tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71789873466979065762024-03-19T03:19:05.228-07:00Jey's AngelandAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18316198697014091992noreply@blogger.comBlogger82125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178987346697906576.post-43122246878346360092012-09-16T11:36:00.001-07:002012-09-16T11:43:10.638-07:00TO KILL the RH BILL<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt;">To kill the RH Bill </span><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Some friends who are aware of my seminary training (Christ the King-QC, SVD, as in Fr. Jerry Orbos, SVD, or the late Fr. Jose Vicente Braganza, Edicio de la Torre, Charlie Avila, Conrado Balweg), have tried to taunt me into expressing my own view on the RH Bill. They themselves have evidently become so emotional and all worked up on the issue that they will not allow any fence-sitters. My stock reply has always been: “<i>Please, don’t bother me now with such a trivial matter. I’m busy still trying to solve the mystery of the Blessed Trinity</i>.” No kidding aside (<i>sic</i>), the debate over the bill is simply too big for my britches. It is best left in the care of people who like to play God. And you know what they say, “whom the gods wish to destroy…they turn into congressmen.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The thing I hate most about the bill is it’s a big lie. It really has nothing to do with reproduction and very little about health. It’s really more about reducing, not reproducing, the population. It’s merely your typical publicist’s slogan. It’s really the old “population control” program with a fancy name coined by the rich countries. They are mortally afraid about their precious world being overrun by poor, lazy, ignorant American blacks, Latinos, Africans, Asians, Catholics and, of course, fanatical muslims. It is a massive, well-funded, worldwide campaign run by the G8 countries WHO (no pun intended) control the United Nations through its so-called World Health Organization which in turn invented the term. If you think our local legislators concocted the term, you have another think coming. Our solons may be smart but they are not that clever. When even the term “reproductive health” became overworked, they were advised to refer to it simply as the innocuous-sounding “RH Bill.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 17px;">Sometime in the early 1970s, Marcos established the so-called “POPCOM” or Commission on Population</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 17px;">to</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 17px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 17px;">direct a national population program. This was followed by the Population Act (RA 6365) in 1971. Presidents Cory and Ramos doubtless also under foreign prodding, devised their own family planning and population management programs until our policymakers and politicians eventually began to focus on “reproductive health” (2001-2004). Condoms evidently supplied by our foreign funders were freely distributed all over the country. Since our Filipino menfolk found it rather unmanly to use the contraceptive device, condoms were used as balloons at birthday parties. One might say that at least it was one way of getting the population control program off the ground. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 17px;">But governments and political leaders never seem to learn. It is hazardous to mess around with peoples’ lives, morals, customs, traditions. Whether it’s condoms, safety belts, driving lights, smoking, morals, buying habits or sexual preferences, people seem to have finally realized that they were endowed with some basic and inalienable rights. They will refuse to obey any laws that attempt to unduly infringe on these rights.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">On the other hand, history has shown that highly ambitious and successful peoples and nations have always tried to impose their will on others. Whether it was the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Crusaders, the Chinese emperors or the Japanese Co-prosperity Sphere, Alexander the Great, Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, they all had one thing in common: their immense success seemed to have convinced them that they must own and rule the world – to their eternal regret. Never mind that in the process they managed to slaughter millions of Jews, pagans, heretics, Christians, Protestants, Apaches, Mohicans, starving Africans, etc. Never mind that they have to spend billions of dollars inventing and producing atomic bombs, intercontinental ballistic missiles, chemical and other weapons of mass destruction, money that could easily feed and educate all the starving peoples all over the world – till kingdom come.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Neither is the RH Bill a political nor religious issue. It’s really more about sovereignty and independence. We thought that when Aguinaldo declared our independence from the Spain in 1898, we were freed from the shackles of colonialism. Alas, it was not to be. It turned out to be illusory at best, merely a changing of the guard, no thanks to Admiral Dewey. When the Americans gave us our “independence” in 1946, again we thought we were free – free to run this country, “like hell,” as promised. Finally, we thought that when we drove out the Americans from Clark and Subic, the country was ours, at last. Sadly, we seem to have overlooked the so-called “Golden Rule” – who holds the gold, rules.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Let’s face it. Filipinos don’t own this country any more than the farmers own Hacienda Luisita. Despite the nationalistic provisions in our Constitution, this country has always been effectively owned and run by foreigners, Chinese, Spaniards, Americans, Japanese, Arabs, Koreans, Indians (and their mini or pseudo-Grameen banks), and of late the G8 countries. No thanks to our current restrictive laws on mining and environment, these foreigners now literally hold all the gold.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Indeed, since the time of Marcos, every Filipino is now hocked up to his neck in all kinds of foreign loans. Since the time of Marcos, our country is committed and obligated by law (Sec. 26 [2], Adm. Code of 1987) to provide for “automatic appropriation” for public debt servicing. It means that every year 40% to 60% of our total budget is <u>automatically</u> set aside to pay off our creditors. Hence, whether we realize it or not, we are now at the mercy of our creditor countries. They dictate how this country is run, particularly in the field of finance and taxation. Nobody in his right mind, not even our honorable congressmen, likes the idea of the 12% VAT. But our creditor-countries said “no VAT, no more foreign loans.” In the simplest terms, that means no foreign loans, no money to run the country. No money means no pork barrel to divvy up. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">So, why do you think there are so many solons zealously falling all over each other trying to get the RH Bill passed as if their very lives or lifestyles depended on it. By the way, whatever happened to the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill that’s been languishing in Congress since 2008? The what bill? Oh, that bill. Not to worry, it’s enshrined, nay, entombed in the Constitution.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">But shouldn’t we worry that the RH Bill will be passed? For heaven’s sake, who’s afraid of another “world class” law? If our congressmen cannot pass an Anti-Dynasty Law, why should we take them seriously? Besides, we have arguably the best statutes any country would be proud of. Indeed, no less than the UN special envoy Margareta Wahlstrom , a “Special DRR Representative” of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, complimented the Philippines for having the “world’s best” climate change laws, the Climate Change Act of 2009 (RA 9729) and the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010 (RA 10121). Thanks, we needed that, Master Ban Ki-moon.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Last Saturday I spent the whole afternoon at the huge Trinoma Mall. It was packed with people - all smiles, happy, eager, and ready to splurge on their remittances from their OFW relatives abroad. The sight would be the envy of any mall tycoon. Now, you might say, therein lies the wealth of this nation. Our own people, in the hundreds of millions, hardworking, God-fearing, willing to take on any job, suffer any pain or humiliation (like the Jews of old) all for the sake of their family and children. Our churches are packed to the rafters on Sundays, grandparents, parents and noisy, carefree children in tow and at play, praying to and thanking the Lord for all their blessings and good fortune.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Now, you don’t really need impressive statistics and surveys, fancy algorithms to realize that indeed “it’s more fun in the Philippines.” I believe that’s it. The global elite who would impose population control must fear and envy us. We have no right to be so happy and to live free like the birds of the air and lilies of the field. Mt. 6:26. We do not deserve a God who counts every hair on our heads. Mt. 10:30. What kind of people are we whose every breath we take is followed by a sigh of gratitude to an almighty God? <b><i>May awa ang Diyos! PTL.</i></b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">So what if the UN and its grossly-overpaid consultants consider us a heavily-indebted and highly impoverished country whose finances – and population -have to be closely monitored by creditor countries. So what if the Filipinos are an oppressed people, meek, humbled and abused. “W<i>eder-weder lang.”</i> So were the Jews of old. Look at them now. They are in charge of the world financial centers in New York, Amsterdam, London. Not that they are necessarily happy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Time was when a fledgling people loosely called “Americans” felt so helpless, abused, and miserable against a formidable Great Britain. It was a time when a man named Patrick Henry felt that his only recourse, before uttering the immortal words “Give me liberty, or give me death,” was to invoke the name of the Almighty in the same breath. So, go ahead, pass the RH Bill. But beware, “There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations and who…will fight our battles for us.” </span><b><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif;">Atty. JAMES D. LANSANG</span></span><a href="mailto:jeemsdee@yahoo.com" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: small;">jeemsdee@yahoo.com</span></span></a><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Bene dictum et scriptum, as only Kuya James can. We will survive the RH Bill, just as we did with other calamities, man-made and otherwise. Life goes on, despite all the brickbats we throw against each other. We are a happy and resilient race. Yes, it's definitely more fun in da Pilipins!</div>
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Tnx, kuya, as I often advise, there is hardly ever any reason to be overly anxious and fanatical ... it is almost a denial of the existence of a just and loving God...it is unevangelical...</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18316198697014091992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178987346697906576.post-39249735331378837652012-09-16T11:34:00.000-07:002012-09-16T11:43:46.851-07:00THE HAIL MARY AS MY PRAYERALL<br />
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for everyone</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Hail Mary as my Prayerall<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Lately, I have been receiving quite a number of prayer requests, thanks to a rather efficient networking system devised by our Bro. Dante Magdangal mainly for the XVD Association members. However, since the prayer requests vary from a death of a close relative, a sick child, a worried parent, a financial problem, a pending business deal, a dreaded disease or serious ailment, one is sometimes hard put to find the appropriate prayer to cover each and every situation calling for divine assistance.</span><span style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">After all, while it may be easy and convenient to simply utter “<i>eternal rest grant unto him/her</i>, etc.” it obviously would be inappropriate for any other situation not involving a death in the family.</span><span style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">It’s true the Lord Jesus himself taught us the “Lord’s Prayer” which can cover many situations usually the subject of many requests for divine intervention. However, there simply is no line item in that prayer that sufficiently pertains to death or the hereafter.</span><span style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">That’s how I learned to appreciate the “<b><i>HAIL MARY</i></b>” as a convenient or suitable prayer to utter for most prayer requests. It is a prayer to our heavenly mother, who is also known as the mediatrix of all graces. After all, who can know and feel with us in our hour of great need or desperation than our mother? Remember the little incident at the marriage at Cana? The wine supply for the poor desperate newly-weds and their guests was running out. Mama Mary then tells the steward and waiters: “<b><i>quodcumque dixerit vobis, facite</i></b>,” or “do whatever he tells you.” (Jn. 2:5) Then, lo and behold, there was wine aplenty and of excellent quality.</span><span style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Of all things too and almost sacrilegious is that so-called “<b><i>Hail Mary</i></b> pass” in American football. It’s a term used for any long forward pass (a desperation attempt, really) with little chance of success resorted to by a losing football team, such pass usually being batted down or intercepted. Personally, I find the football term uncannily descriptive of the faith we have with our Mama Mary and the miraculous or intercessory powers she has been known to wield as the Mother of God.</span><span style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Or, let’s say, you’re in a crazy, stupid, infuriating meeting or situation. You’re about to lose your mind or temper. There is no time nor are you inclined to recite an entire rosary. How about a “Hail Mary” instead? Before you even finish the prayer, a wave of good thoughts will have washed away most of your foul mood or evil thoughts. It beats counting 1-10 because you can’t be calling on Mama Mary and thinking bad thoughts.</span><span style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">So, how about saying a little “Hail Mary” for me.-<b><i>Bro. James Lansang</i></b> </span><span style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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if you pray hard you recall your password.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18316198697014091992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178987346697906576.post-22587048818467916162012-09-16T11:32:00.000-07:002012-09-16T11:44:18.606-07:00DANTE MAGDANGAL - THE XVD 1-MAN PRESS CORPS<br />
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<tr><td class="cattitle" style="font-size: 18px; padding: 3px;"><a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/journal/item/115/dante-magdangal-the-xvd-1-man-press-corps" itemprop="url" rel="bookmark" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">dante magdangal - the xvd 1-man press corps</a></td><td class="itemsubsub" style="color: #888888; font-size: 10px; line-height: 10px; padding: 3px; text-align: right;"><nobr>Dec 5, '11 5:27 AM</nobr><br />
for everyone</td></tr>
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<div author="jeeemsdeee" author_possessive="jeeemsdeee's" class="replybodytext" is_pmrepliable="1">
<strong>DANTE MAGDANGAL – The XVD 1-Man Press Corps</strong></div>
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<div author="jeeemsdeee" author_possessive="jeeemsdeee's" class="replybodytext" is_pmrepliable="1">
<strong><br /></strong></div>
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</strong>Because most of its members are your typical modest and shy characters who loathe trumpeting their talents, good works and good fortune, the XVD Association composed of ex-seminarians from the SVD-run Christ the King Seminary is hardly known outside the seminary walls. It is nevertheless no exaggeration to cite the XVD Association for what has evolved and developed into its own laudable mission-vision: to provide a support group and continued Christian formation for its members and their families, support the plans and programs of the Society of the Divine Word, and provide assistance and care for the retired, elderly and/or disabled SVD priests and brothers now living out their days at the “Villa Cristo Rey” retirement home at CKS-QC.</div>
<div author="jeeemsdeee" author_possessive="jeeemsdeee's" class="replybodytext" is_pmrepliable="1">
From its humble beginnings as a motley group of basketball and tennis-addicted ex-seminarians who would hang out at Christ the King Seminary, the XVD Association through the years has become a regular appendage of SVD in the Philippines, now known to and acknowledged by no less than the Filipino Superior General of the SVD in Rome, Fr. Tony Pernia, who recently met with some of the XVD leaders at a recollection in Tagaytay City. As an offshoot of its various activities and projects, the XVD Association was instrumental in organizing the Perpetual Rosary Movement and the Lay Society of St. Arnold Janssen, both of which are now active apostolic endeavors.</div>
<div author="jeeemsdeee" author_possessive="jeeemsdeee's" class="replybodytext" is_pmrepliable="1">
<br />
However, as with any human institution, a key ingredient for its sustainability is communication. As it has developed, the XVD Association – providentially - found such a man in the person of <strong><em>Bro. DANTE MAGDANGAL. </em></strong>One might say that Bro. Dante is the tie that binds the XVD Association together. Any news, update, prayer request, or important announcement or information about the XVD and any of its members or their families is immediately circulated via the magic of text (sms).</div>
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<div author="jeeemsdeee" author_possessive="jeeemsdeee's" class="replybodytext" is_pmrepliable="1">
Bro. Dante is the XVD’s 1-Man Press Corps. How Bro. Dante finds the time and money to accomplish this task is a modern-day miracle in itself.</div>
<div author="jeeemsdeee" author_possessive="jeeemsdeee's" class="replybodytext" is_pmrepliable="1">
However, Bro. Dante being such a quiet, humble and unassuming character, much of his efforts have apparently gone mostly unnoticed or taken for granted. This little note is a feeble attempt to acknowledge and recognize Bro. DANTE for his valuable and indefatigable efforts to keep the XVD alive and well. Thanks again, Bro. Dante. Indeed, Mama Mary must love you... and vice versa.</div>
<div author="jeeemsdeee" author_possessive="jeeemsdeee's" class="replybodytext" is_pmrepliable="1">
Bro. JAMES LANSANG. </div>
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<a href="http://goldencorridor.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">goldencorridor</a> wrote on Dec 6, '11</div>
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<div author="goldencorridor" author_possessive="goldencorridor's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:115+0" is_pmrepliable="1">
Alleluia, we have a Dante Magdangal now. May his days be unnumbered, and may his tribe increase amongst us!</div>
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<a href="http://elmersarmiento.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">elmersarmiento</a> wrote on Dec 9, '11</div>
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Thank you, Dante.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18316198697014091992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178987346697906576.post-38146979641573193122012-09-16T11:29:00.000-07:002012-09-16T12:37:21.707-07:00IN FAIRNESS TO THE CAMELS ...<br />
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for everyone</td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In fairness to the camels…<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“<b><i>We were treated like camels</i></b>…” Filipino OFW Arsenio Carbal, Jr. was quoted (PDI, 3/10/2011) as saying during a congressional hearing ostensibly to look into the repatriation of overseas Filipino workers from Libya and other Arab countries now embroiled, in more ways than one, in civil unrest and uprisings.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">At the risk of sounding insensitive, flippant and facetious, my immediate sentiment naturally was that the recently-repatriated OFW was being rather unfair to camels and other animals in general. After all, camels to the desert-dwelling Bedouins would be like the carabaos to Filipinos and other Asian farmers. These animals are generally treated well, loved or pampered and well-fed like race horses, fighting cocks, pedigreed dogs or other prized possessions. On the other hand, it is rather uncanny that Mr. Carbal intuitively thought of comparing himself to that particular beast of burden.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Indeed, at the risk of being offensive as well, I would venture to suggest that our OFWs have virtually become the beasts of burden throughout the world. Wherever there is any job that’s too menial, too dirty, demeaning and unconscionably low-paying for most people, leave it to the Filipinos (or, if you would, to the Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans or Pakistanis). Like the Jews and slaves of old, we must now scrounge throughout the world and settle for the lowliest and lowest-paying jobs, and thereby be (mis/mal)treated by our masters accordingly. It won’t be that way forever, it is hoped. We just happen to live at a time when it seems to be our turn to merit the unenviable title of “<b><i>mga api sa mundo</i></b>” or the oppressed people of the world, the “tired, poor, huddled, wretched masses” that Emma Lazarus must have had in mind when she wrote her poem in 1883.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">President Erap played on this theme to drive a wedge between the rich and poor in the country identified himself by devious propaganda with the poor and the oppressed sector of society to successfully propel himself to the presidency. Alas, the poor found out too late that “<b><i>Erap para sa mahirap</i></b>” was merely a clever slogan coined by his publicists.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And, mind you, it’s alright or almost to be expected that our OFWs are mistreated and abused by their foreign bosses. But what may really be rather hard to swallow is when our very own so-called public servants and government officers mistreat OFWs while proclaiming them to be our “<b><i>modern-day heroes</i></b>.” Just think about those wretched masses who have to line up daily and bake all day long in the hot sun just to get a so-called police, NBI or barangay clearance, while our little government bureaucrats sit around in their air-conditioned offices having a manicure, reading their tabloids or otherwise appear to be busying themselves generally doing nothing. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">There oughta be a law outlawing all forms of clearance requirements. Is this the government’s idea of trying to raise more revenues – collecting clearance certification fees from jobless, hence, penniless, unskilled and unschooled job applicants while subjecting them to the inconvenience and indignity of lining up outside such air-conditioned government offices?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the first place, why are OFWs required to secure a “clearance” of any kind from any government office? Does such a clearance automatically assure them a job? Is that clearance a guarantee of the good moral character of the person “cleared”? Does the fact that a person may or may not have a pending police or court record or even a previous conviction have anything to do with the job he is seeking?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Whatever happened to the legal presumption of innocence, of regularity of transactions? Isn’t there a law that presumes every person to be sane and acting in good faith? Why do we discriminate against and treat jobseekers with suspicion as if it were their fault that they are jobless? Is it a crime to be out of work and looking for work? Why do we treat laborers and unskilled workers like second-class citizens? Haven’t we ever heard of the so-called “dignity of labor”? Didn’t Jesus Christ himself remind us that “the laborer is worthy of his wages”? (Lk. 10:7). If we had any sense at all, if our sense of values weren’t so distorted, if there is any class of people worthy of “VIP treatment” it must be these OFWs whose dollar remittances are mostly responsible for keeping our economy afloat during these hard times.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So, why do we treat these people so shabbily, requiring them to first prove that they are not criminals – which is the only plausible reason for requiring such stupid “clearances.” Quite the contrary, every person who expresses or demonstrates a desire to work should be accorded and afforded all the favorable presumptions, legal breaks, assistance and accommodations as mandated by law and the Constitution, no less. Go and try visiting any “Unemployment Office” in the U.S.A. and you realize how those government officers will assist their jobless clients find something, anything to get them employed immediately albeit temporarily.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> Instead, we stand in awe and on ceremony for known plunderers, drug and gambling lords, white-collar crooks, swindlers and criminals masquerading as bankers, investment brokers, pre-need plan companies, etc. And politicians. And retiring generals. And we treat them like royalty. Why, just because they made off with billions of money, albeit illegally, and out of the blood, sweat and tears of gullible, innocent little people?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Indeed, the terrible truth is that animals in general are treated better, at least in so-called civilized countries, than human beings. My late father, who lived in the U.S.A. for more than a decade during the so-called “<i>roarin’ twenties</i>” used to tell us as kids that Americans treated their dogs and cats better than Negroes (as they were then referred to) and the Filipino sugarcane workers in Hawaii in those days. Speaking of which, the poor unskilled Chinese peons who laid out the transcontinental railroads in the U.S.A. in the 1850s-1860s must have given rise to the so-called anti-peonage laws which are mostly responsible for the inability or unacceptability of our unskilled laborers from entering the U.S. job market, an otherwise rich source of jobs for our American-loving Filipinos.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I realize of course that through the ages, man’s inhumanity to fellowman has been well-documented. From the cruelty of the Pharoahs in ancient Egypt, to the systematic extermination of the Jews, the enslavement of Africans in Europe and America, the racial riots in Mississippi, Alabama, man has somehow always managed to devise all sorts of unimaginable ways to act inhumanely to his fellowman .<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">I would venture to calculate, for instance, that Americans spend more on their pets and pet products and services in any given year than our government would spend in our lifetime for the education of the children in our public schools. </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"> Go figure that in dollars and you readily see why we merit the classification as a “highly impoverished country” by creditor countries.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This is not to mention all the scams and abuses perpetrated by unscrupulous illegal recruiters who promise our gullible would-be overseas workers non-existing jobs and fictitious employers. Many of these poor jobseekers will sell their souls to pay purportedly for exorbitant placement fees, documentation, passporting, plane tickets, and other miscellaneous fees only to discover too late that they have been had. Indeed, it has been considered such a despicable and heinous crime to victimize these already destitute people that our legislators made it a non-bailable crime like first-degree murder.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Indeed, it should be considered downright insulting and cruelty for animals to be compared to humans. Animals don’t get drunk – habitually. They don’t do drugs. They have sex only for reproductive purposes (and only when the female is “in estrus”). Animals don’t “overfish” nor rape the environment. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So, let’s stop comparing ourselves to animals. It’s not fair to the latter. It’s a not a dog eat dog out there. It’s man versus man. It’s not a rat race, it’s a human race. Our people are not swimming in shark-infested waters. Those are smart lawyers looking dapper in their sharkskin suits. Those are not pigs making off with millions or billions. Those are retiring generals acting and looking like pigs only because they seem to have forgotten their diet. Our policemen are not crocodiles. They merely love the logo. Cockroaches live better than some of our squatters. Some who have worked in Malacanang call it a “snake pit.” Many houses have signs that say “Beware of Dog” instead of “Welcome.” So, Mr. Carbal, shouldn’t you be glad somehow that you and your hardworking fellowOFWs were treated like camels? <b>James D. Lansang</b> (</span></span><a href="mailto:jeemsdee@yahoo.com" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><u><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">jeemsdee@yahoo.com</span></u></span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://paga65.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">paga65</a> wrote on Mar 28, '11</div>
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<div author="paga65" author_possessive="paga65's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:114+0" is_pmrepliable="1">
Wonderfully reflective and humorous article, Kuya James. You always make our day.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18316198697014091992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178987346697906576.post-19096664151191464432012-09-16T11:25:00.000-07:002012-09-16T12:48:35.406-07:00WHY DO I BLOG<br />
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for everyone</td></tr>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px;">Why do I blog<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">A few years ago, it didn’t mean anything. The word simply did not exist. Just as back then, the currently popular terms “oxymoron” and “no-brainer” would have best described what “blog” meant, i.e., it was mostly unheard of. Nowadays “blog” has virtually replaced the word “<b><i>essay</i></b>.” Nowadays when people want you to write an essay, they will tell you to “blog it” instead. The “essay” I am told is derived from the French infinitive <b><i>essayer</i></b>, "to try" or "to attempt". Which almost perfectly describes what it is – an attempt, mostly futile, to put into words what the writer or “essayist” feels, recollects, reflects, believes, has observed or learned about a particular subject matter, and desperately wants to share it with others – for posterity, as his legacy, or for some such similar noble, lofty or dubious purpose.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">I think I got into blogging mostly because I learned about cyberspace. There is something about “www” that fascinates and attracts me. I like to think that I may be communicating some of my innermost thoughts and feelings with someone, something, “somewhere out there.” And that unlike those hieroglyphs written in stone, my blogs will be there floating in outer space for all eternity…theoretically. My blogs are not meant to preach, crusade, convince, much less to demand acquiescence from others. At my age, it would be almost ridiculous to think about launching a political career or spearheading an advocacy by blogging. I like to think that I blog for blog’s sake. Some people paint, others grow rose gardens, some sing. I blog.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">You might also say I think. Ergo, I blog.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">What do I blog about? Mostly anything that comes to my mind. Since I’m not paid to do it, I only blog whenever I feel it. And I admit I am rather whimsical and capricious about my choice of blog topics. As much as possible I avoid blogging about current, sensational, earth-shaking issues. I leave those for the professional opinion writers and journalists. However, I take my cue from what the Apostle Paul has long ago suggested: “<b><i><u>what<span style="color: #001320;">soever things are true, whatsoever things [are] honest, whatsoever things [are] just, whatsoever things [are] pure, whatsoever things [are] lovely, whatsoever things [are] of good report; if [there be] any virtue, and if [there be] anything worthy of praise, it is good to ponder on these things</span></u></i></b><span style="color: #001320;">.” (Philippians 4:8). <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">To ponder – now there’s a good word. But I do one better, I not only ponder, I contemplate. I try to discern. In short, I blog. And, therein lies the difference between a good blog and a bad one. Nevermind the style, grammar and syntax. Particularly for us Filipinos who have yet to decide what language finally we should adopt and use, language has to be a secondary consideration. What we must emphasize is content. The English language is not our own. So, we must constantly apologize for our atrocious English. But there is no excuse for poor content or bad taste. That’s what pondering does.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Pandering, now that’s something else. There is just too much trash already out there in cyberspace. In just a matter of a few years, we have managed to pile our literary junk in the Internet in the name of blogging. It has become a chore sifting through the garbage. It’s no longer called “junk mail.” Now it’s “junk e-mail” or<b>“SPAM.”</b> Now half of the time I’m deleting unwanted e-mail just to access what I’m looking for. Sadly, it has also been estimated that 90% of all materials in the Web are pornographic in character or content.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Throughout history, man has always found a way of turning good things into bad or using them for evil. In 1864, the chemist Alfred Nobel found a useful way of using TNT as an explosive device for practical use in the mining industry. Soon after, man found a way to use it as a weapon to maim and kill hundreds and thousands of people in the battlefield. In the early 20<sup>th</sup> century, someone discovered the so-called atomic or nuclear energy. Not long thereafter, the war freaks devised the atomic bomb and nuclear-powered submarines. Some dedicated scientist successfully isolates a potent microbe in his desire to combat a dreaded disease. Immediately thereafter, it is converted into a weapon for mass destruction (WMD). What is drug abuse if not medicine taken or used not for medicinal purposes but for some inordinate pleasure or bad habit?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">It’s true of course that many have turned the medium to send hate-mail or be downright offensive. The scientific name for such specie of the homo sapiens I believe is the Anglo-Saxon term “jerk.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">For a while I thought that blogging was the new medium. Since I couldn’t manage my own website (there were already millions on the Web anyway), I settled for the social networking group called<b><i>“multiply”</i></b> which I still use from force of habit. Then came Twitter and Facebook and Youtube and things have never been the same. This week it’s Facebook. Tomorrow it will surely be something else. Now it seems there’s another thing becoming quite popular called <b><i>“<u>viral video.</u>”</i></b> No, it’s not a disease, but it’s just as infectious. Lately, some Middle East countries have been engaged in “Facebook revolution” to try to topple their autocratic governments.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">A few years before he died, and well before “blogging” was invented, my father would spend most of his waking hours typing (no word processors then) and writing what we thought would be his “memoir.” When he finished, it turned out to be a book<b><i>(“Cockfighting in the Philippines”</i></b>) which he made sure got published. It was a technical book on the little intricacies and trade secrets of this popular Filipino pastime as well as some bits of homegrown wisdom only a septuagenarian can accumulate through the years. Schooled under the Spanish-American transition period, his English had the characteristic Spanish flavor, unidiomatic, stilted and rather awkward. But at least it kept him busy, focused and away from the dreaded visits of a Mr. <b><i>Alzheimers</i></b>. Plus, the book earned him a place in the National Library of Australia; and the last time I looked in Amazon.com, the book if you could find a copy was selling for the princely sum of US$43.95, which is something I still have to earn from all of my postings.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Maybe it’s genetics. The <b><i>Lansangs</i></b> like to think they can write. Just as some people naturally or instinctively become woodcarvers, painters, pianists, or banduria players (Cebuanos, mostly), we have cousins who became newspapermen, journalists, poets, copywriters, and ghostwriters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">For me, though, thus far it’s strictly <b><i>ars gratia artis</i></b>, art for art’s sake, as the MGM icon goes. It’s not the money, not yet anyway. I believe that blogging must not be commercialized. There’s all kinds of medium for that, i.e., print, radio, TV, etc. which all pay good money for professional writers and publicists.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Blogging then forces me into a reflective and meditative mode. Since writing also requires more careful analysis and precision than idle thinking or even serious contemplation, blogging becomes a disciplined form of meditation. That’s it – writing requires more precision. After all, once it’s written, especially in cyberspace, it’s there. It can’t be erased, only consigned to the recycle bin. To paraphrase Pilate, <b><i>“quod scripsi, scriptum est.”</i></b> Jn. 19:22. Blogging helps to sharpen one’s focus on a particular subject matter. It is illuminating. It is not only inter-active, it’s cosmic – you have the whole universe to converse with, theoretically. While you’re not paid to do it, you don’t have to pay for doing it either. There is no need to find a publisher and neither is there any danger of receiving a rejection slip.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Naturally, blogging tells quite a bit about the blogger. It is a window into the blogger’s state of mind. If you want to know a little more about me, read my blogs. Since I am not a paid publicist, nor do I have a hidden agenda, you might say that you learn more about the real me in my blogs. Hence, an essential requirement of true blogging must be authenticity. It’s hard to plagiarize these days without being found out. Google the Big Brother now knows virtually everything. To thine own self be true must now be the watchword. Otherwise, it’s not a blog. Instead, you end up becoming a fabulist, like Aesop, or a weaver of fairy tales like the Wizard of Oz. Blogging, anyone? <b>James D. Lansang</b>(</span><a href="mailto:jeemsdee@yahoo.com" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><u><span style="color: blue;">jeemsdee@yahoo.com</span></u></span></a><span style="color: #001320; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b>Tags:</b> <a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/tag/contemplating" rel="tag" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">contemplating</a>, <a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/tag/discerning" rel="tag" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">discerning</a>, <a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/tag/blogging" rel="tag" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">blogging</a></div>
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<a href="http://paga65.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">paga65</a> wrote on Feb 25, '11</div>
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<div author="paga65" author_possessive="paga65's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:113+0" is_pmrepliable="1">
Well said Kuya, our idol blogger. You have chosen well to blog in Multiply. I have categorized social networking sites as follows from the most abstruse to the most superficial: Wordpress - Blogspot - Multiply - Facebook - Twitter -<br />
AdultFinder (^#$%^).</div>
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<a href="http://butchcelestial.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">butchcelestial</a> wrote on Feb 28, '11</div>
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Thanks, James for making my day today! Keep blogging. 'What you blog in life echoes in eternity.' (Plagiarized from Gladiator).</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18316198697014091992noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178987346697906576.post-27496507347959071922012-09-16T11:21:00.004-07:002012-09-16T12:51:49.703-07:00HEARD A GOOD SERMON LATELY?<br />
