THOSE WERE THE DAYS...

 

During my time as radio host in different radio stations in the Philippines, this song has been requested innumerable times. "Those Were the Days" is a song credited to Gene Raskin, who put a new English lyric to the Russian romance song "Дорогой длинною" (literally "By the long road"), composed by Boris Fomin (1900–1948) with words by the poet Konstantin Podrevsky. It deals with reminiscence upon youth and romantic idealism. It also deals with tavern activities, which include drinking, singing and dancing.

Mary Hopkin's 1968 debut single of "Those Were the Days", which was produced by Paul McCartney of the Beatles, and arranged by Richard Hewson, became a number one hit on the UK Singles Chart and on the Canadian RPM Magazine charts. The song also reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100, behind "Hey Jude" by the Beatles.

McCartney also recorded Hopkin singing "Those Were The Days" in other languages for release in their respective countries: In Spain, Qué tiempo tan feliz;in (West) Germany,  An jenem Tag; in Italy, Quelli erano giorni; in France, Le temps des fleurs.

Yes, time flew by. I think about sitting in a jet plane. Almost November 2024 again. Wow!

Do you always count the days up to the next legal holidays without being on duty? Or do you start as early as September longing for Christmas? And do you wish the weeks or months hopefully pass by like an assault up to the next possible salary increase?

Many times, we are really in too much of a hurry while feeling uncomfortable if we notice how time flies. We have  no time for someone or something or even for ourselves.

When I was still a teenager, I was longing to be an adult already. Later, I enjoyed listening to my grandmother's stories such as "Once upon a time" or "When I was young" from her "yesterday's life"... .

After a couple of years, especially while observing that time really flies like a racket to the moon, I also have the same question in mind: Are the present hours and days less valuable?

Of course, each day has its own set of happiness and trials. But it also holds very high possibilities of us taking the initiative to do or to move something, if... !

Many of us retreat into the past and forget their present existence. A possible topsy-turvy world of a golden youth tries to let us forget that also the past has had its share of disappointments, pains, tears, darkness, tricky as well as desperate days... yes, lost days, irretrievable time... .

Without having achieved anything, we dream our impossible dreams from last to future and vice versa. We forget that between yesterday and tomorrow is our valuable present. Well, now well then - if we know just how to fulfill this period.

"Once upon a time there was a tavern

Where we used to raise a glass or two

Remember how we laughed away the hours

Think of all the great things we would do?

Those were the days, my friend

We thought they'd never end

We'd sing and dance forever and a day

We'd live the life we choose

We'd fight and never lose

For we were young and sure to have our way..."

The destruction of God’s creation in Palawan

 

By Fr. Shay Cullen

There is a long-running war in the Philippines, and it is being waged by three super-rich mining corporations in Palawan against the Filipino people and God’s creation there. The firms are planning to cut down more than 188,765 magnificent primeval trees with permits from their contacts in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).  Their impending destruction is likely without the approval of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. This environmental crime will be laid on his doorstep unless he stops it.

Ongoing open-pit-mining operations are being compared to environmental crime scenes, as the mining companies named below, with the DENR’s approval, have planned to wreak more devastation. The nickel ore extracted from such operations is of little benefit to the Filipino people. It enriches the Chinese, who get 90 percent of the raw ore exports to make the stainless steel and batteries that are sold back to the Philippines. The rest are exported to Indonesia, Japan and South Korea. Two Japanese-owned processing plants in the Philippines semi-process the raw ore and export it to Japan. The Filipino people get no benefit because corrupt officials divert the funds earned when the mining companies pay taxes. Most of the nickel extraction and refining is funded by Japanese state-owned banks.

The destruction of Philippine rainforests deprives every Filipino and environmentalist of these magnificent natural wonders, their wildlife and their protective climate cover. The trees targeted by mining companies with DENR permits are not covered by the moratorium passed by the Palawan provincial government in March 2025. Gov. Dennis Socrates led the provincial government in declaring a 50-year moratorium on all new pending mining applications in Palawan under Provincial Ordinance 3646. It is designed to guard and protect the rainforests’ unique status as the only original old-growth rainforest in the country. The “last ecological frontier,” they say of Palawan, which also has huge mangroves and coral reefs. The mining firms are expanding their open-pit or surface mining operations by cutting millions of trees in the process. Bishop Broderick Pabillo of Taytay told religious leaders to take a stand to protect the forests and speak out against environmental destruction, and called on the people to save Creation.

