Tag: October 22, 2009

THE SEARCH is on for the banner song of UST’s quadricentennial.

UST launched the “Q Song Writing Contest” for alumni, students, faculty members, and employees last August.

The songs may be in English or Filipino, by an individual or group, and lasting for two to three minutes. Songs must be original, sung by a solo singer with or without instrumental accompaniment. Entries must be submitted in a CD together with hard copies of the lyrics and application forms on or before November 5 at the Public Affairs Office. International and regional entries may be submitted through mail, courier, or e-mail at opa@mnl.ust.edu.ph.

THE COLLEGE of Education reaped two major awards in the first Umami Culinary Challenge last September 25 at the Events Hall in Makati City.

Nutrition senior Natasha Veron Sales and juniors Marjorie Chua and Harmony Maquilan placed second in the Best Umami Bento Meal category, while senior Anne Billones, junior Alson June Domingo, and sophomore Hannah Co took the silver award in the Umami Buzz Challenge or quiz bee.

The College of the Holy Spirit and Centro Escolar University emerged as champions of the bento meal and quiz bee categories, respectively.

The competition was organized to broaden students’ awareness on “umami” as the “fifth basic taste of human tongue,” along with sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. Umami is a Japanese word that means “tasty” or “savory.”

A THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD girl is given champagne and illegal drugs, forced to pose nude, and taken advantage of by a 40-year-old man. The girl is an aspiring model who was promised that her shoot would appear in the pages of French Vogue. The man is an acclaimed director who is said to be brilliant, but a little unstable. This sounds like something out of the newspapers, and it is. However, it happened a long time ago - 1977, to be exact.

SEPTEMBER 26, 2009 became a very memorable date to Filipinos: it was the date when typhoon Ondoy hit Metro Manila, Rizal, and Laguna. Living in an apartment around flood-prone UST, I and my roommates ended up stranded as the water outside rose to chest level and did not show any signs of subsiding. I really wanted to immortalize the dramatic Main Building and its reflection in the floodwater, placed in front of dynamic clouds signifying the end of the storm. Sadly, a wounded foot and a high-level flood got me think twice. However, the photographer in me strongly knowing that a calamity of this magnitude was very rarely seen affecting UST, I decided to face the flood. I didn’t even consider the threat of leptospirosis or any other flood-borne diseases I might contract. I just had to take this shot.

ALFRED Nobel’s rationale for winning a Nobel Peace Prize is written in his will, which states that it shall be awarded to a person who has “done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”

According to the Philippine Star last October 10, there have been many interpretations of the will, which go as far as combating poverty, disease and climate change. But even this very liberal construal of Alfred Nobel’s will cannot support US President Barack Obama’s winning the coveted peace prize.

According to the Nobel Committee, Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize because of his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples.”

HOLLYWOOD will be releasing another apocalypse-themed movie titled 2012 this November, which depicts what would happen should the ancient Mayan doomsday prophecy come true. But Filipinos need not flock to the cinemas to catch a glimpse of the surreal devastation of nature as depicted in the film; they can just tune in to the news to see these things happen in real life, and without any special effects.

THE EFFECTS of tropical storm “Ondoy” in Luzon one month ago were what Manila and its neighbor cities could consider traumatic. Yet despite the deaths and damaged lives, the incident should serve more as a wake-up call than a reason to lose hope.

The worst flooding in 40 years brought back to our time a study by Felino Palafox in July 1977. The study, which was funded by the World Bank and was finalized by Hong Kong-based consulting firm Freeman Fox and Associates, laid out measures and suggestions on how the government should strictly enforce zoning to avoid tragic incidents like that which happened last September 26.

The study zeroed in on low-lying areas such as Marikina, one of the hardest hit during the recent storm, saying that the place was “unsuitable for urban development.”

TOO BAD social networking sites do not have religious applications because the digital age seems to have won over the youth, who would rather go online than spare time to pray the rosary.

According to Fr. Roland Mactal, O.P., a professor of Dogma and Mariology in the Faculty of Sacred Theology, the “commercialized” environment distracts people from praying and meditating.

“People would rather surf the Internet than meditate,” he said. “Maybe, the reason why people are not disposed to praying the rosary is because of the influence of mass media, and also of technology.”

Praying the rosary is part of Catholic tradition and is a form of expression of devotion to Mary. However, the awareness and the commitment to pray through the rosary is fading nowadays, Mactal observed.

AFTER MORE than a hundred years of existence, La Naval de Manila continues to draw and inspire thousands of people, but this dedication to the Blessed Virgin, a Thomasian tradition seems to be wavering.

Thomasians are aware of October as the Rosary month but not many know what happens in the second Sunday of this month – the Feast of Our Lady of La Naval.

Associate Prof. Richard Pazcoguin, assistant director of the Campus Ministry, said though there is still consciousness among the students, student participation is not as fervent as before citing two factors – the new breed of Theology professors and the multi-sectarian population of the University.

“Professors who graduated from other schools were not able to carry over the Thomasian tradition and culture of the Feast of La Naval,” Pazcoguin explained. “They [professors] who are not alumni of UST are not aware of how deep-seated it is in the Thomasian culture.”

TERTULLIAN, one of the Catholic Church’s fathers, said in his Apologia that “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of Christianity.”

This has been the basis of the theme for this year’s UST Martyrs’ Week, “Tomasino Ako, May Dugong Martir at Santo,” held last September 22 to 25.

Organized by the Theological Society, together with the Ecclesiastical Faculties and the Central Seminary, the event upholds Thomasian awareness and devotion to the UST Martyrs through a series of activities conducted within the four-day commemoration. This included an exhibit showcasing the lives of the Dominican martyrs of Vietnam, Japan, and Spain, an on-the-spot inter-college essay writing contest, and a procession around the campus, followed by a closing mass.