and economic system and triggered a worldwide recession. Emergency summits were held and a wholesale collapse of the banking system was narrowly avoided.

Major powers jump-started their economies with giant stimulus packages. But poverty and unemployment levels have risen and there has been widespread outrage over bankers' bonuses and scandals such as the $21 billion that New York financier Bernard Madoff lost.

As the decade draws to a close most developed countries have returned to modest levels of growth, but new powerhouses are emerging economies such as Brazil and China, heralding a new era for international economic affairs.

OBAMA At the start of the decade, Barack Obama was just a senator in Illinois state's legislature, plotting ways to get a seat in the US senate. After a heady rise, he has become the first black president of the world superpower, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, and one of the most recognizable faces on the planet.

Obama and the US Democrats won a crushing presidential and legislative victory on November 4, 2008, capping his sensational ascension.

Most put the start of Obama-mania at the 2004 Democratic convention, when the little-known Chicago politician with a ready smile wowed leaders with a dazzling appeal for American unity and the need to overcome entrenched political divides.

He beat Hillary Clinton to the Democratic nomination and hammered Republican John McCain in the presidential vote. But many experts were astounded when the young leader won the Nobel prize only nine months after taking office. The Afghanistan war, economic crisis, and the challenge of reforming America's dysfunctional health care system have all eaten into his domestic popularity. The wars and the deadlocked Middle East peace process have hit his standing abroad. But Barack and Michelle Obama are still style leaders and his "Yes We Can" message still reverberates around the world.

POPE JOHN PAUL II The Venerable Pope John Paul II, who died in 2005, was the second longest serving Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church in Vatican history—his 27-year-tenure beaten only by Pope Pius IX.

A Polish national, John Paul II broke many Vatican molds. He was the first non-Italian pope since the 16th century, he is credited with playing a key role in the downfall of communism in Europe, and used the mass media and travel to get his message across in a way that would have made predecessors shudder.

There was no wavering in the Vatican's conservative position on contentious social issues such as birth control, abortion, and divorce. But he attracted a mass following among the young and tried to promote social justice.

He was the most traveled pope in history, but Parkinson's Disease left him increasingly frail during the last five years of his life. #

Carl Jung

An article on Carl Jung and the Red book by New York Times.

http://bit.ly/5cL81z

Voters Education 1

This is an opinion posted by Tony Abaya. Read on. AL Leonidas

Chiz Bombs Out
By Antonio C. Abaya
Written on Nov. 25, 2009
For the Standard Today,
November 26 issue

It is getting harder and harder to take Sen. Francis `Chiz' Escudero seriously, if you ever did so in the first place.

Months before his birthday on October 10, when he reached the minimum age (40) for presidential aspirants, his people had been cultivating the hype that Chiz represented "change" in Philippine politics, in an obvious attempt to project him as the Obama of the Philippines.

But aside from the fact that both were young and ambitious, the only thing Chiz had in common with Obama was the shape of their craniums..

Obama sought to end Bush's war in Iraq, stitch together a health care system for all Americans, and extricate an economy that is deeply mired in recession.

I do not know what exactly it was that Chiz wanted to change in the Philippines other than, predictably, endemic graft and corruption under President Arroyo, with the equally predictable promise to bring about prosperity for all Filipinos.

But Chiz gave no details on how he was to combat graft and corruption, nor did he have any economic master plan to bring about the prosperity that he says he will create. In this sense, he was no different from nor better than the other presidential contenders and their usual motherhood statements: Noynoy Aquino, Manny Villar, Joseph Estrada and Gilbert Teodoro.

Noynoy, at least, had the clean reputation of his late parents to set as an example for him to emulate, and Villar, as a self-made billionaire, has had some first hand experience in creating wealth.

But Chiz, in his more than ten years in the Lower House and the Senate, has not really distinguished himself as either a relentless graft-buster or an innovative wealth-creator in his career as opposition legislator, only as a vocal critic of the Arroyo administration.

Nevertheless, he created waves as potential presidential contender in 2010, a young man in a hurry, in the mold – so said his spin masters – of Barack Obama, scoring high in public opinion surveys and capturing the attention of his audiences, especially the young, with his trademark monotone.

All of which came crashing down barely 18 days after his landmark 40th birthday, when he unexpectedly announced his sudden resignation from the Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC) of Danding Cojuangco, which had been his political home for the past 11 years and under whose patronage he was to launch his presidential bid for 2010.

Said he: "In my belief, whoever is planning to run for president of the country should not belong to any party. His only party should be the Philippines and his party mates are the entire Filipino people."

This is a lot of horse manure, and Chiz knows it. Manuel L. Quezon, first president of the Philippine Commonwealth, belonged to the Nacionalista Party when he first ran for president in 1935 and remained a party member until he died in 1944. The only Filipino president who did not belong to a party was Emilio Aguinaldo, who however took sides in the Magdalo-Magdiwang quasi-party squabbling during the Revolution.

Even the Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin headed the Bolshevik faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in parliament in the 1900s. He recognized the need for "a small band of revolutionaries" to accelerate the allegedly historically inevitable evolution of society towards socialism and thence towards Communism. The Bolshevik Party eventually became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

If Chiz believes he can lead and run a political movement without a political party, then he is more naïve and politically immature than I thought.

Continued Chiz: "Political parties had become obstacles to genuine and meaningful change. If a presidential candidate is beholden to his party, how can he make crooked government officials accountable if he belongs to the same party? I want to prove to you and to myself that I am doing this for the right reason, not for any interest. Not for just anyone, but for you, and for the motherland…"

More horse manure. His hero, President Barack Obama, had no problem going after the crooked governor of his home state of Illinois, even though both of them were/are Democrats, after the governor (Blagojovich) tried to sell Obama's former seat in the Illinois legislature to the highest bidder.

Chiz' problem with the NPC was neither political nor ideological. It was purely financial. For years, Chiz played along with the NPC Godfather, Don-ding Corleone Cojuangco, as the party's fair-haired Golden Boy for 2010, with no apparent complaints from Chiz about not being free to make decisions for himself.

But with the sudden prominence of Cojuangco's nephew, Noynoy Aquino, as a viable presidential contender and possible winner in 2010, Cojuangco apparently had second thoughts about supporting Chiz, who was coming in as a fading third or fourth placer in public opinion polls.

I can believe the story in the October 29 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer that Chiz could get only P100 to P200 million from the NPC, instead of the P5 billion that his handlers needed for a successful presidential campaign. Which compelled Chiz to suddenly resign from the NPC. It is all about money, not about high-minded political altruism.