Palawan as a whole was designated as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Man and Biosphere Reserve in 1990 and is revered worldwide as a rare home of species found nowhere else on Earth. Its forests are full of rare and unique species, such as the Palawan bearcat, Palawan pangolin, and the majestic Manggis tree. These forests have an immense capacity to absorb carbon dioxide and hold back climate change and protect the nearby marine life in the Coral Triangle. Indigenous communities have lived in Palawan for millennia.

Environmental villains

Now come the villains, the moguls behind this planned environmental devastation, as they move to expand their operations. Environmental advocates point out that massive swathes of primary forest and ancestral lands have already been cut down and cleared. In Berong, the DENR has authorized the cutting of additional 26,617 trees at one time. Like in the flood-control corruption scandal, more dirty money is passing hands. Bishop Pabillo said reforestation was “a big lie.” Tree nurseries and seedlings cannot replace a thousand-year-old primeval rainforest.

The Rio Tuba Nickel Mining Corp. (RTNMC) and Ipilan Nickel Corp. are destroying the rainforests. RTNMC is the oldest and largest subsidiary of Nickel Asia Corp. (NAC), which holds a controlling 60-percent equity stake in the company. Its board chairman is no less than Jose Isidro “Lito” N. Camacho. He serves as the NAC group chairman, overseeing its governance. Then there is Maria Patricia Z. Riingen, the board’s vice chairman, and President and CEO Martin Antonio “Dennis” G. Zamora. Zamora directs the executive operations of both the NAC and RTNMC. They also own 65 percent of Taganito, and 100 percent of the Cagdianao, Hinatuan and Dinapigue operations. Ipilan operates in Brooke’s Point in southern Palawan. It plans to cut down 60,359 trees. Berong Nickel Corp. (BNC) operates in Aborlan in central Palawan and is planning to cut down 71,405 trees.

The people behind these corporations are immensely wealthy, but it seems money is never enough for them. The good, innocent people named here, perhaps, know nothing about the destruction and permanent irreparable damage their companies are doing to the Filipino people. History will never forget or forgive them.

Perhaps, they suffer from misinformation or are ignorant of the destruction being done, which is condemned around the world. In destroying the Philippines’ rainforests, driving wildlife and rare species to extinction, and damaging marine life, they are part of a crime against nature and the Filipino people. Shame on those who allow it. They will provide no benefit whatsoever for Filipinos; they will leave behind a washed-out, denuded wilderness. God’s creatures — trees, flowers, animals and people — all gone, forever.

This environmental crime scene is made possible by the DENR that has granted these companies special tree cutting and earth-balling permits (STC/EP) to make room for open-pit mining operations. These operations are supported by a 25-year national mineral production sharing agreements (MPSA) handled by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB). The mining companies need to get an environmental compliance certificate (ECC) to ensure adherence to ecological laws, free, prior and informed consent from Indigenous communities if the mining area overlaps with ancestral domains, and local government unit endorsement from the host community. These they do not have, according to local church groups and networks like the Save Palawan Movement and Alyansa Tigil Mina. They have bravely stood with Indigenous peoples and launched major campaigns exposing corrupt government-approved permits. They are fighting to block the STC/EPs that threaten to clear over another 218,000 trees across Brooke’s Point, Bataraza, and Aborlan.

On Sept. 1, Pope Leo XIV opened the season of creation and warned that war and environmental degradation were driving a “vicious cycle” of ecological destruction, poverty and further conflict in the world. War against the environment, against people, and against creation is destroying the habitat and the life of the people. We do well to heed Pope Leo’s words: “War also leaves behind social and ecological destruction that endures for generations.”

shaycullen@gmail.com

The Beatitudes: God's great paradox

 

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

"BLESSED are you who are poor... Blessed are you who are now hungry... Blessed are you who weep... Blessed are you when people hate you" (Lk 6:20-22).

Seriously? Who calls poverty, hunger, tears, and persecution blessings?

Christ does.

This is the shocking paradox at the heart of the Beatitudes. They turn human logic upside down. The world says, "Blessed are the rich, the comfortable, the admired, and the successful." Christ says exactly the opposite. Not because suffering is good in itself, but because union with God transforms everything—even suffering—into a path toward eternal happiness.

