Tag: December 15

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.

NENITA Sanchez, 27, had a problem. She was not suffering from emotional or physical pain (or watching a heartbreaking soap opera), but tears would perennially flow down her face.

She finally found an answer last July, thanks to UST ophthalmologist and inventor Dr. Reynaldo Javate.

Javate, a professor at the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, devised a way to stop the overproduction of tears without incision. He modified a painless instrument, which he named “Javate microendoscope.”

“Excessive tearing is the overproduction of tears because of a problem in the eyes,” Javate explained. “Overproduction of tears can be caused by over-exposure to light, inward rubbing of the eyelids, or defective tear drainage.”