Tag: 2015

FILIPINO Catholics may celebrate what they brag to be the longest Christmas holidays in the world, but they seem averse to the worldwide persecution of Christians, especially those right in Asia Minor where Christ was born.

In the Middle East, a Christian dies every five minutes, according to a report by the Catholic News Agency. Vatican analyst and journalist John Allen wrote that 11 Christians are killed per hour, per day, for the last 10 years. The situation has since escalated due to the increasing Islamic extremism in the area.

YOU REAP what you sow. The biblical saying has a bearing on how Filipinos have invested their time and money on television, the so-called boob tube. After nearly two generations for example of brainless noontime shows, trite melodramas, and innocuous entertainment, the Philippines has become a nation of shallow entertainment and circus freakdom.

The shallowness has become so unremitting that there have been attempts even among the intelligentsia and even the Catholic establishment to defend the so-called “Dubsmash” duo of one TV network as harmless, pure entertainment, even defending that the segment promotes and revives traditional Filipino morals, as if this part makes up for the fact that the show revolves around silliness and stupidity.

IN THE thick of the fast-moving world, do Filipino families really take the time to just sit down and have a calm dinner on an ordinary night? Is there real connection between parents and children today or is it all superficial?

For the past years, it would seem like only during special occasions like the eve of Noche Buena and Media Noche are most tables in every home filled to the brim with endless supply of food and conversation.

I FIND it worrisome that many of my peers consider late nights until early mornings as the time they become most productive.

More and more friends in my Facebook chatbox are marked “online” when I stay up until 4 a.m. and the line between “because it is finals week” and “because I was lazy” is becoming hazier by the minute.

I am not safe either, I fail to meet deadlines.

IGINAGALA ni Mariel ang kaniyang paningin sa labas ng simbahan habang pinagmamasdan ang makukulay na palamuti sa paligid nito gayundin ang mga pailaw na nagpapaligsahan sa kislap. Masarap sa balat ang dampi ng hangin at kakaiba ang taglay nitong bango. Dagsa ang mga pamilya galing sa kahit saang sulok ng barangay. Matagal pa bago sumikat ang araw subalit animo alas dos na ng hapon.

Sa gitna ng mga naghahagikhikang mga kabataan, naroon si Mang Anding na halatang aligaga sa pagdukot ng barya sa kaniyang bulsa. Pilit niyang ibinabalanse ang kaniyang sarili sa kaniyang luma at marupok na saklay. Isinabit muna niya ang bunton ng sampagita malapit sa mga tulusan ng kandila bago marahang binilang ang tigpipisong sukli ng isang aleng may bitbit na sanggol.

IT IS appalling that while Thomasians have been generally scarce on social media on such pressing concerns as corruption in government, the future of Philippine democracy, the persecution and even massacre of Christians in the Middle East, and the removal of crosses in China by communist Beijing, they’ve suddenly become overzealous netizens over the very petty subject of the good-grooming policy of UST. It is likewise appalling that the UST administration, which is otherwise mum on the same urgent issues affecting the Church and society, is fanatically pressing on the same. Now UST is the butt of ridicule on social media for preoccupying itself with the most trifling of matters.

The matter is not even about overall grooming but about hair of all things!

WITH the rise of online news and the social media, print journalists have learned how to adjust to fast-changing times.

Most newspapers now have their online sites where they could easily post breaking news and thus cater to the fast-growing population of netizens.

Undoubtedly, the Internet has been a great help for journalists to become more effective.

And with the widening presence of the social media, news reports whether on print or online may be better disseminated. To be sure, they can easily gain attention through the dynamics of the social media—contributing to public information, shaping public opinion and fostering healthy public debates on national and international concerns.

THE BRUTAL killings of Lumad leaders allegedly by the paramilitary Magahat-Bagani as well as by the communist New People’s Army (NPA) in Mindanao seem not to have generated any public outrage, much less firm government response to check them and prevent similar incidents from happening.

In an article published by the Varsitarian last Nov. 7, Dulphing Ogan, secretary general of the Kusog sa Katauhang Lumad sa Mindanao, said the killings started when the Lumad, as the indigenous cultural communities are collectively known, resisted mining operations and expansions of agricultural plantations in the northeast area of Mindanao.

I BELIEVE our family is extra-special.

At first blush, we are just an ordinary family. Both of my parents go to work. A brother and I are in college.

But what sets us apart from other families is my youngest brother: He’s a “special child.”

His name is Emilio and he has Down Syndrome (DS). Of course, we did not know what to do when we first learned about his condition. To be honest, I felt sad about what was about to come and how to adjust to the situation, but there was nothing we could do but to accept it—whole-heartedly.

A NEW coffee-table book on Philippine art by former Varsitarian artist and photographer documents through beautiful photography and informative text the ateliers or work studios of 75 of the country’s foremost artists, what critics have described as a very helpful “archival” project to record the creative process that goes into masterpieces of the visual arts.

“Filipino Artists in their Studios” is published by the Manila Bulletin and conceptualized and photographed by visual artist-photojournalist Jose Vinluan “Pinggot” Zulueta, a BS Fine Arts in Advertising Arts graduate of the old UST College of Architecture and Fine Arts.