We should always keep in mind that following Christ is filled with divine paradoxes. We gain by giving. We lead by serving. We become great by becoming little. We die to ourselves in order to truly live. The Beatitudes are perhaps the clearest expression of this heavenly logic and wisdom.

Christ is not romanticizing poverty or glorifying misery. Nor is He condemning wealth as such. What He is exposing is the danger of becoming imprisoned by earthly comforts, trapped in our earthly affairs and standards.

Poverty becomes blessed when it creates space for God. Hunger becomes blessed when it awakens a deeper longing for Him. Tears become blessed when they purify the heart. Rejection becomes blessed when it is endured for Christ.

The paradox is simple: when God is enough, everything else finds its proper place.

Luke's Gospel also includes four corresponding woes: "Woe to you who are rich... who are filled now... who laugh now... when all speak well of you" (Lk 6:24-26). These are not curses but urgent warnings. They caution us against living as though this world were our permanent home.

We have to learn the art of how to handle the world without being trapped by it. Wealth, pleasure, success, and popularity are not evil. But they become dangerous when they replace God as the center of our life. The greatest poverty is not lacking money but lacking God. The greatest wealth is possessing Him. We should be clear about this truth.

This explains why many saints radiated joy despite immense suffering. Their happiness was rooted not in changing circumstances but in an unchanging relationship with Christ. They understood the paradox that the cross is never the end of the story. Beyond every Calvary lies Easter. Our resurrection with Christ passes through his Cross in Calvary.

The Beatitudes also challenge our daily choices. Do we measure success by possessions or by holiness? Do we seek applause or fidelity? Do we avoid every inconvenience, or do we lovingly embrace sacrifice when duty calls? Every decision reveals which kingdom we truly belong to.

Living the Beatitudes does not require extraordinary miracles. It begins in ordinary faithfulness: accepting difficulties without complaint, forgiving those who hurt us, serving without expecting recognition, sharing generously, and remaining joyful even when life becomes difficult. These hidden victories often matter more in God's eyes than spectacular achievements.

The Beatitudes are not impossible ideals reserved for saints. They are Christ's portrait of every authentic disciple. They reveal that true happiness is not found in having more but in loving more; not in avoiding the cross but in carrying it with Christ.

God's mathematics has always been different from ours. Lose your life, and you will find it. Empty yourself, and you will be filled. Become poor in spirit, and you will inherit the Kingdom.

That is the paradox of the Beatitudes. And it is the secret of lasting joy!

Yeng Constantino reveals she auditioned for SexBomb Girls

Jan Milo Severo - Philstar.com

September 9, 2026 

Yeng Constantino  

— Before Yeng Constantino became one of the country’s most recognizable singer-songwriters, she could have taken a very different path in showbiz — as a member of the iconic SexBomb Girls.

The “Hawak Kamay” hitmaker revealed that she auditioned for the popular girl group when she was only 14 years old.

Yeng made the revelation during her appearance on Monday’s episode of “Fast Talk with Boy Abunda,” where she looked back on her early dreams of becoming an artist.

While she did not make it through the audition, Yeng admitted that she was actually relieved because dancing was never her strongest suit.

“I’m really not good at dancing, so my reaction was, it was a good thing I wasn’t qualified,” Yeng said.

Yeng explained that it was her mother who encouraged her to audition because she wanted her daughter to pursue a career in entertainment.

“But my mom, she really wanted me to be an artist. And at that time, of course, Ma’am Rochelle was super famous, Ma’am Jopay. My mom said, ‘Maybe this is the way. Try it out,’” she recalled.

At the height of their popularity, Rochelle Pangilinan and Jopay Paguia were among the most recognizable members of the SexBomb Girls, whose songs and dance numbers became a staple of Filipino television and pop culture.

Despite not becoming part of the group, Yeng said she remains a fan of the SexBomb Girls and considers herself among the Filipinos who grew up with their music.

“They are so legendary. Every song they release, everyone will dance to it,” she said.

Looking back, Yeng’s failed audition did not stop her from pursuing her dream. She eventually found her own place in the industry as a singer-songwriter.

