Jubilation over bin Laden’s death

There is no doubt there is euphoria being felt in some parts of the world, more especially in the USA, over the death of Osama bin Laden.

We have seen on TV how celebration erupted in the streets outside the White House and in New York City with accompanying chants of USA! USA! and waving American flags and honking horns.

The question, however, is: Will this jubilation, this utter disregard of someone’s dead, signals the end of all terrorist acts or will it simply incite the Muslim jihadist movement sympathetic to bin Laden to plan another attack?

Am not saying that the ten years of waiting before justice could finally be exacted on one man – the mastermind of the most horrific attack humankind has ever known, which is more remembered now as the events of 9/11- do not deserve a joyful feeling.

Surely, it does. But, over reacting with joy smacks of arrogance and does not do good to America’s image and intentions.

More than joy it is the feeling of fulfillment and contentment in ones heart that matters most for, at long last, the aggrieved nation has not let the 9/11 victims and their grieving relatives down. There is no need for it to be enthusiastically celebrated.

Justice has come to the souls of the many Americans who died that fateful day and to that end peace has to be worked on to prevail.

In trying to attempt to eliminate Osama bin Laden from the face of the Earth, many Americans and members of the coalition forces met violent deaths in Afghanistan. Many more have come home maimed.

Jubilation will simply fan the embers of Muslim hatred against the Americans.

A collective, yet composed display of emotion is what is needed by America in its resolve to establish peace with the Muslim world.

Civility is what symbolizes a cultured nation.

The miracle that started John Paul’s march to sainthood

Pope John Paul II waving in St. Peter's Square

Perhaps the late Karol Wojtyla was meant to live to become a priest, a Pope, who took the name John Paul II, and a saint.

Even before he was laid to his final resting place, 6 years ago, Pope John Paul II was so loved  and worshipped by the Christian world that when his coffin was carried through St. Peter’s Square people were chanting:  “Santo subito! Santo subito!”

“Sainthood now!”

All around the world a young generation became his avid followers believing in his genuine holiness and secretly reverberating the same chants in their hearts.

The chants became a prophecy, for on May 1, 2011, in Vatican City, John Paul II will be beatified, bringing him one step away from sainthood.

Just weeks after taking over, Pope Benedict XVI – his successor and intimate friend – launched the process waiving the normal five-year waiting period, which essentially put John Paul on a fast track to sainthood.

Benedict knew that John Paul’s character and achievements were gifts of God and were   indisputable.

A condition required for beatification was for a miracle to happen and after a thorough review and investigation they found one in the story of Sister Marie Simon-Pierre who had been praying to John Paul II for cure of her Parkinson’s disease, which she had been suffering for four years, and was healed.

Two months after the pope passed away, the nun said she awoke one morning, to the shock of her doctor, feeling reborn and capable of performing previously difficult tasks, such as walking and writing. This happened on June 2, 2005. It will be noted that John Paul II suffered also from Parkinson’s disease.

The Congregation for the Causes of Saints said Vatican-appointed doctors “scrupulously” studied the case and found that the nun’s cure had no scientific explanation.

Benedict declared then that the cure of the French nun was a miracle.

After the beatification ceremony on May 1^st, John Paul II will be considered “blessed” and can be publicly honored or venerated in his native country, Poland, only.

Another miracle is needed to declare John Paul II a saint to be venerated around the world.

Let us all pray it won’t be long.

Ex-president Arroyo accused of OWWA fund misuse

Former Solicitor General Frank Chavez files plunder case

I remember this event very clearly during the 2004 election campaign when then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo made the PhilHealth cards, with her image on them, her sales pitch for the oversea worker’s votes.

Little did I know that what really happened is the reason why lawyer Frank Chavez, a former solicitor general, filed plunder charges against the former president before the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The charges claim that Arroyo, now a member of the House of Representatives, allegedly ordered about P530 million from the funds belonging to the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) from 2003 to 2004 diverted to PhilHealth, in time for the distribution of health cards during elections.

