Tag: Vol. LXXXI

ISIPIN muna ang gustong ikuwento bago problemahin kung paano ito isusulat.

Binigyang-diin ng mga panelista ng ikalimang Varsitarian Fiction Workshop na idinaos noong Setyembre 13 at Oktubre 11 na sa pagsulat ng katha, mahalagang pag-isipang mabuti ng manunulat ang paksa upang may patunguhan ang kuwento.

“Ang puwede lang magkuwento, ‘yung may sasabihin,” ani Jun Cruz Reyes, premyadong manunulat at propesor sa Unibersidad ng Pilipinas. Para sa kaniya, dapat ay may laman ang mga kathang isinusulat.

Para naman kay Abdon Balde, Jr., dapat ay malinaw sa manunulat kung ano ang nais niyang iparating sa mga mambabasa.

“Importanteng pag-isipan muna ang [nais] sabihin [sa kuwento]. “Saka na natin pagtalunan kung paano [ito] sasabihin,” ani Balde na kamakailan ay tumanggap ng 2009 South East Asian Writers (SEA Write) Award.

KUNG hindi ka magtatanong, paano mo malalaman ang sagot?

Isa lamang ito sa mga katanungang hinahanapan ng kasagutan ni Eros Atalia, propesor sa Faculty of Arts and Letters, sa kaniyang ikatlong libro na Ligo na u, Lapit na me (Visual Print Enterprises, 2009) na tumatalakay sa “asim ng romansa, pait ng pagkabigo, tamis ng ligaya, alat ng pamumuna at anghang ng kaastigan.”

Bilang prequel ng kaniyang naunang librong Peksman Mamatay Ka Man, Nagsisinungaling Ako at Iba Pang Kwentong Kasinungalingan na Di Dapat Paniwalaan (Visual Print Enterprises, 2007), umiikot ang Ligo na u, Lapit na me sa buhay ni Karl Vlademir Lennon J. Villalobos o Intoy bago siya nakipagsapalaran sa paghahanap ng trabaho. Binigyang-tuon din ang kaniyang buhay-kolehiyo kasama na ang kaniyang buhay-pag-ibig na nagdulot sa kanya ng kabiguan.

LAHAT ng pangunahing kalsada sa Maynila ay ipinangalan sa mga tao maliban sa España.

Pinanganalanang “España” ang kalsada sa harap ng UST bilang pagkilala sa bansang pinakamatagal na sumakop sa Pilipinas.

Ngunit bago ito naging España, ang kalsadang may habang dalawang kilometro ay bahagi ng Hacienda de Sulucan, isa sa sampung baryong noon ay bumubuo sa Sampaloc. Pagmamay-ari ito ni Doña Catalina de Guzman, biyuda ni Kapitan Juan de Cañedo, isang opisyal ng gobyerno ng España na nanirahan sa bansa. Enero ng taong 1694 nang ipagkaloob ni De Guzman ang hacienda sa mga madre ng Monasterio de Santa Clara.

IT WAS a nostalgic trip with a simple but tempting premise: step into the shoes of a genius writer.

Last August 15 to September 15, a month-long exhibit titled “The World of Nick Joaquin” was held at the Cubao Expo in Quezon City to pay homage to the life of the National Artist for Literature.Various photos, portraits, and notes about the late literati—most of which were gifts from different artists—were mounted. There, too, were Joaquin’s personal articles that once graced the pages of various publications during the heydays of his journalistic career.

“It’s been five years since his death and I didn’t want his memory to just fade away, said Bing Villegas, Joaquin’s nephew in law and curator of the exhibit.

“I wanted to focus some attention to him, on his word, his works and his world

LEGAL management sophomore Carlos Arriero returned to school a week after the storm a different man.

Having spent a night marooned on the roof of his family’s house—surrounded by floodwaters amid a raging storm—in Provident Village in Marikina, he was just happy to be alive.

So was Maria Kristina Vallo, an accountancy senior, whose family was forced by tropical storm “Ondoy” into the second floor of their house in Pasig City .