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for everyone</td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12.5pt; line-height: 19px;">Heard a good sermon lately?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';"><span style="font-size: small;"> Fortunately, I have. Most recently, last Sunday in fact, at the Parish Church of our Lady of the Abandoned (“OLA”) in Marikina City. Since a good sermon these days is as rare as a pearl of great value and therefore just as precious, I thought I would share with you this rather exhilarating and refreshing experience.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';"><span style="font-size: small;"> To begin with, he was a young priest, at least he looked that way to me from where I usually sat (at the rear where like me sit most sinners, publicans and tax collectors). I had always thought that young (read that as “inexperienced”) priests should not be assigned the formidable if daunting task of delivering the Sunday sermon. Still wet behind the ears (or <b><i>“uhugin,”</i></b> to use a grossly graphic local term) and lacking exposure in the vicissitudes of life, the anguish, disappointments, “the heartaches and thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to,” I was almost convinced that most young priests lacked the depth and breadth to impress especially the elderly folks in the audience; and therefore a whole waste of limited if precious time for these people in the “pre-departure lounge.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';"><span style="font-size: small;"> Their initial attitude would ordinarily be typical of most old folks. <b>“<i>Bata ka pa. Wala ka pang alam tungkol sa mga bagay bagay na iyan.” </i></b> Then they shut off their hearing aids, take their mandatory daytime nap or walk out for a smoke.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';"><span style="font-size: small;"> Indeed, therein lies the basic problem: how to address a congregation composed of people from all walks of life, social status, with ages betwixt 1 and 100 years, and facing a whole range of problems or preoccupations. Whoever said that what sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander has obviously never tried being a gander.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';"><span style="font-size: small;"> As it happened, it was just a day before Valentine’s day, a day when most Filipinos twixt ten and sixty seem to lose their mind for their heart. In other words, all thought is about affairs of the heart and therefore such people cannot be bothered with any other matter except affairs of the heart. On the other hand, the prescribed Liturgy of the Word for that Sunday had to do with absolute, ultimate or perfect “holiness.” How then to combine issues of the heart with the issue of perfection as Christ enjoined on that particular occasion (Mt.5:17-37.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';"><span style="font-size: small;"> It turns out that this young priest (a security guard informed me later that his name is <b>Fr. Jose “Rock” Cabral Berdos</b>, an Asst. Parish Priest at OLA) may have found the way. He began by serenading us with a love song <b><i>“KUNG MULA SA PUSO.” </i></b>I must admit that he also had a good singing voice, and he knew it. He was generously applauded when he finished singing. After that he could do no wrong. And, mercifully he did not. Instead, he tackled the matter of Valentine, the assigned readings, the current political issues and the so-called RH bill pending in Congress – all in a matter of five (5) minutes. When he finished, you were almost tempted to ask for more.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';"><span style="font-size: small;"> Was it a good sermon because it was brief? Well, that too, but a little more than that. I know it’s been said that “a good sermon should be like a woman’s skirt – long enough to cover the essentials and short enough to keep you interested.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';"><span style="font-size: small;"> I like to think this young priest came prepared. It must have taken quite a bit of thought to think of all these current events and put in his two-cents, all in a matter of a few minutes. From experience, I know that when a speaker is not prepared, he is usually long-winded. He is wont to take his audience on a grand tour before he finally finds his way. Unfortunately, it almost seems that many a preacher thinks the only way to be effective or convincing is to brainwash the audience to surrender. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';"><span style="font-size: small;"> Is it a matter of preparedness then? Well that too and a lot of substance. But in the end, one must acknowledge talent, charisma. They either have the basic instincts and talents for the job. Some people are just meant to be great speakers, just as others are violin virtuosos, boxers or tennis players. We cannot all be Paganinis, Michael Jordans, Tiger Woods or Pacmen. Fr. “Rock’s” sermon last Sunday was like a Pacman punch. It was a knockout.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';"><span style="font-size: small;"> But finally, I submit that a sermon to be good should not sound like a sermon. Gone are the days of fire and brimstone preachers. People nowadays like to think they are just as well-informed as any cleric. They don’t appreciate being talked to, like some ignorant Catechumens. Unlike in the Middle Ages when only aristocrats and the clergy had a monopoly on knowledge, in this day and age of the Wikipedia, there is hardly anything that most people cannot find out or analyze for themselves. It has given a whole new meaning to the term “intelligence and free will” as every man’s God-given right which must be recognized and respected.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';"><span style="font-size: small;"> So, a good sermon is best presented in powerpoint style – the presenter <u>suggesting</u> a few talking points, points to ponder, or food for thought, if you will. And, like most good food, it does not have to be shoved down one’s throat but savored with gusto. Like good food, the guest cannot help but go for second servings. Is it any wonder then that sermons are now called homilies? What’s a homily, anyway, but a sermon in disguise? Anyway, congratulations, Fr. “Rock” Berdos. May your tribe increase.! – Bro. <b>James</b> <b>D. Lansang</b> (</span><a href="mailto:jeemsdee@yahoo.com" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;"><u><span style="color: blue; font-size: small;">jeemsdee@yahoo.com</span></u></a><span style="font-size: small;">).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div author="paga65" author_possessive="paga65's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:112+0" is_pmrepliable="1">
Good topic, Kuya James. It's strange how delivery of effective sermons or homilies seem to be severely neglected and botched nowadays. People go to church only once a week or even rarely and the sermon is the rare opportunity for priests to pitch Jesus wonderful message of unconditional love. Kuya, post this in newspapers so priests can be challenged.</div>
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<a href="http://sjyap60.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">sjyap60</a> wrote on Feb 18, '11</div>
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<div author="sjyap60" author_possessive="sjyap60's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:112+1" is_pmrepliable="1">
This is a professionaly hazard of priests saying Mass. It has been ingrained into them that the Mass works ex opere operato, and that the enormity and mystery of the transubstantiation process is the main act in the whole scenario. Subsequently, they have the attitude that if the Mass is so grand, then that is the main part of the menu, and their sermon is just a poor second. Hence, they do not prepare for it as well as they should.<br />
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On the other hand, in ceremonies without the Mass, the preaching takes centerstage. Hence the preachers really prepare for their homily. That is the difference.<br />
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I know that the transubstantiation takes center stage. And that priests should make efforts in their homilies to match this grand event. But the mindeset is there. Let Christ increased, and oneself decrease. Hence we get poor homilies.</div>
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<div author="vj329" author_possessive="vj329's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:112+2" is_pmrepliable="1">
May rejoinder sana ako....... pero mahaba akong mag-rejoinder. So 'wag na lang. Pero tama si Kuya James. Rare na ngayon ang magaling "mag-sermon".</div>
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<div author="pcsokaka" author_possessive="pcsokaka's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:112+3" is_pmrepliable="1">
<br />
Ok ang ok mag-sermon o mag-deliver ng homily.<br />
<br />
Pero mas ok ang pari na isinasabuhay ang isine-sermon.<br />
<br />
Bakit? Actions speak best.<br />
<br />
Alam at nadarama ng mga tao kung isinasabuhay ng "preacher" ang kanyang pini-preach.<br />
<br />
Oo, kailangan nating lahat ang mga "reminders" in the form of inspiring and touching sermons/homilies ng mga kaparian sa simbahan man o hindi.<br />
<br />
Pero kung nakikita ng mga parishioners na talagang mala-Kristo ang kanilang pari, malamang kaysa hindi, na sila din ay magpapaka-kristiyano sa kanilang sariling pamumuhay.</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Mar 1, '11</div>
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<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:112+4" is_pmrepliable="1">
Hi, a few days ago, Fr. "Rock" emailed me the ff reply:<br />
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"Peace! I received your letter last Tuesday, and i don't know if you are expecting me to reply. But whether you expect me to reply or not, i guess it would be proper for me to say thank you for that letter (blog). Thanks for the compliment! Nakakataba po ng puso ang inyong papuri and for exerting the effort to convey it to me. Compliments like that inspire us priests more to do our responsibilies especially our homilies well. May you continue to be kind and generous in expressing your appreciation into something you think is good. Muli po,<br />
maraming salamat!<br />
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In Christ,<br />
<br />
Fr. Rock"</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18316198697014091992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178987346697906576.post-26410701845010333202012-09-16T11:19:00.004-07:002012-09-16T12:51:31.988-07:00CHRISTMAS IMMERSION<br />
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<tr><td class="cattitle" style="font-size: 18px; padding: 3px;"><a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/journal/item/111/Christmas-Immersion" itemprop="url" rel="bookmark" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">Christmas Immersion</a></td><td class="itemsubsub" style="color: #888888; font-size: 10px; line-height: 10px; padding: 3px; text-align: right;"><nobr>Dec 20, '10 1:44 AM</nobr><br />
for everyone</td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-family: Rockwell, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span class="insertedphoto"><a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/photos/hi-res/1M/185" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" class="alignleft" src="http://multiply.com/mu/jeemsdee/image/b1ir2XZEHwJ1pkk9LwHmLA/photos/1M/300x300/185/donmatiaskids.jpg?et=OR6lpGT5vcdruIwnT%2CW%2CFA&nmid=0" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;" /></a></span>Immersion at Don Matias in Burgos Pangasinan<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Rockwell, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">A few years ago, Lee and some busloads of schoolmates were taken to a remote town in western Pangasinan called Burgos into the little village of Don Matias (Guiang), as some sort of charity expedition nowadays grandly referred to as “<b>immersion</b>.” Perhaps it may have been the good Sisters’ (of Charity) idea of showing how some of our so-called “less fortunate” brethren live; thereby hopefully imbuing on these “<b><i>colegialas</i></b>” the basic Christian values of simplicity, modesty and unworldliness; and, more importantly, introducing them to the evangelical virtues of charity and compassion.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Rockwell, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Burgos town is as remote (read that as “poor”) as any impoverished town you can imagine in the Philippines. Located on the western side of Pangasinan and facing the China Sea, it’s the second to the last town before reaching the northwestern boundary of the Province of Zambales at Dasol, Pangasinan. Instead of turning right (or eastward) at Alaminos to Lucap and the Hundred Islands where most tourists go, you go west southwest to Mabini, toward the foothills of Zambales. The terrain is quite interesting, offering a mountain view of China Sea and endless rolling hills of wilderness. Which also explains why towns like Burgos are also rather poor and virtually deserted, sandwiched between the sea and untillable mountains. What is worse, as in many places in the Philippines with a feudal history, most people are dirt-poor, many of them informal tenants tilling little patches of land usually owned by the last vestiges of “haciendero” families who are now mostly settled and ensconced comfortably in Manila.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Rockwell, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Our Lee was introduced to one such impoverished family in Brgy. Don Matias. And so began a relationship which can only be described as made <b><i><u>by</u></i></b> heaven. Of the few hundreds of students who visited, only Lee decided to come back once or twice a year since then. Lee has since adopted or been adopted as part of that “Don Matias” family, consisting of about a dozen siblings and cousins, including a “special” autistic girl. Much of Lee’s personal savings have since been spent sharing with this family with some of the little things she could spare and they badly need or want, e.g., slippers, school supplies, used clothing, canned goods, candies, chips, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Rockwell, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It’s not all giving of course. Life is really a matter of give and take. We take something even as we give. Lee has since learned to think about others and not just herself. She has learned to appreciate what she has instead of what she lacks. She seems to have realized that she has more than enough or has more than she needs.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Rockwell, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">After Christmas (Dec. 27-29) this year, we’re going back there as we did last summer and the year before. Believe me, it’s always a fun trip. You might like to join us sometime.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Rockwell, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">We’re trying to collect some of Christmas leftovers. Maybe you could spare some. Thanks. And may the spirit and mystery of Christmas which surpasseth all understanding fill you and yours with the gifts of the Magi. MERRY CHRISTMAS! <b><i>Bro. James</i></b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://paga65.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">paga65</a> wrote on Dec 20, '10</div>
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A very inspiring Christmas story and action. Kuya you may very well be one of the magi that TRAVELLED to see Jesus and gave him a GIFT. For did He did not say that whenever you do good to the poorest you do to me. Merry Christmas. Immersion is Incarnation.</div>
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<a href="http://sjyap60.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">sjyap60</a> wrote on Dec 24, '10</div>
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<div author="sjyap60" author_possessive="sjyap60's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:111+1" is_pmrepliable="1">
Kuya, I have been reviewing some of your articles on this blogsite. These are always written with wisdom and wit, which only experience can give. Sa ayaw mo't hindi, Kuya, ikaw ang idol naming mga junior seniors and outright juniors. Seguro we want to be like you, so we can also pinch the ladies and receive a smile, instead of a slap!<br />
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Lee is doing something remarkable ... may her tribe increase. If there are more people like her, there is still hope for the Philippines!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18316198697014091992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178987346697906576.post-91528856889839276052012-09-16T11:16:00.001-07:002012-09-16T12:50:57.927-07:00LIWALIW SA LILIW<br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">Liwaliw sa Liliw<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">A few days ago, on the birthday of St. Arnold Janssen, founder of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD-<b><i>Societas Verbi Divini</i></b>), I got talked into taking a trip with a motley group of lay SVDs on a mission to check out the <b>SVD Mission Center</b> in Liliw, Laguna.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">In case you were not aware, a trip to the lesser known towns of Laguna can be an adventure unto itself. The province itself could very well be or become an integral part of the greater Manila area, being less than an hour’s drive from Makati (without the traffic). Bounded by the great Laguna Lake on one side and the foothills of Mts. Banahaw, Makiling and the Sierra Madre Mountain ranges, the terrain in some of these isolated towns are a haven for any religious freak out looking for an idyllic monastic setting, or some would-be urban guerillas loathed to join their NPA comrades deep in the jungles of Bicol. Unlike the uninteresting flatlands of Central Luzon, Laguna has not only the scenic Laguna de Bay or the “Bai” but the internationally famous Pagsanjan Falls, Lake Caliraya, the hot springs of Los Banos, rolling hills and mountainsides, and quite a few other natural tourist attractions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Is it any wonder then that our National Hero, Jose Rizal, who led such an adventurous and colorful life would be born in the capital town of Calamba, Laguna.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">But I digress. The trip was the idea of <b>Sister Evelyn Flordelis</b>, a former member of the contemplative nuns known as the “Pink Sisters,” and now an active member of the recently-formed Lay Society of St. Arnold Janssen (or LSSAJ). The expedition included Bro. Eli Segundo (President of LSSAJ), Dante Magdangal, Fabs Pagaduan, Epi Saso, and Sam Corral; and Sister Lily, a younger sister of Sister Evelyn and the Executive Director of “<b><i>BAHAY TULUYAN</i></b>,” a most successful counseling shelter for street children. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">With such a lively and dynamic group of do-gooders, by the end of the day, most of the problems of the world, including such little mundane matters as “<b><i>what ails the XVD</i></b>?” had been thoroughly addressed and solved…in theory.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">As it turned out, the SVD MISSION CENTER is located not in Liliw but in<b><i>Magdalena</i></b> (my favorite town), in Barangay Burlungan to be exact, and known locally as “<i>Via Crucis de Santo Cristo</i>” for the life-size statues of the Stations of the Cross built in the area by the Brozas family who own virtually the entire town. The group was welcomed by the Director/Chaplain, Fr. Eli Mata, SVD, who in typical Filipino hospitality gave us a grand tour of the facility.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">The SVD Mission Center in Brgy. Burlungan (pls click xvdph.multiply.com -the First XVD website for fotos) is an impressive and imposing two-storey concrete mansion with roof deck and built right smack in the middle of a wilderness and bounded by two good-sized streams which somehow remind you of the parting of the Euphrates River in the Garden of Eden. The best justification for the building project must lie in the arguable architectural principle that “<b>IF YOU BUILD IT, AND BUILD IT WELL, PEOPLE WILL COME…eventually</b>.” Otherwise, for now, the place is surreal, a veritable white elephant, offensive and oblivious to the idyllic if simple beauty of its natural surroundings.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Now, here comes Sister Evelyn who for the past twenty years had been contemplating on a “PEACE AND HEALING CENTER” and discovering the “Liliw” Center ideally suited for what she had always envisioned.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> In the vision of Sister Evelyn, the SVD Mission Center would be ideal as a Camp Site for such services as: c</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">amping-style retreats and recollections for students, rehabilitation of abused and exploited children, re-bonding of families and communities. It would offer lay formation courses in Mariology, Peace Education, Translational Research, Christian Leadership Formation, etc. To be managed either by LSSAJ or the Mary Mother of Peace Center Foundation, the proposal will include comprehensive camp landscape maintenance, management and development.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">One merely has to meet Sister Evelyn to be convinced that you are face to face with a prophet, a living Mother Teresa, a holy woman with a passion and, more importantly, a lifetime mission/vision. I have no doubt that the gates of hell shall not prevail against her. <strong>Bro. James D. Lansang<o:p></o:p></strong></span></div>
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<a href="http://paga65.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">paga65</a> wrote on Nov 7, '10</div>
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<div author="paga65" author_possessive="paga65's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:110+0" is_pmrepliable="1">
Kuya, thanks for expressing in your classic inimitable way our recent journey. Would that you would share some more wisdoms and funny anecdotes which transpired during said pilgrimage. Above all we were privileged to have your company, you never fail to liven up and pep up events.</div>
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Could have given an arm and a leg to be in that pilgrimage. Would be as spiritually uflifting, enjoyable and meaningful as the Canterbury Tales. Yes, now that they built it and Sister Evelyn is there, we will surely come...someday...even from halfway around the world.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18316198697014091992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178987346697906576.post-33581526944870154892012-09-16T11:14:00.003-07:002012-09-16T12:52:48.321-07:00A TIME TO GRIEVE ...<br />
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for everyone</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px;"><strong>A Time to Grieve, A Time to Rue, A Time to Ask Ourselves – How Can We be so Stupid?</strong> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"> So, ok, enough already, so we botched up, messed up and that whole hostage-taking incident blew up in our face for all the world to see. The late Daryl F. Gates must be turning in his grave. Daryl who, you might ask. You know, the controversial LAPD Chief who is credited with having instituted <i>inter alia</i> the much-emulated/imitated (but, alas, never equaled) <b>LAPD <i>SWAT</i></b> (Special Weapons And Tactics) team. His mistake of course was he failed to secure exclusionary rights on the term<b>“SWAT.”</b> Nowadays, every police unit seems to have one, including, heaven forbid, our very own PNP. The term now conjures a spine-chilling effect on every security-conscious citizen who might have the misfortune of suddenly finding himself caught between a rock and a hard place. There is every reason to re-invent another name for such a police unit which is characterized mainly by members armed to the teeth with high-powered albeit outdated weapons of mass destruction. Indeed, the PNP has come up with another name “<b>SAF</b>” (Special Action Force) just as sinister-sounding if not destructive.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Sorry, I could not help myself. Just the other day, some siblings of mine decided to eat out at a rather popular restaurant. Since there were almost a dozen of us, the waiter seemed at a loss where to get us seated. He turned to me and asked:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> <b><i>“Sir, saan po ninyong gustong makaupo?”</i></b> I turned to him and said:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> <b><i>“Kahit saan, iho, huwag lang malapit sa mga pulis.” </i></b>As I said, I could not help myself.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I was of course merely trying to be facetious and smart-alecky as usual. But, as with most irony, I may have been merely trying to be realistic. Where there’s trouble there’s bound to be policemen. And vice versa.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Most of the time, whenever you read about a rumble or shooting in a beerhouse, it will usually involve some policemen or soldiers shooting it out over some sexy waitress. Which naturally prompted our funny fellow-countrymen after the Luneta fiasco to remark that our policemen seem to be experts at “hostess-taking” and not “hostage-taking.” We can be so cruelly funny, to our eternal regret.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So, where to lay the blame. We’ve heard it all before. It’s everybody else’s fault. It’s the fault of media. It’s the unruly, <b><i>“usisero,” </i></b>meddlesome crowd. It’s the lack of equipment and budget. Oh, yes, yesterday somebody also remembered to blame the previous administration.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Let me tell you a personal true story. Some time ago, I noticed from our bedroom window a couple of men cutting down some bamboo poles from the lush bamboo grove growing across the street from our house. Since naturally they were equipped with machetes or boloes, I thought better than to stop their illegal activity by myself. Instead, I telephoned our local barangay office to look into the matter. Sure enough, within a few minutes a police van loaded with about a dozen SWAT men in black armed with high-powered rifles swooped down on the place, aimed their weapons at the terrified bamboo gatherers before arresting and hauling them off to jail. Needless to state, I was sufficiently impressed – and helplessly horrified at the massive military exercise.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">December 5, 2008 is another day that should go down in infamy as another classic “dog day afternoon.” A 53-year old Filipino seaman (recently home on furlough) was mercilessly gunned down with his 7-year old daughter in their Izuzu Crosswind van just as they were coming home inside their own subdivision in Paranaque in what can only be politely described as another stupid case of mistaken identity. No less than 80 bullets pierced through the Izuzu van. The police had been engaged in a shootout in that residential neighborhood with some suspected robbers. When the smoke cleared some 14 alleged members of a robbery gang lay dead. Recently, at the initiative of the newly-installed DOJ Secretary, some 25 cops involved in the massacre were charged with 2 counts of murder, with no bail recommended, for the deaths of the seaman and his young daughter. Please don’t ask me about the 14 dead robbery suspects. Dead men tell no tales, as Clint Eastwood would say.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Do we have a monopoly on stupidity? I don’t believe so. Idiocy, perhaps, yes, but not stupidity. Unless you believe that police brutality, police incompetence and stupidity are inherently included in the term <b><i>“collateral damage”</i></b> which seems part and parcel of every police shootout.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">If truth be told, we did not invent the term “idiocy.” The term has Greek, Latin and French origins. If Greek, then idiocy must have been around BC. If Latin or French, then at least since the middle or dark ages. In fact, I’m not aware that we have any appropriate, graphic equivalent for “idiot” or “stupid fool” in any of our local dialects, perhaps out of reverence for Christ’s strong admonition against the use of the term (“raca!”) and risking eternal damnation (Mt.5:22).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">On the other hand, if we are not careful, “idiot” or “fool” may eventually become synonymous with “Filipino” in much the same way it found its way into the Oxford dictionary to mean “domestic helper” or “housemaid.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Is there anything we can do about it? But of course there is. It may take a few generations but who’s counting. We may be stupid alright, but not desperately, hopelessly stupid.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">To begin with, let’s start off with the little things. Take the little matter of<u>punctuality</u>, for instance. How can anybody even take us seriously if we cannot be expected to be on time. In this country, no one looks at the time. We think nothing about being an hour or half an hour late for an appointment. A wedding that’s supposed to start at 4PM will most likely mean 630PM. Many a balikbayan will find himself/herself all by her embarrassing lonesome if she makes the mistake of going to a party at 6PM when everyone else comes in at 9 or 10PM. We blame the traffic, our mother-in-law, brownouts, the price of gas, or the current or previous government for our chronic tardiness. A tailor or body shop mechanic thinks nothing about being late 4 or 5 days beyond a promised completion date. Commuter trains in the U.S. and Europe are designated and so numbered according to their departure time. Thus, the “716 Train,” for instance, means exactly that – it leaves everyday at, you had better believe it, 7:16.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Then, when we learn to be punctual, perhaps we might convince others that we can be relied upon, to be reliable for bigger, more significant things; in other words, to be credible, trustworthy. It means to be truthful and honest. Which leads to being honorable, i.e., having a sense of worth, a sense of shame. <b><i>Hindi tayo kapal muks or sin verguenza</i></b>. It goes with character and integrity. It means we are not crass and shameless, without any sense of what is the honorable, the right thing to do. It means we would rather die than be wrong or dishonest. The Japanese commit <b><i>hara kiri</i></b> when they were wrong. It’s also been called <b><i>“delicadeza”</i></b> from the Spaniards who may have tried to develop in us a “tender or delicate conscience.” Alas, they may not have tried hard enough. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Most of our government leaders interpret <b><i>“delicadeza”</i></b> to mean a juicy position is worth killing for (or holding some tourist hostages to recover it).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Can you imagine if Filipinos were left in charge of a nuclear plant in Bataan? What, after some stupid nincompoops mindlessly inundated the entire Marikina, Cainta, Pasig, Taguig, and other neighboring towns by suddenly and simultaneously releasing dam waters from Wawa, La Mesa, Montalban, etc. and then blaming it all on Typhoon <b><i>“ONDOY?”</i></b> Can you believe you could ever get those lying bastards to admit they committed a blunder and drowned hundreds of the helpless countrymen due to their incompetence and stupidity? And you are going to trust such people with an atomic energy plant?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The thing about being truthful is that we have no right to cry out for “justice” unless we are truthful. Justice must be based on truth or it is not justice. Hence, every judicial inquiry starts with the question: “Do you swear to tell the <u>truth</u>, the whole truth… so help you God?” Every little piece of paper the government asks you to submit must be under oath, i.e., under pain of perjury (punishable from 6 months to 6 years imprisonment). Do you think that deters the driver’s license applicant, the business license applicant, the income tax return filer, etc.? What, what perjury are you talking about?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Speaking of starting small, we could also try some road discipline, for drivers and pedestrians alike. We could start by giving the pedestrian, walking in the sweltering heat of the tropical sun and Manila pollution, a modicum of consideration and respect by yielding the right of way. We could avoid competing with jeepney and bus drivers who must at all times drive like crazy just to meet their so-called “boundary.” Otherwise, their families won’t eat for the day.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Then, there is the small matter of basketball. I believe we should forget about basketball and try soccer instead. The whole world plays soccer. Only giants, ogres and diminutive Filipinos insist on playing basketball. Soccer teaches patience. You can watch soccer for hours without a goal being made. Basketball teaches instant gratification, three-point plays. 120-118 is a good game in basketball. In our time, Kobe Bryant would have been called <b><i>“buwaya,”</i></b> definitely not the ideal role model.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">But, I have digressed. So, what can we learn from the Luneta Park fiasco? How about, with apologies to Ninoy, “is the Filipino worth hostage-taking and killing for?” - <b>JAMES D. LANSANG (jeemsdee@yahoo.com)</b></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b>Tags:</b> <a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/tag/punctuality" rel="tag" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">punctuality</a>, <a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/tag/hostage%20taking" rel="tag" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">hostage taking</a>, <a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/tag/filipino%20character" rel="tag" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">filipino character</a>, <a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/tag/integrity" rel="tag" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">integrity</a>, <a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/tag/finger%20pointing" rel="tag" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">finger pointing</a></div>
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<a href="http://paga65.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">paga65</a> wrote on Aug 27, '10</div>
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<div author="paga65" author_possessive="paga65's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:109+0" is_pmrepliable="1">
Kuya,Venus Raj told it all when she answered there is no major major problem to answer the question about worst mistake. Filipinos don't recognize mistakes; there are problems but mistakes are un-owned.</div>
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<a href="http://edllarena.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">edllarena</a> wrote on Aug 27, '10</div>
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<div author="edllarena" author_possessive="edllarena's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:109+1" is_pmrepliable="1">
james, during the assault, i texted a police officer and told him that "the bus was quite high and that an assault from the gound would be difficult". he texted back and said: "yap, there will be critique on this".<br />
my youngest son (gade 6) told me during breakfast the following day that the police should now call their swat team "special sledgehammer and tali team" (sstt).</div>
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<a href="http://elmersarmiento.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">elmersarmiento</a> wrote on Aug 29, '10</div>
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<div author="elmersarmiento" author_possessive="elmersarmiento's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:109+2" is_pmrepliable="1">
Blame is solely to Capt. Mendoza. Not the police, the media nor the uzis.<br />
<br />
Nobody wanted this to happen. Regretably, this incident even took place at all.This is an isolated incident that taught us a valuable lesson.<br />
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Let's remain hopeful that this crisis will not diminish our capability, our pride and strength as a people. </div>
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<a href="http://edllarena.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">edllarena</a> wrote on Aug 29, '10, edited on Aug 29, '10</div>
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a be-medalled police officer taking hostages and killing them can indeed be an isolated case. but a swat police force showing ineptness in the performance of its task, a police station being used as a venue for torture, police officers and their wives being caught overseas with unexplained excessive cash, and lawmakers jailed or hiding for various offenses ----- these are already signs of a rotten institution!<br />
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organizational dysfunctions can only be addressed by indepth OD and not by apologies by incompetent leaders and wishful thinking of misguided citizens.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18316198697014091992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178987346697906576.post-24291867618366002522012-09-16T11:12:00.000-07:002012-09-16T12:53:30.324-07:00SPEAKING OF PARABLES ...<br />
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for everyone</td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Speaking of parables, do we have to take them as gospel truths?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;">At my age and only during lucid intervals, I cannot help but think seriously about the hereafter. Or, to paraphrase the saint, we might call it “<b><i>contemplatio ad mortem</i></b>,” a virtual death wish.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> After all, my future on this planet is realistically just over the horizon. It’s no wonder that many churchgoers belong to the well-over-70 bracket. You might say they have been booked, ticketed and ushered into the ultimate “<i>pre-departure lounge</i>.” Somehow many senior citizens cannot help but get the uneasy feeling that it’s time to say their last two-minute prayers.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;">Without wishing to appear or sound trite, or unbelieving like the apostle Thomas, I have often asked myself some of the test questions Jesus suggested might be asked of us at the final judgment, such as, did I feed the hungry, give a drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, comfort the sick or visit those imprisoned. But then again, I would wonder, weren’t those suggested acts of mercy meant to be merely rhetorical or poetic license? Wouldn’t it be better, for instance, to provide low-cost housing for the homeless, give employment to the jobless, train the unskilled some trade or skill; in other words, instead of giving a man a fish or a can of sardines, to “teach the man to fish” instead? In short, do we really have to take Jesus at his word – literally? Are we being less than charitable when we fail visit the sick in a hospital during an epidemic or visit the local jail to watch the inmates dance “This is it”? Are nurses and doctors then at a distinct advantage since they operate in hospitals? Are lawyers who interview their clients in jail assured of heaven even though such clients may be guilty as hell? Hasn’t the rich businessman or industrialist automatically earned his permanent place in heaven after having provided employment for thousands of workers, albeit grossly underpaid and perennially contractual?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;">Do we have to believe as gospel truth all the parables the good Lord told us? If he wanted us to do so, why could he not simply have told us, in no uncertain terms? “That’s an order!” “Do it, or else, it’s hell and damnation for you.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;">Why does the Pope speak in dogmas and not in parables? Believe, or be excommunicated!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;">Who invented the doctrine that God loves us “unconditionally?” Does that mean we can do as we please and still go to heaven? What the hell is hell for then?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;">When do we take Jesus at this word, and when do we take him lightly or even for granted? Why is an expensive “annulment” of a movie star acceptable whereas poor people have to endure a bad marriage? Why is divorce allowed in Italy but not in the Philippines?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;">Why is it that when we seem to be at a loss for some appropriate quote from the New Testament, we tend to fall back on some overused quote from Ecclesiastes or the Old Testament which is owned by the Jews who considered Jesus as a blasphemer or a heretic?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;">Am I going to die a completely confused old man? If God wanted me not to ask questions, why did he provide me with some intelligence and free will? Am I being restless and carefree or am I really trying to search for the truth in earnest?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;">When are we supposed to leave it completely to blind faith, or hope, or to the expert theologians? If to know God is to love him, are theologians necessarily more pious and assured of some well-appointed mansions in heaven?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;">Nowadays, to fulfill my Sunday obligation (under pain of mortal sin), I go to mass at a church in Marikina. For some reason (I think mainly to accommodate devotees who insist on sticking a lighted candle to go with their prayer requests) there is a small structure beside the church that now houses a framed picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary (it used to be an icon of the “Ecce Homo”). I have often observed, for instance, how a man on a bicycle and in his riding shorts would go there, reverently wipe his hankie on the edge of the gilded picture frame, make what might pass for the sign of the cross, and leave. That’s his idea of “Sunday services.” Now, I am not quite sure who goes home more blessed, him or me. I do not know whether to feel edified, embarrassed, shocked and scandalized, or all of the above.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;">Jesus once said, “unless you be like little children…you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Mt. 18:3. Obviously, he meant for us to be humble, little, insignificant, accepting, helpless, and definitely not smart-alecky. However, doesn’t it mean too that just like little children we should always be asking embarrassing, pesky, and nagging little questions, such as, where did I come from, or why did I see mama kissing Santa Claus?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Where is the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete that Jesus promised? Why do we automatically think of a white pigeon when somebody mentions the Holy Spirit? Isn’t the Holy Spirit just as important as the other persons in the Holy Trinity? Why does our “<b><i>Credo</i></b>” devote only one single short phrase about the Holy Spirit (“I believe in the Holy Spirit” – that’s it) whereas God the Father and God the Son are well-defined, their characteristics and salient features detailed or explained? Speaking of which, did we have to make special mention of “<i>Pontius the Pilot</i>” in the whole scheme of things while vaguely alluding to the entire “<b><i>communio sanctorum</i></b>” or the communions of saints virtually as an afterthought? </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;">I have also heard the argument, particularly from pious, born-again Christians, who advise against asking too many questioning questions. They will tell us that what is needed is not so much doubting as much as believing. There are simply some things that cannot be known or explained by reason alone but rather “revealed.” That for one to be lucky enough to have such truths revealed requires “grace” to which not everyone seems entitled. It is a gift from God. (What isn’t a gift from God, pray, tell). It requires a deep and abiding faith. And faith they would remind us and quote from St. Paul “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;">The argument of course must end when one quotes from the Holy Book, albeit inappropriately. It’s a bit like lawyers mouthing some old Latin maxims to bolster an inherently weak argument or to impress a gullible client.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;">The great writer, lay theologian and Christian apologist C.S. Lewis in trying to persuade his close friend, J.R.R. Tolkien, to understand some of the mysteries of faith, suggested instead that such reluctance may come rather from a “<i>failure of the imagination</i>.” Whatever our beliefs, it is often a lack of imagination as much as a lack of faith (or hope, or love) that we suffer from. An author then suggests to “let our imaginations feed upon the images they present so that we may believe just a little what ‘no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love Him.’” 1 Corinthians 2:9</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;">I can appreciate this appeal to the imagination. It explains for instance how reading a novel can be just as enjoyable and descriptive (or better) as watching a movie about the same story or topic. As John Lennon suggested in that beautiful song (“Imagine”) he composed , “Imagine there’s no heaven…no hell below us, above us only sky…” Indeed, what a dreary, cruel and unfair world this would be.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;">If we fail to imagine a world after this one, indeed, one would be loath to leave it. In the poetic if creative words of the prolific and imaginative Shakespeare in Hamlet, we would merely think of the hereafter as “the<u>undiscovered country</u> from whose bourn no traveler returns…” It would thereby “puzzle the will…thus make cowards of us all…thus the native hue of resolution is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought and enterprise of great pitch and moment with this regard their currents turn awry and lose the name of action.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;">Of the many parables that Jesus narrated, some have of course become classic and more popular than others. The Parable of the Prodigal Son immediately comes to mind. The rich man and the poor man Lazarus, the rich and greedy man who built a bigger grain silo, the Good Samaritan, etc. all remind us that there is life much better than this that we can only try to imagine but is beyond all human comprehension. Indeed, this was the favorite theme of Jesus’ parables, that heaven is simply too marvelous for words, that the only way to appreciate the “kingdom of God” or the “kingdom of heaven” is to use the eyes of faith, the faith that can move mountains, to use our imagination, just as we and/or our children are able to imagine and create and appreciate Spiderman, Superman, Batman and all the other superheroes. If we can imagine the world of Harry Potter as created by its best-selling author of all time, J.K. Rowling, I believe with a little imagination and faith we shall see a clearer picture of what heaven is like and therefore not fear death all that much. O death, where is thy victory, o death, where is thy sting? 1 Corinthians 15:55</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;">The Pilipino word for parable is “<i>talinghaga</i>,” a big, impressive Tagalog word. Maybe that’s why Jesus resorted to parables when talking about the hereafter. It may not be enough to simply take him at this word. You would have to use your imagination, use the eyes of faith, use your 3D vision, or miss out on the message completely. <b>Bro. James D. Lansang</b>(</span><a href="mailto:jeemsdee@yahoo.com" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;"><u><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;">jeemsdee@yahoo.com</span></u></a><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;">)</span></div>
