American-Philippine Friendship Day Celebration July 4

     There has been so much debate about celebrating Filipino-American Friendship Day that has taken the luster about the occasion.

      Few Americans care about this for the simple reason that the Fourth of July happens to Independence Day in their home turf. With the number of Filipinos actually celebrating it dwindling with each passing year, it won't be far-fetched when the time comes when the event gets scrapped altogether.

      It sure is a confusing moment for Filipinos. The radicals treat Americans with scorn (their policy makers actually) so such a celebration is like pouring gasoline on fire.

      Meanwhile, more and more Filipinos (not just Filipinos actually) look up to the American Dream as a one-way ticket out of their financial difficulties. And so unlike those who abhor anything American, they embrace the belief that the only way out for the Philippines is to become a state of the United States.

      Still, one cannot help but reflect about friendship, or what passes off for it in a world where relationships hardly mean anything anymore.

      It is true that Filipinos down the years have a lot of legitimate gripes against American policy makers. That of course is not enough reason to declare Americans as enemies of the state.

      As many Filipinos routinely dismiss their government officials as people who do not represent the interest of the majority, it should not be difficult to expect the same attitude from the average American in relation to their leaders.

      If there is any loathing that must be done for actual and imagined unkind treatment, it should be reserved for our leaders more than the Americans. The Americans are accountable to Americans first, in the same manner that Filipinos should be accountable to Filipinos first.

      Going by this thinking, if Americans need to be unkind to Filipinos in the best interest of the American people, we have no right to complain. It is a different thing though when Filipino leaders put American interest first.

      It is strange logic when Filipinos think they have a right to decide for American policy. It is not only because they have a right to their own discretion (or indiscretion, as the case may be) but because giants don't give in to dwarves.

      The best thing to do would be to do as best we can with what we have. If America, as a friend, gives us a lift now and then, fine. Their worse behavior should be the least of our worries. We have to stand up and survive on our own.

      It is not about America. To be more specific, it is not about friendship. source: Editorial, Sunday Post

Simplicity and Spiritual Childhood

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

If we are interested in keeping our humanity, or at least our sanity, it may be good to be reminded about the need for us to develop, keep and strengthen our simplicity and spiritual childhood. This integral part of Christian asceticism should not be forgotten as we progress.

With our neck-breaking pace of development, with its unavoidable dust cloud of complications, we need to realize more deeply that the way to go is not by being quixotic, tilting at windmills and grappling with phantoms, but by being simple.

The temptation to be quixotic can be strong, since we always feel we can handle things by ourselves. Our sense of freedom and responsibility often blind us to the basic truth that we need to be grounded on God always to be able to live properly, let alone, do things rightly.

This quixotic attitude can lead us to that situation of self-righteousness, denounced by Christ himself when he told some of the people's leaders that "they have eyes, but don't see, they have ears, but don't hear…" It's the wide, easy, seemingly practical road to perdition, mentioned in the gospel.

Simplicity is the way to objectivity, and to all the other values connected with objectivity. It keeps us in touch with reality, the one meant for us. We have to say this, because as human beings, we are capable of creating parallel realities. That's our abiding problem.

Of course, our subjective world will always vary from person to person. But at least this variety can still be linked to an objective reality. Our predicament is that we can have a subjective perception of things that has nothing to do with the objective reality anymore. It can be propped up merely by a system of rationalizations.

In fact, even at this juncture, some of us can already question what this objective reality really is. This is the likely question of those who believe more in themselves than in God, of those who rely on reason while neglecting the faith.

For those who have faith, they can manage to escape the grip of their rational and sentimental subjectivity to go into an objective world outside of themselves. Without faith, one opens himself to the possibility of being invincibly imprisoned in his own world.

Simplicity helps us accept and live the faith. It's what makes us children who accept things first, who allow ourselves to be guided and taught, before asking questions, not out of unbelief but rather for greater understanding.

