Tag: May 20, 2009

THE RECENT US Embassy-organized photo exhibit of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) World Heritage Sites, by renowned landscape photographer Tom Till, at the SM Mall of Asia gave the public a visually colorful and educational tour of natural and manmade landmarks around the world.

Unesco World Heritage sites are places that have been deemed as having outstanding universal value. These are classified as either a cultural site (man-made places that may showcase human genius or an example of human settlements that have withstood time) or a natural site (natural wonders that represent ongoing ecological or biological processes in nature).

Pictures of some 20 world heritage sites from various countries were shown in the exhibit, all of which were taken through a 4x5 or large camera format. Each photo showed each landscape’s uniqueness. The subtext of the exhibit is the need to protect and conserve the landmarks.

THE YOUNG Thomasian art group Daloy Kulay paid tribute to their alma mater in a homecoming exhibit titled “Looking Back” at the UST Museum last March 25 to April 18.

Employing different mediums from oil to fiberglass and textile-infused mixed media, the works tackled such themes as the pursuit of the inner self, the miracle of the mundane and the powers of the heart.

Painting cum laude Michelle Lim showed teaser images of a woman’s story. “When I was Small, the Woman Said” shows a woman’s feet in a pair of sandals on a carpet of grass. The title and the painting spell irony —the sandals being too large for the woman’s feet with the sides bulging slightly, suggestive of the woman’s past.

Aspiring filmmakers from UST and other schools learned the ropes of independent filmmaking in the first UST Cinevita Film Workshop hosted by the Varsitarian and facilitated by Thomasian filmmaker Jim Libiran.

The workshop, held for two weekends of April, “is for free, but you have to pay through sweat and blood,” Libiran said.

Libiran was the director of the film Tribu, which won the grand prize in the Cinemalaya Film Festival in 2007 and the Best Youth Film in the 2008 Paris Cinematheque.

Helping Libiran train the participants in the rigors of indie filmmaking were film producer Dodge Dillague; Ralston Jover, ABC-5 creative director and the writer of Kubrador, 2008 Gawad Urian Best Picture; and Paolo Villaluna, writer-director of the acclaimed film Selda.

The workshop took participants through various aspects of film making. It also disabused from their minds certain misconceptions about film making.

IT IS unfortunate that most men understand the evil of sins only after they inflict damage in return.

This was one of the emphases of UST Rector Fr. Rolando de la Rosa, O.P., who was the first preacher in this year’s Lenten commemoration of Christ’s Seven Last Words titled Siete Palabras 2009 held last April 10 at the Santo Domingo Church in Quezon City.

In his sharing for the First Word, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do”, De la Rosa reminded the audience that God is not to be feared because He punishes.

“Do not be afraid to sin because God will punish you.  Be afraid to sin because sin brings its own punishment,” De la Rosa said.

WHENEVER I read newspapers back in high school, I never really give attention to the names of the writers in the paper. In the first place, what filled most of the pages of the paper were not the repetitious vain-glorious names of the writers, but the way the writers conveyed events and emotions coupled with pictures to effectively give a clear view of who, what, when, where, how and why.

In my sophomore year, I entered the Varsitarian and it was like shooting blindly in the dark. It was on a dare that I tried for the publication, and luckily, I passed. I was one of the ten or so people out of around 70 applicants who passed the specialized exams held until the evening of Oct. 21, 2007. I was given a writer position, but I refused, knowing that I couldn’t handle the responsibilities as a writer and a student at the same time. Thus, I asked to become a regular contributor.

They credit him, the Apostle of the Gentiles, for much of the success of the early Christian church. But how can we “journey” with St. Paul in this era of global economic meltdown, swine flu, and, not to mention, the persistent problem of relativism, materialism, and new age religion?

Such was the theme of this year’s UST Theology Week, “Journeying with St. Paul Today,” which tackled the enduring relevance of his evangelization in the here and now.

“Paul was a product of his era and yet he truly belongs to us,” Rev. Fr. Rodel Aligan, O.P., dean of the Faculty of Sacred Theology, said in his message to open the event April 20 to 24 event.

“He, who has shaped so much of our Christianity, challenges us to encounter our own culture bravely, with Christ as our guide.”

The theme was particularly relevant considering that Christendom is celebrating the Pauline Jubilee Year as declared by Pope Benedict XVI.

UST THEOLOGIANS defended Pope Benedict XVI’s statement in Africa that condoms are not the solution to the AIDS menace.

“The Pope is simply being consistent with the teachings of the Church – life is always paramount,” UST Faculty of Sacred Theology Dean Fr. Rodel Aligan, O.P. told the Varsitarian. “Pope Benedict XVI wanted to point out that you cannot solve a moral problem by technology but through moral responsibility.”

“Technology doesn’t really change people,” Aligan added.

The Pope reiterated the Church’s long-standing opposition to safe sex as a remedy to the AIDS epidemic last March 17 during his African trip. While en route to Cameroon, Pope Benedict XVI told reporters aboard his plane that “the problem (AIDS) cannot be overcome by distributing condoms.”

He said “spiritual and human awakening” and “friendship to those who suffer” are the solutions.

HISTORY has taught us that tensions, deceptions and conflicts rise among civilizations when a new power emerges. But if a civilization, once faced with such crucial challenge, do not respond in a vigilant and cordial manner, it is bound to experience a lot of problems.

This is what Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore emphasizes in his latest book, “The New Asian Hemisphere: The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East.”

Mahbubani asserts that the West must welcome the emergence of the East and not try to resist it. For the Singaporean scholar, this is a “fundamental shift” in world history, and the mastery of science and technology by most Asians today confirms it.

“WE ALL know the function of the media has never been to eliminate the evils of the world. No, their job is to persuade us to accept those evils and get used to living with them. The powers that be want us to be passive observers,” says a furious, artistically hand-rendered actor in Richard Linklater’s opus Waking Life.

The grain of truth is hard to overlook, but even harder to consider just in passing is the path to a solution. And taking things into the Philippine perspective does not make the little meditation any easier. “Guns, Goons and Gold” still constitute the major tools for moving society, and apathy still appears as the safest attitude in the face of such naked greed for power.

WHILE it is appalling to see a supposed avenue for learning ripped off despite its advantageous potential for the next generation, looking at some reasons why such happening would probably appease this turmoil of regret. This is the case for the Musmos Daycare Center in Tondo.

Heavily shouldered by its owner, Armando Ducat, Jr., who declared the school’s operational spending between P500,000 and P700,000 per annum for salaries and school supplies, the pre-school has served free education in the depressed area of the Parola Compound. However, this noble cause had been stained with the alarming incident of Ducat staging a hostage drama involving his pupils in 2007. He served two years in the correctional for his mischief before he was bailed out last December.