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<a href="http://resumus2.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">resumus2</a> wrote on Aug 3, '10, edited on Aug 3, '10</div>
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When confronted with parables & paradoxes, I take solace in what one observer said that life is like an Algebra book; the more you read it, the more problems you get. Farther beyond math books, things become even more complicated. Mathematically, 1 + 1 = 2. However, sexually, 1 + 1 = 3. Religiously, 1 + 1 + 1 = 1. Commercially, 1 + 1 is shampoo with conditioner. So, I just read on. . . one page at a time, absorb whatever I can, pretend for the meantime that I understand those that I can’t, and hope that someday my barber will give me better answers. Wisdom, like Jose Feliciano’s love, sometimes comes from the most unexpected places. God works in mysterious ways.</div>
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The Lord speaks in simple-worded parables. And yet they could be subjected to numerous interpretations and idea-playing from so many angles. Yet the kernel of truth that they want to convey remains. It makes the mind wander further than within the scope of the story per se to gain more life- applicable insights. The amazing thing is their timeless significance. The target audience during His time is no different in relevance from that in ours. There is always something for everybody. To be effective like the parachute though, our minds just have to be open to assimilate the lessons implied through enlightenment otherwise we would miss them altogether.<br />
If all else fail, we can always listen to the words of wisdom of the barber and the singer.</div>
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<div author="paga65" author_possessive="paga65's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:108+2" is_pmrepliable="1">
Manong, you have truly become at your late age a theologian. For the true theologian would follow Jesus's footstep of speaking and teaching in parables.</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Aug 3, '10</div>
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On second thought, maybe I should have known better than to ask the questions I raised. As an old Yiddish saying goes "gaa freg bei gott a kasha." (Go ask God a question.)</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18316198697014091992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178987346697906576.post-22657394753188335632012-09-16T11:09:00.004-07:002012-09-16T12:54:36.914-07:00LORD, WHY DO YOU SPEAK TO THEM IN PARABLES?<br />
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<tr><td class="cattitle" style="font-size: 18px; padding: 3px;"><a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/journal/item/107/Lord-why-do-you-speak-to-them-in-parables" itemprop="url" rel="bookmark" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></a></td><td class="itemsubsub" style="color: #888888; font-size: 10px; line-height: 10px; padding: 3px; text-align: right;"><nobr>Jul 22, '10 1:11 AM</nobr><br />
for everyone</td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px;">“Why do you speak to them in parables?” Or, why you should never take me seriously.- </span></b><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">I almost got into another sticky argument the other day over some idle if careless remark I made at a meeting of a handful of well-intentioned people involved in promoting a religious devotion. Ironically, the remark had very little to do with the agenda for the day, hence, a less than tolerant presiding officer could have easily ruled me out of order or even have the remark struck down as impertinent and irrelevant. Indeed, what I had said should have been dismissed or disregarded as just another annoying wisecrack made by an old buffoon suffering from an incurable “foot-in-mouth” disease.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Which reminds me of the old story about a court jester who was sent to the gallows after the king tired of his annoying witticism. Just as he was about to be hanged, the jester got a reprieve from the king who warned him to stop his incessant punning, or else. Whereupon, the jester remarked: “<b><i>no noose is good news</i></b>.” Alas, it was his last pun. The moral, old habits are hard to break.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Actually, if you must know, my comment had to do with the communion rail in the church where only the week before we had sponsored a “healing mass” on the occasion of the anniversary of the 3<sup>rd</sup> apparition of our Lady of Fatima. Despite the bad weather, it was a well-attended affair capped with the imposition of a scapular/rosary after the mass by Fr. Jerry Orbos, SVD on all the attendees who then eagerly surged forward <i>en masse</i> toward the altar. In what may be described as a mild stampede, many of the faithful simply if irreverently jumped over the communion rail evidently apprehensive that the supply of free scapulars would run out. At the meeting to review and evaluate a most successful project, I commented, as an idle aside, that I had not noticed until then that the church had not (yet) removed the old communion rail which I then remarked (rather pompously perhaps) may not be in keeping with the spirit of Vatican II.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">From hindsight, I should have known that such a simple comment would elicit or spark some strong disagreement, mainly from people who should have known better than to take me seriously. Which brings me to the first premise of this personal proposition, i.e., in any collective voluntary enterprise or activity, people who do not know each other cannot be expected to work together. Or, to put it another way, in any purely (no selfish or vested/material interest involved) voluntary group activity it is necessary for people to get to know (and even like and care for) each other well if they are to be expected to work together well. It is almost hypocritical if unrealistic for people to pretend to promote a common cause, no matter how noble or laudable, unless they themselves genuinely care for and about each other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">After a lifetime of involvement in all sorts of so-called social, community, civic, religious non-profit organizations, clubs, foundations, movements or crusades, I am convinced that fellowship or friendship which we tend to take for granted is a key factor in the success or failure of such voluntary enterprises. It is an all-too-common mistake of many well-intentioned, idealistic do-gooders to expect that all similarly-minded individuals will gladly and heroically volunteer their services, time and money to a common cause without regard to the people involved or with whom they must work to promote such common objective. It may sound all too pious and Ignatian to expect that one should sublimate one’s personal feelings and do it all <b><i>ad majorem Dei gloriam</i></b>, for the greater glory of God or the abstract “common good.” We have been sufficiently warned in 1 Jn. 4:20 and 1 Peter 1:8.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"> Instead, I will do it because I like you, you are my friend, or the good friend of a good friend; you asked me to and therefore I will gladly do it or do so. It’s as simple as that. It’s slightly different from a paid or tyrannical situation. You do it because you are paid to do so or because the king told you to do it. You have no choice on the matter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">With friendship also comes a little knowledge, patience and tolerance of each other’s little idiosyncrasies, faults, or weird ways, thereby allowing some elbow room for everybody to achieve a modicum of personal satisfaction in the collective enterprise; or, at the very least, avoiding or minimizing adversarial, confrontational if unpleasant situations. Best of all, in a meeting among friends and equals you eliminate the instinctive need to boast, to showboat or to show off. Quite the contrary, you look forward to meeting with such friends and, if nothing else, having a genuinely jolly good time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Hence, getting to know you and getting to like you must be an integral part of any collective voluntary program.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">As a corollary, all collective, cooperative and voluntary enterprises necessarily require a democratic, one-man, one-vote regime. As much as possible, the organization must not be beholden to any one person no matter how great a personal and financial sacrifice he/she may have expended for the cause. For any one person to claim such an organization as his own personal crowning glory all the while asking and utilizing others to volunteer their time, talent and treasure for what is supposed to be a common and noble cause is a form of dishonesty.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">That is the other aspect of this proposition which has to do with the title of this essay. In such an organization which presumably is service-oriented, every member’s opinion must be heard. That is a mark of Christian leadership. The greatest among you…let him seek to be the servant of all. Mt. 23:11. Every man has a story to tell. Let him be heard, especially the quiet timid one. That also means that as much as possible only the pope or those wishing to become one should be allowed to speak <b><i>ex cathedra</i></b>. Dogmas and their infallibility must be considered a thing of the past. That means too that that while we should listen to each other, we should not take each other too seriously, especially me. I hardly ever say what I mean or mean what I say. I am hardly ever serious, hence, it is foolish to take me seriously.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Lord, why do you speak to them in parables? His disciples asked Jesus. Mt. 13:10. Personally, I believe Jesus spoke in parables to avoid sounding like the pope. He realized that anyway people would either misunderstand or refuse to understand what he was trying to say. Almost in desperation, Jesus instead promised to send us the Paraclete, the Consoler, the Explainer. Let’s face it, people will hear only what they like to hear, and believe only what they want to believe. If anybody tries to insist otherwise, he is liable to be crucified.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Look what they did to Jesus. Bro. JAMES D. LANSANG (<a href="mailto:jeemsdee@yahoo.com" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;"><u><span style="color: blue;">jeemsdee@yahoo.com</span></u></a>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://viagba.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">viagba</a> wrote on Jul 22, '10, edited on Jul 22, '10</div>
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<div author="viagba" author_possessive="viagba's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:107+0" is_pmrepliable="1">
a long-winded justification. "an advocatus diaboli has his uses" would have sufficed (i assume you know that i don't mean what i say either). peace, bro.jeems (dean - of discipline)!</div>
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<a href="http://resumus2.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">resumus2</a> wrote on Jul 22, '10</div>
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<div author="resumus2" author_possessive="resumus2's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:107+1" is_pmrepliable="1">
I agree with you, Kuya James. In any organization, people play different roles. Some are visionaries, some are missionaries. Some are philosophers, some are performers. Some give life to the group by providing financial resources, some give life to the group by providing fun and laughter, and still some provide the firm muscles. God must have meant these varied roles to exist and to interplay; otherwise, he would have opted for Ford-like mass production of exactly similar robots. He created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Even. He created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steven. What would life be, where would life lead, without the holes and the poles -- without the variety? How would a basketball team fare in a competition if all its players are centers, if all are guards, if all are forwards, if all are coaches? Who will fetch the water? In other words, God must have wanted us to have fun even as we pursue the true meaning of our existence. Otherwise, He would not have allowed us to know that beds are not only for sleeping. He must have wanted us to have fun in bed, too. Assembly lines for machines are boring. Truly, there’s a need to make a difference, but there, too, is a need to understand the differences.</div>
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<a href="http://angelindisguise6.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">angelindisguise6</a> wrote on Jul 22, '10</div>
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<div author="angelindisguise6" author_possessive="angelindisguise6's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:107+2" is_pmrepliable="1">
amen.</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Jul 23, '10</div>
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<a href="http://viagba.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">viagba</a> said</div>
<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i>a long-winded justification</i> <img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:107+3" is_pmrepliable="1">
Hi, VIK, ye ol' SANAMAGAN. You are missed, inspite of you. Take care of that decrepit body wherein dwells a delicate soul.</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Jul 23, '10</div>
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<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:107+4" is_pmrepliable="1">
Kuya RENE, tnx for adding depth and breadth to what was otherwise a so-so piece. When I can't, I suggest you should take over.rgards</div>
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<a href="http://elmersarmiento.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">elmersarmiento</a> wrote on Jul 24, '10</div>
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<div author="elmersarmiento" author_possessive="elmersarmiento's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:107+5" is_pmrepliable="1">
Ang galing ni Rene. Parang si James.</div>
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<a href="http://paga65.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">paga65</a> wrote on Jul 24, '10</div>
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<div author="paga65" author_possessive="paga65's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:107+6" is_pmrepliable="1">
Kuya James, another masterpiece writing. When will you come out with your book that is a compendium of your blogs. Surely it will be a bestseller spreading mirth all around.</div>
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<a href="http://resumus2.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">resumus2</a> wrote on Jul 25, '10</div>
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<a href="http://elmersarmiento.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">elmersarmiento</a> said</div>
<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i>Parang si James.</i> <img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="resumus2" author_possessive="resumus2's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:107+7" is_pmrepliable="1">
Ang suspetsa ko, Kuya Elmer, ang similarity naming dalawa ay ito: ang kanya-kanyang buhay namin ay nag-umpisa sa love at mukhang magtatapos sa labada.<br />
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Other than that Kuya James is a higher form of organism. Baka tuluyan na siyang magalit sa akin.</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Jul 25, '10, edited on Jul 25, '10</div>
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<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i>come out with your book</i> <img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:107+8" is_pmrepliable="1">
Tnx, Kuya FABS, for your usual kind comments. However, you must know that I entertain no illusions abt publishing a book, much less a bestseller. While many will deny they do it mostly for ego, prestige, career enhancement, etc., most books anyway find their way into the bargain bins of chain bookstores. I write when I can mostly because, as Thomas Jefferson wrote: "Every experience deeply felt in life needs to be passed along - whether it be through words or music, chiselled in stone, painted with a brush, or sewn with a needle - it is a way of reaching for immortality." At my age, I sometimes feel a compulsion to share some thoughts and feelings, musings and imaginings that I believe I should not simply take with me to the grave.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18316198697014091992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178987346697906576.post-17654150927938790862012-09-16T11:07:00.001-07:002012-09-16T12:55:44.479-07:00MEN HAVE FORGOTTEN HOW TO GRIEVE...<br />
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for everyone</td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px;">Men have forgotten how to grieve (Or, how to behave at wakes and funerals)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Maybe it could have something to do with my age. I noticed lately that friends and relatives seem to be dying on me on a regular basis nowadays. Only last night I went to the wake of a dear old family friend, a few years younger than me, a missionary nun who died after a lingering bout with what else, cancer – and its many mysterious complications. Since she had been staying at their congregation’s retirement home, there were dozens of other elderly nuns in attendance and in all stages of poor health mostly attributable to some degenerative or geriatric disease. I was told that there were no less than four other sisters currently undergoing chemotherapy, another way of saying they are also seriously ill. The day before they had just buried another sister who had died on the same day as our family friend. In the airline business, you might say all these elderly women have been herded into the “<b>pre-departure lounge</b>.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">The day before that the wife of the president of an association I belong to had died a couple of days after suffering an “aneurysm.” It was sudden and unexpected as she was relatively young and in good health. A classmate has been hospitalized and in serious condition for almost a month now and is expected to go anytime. My oldest best friends in Baguio are now completely bed-ridden.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">What else can we do except to pray and offer our sympathies? My usual disposition as expressed in my text message to a grieving friend or relative these days will reads, “IN THIS VALLEY OF TEARS, WHAT ELSE CAN WE DO EXCEPT TO TRY TO CONSOLE ONE ANOTHER.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">I have also found the second part of the “<b><i>Hail Mary</i></b>” to be most appropriate or convenient. You might say it’s become my deadly weapon of choice which I would highly recommend. “Holy, Mary, mother of God, pray for us, sinners, now and <b><i><u>at the hour of our death</u></i></b>.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">One would think that death being as common and inevitable as life, we would know by now what to do and how to deal with the situation. Unfortunately, these days it seems it’s becoming more and more unmanageable if not downright bizarre, wild and unbecoming. Except for some vague old superstitious practices, it seems Filipinos in general have forgotten how or what to do at wakes and funerals.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Many wakes and funerals have become festive and social occasions. And, needless to say, a great windfall for funeral parlors, columbariums, as well as those in the “deadly“ business and allied industries, e.g., flower shops, catering services, seamstresses; and of course those in the “<b>hereafter</b>” business, including the professional prayer warriors selling their prayers in the form of “<b>mass cards</b>.” Long-lost friends and relatives suddenly surface. People who have not been on speaking terms will find a way to be civil to each other – if only for the sake of the dearly departed. It’s a class reunion, fraternity, neighborhood, family and labor union gathering all rolled into one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">The wealthier the deceased, the more spectacular and extravagant the whole affair would usually turn out to be. Now, when it’s a movie star or celebrity who dies, it’s a circus, and sometimes as scandalous and colorful as the life of the deceased. Now I understand the admonition, “As you live, so shall you die.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Mariners say you can tell the size of the ship by the waves it leaves behind. Similarly, you can tell who’s who by the tonnage and quality of the flower bouquets delivered at the wake. It were as if the family status, reputation and prestige depended on the quality and size of the wake. Some people have been known to regularly “gatecrash” at wakes for the seemingly inexhaustible free food and booze. Speaking of which, many of the poor who can’t afford mortuary services will hold the wake on the street fronting their house, complete with chairs, tables and tents usually supplied by the local councilor or barangay chairman. There will be EMPERADOR brandy laced with Red Horse beer flowing like it was going out of style. “TONG-ITS,” “pusoy,” and/or mahjong tables will be set up, ostensibly to raise money to defray food, drinks, and miscellaneous, excessive and exorbitant funeral expenses. It gets much worse if it happens to be election time. Then it becomes more like the grand national convention of the GOP.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">What is worse, there is now a growing tendency to set up a rented “<b><i>VIDEOKE</i></b>” machine for the guests eager to display their vocal talents. It gets even worse in some rural towns where they will hire bands and orchestras to play all night long. In short, anything and everything to keep the guests well-fed, boozed and entertained, the downside of the vaunted “Filipino hospitality.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">What’s supposed to be basically an “hour of bereavement” has turned into a fiesta – a prelude to the real feast of the dead known simply as “<b><i>UNDAS</i></b>,” which in the Philippines is the rough equivalent of a carnival or “<b><i>mardigras</i></b>.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">One would think that there should be different kinds of wakes depending on the manner of death involved. Some deaths are understandably painful and sudden. Some may be accidental or suicidal; or thoroughly unexpected; politically motivated; a “senseless” murder or following a long and lingering disease; or the much-awaited death of a very, very old and sickly person, in contrast to the so-called “untimely demise” of a young and promising individual. On the contrary, after a very brief grieving if hysterical period, everything and everyone appears to be happy and having a jolly good time – true to the warning that emotions are rather tricky and frivolous, like women.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">The Church and those in the transcendental business must be partly to blame. They keep giving us confusing and conflicting doctrines surrounding death and the hereafter. They tell us “death is not the end” but more the beginning of something infinitely more interesting. Hence, to rejoice and be glad. As the teenagers would say, “Yeah, right.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">There is something disagreeably hollow if insensitive about such a posture. Didn’t some nutty prophet named Ecclesiastes proclaim “there is a time and a season for everything…” “a time to be born and a time to die.. “ Hence, logically a time for grieving and a time for rejoicing? Didn’t Jesus weep at the sight of a dead Lazarus (Jn. 11:33)?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">So, what is one supposed to do, what are the right words to say when he learns about the death of a friend or loved one or of someone critically ill or dying? How does one behave at wakes and funerals? How to commiserate without feeling guilty or hypocritical? Is it right to reassure the inconsolable widow that everything will be alright, that death is really “nothing?” As in “O, death where is thy sting?” 1Cor.15:51. Nevermind, my dear, our dearly departed is now in heaven? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Thus far it seems we have found only one acceptable word: “<b>CONDOLENCE</b>.” It’s not even a sentence, just that one word will do - “Condolence.” It’s your password to the buffet table. Don’t even try to use it in a complete sentence or you’ll stammer all over the place. And here it’s pronounced “KON’dolens,” with the accent on the first syllable. In the dialect it’s “<b><i>Nakikiramay po</i></b>.” (As in “<b><i>namamasko po,</i></b>” as one is ushered to the buffet table). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Women generally seem to be better at grieving or pretending to. They have learned since childhood that tears and their lachrymal glands summoned at the right time and place can produce the desired results and are as powerful and effective as the soothing words of an eloquent preacher. Also, women can engage the grieving widow in a tight embrace without raising some eyebrows. Men in general find it rather unmanly to weep and cry and definitely may not get carried away while hugging the bereaved lady without arousing something. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Speaking of which, there’s the practice at some necrological services where eulogies become like oratorical or declamation contests, the eulogers trying hard to outdo one another as if to see who generates the most tears. Politicians have become rather proficient in this practice and are not beyond shedding a crocodile tear or two, if necessary.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">The oldest cultures, such as the Chinese and Indians have always had set ways and traditions governing important occasions such as weddings and funerals. But because the Filipino culture, or lack of it, is relatively young, we are not burdened or to be bothered with obligatory practices on what to do or not do on such occasions. I appreciate the praying part where at least there is some effort to focus attention on the one “lying in state.” What is that, “lying in state?” Otherwise, the deceased is virtually all but forgotten at the wake.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"> Finally, there’s the matter of the so-called “<b><i>Abuloy</i></b>” or donation. I personally believe this is the best part of the wake. It’s like putting your money where your mouth is, unless the wake is at Forbes Park. In other words, let your money express the depth and breadth of your grief. This practice should be encouraged and given prominence and eventually institutionalized. How about hugging the widow or the bereaved while slipping an envelope into her hands? If everybody gave P100-1,000 for every hugging and kissing and handshake going on at funerals, it may just console the bereaved ones that God does work in mysterious ways. – <b>JAMES D. LANSANG</b> (</span><a href="mailto:jeemsdee@yahoo.com" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><u><span style="color: blue;">jeemsdee@yahoo.com</span></u></span></a><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://elmersarmiento.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">elmersarmiento</a> wrote on Jun 13, '10</div>
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<div author="elmersarmiento" author_possessive="elmersarmiento's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:106+0" is_pmrepliable="1">
I'll remember this beautiful piece in every wake I'll attend.</div>
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<a href="http://tomranada.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">tomranada</a> wrote on Jun 13, '10</div>
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<div author="tomranada" author_possessive="tomranada's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:106+1" is_pmrepliable="1">
Kuya, the writing on your blog is a wake up call.</div>
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<a href="http://anambe.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">anambe</a> wrote on Jun 21, '10</div>
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<div author="anambe" author_possessive="anambe's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:106+2" is_pmrepliable="1">
In faith... bes... death is a feast really... that is why saints feasts are on their death day not birth day... i agree with all the fanfare that have come up in our wakes... specially the pakita type although one cannot generalize...<br />
But my life in tocmo has lead me to appreciate and value the ibaloi customs re wakes and funerals... some of our ways have crept in.. but there are beautiful rites.. and social customs .. one day i will still share on this... the solidarity is terrific... there are the shadow sides too... but on the whole... it is quite edifying...<br />
by the way i was happy for the consideration shown to myrns.. and her family. we have become her extended family in a way...<br />
there is a streak in you that cannot resist a dig at women... where does it come from?</div>
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<a href="http://viagba.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">viagba</a> wrote on Jul 10, '10</div>
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just like you to monetize pathos? i'll settle for your tears. and none of that hugging, either!<br />
<br />
ressurexi sicut dixi</div>
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<a href="http://resumus.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">resumus</a> wrote on Jul 21, '10</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> said</div>
<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i>Many wakes and funerals have become festive and social occasions. And, needless to say, a great windfall for funeral parlors, columbariums, as well as those in the “deadly“ business and allied industries, e.g., flower shops, catering services, seamstresses; and of course those in the “hereafter” business, including the professional prayer warriors selling their prayers in the form of “mass cards.”</i> <img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="resumus" author_possessive="resumus'" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:106+4" is_pmrepliable="1">
I remember the Marcos years when wags insisted that KBL meant Kasal, Binyag, at Libing. And when the PBA era came, ganoon pa rin -- Patay, Binyag, at Anniversary. Masakit mang isipin ang kamatayan, nakukuha pa rin nating mga Pinoy na makunan ito ng kabuhayan at kaligayahan. This is because sometimes death is the reason why we are alive, or why some people are alive. Mahirap kitain ang pera; saan pa madaling maghanap ng pagkain kundi sa mga lamay, sa mga binyagan, at sa mga kasalan? Ito nga siguro ang tunay na ibig sabihin ng underground economy.<br />
<br />
Sabi mo pa nga "It’s not even a sentence, just that one word will do - condolence. It’s your password to the buffet table". Kung one word lang ang password sa mga lamayan, isang sentence ba ang kasalan? At ano ang cause kung bakit may binyagan – isang missed period lang?</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18316198697014091992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178987346697906576.post-60501866147867572062012-09-16T11:04:00.002-07:002012-09-16T12:57:02.943-07:00HELP, THE XVD ASS IS SICK (CRITICALLY)<br />
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for everyone</td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px;">Help! The XVD Ass is sick (critically)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">No, it’s not necessarily a proctologist we need but something, somebody familiar with the bottom area. I suppose every organization, like most anything else, has its highs and lows. I’m afraid right now the XVD is at a low point. You can feel it. We have hit rock bottom. There is no need to elaborate, to explain or to belabor the point. Instead, the time is better spent asking what’s going on, what’s wrong, and why. More importantly, what can be done about it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">There is no need to question or re-examine the merit or value of organization. It’s a given. The XVD Association’s mission vision speaks for itself. It is both noble and novel, unique and tailored-made for every XVD. But first let’s make a clear distinction between the individual XVD, i.e., every ex-seminarian who passed through the portals of Christ the King Seminary or any SVD-run seminary into the secular world; vis-à-vis the XVD Association itself (or “The Ass,” for brevity), i.e., that organization composed of such XVDs who agreed to meet on a regular basis to help, support, inspire and encourage one another to live and promote the stipulated common ideals or mission vision of the organization.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Perhaps, we have a good starting point right there in the term “<u>agreed to meet on a regular basis</u>.” . Whether the agreement was made formally and explicitly, i.e., sealed in pomp and ceremony, or informally, tacitly or by force of habit. After all, as any lawyer will tell you, the Articles of Incorporation is essentially an agreement, a pact among the so-called incorporators or members. I calculate that there must be at least 40 or 50 such XVDs, who at one time or another, willingly and enthusiastically, found the group to be their Association of choice. You might say they are the XVD “diehards,” the pillars, the committed. These guys invested a lot of time, sweat and tears for and in The Ass. Nowadays, they are down to about a handful, or less than 10%. Despite all sorts of efforts to motivate the members to meet, the attendance nowadays can only be described as dismal, discouraging and disappointing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Are these guys discouraged or disappointed? Obvious, ba?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Is it perhaps the price of gas or the global economic crisis that makes us rather stay home? Is it the weather, or weder-weder lang? Or is it the lack of any rhyme, reason and purpose for such meetings? The lack of fellowship, concern or camaraderie (or genuine friendship) among the attendees? Is it the quality of the food and drinks, or lack thereof? Is it the venue or quality of the company? Is it perhaps the lack of integrity, character, drive, passion or sincerity and commitment among the membership?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">For starters, I think I’ll pick “<u>quality of the company</u>.” As painful and offensive as it may sound, I believe many XVDs don’t really much like or care for each other’s company. Many of us must think we’re a bunch of losers, frustrated priests, frustrated theologians, philosophers, and poor businessmen. We don’t have enough millionaires amongst us. Many are jobless or marginalized, with a strong tendency toward mendicancy, the ugly side-effect of having been brainwashed in “charity.” We were not trained to be shrewd, we are apolitical, and generally without any practical or useful skills or expertise. XVDs generally make poor husbands. And lovers. After all, we were trained for the missionary position. For those of us who are looking or hungry for connections, The Ass offers very little in the way of prospects for useful, prestigious connections. We have no celebrities in our midst that we could rub elbows with or brag about. Or, am I asking for too much too soon?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">On the other hand, many of us love to analyze and to argue. Paralysis by analysis. We tend to be policy-makers, thinkers, not implementors. We love to preach, debate, and – good heavens – pontificate. We love to speak <b><i>ex cathedra</i></b> – and then fall flat on our face. We also tend to be poor money managers. Accounting was never a major subject in the seminary. Priests and parishes, much less bishops, don’t account for their collections. We have a tendency to rely on and be careless with OPM – other people’s money. We thought the law on tithing was still in effect. We never heard of “donor fatigue.” Nor, about putting in an honest day’s work. Work is for farmers and sheep herders.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">We like to think we were all born to be leaders, not followers; and most definitely not servants. We seem to have concluded that when Christ said “the greatest among you…shall be the servant of all,” (Mt. 23:11; Mk. 9:35) he was merely referring to the original twelve apostles. Maybe, we were led to believe that the term<b><i>“servus servorum Dei”</i></b> was reserved for the Pope alone. Or maybe we remember Jesus saying on another occasion, “I will no longer call you <b><i>servants</i></b>…” (Jn. 15:15).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Like many priests, we seem to have acquired the attitude that we are just a little better than the angels, that we were born to be served and not to serve, that it is a great blessing and privilege for anyone to kiss our hand. In short, we are not “service-oriented.” We should all have been ordained <b><i><u>bishops</u></i></b>. On the other hand, in fairness, I have known a few bishops in my time who hardly ever talk. They walk.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">XVDs are expert talkers. We hate to listen, or to put it another way, we would rather be listened to. Hence, it is almost impossible to arrive at a consensus at any Ass meeting. If a guest speaker or resource person makes the mistake to agree to an open forum after his talk, the lengthy cerebral reactions that follow are usually much more intense and completely to the contrary.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Indeed, come to think of it, there’s a good project right there. We could organize a “Speaker’s Bureau.” We make a good bunch of talkies. Maybe there’s part of your problem right there. We just love to talk and outtalk one another. We are a veritable Tower of Babel. We speak in different tongues and tunes. Worse, we may each one have an agenda. But I hasten to add that there’s nothing really wrong about talking. Or even thinking. Or analyzing. As long as it doesn’t stop there. There must be time for listening to each other. There should be time for doing, for action. Thought, it has been said, must be a <u>guide</u> for action, not a <u>substitute</u> for it. Nowadays it’s also called “walking the talk.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">So, we become disappointed and disillusioned with The Ass. We stop attending the meetings. We give up on our XVD friends. We forget about our noble XVD mission vision. We decide to go it alone. Like another Mother Teresa, St. Mother Teresa.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">As for me, I have not given up on The Ass. I believe it’s asking for too much, too soon. We have managed to create a good thing. Maybe we’re being too impatient. Like it or not, as long as there are seminarians in the seminary, The Ass will always be there to care for its own. Like the Church or any other organization of worth, The Ass will weather the storm and will become what it always will be – greater than the sum of its parts. Maybe we just need to be patient. Let’s give it a few hundred years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Hey, maybe, there’s your answer right there. Maybe we’re looking for success in The Ass in our own time. It has to happen in our time. History must take note. We always like to leave our mark, a driving desire for recognition, for immortality. Sometimes, it’s also called ego.-<b><i>Bro. JamesLansang<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
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<a href="http://elmersarmiento.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">elmersarmiento</a> wrote on Jun 4, '10</div>
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<div author="elmersarmiento" author_possessive="elmersarmiento's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:105+0" is_pmrepliable="1">
In fairness to Tyrone and other officers of XVD Ass who have served so well and sacrificed too long, let's choose our new set of leaders who are willing serve the Ass immediately. Any nomination?<br />