Which is why his valedictory at Club Filipino dripped with spiteful and rancorous asides towards the rich. I am surprised that neither the Inquirer nor the Standard Today – the only newspapers that I see on a daily basis – carried a full translation of Chiz' bitter parting words in Pilipino.

His populist anti-rich rhetoric was music to the ears of Communist party-list congressmen. His advocacy of a mandated raise in the minimum wage endeared him to the Communist KMU labor federation, but showed his ignorance of how wages in South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore reached First World levels without the crutch of a minimum wage law.

Which led me to conclude in my column of October 28, titled Looking for Mr. Goodbar, that Chiz was "intoning an atypical class war against his erstwhile billionaire backer….and that he may postpone his run for the presidency to 2016."

Which is what he actually did yesterday, Nov. 24, when he announced that he was withdrawing from the 2010 presidential and vice-presidential elections. Having lost the financial support of Danding, which forced him to resign from the NPC, and having nowhere else to go, Chiz had no choice but to bomb out...

Which is not necessarily a bad thing. He is still very young. He will be only 47 in 2016.

He has enough time to bone up on political science and development economics, and involve himself in two or three major advocacies where he can develop a more mature and realistic economic-political line and grow into a more knowledgeable presidential contender in 2016. *****

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OO

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Marriage

For those who plan to get married, or those who want to review their married life.

An article by Elizabeth Weil. Click on colored link.

Social Control

An interesting article by the New York Times (NYT). It is about activists attending the Copenhagen global conference on climate change.

Police confiscated bolt cutters, makeshift shields, paint-bombs.

Here we see how State instruments are applying pre-emptive controls on group behavior.

Lip Plating at Ethiopia

Earth and plate tectonics

Poverty and Paolo Mangahas, Essay

Between Poverty and Paradise

Paolo Mangahas head of WWF in Malaysia , recently won an award for this essay

LAST night, I had dinner with a German friend to talk about her planned trip to the Philippines . She had just completed an internship program in one of the law firms here in Malaysia and wanted to take a short holiday in a nearby country before heading off to Australia to finish her studies. She wanted to know more about the Philippines and asked me for tips on making the most of the two-and-a-half weeks that she had allotted for this vacation.

We planned her trip between bites, armed only with a faded map of the Philippines that we had downloaded from the Internet. My goal was to identify all the "must-see" places in the country (her criteria being beaches and volcanoes), plot them according to distance and flight routes, and then cram them all in 17 days. A tall order indeed, especially for someone like me who has never had a sense of direction even in my own neighborhood.

For the life of me, I could not spot where Boracay was on her map. So I took the easy way out and told her to go to Palawan instead.

I carried on with the task like a diligent student trying to remember my geography, starting from the rice terraces in Banaue up north, moving down south to the Mayon Volcano in Bicol and the Chocolate Hills in Bohol . It was an embarrassing ordeal nonetheless as she could see that I was struggling to find all the other attractive destinations on the map, which in turn made me realize how little I truly knew about my own country. She was very excited about the trip and was eager to learn more about the country and its people.

She imagined the Philippines to be an eternal fiesta of Spanish and Chinese Third-World flair, filled with warm and accommodating people who all speak with a clear American accent, where all men have the handsome earthy appeal of Jericho Rosales and women the heavenly mestiza charms of Kristine Hermosa (thanks to Filipino soap operas that have become so popular here in Malaysia ). It was certainly one of the most honest cultural impressions that I have ever heard and quite amusingly, one shared by many. In my German friend's opinion, the Philippines is one of the most open-minded countries in Southeast Asia . I found this view rather interesting, especially since it came from a European who has never stepped foot in the Philippines and whose only direct exposure to the country, was me.

The funny thing about cultural impressions is that they often come from a place of both acute perception and blatant ignorance, split in the middle by what is painfully true. But they are what they are ~ impressions. Quite naturally, my friend and I have come to build our own impressions about Malaysia in the several months that we have been here. Malaysia is a beautiful country that seems to be in a hurry to develop economically, but is hampered by a palpable trace of social reluctance. It seems grounded on an age-old culture that simply does not mix well with progress, or at least the kind dictated and exemplified by the Western world. I find this true for most developing Asian countries, including the Philippines .

My friend pointed out that she has never seen a beggar in the streets of Kuala Lumpur since she moved here and asked me if it is the same in the Philippines . As a matter of fact, she admitted that she has never seen a beggar up close in her whole life and asked me to explain how it is to live in a poor country like mine.

She wanted to know more about poverty. Her question struck a chord in me because I realized that apart from Jericho Rosales, this woman had absolutely no idea about the country where she was going and how it was out there. Here was someone who came to me wanting to know more about my country and the best I could offer was a geographical representation of scenic destinations, which I hardly even knew myself.

By this time, I had put down the pen I was holding, set aside the map, and got ready to explain to her details about my country. I did not know where to begin. After all, how does one explain poverty to someone who has never experienced it before? To make things more relevant to her, I started by comparing the Philippines to Malaysia . I told her that blue-collar workers in the Philippines did not have the same opportunities as the ones in Malaysia , who can afford to eat in the same restaurants where executives eat or even shop in stores where their own bosses shop. I told her that unlike the ones I have met in Malaysia , secretaries and administrative clerks in the Philippines will eat in posh restaurants only on very special occasions and can barely afford to travel to other countries. I then told her about the beggars, young and old, who parade the streets of Manila , the children who knock on car windows selling sampaguita, the mothers who have to forage for food in garbage landfills, and the unemployed fathers who waste their lives on drugs and alcohol. I told her about the shanties that bedeck highways and railroads, the unproductive traffic jams, the garbage-infested streets and sewers, and the regular typhoons that flood the country and exacerbate already poor living conditions. I told her that poverty in the Philippines unapologetically hits you in the face the very moment you step in. It is an open wound just waiting to be healed.

My friend looked shaken, as if experiencing for the first time a world she has seen only on TV. That was when my tears started to fall. I could not help it. I have never cried in front of a semi-stranger before but for some reason, I cried this time because she was still not immune to these things.

Her unawareness taught me to see poverty as if for the first time myself, which brought out a lot of pain. I have become so used to the pain that I have forgotten how it felt until I painted for her the sad face of poverty.

