There is nothing much that is happening now. Outgoing president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is supposed to be wrapping things up while incoming president Noynoy Aquino is busy preparing for his inauguration and is in the process of finalizing his line-up for his Cabinet. Now is the period of anticipation.
The Filipino people have waited for six and a half years for June 30 to come. The clamor for Arroyo to step down from power has been going on for eight long years.
Disturbed by news of the sexual abuse of children by priests and religious in the United States and the failure of bishops there to respond properly, in 2002 the bishops of Japan investigated the situation here. In June of that year, they issued a statement on the sexual abuse of children.
HERE IN BICOL, typhoons were more frequent around the early days of November, just after everyone had gone home from the cemeteries for the All Souls' Day. The storms came with winds rough enough to tear into useless strips fans of banana leaves, which Mother would use to wrap latik or inun'on na dilis. The storms would bring rains that came in torrents of sharp needles so that children and even adults could not go out of the houses.
The race for the top position in the land has finally ended: Sen. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino was proclaimed on June 9 as the 15th president of the Republic of the Philippines. Sen. Aquino, son of former president Cory Aquino, is succeeding Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, daughter of former president Diosdado Macapagal.
Compared to Ticao, the island of my birth, Buhi, the hometown of my father, was the least visited site of my childhood. The times we visited the town corresponded with deaths of certain family members, on my father side.
Sisay an tunay na sikat? Sisay an tunay na paladan?
Si Jovit Baldovino, an Grand Winner kan Pilipinas Got Talent? Sya dating paratinda nin siomai tanganing makatabang sa pamilya. Ngunyan, sya an pinag-uurulayan sa bilog na Pilipinas. O si Manny Pacquiao, an sikat na boksyador sa bilog na kinaban, na dating nagdulag sa harong huli sa makuring pagtios? Asin ngunyan saro nang bilyonaryo, kongresman pa.
Sisay an tunay na sikat? Sisay an tunay na paladan?
On CNN, Noynoy vowed that his brand of democracy would be that which defends the rights even of his opponents. Here's a checklist crying for utmost priority action that various sectors have earlier come up with:
I AM WRITING THIS, very quietly, inside the technician's pit of the SFX, the state-of-the-art recording studio of Jesuit Communications housed in the lush campus of the Ateneo de Manila University. In this room, I'm keeping company to Robbie Grande, one of the country's top sound engineers. Before him, the record button flashes bright red and the sliding controls are seemingly in disarray to provide the necessary sound quality.
I always remember Ateneo de Naga as a school that, for a long time, stood without a gate. But I also remember it as one school that was forbidding to the outsiders. And for a long time, there was a big outside for the school.
There's no group of men in history quite like that of the Catholic priesthood. What is it that makes it so unique? Its celibacy, most obviously. But there's also dedication to service for which the priests have been a byword, especially in India. And then, there's its creativity and scholarship. So the priesthood for me has been all three, in different measures, during the last 35 years (almost) I've been a Jesuit priest.
The pressure is on, you feel it - But you've got it all, believe it. When you fall, get up; and if you fall get up Tsamina mina´ Zangalewa, Cuz this is Africa - Tsamina mina, Waka Waka, this time for Africa!
So sang Shakira last Thursday night in the Orlando Stadium in Soweto, Johannesburg. Indeed, this time is for Africa.
With the proclamation of Noynoy Aquino and Jojo Binay as president-elect and vice-president-elect, respectively, we have sealed a new chapter in our democracy: automation. Finally, automation has freed us from the manual process of electing our leaders that only perpetuated large-scale cheating as seen in GMA's "Hello Garci".
Women's status in society has improved considerably in the last decade. Many women are well-educated, hold good jobs and enjoy a high standard of independence. Increasingly, many women choose not to marry. Married women with children are overburdened with caring for the home, family and struggle to cope with their careers.
I was in Kamakura once more. From Tokyo, you buy a Free Kippu, which literally means "free ticket." The ticket is not free however but discounted. The ticket allows you to take the tram car indefinitely. You can stop at every station and a majestic monastery and temple or shrine will be there.
Kamakura, for those who romanticize the place, is the seat of warriors' culture. This was where the code of the Samurai called the Bushido reached its fruition. On that rainy day, Kamakura was indeed romance and adventure. Not even the squirrels scampering over electric and cable lines could diminish the foreboding that seemed to wash over the landscape of this seaside town.
It is now only less than a month before Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo leaves Malacañang and the Filipino people could not wait to get it over with. Despite the flak that the Commission on Elections and Smartmatic are getting for bungling the automated elections, and even if the old problems of vote-buying - which seems to have become more massive
Like scents, tastes bring us to places, remind us of events and affairs, and conjure within us old feelings. More often, these feelings are heightened because some are of our deepest intimacies while some are of our greatest melancholies and fears. This simple psychology of flavor was, is, and will always be a big part of how we are formed as individual persons.
Akkad in Mesopotamia was the center of the world's first empire some 25 centuries before Christ. The Akkadian language outlasted the empire, becoming the language of several later cultures, including Babylonia.
Even 45 centuries later, we possibly still use a couple of words from that language in our day-to-day activities, words that may descend from the Akkadian words asu, "to ascend," and erub, "to descend." They were the roots of the words for "east" and "west," where the sun ascends and descends. In English, we pronounce them "Asia" and "Europe."
For my column piece this week, I am sharing below my homily which was delivered last 2010 May 30, on the occasion of the solemnity of the Holy Trinity.
Ngunyan satong sinisilebrar an kapyestahan kan Santisima Trinidad. Sosog sa satong nanudan sa katesismo, ini an misteryo nin mga misteryo na tinutubudan nin satong Katolikong Simbahan.
The recent violence in Bangkok is a result of the injustice and disenfranchisement suffered by a large section of Thai society for decades, says a lay Catholic social activist.
Rungtip Imrungruang, who works withActionAid Thailandsays that in such a scenario, the Church has a role to play beyond merely doing charity work.
