Tag: October 15, 2013

FACULTY of Arts and Letters professor Clarence Batan received an award from Brown University for his paper regarding Filipino bystanders or tambays.

Batan was given the Brown International Advanced Research Institutes (BIARI) Alumni Award as visiting fellow for International Studies. Batan served his fellowship from April to June this year.

He presented two papers during the BIARI program about Researching the Filipino Istambays (On-Standbys): The BIARI-Philippines Research Connection, which was presented at the Maddock Alumni Center and the BIARI Beyond Experience: Concepts We Learned and Lived By, presented at the Watson Institute.

POLITICS, old, corrupting politics, has affected the UAAP. And it comes in the face of the new, the face of the so-called young turks of politics. Which should show that in the Philippines, there’s no distinction between old and new politics, between old and new politicians; in the first place, politicians belong to the same dynasties: old or new politicians, they’re there to uphold their self-interest.

Much has been said, too much drama has been shown with regard to the controversy involving University of the Philippines (UP) freshman Anna Dominique Bartolome, a star swimmer from UST High School, and the UAAP residency rules.

It started from a complaint and ended with four UAAP schools boycotting the women’s swimming competition.

WHAT Pope Francis had said wasn’t a shocker at all.

The leader of 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide said to an Italian Jesuit journal that the Church has “sometimes locked itself up in small things, in small-minded rules,” adding that the clergy should not be too much obsessed with topics like abortion, contraception and homosexuality.

The 12,000-word interview created a big buzz, with some of the media twisting the details and making it look that the first Jesuit pope was making a big shift for the Church, saying that it was seemingly in contradiction to the “traditional teachings” of his predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, and two millenia of Roman Catholic teaching.

THE MANILA city government’s bus ban scheme was not well-received by the commuters who were enraged by the inconvenience it caused them. Although banning buses from the south from entering the capital may be a sound measure to declog traffic, it created chaos and confusion especially in its initial days of implementation because City Hall, the MMDA and national agencies didn’t really collaborate to implement the ban; they didn’t really plan or anticipate the contingencies.

JAPANESE poet Matsuo Basho once made a haiku about a frog jumping into the still waters of an ancient pond and it was through a class in Literature that this simple poem found its relevance in today’s current events.

The point of the haiku was that something as seemingly calm and serene as an ancient pond, always has something sinister lurking beneath, all it takes to see is a little plop—a disruption.

After Benhur Luy decided to sing-a-song-of-sixpense to the tune of a billion-peso scam, the country threw a massive fit by organizing the million people march—reminiscent of but not as pivotal as EDSA I and II.

IT SEEMS there’s still hope for Philippine cinema.

The recently concluded Cinemalaya, an annual festival of independent films, ended with a flourish with tickets almost immediately sold out and the largest audience so far in its first decade. Leading the roster of notable films was the festival’s top grosser “Ekstra” directed by Jeffrey Jeturian and which starred Vilma Santos as a TV bit player. Also worth mentioning are Joseph Israel Laban’s “Nuwebe” and Jerrold Tarog’s “Sana Dati.”

FILIPINO smokers remain unmoved.

Despite the implementation of Republic Act 10351, or commonly known as the Sin Tax Law, a report released by the Asean Tobacco Control Atlas in August showed cigarette prices in the Philippines remain to be among the lowest in Southeast Asia, meaning they don't discourage people from smoking.

The report further stated that the country has the second-largest smoking population inthe region at 13.6 percent, next to Indonesia, where Filipinos spend about P326.4 million on cigarettes every month but only three percent is allotted for tobacco control in the government.

Senate President Franklin Drilon affirmed the report and said the law has not stopped smokers from buying cigarettes.

A FASTER and more efficient technology has arrived in the Philippines.

The development of nanotechnology in the country is welcome, but compassion for other people and care for the environment should be given importance, a professor said in a conference about the ethical viewpoints of nanotechnology held at the Thomas Aquinas Research Complex Auditorium.

“There should be responsibility and accountability in the developing nanotechnology,”said Marciana Agnes Ponsaran, a philosophy professor from the College of Science, in the “Ika-14 na Panayam Pang-agham” held last Aug. 20.

A COMBINATION can be dangerous.

Simultaneous intake of medical drugs might jeopardize a patient, warned Dr. Andrea Carigma, a pharmacology professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy.

“Drug is any chemical substance used for diagnosis treatment and prevention of diseases,” she said.

Carigma stressed that there can be inherent negative implications or “side effects” of these chemical substances, which may pose a threat to a patient’s life.

She emphasized that when drugs with contrasting characteristics were ingested, a drug interaction happenst and hat might either improve or worsen a patient’s condition.

GOD’S mercy to humanity is limitless, even to non-believers.

In an attempt to reach out to atheists, Pope Francis wrote an open letter to Italian daily La Repubblica, addressed to its editor and to non-Christian readers.

Responding to the questions of its editor, the atheist Dr. Eugenio Scalfari, Pope Francis cited Catholic teachings to urge atheists and non-believers to pursue their beliefs based on their conscience and will.

The God of the Christians does not condemn those who do not believe and do not seek faith, but is inviting them to ask for forgiveness, he said.

"God’s mercy has no limits if he who asks for mercy does so in contrition and with a sincere heart," the Pope wrote.