(Understandably, kindly exclude me).</div>
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<a href="http://paga65.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">paga65</a> wrote on Jun 4, '10, edited on Jun 4, '10</div>
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<div author="paga65" author_possessive="paga65's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:105+1" is_pmrepliable="1">
Kuya, good point to raise this issue now. Agree with Elmer to give due credit to Tyrone and other officers. Let me also recall a previous post I made:<br />
<br />
A Pagan Way Nov 1, '09 4:08 AM<br />
for everyone<br />
<br />
We have read much discourse on how we XVDs go about in our activities to help and support SVD missionaries. On the side we hear positive as well as not so positive comments on the subject as regards to effectiveness and efficiency.<br />
Here is another suggestion which may be wild if not pagan.Such activities and projects could just be class based meaning each class concentrates on helping its own classmate priests and missionaries. This is more manageable, faster and generates more interest and participation. Actually this is being done already by and in many classes. The pagan way is to recognize and even encourage competition among classes as to which class is more effective and more efficient. Competition is a great motivator as long as it's healthy not destructive and even fun. In the end missionaries are helped.<br />
<br />
In other words class-based or interclass activities may be more viable feasible and sustainable rather than general-membership-based.Thanks.</div>
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<a href="http://sjyap60.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">sjyap60</a> wrote on Jun 4, '10</div>
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<div author="sjyap60" author_possessive="sjyap60's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:105+2" is_pmrepliable="1">
We seem to be more successful in spiritual activities than on economic or business endeavors. The Perpetual Rosary Movement, spearheaded by Dante, Kuya Bobby, Eli, etc., is off the ground and running. The Marian activities it sponsored on March 25th, April 13th, May 13th and May 31st were all successful to a large extent. On June 13th, to celebrate the 93rd anniversary of the 2nd Apparition of Our Lady at Lourdes, we will have another event in the Shrine of the Divine Word, followed by a Rosary Procession to the Grotto of the Annunciation.<br />
<br />
I would like to request Kuya James, Elmer and the Pagan to attend and help out. Also Fr. Titus Mananzan, SVD, the Administrator of the Shrine, has designated the Perpetual Rosary Movement, of which the XVD Ass is the main mover, to be responsible for the celebration of Marian feasts in the Shrine. That is a good challenge, and places us in an official position with corresponding responsibility. Fr. Titus also requested for more XVD participation in Shrine activities....<br />
<br />
I guess it is up to us to respond to these challenges. While it may be hard to make the XVD Ass do what each one of us thinks it should be doing, I think it will be easier for each of us just to contribute our little bit to the action and challenge presented to us right now in the Perpetual Rosary Movement and the Shrine activities by Fr. Titus. Ganon lang muna. Lets just focus on these doable things right now, and perhaps "bigger" things will follow.</div>
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<a href="http://elmersarmiento.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">elmersarmiento</a> wrote on Jun 5, '10</div>
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<div author="elmersarmiento" author_possessive="elmersarmiento's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:105+3" is_pmrepliable="1">
Our mission is not only spiritual and we're not supposed to be in business. The spiritual activities are excellent but not all of us can't participate religiously. But the issue on this participation is another subject matter I won't discuss in this message.<br />
<br />
Let's also focus on other activities in our mission statement as I'm sure these are the things other XVDs are clamoring too.<br />
<br />
Consider Paga's and my suggestions. Let's take a risk on another leadership.<br />
<br />
By the way, I and many others have helped and continue to support and participate in the Ass and its activities in more ways than one.</div>
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<a href="http://emirabldmnl.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">emirabldmnl</a> wrote on Jun 5, '10</div>
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<div author="emirabldmnl" author_possessive="emirabldmnl's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:105+4" is_pmrepliable="1">
I think the participation has shifted... from physical to electronic. I feel that there are more readers on this site than those who would physically meet.Don't get discouraged. This site is working well and healthy.</div>
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<a href="http://paga65.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">paga65</a> wrote on Jun 5, '10</div>
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<a href="http://emirabldmnl.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">emirabldmnl</a> said</div>
<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i>from physical to electronic</i> <img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="paga65" author_possessive="paga65's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:105+5" is_pmrepliable="1">
<br />
Very correct. Credit to Epi Saso and Tom Ranada, most of all our web hero who has passed away Luke Abaya. We must keep on and continue the persevering and caring apostolate of Luke via blogs, comments. Remember he wanted to establish a "Society of World-Wide (Divine) Word". This is the site:<br />
<a href="http://worldwideword.multiply.com/reviews/item/2" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">http://worldwideword.multiply.com/reviews/item/2</a></div>
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<a href="http://cdrome.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">cdrome</a> wrote on Jun 5, '10, edited on Jun 5, '10</div>
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<div author="cdrome" author_possessive="cdrome's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:105+6" is_pmrepliable="1">
Yesterday, Saturday, I met with some friends at the Filipino Restaurant Manila Deli in Bergenfield, New Jersey. Present were Fr. Jess Briones, Msgr. Bayani Valenzuela, Cecil Floresca and the Parish Priest of Dumont, an adjacent town to Bergenfield, Fr. Raul Gaviola. We spent three hours together listening and talking with a variety of topics as men of our group are won't to talk about.<br />
Fr. Raul invited us to his parish and introduced us to the very gracious Irish Pastor Fr. Neil.<br />
From there we parted ways. I took Cecil to his house in Jersey City and we decided to give Jun Densing a visit in Hoboken, which is five minutes away from Cecil's. Again we talked the talk of XVD's for another six hours. As usual, the Missus called being worried if we were still there, continually wondering what we were talking about for long hours as usual.She always comes with an excuse that she wants to make sure we are not in harm's way like being mugged by some bum. A common occurence in this neck of the woods. She is sweet but there are still things that she needs to understand about our group.<br />
Whenever we get the chance, we grab it and meet anywhere. We find it very fulfilling just talking and listening to one another. The worst meeting that we have is still much better than the best day at work or just staying home. We hope to include as many of our colleagues as possible within the circle. However, there are many valid reasons why some cannot make it. They are either so far, so busy, tired or sick.What's in it for me, would be an implied legit question. And we perfectly understand that. We have our own agendas, family and health concerns.We are all different and we respect that as well.You can force the horse to the river but you cannot force it to drink. In some cases, we try to bring the river to the horse. To no avail. It could be frustrating but we will not give up. The upside could offset the downside.<br />
We will keep meeting this way anytime opportunity arises. When he came over for a visit, the PAX President emphasized the importance of even a small seminal group. Just keep meeting. And so we do. As MLK said, we might not live to reach the Promised Land but we would like to think that we were instrumental in paving the way for the next generation to have a starting point and a launching pad for a bigger, more relevant and more cohesive group. We explore for avenues to improve ourselves and our circle.We are far from perfect, not even close. And we may not see tangible results but we feel them.<br />
We are not asking too much too soon.<br />
We just want to be happy in the here and now, that's all.</div>
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<a href="http://feliciahapi.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">feliciahapi</a> wrote on Jun 5, '10</div>
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<a href="http://paga65.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">paga65</a> said</div>
<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i>class-based or interclass activities may be more viable feasible and sustainable rather than general-membership-based.</i> <img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="feliciahapi" author_possessive="feliciahapi's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:105+7" is_pmrepliable="1">
This seems to be working well with Class '65. I have witnessed their strong bonding eversince. Fabs suggestion might even be more feasible and sustainable.</div>
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<a href="http://paga65.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">paga65</a> wrote on Jun 5, '10</div>
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<div author="paga65" author_possessive="paga65's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:105+8" is_pmrepliable="1">
Thanks Daisy . To paraphrase Mao, let a hundred classes bloom.</div>
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<a href="http://feliciahapi.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">feliciahapi</a> wrote on Jun 5, '10</div>
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<div author="feliciahapi" author_possessive="feliciahapi's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:105+9" is_pmrepliable="1">
Yes, Fabs... let Class '65 meet regularly and initiate it... we have sustained that for many years now..then, the class can share its experiences and blessings with other classes and probably, from there, something more tangible can happen. Similar to "cell groups"...once the different cells are organized and become more solid, mobilization as a general membership follows.</div>
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<a href="http://edllarena.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">edllarena</a> wrote on Jun 5, '10, edited on Jun 5, '10</div>
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<div author="edllarena" author_possessive="edllarena's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:105+10" is_pmrepliable="1">
aside from the inter-class/ groups strategy, maybe we should also keep in mind the words "best effort basis only".<br />
<br />
i have noticed that in the past some XVDs may have been alienated or kept away by the psychological "pressure" caused by some activities/ projects, esp those with financial dimensions.<br />
<br />
as i have always said, the XVD should only help/ give/ donate what it can readily afford. any attempt to commit the group to anything that would expect some (if not equal) contributions from everyone can create undue pressure, esp from those that really have problems having both ends meet on a daily basis.<br />
<br />
even those blessed with abundance can feel "donor fatigue" when things of this nature are done very often and beyond the members' individual capacity. indeed, there was a time when i got the feeling that we were abusing the generosity of the xvd officers who always assume the bulk of the cost of the group's many activities/ commitments.<br />
<br />
and, this xvd internet site/ forum is indeed an indication that even if some XVDs are not able to attend the activities/ meetings, many of us are still ONE in spirit because we still bother to regularly log-on to this site and see/ feel what is happening with our colleagues. when i was in riyadh, ksa last year, i still felt so close to our group through this site because i always log-on (almost everyday) when i have the time.<br />
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best regards.</div>
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<a href="http://emanjyap.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">emanjyap</a> wrote on Jun 5, '10</div>
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<div author="emanjyap" author_possessive="emanjyap's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:105+11" is_pmrepliable="1">
HAHAHAHA! Kuya, your frustration is obvious. Maybe, reason enough to condense the association to the ASS.?</div>
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<a href="http://ckmshs69.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">ckmshs69</a> wrote on Jun 5, '10</div>
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<div author="ckmshs69" author_possessive="ckmshs69's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:105+12" is_pmrepliable="1">
Am monitoring developments of this "kick the ASS" wake up call. Roby Montellano, early this year, has expressed willingness to lead the ASS.</div>
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<a href="http://viagba.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">viagba</a> wrote on Jul 22, '10, edited on Jul 22, '10</div>
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roby - in tandem with mendiola - has this renegade's vote. go brobby ; )<br />
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with jeems keeping his official "advocatus dee" status, of course.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18316198697014091992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178987346697906576.post-18074674512647261902012-09-15T15:56:00.004-07:002012-09-16T12:58:24.600-07:00HOW NOT TO APPLY FOR A US VISITOR'S VISA<br />
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for everyone</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Every now and then some friends and relatives would ask me about applying for a U.S. visitor’s visa. Somehow word got around that I have managed to help quite a few hurdle what to many may appear to be a thoroughly daunting and mysterious travel procedure. How often have I heard people complain about being given a hard time, or about the arrogance, capriciousness, and apparent discriminatory or inconsistent attitude of those consular officers at the U.S. Embassy in Manila?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Speaking of which, let’s face it, some of these consuls do have an attitude. It comes with the territory (if you’ll pardon the expression). After having stayed in the Philippine territory for a while and realizing there’s thousands of desperate-looking Pinoys pathetically knocking daily at the US embassy gates on the off-chance they’ll qualify for a “tourist visa,” as if it were a super lotto outlet, many of these functionaries begin to develop the impression that they have been assigned to some remote God-forsaken U.S. colonial outpost and must act like some Roman tribune to make sure ”tributaries follow him back to Rome.” Sorry, Mr. Marcullus, I just got carried away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">If truth be told, it’s really more the Pinoy’s fault. <b><i>Weder weder lang</i></b>, as Erap would say. There are just too many things not to like about the Philippines or the Filipino at this moment in our history. Our country is exactly where President Quezon had envisioned us to be – run like hell by Pinoys. Pinoys are leaving this country in hordes. Instead of long bread lines and soup kitchens, you’ll find office buildings with recruitment agencies littered with hungry-looking, jobless people all desiring to work as peons or slaves in some savage but oil-rich middle east desert. Indeed, many decent office buildings have refused to accept such agencies as tenants to avoid having all their lobbies, corridors and open spaces becoming regular campsites for job applicants all desperate to work abroad.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">It’s a symptom of a very sick country. Who in his right mind wants to leave home, friends, family, wife and kids just to earn a few dollars? But to many it’s an almost hopeless situation. The only solution it seems is to work abroad, anywhere else but… Or, as Tom Hanks would say: “<u>Mr</u>. Houston, we do indeed have a problem.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Our people are now scattered all over the world, working mostly at menial if low-paying jobs, as chambermaids, domestic helpers, baby-sitters, caregivers, bar girls, prostitutes, busboys, construction site peons, and just about any job most citizens of those foreign countries will refuse to even consider. It’s the Philippine version of the <b><i>Diaspora</i></b>. And the temptation is always great to abuse and denigrate and further oppress an already oppressed people. It’s easy (and tempting) to kick a man when he’s down. He can’t fight back.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">So, let’s stop blaming the US consul. Actually, it’s a very common human thing. Anytime somebody is given some little discretionary powers to make “judgment calls,” there is a great tendency for such powers to be abused or misused, wittingly or unwittingly. Basketball referees and baseball umpires, tennis linesmen, beauty pageant and boxing judges as well as magistrates have all been known to make atrocious, unfair, tyrannical or biased rulings; or worse, take or accept bribes and gifts in one form or another. One would suppose too that the people in the business are only too aware and used to such complaints or accusations and how to deal with (i.e., ignore) them. Fortunately, one can presume that there are safeguards and guidelines in the system to prevent or minimize such malfeasance; or, one can simply take comfort on the legal presumption that official duty has been done in the regular (i.e., proper or upright) manner.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Speaking of presumptions, the whole idea behind the so-called “<u>interview</u>” that a visa applicant has to undergo is based principally upon a legal presumption embedded in the U.S. immigration law that a person applying for a “visitor’s visa” <u>shall be presumed to have the intention to stay permanently in the U.S.A.</u> However unfair and oppressive you may view such a presumption, the law is the law –<b><i>dura lex sed lex</i></b>. What is infinitely more unfortunate, however, is that in practice, this presumption has been evidently applied and interpreted by some <b>INS</b> officials to mean that the more impoverished (or financially-challenged) or unlettered a visa applicant appears to be, the greater the chances of such intentions holding true and therefore the stronger or more rigid the presumption must apply to the miserable fellow.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">This is particularly unnerving and unfortunate especially after 9/11, or in this age of Al Quaida, Bin Laden, Taliban, warring Jews vs. Palestinians (and vice-versa), Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan wars.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Most Pinoys simply wish to go to America because they love America and anything American, even the stupid game of basketball (stupid because Filipinos are not built for the game which recognizes neither height or weight limitations). We love Clint Eastwood and would like to visit him in Carmel or his ranch somewhere in northern California that very few know about. Call it colonial mentality if you like but it must be similar to the people from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and other former British colonies loving to emigrate to the UK and putting their pseudo-British accent to some practical use and being able to play cricket for a living.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Rich Arabs go to America because they hate America and will squander their money there to show off and humiliate penny-pinching Americans with their petro dollars. Indeed, some have been known to enroll for flying lessons while ostensibly cavorting as tourists in America only to wind up becoming suicide bombers with a view to blow up every monument to greatness in the U.S.A.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">You would think Homeland Security would have learned its lesson enough to know that just because some people have more dollars than others is no assurance that that they will wind up to be the more desirable visitors. In the past, the evident preoccupation of these immigration bureaucrats was to make sure no tourists will become “<b>public charge</b>” during their sojourn in the U.S. Nevermind if they happen to be drug addicts or pedophiles (or worse, religious nuts out on a jihad) as long as their pocketbooks clearly demonstrate they are awash in cash. One wonders how Homeland Security views wealthy Russian tourists nowadays.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Indeed, it’s ironic that America seems to have completely forgotten that Filipinos fought side by side with American GIs against the Japs (as they were then called) during WWII. Nowadays, Japanese tourists are treated like royalty whenever they condescend to visit America instead of Europe. In fact, if I’m not mistaken, Japan is included along with some rich European countries in a mutual visa-waiver treaty with the USA. Citizens of these countries are just waved through the immigration gates at their port of entry while the poor, tired, hungry-looking Pinoys are huddled in long lines waiting to be interviewed once again, their tons of documentation at the ready - to convince the US consular officer at the other end that the US Embassy in Manila did not commit a mistake. (Sorry, got carried away again on a touchy subject).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">My grandmother used to warn me that life is not fair. Sometimes, I suspect it may have something to do with the Pinoy’s pudgy-Karl-Marlden nose that he always manages to get the short end of the stick.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Anyway, to go back to that all-important “interview” at the US consular office. Many don’t seem to realize exactly what that the so-called interview is for or why it’s at all necessary. Remember that unfair if albeit legal presumption in the US immigration law about your <u>intention to stay permanently</u> in that “land of milk and honey?” Fortunately, that presumption is in legal parlance a “rebuttable” (as opposed to a “conclusive”) one. Well, America being the bulwark of democracy, the applicant for a tourist visa is afforded a sporting chance to overcome or refute the presumption by adducing sufficient evidence to the contrary. That is what the “interview” is for. It’s actually in the nature of a quasi-judicial type “hearing,” summary in character, not unlike the hearings conducted by our own government regulatory agencies exercising quasi-judicial powers, such as, labor cases, intra-corporate disputes, transportation franchises, etc. (minus the alleged corruption); and, for good or ill, without the presence or intervention of lawyers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Hence, it goes without saying that preparation is important. The applicant must be aware at all times what the bone of contention is all about, i.e., he does not intend (at least not yet anyway) to stay permanently in the land that many Arabs hate. In this regard, it may be useful to seek the assistance of a trial lawyer skilled in the art of dealing with or overcoming legal presumptions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">As in all legal proceedings, everything starts with a complaint or petition, or in this particular case, an <u>application form</u> which must be prepared and accomplished in such a manner that the hearing officer must find to be “sufficient in form and substance.” Due care and attention must be given in filling out this innocuous-looking form. There may be trick or misleading questions in the form purposely designed to “sift chaff from grain” and justify outright dismissal or denial of the application. I have heard many an applicant complain that the consular officer did not even bother to ask any questions or look at his/her bag of documents. Actually, one look at the application form as accomplished was all that was necessary to make an easy determination – not sufficient in form and substance (to overcome the presumption).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">In general, the application form as accomplished must be such that all that’s necessary (on the part of the consular officer) is to probe or seek a bit of confirmation or information here and there on certain entries thereon to enable him to make an expeditious or summary ruling (and thus be done with his day’s quota). In fairness to these public officers, as soon as a consul is convinced that the applicant has proven his point, the interview is terminated immediately and he is advised to expect his passport and visa to be delivered by special messenger within a few days. In this country, our government men have mastered the art of tweedling their thumbs, sitting around or staring out the window at nothing in particular until the poor citizen gets the idea and learns to come across.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Another basic principle trial lawyers will also tell you is that your evidence must fit the form, i.e., you substantiate with oral or documentary evidence only what you have alleged or entered in the application form, and consistent therewith. As a basic rule of evidence “what is <u>not</u> alleged (in the complaint/petition/or application) <u>cannot</u> be proved.” In brief, the form is the thing. A sloppily-filled form is the surest way to a summary or outright denial of your visa application.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">The evidence and argument you offer will consist mainly of facts and personal circumstances which may be lumped as “<u>the ties that bind</u>,” i.e., family, social, business, financial, religious, etc., obligations and commitments which militate against your staying too long in America. It is therefore easy to understand why, for instance, a young, single, jobless young man or woman (nurses, especially) will be hard put to rebut the presumption in question. There is hardly anything or anyone to make him/her come back to this miserable country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Stick close to the truth, as far as possible. One cannot complain of being treated unfairly if he was lying to begin with. But if you must lie, make sure it sticks because when the s—t hits the fan, there’s hell to pay (to use an American expression). Here a lawyer’s assistance may be helpful. It has been said that even in death, lawyers lie still. Justice is based on truth. Every court hearing begins with “do you swear to tell the truth…” All government forms and petitions, including your income tax return, are required to be submitted under oath, i.e., under pain of perjury, in quadruplicate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">My grandmother used to say that if you have to lie, cheat, steal or kill to get what you want, it’s probably not worth it. The good Lord who knows everything must know what’s best for you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">No matter how damning or silly some of your personal circumstances might appear, be as candid and forthright as possible. Don’t listen to travel agents who advise that you lie through your teeth. Be very clear, specific and convincing about what you want to do in America. It’s very important that you prepare a detailed itinerary/schedule. After all, this is supposed to be an expensive and rare trip you are taking. Hence, your listener will find it hard to believe you have no clear and definite travel plans.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Since everyone is laboring from a different set of circumstances, no two visa applications will be exactly alike nor treated alike. If necessary, on a separate sheet of paper, write if you can a sentimental tearjerker of an essay why you love America, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley or Johnny Cash or Depp, or Tiger Woods, or that you have always dreamed about auditioning for “<b><i>American Idol</i></b>” or to watch a Broadway show (which one and why). Tell them about your sick old grandmother back in your hometown who raised you and paid for your schooling and who wants you back as soon as possible. If you must, tell them you want to read for yourself Emma Lazarus’ ”The New Colossus” inscribed on a bronze plaque at the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. Believe me, I kid you not.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">In sum, you must come prepared for the “interview” as you would an important court hearing or Senate Investigation. Practice filling up several improved versions of the application form. Memorize and rehearse all material, pertinent and relevant facts. Be ready to answer without fear or hesitation all FAQs. Don’t do it the Pinoy way – just “winging it” or going for a novena in Baclaran. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">So…good luck, “give my regards to Old Broadway…” Bon Voyage. And… do come back soon. – <b>JAMES D. LANSANG, Esq.</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://vj329.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">vj329</a> wrote on Apr 16, '10</div>
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<div author="vj329" author_possessive="vj329's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:102+0" is_pmrepliable="1">
I remember very well the consul who interviewed me. While sifting through my application form and fiddling with my passport (which was littered with various visa & travel stamps of various European countries I visited two years earlier) and not even looking at me, he blurted out the question: "So, why are you travelling to the USA?".<br />
I replied casually: "I have free plane tickets because my wife works with PAL. I'm just curious to know if America is much better than Europe. I've fallen in love with Europe and I'm not really sure if I'll feel the same about yours."<br />
Still, without looking at me straight, he got his rubber stamp and said: "Come back this afternoon and get your Visa" , swiftly stamping his approval on my application.</div>
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<a href="http://pinoynoir.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">pinoynoir</a> wrote on Apr 16, '10</div>
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<div author="pinoynoir" author_possessive="pinoynoir's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:102+1" is_pmrepliable="1">
Another excellent and VERY insightful article, kuya. I wish there was a way to get this published in the FilAm newspapers around here.</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Apr 16, '10</div>
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<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:102+2" is_pmrepliable="1">
Kuya VJ, you old SANAMAGAN! Ang yabang mo. You were more than deserving of the visa and the consul - as I had indicated above - lost no time in granting your visa and getting rid of the smart aleck - hehehe. But that must have been some time ago. Nowadays, the consulate ships back your passport/visa via DHL or Fedex.</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Apr 16, '10</div>
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<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:102+3" is_pmrepliable="1">
Tnx, Manong SAM, at my age, all I can do is try to be of some help whenever and for whatever. I really hope the above posting is helpful. rgards to all our ka-ilyans in the T.O. area.</div>
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<a href="http://elmersarmiento.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">elmersarmiento</a> wrote on Apr 17, '10</div>
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<div author="elmersarmiento" author_possessive="elmersarmiento's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:102+4" is_pmrepliable="1">
I just hate getting visas. I guess it's the lot of Pinoys. Everytime I go to Japan, China, Korea, India, Australia, the Middle Eastern countries, U.K. and even to African countries, I have to apply for a visa. Same with Schengen member European countries. I have to queue like everyone else, a humbling experience I must say. The latest country I applied for a visa is The Netherland Antilles, a small nation composed of 5 tiny islands. The biggest island is as big as Boracay.<br />
<br />
What hurts is that even if my (or a Pinoy) visa is approved, I have to stay only for a limited number of days (normally 15 days) in these countries, or else they kick me out. They only issue a single entry visa.<br />
<br />
I tell you, I have become a fixture in embassies. At least the U.S. and Canada give 10 years validity.<br />
<br />
Certainly, the Americans give us a hard time to get a visa. What adds insult to injury is that once in the U.S. immigration counter at the airport, we have to face a small camera where our picture is taken and then go through the finger printing procedure. We're like herd of suspected criminals. I was impressed with Brazil that when the U.S. implemented this procedure, they copied it too but applied to the arriving Americans only. I like President Lola of Brazil!<br />
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Apr 18, '10</div>
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<a href="http://elmersarmiento.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">elmersarmiento</a> said</div>
<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i>a humbling experience </i><img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:102+5" is_pmrepliable="1">
Kuya ELMER, it is indeed unfortunate that even a well-traveled and world-class PINOY globetrotter like you has to be subjected to all kinds of annoying if unnecessary visa and airport bureaucratic requirements. I guess that's the way these wealthy and progressive countries show off to the rest of the world that PINOYS and lesser mortals are not really welcome to try to rub elbows with them.<br />
<br />
They must think that poor PINOYS are not entitled to travel. I had a rather wealthy and elderly client who was arbitrarily (profiled) detained at a Central American country simply because his passport showed that he had been travelling (First Class) all over the world on a regular basis. So, they investigated and interviewed him at length to see if he was not really a drug courier.<br />
<br />
There was a time not too long ago when our local gentry's idea of fun was to travel to Tokyo and Taipei to take advantage of the cheap rates of ladies of the night there. Right after WWII some starving parents in Tokyo would sell their daughters to prostitution for a pack of cigarettes or a bar of chocolate.<br />
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O tempora, O mores!<br />
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<a href="http://elmersarmiento.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">elmersarmiento</a> wrote on Apr 18, '10</div>
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<div author="elmersarmiento" author_possessive="elmersarmiento's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:102+6" is_pmrepliable="1">
I just arrived in Singapore and a lot of travellers bound for Europe have been staying in this excellent airport for hours and days waiting for their flights. I just received an email that most of my European counterparts whom I should be meeting here can't attend on time. European carriers are parked here too waiting for the go-signal to proceed to their destinations. I'm sure insurance companies will be paying a helluva lot of money for these delays all because of a volcanic eruption in Iceland that emitted clouds of dust enveloping the skies in Europe. I thought this is a great equalizer but lo and behold, I just learned that Pinoys were not given a free 3-day pass in Germany while waiting for their respective flights. Instead, the Filipinos were asked to just stay in the airport and not leave past immigration. I'm trying to confirm this news now. But if this is true, this is another one for the books for Pinoy travails. Putsa.</div>
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<a href="http://cecilpf.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">cecilpf</a> wrote on Apr 20, '10</div>
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<div author="cecilpf" author_possessive="cecilpf's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:102+7" is_pmrepliable="1">
Indeed it's really sad that our kababayans are discriminated that bad.<br />
It's also partly our fault because due to desperation to escape the dire conditions of our country, they use all means to get out of the country.<br />
It's a well known fact that Pinoys, at one time, made the best counterfeit passports.<br />
For a while I stuck with my Philippine passport, since I had no difficulty going back to the Philippines on vacation. However, when my company (DJ) sent me to London to set up our computer systems, integrate it to our global network and teach our techs there how to operate it, it was such a hassle to be traveling to other countries on a Philippine passport. I was then compelled to get myself a US passport. What a world of difference.<br />
I wish and pray that Philippines will soon attain that same level of "respect". Back in the Philippines (yr 2000), I was already involved in the preparation to upgrade our manually processed passport to an ePassport. I was surprised it took DFA ten long yrs to realize it.<br />
With a new gov't and an ePassport, hopefully things will be better.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18316198697014091992noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178987346697906576.post-7283908346662849362012-09-15T15:53:00.001-07:002012-09-16T12:59:59.863-07:00MAKING A CASE (AGAIN) FOR THE STANDARD FILIPINO ENGLISH<br />
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<tr><td class="cattitle" style="font-size: 18px; padding: 3px;"><a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/journal/item/101/Making-a-case-again-for-the-STANDARD-FILIPINO-ENGLISH" itemprop="url" rel="bookmark" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></a></td><td class="itemsubsub" style="color: #888888; font-size: 10px; line-height: 10px; padding: 3px; text-align: right;"><nobr>Apr 12, '10 1:42 AM</nobr><br />
