Tag: September 9, 2005

FICTION “sucks” when a writer bases it on his own life.

Such is the belief of Filipino-American writer and Fulbright scholar Ringhardt Zamora Linmark, who became a new leading writer of Asian-American literature when his first novel, Rolling the R’s, was released by Kaya Press of New York in 1995. Linmark said letters taught him to separate himself from his work.

“Don’t impose your life on a page unless you’re writing a memoir,” Linmark said. “If you do that, it’s going to come out contrived,” he said.

NATIONAL Artist for Literature Francisco Sionil Jose urged Filipino writers to read Don Quixote, the novel by Miguel Cervantes de Saavedra first published in 1605 that is generally recognized by literary critics and writers worldwide as the first and the greatest modern novel of all time.

EYES are said to be the windows to the soul. And for iridologist Dr. Edwin Arellano Bien, they are also the windows to one’s health.

Iridology, an alternative approach to diagnose illness through the blood vessels of a patient’s iris, is a much-debated treatment in the world. However, Bien boldly pioneered the legalization of the controversial Iridology treatment in the country.

THE Faculty Association of the University of Santo Tomas (FAUST) is folding up, as it is in the process of liquidating its assets and reviewing its members’ accounts for return of their investments starting this month, according to Faust legal counsel Atty. Zim Zuniega.

The FAUST board of directors, with the consensus of its members, decided to cease operations last July due to the expiration of its corporate existence in the Securities and Exchange Commission in October 2003, Zuniega said. The registration was not renewed.

DESPITE having the second highest number of professors with master’s and doctorate degrees, six out of the ten programs from the Faculty of Arts and Letters (Artlets) are still short of the faculty profile requirement of the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities Commission on Accreditation (PACUCOA) for Level I accreditation.

The deficiency caused the Faculty to postpone the Level I accreditation applications of the Communication Arts, Journalism, Sociology, Behavioral Science, Political Science, and Asian Studies programs set this month to next February.

HINIKAYAT ni dating UST Rektor P. Rolando de la Rosa ang mga guro ng Unibersidad na pagtibayin ang kanilang integridad sa pagtuturo dahil hindi lamang sila nagtatarabaho upang mai-angat ang kanilang pamumuhay kundi gampanin nila na mahubog ang mga mag-aaral sa pamamagitan ng kanilang pagtuturo.

“Hindi lamang kayo namamahala sa pagpapalaganap ng kaalaman ngunit mahalaga rin na matulungan ninyo ang mga estudyante na mapalawak ang kanilang kakayahang umunawa bilang tao,” ani De la Rosa.

HOUSE of Representatives Minority Floor Leader Rep. Francis Escudero called for the active involvement of the youth in the country’s political crises during a symposium, “Finding Our Way Out: A Symposium on Constitutional Change in response to the Philippines Political Crisis,” at the UST High School auditorium last Sept. 2.

“The youth, who make up a large part of the population, should stop their political abstention and now is the chance for them to take part in the great political process of the country,” he said.

THE “MILLENNIAL” Rector, Fr. Tamelane Lana, O.P., aspires to “lay down clearly and firmly the groundwork” for the transformation of the University in the new century.

“I have not been dubbed as millennial rector of the University for nothing,” Lana said in the 2004-2005 Rector’s Report last Aug. 5 at the Medicine Auditorium. “I wish to be remembered with this title because I was the rector who paved the way towards building up a new image for UST at the onset of this great millennium.”

SOCIOLOGIST and University of the Philippines professor Randy David stressed the need to translate significant literature and other intellectual products from foreign cultures to develop the national language.

“There is no language that does not flourish if it is not used as a vessel to carry the products of consciousness and other ideas from different societies,” David said in a language forum sponsored by the Center for Creative Writing Studies at the St. Raymund’s Building last Aug. 22.

FILIPINO and Filipino-American writers have come a long way from anonymity. If entry into the mainstream literature in America was difficult before, nowadays, more and more of these writers’ works are being published.