Like many others in Metro Manila, they survived the great flood of September 26, mainly on divine providence and the kindness of strangers.

To help him get back on his feet, Carlos, 18, got P500 from a professor for his school supplies. Friends lent him fresh clothes, just enough for him to resume his schooling.

Carlos knows that if not for another person’s selfless act, his family would not have made through the storm.

‘Wowowee’

THOMASIAN artist Sunshine Plata, 29, loves coffee for entirely different reasons –she paints with it.

“I’m a tea addict, as a matter of fact. I don’t drink coffee because I love to sleep. If I ever drank coffee, I wouldn’t be able to sleep, and it’s through my sleep wherein I get my ideas and my dreams and my paintings from,” she said in an interview with Reuters.

Her “brewed” images, which were designed to last longer than 75 years, were showcased in an exhibit titled “Manila Mirrors” at the Manila Art Gallery, Powerplant Mall last month. These sepia-toned paintings include “Guitar Man” that featured a man playing the guitar while rising out of the coffee vapor from a cup, and “Protectress of the Unborn,” a deity-like portrayal of a pregnant woman.

“Hope is the radical refusal to put limits on what God can do.”

HINDI na bago para sa mga Tomasino ang pagbaha sa tuwing malakas ang pagbuhos ng ulan o kaya naman ay bumabagyo. Gaya na lamang noong Setyembre 26, kung kailan isang lampas-tuhod na baha ang sumakop sa UST. Nakagugulat lamang na hindi kaagad humupa ang baha. Dahil dito, hindi bababa sa dalawang libong tao ang nagutom at nauhaw dahil sa pagkaka-stranded sa iba’t-ibang gusali sa kampus.

Noong sinabi sa seminaryo na kailangan ng volunteers para magdala ng makakain sa mga na-stranded, nagdesisyon akong sumama. Noong una, gusto ko lamang sumama kasi nababagot na ako sa loob ng seminaryo. Hindi na rin kasi ako makapag-text dahil walang signal at nagsasawa na rin akong magbasa tungkol sa pilosopiya. Kumbaga, gusto ko lang magkaroon ng kaunting adventure. Pero hindi ko akalaing higit pa sa pagpawi sa kabagutan ko ang aking mararanasan.

GOLD and platinum may be more than just precious metals.

This is what a study by a Thomasian professor is looking at with the possibility of gold and platinum to be a “pathway” for electric current that if developed would help the country in gaining power independence.

Professor Bernard John Tongol from the College of Science started last January his study titled The Development of Au(111) and Pt(111) Single Crystals as Substrates for Nanomaterials: preparation, characterization, and applications that focuses on the utilization of specially prepared crystals of gold and platinum, or single crystals, as conductors for ethanol, an alternative source of biofuel energy obtained from the fermentation of sugar canes and corn.

IN 1985, three scientists, Joseph Farman, Brian Gardiner and Jonathan Shanklin of the British Antarctic Survey discovered the ozone hole, an area of the ozone layer above the Antarctic that was thinner than the rest of the layer. In the past 20 years, this hole has increased in size.

The ozone layer is found in the stratosphere layer of the atmosphere. It serves as Earth’s protection from harmful ultraviolet sun rays, which can cause diseases like skin cancer to humans, and a change in composition to plants and animals under prolonged exposure.

This protective shield has long to developed “holes” primarily due to chlorine and bromine, which are halogens. Halogens are elements that react with multiple molecules of the ozone.

ANGELICA Buenaventura, 18, was no stranger to flooding in UST. She knew it was a given for a campus situated in the heart of Manila’s flood-prone Sampaloc district.

But the flooding that hit the University—and the rest of Metro Manila and neighboring provinces—last September 26 was different.

It trapped an estimated 3,000 people in buildings with limited food on campus for at least 24 hours, in what a University official described as the worst flooding in UST in 40 years.

The situation in UST was far more tempered compared with the chaos outside. Tropical storm “Ondoy” dumped a month’s worth of rainfall in just six hours on Luzon, killing close to 300 people.