I then found myself having to explain to her that despite all these, the Philippines is still a beautiful country and this you will also feel the very moment you get there. It is a beauty characterized by the indomitable human spirit of a people who have seen better days and yet still have the capacity to find a piece of heaven in their lives. It is a beauty defined by the untiring faith of a people who have learned to acknowledge their plight with reverence and yet have never lost the courage to dream big dreams.

It is a beauty characterized by the painful history of a people who have been abused and pillaged through the years and yet still have so much of themselves to give.

Now her tears were falling, smearing the map that I had earlier vandalized with circles and arrows. But I knew it did not matter anymore at this point.

I realized that my friend had learned all she needed to know about my country and my people. She thanked me profusely, saying that she came to me wanting to know more about how poor the Philippines is but in the end, she learned how abundantly blessed Filipinos are.

A beach is a beach and a volcano is a volcano anywhere in the world, but it is the people who make the difference. I learned in that moment that I may not know the geographical features of my country all too well, but I sure know its heart and its because it is who I am. The real poverty lies in not knowing this.

Evolution and Charles Darwin

Evolution and Charles Darwin

Evolution and Charles Darwin

Evolution and Charles Darwin

Morality and Legality

An article on Morality and Legality. Click on colored link.

France continuing the revolution by blogging

This is an article written by Guy Sorman (1944), a French intellectual who has written around 20 books on politics and is a consultant to the government of South Korea.

His article "The twilight of France republican aristocracy" appeared at Philippine Daily Inquirer, 15 November 2009. Click the colored link.

Question to answer for your paper:

1. In what way Guy Sorman is telling the readers that the French Revolution is continuing?

2. How can the young French population can help continue the ideals of the French Revolution?

3. How can you relate the article to the Philippines?

Per group will compose four members. Deadline for submission Dec. 1 & 2 for respective schedules.

http://bit.ly/GuyFranceSorman

Poverty, Philippines

For SO 101. group yourself in a team of 4 members. Plot the date in one Manila paper. Do be submitted and presented on 18 & 19 November.

Please plot in a line graph with a year and percent axis the following data: "thereafter, the following poverty episodes, all statistically significant, are visible in the SWS surveys (quarterly since 1992): the trend in the percentage of Self-Rated Poor (SRP) was downward from 1985 to only 43 percent in early 1987; upward till early 1994, reaching 70 per cent: downward till early 1998, going to 57 percent; flat till mid-2001; downward till mid-2004, to 46 percent; upward till mid-2006, at 59 percent; and downward till the end of 2007, to 46 percent again. It spiked up in 2008, to 59 percent again; and downward till the end of 2007, to 46 percent again. It spiked up in 2008, to 59 percent again; and, most recently, settled down to 53 percent in September 2009." Ref: Philippine Daily Inquirer, 7 November 2009, Social Climate, Mahar Mangahas.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

It is worth the time to read our Universal Declaration of Human Rights which have roots in the French Revolution. Click the colored link.

A fresh look at religion by Karen Armstrong

Listen to Karen Armstrong on a fresh look at religion and the launching of the Charter of Religion. The final text of the Charter of Compassion will come out this coming 12 November. Please click on the link below, watch and listen. If your are around Metro Manila, Philippines, and is interested in group discussion about the text please get in touch. My mobile is: 0917 856 6747.

http://www.tedprize.org/karen-armstrong/

Reflected thoughts about life and death, and in between

1. Tomorrow, we will meet our students in an extradordinary time. I know I must sharpen my listening skill because everybody has a story to tell.

2. Today I took pictures of newspapers headlines that has something to do with Ondoy. I was not able to read newspapers for several days because we are busy cleaning the house.

3. A co-teacher of mine said that he plans to take a housing loan and have a three floor building for his family's use. He is damn tired cleaning his house when flood waters reaches his abode.

4. Some people do not want to revisit the past because they have felt that it can be a burden to them.

5. After Ondoy's wrath, any heavy rain we will be experiencing will be communicating to us to listen to its fall. I pause and listen and time the length as to its downpour.

6. True, Ondoy devasted a huge swath of land, it has made a deeper impression to the consciousness of people who have been affected by it. Our contours of thinking has drastically been altered when rains fall even a gentle one.

7. People should be demanding to their government accuracy of weather reports, which means PAGASA should have the necessary instruments at their use.

8. Our memories are the places that we inhabit at will. We can go in and out of it. We can learn from the import of its joy and pain. It is a special place. To some it is a sacred place. I think, this is the reason why it is important that we remember.

9. Night bath, a good book by Randy David, a night to sleep. This is what I need.

10. At last you are married to your spouse, in due time your will realize "You cannot escape your in-laws".

11. In our modern society the mind will constantly seek its own home. Some say it is a "homeless-mind". Others, will rest in the comfort that the mind is a perpetual seeker. Thus, it wont find a home of its own.

12. There is no (magician) to be discovered in yourself. You have to create that (magician). That requires new imagination about your life, new strategies, new vocabularies and metaphors.

13. Typhoon Ondoy brings out the best and the worst in us. We saw the see of humanity volunteering to help the flood victims. On the other hand, refugees vandalized a school and a report that some robbed the students when the school opened.

14. According to BBC weather report, we will be experiencing sunny days up to Wednesday. I will now have time to clean our concrete slab and apply elastomeric paint.

15. Photos are being dried at the roof. Some photos are now relegated to a tearful goodbye. I simply can't reconstruct them. It's totally destroyed.

16. Do you know the value of those photos that have been washed by an un-welcomed typhoon? God, its priceless.

17. With those photos gone, my memories about them may go with it. It unburdens me with the past but my grand daughter and the generations that will come may be burdened by such a loss.

18. Mr. Rod Stewart, of the Great American Songbook, is now entertaining my evening as I type my postings in this little box of significance.

19. Sorry if I am not responding to request on remembering my birthday. I am off the calendar and I dread high numbers these days.

12. Our concrete slab that acts as our roof is now painted with elastomeric elements. We are now planning to have the second floor fixed for habitation. In case of another Ondoy type we have a place to evacuate.

13. Night is for sleeping. And we value it for what it is.

14. "An Inconvenient Truth" communicated by AL Gore, the media, and other scientists brought to us an understanding of global warming. The recent typhoon that visited us surely says that the weather we are experiencing will never be the same again.