Remember what our Lord said about the kingdom of heaven. He went as far as to say that it is for little children precisely because of their simplicity: "Suffer the little children, and forbid them not to come to me. For the kingdom of heaven is for such." (Mt 19,14)

We need to devise an interior mechanism, more spiritual than material, to keep ourselves like children even as we grow in worldly knowledge and skills, and prone to thinking that we can already live by ourselves, independently of God.

This mechanism can include anything that fosters our presence of God all throughout the day, the practice of rectifying our intention and relating everything that we do to God. We have to break the barrier of awkwardness and incompetence in this regard. We actually have the means. What's missing is our will to use this mechanism.

And lest we think simplicity is naivete, and gullibility, let's remind ourselves of what our Lord said: "Be wise as serpents and simple as doves." (Mt 10,16) Simplicity would not be true simplicity if it does not come with cleverness and shrewdness.

Our Lord himself, the epitome of simplicity, is also the epitome of shrewdness. Remember how he read men's minds, and formed his statements according to what he knew!

That may be a difficult act to follow, but we can always try. We have life itself, with all its cultures, civilizations and our ever-expanding personal experiences, to teach us how to be both clever and simple as our Lord wants us to be.

But we should always be aware of our need to develop this virtue of simplicity. We cannot take this duty for granted, because the logic of our flesh and the logic of the world tend to complicate us.

The false glitter of the celebrity world, the escape mechanisms of sex and drugs, the anomalies of abortion, contraception, same-sex unions, etc., indicate the extent to which our complications have worsened. We are actually ripe for a disaster unless we change.

Manny Pacquiao on Politics and Political Dreams

Politician can be such a confusing word. At one time it was considered an honor to be called a politician. Even if that was when the names Washington and Jefferson were in office. But somewhere along the line it became a word more closely associated with corruption. The greedy became greedier and the corrupt became downright felonious. Call me a liar, a thief and a crook and I'll tell you that you must have me confused with a politician.

Sometimes a fresh faced individual believes he or she can make a difference. They enter into the political world with nothing but the best intentions. They promise their backers that they won fall into the same old traps and get caught up in the shenanigans that dirty the political world. At least that is how they feel at the time.

But it is different when you step into the dark, stank room. You have to check your innocence and naivete at the door. You find that the only way to get things accomplished is to play the very game you despise. Even then, you're lucky to accomplish a fourth of what you set out to do. You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours is the motto in this club. Without compromise you will fail miserably.

So once again I hear that Manny Pacquiao wants to throw his hat in the ring in 2010. I had hoped that he would keep boxing, but I also felt like this was something Manny felt he had to do. Boxing's loss, Philippines gain. Or so I thought.

See I work with and am friends with many Filipinos. What made me write this piece was the reaction I got when I casually mentioned Pacquiao and politics. All I heard was an ear piercing NOOOOOO! That was something I hadn't heard since asking out girls in high school.

My friend used the word stain. I let him know that I assumed that Filipinos would be happy to see Manny elected. He said that they love Manny, but not politicians. Filipinos consider Pacquiao a national treasure and a source of national pride. Other larger countries have multiple sports icons. But Pacquiao has shown the world that one of their own can do anything. Including conquering the boxing world. Manny has already given back so much, emotionally and monetarily, to his homeland. This is where he helps the most and where he should stay, in boxing.

Many feel he can do more good if he continues to build medical centers, schools and gyms. These are things that don't happen when politics get involved. They feel he is better off if he doesn't hobnob with bureaucrats that are only in politics for self gain. Still many Filipinos want Manny to run. To this my friend responds, "they don't know what they're talking about."

So Manny, from my Filipino friends, stay in boxing. You're place in history is already well defined. Leave the dirty business of politics to those who enjoy doing dirty business. The political game has a way of staining the names of the most well intentioned people. Don't let them do that to you. (The preceding is a reprint, an article by Glenn Wilson – Norfolk boxing examiner)

How to Maintain Good Posture

SOME people walk gracefully while others slump.

    

You know something is wrong.When you  see a frumpy figure gazing  back at you in the mirror.