for everyone</td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Making a Case (Again) for Standard Filipino English<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">I don’t rightly recall exactly when I first heard someone make a case for the so-called <b>“Standard Filipino English.”</b> It must have been in the early part of the 1970’s, or roughly some 40 years ago (<i>tempus fugit</i>). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">He was the Guest Speaker at one of our regular luncheon meetings of the old Rotary Club of Baguio of which I was a member for many years. He was an American exchange professor of English about to end his assignment at the Philippine Military Academy in Baguio. It might as well have been his valedictory address. Since I was never good at remembering names, I would simply have to apologize and refer to him as Professor JAMES BALL (after one of the last and likeable base commanders at John Hay Air Base). His topic, appropriately enough, was <b>“<u>The Case for (Developing) the Standard Filipino English</u>.”</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Professor Ball was quick to explain exactly what he meant by “<b><i>Filipino English</i></b>,” or more accurately what he did not mean by it. No, he was not referring to what is more commonly known as “<b><i>TAGLISH</i></b>” or “Tagalog (mixed with) English” or vice versa (“<b><i>ENGALOG</i></b>”). Neither did he claim to have invented the term “Standard Filipino English.” It seems an Ateneo professor (Llamson), had earlier published a more extensive work on the subject.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">At any rate, Professor Ball opened his presentation with a statement everybody could agree with (and something our young local disc jockeys and radio announcers could take a cue from): “YOU DON’T HAVE TO SOUND LIKE AN AMERICAN, i.e., MIMIC THE AMERICAN ACCENT, IN ORDER TO SPEAK GOOD ENGLISH.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"> Next he said, at the rate Filipinos continue to freely mix Tagalog/Pilipino words and phrases while ostensibly trying to speak English, we will soon be speaking what we used to call “carabao English” or pidgin/creolized English and we will no longer be understood by other English-speaking countries; a fate not unlike the creolized Spanish spoken in Zamboanga and Cavite.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Gameshow Host:</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"> What "K" (kalabaw) is the national animal of the Philippines?<br /><b>Contestant:</b> Kuto?<br /><b>Host:</b> Hinde. Clue, it tills the land. <b>Contestant</b> : Kutong Lupa!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">As with most Rotary club speeches delivered right around siesta time, I imagine Professor Ball’s would have had hardly any impact on its listeners composed mostly of tired old men who will not easily trade their customary afternoon nap for some innocuous or bland after dinner speech. I happened to be one of the few who thought then as I still do now that it was a most sensible and learned presentation. In fairness, I might add I belonged then to the younger set in the club, not yet afflicted with nocturnal insomnia which needs to be compensated with the Spanish siesta that senior citizens are heir to.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">As I recall, by “<b>Standard Filipino English</b>” Professor Ball meant or was referring to the type of English spoken and used by “educated” Filipinos at business, professional or “elitist” gatherings and/or acceptable in educated Filipino circles. Here he might have as well suggested as examples the kind of English used in Philippine courtroom hearings, Senate investigations, Rotary meetings, college symposiums, etc. However, at the rate English has been losing out to “Pilipino” one is hard put to find any Filipino gathering these days where acceptable, unadulterated English is spoken.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">The English professor started out by making a brief case for the English language itself. He stressed the importance of the language which has since developed into the “<b><i>lingua franca</i></b>” of the civilized world, overtaking French, Spanish and other European languages in popularity. Hence, familiarity with and fluency in the English language would be a decided advantage, especially for citizens of a tiny island country like the Philippines.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">More importantly, he emphasized that nobody owns or can claim intellectual property rights over the English language. Hence, Filipinos can freely claim as much rights over English as the English themselves. Indeed, ever since the Spaniards were booted out of the country after the Battle at Manila Bay with Admiral Dewey (1898), Filipinos took to everything American including their English, Tootsie Roll, baseball, basketball, Hollywood, rock and roll - and never looked back.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Thanks in no small measure to the so-called “<b>Thomasites</b>” (a batch of about 500 pioneer American school teachers sent by the U.S. government in 1901 to teach and train Filipino teachers using English as the medium of instruction), the Filipinos were well on their way toward speaking English like little brown Americans. Then came Pearl Harbor and all hell broke loose, including our use of the English language. After WWII, it seems we all then took up the Quezon battlecry: “I prefer a country run like hell by Filipinos…” Nowadays, our English is almost unrecognizable, battered and scarred like a losing boxer by the Filipino’s penchant to do everything that way, you know, like hell.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Speaking of the Thomasites, our elders liked to remind us that they learned a better brand of English in their time, thanks in no small measure to those skilled and dedicated early American teachers. Particularly in the mountain provinces of the Cordilleras where they were later joined by American Protestant missionaries, these pioneer American teachers taught our parents the 3 R’s which would be the envy of any public educational system. This explains why even today people in those highlands generally speak English much better than their lowland cousins.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Possibly on account of our three centuries of Spanish which greatly influenced our native dialects, Filipinos never quite managed to learn to pronounce the American short letter “a” sound as in “back,” “Mac,” “tack,” “tank,” ”Jack,” “pack,” “barracks,” etc. The best the Thomasites could manage was to teach the children to sing thus:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"> “I heb 2 hens, da lep end da right,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"> Hold dem appay, so clean and bright,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"> Klep dem soplee, one two tree,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"> Clean leetel hens are good to see.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">I still remember some old folks in Pampanga, Ilocos and Cagayan Valley area say “kendle” as in “Candle in the Wind;” or “Lem of God who takes away the sins of the world…” or “write on the bleckboard.” Now, try asking the average Filipino to pronounce “factory” and you’ll hear something that sounds vaguely like some “f” word. Who hasn’t heard of the now infamous Abalos “<b>humboorjer</b>?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Of course, when we try hard enough to mimic the American twang on our short “a” it does come out sounding rather funny, stilted or artificial; hence, invariably rejected by most and mistakenly identified as “slang.” Which partly accounts for our apparent losing battle with the English language. When someone has taken the pains to speak English well and fluently, he becomes the envy of all and in Marikina he is derisively branded an “Inglisero” – a label which could be the death of any local politician. Despite claims to the contrary, Marikina folks hate English.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Then there’s the characteristic problem of many regions in the country which tend to confuse or interchange the English vowels, thereby contributing some awkward if hilarious new meanings or nuances in an already rich English vocabulary. An unforgettable classic immediately comes to mind when a distinguished legislator from the south uttered the famous phrase at an impeachment trial – live on nationwide TV:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"> “Now, Madam wetness…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;">Teacher: Use “deficient” in a sentence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;">Student: “Ma’am, <u>di fishent</u> was rushed to the hospital.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;">The Kapampangans have no letter “h” and freely interchange “f” and “p.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Gameshow host: "Anong 'P' ang Tagalog ng 'storey' o 'floor' ng building?" Kapangpangan contestant: "PIP PLOR!"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">The Visayans like to pronounce “bicycle” to rhyme with “ismagol.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;">Bisaya: Hulaan mo alaga kong hayop nagsimula sa liter I.</span><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;">DJ : Isda? Bisaya: Dili man!</span><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="FR" style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;">Dj : Ibon? Bisaya: Lapit na.</span><span lang="FR" style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;">DJ : Ano nga, siret na! Bisaya: IGOL.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Let’s face it. English as we used to know it is fast losing ground, for one reason or another, to Tagalog or Pilipino, otherwise known as our national language.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"> Hence, Professor Ball had proposed (as did Professor Llamson) the urgent need to systematically and diligently develop a “standard Filipino English” if we were to remain the 3<sup>rd</sup> largest English-speaking country in the world. Then he fell back on his original premise and caveat:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">“You don’t have to sound American, i.e., mimic the American accent, in order to speak good English. Filipinos can develop their own brand of Filipino English as long as they do not mix or intersperse Tagalog and English words in their speech.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">In this regard, we might blame Ateneo for inadvertently promoting that “slang-ish” twang among its students, the influence no doubt of so many American Jesuits who taught in those Jesuit-run schools. For instance, I personally prefer the kind of “natural” or “typical” Filipino English of President Ramos or even Marcos, rather than the stilted style of Manglapus or Guingona. In this regard, the U.P. students seem to be on the right track with the brand of English that has developed in their campus. I prefer the English of Cito Beltran or Senator Enrile to that of say Leah Salonga or Maria Ressa, or heaven forbid, Angelo Castro. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">After all this time I was all for this proposition. Unfortunately, however, with the recent advent of “call centers” all requiring the American accent or its closest equivalent for all their agents, I guess this is another advocacy that must remain in the back burner.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;">A call center agent told a foreign customer regarding the change in the due date of her credit card: "Ma'am,” he said as best he could trying to sound every bit like a native Texan, “doncha werry now, I already changed your monthly period."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;">Host:</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;"> Saan "B" (beach) tayo madalas pumunta pag summer upang maligo?<br /><b>Contestant</b>: Banyo?<br /><b>Host</b>: Hindi, pag pumunta ka doon, maaarawan ka.<br /><b>Contestant:</b> Bubong?<br /><b>Host:</b> Hindi, marami kang makikita duong mga babaeng naka-bikini.<br /><b>Contestant:</b> Beerhouse!<br /><br />> <b>Host:</b> Anong "L" (Lifeguard) ang tawag sa tao na sumasagip sa iyo pag<br />ikaw ay nalulunod?<br /><b>Contestant</b>: Lifebuoy?<br /><b>Host:</b> Hindi, pero kahawig nga ng pangalan ng sabon ang pangalan ng ito.<br /><b>Contestant </b>: Safeguard?<br /><b>Host</b> : Hindi, pagsamahin mo yung dalawang sagot mo.<br /><b>Contestant :</b> Safe Buoy?<br /><b>Host</b>: Hindi siya "boy" at matipuno nga ang kaniyang katawan.<br /><b>Contestant:</b> Ah, Mr. Clean!<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">An Eat Bulaga contestant was asked by Joey and Vic: "Ano sa Tagalog ang grasshopper?" Contestant: "Ahmm. . .Huling Hapunan?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">An emcee was once heard saying: "Let's give her a warm of applause!"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">I should better end right here before I start developing “seecan thots” on this subject. <b>James D. Lansang</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div author="elmersarmiento" author_possessive="elmersarmiento's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:101+0" is_pmrepliable="1">
You made my day, James.<br />
<br />
Tek et awi, as Joe Quirino would have said.</div>
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<a href="http://cecilpf.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">cecilpf</a> wrote on Apr 12, '10, edited on Apr 13, '10</div>
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<div author="cecilpf" author_possessive="cecilpf's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:101+1" is_pmrepliable="1">
Actually, we aren't the only ones...<br />
The Brits did and still do look down upon American English.<br />
Even the Brits themselves differentiate "civil" English from "english" in the gutters. (My Fair Lady).<br />
American English in itself, is so varied, especially the accent, that when<br />
spoken will inevitably betray one's locality and upbringing.<br />
When I came to US, I had no difficulty understanding or being understood, with my Pinoy English, by the locals - in Seattle, Chicago, in New England and in NY,NJ,PA. But when I went to West Virginia, I got the scare of my life! Honestly I thought I had regressed. I just couldn't understand their peculiar twang (southern accent that is, most especially the hillbillies). Regressed? How come, when I got home, I could understand perfectly and without any difficulty the newscasts and TV shows. It took me quite some time before I "learned" to understand their spoken English.<br />
Lately there has been a much heated issue on BLACK ENGLISH!<br />
You know what I mean. This surfaced more blatantly when Mr Barack Obama was elected President of USA. Hence, there's the Educated Black English (e.g Ivy League graduates) vs the black english in the streets.<br />
Furthermore, there's the Irish English, the Espangol, the ToRic, the Carribbean English (vs Afro-American English) and all those Europeans trying to speak the lingua francia.<br />
And what about the Japanese, the Chinese, the Malays and most especially the Hindus. (Note: call centers in India).<br />
Cosmopolitan? Indeed. It's linguistic hodgepodge.<br />
Nothing more evident than here in New York City!<br />
Ini-haw, my only regret is...<br />
when I am at home in the Philippines, my own kailian & kababayan laugh at my Ilocano and my Tagalog.<br />
Pumuti nga ako, pero pango pa rin ang ilong.<br />
Buti na lang, hindi ako nagpa-blond.<br />
<br />
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<br /></div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Apr 12, '10, edited on Apr 12, '10</div>
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<a href="http://elmersarmiento.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">elmersarmiento</a> said</div>
<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i>You made my day, James</i> <img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:101+2" is_pmrepliable="1">
Tnx, Kuya ELMER. rgards to d misis.<br />
Btw, speaking of Manong Joe Q, haven't heard his name mentioned at all by anybody else lately. How fleeting indeed is fame. There was a time when JQ ruled the TV world and celebrities all desired to be featured with him.<br />
<br />
Too bad it's all been teken awi.</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Apr 12, '10</div>
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<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:101+3" is_pmrepliable="1">
Kuya CECIL, you seem to have given the subject a lot of thought yourself. Maybe you could take up the advocacy for developing Standard Filipino English. rgards</div>
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<a href="http://cecilpf.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">cecilpf</a> wrote on Apr 13, '10</div>
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<div author="cecilpf" author_possessive="cecilpf's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:101+4" is_pmrepliable="1">
Padagdag...<br />
I used to deal in religious articles which I bring back to States from Italy.<br />
One time, a good friend of mine took interest on a picture frame I just got back from Rome. She immediately blurted out: Please, please save that Last Suffer for me.I believe that was a Leonardo da Vinci reproduction.<br />
One more thing, it amuses me every time I hear these...<br />
"overspeeding", "right and left turner" , natrap, narescue...and so on.<br />
However, I admire the fluidity and fluency by which the politicians, actors, reporters (with the exception of anchor people) speak Taglish. How they intersperse english words in Tagalog sentences<br />
and how they switch from Tagalog to English and vice versa.<br />
May susunod pa.<br />
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<div author="cecilpf" author_possessive="cecilpf's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:101+5" is_pmrepliable="1">
Eto na...<br />
The US INS recently released this list of names of Filipinos who changed their names when they became naturalized U.S. Citizens. Who knows, you might encounter them one day.<br />
<br />
Gregorio Talahib - George Bush<br />
Tomas Cruz - Tom Cruise<br />
Macario Maldonado - Mac Donald<br />
<br />
Remegio Batungbacal - Remington Steele<br />
Victoria Malihim - Victoria Secret<br />
Bienvenido Jurado - Ben Hur<br />
<br />
Juanito Lakarin - Johnny Walker<br />
Federico Hagibis- Federal Express<br />
Esteban Magtaka - Stevie Wonder<br />
Jaime Bondoc - James Bond<br />
Leon Mangubat - Tiger Woods<br />
<br />
Eleuterio Ignacio - Electronic Ignition<br />
Burgos Bahag-Hari- Burger King<br />
Kasimiro Bukaykay - Cashmere Bouquet<br />
Maria Calas - Mary Kay<br />
Rogelio Dagdagan - Roger Moore<br />
<br />
Topacio Mamaril - Top Gun<br />
Restituto Pruto - Tutti Frutti<br />
Samuel Tampipi - Sam Sonite<br />
Veneracion De Asis - Venereal Disease<br />
Alfonso De Asis - Alzheimer Disease<br />
<br />
Francisco Portero - Frank Porter<br />
Diosdado Durante- Deo Dorant<br />
Roberto Controlado- Bert Control<br />
Carpio Llanes - Carpool Lanes<br />
Julia Domingo - Holy Sunday<br />
<br />
Maria Pascua - Mary Christmas<br />
Ligaya Anonuevo - Happy New Year<br />
Elena Mangaso – Helen Hunt<br />
Nicasio Jaula – Nicolas Cage<br />
Demetria Dagdag – Demi Moore<br />
<br />
Mandolina Dagdag – Mandy Moore<br />
Miguelito Zapatero – Michael Schumacher<br />
Hugo Bigyan – Hugh Grant<br />
Cariazo Bigyan – Cary Grant<br />
Casimiro N. Cariazo – Cash N. Carry<br />
<br />
Guillermo Tarangkahan – Bill Gates<br />
Derelicto Ramos – Derek Ramsey<br />
Vedasto “Bhoy” Ramos – Ving Rhames<br />
Caridad Ginagabi-gabi – Kiera Knightley<br />
Mateo Damujo – Matt Damon<br />
<br />
Karen Batobato - Sharon Stone<br />
Roberto Maasahin - Bob Hope<br />
Hilaria Kulintang - Hillary Clinton<br />
William Pisara - Bill Board<br />
Amelia Pagbigyan - Amy Grant<br />
Labrador N. Kiskis - Love N. Kisses<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Barako Bombador - Barack Obama<br />
<br />
And who can beat this couple . .. . .<br />
Irineo BustaMante - IBM<br />
Linda BustaMante - LBM<br />
<br />
Courtesy of Cesar Mascarinas</div>
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<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:101+6" is_pmrepliable="1">
Tnx, Kuya CECIL, ang galing!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18316198697014091992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178987346697906576.post-13926135384501642432012-09-15T15:49:00.003-07:002012-09-16T13:01:45.181-07:00ON MANNY V. PANGILINAN AND SCRUPLES<br />
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<tr><td class="cattitle" style="font-size: 18px; padding: 3px;"><br /></td><td class="itemsubsub" style="color: #888888; font-size: 10px; line-height: 10px; padding: 3px; text-align: right;"><nobr>Apr 6, '10 2:13 AM</nobr><br />
for everyone</td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">On Manny V. Pangilinan and a lesson in scruples<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">C’mon, let’s try thinking out of the box on this one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">The recent brouhaha over some admittedly plagiaristic portions of a Manny V. Pangilinan commencement speech (which triggered his immediate apology and a sincere offer to retire as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Ateneo) is – with all due respect - just another silly exercise in hypocrisy and double standards so typical of our elitist if sanctimonious society. What is infinitely more tragic (with apologies for a lifted and worn-out phrase), it serves to detract and distract our attention from the incomparably more pernicious and scandalously widespread corruption, outright lies, fraud and dishonesty of our political leaders and government functionaries.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">While this may sound every bit like an apologia for Manny V. Pangilinan (or M.V.P., as he is aptly nicknamed), I hasten to add that I have never met the man nor do I think any apology was necessary. On the contrary, the man has so refreshingly displayed a character trait or commodity so sorely lacking in today’s world – scruples or a delicate conscience.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">He could have easily claimed or feigned good faith, honest mistake, blamed his staff for sloppy attribution or any other typical lame excuse. Or, worse yet, he could have simply let the crisis go away as PGMA has done (with apparent impunity) on numerous instances.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Just consider, for instance, some random samplings of infamous quotes:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 21pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">“I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 21pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">“I will no longer seek the presidency (Dec., 2002)…” “No, no, I changed my mind (Oct., 2003), I will run (for May, 2004) to seek a direct mandate…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 21pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">“Hello, Garci.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 21pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">“Sec, may 200 ka dito.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 21pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">“Jun, moderate their greed.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 21pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">“I will decline to answer…am invoking EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 21pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">“I refuse to answer… on the ground of self-incremation.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 21pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">“What are we in power for?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">In contrast, there’s M.V.P. without mincing words or further ado saying:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 21pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"> “I wish to express my sincerest apology…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 21pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">“… This has been a source of deep personal embarrassment for me.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 21pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">“I take full and sole responsibility…” “I wish to retire from…Ateneo.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">And then, there’s the Son of Man, after doodling on the ground, suggesting: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">“Let him who is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone.” Jn. 8:7<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">While ordinarily, plagiarism would be shrugged off or considered an all-too-common college student misdemeanor in the academia almost in the same category as rude behavior, vandalism or getting drunk and rowdy after a big win in some sports intramurals, Manny V. Pangilinan being Manny V. Pangilinan, he cannot be allowed to pee by the roadside on a lonely stretch of a provincial road without getting on the front page of every tabloid in the country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Then again, if there is anything good or worthwhile that could come out of the whole unfortunate affair, it should promote a long hard look at so-called copyright infringement, intellectual property rights, monopolies, land patents and titles, etc., including plagiarism, with a view to re-examining and abolishing such imperialistic, oppressive and discriminatory legal enactments, decrees and practices. Maybe our time were better spent calling attention to the plight of impoverished emerging nations that are required and who continue to pay the old Roman tribute (now aptly called royalty) to the rich Western countries who invented and imposed such monopolistic legal sanctions, with the aid of the UN, World Bank, and WTO (acting in place of the kings, pharaohs, czars and emperors of old).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">After all, nothing is really ours to claim and keep. Aborigines and indigenous peoples have no concept of private ownership. Everything is owned in common, a gift from their Supreme Being. Or, as St. Paul would remind us:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">“What do you have that you have not received? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?” 1 Cor.4:7<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">What is the feudal system if not a case of some aristocrats with connections or affinity to the king and securing land grants for vast tracts of land “as far as the eye can see?” Thus, for centuries our marginalized farmers have been tilling and toiling the land of their landlords, descendants of some Spanish peninsulares clever enough to inveigle a so-called Spanish royal decree.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">As any legal scholar will tell you, the issue of copyright infringement, intellectual property rights, copyright laws and patents, are merely legal fiction, more violated in their breach than observance. They were devised and invented by protectionist-minded legislators to serve the interests of their industrialist benefactors. A bad (unjust) law, it has been said, will be violated and rejected by the people. Or, fall into desuetude (a fancy French word borrowed from Latin). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Ask China. Or, better yet, that sidewalk vendor selling dirt-cheap DVDs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">On plagiarism, this centuries-old issue has always been an ongoing debate. To begin with, ours is a borrowed language, as are most European languages. Anatole France, a most respected author and Nobel Laureate in Literature said:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">“<u>When a thing has been said, and said well, have no scruple; take it and copy it</u>.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Now, perhaps therein lies the “problem.” M.V.P. still has scruples, or what some theologians would refer to as a delicate conscience.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">There’s Honore de Balzac, another famous French novelist-playwright who graphically observed: “There is nothing original; all is reflected light.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Or, here’s a sampling of what some other great men had to say:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Goethe was heard to have said there would be little left of him if he were to discard what he owed to others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Is the painter a plagiarist because he sets his palette to nature? – Benjamin West.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Our best thought comes from others. – Ralph Waldo Emerson<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources. – Albert Einstein<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Take the whole range of imaginative literature, and we are all wholesale borrowers. In every matter that relates to invention, to use, or beauty or form, we are borrowers. – Wendell Philipps<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">As early as 170 BC, the ancient Roman writer Terence (Publius Terentius Afer) had already wisely observed: “Nothing is said which has not been said before.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">But, then again, try telling that to a delicate soul like M.V.P. Now, why am I humming “Starry, starry night…” – <b>Atty.</b> <b>James D. Lansang</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://cecilpf.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">cecilpf</a> wrote on Apr 6, '10, edited on Apr 6, '10</div>
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<div author="cecilpf" author_possessive="cecilpf's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:100+0" is_pmrepliable="1">
One thing I hear quite frequently...<br />
when corruptions are uncovered & blown wide open -<br />
<br />
SHE, through her spokesman G.O. (come to think of it, he was actually and supposedly an activist BEFORE and a PHIL-AM at that while holding a very sensitive position in the gov't.)<br />
and deputies (e.g. Rep A.V. - another SIPSIP)...<br />
hawk back...<br />
<br />
PROVE IT!<br />
<br />
SHE & FG (the A's & the M's) know the system so well,<br />
they can always wiggle their way out politically.<br />
They have all the numbers at their finger tips.<br />
SHE has her own court - SC & CA, her very own DOJ!<br />
Her allies promulgate laws full of loop holes to serve as their exits.<br />
<br />
PROVE IT!<br />
<br />
To hell with delicadeza, kapal muks, unconscionability...<br />
<br />
PROVE IT!<br />
<br />
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />
<br />
When I heard about the commencement speech by MVP,<br />
I was really amazed by the power of Information Technology...<br />
The reaction was instant.<br />
We've so many well informed and intelligent people around...<br />
With such prowess, our nation should rise to the 1st world level.</div>
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<a href="http://butchcelestial.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">butchcelestial</a> wrote on Apr 6, '10</div>
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<div author="butchcelestial" author_possessive="butchcelestial's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:100+1" is_pmrepliable="1">
<br />
His apology honored him.</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Apr 6, '10</div>
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<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:100+2" is_pmrepliable="1">
Kuya CECIL, for someone mostly based in the U.S. you sure sound all fired up politically. I tried to sound as apolitical as possible, in and of itself a no-brainer. Incidentally, you must know abt "TurnItIn" - a plagiarism -detecting software. But, as I tried to point out, MVP merely has to sneeze and the whole world blesses him.<br />
<br />
MVP for President?</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Apr 6, '10</div>
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<a href="http://butchcelestial.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">butchcelestial</a> said</div>
<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i><br />His apology honored him.</i><img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:100+3" is_pmrepliable="1">
KOREK KA DYAN, Kuya BUTZ.</div>
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<div author="cdrome" author_possessive="cdrome's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:100+4" is_pmrepliable="1">
Somebody said that nothing is wrong with borrowing somebody else's idea so long as you improve on it. Or better yet, someone said to justify such an act, "I don't call it plagiarism. I call it research." Take your pick. There are many ways of looking at the Most Valuable Player. Who are we to judge indeed. There is nothing new under the moon.</div>
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<div author="resumus" author_possessive="resumus'" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:100+5" is_pmrepliable="1">
This reminds me of a sign: This house is protected by poverty – nothing worth stealing.</div>
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Brod galing nang sinulat mo! I wish I had 1/10 of your skill in explaining something with such clarity and interest. Congrats Brod again. Love reading your blog!</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Apr 8, '10</div>
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Hi, VIYO, good to hear frm you. Tnx for the compliment. Brod Ed/Boy seems to have appreciated the blog, too. Sometimes nakakatsamba rin tayo - paminsan minsan. Keep in touch. rgards to the ka-ilyan.</div>
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<a href="http://avilacharles.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">avilacharles</a> wrote on Apr 10, '10</div>
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<div author="avilacharles" author_possessive="avilacharles'" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:100+8" is_pmrepliable="1">
To many historians, Jeems, the brouhaha on intellectual property as exempified by US suits before the WTO against China and others, sound funny now because for more than a hundred years, the US had strong intellectual property laws that only protected its citizens and residents but not foreigners and foreign products. These latter were explicitly excluded from protection by American law. Most British work, for instance, was blatantly pirated in the US – yes, blatantly and legally. As long as the work of a foreigner was not legally protected, it was common property.<br />
<br />
Then, later, after more than a hundred years, foreign authors and inventors could also obtain American copyright protection. But it was expensive. Like now, so was it then – pirated copies are always significantly cheaper than “original”. Thus, there was little incentive to buy “legitimate products.”<br />
<br />
The Berne convention of 1887 was signed by most of the world – affording international copyright protection. But, as before, the US would again take its time – over another 100 years (1988) till it signed the convention.<br />
<br />
Developing countries outside amnesiac Philippines do not too easily forget this fact – for their own good: countries such as Taiwan, China, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Korea, Indonesia, and Hong Kong. They seem to be quite aware of the teaching of the American philosopher, Thomas Jefferson: “That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density at any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation.”<br />
<br />
How did it come about then that Americans started preaching to the world about the moral philosophy of intellectual property ownership and the evils of piracy: at the GATT, the NAFTA, the APEC, everywhere – and now the WTO?<br />
<br />
Quite simply, the US was transforming itself from an industrial economy to an information one. Intellectual property had become its new basis of comparative advantage. There was a new resentment of the world’s increasing capacity to freely access and use (“pirate”) intellectual works and new technologies.<br />
<br />
The value protected by Intellectual Property in the world economy had risen to a staggering hundreds of billions of dollars – and is still growing. Clearly, Intellectual Property provides the key to the distribution of wealth and power and access in the information society.<br />
<br />
To the USA, intellectual property rights must be protected because of their humble belief that America is the most creative place on the planet. And this seems true in the computer industry and in the pharmaceutical, movie and recording industries. America correctly believes that, legally or illegally, all other countries on earth benefit from US creativity in these fields.<br />
<br />
Some American quarters now caution against this US-Is-No.1 argument because, they warn, “If we lose the upper hand, we will be disadvantaged by the very intellectual property laws we have designed”. According to the advocates of this view, it is wiser to see that the exchange of new knowledge is more important than immediate royalties. In the end, they believe, such free flow of ideas will make piracy moot.<br />
<br />
In the past, prophets and social philosophers fulminated against those “who covet farm after neighboring farm”. Today the covetousness is applied to the realm of elusive ideas: appropriating in an exclusivist and absolutist sense music, painting, drawings, motion pictures, sound recordings, computer software and even genetic codes. The past practice of first occupancy of land as a dubious moral justification for absolute ownership of a common resource now leads to first registration of patents and copyrights. And these new acts of ownership get to be extended for longer and longer periods.<br />
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Sorry for the longish ruminations. I get carried away on this topic, as my classmates know.</div>
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Jeems, pahabol:more than fifty years ago, a former Justice of the Provisional Supreme Court of Shanghai, John C.H.Wu, told law students that “one cannot really know the human law without taking account of its sources.” Much earlier on, the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo had said that implicit in every legal decision is the philosophy of the origin and aim of law. “Neither lawyer nor judge, pressing forward along one line or retreating along another, is conscious at all times that it is philosophy which is impelling him to the front or to the rear.”<br />
<br />
What moral philosophy then can we find behind the legal subject of Intellectual Property? When people “own” ideas – the ownership of these ideas is referred to as “Intellectual Property.” People own clothes, cars, houses and even land. Morally speaking, they can only own these things privately in order to use them properly. Ownership is understood as a means for the sake of an end, which is the proper use of things. It is morally acceptable to say that certain things cannot be properly used if they are not privately owned.<br />
<br />
“Owning” normally means “exclusive use or control”. “Owning” ideas, then, would mean “exclusive use or control” of ideas – which clearly does not make as much or the same sense as when you apply the term ownership to physical objects. The essential difference is this. Physical objects can only be used by one person at a time. But ideas can be copied over and over with the person who had the “original” idea still retaining full use of it. More than one person can use an idea – a poem, a mathematical formula, a tune – without reducing other people’s use of the idea.<br />
<br />
Shoes, clothes, houses, cars, toothbrushes, ideas, air, water, land – what is the difference in the ownership of each of them by would-be property owners? The philosophical principle is clear: the extent of the right of ownership over anything must be defined by the nature of the thing owned. And, as the American Thomas Jefferson already pointed out: what is clearly in the nature of ideas is their characteristic to be freely and inevitably shared. My ideas are only my own if I do not share them. Once shared, they cannot be returned and enforcing my so-called property right is impossible.<br />
<br />
The famous advertisement put out by the optical media administration is clearly morally fallacious when it adduces various kinds of property as being similar to I.P. given that, by their very nature, they are not.<br />
<br />
Some statutes currently imposed by the state may be legal as a work of a humanly frail legislature vulnerable to U.S. imperial pressures but they may not necessarily be ethical or moral. Some copyright and patent laws should be regarded as unethical when they are used to abridge the freedom of using published information. Using published information does not cause harm to anyone. Abridging such freedom of use harms the progress of science and the arts and abridges the freedom of speech, expression and the freedom to think freely.<br />
<br />
The freedom to acquire knowledge, store, process and spread that knowledge, as we see fit, is clearly abridged by certain copyright and patent laws. So we say these laws are immoral because their aim is frankly to strive to make a scarce resource of something that can be truly abundant.<br />
<br />
If my freedom to obtain knowledge, store and process that knowledge, and then spread that knowledge as I see fit is abridged – as in fact it is by some intellectual property laws – then I am forced to re-invent the wheel rather than copy and use or modify existing information.<br />
<br />
Thus, for instance, if I publish a program for drug designs, and claim all intellectual property rights over it, you wouldn’t even begin to do research on the program legally without licensing it from me. The freedom of others to even think about what my program is and/or to improve its workings is thereby seriously abridged.<br />
<br />
This very term, Intellectual Property, derived from the landed estate metaphor. Eighteenth century England was seeing the commons rapidly giving way to private property in land – land which, since time immemorial, had been considered the essential component of the public domain, the koina, or the commons. The metaphor, therefore, places accent on appropriation rather than its basis, which may have been creation, for instance.<br />
<br />
“People are entitled to the results of their labor.” Yes, but first of all, we must recognize that more than anything else, intellectual products are social products. Their value is not due to the work of a single laborer or small group but is now clearly more and more a common human heritage. </div>
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<a href="http://avilacharles.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">avilacharles</a> wrote on Apr 10, '10</div>
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<div author="avilacharles" author_possessive="avilacharles'" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:100+10" is_pmrepliable="1">
Finally finally, Jeems - in the case of MVP, I guess all you can advice him is the old line: if you can't be good, be careful - or, better in reverse, if you can't be careful, be good: if you can't be a Manglapus or a de la Costa at an Ateneo commencement, why not just be MVP? There is a lot to be said, after all, for a man who can persuade Indonesian capital to leave that needy country and prefer instead to develop neighboring Philippines.</div>
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<a href="http://cecilpf.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">cecilpf</a> wrote on Apr 10, '10, edited on Apr 10, '10</div>
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<div author="cecilpf" author_possessive="cecilpf's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:100+11" is_pmrepliable="1">
Addendum:<br />
U.S.A. is THE CAPITALIST country...<br />
hence, intellectual property, royalties, trade secrets, patents,copyrights,<br />
have all their pecuniary interests...<br />
IT'S ALL BUSINESS!.<br />
Could it be due to American (?) influence e.g. Holywood, Awards,<br />
even Nobel prize, among others,<br />
have all been highly COMMERCIALIZED and CAPITALIZED.<br />
Morally (hardly considered)...<br />
it is extreme selfishness and amor propio,<br />
and pride (obsession for credit & recognition) ...<br />
Who cares about "sharing" one's ideas, inventions, discoveries,<br />
if there's no ROI, no credit, no recognition...<br />
for being the "creator", the "inventor", the "discoverer".<br />
IT'S ALL BUSINESS.</div>
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<a href="http://resumus.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">resumus</a> wrote on Apr 10, '10, edited on Apr 10, '10</div>
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<div author="resumus" author_possessive="resumus'" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:100+12" is_pmrepliable="1">
Now I know that discussions on intellectual property rights can also stir mixed notions and emotions. I read a story about a kid who got into trouble. When asked if God made everything, he replied "No!". . . he believes that most things are made in China.</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Apr 11, '10</div>
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<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:100+13" is_pmrepliable="1">
Kuya CHARLIE, I believe you have the last word on the subject. Roma locuta est, causa finita est.</div>
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<a href="http://cdrome.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">cdrome</a> wrote on Apr 11, '10, edited on Apr 11, '10</div>
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<div author="cdrome" author_possessive="cdrome's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:100+14" is_pmrepliable="1">
Longish ruminations like this are always welcome. It is like viewing two sparring popular blackbelters from the nosebleed section of the arena. It is similar to attending an instant interesting seminar by an expert panel of resource persons in the comfort of our homes. Tangible or not, these works of art or goods will always be vulnerable to piracy or stealing simply because of convenience and it is lucrative business with hardly any effective safeguards. It is tantamount to trying to stop drug dealing or hweteng. While it may not be impossible, it is extremely difficult.</div>
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<a href="http://elmersarmiento.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">elmersarmiento</a> wrote on Apr 11, '10</div>
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<div author="elmersarmiento" author_possessive="elmersarmiento's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:100+15" is_pmrepliable="1">
PLDT, Smart, Meralco, NLEX, TV5, Fort Bonifacio, Burger King, Manila North Harbor, etc. etc. MVP runs these companies like an emperor.<br />
<br />
On the charge of plagiarism based on some excerpts picked out from Oprah, Conan and Obama speeches, I guess this is forgivable. Taking the blame and apologising for the incident is an honorable thing to do.<br />
<br />
I doff my hat to this man.<br />
<br />
On the other hand, are his investments just for the ROI of his backers and profits for his companies? He's running companies that are key to the Philippine economy. Leaving these control to one man is extremely dangerous. Note that the capital came from sources in Hongkong and Indonesia. We should be forewarned.<br />
<br />
Is there a hidden agenda? Just asking.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18316198697014091992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178987346697906576.post-41380561785582777212012-09-15T15:45:00.005-07:002012-09-16T13:02:56.557-07:00ON VOLUNTARY OR INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE...<br />