15. I just finished re-tiling part of our living room floor. It is a social labor.

16. "Work is a slice of your life. It's not the entire pizza" - Jacquelyn Mitchard

17. "Few things move as quickly as the future" - Bern Williams

18. "Dreams come true; without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them." John Updike

18. "Heroes are people who rise to the occasion and slip quietly away." - Tom Brokaw

19. "It's never too late for a happy childhood" - Gloria Steinem

20. "Those who stand for nothing will fall for anything". Alexander Hamilton

21. We can't live in the past because the present is a daily offering. It should be lived now.

22. "All of us have something to gripe about, but for how long and to what extent will we be trapped in it?" - Ernest Tan, How to atttract love.

23. There is also this human possbility to be able to care, love and be with others. It also promises the possibility to enjoy them.

24. I will be having a Magic for Beginners seminar this coming Saturday 24th October from 10:00 to 5 pm. Interested please ask for details. It will be held at our house at 137-B. 20th Ave. Quezon City. Near Ali Mall.

25. The language of love may not be in the words that you read, rather in the actions that you see.

26. When a person informs you that he/she has changed her number, that person is making you a part of his/her world.

27. School graduation is a modern idea. It is an idea of a life transition that is shaped by a high value on knowledge. There is a time in human civilization that ignorance is the better value than knowing. Hundreds of years ago there is no sense for the vast population to be going to school. Theres no need.

28. Our lives is a constant project of overcoming.

29. Not all overcoming can be good to our life. Sometimes it brings us to more troubles. Remember some people who wants to overcome the raging waters of Ondoy?

30. "What is important is that a recollection of the past should always strengthen rather than weaken one's resolve to face the future." - Randy David, sociologist.

31. Still I find Noynoy Aquino to be a stranger to me. Except that he is the son of Ninoy and Cory and that he is a senator. He seems to be in the background and cultivates public invisibility. His giant parents continues to overshadow him and this is a problem he has to overcome. A proclamation to run as a president is different from the actual accomplishment done in the past.

32. When I post my ideas in this portal it is open to be attacked or supported by readers. Some can make a comment on it.

33. Please do not put my birthday on your calendar. I don't do birthdays today except when I am performing a magic show.

34. A mystic (then) asserts in the first place that knowledge is not attained only by the senses or the intellect or the normal processess of consciousness, but that the highest is attained, and can only be attained by this spiritual sense of intution. - A mystic statement.

35. From a mystic, "God decided to make our soul-spirit its home."

36. When I am hurt, I always withdraw to a place of my own, being alone, feeling the pain, writing about it. Somewhat, I am thrown in a place that is strange to me, trying to know the fabrics and contours of that place to that I will be able to communicate with it.

37. Some people give lame excuses for not showing up as promised. Then you tell yourself that you are not like that. That shapes your behavior in the future.

38. I performed a magical show last 20 September at the Center for Migrant Youth at East Fairview QC. This is the residence of Fr. Ben Villote, a long time and very good friend of our family.

39. From a boyhood friend of mine who posted the following: "I believe in miracles. I see a lot of stupid drivers on the street. It's a miracle they are still alive and to have even passed the driving tests, sheesh!"

40. Still working on my 55 canvass just like a work of art.

41. Nice to have known May Sarton from York, Maine. She opens door for me. She is a poet at Eighty.

42. But May Sarton passed away in 1995 of cancer at Maine. She has published lots of books. I am now reading her book, Poems, Coming into Eighty.

43. The first duty of love is to listen. - Paul Tillich

44. The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory but progress. Anonymous

45. Listening is not merely not talking, though even that is beyond most of our powers; it means taking a vigorous human interest in what is being told us. - Alice Duer Miller

46. What the mass media offers is not popular art, but entertainment which is intended to be consumed like food, forgotten and replaced by a new dish. - W. H. Auden

47. "We cannot love that which we do not understand. We can't protect that which we do not love." A quote from an envronmental activist.

48. "Day begins. I only have my body. Aching from comfort. I wait, for some kick-starting-mechanism. Be they hunger or purpose, relief, a job to do. Or, a wife's call for coffee".

49. "A day can be laid out like a canvass. What work of art shall I do today? How shall time wrap me with it sweet and bitter embrace?"

50. "Without music, life is a mistake". - Friedrich Nieztche

51. "Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd preferred to talk." - Doug Larson

52. Of course one of the modern addictions that we are developing and spending most of the time is our engagement with Facebook. In the post-modern paradigm face-to-face encounter will be valued highly.

53. I am happy because we have a country, whatever its in there.

54. "Day begins. I only have my body. Aching from comfort. I wait, for some kick-starting-mechanism. Be they hunger or purpose, relief, a job to do. Or, a wife's call for coffee".

55. A soldier will always believe in the just cause that his country is fighting for. But when his leaders are the one that becomes a traitor to the country it is time to switch the direction of the gun.

56. Still many of this night are rabidly running away from their real problems, that they feel, they are being consoled and comforted by their own nightly distractions.

57. Any event that happens, that has been decided upon, will have their own ramifications in the future. That is inevitable.

58. Humans will always be living in a society far from its satisfaction. This is why we have religion.

59. Without love, our souls would be likely a dried prune.

60. What is achieved when we experience pain? We learn how to experience it alone.

61. The strength of belief is in the belief itself.

62. A politician will now have to struggle in plugging the holes in his political life boat. It will take sometime to undo a decision that is within a web of relationship. Given the present political contour, such a decision will be judge if it is foolish or wise.

63. Dreaming, sleeping, eating, procrreating, these are the myriad activities our ancestors engaged in. To this day, we are still doing them.

64. A faith can be overwhelming eventhough it disregards the truth.

65. The reason why corrupt officials are likened to crocodiles is that crocodiles did not change for the last million years. They will continue to be so for the next million years. Their predatory tactics will still be there practiced highly.

66. We are shaped by the truths that we live by, not knowing those truths may well be un-truths.

Charity show for you.

Announcement: We are a group of magicians, professionals and amateurs. Out of our goodness, we want to pay back society by giving charity shows for your event. At this time we are accepting invitations from hospitals for their children's ward. Keep in touch for details.

On Human Dignity

On Human Dignity

by Jonathan Granoff

The human being has the capacity to demonstrate that which is most worthy of praise: the indivisible unity of being. It is realized through the divine attribute of love. The expression of this capacity is through intrinsic dignity, realized through the nurturing of inner character and the kind of knowledge that emerges from that effort, which is often called wisdom. This uniquely human capacity leads to the clear perception of the inner connectedness and inter-connectedness of all life. It manifests as ethics based on the Golden Rule.