   

Good posture can change all   that. A woman striding confidently into a room with her shoulders  straight  and head held high has the ability to break hearts. A man standing straight-backed, with just the right tilt to his square chin, will stand out from the rest of the slumped party-goers.

   

Good posture is easy to attain.

 

The steps to proper posture are simple, and they begin with the stomach. The belly button should be pulled back into the spine,  sucked up into the lungs. The ribs, in turn, should be held lightly under a buoyant chest and shoulders that are back and relaxed. The collarbones should be down, while the chin is slightly lifted, creating long, swan-like neck.

   

The  feeling is of being pulled upward from a string attached to the top of your head, with the entire spine stretched and extended. And on top of this beautifully held body there must be at least a hint of a smile, and an assured focus and purpose to the eyes.

   

If high heels are added into the mix, find shoes in which you can walk with straight-legged poise rather than small, painfully mincing steps. As time wears on, there will be the temptation to allow your back to sway. Do not give in! Keep holding your stomach firmly to support your back, and remember to keep your shoulders placed directly over your hips.

   

High heels are no excuse to allow your posture to slip. If they hurt your feet, then you unfortunately bought the wrong pair. "Beauty takes pain."

   

Good posture can transform you; it can turn you from merely good-looking to radiantly jaw-dropping in an instant. But ladies in stilettos, do not attempt your confident stride on slippery surfaces -- unless you would like to display your fabulous posture and swan-like neck while falling down a marble staircase.

   

And men, perhaps you should not dash after your Cinderella; it is hard to look composed while running desperately. You do not want to ruin the effect you worked so hard to achieve. 

Global Hunger: 1 Billion People Hungry

By Bingo Dejaresco III

It is not our imagination, folks. It is the United Nation's Food Council who drew the number.

There are one billion hungry men in Planet Earth today. One of six earthlings suffer from malnutrition today. Last year in 2008, there were only 915 million recorded hungry earthlings then.

War and political instability, drought and food crisis had brought this tragedy to us. When food production stabilized late last year, the global financial crisis however, in turn, lowered income levels and prejudiced access of men to food instead.

This, aside from the fact, that food prices in the world had really effectively increased by 24%, a hot ratio, from 2006 to 2008.

Malnutrition means a person receives less than 1,800 calories a day. This depravity, according to the UN, caused food riots in 30 countries recently. Malnutrition leads to slow death in that it weakens the immune system against battling germs that cause sickness and diseases.

Malnutrition kills man softly.

The hungry reside mostly in Asia and the Pacific region (where the country is) at 642 million, up by 10% from last year. The other bigger chunk comes from Africa at 265 million. Together they total 805 million hungry folks, about 80% of the world's total.

The trend has been noted in the country as well.

According to the World Bank PDF, poverty incidence in the country had decelerated but increased again during the recent years. 

At the waning years of the dictator Marcos, the country's poverty incidence was at a high of 41% which Cory brought down to 34.3% at the end of her term in 1991. FVR even succeeded to scale this down further into 25% at the end of his term in 1997.

GMA's ascension into office started with a 26% poverty incidence in 2003 and unfortunately rose again to 28% back in 2006. Twenty-four of 100 were poor in 2003; now 27 of 100 in 2006.

In the period 2003 to 2007, fuel, light and water cost escalated by a high 53%, transportation and communication by 50%, food by 21% and Education by 29%, according to the government's National Statistical Coordination Board. All these price increases make people poorer if their income remains stagnant.

There are, of course, more poor found in the rural than urban areas.

But the urban symbol of FVR's fight against poverty - Mang Pandoy - is now dead.

Although he was given a job to support a family, the approach was far from holistic. The job may have given Mang Pandoy the basic nutrition needed.

However, the money for medicines or insurance for health when he got sick, water and sanitation, shelter, passable education and perhaps peace and order were not necessarily in order.

Mang Pandoy's life perhaps puts into framework the government's piece-meal approach to poverty alleviation which must necessarily cover the entire family's basic minimum requirements. 