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for everyone</td></tr>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;">On Voluntary and Involuntary Servitude<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;">(Or, The Little Secret of the Saints)<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">As you may realize, I got time in my hands. I’m retired. Most of the time I’m too busy doing nothing. Let me hasten to add, however, that that’s not quite true. To my maid it may look like I’m doing nothing, that I’m just a plain, house-bound, lazy old fool fooling around with his computer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Actually, I’m engaged in a luxury most people can ill-afford. I got time to reflect, to ponder, to think things over. And sometimes I do. It’s a pastime I now enjoy and wouldn’t trade for all the pearls in the deep blue sea.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Lately, I’ve been trying to figure out why we fail, falter or fall (short) when it comes to our apostolic zeal, our desire to do good – and not count the cost.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Nevermind the priests and the so-called religious people, or people like Bro. Eddie, Bro. Mike, Eli Soriano, and a Johnny-come-lately called Quilboloy. They do it for a living. And from all indications, they seem to get well-paid for their efforts, often luxuriating in their chosen profession, thanks in no small measure to their constant reference to some vague if dubious citation from the Old Testament about obligatory tithing. That’s their job. It’s work for them. And, “truly, I say to you, they have received their reward in full.” Mt. 6:1<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">I would call that “<b><i>involuntary servitude</i></b>.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">When a security guard agrees to don a monkey suit of a uniform and just stand there under the sun for 8 to 10 hours, that’s work, that’s involuntary servitude. Like it or not, he’s got to do it or his family will starve. Nobody talks about whether or not he likes or enjoys what he’s doing. To a greater or lesser degree that’s true for the gold, diamond or coal miner working thousands of feet below the ground under hellish working conditions; the laundrywoman, the factory worker or some lowly contract worker overseas. They all just have to grin a bear it. No excuses, no ifs or buts, no goofing around allowed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">I have in mind the other kind of servitude. Those who profess or agree to serve others voluntarily, to do good, to work in the vineyard of the Lord, and expect nothing in return. And I mean absolutely nothing. No pecuniary remuneration, or its equivalent, no self-fulfillment to speak of, no gratitude to expect, no plaques or citations, no recognition, photo-ops or monuments in one’s honor. Least of all, not some juicy, cushy government position or a seat in Congress.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Now, that may justifiably be referred to as “<b><i>voluntary servitude</i></b>.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Why I ask again do we all too often fail or falter or fall short whenever it involves some voluntary effort on our part to work to promote “the kingdom,” to work in the vineyard of the Lord, and do it all “for the greater glory of God?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Why do we always seem to find all sorts of excuses, justifications, faults (in others – it’s always the other guy’s fault) for our failure or refusal to join, to participate, to cooperate, to organize and to manage (well) and promote such voluntary efforts and activities?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">In my lifetime of participating in such volunteer efforts, community, religious, cultural, social, inter-racial, inter-denominational, I have heard most excuses.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">“I can’t stand that fellow.” “Masyado mayabang.” “KIT (Know-It-All) siya.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">“That guy is a hypocrite. They’re all hypocrites, opportunists.” “Pharisees.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"> “That guy is a crook, a sinner, a womanizer and I cannot be associated with him.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">“That guy has taken advantage of my generosity, our friendship.” “This guy is only thinking of himself and not the organization.” “They are all insincere. They are not committed. (As I am.)” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">“They don’t care about me.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">“I’ve been hurt.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">“I don’t believe (anymore) in the mission/vision of the organization.” “The leaders are not fit to lead. They have other agenda.” “They’ve stolen/misspent the funds.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">“I’m too busy.” “I have no time/money.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">“I got better things too do.” “Those guys don’t listen to me.” “They don’t show me any respect.” “They don’t deserve me.” Or, “what’s in it for me?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">“It’s too (damn) hard.” “It can’t be done.” “I’ll have no part in it.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">I can only imagine how Jesus must have felt at the Last Supper.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Here he was knowing, proclaiming and predicting that he was going to die the next day and his twelve apostles were busy thinking and bickering about their own little “special room” in the Heavenly Mansion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Jesus of course being Jesus knew or found the answer to the predicament.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">I’m not sure exactly how he phrased it in Aramaic. For lack of a better term, he simply called it “<b><i>PARAKLETOS</i></b>,” or Greek for Comforter. Actually, I believe what he meant or was referring to was the <b><i><u>Holy Spirit</u></i></b>, or if you believe in the Holy Trinity, God – the Holy Spirit; or quite simply, GOD himself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">That’s right, believe it or not. There’s your answer right there. As corny, simplistic or arcane as it may sound, GOD, simply put, is the answer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">You must do it all for GOD, silly. Or, “Ad majorem Dei Gloriam.” AMDG as the disciples of St. Ignatius have been taught. Tama pala si Bro. Bob M.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Do it all for GOD, or fail.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">To realize and accept this is Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">No wonder Fr. Arnold Janssen, SVD, had a special devotion to the Holy Spirit; and thus became a Saint.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Or, St. Benedict – “That in all things God may be glorified.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">In short, we are supposed to forget about our own little self, our own frustrations, ambitions, motivations, faults and frailties. You’re doing it all for God. You are merely a humble instrument in the hands of God. Any other way is egotistical and therefore vain, inane and useless as found by Job. Everthing else is irrelevant.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">To accept this of course requires a lot of faith, the kind that moves mountains. Mk.11:22; Mt.21:21<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">We must learn to find in everything we do, touch or encounter the image of God himself. Thus, the greatest saints (Thomas or Augustine?) postulated : “<b><i>DEUS IN OMNIA EST, ET INTIME</i></b>.” God is in all things, and intimately so.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Such faith might also help to make you humble, to forget about your own little pricked pride, your own goals and agenda, your own little ideas, your own plans and projects with your name stamped on them; indeed, to die to self, if necessary.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Consider it like your own a little crucifixion. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">I believe the greatest saints stumbled upon this little secret. So…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Here’s to all you would-be Mother Theresas out there. May the saints, particularly, your Patroness, St. Mother Theresa, be with you! – JAMES D. LANSANG<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://cecilpf.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">cecilpf</a> wrote on Mar 19, '10, edited on Mar 19, '10</div>
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<div author="cecilpf" author_possessive="cecilpf's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:98+0" is_pmrepliable="1">
Kuya James,<br />
You sure have a knack of jolting back to our "religious/spiritual" senses (if ever there's any left), SVD & XVD alike. You know you could be a retreat master. It's a gift in itself...to pull us down from our castles in the air, or the very least hurl us down from our ivory towers.<br />
Be like Guilermo Tolentino's oblation...reaching out to the Almighty, yet with his feet firmly planted on our earthly realities.<br />
Allow me to deviate to another issue, if you don't mind.<br />
I hope we'll have more legal luminaries with the likes of you, to lead our people when the SC shall have lost their credibility when the majority have prostituted their decisions to the powers that be. Mal palacio locuta (via curia suprema), causa finita. No way. Lead! Disseminate! Vox populi est lex suprema.</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Mar 19, '10</div>
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<a href="http://cecilpf.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">cecilpf</a> said</div>
<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i>You know you could be a retreat master</i> <img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:98+1" is_pmrepliable="1">
Tnx, Kuya CECIL, as usual you are most kind. In my twilight years I would rather walk the talk. On politics, don't lose hope. Give it another 200 years or so and then maybe we'll be dealing with more sophisticated problems, instead of poverty, corruption and lack of basic services.</div>
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<a href="http://butchcelestial.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">butchcelestial</a> wrote on Mar 19, '10</div>
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<br />
BRAVO! Kuya James, you hit it right on the head. Your litany of excuses show it all: Its all about selfishness. The first sin in the garden - PRIDE. When we lose ourselves we gain God.</div>
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<div author="paga65" author_possessive="paga65's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:98+3" is_pmrepliable="1">
bato bato sa langit.</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Mar 20, '10</div>
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<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i>bato bato sa langit</i> <img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:98+4" is_pmrepliable="1">
No offense intended, Kuya. rgards</div>
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<a href="http://resumus.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">resumus</a> wrote on Mar 22, '10</div>
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Involuntary servitude I can understand. The pain is probably similar to my involuntary ugliness. But voluntary servitude? I thought that by teaching my kids to stay as far away as possible from jail is good enough contribution to society. I’m inclined to believe that lessening the number of criminal inmates by four is a viable option. I can only handle as much, you know. Had God intended me to become a saint, He would have given me a stronger temperance to control my cholesterol level. He would not have allowed Mila’s lechon to prosper. He would not have placed meat in animals. And the crabs. And the shrimps. My goodness! (Please include this in your list of excuses). Voluntary servitude is truly heavy stuff. I can’t even understand why I have to choose between one candidate whose brother died and another whose parents died as well. Or have I digressed again?</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18316198697014091992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178987346697906576.post-62054320565163978982012-09-15T15:40:00.002-07:002012-09-16T13:04:19.567-07:00A BRIEF LESSON IN WOMEN'S VOCABULARY<br />
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for everyone</td></tr>
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<b><span style="color: #414141; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;">I have often wondered why many of my ex-seminarian friends seem to have difficulty getting along with, relating to or understanding their wives or women friends in general. It would seem that having grown up in the seminary without the company of women, these guys have never really gotten around to understanding, much less fathoming, the woman psyche. This is especially true for those who stayed much longer in the seminary. For good or ill, I myself left right after high school.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;">While ex-sems can conveniently cite or quote a few verses from the Bible or mouth a few impressive Latin phrases to drive home a point to try to win an argument, most are dumbfounded when dealing with the “female vocabulary.” It’s even much worse if these guys stayed on to take up 4 years of philosophy and 4 years of theology. One classmate went on to finish his doctorate in Theology at some prestigious theological seminary in Rome, no less.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;">Most ex-sems like to think that they are verbally-gifted. Having been drilled in Latin, Greek and/or Teutonic syntax, they know the etymology of most big words and have a great tendency to be fastidious when it involves vocabulary which they believe was invented by Martin Luther. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;">Well, mostly for the benefit of such friends, and mostly for their guidance, and personal safety, I have tried to collect and compile a few words or phrases found only in the “Women’s Dictionary.” <b><i>Exempli gratia</i></b>:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;">Fine - </span></i></b><a href="http://funlok.com/index.php/humor/words-women-use.html" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;">This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.</span></a><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://funlok.com/index.php/humor/words-women-use.html" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><b><i><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;">Five Minutes</span></i></b></a><b><i><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;"> - </span></i></b><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;"> <a href="http://funlok.com/index.php/humor/words-women-use.html" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;">If she is getting dressed, this is half an hour.</span></a> However… </span><a href="http://funlok.com/index.php/humor/words-women-use.html" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;">five minutes is only </span><b><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;"><u>five minutes</u></span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;"> if you have just been given 5 more minutes to watch that stupid game before helping around the house.</span></a><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://funlok.com/index.php/humor/words-women-use.html" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><b><i><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;">Nothing</span></i></b></a><b><i><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;"> - </span></i></b><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;"> <a href="http://funlok.com/index.php/humor/words-women-use.html" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;">This is the calm before the storm. This means "</span><span style="color: black;"><u>something</u></span><span style="color: black;">" and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with <b><i>"nothing"</i></b> usually end in <b><i>"fine.</i></b></span></a>”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://funlok.com/index.php/humor/words-women-use.html" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><b><i><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;">Go Ahead</span></i></b></a><b><i><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;"> - </span></i></b><a href="http://funlok.com/index.php/humor/words-women-use.html" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;">This is a dare, not permission. DON'T DO IT!</span></a><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://funlok.com/index.php/humor/words-women-use.html" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><b><i><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;">Loud Sigh</span></i></b></a><b><i><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;"> - </span></i></b><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;"> <a href="http://funlok.com/index.php/humor/words-women-use.html" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;">Although not actually a word, the loud sigh is often misunderstood by men. A "<b><i>Loud Sigh</i></b>" means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing there and arguing with you over "<b><i>Nothing</i></b>."</span></a></span><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://funlok.com/index.php/humor/words-women-use.html" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><b><i><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;">That's Okay</span></i></b></a><b><i><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;"> - </span></i></b><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;"> <a href="http://funlok.com/index.php/humor/words-women-use.html" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;">This is one of the most dangerous statements that a woman can make to a man. "<b><i>That's Okay</i></b>" means that she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.</span></a></span><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://funlok.com/index.php/humor/words-women-use.html" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><b><i><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;">Thanks</span></i></b></a><b><i><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;"> - </span></i></b><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><a href="http://funlok.com/index.php/humor/words-women-use.html" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;">This is the least used of all words in the female vocabulary. If a woman is thanking you, do not question it; just say you're welcome and back out of the </span></a><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;">room slowly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;">Finally, learn to live longer. As your morning exercise, forget about push-ups. Instead, practice saying over and over again "YES, DEAR...YES, DEAR" while brushing your teeth. JAMES L.</span></div>
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<a href="http://elmersarmiento.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">elmersarmiento</a> wrote on Mar 17, '10</div>
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To keep relations with the wife brimming with love and joy: whenever you're wrong admit it; whenever you're right shut up.</div>
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<br />
I showed this to my wife and she said: "Fine!"</div>
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<a href="http://paga65.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">paga65</a> wrote on Mar 17, '10</div>
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<div author="paga65" author_possessive="paga65's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:97+2" is_pmrepliable="1">
Kuya James this is a very good topic. Congrats for opening it up. However, I deem that the opposite might be true, that exsem husbands are anything but soft-hearted with their wives. In other words para daw tayong bato.</div>
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<a href="http://cecilpf.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">cecilpf</a> wrote on Mar 17, '10</div>
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<div author="cecilpf" author_possessive="cecilpf's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:97+3" is_pmrepliable="1">
Check this out:<br />
"Tale of Two Brains" @ youtube</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Mar 17, '10</div>
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<a href="http://elmersarmiento.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">elmersarmiento</a> said</div>
<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i>whenever you're right shut up.</i> <img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:97+4" is_pmrepliable="1">
You may be right at that, Kuya ELMER. That means you'll have to keep quiet all the time.</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Mar 17, '10</div>
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<a href="http://butchcelestial.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">butchcelestial</a> said</div>
<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i>I showed this to my wife and she said: "Fine!"</i> <img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:97+5" is_pmrepliable="1">
You're a fast learner, Kuya BUTZ.</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Mar 17, '10</div>
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<a href="http://paga65.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">paga65</a> said</div>
<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i>para daw tayong bato.</i> <img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:97+6" is_pmrepliable="1">
Tnx, Kuya FABS. However, as you know, I was merely being facetious. Come to think of it, I am hardly ever serious. And at my age, wala ng tumitigas. Ex-sems may appear stoic, ascetic, submissive, particularly those who had to go through the rigors of novitiate. The "damage" is irreparable. "Damaged goods" na sila.</div>
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<a href="http://tomranada.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">tomranada</a> wrote on Mar 17, '10</div>
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<div author="tomranada" author_possessive="tomranada's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:97+7" is_pmrepliable="1">
Kuya, I think it would be futile, if not incendiary, to "quote" the Bible to the opposite side, "What God has put together, let no woman put us under."</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Mar 17, '10</div>
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<a href="http://tomranada.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">tomranada</a> said</div>
<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i>"What God has put together, let no woman put us under."</i> <img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:97+8" is_pmrepliable="1">
As usual, a witty and pithy comment, vintage-Tom Ranada. rgards, Kuya.</div>
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<a href="http://emanjyap.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">emanjyap</a> wrote on Mar 17, '10</div>
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<div author="emanjyap" author_possessive="emanjyap's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:97+9" is_pmrepliable="1">
Simple lang ang pilosophy ko sa buhay may asawa. Pa-under ka lang sa Mrs., wala kang problema. Hindi rin stereophonic ang sounds mo sa bahay at higit sa lahat, mahal ka ng todo ni Mrs. at di ka ipapahiya dahil wala na siyang ipoprove na siya ang nasusunod.</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Mar 18, '10</div>
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<a href="http://emanjyap.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">emanjyap</a> said</div>
<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i>Pa-under ka lang sa Mrs</i> <img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:97+10" is_pmrepliable="1">
Kuya EMAN, is that what they teach in Philosophy or Theology?</div>
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<a href="http://emanjyap.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">emanjyap</a> wrote on Mar 19, '10</div>
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<div author="emanjyap" author_possessive="emanjyap's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:97+11" is_pmrepliable="1">
That's a lesson I got from my barber way,way back in my younger days.</div>
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<a href="http://butchcelestial.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">butchcelestial</a> wrote on Mar 19, '10</div>
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<div author="butchcelestial" author_possessive="butchcelestial's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:97+12" is_pmrepliable="1">
<br />
I wonder when we will NOT call this 'pa-under' which is colonial (if I may) but instead call this mutual understanding and respect - which we should be doing anyway with our wives.</div>
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<a href="http://butchcelestial.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">butchcelestial</a> wrote on Mar 19, '10</div>
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<br />
. . . . . I see . . . . we might lose half the fun . . . . .</div>
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<a href="http://butchcelestial.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">butchcelestial</a> said</div>
<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i><br />I wonder when we will NOT call this 'pa-under' which is colonial (if I may) but instead call this mutual understanding and respect - which we should be doing anyway with our wives.</i><img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="tomranada" author_possessive="tomranada's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:97+15" is_pmrepliable="1">
To be understanding is to stand under. "Under" pa rin. :-)</div>
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<a href="http://emanjyap.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">emanjyap</a> wrote on Mar 19, '10</div>
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<div author="emanjyap" author_possessive="emanjyap's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:97+16" is_pmrepliable="1">
hahahaha! the under thing is really just a joke. marriage is not where one is under or the other is the commander. we usually joke that the Mrs. is the commander. But in reality, marriage is partnership. It's just like a business but in marriage, the husband and the wife are the business partners. But nothing wrong with being under, di ba? Dahil under ka sa Mrs. mo, pag galit na galit na siya at sisigawan ka ng "MAMATAY KA NA SANA NGAYON DIN!", just reply very meekly "mauna ka na, dear, at susunod na lang ako". LOL!</div>
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<a href="http://cecilpf.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">cecilpf</a> wrote on Mar 23, '10, edited on Mar 23, '10</div>
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<div author="cecilpf" author_possessive="cecilpf's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:97+17" is_pmrepliable="1">
Pardon this delayed add-on:<br />
I just remembered something from CAMELOT...(w/c is quite relevant).<br />
The song "How to handle a woman"<br />
"The way to handle a woman is to love her, simply love her, merely love her, love her, love her...just love her."<br />
Camelot 1967 - starring Richard Harris & Vanessa Redgrave & Franco Nero (film version)<br />
Camelot 1980 - starring Richard Burton & Julie Andrews & Robert Goulet (Broadway revival)<br />
There were quite a few other versions dating back to the 1960 original<br />
to 2008 revivals. I've seen only the 1967 & 1980 versions.<br />
It's worth it. You'll definitely love it.<br />
One can also view the song from Youtube.</div>
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<a href="http://butchcelestial.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">butchcelestial</a> wrote on Mar 23, '10</div>
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<div author="butchcelestial" author_possessive="butchcelestial's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:97+18" is_pmrepliable="1">
<br />
He who loves his wife loves himself. Eph 5:28</div>
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FRIEND: Kumare, why do you call your good-for-nothing husband "Casanova"?<br />
<br />
WIFE: I really mean that he looks like a cassava.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18316198697014091992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178987346697906576.post-66657650984571038062012-09-15T15:38:00.000-07:002012-09-16T13:05:21.125-07:00ANYWAY OR NEVERMIND<br />
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for everyone</td></tr>
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<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="bodytext" id="item_body" is_pmrepliable="1">
There's just too much stuff on the web. Instead of adding to the confusion, let me just share - for now:<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Anyway or nevermind<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;">People </span><a href="http://funlok.com/index.php/mail-forwards/anyway-26022010.html" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;">are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;">Love them anyway!</span></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><a href="http://funlok.com/index.php/mail-forwards/anyway-26022010.html" style="color: #0b5eb4;" target="_blank"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt; text-decoration: none;">If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt; text-decoration: none;"><br /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt; text-decoration: none;">Do good anyway!</span></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><a href="http://funlok.com/index.php/mail-forwards/anyway-26022010.html" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;">If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;">Succeed anyway!</span></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><a href="http://funlok.com/index.php/mail-forwards/anyway-26022010.html" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;">The good you do today, will be forgotten tomorrow.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;">Do good anyway!</span></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><a href="http://funlok.com/index.php/mail-forwards/anyway-26022010.html" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;">Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;">Be honest and frank anyway!</span></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><a href="http://funlok.com/index.php/mail-forwards/anyway-26022010.html" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;">The biggest person with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest people with the smallest minds;</span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;">Think big anyway!</span></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><a href="http://funlok.com/index.php/mail-forwards/anyway-26022010.html" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;">People favor underdogs, but follow only top dogs.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;">Fight for underdogs anyway!</span></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><a href="http://funlok.com/index.php/mail-forwards/anyway-26022010.html" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;">What you spend years building up may be destroyed overnight.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;">Build anyway!</span></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><a href="http://funlok.com/index.php/mail-forwards/anyway-26022010.html" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;">People really need help, but will attack you if you help them.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;">Help them anyway!</span></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><a href="http://funlok.com/index.php/mail-forwards/anyway-26022010.html" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;">Give the world the best you have and it may kick you in the teeth.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;">Give the world the best you've got </span></a><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;">anyway!</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt;">JAMES L.</span></div>
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<a href="http://macmagboo.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">macmagboo</a> wrote on Mar 16, '10</div>
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<div author="macmagboo" author_possessive="macmagboo's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:96+0" is_pmrepliable="1">
If I tell you, James, that there is a lot of wisdom in what you said here,<br />
you might not believe me. I'm telling you anyway. Thank you. Mac</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Mar 16, '10</div>
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<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:96+1" is_pmrepliable="1">
Well, wonder of wonders, we finally get you, Kuya MAC, to join our merry band of XVD "multipliers." I've said it before and I'll say it again, communication - keeping in touch - gives life to all relationships. Your pithy and witty comments are most welcome. Sorry we didnt spend enough time together while you were here. tnx agn. rgards</div>
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<a href="http://cecilpf.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">cecilpf</a> wrote on Mar 16, '10</div>
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<div author="cecilpf" author_possessive="cecilpf's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:96+2" is_pmrepliable="1">
Flashes of wit and wisdom. Kydos. Mabuhay ka, Ading Jeemsdee.</div>
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<a href="http://vj329.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">vj329</a> wrote on Mar 21, '10</div>
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<div author="vj329" author_possessive="vj329's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:96+3" is_pmrepliable="1">
Me and Fabs are planning to get a nice chinese meal at our favorite chinese restaurant in downtown chinatown and use our magic 20% cards to save a few pesos for merienda.Considering how "far" your abode is from the target site of congregation, maybe at Sta. cruz Church, there's that possibility you may not contemplate joining this "seniors' foray" one Friday soon. But as you said, WE'LL INVITE YOU ANYWAY. But it will be nice to have you around especially when you wear your signature "tuwalya ng tsuper" around your neck. How about it, Kuya James?</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18316198697014091992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178987346697906576.post-12543914707353871712012-09-15T15:34:00.002-07:002012-09-16T13:06:40.608-07:00STARRY, STARRY NIGHT ...<br />
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<tr><td class="cattitle" style="font-size: 18px; padding: 3px;"><a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/journal/item/94/Starry-starry-night..." itemprop="url" rel="bookmark" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></a></td><td class="itemsubsub" style="color: #888888; font-size: 10px; line-height: 10px; padding: 3px; text-align: right;"><nobr>Feb 10, '10 8:35 PM</nobr><br />
for everyone</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;">On the eve of his 60<sup>th</sup> birthday, a friend posted this comment on the web which I am taking the liberty to reproduce thus:</span><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">“For very personal reasons, I can't and I won't be active again in the --- association. Suffice it to say that my past involvement in the association was an awakening (rude?), despite the personal disappointments and frustrations.<br />I just hope that more and more ex-seminarians from CKMS use what they learned not for their own personal interests but for others who are less fortunate.<br />Para sa lahat ng mga pinalad na pumasok at nagaral sa CKMS, sana'y mabawasan na ang mga dadaan, pormahan, papogian, paplastikan, at dagdagan na lang ang paggawa ng mabuti dahil ang paggawa ng mabuti ay mabuti.<br />Tulad ng marami, marami akong mga kakulangan at mga kalabisan, at ayaw ko ng maragdagan pa ang aking mga kasalanan...<br />Salamat sa lahat ng mga nakilala at nakasama sa association na may mabuting kalooban para sa kapwa.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;">Needless to say, I hope this valued friend would eventually reconsider. Without wishing to justify, apologize for nor condone the many faults, mistakes, frailties of its members, I believe all human associations and societies have their intrinsic imperfections and shortcomings.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">“You must, therefore, be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." --Matt. 5:48<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;">It’s a good standard, a perfect standard, but an impossible standard and Jesus knew it. How could Jesus not have known about the treachery of Judas or Peter’s denial of Jesus, the cowardice and unfaithfulness of his disciples? And yet, Jesus chose to live with them, ate with them…taught them everything he knew – including the power to cast out devils. Mt. 10:1.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;">It’s true that those of us who had such intensive seminary training should be expected to know a little better and act accordingly. Alas, we are just as sinful and imperfect as the next guy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;">The problem is that some of us turned out to be more sincere, more pious, more dedicated than others. Does it mean that the rest do not deserve the rarified company of the saints? Quite the contrary, I believe the virtuous are mandated to be the leaven, the light and the salt of the world. Mt. 5:13-16<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;">The problem is that some of us are simply too sincere, too dedicated, too concerned to promote the kingdom of God that they have become a rare breed. The seminary can do that to people. Thus they feel out of place in the company of lazy, lackadaisical, uncommitted and indifferent workers in the vineyard of the Lord. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;">Was that perhaps the reason why in the end, Jesus was heard to state that “my kingdom is not of this world.” REGNUM MEUM NON EST DE HOC MUNDO. Jn. 18:36<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;">My friend, I am reminded of the song “Vincent” by Don McLean.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">“And now I think I know what you tried to say to me…<br />how you suffered for your sanity<br />how you tried to set them free.<br />They would not listen<br />they're not<br />list'ning still<br />perhaps they never will.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">…this world was never<br />meant for one<br />as beautiful (as loving, as caring…as <u><strong>sincere</strong></u>) as you.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">James L.<br /><br /> </span></div>
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<a href="http://cecilpf.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">cecilpf</a> wrote on Feb 10, '10</div>
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<div author="cecilpf" author_possessive="cecilpf's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:94+0" is_pmrepliable="1">
Fratres,<br />
Let's rise above our human differences and limitations. These are inescapable realities we have to deal with. To overcome these "pagkukulang", let us recall<br />
those simple but powerful words:<br />
"Whenever two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them."<br />
and so..."Love one another as I have loved you"<br />
No other than our Lord Jesus urged us.<br />
Thus, look at the early Christians..."See how they love one another!"<br />
If this were true for the past 2000 years, to those who TRULY believe in Jesus,<br />
how much more should we make this a reality in our lives.<br />
As contemporary Christ-ians, more specifically followers of the Divine Word,<br />
let this Love be diffusive, from within and without.<br />
Let this circle of love be all encompassing to the exclusion of nobody.</div>
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<br />
. . . . . everyone therefore should be involved in some kind of 'ministry'. As Christ ministered to us, let us minister to others . . . . . . know them, be their friend, help them, and if possible, show them the light of Jesus Christ. For these are, in the final analysis the kingdom He was talking about.</div>
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<a href="http://resumus.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">resumus</a> wrote on Feb 12, '10, edited on Feb 12, '10</div>
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While there may be differences in the levels of sincerity, piousness, or dedication, the more crucial gap may lie somewhere else.<br />
<br />
It is accepted that the needy requires attention. But the term "needy" may carry several definitions. The "needy" may be the slum-dwellers; they may also be the sorrowing orphans and widows, the oppressed who need genuine legal help, the sick who need protection from medical malpractices, the consumers who are victimized by unscrupulous merchants thus substantially reducing their purchasing power, among several other neglected areas of concern. In short, the perceived indifference of some XVDs MAY not truly be disinterest or dispassion but rather there may exist a different way of looking at missions and priorities. Imperative questions, therefore, are: Are those expected to help the needy equally needy themselves but in a different unexpressed area? Are those expected to help capable of truly helping in a SUSTAINABLE manner given their own unique circumstances? Are the expectations realistic? Is it necessary to duplicate to excess the spiritual function of the SVD or should the proposed lay group focus on a different albeit supportive role?</div>
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Blessed are they who expect nothing, for they shall not be disappointed.</div>
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<a href="http://resumus.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">resumus</a> wrote on Feb 12, '10, edited on Feb 12, '10</div>
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Of course, I truly appreciate it that Kuya Kaka ventilated his apprehension relative to an apparent charade. From what I have gathered, he has been in almost all of the discussions and activities conducted by the different SVD alumni groups. His misgivings are worth contemplating on both by each individual and by the group. I have followed his foray thru the muddy roads left behind by Ondoy, I could not help but admire his seemingly inexhaustible energy in extending help to the flood victims. I could not have done any better, given my younger body. He would indeed be a great loss to the group if he does not reconsider his decision. But knowing his loving selfless heart (even if I have come to know him only thru Multiply & homecomings), I'm inclined to believe that, sooner or later, he'll again be ready to do more XVD work. Sana nga. Sana naman.</div>