It should be noted that the money in this OWWA trust fund are contribution by millions of our Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) who are not able to find jobs in the country and which money is intended to pay for repatriation during emergencies, medical care and other needs unique to overseas workers.

Arroyo, Romulo, Duque III

Also named respondents were former Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo; then Philhealth president and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III; and former OWWA chief Virgilio Angelo.

One can already see from here an inter-departmental collusion under Arroyo’s administration, but the DOJ has still to determine if there is enough evidence for an indictment.

Chavez also claim that ex-president Arroyo diverted 21.5 million pesos ($494,000) to pay for diplomatic vehicles in the Middle East in support of the US-led war in Iraq and “humanitarian assistance” to Filipinos in Iraq in 2003.

These are indeed serious corruption charges among the many that Arroyo has been dodging and denying during her nine-year rule.

Let us hope Chavez is not shooting blanks especially on an important allegation as the misuse of the OWWA funds for electioneering purposes when it should have be saved for any untoward incidents involving OFWs and solely for their own benefit.

The meaning of Easter in our lives

Empty tomb where Christ was laid

We always seem to just aimlessly celebrate the passion, death and resurrection of Christ – a historical event that happened over 2000 years ago.

We go back in time with eyes closed visualizing our participation as witnesses in the ignominious suffering and death of the Lord, Jesus Christ.

But, what we can’t understand until now is that Christ suffered for us and bore our sins in His body unto His death on the cross so we may be able to fulfill God’s design for us to live by the teachings of His only begotten Son.

To change our old, wretched ways and live righteously anew is the Easter message that God wanted to happen in humanity when He raised Christ from the dead, three days after His death on the cross.

It has been the same message then and now.

Alas, we continue to look at the resurrection of Christ simply as an event to be commemorated and not a mission to be accomplished in ones lifetime.

It is time to make a reflection on the real meaning of Easter in our lives.

It is time to effect a real change and be responsible for our actions.

Government should take a lead.

Public servants should heed the call

Citizens should be cognizant of the laws of the land and the moral and ethical teachings of the Church without being sanctimonious about it.

Righteousness is not all about being pious.

Righteousness is about knowing the distinction between good and evil or right and wrong.

Righteousness is being honest and honorable, just or fair.

Wikipedia defines righteousness (also called rectitude) as an attribute that implies that a person’s actions are justified, and can have the connotation that the person has been “judged” or “reckoned” as leading a life that is pleasing to God.

In this regard I have been a total failure.

But, I have faith and haven’t lost hope. With love, the greatest of virtues, I can be something new.

Wishing you all sincerely Happy Easter!

Catholic Church should stop crucifixion, self-flagellation

Nothing wrong being a copycat.

People from all over the world are doing it, too.

We copy designer originals.

We mimic Lady Gaga’s outrageous costume and looks.

We imitate accents – ask any call center agents.

But, we, Filipinos, are taking our apery preposterously farther.

Every Holy Week some of our brothers put up a show looking like Christ, dressing like Christ and depicting the suffering of Christ until his ‘death’ on the cross.

As a finale, some gets as real as it can be by being nailed to the cross.

All, in the name of repentance!

Among the penitents, however, most choose self-flagellation, not because it indulges a little less suffering, for that is neither here or there.

The question is: are these practices – this grim, outward expression of compunction and atonement for sins, still acceptable and needed in this time and age?

Being the third largest Catholic country in the world, shouldn’t the leaders of the Church start preaching the real meaning of repentance and the appropriate manner by which one should make amends and do penance?

Let us stop being a nation of twisted religious beliefs. There is only one Jesus Christ who suffered and died brutally to save humanity.

Nobody should be making a travesty of His fate, for doing it means totally nothing, but a big folly.

Repentance is not about the re-enactment of Christ’s notorious suffering and painful, public death by crucifixion.

Repentance is a solemn reflection and contemplation of our faith on whether or not we have become better Christians as we age.

Either the Catholic hierarchy puts a stop to this religious chicanery that is being feasted on by busybodies from here and abroad or expect the Department of Health (DOH) to be repeating, like a broken record every Holy Week, their warning on the health risk with these kinds of superstitious practices performed by penitents, which at best is absurd and ungodly at worst.