The aspiration to our highest calling -- as a unique creature capable of knowing our uniqueness as well as realizing it -- should not be ignored. In this modern age, cynicism toward higher ideals is like a cancer. We hear so much about man as a beast and the great value of seeking the "bottom line." An appropriate bottom line is found in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which asserts our common humanity. Below that is where the law of power tends to overtake the power of law. When individuals allow power to overtake the rule of law, personal tragedy is the result. Human respect is corroded and relationships deteriorate. When societies seek power over respect for humanity through the law, war and tyranny ensue.

When nations pursue the Golden Rule and treat other nations as they wish to be treated, peace and prosperity result. When they pursue the quest for ultimate dominance, chaos always follows. One only need compare the result of post-World War I's punishing process and its results with the success of the post-World War II's Marshall Plan and the creation of the UN system.

I am not positing that the world can become heaven easily. I am proposing that when we follow the Lord's Prayer, which calls us to aspire to do God's will here on earth, much goodness results. It is also true that when too many fail to honor the calling to do good works, enormous suffering results. And what we never know is how our own personal commitments affect the whole. What we can know, however, is how such personal commitment affects us. This knowledge is based on experience rather than on doctrines.

We can never aspire enough to our personal highest potential, which might not have a limit. As it partakes of the divine, it certainly cannot be measured or quantified. But, then again, neither can self, consciousness, soul, or conscience. Only objects can be measured, not that which knows them.

We need not bemoan the fact that in our time pursuing the highest ideals, where dignity shines in sacred beauty, is not treated with appropriate respect. One need only look at the trials and tribulations of Socrates or Jesus to remember that those who honor truth above all else might stimulate the most undignified conduct by many. Yet Jesus reminds us that we can forgive all wrongs and preserve the greatest treasures of the spirit. Socrates knowingly gives up his own life fully aware that the law has been misapplied to his individual case but is nevertheless well worth respecting since it is an institution necessary to guide the conduct of many. He gives up his body because he has found something far more precious, the profound presence of divine love for the benefit of others. His actions manifest the presence of the sacred infinite mystery within the finite world.

Can we all attain these standards? Who knows? Can we strive to emulate them? Why not? Both of these men encouraged all to follow in their ways. Both asserted the presence of capacities for human dignity we all too often forget. I had the privilege of seeing this level of dignity in our time and thus have the responsibility of sharing it with you.

I was in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, in 1974, and it was a very hot day. I was sitting at Bawa Muhaiyaddeen's bedside. He was very old, and his ashram was made up of a cement floor, a corrugated steel roof, and a courtyard ten yards from his bed with a variety of animals. There were goats, peacocks, dogs, cats, and a deer that had followed this gentle Sufi out of the jungles when he entered society to teach. I was struck by how the deer was always attentive when Bawa would sing and pray.

Bawa's day consisted mostly of sitting on his bed and giving advice on understanding the wonder and beauty of God. Because he was respected as a living saint, people attributed many things in their lives to him -- both good and bad -- sometimes, things that should not have been blamed on him.

One day a fellow came in absolutely shaking with rage and hatred. I was sitting right by the bed, and the man pulled out a short machete, the kind that one uses to cut bamboo. He was screaming. I understood that some tragedy had befallen his family and he was blaming Bawa. I was close to him, close enough that I could have sucker punched him. He wouldn't have expected it. He would never have seen me coming. But I thought, no, it's not for me to step in front of this sage. I'm here as a student, and it's not for me to intervene.

You must understand the kind of love that Bawa Muhaiyaddeen generated in me, so this was a profound position that I was in. But I knew, deeply, that I wasn't supposed to do anything. I was to watch and not engage.

Bawa attributed all beauty, goodness, wonder, and the miraculous events that happened in creation only to God. He never centralized any events on himself. He did not use miracles as a way of promoting wisdom. He promoted the supremacy of love and the knowledge of the nature of consciousness as the pathway to human realization.

Now Bawa opened his arms fully wide. He had no shirt on, and he leaned his head backward, exposing himself fully to this flood of violence. He looked with the most melting eyes of gentleness at his assailant and said, "My Brother, will taking my life give your soul the peace it is seeking?"

It was as if the molecules in the room began to scintillate and vibrate with the power of love. That love just filled the space we were in like a tangible presence, and the man with the machete became like a puppet whose strings had been cut. He collapsed on the ground and sat up gazing deeply into the sage's eyes. Bawa then embraced him with such kindness and motherly absorption, and said, "Go home and clean yourself, and come back, my child."

I bear witness to having seen somebody respond to ultimate violence with no concern for his own life but only for the well-being of the attacker. I saw the power of divine love in this world in action.

I learned the value of a true human being.

I am sharing with you a secret he told me: "If you treat other lives as your own life and live within the resonance of God's compassion, wisdom will dawn and you will know yourself. If you know yourself, you will know that God lives in you and you live in God."

A person with such knowledge shines with a light that guides others even without speaking. They do not protect the grace of God for they have surrendered themselves into God and reside knowing that God protects them. Thus, they express the grace of God as part of their own being. Such an expression is a unique human potential and the ultimate ground of human dignity.

For generations people who have attained this level of realization have been admonishing all who would listen to see the human family as one and to respect the mystery and sacredness of life. In this modern age -- when our reach is extended through science and technology to the point where we can shred the very fabric of the web of life by following the excessive quest for power through nuclear weapons or through greedily irresponsible business practices that hurt the environment-this admonition has become an imperative.

Persons who have chosen to pursue the secret inner treasure upon which real value is based are capable of presenting a different route. This route is based on nothing new or old. It is based on living to know and honor the Creator of the indivisible unity of being through the attribute of love. A life lived in such a fashion is resplendent with dignity. May we live to know this.

Jonathan Granoff is an attorney, author, and international advocate who emphasizes the legal, ethical, and spiritual dimensions of human development, nuclear disarmament, peace, and security. He is president of the Global Security Institute and a member of the National Advisory Board of the Network of Spiritual Progressives.

Reflected thoughts about life and death, and in between

1. Religion is not suppose to answer all the questions we pose about life, rather, it should give us the courage to answer them.

2. One of the strategies that we are going to employ is to finish our second floor area. Another is to prepare sandbags.

3. My main fear was to be caught in our house with rising flood waters. Thus, i sent an SOS to my friends in the Barangay office and in 15-minutes they plucked out my daughter, granddaughter and our assistant house manager. That event stabilized my mind.... I have to keep my feet dry and eat our lunch at the second floor. Lucky, I have my nephew around to help me out and both survive.