Staying alive, no matter how John Travolta gyrates, is not the end all of a Filipino's existence. 

He must have medicine when he gets sick, clean water, decent house that doesn't leak when it rains, educated enough and live in a peaceful community for Juan de la Cruz to continue "staying alive."

While the water projects and livelihood opportunities accorded by the NAPC (National Anti-Poverty Coordinator) and the free and subsidized training of livelihood programs at the TESDA these days are very good initiatives, the non-income aspect of Mang Pandoy's continued existence must be as importantly and urgently addressed.

For a family of five in Metro Manila, it needs P8,550 per month in income to stay out of poverty; slightly less for the entire country and less urban centers at P6,274 per month income.

The global financial nightmare has complicated the situation.

The deficit has ballooned to P252 billion and increased the deficit: GDP ratio to 3.2 from 2.0 two years earlier. It has not been healthy - with the government resorting to escalated borrowings - including the contemplated $1.5-billion "Samurai Bonds" announced last week in Japan's visit of GMA. That had to be resorted, because revenue sources from BIR and Customs are primarily down due to lower economic activities.

That is certainly going to worsen the P4.3-trillion National Debt nightmare. Today up to 30% of the National Budget is eaten up to merely servicing the debt.

That by itself deprives Juan de la Cruz of many infrastructure and goodies for normal living.

The BSP had tried to use monetary policy, after the government's fiscal failure, to influence inflation in the matter of interest rates and money supply - in its bid to keep inflation down. Inflationary forces hurt the poor more who cannot afford any upward escalation of consumer prices.

Will there be stagflation - a grim scene of business giving up hope and reducing business activities? Low supply and low demand combining into a lethal combination?

It is a dangerous possibility. It is best that our government and the banking system do not panic and exacerbate the thin sense of confidence of people in anything and maybe even any one these days.

Two weeks ago, we editorialized with a warning that perhaps, despite government rah-rah boys, the Philippines might really slip into recession.

All the major papers yesterday, carried the story that the World Bank itself now confirmed that recession is setting in the Philippines.

This apocalyptic forecast make us shudder in our seats - that given the present hunger situation in many parts of the world and the country, the roller coaster ride is taking a lot longer at the bottom now. It is frigging bad.

We don't want to hear more stories like that of Mang Pandoy - many of them not reaching the pages of the newspapers, or the airwaves through television and the radio.

The Government's top priority now must be alleviation of poverty and keeping the dirty angry wolf called Hunger away from Juan de la Cruz' doorstep.

We need all the prayers and good luck wishes we can muster. Let's start now.

Tagbilaran Mayor Accused of Being Corrupt

"My critics are seeing ghosts where there are  none."

Thus declared City Mayor Dan Neri Lim in reaction to a paid advertisement sent by the group of lawyer Victor de la Serna casting aspersions to a supplemental budget he submitted to the Sangguniang Panglungsud in its session last Friday.

Drawing analogy of his detractors  seeing ghosts although there were none, Lim said his critics should be sure  of their facts before engaging in vilification of  their enemy.

The budget that amounted to P 40.7 million was sent for SP approval without discussion and support document or S.O.D., this according to the topnotch lawyer.

Belying  de la Serna's allegations saying that he was out of touch of legislative processes, Mayor Lim said that the amount requested will pass scrutiny of the proper SP committee. The body where the request will undergo a thorough scrutiny is the committee on appropriation. 

According to Mayor Lim, from the proper committee,  it will then be submitted to the SP as a whole where it will be subjected for heated deliberation. It will then be approved if  the supplemental request is found  to be meritorious.

In subjecting de la Serna's tirades vis-a-vis his own pointed reply, Lim minced no words in calling his critic as one who engaged in black propaganda. Lim said de la Serna's actuation is a reflection of his true character.  

Saying that de la Serna was at his element when he engaged in deception, he recalled that he doesn't want to be in the league of former governor Rene Relampagos, former senator Ernesto Herrera and the late Venice Borja Agana who were all victims of the lawyer's acerbic tongue. 