Priest shows door to RH bill adherents

Is the Catholic mass service going to the dogs or are priests getting to be self-righteously pious?

If this is not an utter display of sanctimoniousness by a priest offering mass, I don’t know what is!

It has been reported that a priest at the Baguio Cathedral has been censured by some parishioners after he ordered people supporting the Reproductive Health (RH) bill to leave the church and stop hearing Mass.

“Kung meron nakikimisa dito pero pro-RH bill… Please, go out. It’s useless,” the priest said.

“What is this mass for if you are pro-RH bill? What is going to Church for if you’re pro-RH bill?” he asked.

The priest, whose identity was withheld, could not deny that he made the outrageous statements because it was reported to have been recorded on video by a parishioner.

Too bad there was not anybody like Carlos Celdran, who would, once more, protest with a placard raised high up with the name “Damaso” written and directed at the priest.

The Catholic Church hierarchy should realize that having priests like this is how the Church losses its members.

Times have changed, but while we still believe in God, we are also freer now and less ignorant to be able to understand what is good for us and our faith.

We have been endowed with freewill and the freedom to choose is every man’s right.

The people respect the stand of the Catholic Church with regards to the RH bill.

Don’t let it be the Catholic Church’s mission and vision to influence the people in believing what the Church believes, to the extent of making the people  feel guilty and exploding the priest’s ire against the people just because they are not on the Church’s side.

We are asking nothing less than a little respect for our views, too.

After all, you priests are just like us – humans.

World’s oldest man dies

Walter Breuning during his 113th birthday party

He was 114 years old and his famous cliché used to be that “you’re born to die”, but looks like he was born to live, and live, he did, much, much longer than any normal person.

Walter Breuning, a retired railworker from Montana, USA, has been living at the Rainbow Senior Living retirement home since 1980 and, in an interview last year, has attributed his long life to working as long as he could and mindful in accepting the reality of death.

But, what is more awe-inspiring about Mr. Breuning’s longevity is his confession that he only ate two meals a day for the past 35 years!

Born in the town of Melrose, Minnesota, on September 21, 1896, Mr. Bruening moved to Great Falls in 1918, where he found work with Great Northern Railway and remained there for 50 years.

He got married to a co-worker Agnes Twokey, who died in 1957 after 35 years of marriage. They did not have any children and Mr. Breuning never remarried.

Retiring in 1963, aged 67, he stuck to his philosophy and continued to work as a manager and secretary for Shriners, a position he held until he was 99-years-old.

Shriners is a charitable organization that exercises and promotes the Masonic principles of brotherly love, relief and truth.

Mr. Breuning was officially listed in the Guinness Book of World Records 2011 edition as the world’s oldest living man.

Legless man to teach physical education

Doug Forbis playing frisbee

Doug Forbis is a unique individual.

Undaunted by his physical handicap, he is an example that inspires others.

You see, Forbis was born with a very rare health condition called sacral agenesis. It’s when the spine doesn’t develop properly in the womb. It left him with malformed legs, which would only serve to hinder movement. So at the age of 2, his parents took a doctor’s recommendation and opted to have his legs amputated.

Growing up Doug never felt comfortable using prosthetics even if it meant being more like everybody else. He decided to be his natural self.

“They were tiring, hot and more hassle than they were worth,” Forbis said of his artificial legs. Instead, he gets around by walking on his hands or using a custom-built titanium wheelchair.

Doug, who is from Spartanburg, South Carolina, is finishing up his first year of a two-year graduate education program at Converse College. He plans to teach physical education to kids with special needs.

In an interview, the 24-year old Doug lamented the fact that when he was growing up and found himself in a PE class, that his participation was limited to either keeping score or as an audience.

To make productive use of his time Doug decided to join swimming and basketball leagues for disabled kids.

“It was a big deal to meet others going through the same issues. It gave me a safe zone each week going to practice,” he said.

