Tag: May 27, 2006

black has long been associated with evil, similar to the night being ludicrously associated with horrific and terrible things. But we know that these are mere impressions—unjust generalizations of many ambiguous things in life.

THE MOVIE adaptation of Dan Brown’s novel Da Vinci Code has caused quite a stir in Metro Manila that it does not deserve.

Ever since Brown’s novel hit the stands in 2003, the content of his book has been at the center of numerous debates. Now, it’s the movie’s turn to receive unwarranted attention.

Even if Brown claimed that the information in his book were based on existing documents, I find it amusing that some of the readers and moviegoers, who are Catholics and Christians at that, take Brown’s assertions as gospel truth.

As a student journalist, I have had to contend with many a stubborn school source, and push my way through walls to get at the story. I may not have served under the publication’s “harder” sections, and even took a lighter if sarcastic note of things while serving my first stint with the editorial board, but that does not mean I did not have to put up with the most unreasonable people who would refuse an interview even for benign articles.

FATHER Tamerlane Lana, O.P. ended his rectorship last April 30 in a blaze of praises from University administrators who called his eight-year stewardship of Asia’s oldest university a tough act to follow.

That act will have to be consolidated by the next rector, whose identity will be announced soon by Rome, according to UST Secretary- General Fr. Isidro Abaño, O.P.

VATICAN-Beijing ties are being tested after two bishops of the Chinese church were ordained without papal approval.

The appointments of Joseph Liu Xinhong of Anhui and Joseph Ma Yinglin of Kunming as bishops last May 3 and April 30, respectively, disappointed Pope Benedict XVI. The Pope excommunicated the two ordainees and the two bishops who ordained them.

MANY Christians take him as the incarnation of evil. He is thought to be a man of envy and deceit, most infamously for his treacherous kiss. His birth and death were accursed by the gospels. He is Judas Iscariot, long-known traitor to the Christ.

But a recently surfaced ancient document claims just the opposite.

BY NOW you have heard all about Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code (DVC). But here’s another missing code for you. What many do not know is that the Dominicans are meshed in the real action behind the novel, from the Magdalene tales to Da Vinci’s Last Supper, making more knowledgeable readers wonder why the Dominicans are not in the thriller.

SA LOOB ng halos 400 taon, nanatiling matatag ang Unibersidad sa mga hamon ng panahon. Maraming trahedya na ang sumubok dito at kabilang sa mga iyon ang ilang naganap na sunog.

Matatandaan na noong Marso, nasunog ang Drivers’ Quarters ng Unibersidad na matatagpuan malapit sa Central Seminary. Noong 2004 naman, tinupok din ng apoy ang Faculty of Pharmacy Laboratory sa Botanical Garden na naging dahilan ng paglalaho ng ilang mga importanteng specimen.

GONE are the days when a patient spends his recovery period in a hospital room while anxiously waiting for his enormous bill to arrive. Recovery may now also mean and include a scenic — therapeutic, if you will— tour to the country’s tourism spots, in a travel package suited to the particular patient.

AMID the racket of hammers, drills, and massive construction machines, the University is slowly realizing a radical facelift and a more modern campus landscape.

In addition to the on-going constructions of the Tan Yankee Student Center, the Alfredo M. Velayo-College of Accountancy, and the UST Cancer Institute, two sites surrounding the Main Building, a plaza and a park, are being completed in time for the new school year and in preparation for the quadri-centennial celebration of UST in 2011.