COMMITTMENT

In  giving Lim of de la Serna's piece of mind, the lawyer said one appropriation the mayor  asked in the supplemental budget was his commitment of P500,000 to the Bohol Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

According to de la Serna, why is city hall too generous to the group of businessmen?

Other items in the budget request that drove de la Serna's goat were: P6 million honorarium to unidentified persons; P3M for contractual services of unidentified persons; P3M for  job orders and launching activities. 

On the question of purok and health workers honoraria amounting to P 4 million, Lim said the enabling resolution allowing this allowance was already approved as part of the program of city hall.        

OF DEMIGODS GARBAGE MEN

Meanwhile, Mayor Lim was in the warpath again as he went about his weekly radio program in yesterday's edition.

Calling his media critics as demigods and garbage men, he held no bards in castigating them for conduct unbecoming in the practice of the media profession. 

While his detractors went to town in lambasting his administration of perceived anomalies, the media demigods found nothing wrong in claming up for the actuation of their own henchmen Lim blurted.

He mentioned as example of the news black out of his media enemy (DYRD and Bohol Chronicle) about the case of its own  reporter who was caught stealing the sun glass of a city policeman.

Lim said although Mel Banal, the reporter in question, was shown the door after he was accused of theft, there was no mention of a new story including his caper.

At the same time, Lim took potshots to a news blackout involving a close aide (driver and bodyguard of Senior Police Supt. Edgardo Ingking, provincial director of the Philippine National Police, Bohol Command. 

According to Mayor Lim, the suspect identified as Ramon Magoncia was caught red handed in a thief incident at the Bohol Tropics Resort.

Lim recalled that he heard nothing in news reports from the two media enterprise about what Magoncia has done. 

But in a check with Col. Ingking, he denied that there was a news blackout about the incident involving his driver-bodyguard. He said the media can check if he did bar anybody from reporting the case to the public. 

People who grumble and complain are the ones who are left behind

By Sunday Post

    

    Do not be distracted by negative people. 

    This was the message of Tagbilaran Mayor Dan Lim as the city approaches the observance of its 43rd year as a Charter City. 

    "People who grumble and complain are the ones who are left behind," Lim said yesterday. 

    The mayor issued the statement as he acknowledged that the bad publicity against him will intensify with the elections barely 11 months away. 

    "If you think you have heard every trash spoken against me, it is nothing to what my political opponents will throw at me in the next few months," he added. 

    Lim said that there are people who will do anything just to remove him from office and they will resort to anything, "through fair means or foul" just to do it. 

    "Of course, I will not take it sitting down," he warned. 

    The mayor said that if his critics want a fight, they have it. 

    He said he lamented the fact that the city and the people are caught in the middle between him and those who have personal issues with him. 

    "It is no longer about good governance, because we have proven that, but because they want the position that the people have given to me," he added. 

    The mayor said that as proof of the commitment to good governance of his administration, many local government units come to Tagbilaran in order to adopt applicable systems. 

    "The irony is that while people from other places are praising Tagbilaran for what it is doing, there are people who want to destroy the name of the city for their own selfish interest," he added. 

    The mayor said he is pleased that although there are some who are being misled into believing the unfounded allegations against him, a solid majority remain supportive to him and his goals. 

    "After they have thrown everything, majority of the people are still loyal to my administration," he added. 

    Lim urged the people to rally behind good governance and asked them to be actively involved. 

    "If you want progress and development, you must actively work to reject those who want to destroy our city," he added. 

    The mayor said the objective of those who are behind the bad publicity is to scare away investors. 

    Lim noted that the real casualty is the poor who are deprived of work opportunities as a result. 

    "It is good that we have investors like Ko Beng Sum, Ricardo Lim and Juan Apostol who refused to be discouraged by the harassment that they encountered," he added. 

    The mayor said that if the people allow the trouble-makers to harass and intimidate potential investors, they will be the biggest losers. 

    "We should unite against those who are undermining the progress, development and the very future of Tagbilaran," he concluded.