4. I do not think we can curse typhoon Ondoy. At best we could harness our energy to survive this event. Typhoon Ondoy do not recognize a name, a village, or a valued status.

5. One of the learning that people affected by flood, and they are around .5 million of them is that thought that a second floor will protect them from the next coming flood.

6. After Ondoy, when the accounting has been done, when the garbage has been thrown out, when things are back to "normal", will it be business-as-usual?

7. We just had our Post traumatic de-briefing session at Miriam College. I like to thank Dr. Roni Motilla, Dr. Grace Evangelista, the Guidance and Psychology department. It helped me a lot in dealing with my feelings and setting goals post Ondoy's ...whims. I think this can be cascaded to the barangay level.

8. My grand daughter and I will go to Ali Mall and SM Cubao, for our post-traumatic session due to the floods that hit our house here at 20th Ave.

9. We are now planning to have our second floor an added roof that will act as a laundry and sun-deck, evening view deck ( I hope to buy a telescope to see the stars closely), and of course an evacuation area in case a new Ondoy type of typhoon will come.

10. Today I took pictures of newspapers headlines that has something to do with Ondoy. I was not able to read newspapers for several days because we are busy cleaning the house.

11. A co-teacher of mine said that he plans to take a housing loan and have a three floor building for his family's use. He is damn tired cleaning his house when flood waters reaches his abode.

12. Some people do not want to revisit the past because they have felt that it can be a burden to them.

13. After Ondoy's wrath, any heavy rain we will be experiencing will be communicating to us to listen to its fall. I pause and listen and time the length as to its downpour.

14. True, Ondoy devastated a great swath of land, it has made a deeper impression to the consciousness of people who have been affected by it. Our contours of thinking has drastically been altered when rains fall even a gentle one.

15. People should be demanding to their government accuracy of weather reports, which means PAGASA should have the necessary instruments at their use.

16. Our memories are the places that we inhabit at will. We can go in and out of it. We can learn from the import of its joy and pain. It is a special place. To some it is a sacred place. I think, this is the reason why it is important that we remember.

17. Night bath, a good book by Randy David, a night to sleep. This is what I need.

18. At last you are married to your spouse, in due time your will realize "You cannot escape your in-laws".

19. In our modern society the mind will constantly seek its own home. Some say it is a "homeless-mind". Others, will rest in the comfort that the mind is a perpetual seeker. Thus, it wont find a home of its own.

20. There is no (magician) to be discovered in yourself. You have to create that (magician). That requires new imagination about your life, new strategies, new vocabularies and metaphors.

21. Typhoon Ondoy brings out the best and the worst in us. We saw the see of humanity volunteering to help the flood victims. On the other hand, refugees vandalized a school and a report that some robbed the students when the school opened.

22. According to BBC weather report, we will be experiencing sunny days up to Wednesday. I will now have time to clean our concrete slab and apply elastomeric paint.

23. Do you know the value of those photos that have been washed by an un-welcomed storm? God, its priceless.

24. At last you are married to your spouse, in due time your will realize "You cannot escape your in-laws".

25. In our modern society the mind will constantly seek its own home. Some say it is a "homeless-mind". Others, will rest in the comfort that the mind is a perpetual seeker. Thus, it wont find a home of its own.

26. There is no (magician) to be discovered in yourself. You have to create that (magician). That requires new imagination about your life, new strategies, new vocabularies and metaphors.

27. Photos are being dried at the roof. Some photos are now relegated to a tearful goodbye. I simply can't reconstruct them. It's totally destroyed.

28. Sorry if I am not responding to request on remembering my birthday. I am off the calendar and I dread high numbers these days.

29. It breaks my heart when I found out the submerged photos of the past. Its done and over with smudges and prints that can't be recognized. I may just depend on my aging memory to recall what can be recalled.

30. Our concrete slab that acts as our roof is now painted with elastomeric elements. We are now planning to have the second floor fixed for habitation. In case of another Ondoy type we have a place to evacuate.

31. I just finished re-tiling part of our living room floor. It is a social labor.

32. I just finished re-tiling part of our living room floor. It is a social labor.

33. "Work is a slice of your life. It's not the entire pizza" - Jacquelyn Mitchard

34. "Few things move as quickly as the future" - Bern Williams

35. "Dreams come true; without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them." John Updike

36. "Heroes are people who rise to the occasion and slip quietly away." - Tom Brokaw

37. "It's never too late for a happy childhood" - Gloria Steinem

38. "Those who stand for nothing will fall for anything". Alexander Hamilton

39. "An Inconvenient Truth" communicated by AL Gore, the media, and other scientists brought to us an understanding of global warming. The recent typhoon that visited us surely says that the weather we are experiencing will never be the same again.

40. Night is for sleeping. And we value it for what it is.

41. We are one who were traumatized by typhoon Ondoy. No control, helpless from the floods. Iba na ngayong ang dating ng ulan.

42. The high point of the floods was at noon time. The sofa is now floating, pails, garbage containers followed the natural course of the menu prepared by Ondoy. Outside the house on the street level was six fee deep. We have a creek that drains the wate...r on this natural funnel that we constructed our house. Some people decided to construct a building beside it. What do we got?

43. When the clear flood waters came in via our main entrance, it was somewhat bizarre that his flood happen to me on a personal level. The floods are there but what can I do? I was sure stamped with "Helpless". Thus, instead of fighting the flood I'd let it enter to see what would happen. It is just rushing water, but it can be fatal.

44. Natural flood waters has the capacity to tilt the way to handle things. When it is your first time, you turn to become a rookie. You estimate certain decisions that you wanted to be safe but in an afterthought, it could turn out to be dangerous.

Dry clothes outside your house.

They can now hang their clothes outside to dry. Click on link below.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/us/11clothesline.html?em

Reflected thoughts about life and death, and in between

1. And as you enter the realm of the public, it demands that each one should live a moral life. It is in the realm of the public that one fully realizes who one is. The private realm is merely a rehearsal.

2. The private realm is one that the problematique because it is in this engagement that you are alone to yourself, a fact that you can't escape.

3. When you write "Ah", that may mean a hundred different interpretations.

4. When one posts his/her private thoughts at facebook, remember that thought was transformed into the public sphere. Your thoughts can be analyzed, decoded, interpreted and re-interpreted. The private magically becomes public.