Now, years after that unexpected audition, Yeng is taking on another major role in her career.

She will serve as one of the judges of the upcoming season of “The Voice Kids” alongside fellow singers Julie Anne San Jose and Gloc-9.

“The Voice Kids” is set to premiere on GMA Network on September 13.

I never loved ‘Wildflower’

 

Christian dela Cruz

|September 8, 2026

We often compare women to flowers, a metaphor that says more about cultural expectations than actual people.

Perhaps that is why “Wildflower” became such a fitting title for a teleserye about suffering, revenge, and transformation. Lily Cruz, played by Maja Salvador, did bloom, if blooming is what we call turning pain into spectacle and vengeance into triumph.

My mother loved that show. Every afternoon before “TV Patrol,” she sat in front of the television, invested in Lily Cruz’s suffering and transformation. It fascinated me how someone could be emotionally available to fictional pain and absent from the real thing.  

People say life is a stage and each of us has a role to play. My mother must have taken that seriously because she always needed to be the main character.

To be fair, her life had all the ingredients of a proper Filipino melodrama. She became a mother at 16. Then another child followed. There was poverty, instability, fractured relationships, and eventually me, the youngest child, whose paternity remains uncertain because her relationships with two men overlapped closely enough to make certainty impossible. Friends have joked that my life sounds like “Maalaala Mo Kaya” or “Magpakailanman.”

The difference, of course, is that television scripts end.

My siblings and I were left with relatives the way some people leave pets with trusted neighbors before a trip. Fed, perhaps. Temporarily housed. Visited when convenient. I sometimes joke that some members of our family were “pet lovers,” but humor has always been one of the cleaner ways to tell dirty truths. At least stray animals are rarely made to feel guilty for existing.

I later learned that my mother once planned to give me up for adoption to a doctor, but my grandmother intervened. Sometimes I think about that alternate life, not because I believe money or professional parents would have magically repaired everything, but because abandoned children become very good at imagining parallel universes.

Perhaps I would have become the doctor I once wanted to be.

Instead, I became the child who cried too much. The child relatives compared to a tiyanak because of an ugly face. The child who learned early that gratitude can be weaponized against those who have nowhere else to go.

In the Philippines, we often romanticize the extended family as proof of communal care and resilience. Less discussed is how that structure can absorb the consequences of parental abandonment while children learn to treat displacement as normal.

My mother chose men. She chose gambling. She chose absence with a consistency that almost resembled routine.

I know the expected response here. People prefer to ask what happened to women like her. What wounds did she carry? What kind of childhood made her this way? Which social conditions shaped her decisions?

These are not irrelevant questions. Poverty, gendered precarity, abandonment, and limited choices shape many women’s lives in this country. But structural explanation should not become moral anesthesia. At what point do we stop treating harm as inherited tragedy and start naming it as a decision?

Our culture is fluent in stories of suffering. We consume betrayal, sacrifice, poverty, and abandonment when they fit familiar emotional scripts. We can root for fictional women demanding justice while overlooking quieter violence inside our own homes.

When my mother came home, she did not always bring food, sometimes she brought a silence that made the house feel smaller.

Even now, my body remembers what my mind tries to intellectualize away: the tension at certain footsteps, the reflex to become quiet, the instinct to brace when someone enters a room too loudly. Trauma is political in that way. It does not remain private simply because it happens inside a home. The family is imagined as a sanctuary, but it can also be an institution where power is exercised without accountability.

And still, “Wildflower” played. That unsettles me most. How does someone spend hours watching stories about betrayal and injustice while participating in quieter versions of both? How does one root for fictional women demanding justice while creating fear in one’s own children?

Perhaps this is why I distrust revenge narratives. Pain explains many things. It does not sanctify them. We compare women to flowers as though blooming is inherently beautiful, as though difficult conditions automatically produce admirable resilience. But some things survive and become dangerous. Some things grow thorns. Some things learn to wound what comes closest.

I am not defending my mother. I am refusing the easier script. She may not have chosen every condition that shaped her life. Few people do. But suffering does not produce wisdom, tenderness, or moral clarity. Sometimes suffering produces more suffering. And children are often the ones expected to call that resilience.

 

Anubhav Jain

 

Written 3 books on Life, living and motivation.