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<a href="http://elmersarmiento.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">elmersarmiento</a> wrote on Feb 12, '10</div>
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<div author="elmersarmiento" author_possessive="elmersarmiento's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:94+5" is_pmrepliable="1">
<br />
certainly, we have differences and we have to accept this fact. but still, let us not forget the objectives of XVD (alliance with SVD, camaraderie among XVDs, renew our SVD spirituality).</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Feb 13, '10</div>
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<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i>the objectives of XVD (alliance with SVD, camaraderie among XVDs, renew our SVD spirituality</i> <img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:94+6" is_pmrepliable="1">
Tnx, Kuya ELMER. You have managed to capture in not so many words what the XVD is all about. What is more, you have shown us through the years that despite personal disappointments, differences, and sacrifices you have had to endure, you continue to lead and support us with your quiet, edifying and dignified presence. You are an inspiration. With you and your kind around, I am confident the XVD will continue to muddle through and eventually find its merry if scenic way toward the Kingdom promised by our Lord to the patient and compassionate.<br />
<br />
From now on, I hereby dub thee the XVD's PETER. Tu es petrus!</div>
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<a href="http://elmersarmiento.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">elmersarmiento</a> wrote on Feb 13, '10</div>
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<div author="elmersarmiento" author_possessive="elmersarmiento's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:94+7" is_pmrepliable="1">
Thank you James for the nice words. But I don't have a halo, like Peter. I am aware that when a halo falls, it's only a few inches to be a noose.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18316198697014091992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178987346697906576.post-65924789682855484582012-09-15T15:31:00.004-07:002012-09-16T13:07:33.509-07:00MA. ANNE TERESA S. RIVERA, ET AL,<br />
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for everyone</td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px;">Ma. Anne Teresa S. Rivera, et al.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Watching our honorable and distinguished senators go at it the other day, and generally try to make a spectacle of themselves on nationwide television, was more than enough for me to ask myself where this country is headed, and what we did to deserve it all. As one of their own kind saw fit to suggest, in the strongest and most vigorous fashion, they should all demit, retire, quit, or otherwise get out of and have nothing further to do with the hollowed halls of the so-called upper house. Such a suggestion of course was simply dismissed or ignored by her colleagues as another one of her typical hysterics or hyperboles. Alas, resigning a coveted high or lucrative office in the Philippines or even admitting and apologizing for a mistake, gross negligence or misconduct is like praying for snow in mid-July. It is simply unheard of, ridiculous and downright unrealistic in a country that has all but forgotten the meaning of “<b><i>delicadeza</i></b>.” Please, they would be justified to plead, we’re no longer a colony of Spain. Indeed, we are now the rulers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">It was enough to make one abandon all hope for the future of this country. What is infinitely worse, it made even ATE GLO look good.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">It is not for me to remind these honorable and distinguished “gentlemen” how to behave or what is expected of them as so-called “elder statesmen.” As suggested by our Good Lord, I have long forgiven them for they seem “to know not what they are doing” or supposed to do. But, sometimes, I cannot help myself. I keep looking for the likes of Claro M. Recto, Jose W. Diokno, Padilla, Tolentino, Tanada, etc. Instead, I keep seeing images of Jinggoy, Loi, Bong, Lito, Jamby. There oughta be a law banning senators from sporting such cute nicknames. Downright unbecoming or befitting their nicknames.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Fortunately, just the other week, I happened to read a piece published in the “<b>INQUIRER</b>” that made me feel good about the future of this country. Featured in the “<b>Young Blood</b>” section (PDI 1/14/10), the article entitled “<b>Human capital</b>” was written by – who else – <b><i>Ma. Anne Teresa S. Rivera</i></b>. Who? That’s right, Ma. Anne Teresa S. Rivera, an 18-year old girl I have never met nor heard of then or now. According to the “INQUIRER” she is a second year Humanities student at the University of Asia and the Pacific.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">First of all, before this senile old fool forgets, through this little blog I would like to extend to Ms. Rivera, her parents and mentors, my sincere congratulations and admiration for such a well-written and most mature essay. Its content and presentation exhibit a mind that thinks and knows much more and better than most adults and leaders have shown in this blessed land.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"> It is not important what she wrote about – the Filipino diaspora and the brain drain. For me to summarize or describe how she wrote and developed the topic would not do justice to the article. You would have to look it up and read it yourself. It’s her mature insights and unique views, much older and wiser than her tender age that are at once astonishing and most impressive. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">When I was her age, I had just left the seminary with no clear notion why nor any clue what I wanted to do with my life. Instead, reading Ms. Rivera, you get the feeling that with young people like her, the future of this country is in good hands.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Then I remember EFREN PENAFLORIDA, the so-called “Pushcart Educator” and voted 2009 CNN Hero of the Year. And Charice Pempengco who is not quite 18 and already world famous. Or Major Dennis Eclarin and Patricia Gallardo.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Well, ok, forget about those honorable and distinguished gentlemen masquerading as lawmakers. I’ll sleep well tonite. Thanks, Ma. Anne, Efren, Charice, Dennis and Patricia. I leave the future of this country in your hands.-<b>JAMES D. LANSANG</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />
In case anybody want to read the article James mentions above, click here:<br />
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tnx, Kuya Butz, didnt know abt that site. rgards</div>
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It really all boils down to arrogance brought about by the powers vested in our "honorable" members of congress. It is just a physical manifestation of "Power corrupts....etc.....!</div>
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<a href="http://butchcelestial.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">butchcelestial</a> wrote on Jan 28, '10</div>
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<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i>boils down to arrogance</i> <img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
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<br />
As Christians (real followers of Jesus Christ) we know from where our leadership should get its values - the Bible. Its all there. My favorite on the subject of leadership is the Book of Nehemiah. Unfortunately, some of the so-called 'Christians', who have not even seriously read the book to understand, dismiss it as outdated, irrelevant, boring and meaningless reading. I know because I sometimes find some parts of of it a bore. But it was written for a period of 1,500 years by more than 40 authors for a readership this past 2,000 years. It will appeal selectively but the insight is priceless. Its the very Word of God.</div>
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butchcelestial said:</div>
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<a href="http://1tarnishedsoul.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">1tarnishedsoul</a> wrote on May 4, '10</div>
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<div author="1tarnishedsoul" author_possessive="1tarnishedsoul's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:92+5" is_pmrepliable="1">
thank you sir. :)</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18316198697014091992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178987346697906576.post-14517806778497152432012-09-15T15:27:00.004-07:002012-09-16T13:08:49.828-07:00THE POWER OF THE PARABLE<br />
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for everyone</td></tr>
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<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="bodytext" id="item_body" is_pmrepliable="1">
<span class="insertedphoto"><a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/photos/hi-res/1M/169" style="color: #0b5eb4;"><img border="0" class="alignmiddleb" src="http://images.jeemsdee.multiply.com/image/0HdeDYCYBufZvcU5y3FXrw/photos/1M/300x300/169/Fbacolod-inasal-060.jpg?et=lBYoj0Bizzz4ioqmw8BBMg&nmid=0" style="clear: both; display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;" /></a></span>The disciples came to him and asked, "why do you speak to the people in parables?" Mt. 13:10. How does one explain God, or heaven, or hell to the people, especially stubborn, wise, philosophical, irreverent, smart-alecky people? Who wants to listen to some long-winded, scholarly dissertation on cosmology, theology or pantheism?<br />
So, let me tell you a story, instead. Its title is "Lunch with God."<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 13.5pt;">Lunch With God</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;">A <a href="http://funlok.com/index.php/story/lunch-with-god.html" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext;">little boy wanted to meet God. He knew it was a long trip to where God lived, so he packed his suitcase with a bag of potato chips and a six-pack of root beer and started his journey.<br /><br />When he had gone about three blocks, he met an old woman. She was sitting in the park, just staring at some pigeons. The boy sat down next to her and opened his suitcase. He was about to take a drink from his root beer when he noticed that the old lady looked hungry, so he offered her some chips. She gratefully accepted it and smiled at him. </span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://funlok.com/index.php/story/lunch-with-god.html" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext;">Her smile was so pretty that the boy wanted to see it again, so he offered her a root beer. Again, she smiled at him. The boy was delighted! They sat there all afternoon eating and smiling, but they never said a word.</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;"><br /><a href="http://funlok.com/index.php/story/lunch-with-god.html" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext;">As twilight approached, the boy realized how tired he was and he got up to leave; but before he had gone more than a few steps, he turned around, ran back to the old woman, and gave her a hug. She gave him her biggest smile ever.</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;"><br /><a href="http://funlok.com/index.php/story/lunch-with-god.html" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext;">When the boy opened the door to his own house a short time later, his mother was surprised by the look of joy on his face. She asked him, "What did you do today that made you so happy?" He replied, "I had lunch with God." But before his mother could respond, he added, "You know what? She's got the most beautiful smile I've ever seen!"</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt;"><br /><a href="http://funlok.com/index.php/story/lunch-with-god.html" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext;">Meanwhile, the old woman, also radiant with joy, returned to her home. Her son was stunned by the look of peace on her face and he asked, "Mother, what did you do today that made you so happy?" She replied! "I ate potato chips in the park with God." However, before her son responded, she added, "You know, he's much younger than I expected."<br /><br />Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. People come into our lives for a reason, a season, or a lifetime! </span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://paga65.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">paga65</a> wrote on Jan 22, '10</div>
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<div author="paga65" author_possessive="paga65's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:90+0" is_pmrepliable="1">
Nice parable Kuya James.</div>
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<a href="http://butchcelestial.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">butchcelestial</a> wrote on Jan 22, '10</div>
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<div author="butchcelestial" author_possessive="butchcelestial's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:90+1" is_pmrepliable="1">
<br />
It is said that Christianity is the only religion in the world that has 'grace' and everyone experience it in the presence of God.<br />
<br />
That is why every morning, I tell God to please let me experience 'grace' today. I beg Him for it because I know where ever I experience 'grace' I experience the mighty presence of God.</div>
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<a href="http://vj329.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">vj329</a> wrote on Jan 22, '10</div>
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<div author="vj329" author_possessive="vj329's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:90+2" is_pmrepliable="1">
Manong, it was a very nice story. No wonder you look like heavenly peace in your picture above with the kid who gave you the potato chips. Your cane and baseball cap go well with your contented countenance. More power, Manong James.</div>
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<div author="paga65" author_possessive="paga65's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:90+3" is_pmrepliable="1">
sabi ng huwak smart aleck.</div>
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<div author="lukeabaya" author_possessive="lukeabaya's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:90+4" is_pmrepliable="1">
Great parable JimmyDee.<br />
Why do I get the impression "USA ata ang setting"?</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Jan 22, '10</div>
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<a href="http://butchcelestial.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">butchcelestial</a> said</div>
<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i>let me experience 'grace' </i><img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:90+5" is_pmrepliable="1">
Sorry, Butz, you asked for it. You misspelled grace, it now goes by a shortened version. Gro.</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Jan 22, '10</div>
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<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:90+6" is_pmrepliable="1">
vj, with comments like yours who wants to be a prophet?</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Jan 22, '10</div>
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<a href="http://paga65.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">paga65</a> said</div>
<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i>sabi ng huwak smart aleck.</i> <img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:90+7" is_pmrepliable="1">
Amen to that, Kuya FABS. I guess we can never hope to change people. Preachers just do it for a living. But without the VJs this world would be a boring place indeed.</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Jan 22, '10</div>
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<a href="http://lukeabaya.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">lukeabaya</a> said</div>
<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i>"USA ata ang setting"?</i> <img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:90+8" is_pmrepliable="1">
You may be right at that, Bro. LUKE. Just picked up the parable somewhere. There's hardly anything anymore that's really original. Just sharing what I thought could pass as parable. Regards to all our friends in the USA and Canada. Send dollars.</div>
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<a href="http://butchcelestial.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">butchcelestial</a> wrote on Jan 22, '10</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> said</div>
<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i>Send dollars.</i> <img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="butchcelestial" author_possessive="butchcelestial's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:90+9" is_pmrepliable="1">
<br />
hahaha . . . . thats a modern parable, Kuya James . . . . .</div>
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<a href="http://paga65.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">paga65</a> wrote on Jan 22, '10</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> said</div>
<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i>You misspelled grace</i> <img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="paga65" author_possessive="paga65's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:90+10" is_pmrepliable="1">
In fairness, I think he really meant the grace of God.</div>
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<a href="http://butchcelestial.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">butchcelestial</a> wrote on Jan 22, '10</div>
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<div author="butchcelestial" author_possessive="butchcelestial's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:90+11" is_pmrepliable="1">
<br />
Jesus Christ wants us to follow Him (believe in Him and do good things) and by doing so He will make us happy in our hearts (grace).</div>
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<a href="http://lukeabaya.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">lukeabaya</a> wrote on Jan 22, '10, edited on Jan 22, '10</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> said</div>
<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i>Send dollars.</i> <img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="lukeabaya" author_possessive="lukeabaya's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:90+12" is_pmrepliable="1">
'Send Dollars' sa America ang tawag dito ay 'Power (Para) Ball" lottery.</div>
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<a href="http://butchcelestial.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">butchcelestial</a> wrote on Jan 22, '10</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> said</div>
<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i>Gro</i> <img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="butchcelestial" author_possessive="butchcelestial's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:90+13" is_pmrepliable="1">
<br />
. . . . . thats a disgrace . . . . . hehehehe . . . . .</div>
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<a href="http://butchcelestial.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">butchcelestial</a> wrote on Jan 22, '10</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> said</div>
<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i>who wants to be a prophet</i> <img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="butchcelestial" author_possessive="butchcelestial's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:90+14" is_pmrepliable="1">
<br />
yes . . . . atheism is a non-prophet organization . . . .</div>
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<a href="http://butchcelestial.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">butchcelestial</a> wrote on Jan 22, '10</div>
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seriously . . . . (from the internet)<br />
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PARABLES OF THE SECRET KINGDOM<br />
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Matthew's central discourse section (13:1-52) contains seven or eight parables depicting the present character of the kingdom until the end; his final discourse section contains a roughly equal number of end-time kingdom parables (24:32-25:46). As in Mark, Jesus' parables of the kingdom's present state explain why his kingdom comes first in a hidden way and why Israel's leaders reject him. These parables dramatically reinforce that Jesus' first coming was coercive neither militarily nor intellectually (11:25-27); he came as the meek burden bearer (11:28-30), and only the meek could recognize and follow him (11:25, 28).<br />
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That the parables address his people's acceptance or rejection of the kingdom message follows from the context: Jesus speaks parables that same day that he has confronted Pharisaic opposition (12:24-45) and offered a culturally offensive statement about his family (12:46-50). The parables section closes immediately with an account of Jesus' rejection by his hometown (13:53-58), so that rejection by his own frames his kingdom parables (compare 10:21, 34-37). This likewise implies that true disciples-those who follow the kingdom message-must be prepared to pay the ultimate price for doing so (13:20-22, 44-46).<br />
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Because modern readers often misunderstand parables, it is important to provide some brief comments about their character. Most of Jesus' parables were stories designed to illustrate a particular point or points, something like sermon illustrations today (except sometimes without the accompanying sermon that would clarify the illustration!). We should not read too much into parables; often some details of the parables merely are necessary to make a good story. Nevertheless, parables provide one creative way to explain Jesus' central point or points.</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Jan 23, '10</div>
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Personally, I would not take Jesus at his word when he waxes into parables. A parable is a parable, i.e., to clarify or illustrate or drive home a central point. Hence, the examples of "clothing the naked, visiting the sick or those in prison, etc." should not be taken literally. Especially in this day and age, "teaching a man to fish," i.e., teaching him some skills, eg, bartending, tv repair, etc.- as TESDA is doing - should be a sure ticket to heaven.</div>
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Like the parabolic fables of Aesop, yes, the stories are mainly to illustrate a point, or to some, make the preaching more interesting. They are means to an end with a way of attracting the attention of targeted listeners. Like a brief sermon that is pregnant with meaning, your parable is second to none Kuya James. And you are right Luke, the setting looks familiar- in front of the St. Patrick's Cathedral at Fifth Avenue.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18316198697014091992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178987346697906576.post-80059148921064940022012-09-15T15:25:00.001-07:002012-09-16T13:10:12.551-07:00WHAT IS THE MEANING OF IT ALL?<br />
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for everyone</td></tr>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px;"><span class="insertedphoto"><img border="0" class="alignleft" src="http://images.jeemsdee.multiply.com/image/yLNSiY+XVJHQz3pcnBFprQ/photos/1M/300x300/158/Jessica-Alba-Picture-Gallery-014.jpg?et=BdkBBOgt43k0BtxcsF2gaw&nmid=0" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;" /></span>What is the meaning of it all?</span></i></b><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"> – Nowadays, during my more lucid moments when I am not visiting with Mr. <b><i><span style="color: #4f81bd;">Al Zheimers</span></i></b>, I have often found myself thinking about some things I have often thought about (did I just repeat myself?). Questions I have often asked myself and in my old age find myself asking every now and then while talking to myself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Right there you’ll find at least two no-brainers: thinking (or analyzing) and talking to myself. Seriously, I would ask myself simple questions I would tend just as often to brush aside or take for granted in the hustle and bustle of daily living.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Now that I seem to have more time to engage in this Aristotelian luxury, I would confront and confound myself with questions like –<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"> What is the meaning of life?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"> What is the meaning of <u>my</u> life?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"> What is the meaning of the fact that I exist but will cease to exist sooner <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"> rather than later? Or,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"> Why did I exist at all? What’s it all about, Kuya?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"> Indeed, what is the meaning of it all?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Now, let’s get one thing straight right from the very beginning. This little blog, as you might expect, is not meant to suggest, much less provide, any answers. You are much too smart for that. The meaning of life, whatever it’s supposed to be, cannot be that cheap. What, you didn’t even have to buy a newspaper or magazine to find the answer? In Tondo, they would say “<b><i>ano ka, sinuswerte</i></b>?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Let’s face it. Every man, at some point in his life, if he is to be true to himself, must find the time and be willing to ask himself the same questions and to try to come up with some answers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">As with most of my blogs, the purpose is not so much to suggest as to reflect, an exercise in discernment and not a political or religious propaganda. What is fortunate is that I’m not trying to sell you anything. Neither am I founding a new religion and trying to convince you to join me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">It’s also the stuff of retreats, recollections, or what </span><b><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px;">xvds</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">nowadays like to call “<b><i>metanoia</i></b>.” Somehow, when it’s couched in Greek or Latin, it sounds more impressive, or worse, more credible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">I may have blogged or touched on this subject at least once before, but that’s for you to try to remember or discover. After all, there’s hardly anything anymore that’s not been said or written about already.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Someone has suggested that the greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it (William James?). That’s sounds rather reasonable if a bit too philosophical. The operative word there, it would seem is “outlast.” <b><i><u>Immortality</u></i></b>, now there’s something to be preoccupied or obsessed about. The pharaohs went to mind-boggling misadventures trying to assure their place here and in the hereafter. So did quite a few Chinese emperors who wanted desperately to perpetuate not only their dynasties but their power in the beyond.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">On a more manageable scale, some people will settle for planting trees, writing a book, spreading their genes all over the islands, and/or making sure a monument or mausoleum is built in their honor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Another writer has said it’s <u><span style="color: #c00000;">significance</span></u> that counts. Our life is only as meaningful as we have shared it with others. In other words, the suggestion is that it’s not so much what you are, or what you have but how much you have shared. That too sounds rather reasonable. But the fact is that not too many people seem to buy that proposition either. It’s really more like – it’s every man for himself. Or, on a baser level, it’s a dog-eat-dog world after all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">If this world has been in existence for billions of years and we are good for no more than a hundred years, does that mean we’re just a little more than the flies of summer in the whole scheme of things?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Speaking of billions, we know now that there are not only billions of stars but billions of galaxies, a galaxy it would seem, consisting of billions of stars. So, who are we to say that the earth is the center of the universe, that we are the only children of the Being we call God? Isn’t that a bit like a presumptuous ant finding itself on top of a molehill and thinking that he now owns Metro Manila?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Only recently, the U.S.A. tried to make a big celebration out of the 40<sup>th</sup> anniversary of NASA’s landing on the moon. Big deal. So when do we get to visit a few million planets? Speaking of millions, how many hundreds of billions were spent for that moon landing? We can’t even find a cure for cancer, or aids or eradicate malaria and all those neglected tropical diseases that kill millions of Africans every year. </span><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">The Pentagon spends hundreds of billions of dollars on weapons systems,</span><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"> what about all the millions of starving children all over the world? Do we even care about trying to feed them? Does God care?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">What am I supposed to do with all the billions of people on earth? How am I supposed to relate with them when I can’t count on a few dozen friends?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">How does one explain the concept of <b><i>“randomness?”</i></b> Or pure luck. Or bad luck. Or destiny, fate?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Why have so many great men been assassinated at their prime? Lincoln, Gandhi, JFK, Ninoy Aquino, MLK, just to name a few? Jesus died at 33. Would you say these men have not lived a lifetime? Incidentally, why are some people said to be assassinated while other poor mortals simply get “killed?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Why have so many great philosophers throughout history either committed suicide or seriously contemplated committing suicide?</span><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">How does one explain why an innocent bystander gets killed by a stray bullet or by some “friendly fire?” Why do they call it “senseless killing?” Is there such a thing as “sensible killing?” A<b><i>“jihad,”</i></b> maybe? Why do some infants suddenly die while others live for another hundred years? Why did Willy die at 51? Who gets to live and die in a war or pandemic?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Why don’t I ever win in lotto? Why wasn’t I born a child of a concubine or a caregiver of some rich Sultan?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Will some prophet please explain to me what is meant by “will of God?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">In the innocence of my youth, I thought I could get by and settle for with what I learned in catechism class, that “God made me to love him, to obey him, to serve him and be happy with him forever in the hereafter.” As wise and biblical as that may sound, it is also rather childish and simplistic. With a doctrine like that, who needs intelligence and free will?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Did Christ come only to and for planet earth? Does it mean that of all the billions upon billions of stars, planets and galaxies, only this tiny little earth was blessed with a visit from the Son of God? What are we to make of those who do not believe in Christ, who have never heard of him or were born thousands of years before him? Are we not being rather presumptuous or blithely ignorant?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Are we the only intelligent beings in the cosmos? If we are so damn smart and intelligent, why can’t we manage to visit a few billion other stars? If only to spread the word, you know, Christianize and proselytize ET and his kind?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">If there are other intelligent beings out there in the cosmos, don’t they need any saving? Or, have they already been saved? Is it possible that all those who died ahead of us have taken residence in some of those billions of distant planets?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Why am I a Christian, or why do I remain a Christian? Is Christianity the only one true religion? If so, why are there so many so-called Christian churches or sects?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">What are we to make of other religions and peoples who do not subscribe to any particular religion but still believe in God?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">How can we have peace in a world where people will kill one another trying to convince the other that his is the one true religion, and that his God, and his God alone, is the almighty and powerful one?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Why can’t we all just come together and pray together, each in his own way, to a higher, supreme being we all acknowledge as our God?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Do I sound like some pagan unbeliever? Am I beginning to sound like some atheist?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Where am I coming from and where am I going?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">What is the meaning of it all? Just wondering. Just wandering. –<b><i>James D. Lansang</i></b>, </span></div>
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<a href="http://pcsokaka.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">pcsokaka</a> wrote on Aug 9, '09, edited on Aug 9, '09</div>
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<div author="pcsokaka" author_possessive="pcsokaka's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:88+0" is_pmrepliable="1">
Whew! It will take forever to answer the questions you raised! And how!<br />
Kuya, di ka nagiisa sa mga tanong mo.<br />
Ang tanong: How serious are we in trying to find answers to the questions you asked? Philosophers, theologians, experts in all disciplines, as you stated, had/have given their respective attempts to answer their respective questions. Nothing totally sufficeth...<br />
Para bagang, tulad ng Trinity, many of the items, issues, questions you propounded, will remain a mystery...<br />
Pero, ang mahalaga, you and i are doing our bit to seek and find an/the answer, to the question/s we ask, in our personal life.<br />
Marami sa tanong mo, nasagot mo na rin, in a sense, to some extent..pero, walang lubos na katugunan sa mga tinatanong mo...<br />
We are all in search and we will always be in search for answers, and that's the beauty, and the fun of, living, of being here, of being with kindred souls like you, Kuya James...<br />
It's the journey, more than the arrival, that matters.<br />
And, you are almost there...<br />
Gratias. Gratias. Gratias.<br />
Deo gratias.</div>
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<a href="http://tomranada.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">tomranada</a> wrote on Aug 10, '09</div>
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<div author="tomranada" author_possessive="tomranada's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:88+1" is_pmrepliable="1">
Kuya, I am one with you in your questions and questioning. Our quest for answers is just a question of time.</div>
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<a href="http://butchcelestial.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">butchcelestial</a> wrote on Aug 11, '09</div>
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<br />
By the time you get all the answers to your questions . . . . . . .</div>
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<a href="http://feurella.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">feurella</a> wrote on Aug 14, '09</div>
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<div author="feurella" author_possessive="feurella's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:88+3" is_pmrepliable="1">
my God my God why thou has forsaken me thats the same question you have been asking</div>
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<a href="http://bembem08.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">bembem08</a> wrote on Aug 15, '09</div>
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<div author="bembem08" author_possessive="bembem08's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:88+4" is_pmrepliable="1">
This is one of the best 'reflections' from a blogger that I've ever read. All valid questions these are. I especially like that part about why we can't just pray to our own concept of God in our own way for that speaks to me of respect and appreciation, without judgments. I guess the questions can be divided into two -- those that cannot be answered using our 'logical' minds as the answers are more likely to belong to the 'divine' or could be answered on another level, of the more spiritual level, meaning we need to shed our physical limitations (body, mind or brain or whatever you may want to call it) before we are able to find a 'deep' knowing [and once we do cross over, perhaps this search for answers won't be important anymore]. And the other one is that these questions arose and will probably be answered by us looking into manmade situations. I mean, some of these questions are brought about by decisions, rules, dogmas, protocols, perceptions, actions made by men, este, human beings and their limited knowledge of how things really operate in this world. Hmmm, I probably didn't make much sense but just to say that a lot of the mess [and the questions plus confusion] we're in now is brought about perhaps by our own limited, partial and prejudiced thinking and experience.</div>
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<a href="http://julesrey2009.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">julesrey2009</a> wrote on Sep 22, '09</div>
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<div author="julesrey2009" author_possessive="julesrey2009's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:88+5" is_pmrepliable="1">
Kuya, your piece as always started me thinking. The time probably has come to re-think our way of looking at the universe as an ordered one to that of a universe that constantly changes, one that evolves. What is the meaning of life, why is there pain, why is there death. Recently a former classmate in CKS and Tagaytay who is battling the Big C remarked that God is fair. He did not predestined us to suffer or to enjoy life. He just placed some randomness in existence starting when the Big Bang happened billions of years ago. And after that initial bang, the rest is history. Our Christian faith assures us of a hope that never dies. I bank on that faith and that hope.</div>
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<a href="http://resumus.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">resumus</a> wrote on Sep 24, '09, edited on Sep 24, '09</div>
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Thank you, julesrey, for re-introducing Kuya jeemsdee. His blogs are sorely missed. His prose is fluid; his depth is intriguing. With him around, it is easy to see the humor that it becomes easy, too, to miss his passion. It is like feeling the punch long after receiving the punchline. And then you begin to appreciate the intensity, the desire to keep things simple, and the playfulness that summons his readers to scale platforms of inadvertence from which to view pathways of opportununities.<br />
<br />
Laughter, for one,is a pursuit that is not without its share of sublimity and significance. Woody Allen used to say that "comedy is tragedy plus time". Truly. Laughter opens doors and windows. Walls and ceilings, too. It breaks barriers; it is liberating. It is a prayer for time; it is sustaining, it is healing. It is non-elitist; it is cholesterol-free. It is a defense; for when people are laughing, they’re generally not killing each other (ewan ko kung sino ang nagsabi nitong huli). Besides, cannibals don't eat clowns because they taste funny (ah, ito, si George Carlin po ang nagsabi nito).<br />
<br />
Had the case been that animals are equipped with a sense of humor, why, with all those powerful incisors and venom as already a given, the humor would be an added edge that would make the beasts far far superior than man. Yes, man would be reduced to blogging about the bliss of caged idleness and domesticity.<br />
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What is the meaning of it all? Life is meant to be enjoyed and laughter is a pursuit, too. Period. Life stinks only when we fart.<br />
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Mabuhay ka, Kuya James!</div>
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<a href="http://resumus.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">resumus</a> wrote on Sep 24, '09</div>
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What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that case, I definitely overpaid for my carpet. (Woody Allen)<br />
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Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others. (Groucho Marx)</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18316198697014091992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178987346697906576.post-60821527097531489262012-09-15T15:22:00.001-07:002012-09-16T13:11:15.784-07:00ONLY PRIESTS, NUNS AND SPINSTERS NEED A LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT<br />