5. Typhoon Ondoy is an interruption to our daily grind particularly in Metro Manila. It forced us to do things that we usually do not do. Then we discover something that we were capable of. Such discovery is an exercise of who we are as a nation. This s...hapes our collective self at a particular juncture of history.

6. Nature has no word if this is a tragedy or not, it simply dumps water that you have not imagined in your life.

7. Sometimes it is harder to believe that everything happens for no reason at all!

8. "More dreams die because we fail to seize the moment. Do it now!" - Tony Robbins. This is your time to respond to the disaster brought about by typhoon Ondoy. Go to your nearest volunteer recruitment center.

9. to Jim Paredes: "That is ok to have a break for being a Filipino. Our identities are shaped by culture. Cultures are inherently tentative. Our identities are defining moments, sometimes also a burden. As we are inserted into a historically conditioned society the malleability of identity is always achieved."

10. Our reflections about the recent national event should unite us even more in over coming the barriers that was brought by a typhoon. We now see barriers that prevents others from becoming human. There is a need to act to help other people.

11. There are around 200-dead people due to the effect of the typhoon. For sure if we are a prepared nation given this kind of natural-human disaster, the deaths could have been lessened.

12. Individually we will have to reflect on the events that is presently unfolding right now. As a collective community we will have to come to terms with a nation strategically located in a typhoon belt.

13. One plastic box full of wet clothing have been drained.

14. We will be mourning those who perished from this tragedy and we will be celebrating the birth of those being born with no memory of this event.

15. Still, this event raises the question, "As a people, how are we organized to confront a similar problem in the future?"

16. Even my granddaughter who is barely equipped with our language is trying to tell her story of how flood waters is going inside the house. She is 3-years old.

17. I guess will have to keep the learning and the bad memories go away with the receding flood waters. Typhoon Ondoy is a terror, terrible teacher.

18. Since this historical floods came rushing in we have to change our ways of thinking on how to cope when the next flood will come along.

19. Flood waters came inside our house last Saturday. We have been living here for the past 19-years. This is the first time flood came into our house. Books, magazines, documents came out wet. Some books have to be discarded. Around 80 kilos of magazin...es that I am selling as collectors items over the net have to go. An Italian painting magazine of 1960 got wet and turned into soggy shreds.

20. "Before I die, I want to make a movie that shows people over 70 having hot erotic relationship. I'd have to write the script myself." Jane Fonda on being 70.

21. When you age, you don't have to be perfect.

22. Governments given their power at their disposal cannot abolish religion. At best they have to cooperate with it.

23. Our shared experiences can be blocked by our failure or incapacity to communicate.

24. Silence possess a power that we grope for something tangible that the mind wants to produce, so that a stalled conversation can pick-up and continue its mandatory journey.

25. When we meet again people who are related to us and that means you are physically both far from each other, you want to overcome the silence that touches you in between your conversations. There is an attitude that wanting to search for a topic, an object of conversation to connect and to keep on conversing because a pause, a silence can be a felt pain.

51 best thing for being Pinoy

51 Best things for being Pinoy


50. Midnight madness, weekends sales, bangketas and baratillos. It's
retail therapy at its best, with Filipinos braving traffic, crowds, and
human deluge to find a bargain.

51. Merienda. Where else is it normal to eat five times a day?

52. Sawsawan. Assorted sauces that guarantee freedom of choice, enough
room for experimentation and maximum tolerance for diverse tastes.
Favorites: toyo't calamansi, suka at sili, patis.

53. Kuwan, ano. At a loss for words? Try these and marvel at how
Pinoys understand exactly what you want.

54. Pinoy humor and irreverence. If you're api and you know it, crack
a joke. Nothing personal, really.

55. Tingi. Thank goodness for small entrepreneurs. Where else can we
buy cigarettes, soap, condiments and life's essentials in small
affordable amounts?

56. Spirituality. Even before the Spaniards came, ethnic tribes had
their own anitos, bathalas and assorted deities, pointing to a strong
relationship with the Creator, who or whatever it may be.

57. Po, opo, mano po. Speech suffixes that define courtesy, deference,
filial respect--a balm to the spirit in these aggressive times.

58. Pasalubong. Our way of sharing the vicarious thrills and delights
of a trip, and a wonderful excuse to shop without the customary guilt.

59. Beaches! With 7,000 plus islands, we have miles and miles of
shoreline piled high with fine white sand, lapped by warm waters, and
nibbled by exotic tropical fish. From the stormy seas of Batanes to the
emerald isles of Palawan and beautiful Boracay--over here, life is truly
a beach.

60. Bagoong. Darkly mysterious, this smelly fish or shrimp paste
typifies the underlying theme of most ethnic foods: disgustingly
unhygienic, unbearably stinky and simply irresistible.

61. Bayanihan. Yes, the internationally- renowned dance company, but
also this habit of pitching in still common in small communities. Just
have that cold beer and some pulutan ready for the troops.

62. The Balikbayan box. Another way of sharing life's bounty, no matter
if it seems like we're fleeing Pol Pot every time we head home from
anywhere in the globe. The most wonderful part is that, more often than
not, the contents are carted home to be distributed.

63. Pilipino komiks. Not to mention "Hiwaga," "Aliwan," "Tagalog
Classics," "Liwayway" and"Bulaklak" magazines. Pulpy publications that
gave us Darna, Facifica Falayfay, Lagalag, Kulafu, Kenkoy, Dyesebel,
characters of a time both innocent and worldly.

64. Folk songs. They come unbidden and spring, full blown, like a
second language, at the slightest nudge from the too-loud stereo of a
passing jeepney or tricycle..

65. Fiesta. Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow is just another day,
shrugs the poor man who, once a year, honors a patron saint with this
sumptuous, no-holds-barred spread. It's a Pinoy celebration at its
pious and riotous best.

66. Aswang, manananggal, kapre. The whole underworld of Filipino lower
mythology recalls our uniquely bizarre childhood, that is, before
political correctness kicked in. Still, their rich adventures pepper
our storytelling.

67. Jeepneys. Colorful, fast, reckless, a vehicle of postwar Pinoy
ingenuity, this Everyman's communal cadillac makes for a cheap,
interesting ride. If the driver's a daredevil (as they usually are),
hang on to your seat.

68. Dinuguan. Blood stew, a bloodcurdling idea, until you try it with
puto. Best when mined with jalapei's peppers. Messy but delicious.