1. Immediately stop all comparisons with other human beings.
2. Take good sleep every night.
3. Chat with your loved ones for a few minutes every day without fail.
4. Talk to yourself in stress. Ask questions, answer questions, find a solution.
5. Whatever you do, take tiny breaks after an hour or so, and relax for a few minutes. Take a few days off after every quarter and travel away from the place.
6. Acceptance is the key to a calm mind. ‘What happened was your fate. What you can do is your deeds.’
7. When you feel outburst of emotions, wash your face, or go to the roof and shout, or do some exercise, or take a break and do some shopping or eat something. Don't let it overwhelm you.
8. Dedicate your time in helping human and animals. It boosts self-esteem and makes you calmer.
9. Try to live a minimalistic lifestyle, higher the aspirations and materialism; more will be complexities.
10. Do your deeds because you have to do them, don't expect anything in return.
11. If you are not atheist, visit any religious shrine and talk to God, narrate your miseries and hand them over your fate and walk outside free and light.
12. Other people's expectations are their business and not your business; your business is to do what you can and enjoy your life.
13. Eat dinner a bit early, and have a mild walk after that, so that your stomach gets to relax before you sleep.
14. Every night, remember your luxuries and thank God for them.
15. Have your goals in the back of the mind and focus on your routine in normal life, do your chores well.
16. Fill your time gaps with hobbies, so that there isn't any scope of overthinking.
17. Try, and do some of your chores sometimes, like cooking, making your bed, cleaning your cupboard, ironing your clothes, it gives you a sense of importance of everything.
18. In stressful situations, remember the love of your parents and respect your fate, and simply give your best.
19. Respect failures and miseries, as they give you free tuition of wisdom and strength for the future.
20. Don't engage too much with society, like social media, gossiping, having countless friends. Be connected and simultaneously be indifferent; make a balance.
21. Past is dead; you are not, don't keep digging its grave, the dead body will only stink and not do any good.
22. Future is uncertain, no matter how much you plan, or stay stressed, or worry, there is always a major chance that something altogether unexpected may happen, so respect uncertainty and stay calm.

What should I know before learning the German language?

 

Sandeep Kho

Before learning German (Deutsch) language, you should know that

• After English, Spanish and French, German ranked 4th most commonly taught language worldwide.
• German is spoken by almost 95 millions native speakers (ranked 11th worldwide). That makes it, German as the most widely spoken native language in European Union.
• It is official language in Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland (1 of 4) and Luxembourg (1 of 3)
• German is a Germanic language - branch of the Indo-European language family - including English, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, Norwegian,..etc.
• German and English have 60% common words like Kindergarten, Angst, Poltergeist etc. But be careful some may look English and have totally different meaning, e.g. Gift means poison! Some German words have no English equivalents like Schadenfreude.
• Even though it is closely related to English, German is considered to be difficult to learn (especially for English speakers) - mainly due to German grammar like genders, Adjective endings (decline Adjectives) according to different cases, tenses, long words, difficult pronunciations, etc.

• The language is full of exceptions. To learn effectively, for every grammatical rule, you should first learn the exceptions. Like gender for a girl is neutral (das Mädchen), the names/make of car are Masculine like der Audi, der VW, der Porsche ; but a car is neutral - das Auto. Most nouns ending in -e are feminine, but der Name, das Ende,..
• German has many long compound words like Donau­dampfschiffahrts­elektrizitäten­hauptbetriebswerk­bauunterbeamten­gesellschaft (79 letters), Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz (63 letters, now dropped)
• The standard German is called Hochdeutsch.
• According to regions, there are different dialects and accents like Bavarian, Swiss, Austrian, etc.

• Time is counted with respect to next hour like 1:30 is half two hours in German (halb Zwei)
• The first printed book Gutenberg Bible was in Germany (1455) and the first printed book in German language was Der Ackermann aus Böhmen (1461).
• Until Second World War, German was written (Calligraphy) in Fraktur Script.

• They say “German is the language of Machines” - thanks to robust DIN (Deutsches Institut für Normung) standards, being manufacturing and automobile hub and exporter, n number of technical books written since centuries etc.
• Sometimes “thank you” (German Danke) means “No”
• please (German bitte) is universal word for please, you are welcome, go ahead, pardon? One more universal word I know is “tja”

All the best! (Alles Gute!)