Once he receives his teaching degree, Doug will be officially recognized to teach, help and boost the confidence and spirit of those children with special needs.

Helping others with the same or similar disabilities understand that they are just as able as the normal person next to them has always been Doug’s advocacy.

He is inspiring them into saying, “Look, Mr. Forbis is a teacher, I can do that, too. He lives by himself, gets around town, goes shopping, I can do that, too.’

Doug and girlfriend

If that is not enough, Doug is showing them, too, that having an able bodied girlfriend is how far he can get to being a normal individual.

Marianne’s size breasts displeases French mayor

 

Marianne - symbol of liberty

Mayor Gerard Cordon of Neuville-en-Ferrain, France, is making much ado about Marianne’s breasts.

Marianne is actually a terracotta bust depicting a proud and determined woman wearing a Phrygian cap.

A Phrygian cap is a soft conical cap with the top pulled forward. It is sometimes called a liberty cap. In its artistic representations it signifies freedom and the pursuit of liberty.

Marianne is one of the symbols of the French Republic and embodies the Republic as much as the nation’s tricolored flag. Marianne represents the permanence of those values which bind French citizens to the Republic: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.

It is said that Catherine Lamacque, the artist, deliberately sculpted an oversize mammaries for a Marianne, to symbolize the mood and the generosity of the Republic of that era.

Unfortunately, a much endowed Marianne in Mayor Cordon’s town hall is not anymore to his liking when he ordered it thrown out and then asked his councilors to approve 900 euros (1,280 dollars) in this year’s budget to buy a replacement, a more conventional bust of Marianne modeled on the statuesque French model Laetitia Casta.

According to reports, the town hall bought Marianne’s terracotta statue in 2007 for 1,400 euros.

It must have been the extra large breasts that really made the statue more expensive.

But that is neither here nor there for the statue was made in good taste.

There is just something wrong with the mayor, being alone and making much ado, about wanting the old Marianne replaced with a new, slimmer one when the rest of the people find the act of changing it absurd, if not unnecessary.

Koran burning re-ignites Afghan hostility

 

Florida preacher Terry Jones

When the situation in Afghanistan was gradually and painstakingly getting better by the day, here comes a super chauvinist pig of a Florida preacher who made true his plan of burning the Koran.

Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida first hatched his plan to set ablaze copies of the Muslim holy book on last year’s 9/11 anniversary of the U.S. terrorist attacks.

Jones wanted this villainous day to be remembered as the “International Burn a Koran Day.”

The burning was aborted, however, as it provoked criticism from U.S. religious leaders and violent protests among the Muslim world abroad.

Their was also pressure exerted coming from President Obama and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates urging Jones to call it off.

At that time Gen. David Patraeus, commander of the US-led international force in Afghanistan, also gave his opinion, saying, he believed the display would be detrimental and dangerous to U.S. troops fighting in Afghanistan.

Not to be deterred, the Florida pastor carried on his diabolical plan.

True enough, what is now considered by Jones as the “International Judge the Koran Day,” which is the burning of the Muslim holy book, is not only causing a conflagration of fiery hatred in the hearts and minds of the Muslim people around the world towards the western world in general, but more so in the body and soul of the Afghans, especially the Talibans, towards the coalition troops fighting in Afghanistan.

What political progress and economic stability laboriously and at cost of precious lives attained surely have been derailed and will take time before it gets moving again.

Once more Gen. Petraeus, described the distasteful burning as “hateful, extremely disrespectful and enormously intolerant.”

“Obviously it’s an additional serious security challenge in a country that faces considerable security challenges,” he said.

It has been reported that violent protests against the Koran burning that began in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif on Friday claimed the lives of at least 22 people, including seven foreign UN staff.

People ought to respect other people’s religion and culture. We are in the 21^st century now, for crying out loud!

President Barack Obama condemned the Koran burning as an act of “extreme intolerance and bigotry”.

The U.S. government should charge Pastor Jones for treason. His words and actions have killed and will be killing more people, amongst them his countrymen for instigating the subversion of one’s religion.