69. Santacruzan. More than just a beauty contest, this one has
religious overtones, a tableau of St. Helena's and Constantine' s search
for the Cross that seamlessly blends piety, pageantry and ritual. Plus,
it's the perfect excuse to show off the prettiest ladies--and the most
beautiful gowns.

70. Balut. Unhatched duck's embryo, another unspeakable ethnic food to
outsiders, but oh, to indulge in guilty pleasures! Sprinkle some salt
and suck out that soup, with gusto.

71. Pakidala. A personalized door-to-door remittance and delivery
system for overseas Filipino workers who don't trust the banking system,
and who expect a family update from the courier, as well.

72. Choc-nut. Crumbly peanut chocolate bars that defined childhood
ecstasy before M & M's and Hershey's.

73. Kamayan style. To eat with one's hand and eschew spoon, fork and
table manners--ah, heaven.

74. Chicharon. Pork, fish or chicken crackling. There is in the
crunch a hint of the extravagant, the decadent and the pedestrian.
Perfect with vinegar, sublime with beer.

75. Pinoy hospitality. Just about everyone gets a hearty "Kain tayo!"
invitation to break bread with whoever has food to share, no matter how
skimpy or austere it is.

76. Adobo, kare-kare, sinigang and other lutong bahay stuff.
Home-cooked meals that have the stamp of approval from several
generations, who swear by closely-guarded cooking secrets and family
recipes.

77. Lola Basyang. The voice one heard spinning tales over the radio,
before movies and television curtailed imagination and defined grown-up
tastes.

78. Pambahay. Home is where one can let it all hang out, where clothes
do not make a man or woman but rather define their level of comfort.

79. Tricycle and trisikad, the poor Pinoy's taxicab that delivers you
at your doorstep for as little as P7.00, with a complimentary dusting of
polluted air.

80. Dirty ice cream. Very Pinoy flavors that make up for the risk:
munggo, langka, ube, mais, keso, macapuno. Plus there's the colorful
cart that recalls jeepney art.

81. Yayas. The trusted Filipino nanny who, ironically, has become a
major Philippine export as overseas contract workers. A good one is
almost like a surrogate parent -- if you don't mind the accent and the
predilection for afternoon soap and movie stars.

82.. Sarsi. Pinoy rootbeer, the enduring taste of childhood. Our
grandfathers had them with an egg beaten in.

83. Pinoy fruits. Atis, guyabano, chesa, mabolo, lanzones, durian,
langka, makopa, dalanghita, siniguelas, suha, chico, papaya,
singkamas--the possibilities!

84. Filipino celebrities. Movie stars, broadcasters, beauty queens,
public officials, all-around controversial figures: Aurora Pijuan,
Cardinal Sin, Carlos P. Romulo, Charito Solis, Gemma Cruz, Cory Aquino,
Emilio Aguinaldo, the Eraserheads, Fidel V. Ramos, Francis Magalona,
Gloria Diaz, Manuel L. Quezon, Margie Moran, Melanie Marquez, Ninoy
Aquino, Nora Aunor, Pitoy Moreno, Ramon Magsysay, Richard Gomez, San
Lorenzo Ruiz, Sharon Cuneta, Erap, Tiya Dely, Mel and Jay, Gary V, Kris
Aquino, Piolo Pascual, Papa Wilie "wowowie."

85. World class Pinoys who put us on the global map: Lea Salonga, Paeng
Nepomuceno, Eugene Torre, Luisito Espinosa, Lydia de Vega-Mercado,
Jocelyn Enriquez, Elma Muros, Onyok Velasco, Efren "Bata" Reyes, Lilia
Calderon-Clemente, Loida Nicolas-Lewis, Josie Natori, Charice, Manny
Pacquiao.

86. Pinoy tastes. A dietitian's nightmare: too sweet, too salty, too
fatty, as in burong talangka, itlog na maalat, crab fat (aligue),
bokayo, kutchinta, sapin-sapin, halo-halo, pastilyas, palitaw, pulburon,
longganisa, tuyo, ensaymada, ube haleya, sweetened macapuno and
garbanzos. Remember, we're the guys who put sugar (horrors) in our
spaghetti sauce. Yum!

87. The sights. Banaue Rice Terraces, Boracay, Bohol's Chocolate
Hills, Corregidor Island, Fort Santiago, the Hundred Islands, the Las
Pinas Bamboo Organ, Rizal Park, Mt. Banahaw, Mayon Volcano, Taal
Volcano. Palawan Underground River. A land of contrasts and
ever-changing landscapes.

88. Gayuma, agimat and anting-anting. Love potions and amulets.. How
the socially-disadvanta ged Pinoy copes.

89. Barangay Ginebra, Jaworski, PBA, MBA and basketball. How the
verticaly-challenge d Pinoy compensates, via a national sports obsession
that reduces fans to tears and fistfights.

90. People Power at EDSA. When everyone became a hero and changed
Philippine history overnight.

91. San Miguel Beer and pulutan. "Isa pa nga!" and the Philippines'
most popular, world-renowned beer goes well with peanuts, corniks, tapa,
chicharon, usa, barbecue, sisig, and all manner of spicy, crunchy and
cholesterol- rich chasers. Iba ng may pingasamahan!

92. Resiliency. We've survived 400 years of Spanish rule, the US
bases, Marcos, the 1990 earthquake, lahar, lambada, Robin Padilla, and
Tamagochi. We'll survive Gloria.

93. Yoyo. Truly Filipino in origin, this hunting tool, weapon, toy and
merchandising vehicle remains the best way to "walk the dog" and "rock
the baby," using just a piece of string..

94. Pinoy games: Pabitin, palosebo, basagan ng palayok. A few basic
rules make individual cunning and persistence a premium, and guarantee a
good time for all.

95. Ninoy Aquino.. For saying that "the Filipino is worth dying for,''
and proving it.

96. Balagtasan. The verbal joust that brings out rhyme, reason and
passion on a public stage.

97. Tabo. All-powerful, ever-useful, hygienically- triumphant device to
scoop water out of a bucket and help the true Pinoy answer nature's
call. Helps maintain our famously stringent toilet habits.

98. Pandesal. Despite its shrinking size, still a good buy. Goes well
with any filling, best when hot.

99. Jollibee. Truly Pinoy in taste and sensibility, and a corporate
icon that we can be quite proud of. Do you know that it's invaded the
Middle East, as well?

100. The butanding, the dolphins and other creatures in our blessed
waters. They're Pinoys, too, and they're here to stay. Now if some
folks would just stop turning them into daing.