Tag: Vol. LXXX

AMID THE controversies that preceded his visit to the Holy Land, Pope Benedict XVI stressed that his eight-day trip should be regarded as a pilgrimage of peace in the name of the Catholic Church.

“We are not a political power, but a spiritual force, and this spiritual force is a reality that can contribute to advances in the peace process,” he said in an interview with the media during his flight to the Holy Land.

The Vatican had earlier announced that the trip was dedicated to the cause of inter-religious dialogue with Islam and Judaism and to visit holy places in Israel, Jordan and Palestinian territories.

In his reflection on his pilgrimage, the Holy Father underlined the three main impressions of his trip: willingness of the religious leaders for an interfaith dialogue, support for ecumenism as seen in cordial meetings with the Orthodox world and the existence of great difficulties.

THE NOVEL influenza A(H1N1) virus has reached pandemic proportions since it first surfaced late April. As of June 19, a total of 44,287 cases with 180 deaths have been reported by the World Health Organization (WHO). In the Philippines, 428 cases but 339 have already recovered from the flu virus as of June 22, according to the Department of Health (DOH).

In UST, a confirmed case forced the closure of the Medicine Building last June 22. Opening of classes had already been moved to June 15 as a precaution.

Attention was drawn to A(H1N1) after the outbreak of 20 cases in the United States and 18 in Mexico. Days later, Israel and New Zealand reported their first cases of the new influenza strain which was previously identified as a mutated swine flu virus affecting humans. On June 11, the WHO officially declared the disease as a level six pandemic outbreak after its rapid spread across continents.

ACADEMIC Year 2008-2009 saw another batch of undergraduate theses whose findings could help solve everyday problems or even cure a disease. The Varsitarian’s picks are three theses in the natural and applied sciences.

One proposes a new way of checking the freshness of market produce. Another studied an alternative means of producing electricity to help reduce global warming. The third one discovered a new way of helping treat dengue fever.

Chemical engineering: Freshness indicator

TWELVE artists of different philosophies and artistic styles were brought together by their environmental advocacy in Our Mother’s Boiling Point, which ran recently at the Lunduyan Art Gallery in Quezon City.

Zeus Bascon, JL Burgos, Con Cabrera, Leo Castillo, Mideo Cruz, Arthur dela Cruz, Mariuz Funtillar, Milmal Onal, Marga Rodriguez, Dicky Joe Santos, Katrina Tan and Felix Petel Jr., all graduates of UST, showed works that generally depicted nature’s degradation due to pollution and exploitation.

Mariuz Funtilla, a Fine Arts in Painting graduate, used cigarettes and other smoking paraphernalia in a mixed-media work, “Hindi Ka Pa Ba Naiinitan?”

“It’s ironic that everything that I put in the work destroys the ozone layer, but this art work tells its audience to stop (from smoking),” Funtillar told the Varsitarian.

MANY Filipinos who experience traffic jams, knee-deep floods and crater-riddled streets share the dream of rebuilding Metro Manila.

Now, they can give their recommendations on how to rehabilitate the metropolis through an online suggestion box spearheaded by street artist Mark Salvatus.

“I’ve lived in the city most of my life,” Salvatus said. “I have experienced the chaos of Metro Manila, and as an artist, I want to improve city life.”

Salvatus, a UST Fine Arts alumni, launched last February the Neo-Urban Planner, as part of his residency at the Green Papaya Art Projects, an artist-run space in Kamuning, Quezon City.

Salvatus started his Neo-Urban Planner endeavor through his blogspot account, where he posted a blog entry asking readers what they would like to change the most in their environment.

The artist said he posted questions such as, ‘If you were Bayani Fernando as the head of the MMDA, what do you want to change about our city?”

STARVED for creative ideas – and ideas that work (read: make money), Philippine television has not only recycled old materials, it has also recycled the recycled. Now there’s a new trend: remake of remakes.

Hole in the Wall can make people laugh, but this is still another nail in the coffin of GMA 7 where, it seems, originality is a corpse.

GMA7’s late-afternoon treat provides audiences with excitement and hard laughs through an unusual yet amusing concept for a television game show that had originally come from Japan but which was later ripped off for the US and Indian TV screens.

TELLING a story vividly is one thing, and writing in verses is another. Yet once in a while, a person comes along who manages to weave both into his writing, and seems to make it look effortless.

In his debut collection, Chiaroscuro (UST Publishing House, 2008), poet Joel Toledo takes his readers on a tour of life—from the forces of nature to the complexities of human existence. The collection’s second and third sections, “What Little I Know of Luminosity” and “Literature and Other Poems,” won him first and second prizes in the Palanca awards for Poetry in English in 2005 and 2004, respectively. He also won second prize in the 2006 Bridport Prize, a British award.

UST officials have decided to move the opening of classes by a week to Monday, June 15 as part of precautionary measures amid the spread of the influenza A(H1N1) virus.

In a memorandum dated June 4, Secretary-General Fr. Isidro Abaño, O.P. also suspended until June 14 elementary and high school classes which had begun earlier, and adjusted the academic calendar – with the end of the first semester moved to Wednesday, October 22.

This was to allow students, support staff, faculty members, and administrators “who have arrived from travel abroad to go on voluntary quarantine.”

Abaño said “regular office hours” would be observed from June 6 to 14 but no transactions would be entertained. Those who have yet to enroll will be allowed to do so from June 15 to 20, without penalties.

THE CHURCH mourns as the country’s oldest bishop and last living delegate to the Second Vatican Council, Bishop Manuel del Rosario, succumbed to pneumonia last March 23 at Yanga Hospital in Bocaue, Bulacan. His remains were buried at the crypt of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in neighboring Malolos five years later.

In a funeral mass for the late Bishop last March 27, Papal Nuncio to the Philippines Archbishop Edward Joseph Adams lauded Del Rosario in his homily for being an “exponent of hope” despite his illness.

“A priest for 70 years, a bishop for 53 years, and a Christian for the past 93 years, Del Rosario, lived by faith in his existence serving God,” Adams said.

Fr. Allan Antonio, Del Rosario’s relative, said the bishop made a valuable contribution to the Church by spearheading the establishment of the Immaculate Conception Seminary in Bulacan.

Kakaiba ang kadiliman sa gabing ito: walang buwan at wala ring mga bituin. Puro ulap ang naghahari kasabay ang malamig at malakas na ihip ng hangin. Bihira kasi ang ganitong pagkakataon sa tuwing tag-init.

Dapat sana sinasamantala ko ang lamig ng gabing ito. Gusto ko na ngang mahiga sa kama at ipikit ang aking mga mata. Kaya lang hindi pupuwede kasi nandito ako ngayon sa terasa namin, nagsasampay kasama ni Mama.

Kung bakit kasi pumayag pa akong tulungan siyang ipanik dito ang mga labahin. Ang paki-usap niya lang kasi kanina ay tulungan ko siyang maglaba. Kaso nadaya na naman niya ako. Kaya heto, no choice na ako. Tinutulungan ko na rin siyang magsampay.