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for everyone</td></tr>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px;"><span class="insertedphoto"><a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/photos/hi-res/1M/148" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" class="alignmiddleb" src="http://images.jeemsdee.multiply.com/image/46f6GKn1l4s-ousOt7MG4g/photos/1M/300x300/148/IMG-0771.jpg?et=SGnLIv4QDtgnNDkYFQuV5A&nmid=0" style="clear: both; display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;" /></a></span></span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px;">Only priests, nuns and spinsters need a last will and testament</span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"> – </span></i></b><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">I have sometimes been asked about executing a last will and testament and my stock answer is NO! You don’t need to write or execute a last will and testament, not even a holographic one, i.e., personally done in your own handwriting and needs no notary. Or, to put it another way, I would suggest that you avoid or don’t even think of executing a last will and testament.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Many people, especially those who may have amassed a bit of wealth in their lifetime, have often thought seriously about a last will and testament. It’s not just the money part. It may also have to do with ego, with a desire to extend or perpetuate one’s power and influence, a secret longing for immortality. This is true especially for the patriarchal or matriarchal type, people who are in the bad habit of interfering and intervening even in their great, great grandchildren’s affairs, education and upbringing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Or, some mistakenly think that without a will the heirs will not get their inheritance. So, they go and consult with their lawyer, or worse, any lawyer/notary public. They think all lawyers are the same. They think that’s like going to see their doctor. That’s their first mistake. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">There oughta be a law that requires all lawyers to put up a sign to go with their shingle posted at their office door which reads: “ABANDON ALL ASSETS HERE, ALL YE WHO ENTER!” If there’s a law that mandates everyone to wear a seat belt, there ought to be one sufficiently forewarning the innocent citizen that he is about to enter the lion’s den, or to put it more graphically, that he is diving headlong into shark-infested waters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Second of all, it’s not true that just any lawyer will do. Not all lawyers were created equal. There’s no such thing as an honest lawyer. No, that’s not exactly true. There are a few honest ones but they are a bit hard to find, just like looking for Yamashita’s treasures. The few I know are long dead and buried. The other kind are a disgrace to what should be a noble profession. They are not only dishonest, they are grossly incompetent. They don’t know their law and they don’t know that they don’t know it. They just pretend they do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Have you never wondered why lawyers and doctors call their jobs “<b><i><u>practice?</u></i></b>”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">A priest was preaching a Sunday sermon on infidelity and fornication. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">“Marami sa kalalakihan sa ating paroko ay makasalanan at babaero!”</span></i></b><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"> he announced. To drive home his point, he held a basketball in hand ready to toss to congregation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">“Aking ihahagis ang bolang ito. Ang tamaan ay tiyak na makasalanan at babaero.” </span></i></b><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">He dribbled the ball once or twice and then threw it high into the air in the direction of the cowering crowd. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">The ball landed hard on a hardwood pew and bounced back directly into the hands of the preacher.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">“<u>Praktis</u>,” </span></i></b><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"> he said weakly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">This little fascination with a last will and testament may have something to do with best-sellers, novels, works of fiction or fancy stories about some lucky relative inheriting a fortune from a rich old aunt and living happily forever after. It’s the stuff of Hollywood movies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">The reality is that at least in this jurisdiction, we follow a system dating back to the Spanish times (and the ancient Romans) and adopted in our Civil Code. It’s known as the system of forced or “compulsory” heirs and their so-called “legitime.” In other words, the law pretty much provides and takes care of designating who your heirs are (usually your surviving spouse and children, legitimate or not) and how much each should inherit. You hardly have any choice on the matter. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Your lawful heirs will inherit your estate <b><i><u>by operation of law</u></i></b>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Indeed, you are not even allowed to disinherit a putative heir unless it be for valid grounds specified by law. And that has to be so stated in a proper last will and testament and proven in probate proceedings.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Therefore, if you make the mistake of visiting a lawyer’s office with a view to executing a last will and testament, that would be like going to see a doctor about some real or imagined ailment. I have yet to hear of a doctor who let a patient go without writing out a prescription. It would sound very much like a fishy story, you know, about the one that got away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">A great disadvantage of executing a last will and testament is that you force your heirs to go to court unnecessarily to have such a will “probated.” For a will to be valid and effective, it must undergo probate proceedings or it’s a useless piece of paper. If you do that, you force your heirs to engage the services of lawyers, in many instances, with each heir being represented by his own attorney, ostensibly to avoid any possible conflict of interest. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Imagine all the heirs having to pay their respective lawyers some “acceptance” or “retaining” fee and agreeing to pay additional attorney’s fees equivalent to 10-20% of their inheritance at the end of the proceedings . Then, somebody will have to advance the corresponding filing or court fees in such an amount depending on the size of the entire estate you left behind.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">What happens after that is known in the shark world as a <b><i>“feeding frenzy.”</i></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">The other alternative of course which I would personally recommend is for the wealthy person to start designating, distributing, and partitioning his assets to his heirs while he still can, while he’s still alive. This can be done by the simple expedient of an outright donation (<b><i>inter vivos</i></b>) or by a conveyance or assignment for some real or fictitious value or consideration. This practice is much preferable especially because in a paternalistic society such as ours, the children tend to fall to bickering (and expensive lawsuits) whenever the patriarch or matriarch is gone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">It’s a bit different, however, if a person decides to remain in a state of single blessedness. It is quite possible that at the time of his death he will not have any direct ascendants (parents) or descendants (children). Hence, no “compulsory heirs” to speak of. That’s where collateral relatives (brothers and sisters, nephews and nieces) come into the picture. The situation gets more complicated where there are no collateral relatives (or even illegitimate children). Without a will, the entire estate of the decedent could get escheated in favor of the State.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Hence, it’s rather ironic that for people who have sworn off all things mundane as well as worldly blandishments, many priests and nuns, have often been advised – rightly or wrongly - to execute a last will and testament, specifying who their heirs shall be, often without regard to the applicable law on the matter. JAMES D. LANSANG </span></div>
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<a href="http://bembem08.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">bembem08</a> wrote on Jul 24, '09</div>
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<div author="bembem08" author_possessive="bembem08's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:87+0" is_pmrepliable="1">
Wow, dumugo ilong ko dito Kuya James. Probate proceedings... worldly blandishments, legitime...parang Law 101 :)</div>
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<a href="http://cecilpf.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">cecilpf</a> wrote on Jul 24, '09, edited on Jul 24, '09</div>
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<div author="cecilpf" author_possessive="cecilpf's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:87+1" is_pmrepliable="1">
Kuya Jey Dee,<br />
You'r one heck of a guy, one who belongs to a very rare breed of honest to goodness lawyers, a dying breed, indeed, tragically near extinction in the corrupt world we live in.<br />
Maraming, maraming salamat sa sharing mo. Ilan sa atin na "aware" sa tunay na nangyayari na sinasabing "last will & testament"... an off shoot from our Western counterparts.<br />
Ano kaya ang "praktis" (e.g. pamana?) bago dumating ang mga Kastila. Just plain curious.<br />
Yon praktis sa simbahan...okey yon a. That's a good one.<br />
A perfect injection of humor, at right place, at a right time.</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Jul 24, '09</div>
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<a href="http://cecilpf.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">cecilpf</a> said</div>
<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i>a very rare breed of honest to goodness lawyers</i> <img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:87+2" is_pmrepliable="1">
Tnx, Kuya CECIL, but be sufficiently warned, never trust a shark, or a scorpion for that matter. I was merely trying to share what little knowledge we have picked up along the way. Otherwise, it all gets buried with us to the grave. Another longing for immortality?</div>
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<a href="http://resumus.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">resumus</a> wrote on Jul 28, '09</div>
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<div author="resumus" author_possessive="resumus'" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:87+3" is_pmrepliable="1">
For a while there, I thought I was reading about last will and testicles. May nabasa kasi ako tungkol sa bola. . . but doesn't it fit the discussion, too? One is about dying and the other about squeezing. Pareho sigurong masakit ito. . . pero pasasaan ba't makukuha din natin ang cosmic significance nito. Praktis lang.</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Jul 28, '09</div>
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<a href="http://resumus.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">resumus</a> said</div>
<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i>last will and testicles</i> <img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:87+4" is_pmrepliable="1">
Hahaha, Kuya RENE, you doodit agn. You somehow managed to interject and ejaculate something rather amusing into an otherwise uninteresting piece. You have the right instrument there. tnx. rgards.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18316198697014091992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178987346697906576.post-56304020263920254852012-09-15T15:18:00.001-07:002012-09-16T13:12:07.161-07:00AB OMNIBUS MALIS, LIBERA NOS, DOMINE<br />
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for everyone</td></tr>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px;"><span class="insertedphoto"><a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/photos/hi-res/1M/144" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" class="alignmiddleb" src="http://images.jeemsdee.multiply.com/image/ebqPhFV2giSA8Xhbjpk8Ew/photos/1M/300x300/144/IMG-0040.JPG?et=4aIbWkX5SwvkobSWp5b8%2Cg&nmid=0" style="clear: both; display: block; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;" /></a></span>Ab omnibus malis, libera nos, Domine</span></i></b><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;">. – </span><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">I used to have an Indian client whose daily morning prayer was “<b><i>Lord, spare me of doctors and lawyers today!</i></b>” I did not give it much thought back then. Indeed, I thought the man from Bombay (Mumbai) was merely being facetious. Nowadays, however, I find that this shrewd (aren’t they all) businessman was so wise to pray as he did after all. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">It’s also a prayer of thanksgiving. If you find that today you think you will not need to see a doctor or a lawyer, you’re still in good shape. You’ll survive. Otherwise, there’s always the great possibility that you’re in danger of losing your life, limb, your liberty, and most of the things you need in your futile attempts at pursuing the elusive dream called happiness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">I kid you not. How many friends have I lost who looked perfectly hale, normal, hearty and strong and decided somehow to go see a doctor. The next thing we heard this guy went from one expensive hospital into a government one (it was cheaper), for a “medical procedure” and died on the operating table. His widow was left with a medical bill for P750,000 (cheaper by at least P150,000, she was told).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Another diabetic neighbor I know who was bed-ridden for years had his legs cut off one after the other. One can only imagine the medical bills he had accumulated before he mercifully passed away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Why or how did they think of inventing “lethal injection” in the first place? Incidentally, do they sterilize the syringes used in lethal injections? If so, why? If not, why not? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Why is it that nowadays many middle-aged persons I know who complain of chest pains and who happen to look prosperous are immediately if automatically scheduled for a heart by-pass? Why is it that none of the poor people I hang out with these days (jeepney drivers, auto mechanics, <i>lateros</i>, <i>tuberos</i>, carpenters, etc.) have never had any such procedure done on them? Is it a medical or a financial condition? Why is it that before one is admitted into a hospital, the receptionist asks and looks for his medical health card?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Is this why they call it high-stakes medicine?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Should we be grateful that we can now routinely undergo outpatient hernia repair, or have a heart valve replaced, a spinal tumor removed or some inflammatory bowel disease dealt with? Or, should we simply just pray and be grateful that we do not have to undergo such medical procedure? Incidentally, why don’t they call it “an operation” anymore? Is it because it is, in more ways than one? Just asking.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">When it comes to lawyers, we don’t have to say very much. As they themselves love to say: “<b><i>res ipsa loquitur</i></b>.” Loosely or locally translated: “<b><i>Obvious, ba</i></b>?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Our Supreme Court has also seen to that. Free access to the courts, one of the most basic of constitutional guarantees in any civilized society, is a thing of the past. You need a lot of money nowadays to run after an embezzler who ran off with your money. Aside from your lawyer’s unconscionable “<b><i>acceptance fee</i></b>,” you will have to pay up front filing fees in such an amount that it’s much cheaper to hire some motorcycle-riding assassin to shoot the bastard. It’s your classic case of throwing good money after bad.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Incidentally, the so-called “acceptance fee” is a Filipino invention. There should be no such thing as attorney’s fees paid in advance. Instead, western civilization coined the phrase “<u><span style="color: #c00000;">retainer</span></u>” or “<u><span style="color: #c00000;">retaining fee</span></u>.” While you’ll hear an elaborate explanation or justification for this invention, it’s basically the same thing. It’s about money paid up front. With lawyers, there is clearly no such thing as a “<u>no cure, no pay</u>” for services rendered or to be rendered.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">The best thing that can be said about lawyers has already been uttered in the time of Shakespeare in Stratford upon Avon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">“<b><i>The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers</i></b>!” (“King Henry VI”).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Another curious thing common among lawyers and doctors (and people in religious garb) is that they love to keep their trade a mystery, to keep you in the dark. They’ll throw in a Latin phrase here and there, e.g., <i>res ipsa loquitur</i> or <i>ignorantia legis neminem excusat</i>. Actually, there’s no mystery there. People are more willing to pay good money on things they know nothing about, like,<i>trypanosomniasis gambiensis</i>. Why do you think doctors scribble all sorts of illegible mumbo-jumbo on their prescription pads? It’s just as true with expensive late model cars, electronic equipment, computers and cellphones. Why do you think the Pope still says mass in Latin?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Indeed, jokes about doctors and lawyers are so common they aren’t funny anymore.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">But that’s not what this blog is about. It’s supposed to be about evil people, swindlers, embezzlers, con men - and how to spot them, and if you are wise, how to avoid them. However, why I immediately thought of doctors and lawyers in the same breath is anybody’s guess.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Indeed, who can you trust these days?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">The first rule should be: whenever you hear anybody tell you “TRUST ME,” your first instinct should be to run for your life. Unless you’re waiting to be screwed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">When your friend tells you TRUST ME (with your money) – run. Never go into business with a friend. Friendship should be based on business and not vice versa.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">When your lover tells you TRUST ME (with your virginity) – run. Why do you think condoms are now labeled “TRUST?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">When a politician or presidentiable promises jobs, lower taxes, or to take care of your electric bills – run. Politicians (and lovers) invented promises.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">When a TV preacher promises to take you to heaven by quoting some verses from the Bible (especially from the Old Testament of which you know nothing about) – run. He is engaged in the vilest form of name-dropping or blasphemy (taking the name of the Lord, our God, in vain).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">When somebody suddenly claims to possess some mysterious healing powers – run. It only means that he has realized he has no future as a preacher.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">And, most recently, whenever some prestigious financial institution, investment house or trust company spends millions of dollars on TV commercials or sponsoring golf tournaments essentially saying “TRUST ME” (with your life savings) – run. Otherwise, they will have MADE OFF (Madoff, get it?) with all of your money. Incidentally, why is it that big-time swindlers and embezzlers handling other people’s money in Wall Street are called “<b><i>brokers</i></b>?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">This is the age of scams, scandals, and schemes. Bad guys are everywhere. These days they don’t just simply rob you of your money. They will go into rather sophisticated and elaborate schemes, ploys and devices all designed to fool you … eventually. Nowadays, legacy no longer means an inheritance. It’s billions lost to another Ponzi scam, apparently in connivance with some government regulators. Some of those so-called “budol-budol” or “dugo-dugo” gangs are so convincing many victims believe they were hypnotized.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Who was it who said “A fool and his money are soon parted?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Why do you think that the Filipino these days no longer uses “goodbye” as a parting word? Now, it’s “<b><i>ingat</i></b>.” In big bold letters</span><b><i><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21px;">“ingat.”</span></i></b><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"> You can’t be too careful these days. There are wolves out there, some in sheep’s clothing, others in coat and tie, some men in black, some others in uniform. We’re not even talking here about reckless drivers, DUIs, or drug-crazed addicts or syndicated bank robbers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Or, terrorists? Good Lord!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Is it any wonder then that the Lord’s Prayer ends with <b><i>“et libera nos a malo?”<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Apparently not content with this, Mother Church at mass follows this prayer with the incantation: <b><i>“Libera nos, quaesumus, Domine, ab omnibus malis, praeteritis, praesentibus, et futuris…”</i></b> (Spare us, O Lord, we ask you, from all evils, past, present and future…), and invoking the aid of the Blessed Mother, and all the saints at once, in the same breath.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Sometimes, I can’t help but wonder where the exhortation “LOVE ONE ANOTHER” fits in the scheme of things. Or, Trust in God?<b><i>James D. Lansang</i></b> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://macmagboo.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">macmagboo</a> wrote on Jul 17, '09</div>
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<div author="macmagboo" author_possessive="macmagboo's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:86+0" is_pmrepliable="1">
Hi, James! Good stuff. Thanks.<br />
Hope to see you soon during the Centennial. Mac</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Jul 17, '09</div>
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<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:86+1" is_pmrepliable="1">
Kuya MAC, tnx. we were just talking abt you and some of the guys we are all eagerly awaiting to come for the Centennial. a few of the boys got together recently for a belated celebration of EPISASO's bday (romyQ, tomran, fabspaga, fr. dante venus). the hope is that we dont fall short agn on the hospitality. rest assured we're holding our breath for your coming w/c will be sooner than we think. rgards</div>
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<a href="http://herchellechek.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">herchellechek</a> wrote on Jul 17, '09</div>
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<div author="herchellechek" author_possessive="herchellechek's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:86+2" is_pmrepliable="1">
Kuya James, thanks for the wisdom and the wit. You really nailed it down on the head .... and on the heads of a lot of people including myself... Ingat! (heh, heh!)</div>
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<a href="http://resumus.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">resumus</a> wrote on Jul 17, '09</div>
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<div author="resumus" author_possessive="resumus'" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:86+3" is_pmrepliable="1">
hahahaha! This is Kuya J in one of his best elements. Thank you po for setting the mood of my day.<br />
<br />
Binabaha ang Malabon; binabaha naman ang Multiply ng katatawanan. Who cares about hemorrhoids and breast augmentation?<br />
<br />
Ano pa nga ba ang kasabihan? -- Habang may bagyo, may Pag-asa?</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Jul 18, '09</div>
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<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:86+4" is_pmrepliable="1">
tnx, Ate Herchelle/Kuya Rene. am glad i seem to have managed somehow to make your day, masungit man ang dating ko at ang dating ng panahon. kayo din, ingat lagi (heh, heh!)...</div>
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<a href="http://cecilpf.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">cecilpf</a> wrote on Jul 18, '09</div>
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<div author="cecilpf" author_possessive="cecilpf's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:86+5" is_pmrepliable="1">
“A fool and his money are soon parted?” by Thomas Tusser - an English farmer and writer (1524-1580)<br />
"Why is it that before one is admitted into a hospital, the receptionist asks and looks for his medical health card?" or should you rather have said"...his/her bank book".<br />
"Sometimes, I can’t help but wonder where the exhortation 'LOVE ONE ANOTHER' fits in the scheme of things. Or, Trust in God?"<br />
Paradoxically, this is exactly & precisely the place where the Lord expects us to practice this "Love of neighbor". (Numerous passages in the SS). Ironically, it is precisely in this context that the Lord expects us to love one "ANOTHER". Not necessarily of the same feather but of many ruffled feathers. We are all the same in one way or another, and in varying degrees.<br />
Remember our Lord's "diatribes?" vs (in modern parlance) ... religious institutions, BIR (IRS), PBA/IBP,PMA (medical/military) etc...<br />
Sufficit.</div>
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<a href="http://paga65.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">paga65</a> wrote on Jul 18, '09</div>
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<div author="paga65" author_possessive="paga65's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:86+6" is_pmrepliable="1">
Kuya seems you are inviting us to exorcise ourselves from our evil selves and go back to childlike simplicity. Di ba Atty.?</div>
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<a href="http://butchcelestial.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">butchcelestial</a> wrote on Jul 18, '09</div>
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<br />
. . . . . I have the strangest love for 'typhoons' . . . . . and you are the best, kuya . . . .</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Jul 18, '09</div>
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<a href="http://cecilpf.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">cecilpf</a> said</div>
<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i>it is precisely in this context that the Lord expects us to love one "ANOTHER</i> <img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:86+8" is_pmrepliable="1">
Kuya CECIL, your true self somehow shines through in your comments. you are a priest at heart and forever after the order of melchizedek. tnx rgards</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Jul 18, '09</div>
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<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:86+9" is_pmrepliable="1">
Kuya FABS, I wish to assure you that my blogs are merely the idle musings of a senile old man and not intended to preach much less to sway anyone any which way. if I may borrow from MGM, "ars gratia artis." tnx. rgards</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Jul 18, '09</div>
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<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:86+10" is_pmrepliable="1">
Kuya BUTCH, domine, non sum dignus. but tnx. rgards</div>
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<a href="http://bembem08.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">bembem08</a> wrote on Jul 18, '09</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> said</div>
<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i>I wish to assure you that my blogs are merely the idle musings of a senile old man and not intended to preach much less to sway anyone any which way.</i> <img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="bembem08" author_possessive="bembem08's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:86+11" is_pmrepliable="1">
But what sensible 'idle musings' these are Kuya James. These are how we experience the world, or most of it anyway. It's good that you write about such things because it makes people think and perhaps choose what to do about it. But so true re lawyers and doctors, which are supposed to be noble professions because one is to save lives and the other is to promote justice but the ideals of these professions are just that, ideals, in the here and now. It's the system/society that we all find ourselves mired in... it's the idea of 'profit' that probably are the prime motivator now I think. The 'system' has gotten so monstrous and has taken a life on its own that people seem to feel helpless to do anything to correct it. It's more of a case of a people getting eaten up by the existing system rather than the latter refining the former so that true 'service' prevails.</div>
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<a href="http://cdrome.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">cdrome</a> wrote on Jul 18, '09</div>
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<div author="cdrome" author_possessive="cdrome's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:86+12" is_pmrepliable="1">
Kuya James, you did it again. Could not have a better way to start the day than reading your smart dissertation. Which reminds us of the story of an old, ailing Priest known throughout his Parish for his life of holiness.<br />
On his deathbed he wanted to make his last request which his assistant was only too willing to oblige. He requested the presence of two particular professionals known in the community to be present at his last hour, a lawyer and a physician. And so the two were politely summoned who were flattered to be given the unique honor to be by the dying bedside of the holy man of the cloth.<br />
To their mild surprise, the Priest requested them to lie down by the two beds, one on the left, the other on the right side of the gasping Cleric.<br />
Unable to control his curiosity, the Lawyer asked the Priest in subdued whisper, "Father, with all due respect, before you die, please tell us what made you select us for this privilege?"<br />
With labored breaths, the Cleric replied, "Son, even in death, I would like to die like my Savior- between two thieves."<br />
In the story Kuya, it was not really a doctor but an accountant who was with the lawyer.</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Jul 18, '09</div>
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<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:86+13" is_pmrepliable="1">
Kuya ROME, tnx but pls reserve some of your apocryphal stories for the Centennial celeb where we are eagerly awaiting your arrival. tnx. cu soon. rgards</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Jul 19, '09</div>
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<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:86+14" is_pmrepliable="1">
Ate bem2, a word of caution. you are beginning to sound like you're the only one taking this discussion seriously. if you try to analyze carefully the exchanges on this site, you'll soon realize they come mostly from some wise old friends whose idea of recreation is to swap shopworn wisecracks and laugh at the inanities of this crazy world. you, my dear, are like a fresh breeze from some flowery meadow.</div>
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<a href="http://bembem08.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">bembem08</a> wrote on Jul 19, '09, edited on Jul 19, '09</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> said</div>
<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i>Ate bem2, a word of caution. you are beginning to sound like you're the only one taking this discussion seriously. if you try to analyze carefully the exchanges on this site, you'll soon realize they come mostly from some wise old friends whose idea of recreation is to swap shopworn wisecracks and laugh at the inanities of this crazy world. you, my dear, are like a fresh breeze from some flowery meadow. </i><img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="bembem08" author_possessive="bembem08's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:86+15" is_pmrepliable="1">
Hmm, good point Kuya James, I should ease up on the serious analysis a bit or else dadami na naman puting buhok ko. I should look at this like what Mr[?] CDRome there did, I laughed at the joke so much... don't worry, i'm still impressionable so baka ma-convert pa ako to the Comic Club :)... I really love the humor here, I do miss Pinoy humor :)</div>
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<a href="http://resumus.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">resumus</a> wrote on Jul 19, '09, edited on Jul 21, '09</div>
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<div author="resumus" author_possessive="resumus'" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:86+16" is_pmrepliable="1">
As the ancient Parazziu Hypothesis declares, "Take K as the unknown knowledge. Add K to now; now you know". For good measure, one can proceed to sing the Parazziu song, "Para sa yo ang laban na to. . . para sa yo ang laban na to woh ho ho ho".</div>
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<a href="http://pcsokaka.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">pcsokaka</a> wrote on Jul 20, '09, edited on Jul 20, '09</div>
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<div author="pcsokaka" author_possessive="pcsokaka's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:86+17" is_pmrepliable="1">
"Sometimes, I can’t help but wonder where the exhortation “LOVE ONE ANOTHER” fits in the scheme of things. Or, Trust in God? " -<br />
<br />
Yes, Kuya, like you, I can't help but ask, as I have asked so many times: Why have we not learned to love, as the Lord exhorted/exhorts us, as we were supposed to have been taught?<br />
<br />
Sino ang nagmamahal? Sino talaga ang nagmamahalan? Sino ang tunay na nagpapamalas ng pagmamahal sa kapwa, lalo pa sa mga dukha at sa mga walang-wala?<br />
<br />
Bakit mukhang "failure" ang simbahan sa pagpapalaganap ng magandang balita? Bakit hindi isinasabuhay ng mga so-called Christians, ng mga alagad ni Kristo, ang Kanyang habilin: Magmahalan kayo. Mahalin ninyo ang isa't-isa...<br />
Bakit parang bilang na bilang ang nagpapamalas ng pagmamahal, ng tunay na pagmamahal sa kapwa?<br />
<br />
Nasaan ang mabait na Samaritano?<br />
Nasaan ang mga mababait na Samaritano?<br />
<br />
Kuya, you are right again, as usual: In the scheme of things, for many of us, in most of us, LOVE is ABSENT. It is never too late, though, to practise love in the concrete, to manifest love in our personal life, to share whatever is true, good and beautiful in us with others, specially with those who need it most ( and everybody needs it!) every single day...<br />
<br />
Alam ni Kristo kung gaano karupok ang tao. Kung gaano ako karupok, kung gaano tayo karupok. He fully understood/understands the human condition: how frail you and i, we all are. Thus, He ends the prayer he taught us all to pray: And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from all evil. Amen.<br />
<br />
Problem is, do we take to heart what we pray, as when we pray: And lead us not into temptation...<br />
<br />
How many times do we personaly tempt ourselves, and others too, to go astray?<br />
Don't we look for temptations?<br />
Don't we become tempters ourselves?<br />
<br />
Salamat, Kuya, sa paalaala: Na buhayin ko ang pagiging kristiyano. Na tunay kong mahalin ang kapwa. Na dapat kong ipamalas ang pagmamahal sa kapwa ng walang kundisyon...Na dapat AKO'Y NAGTITIWALA SA DIYOS.<br />
<br />
MABUHAY KA, KUYA JAMES!<br />
SALAMAT KUYA JAMES, SA PAGTUPAD MO SA IYONG TUNGKULIN NA MAGPAALALA SA MGA KAPATID MONG NAKAKALIMOT, sa mga bata't matanda mong mga kapatid na di na natuto.<br />
<br />
Sine cera, kakavq.</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Jul 20, '09</div>
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<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:86+19" is_pmrepliable="1">
KAKA, takooot akooo. Nkakabahala ang inyong mga tanong at mga hamon, kuya. Ang sa ganang akin ay magtanong lamang. Ang inyong ipinamamalas ay patama sa aming konsiensya. Nakakabagbag damdamin. Sana dumami at lumago ang mga tulad mo at mga tinatawag mo na tumugon sa bukhang bibig ng Panginoon: magmahalan kayo...tnx agn, kuya.</div>
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<a href="http://pcsokaka.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">pcsokaka</a> wrote on Jul 20, '09</div>
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<div author="pcsokaka" author_possessive="pcsokaka's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:86+20" is_pmrepliable="1">
Sa totoo lang, mukhang konti lang talaga ang seryoso sa kanilang sinasabing "pananampalataya".<br />
Who really take their faith seriously?<br />
Who act according to what they claim and publicly profess they believe?</div>
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<a href="http://resumus.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">resumus</a> wrote on Jul 21, '09</div>
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<a href="http://paga65.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">paga65</a> said</div>
<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i>Kuya seems you are inviting us to exorcise ourselves from our evil selves and go back to childlike simplicity. Di ba Atty.?</i> <img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="resumus" author_possessive="resumus'" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:86+21" is_pmrepliable="1">
This is Kuya Paga65 from a different angle. This, in turn, led me to recall one lesson I learned in Catechism (ok, ok, in the seminary): Christ exhorted us to be like children. They view things from the perspective of fun; this allows them to cope. They carry no baggage; this allows them to travel light. They carry with them their innocence; this allows them to look at every moment as a fresh start. They are the epitome of simplicity. They are like bald people; they do not worry about dyeing. Fun is a serious business and must be one of the modes of exorcising evil.<br />
<br />
Lord, spare us from ourselves. I thank you, Lord, that you've given us the tool of humor to undo the things we ourselves tend to complicate. Humor helps us cope and reminds us of your 6th commandment not to kill. I just hope that after seeing placenta soap in the market, they won't come up with a fallopian tube-flavored shampoo. It might just be too much for some of us. Please ignore my last two sentences. Just joking.</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Jul 21, '09</div>
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<a href="http://pcsokaka.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">pcsokaka</a> said</div>
<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i>Who really take their faith seriously?</i> <img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:86+22" is_pmrepliable="1">
Sa totoo lang, Kuya, I believe most people take their faith rather seriously. But it's a very private thing. For some, it's a rosary. For others, it's kissing the foot of an icon of the crucified Christ. Still others, it's going on a pilgrimage to Manaoag. It can be rather confusing. It's futile to analyze. Neither is it for us to judge, much less condemn. What to do? Continue loving, anyway.</div>
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<a href="http://cdrome.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">cdrome</a> wrote on Jul 22, '09</div>
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<div author="cdrome" author_possessive="cdrome's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:86+23" is_pmrepliable="1">
Kuya James, you might be right. And lest others might misconstrue us, we do take our faith rather seriously too. While we may be telling jokes sometimes as Fr. Bel or Fr. Jerry do, we are not really joking. It is the message, not the massage. What better way to convey the message of faith than through an interestingly funny anecdote instead of a soporific homily so the faithful won't doze off or go out during mass for a quick nicotine fix as a lame excuse. Like the story of the lawyer who...</div>
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<a href="http://bembem08.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">bembem08</a> wrote on Jul 22, '09, edited on Jul 22, '09</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> said</div>
<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i>it's a very private thing. For some, it's a rosary. For others, it's kissing the foot of an icon of the crucified Christ. Still others, it's going on a pilgrimage to Manaoag. It can be rather confusing. It's futile to analyze. Neither is it for us to judge, much less condemn.</i> <img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="bembem08" author_possessive="bembem08's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:86+24" is_pmrepliable="1">
We are experiential beings and faith is a very personal thing for a lot of people. And we all feel at times that the 'faith' that we know externally comes in 'layers', sometimes in a complex way, internally. So yes, while there are 'signposts' along the way to faith, each walks his or her own path towards it.</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Jul 22, '09</div>
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<a href="http://bembem08.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">bembem08</a> said</div>
<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i>We are experiential beings and faith is a very personal thing</i> <img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:86+25" is_pmrepliable="1">
Ang galingmo, Ate bem2. I couldnt have put it any better. You took a most delicate, complex and mysterious subject and presented it to us in a simple, elegant and acceptable form. I've said it before and I'll say it agn, you are a breath of fresh air in this forum. tnx rgards.</div>
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<a href="http://jeemsdee.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">jeemsdee</a> wrote on Jul 22, '09</div>
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<a href="http://cdrome.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">cdrome</a> said</div>
<img align="left" src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-start.gif" /><i>It is the message, not the massage.</i> <img src="http://images.multiply.com/common/misc/quote-end.gif" /></div>
<div author="jeemsdee" author_possessive="jeemsdee's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:86+26" is_pmrepliable="1">
Kuya ROME, I realize comparisons are always odious but you are beginning to sound a bit like resumus, witty, pithy, and wise. I believe you should have the last word on this subject. tnx rgards</div>
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<a href="http://pcsokaka.multiply.com/" style="color: #0b5eb4; text-decoration: none;">pcsokaka</a> wrote on Aug 7, '09, edited on Aug 7, '09</div>
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<div author="pcsokaka" author_possessive="pcsokaka's" class="replybodytext" id="reply_body_jeemsdee:journal:86+27" is_pmrepliable="1">
Yes, indeed: We are experiential beings and faith is a very personal thing.<br />
And we become what we experience. However varied our experiences may be, we are all in search of and are creating meaning/s in every situation we find ourselves in.<br />
I may have sounded judgmental, but it's because I too, like many of you, took and take my faith as a very personal matter seriously, perhaps, too seriously. Thus, I have often asked and I ask again: If we did and do take our faith seriously, how come we are still what we are?</div>
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