Another problem, another chance to grow

By Fr. Roy Cimagala *

“I HAVE told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world, you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.” (Jn 16,33)

What very reassuring words of Christ for us! That’s why no matter what happens in our life, even if we are drowning with all sorts of problems and troubles, we should remain at peace and confident, since Christ has taken care of everything.

Instead, we should sport that have-a-go attitude that would lead us to even take advantage of these situations, to derive something good from them, in order to grow in our humanity and our Christian life, etc.

Remember St. Paul’s words to the Romans: “God works all things together for the good of those who love Him.” (8,28) Yes, even our limitations, our mistakes, our defeats in life, if referred to God, can lead us to something good. These actually are great opportunities to learn new things, to grow and strengthen our virtues, etc.

Yes, if we have faith in God, in his wisdom and mercy, in his unfailing love for us, we know that everything will always work out for the good. If we are with God, we can always dominate whatever suffering can come our way in the same manner that Christ absorbed all his passion and death on the cross.

Let’s always remember that God, in his ineffable ways, can also talk to us through these crosses. In fact, he can convey precious messages and lessons through them. It would be good that we have a theological attitude toward them, and be wary of our tendency to react to them in a purely human way, based only on our senses and feelings and on worldly trends.

In all our affairs and situations in life, we should always go to God to ask for his help and guidance, and to trust his ways and his providence, even if the outcome of our prayers and petitions appears unanswered, if not, contradicted.

We need to trust in God’s providence and mercy. We have to learn to live a spirit of abandonment in the hands of God. If we truly have a deep faith in God, in his wisdom and mercy, in his unfailing love for us, everything will be taken care of and some good can always be derived even from our mistakes and failures.  God always has the last word. He always wins. We just have to make sure we are with him in all situations of our life.

When we are faced with our limitations, let’s just be game and sport about them, and try our best—with the help of God’s grace, of course—to try to go beyond our limits. There is always that possibility since we are not purely a material and natural being, but also a spiritual being capable of entering the supernatural order. With God’s grace, we can go beyond what our nature can only give.

As an old love song would put, let’s have that attitude that whenever we are faced with difficulties, we should be convinced that we can overcome them. And when it is something impossible for us to do, let us also convince ourselves that it may just need a little more time to get it.

The fact is, Christ is always around. He allows some negative things to happen in our life to derive a greater good for us!

* Chaplain Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

Being deep in thought

My column in Mindanao Daily, BusinessWeek Mindanao and Cagayan de Oro Times

OPINION

 January 16, 2020

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VERY often - sometimes too often! - the thought is back! If we wake up in the morning (or even many times in the middle of the night), the thought is back. Sometimes, the thought will not let us sleep. The "act of thinking". the "reflection", the "opinion" or the "serious consideration", no matter, how we describe it - our memory and conscience is always with us as a permanent companion.

We brood over unsettled problem. Sometimes we bear unfair treatments, arrogance, ignorance, incompetent know-it-all-betters, and unbearable oddballs, who inexorable love to make our life a hell while living themselves a disorderly life.

We would not like to be distracted, but we're toying with some good ideas how we could throw overboard all that "human garbage". What will come next is a matter of conjecture.

Of course, I've got my ideas, but I'm not a mind reader. Too many trains of thought make us thoughtless and absent-minded especially in difficult and important daily life situations.

Does waiting and/or sleeping solve our problems? Or is it just again in time? Our life's central idea should not be, that while waiting, time solves all our problems. Thoughts should intensify, condense and deepen plans follow by actions.

It's good and helpful to carry thoughts in us all the time. Incomprehensible, or better unfinished and unmatured thoughts, no matter whether positive or negative, should be slept on, before tiredness outstrips us with supersonic speed.

Sometimes, we feel that our thoughts and ideas can't be fulfilled with life. Where the heart is willing, it will find a thousand ways; but where the heart is weak, it will find a thousands excuses. If doubts begin to take roots, we should rouse from pink-tinted idealism or wear down and annihilate nightmares and erase and wipe out such thoughts and ideas.

If our thoughts are good and have the chance to be fulfilled in action, especially if "the other side" is prepared and willing to step on to such a bridge of life, we might get a support and words of encouragement.

And, if not? No action? Maybe it is God's will to keep and protect us from a careless, rash, disadvantageous and uneasy action. Every new day gives us new inexhaustible possibilities to survive, to bear trials and to start a new beginning. We overlook and fail to notice many chances in lie through our sluggishness and laziness while thinking and dreaming of unequaled and unfulfilled ideas.

Problems make me always grow

My column in Mindanao Daily News, Businessweek Mindanao and Cagayan de Oro Times.

Got problems? Feel hurt? Are you discouraged? Do you think, the whole world is against you?

I suppose everyone of us would have answered "yes" to at least one of the above questions at some times in our lives. At least once ... !

Nobody needs a smooth road all life through. There are just some potholes once in a while. That's what life is all about.

I often met people telling me that God does not love them any more. I would ask them then what makes them say that. Most of the time the answer comes back to me sounds something like that: I"ve got so many problems. Not only one.

W believe that God love us. He will spare us from the sufferings, the trials and tribulations of life. Really? How childish! What an immature thinking, that if our parents love us, they won't scold us!

Somebody in my surroundings once said, "Only those who have already experienced a resolution within themselves can each out and help other". In other words, unless you have learned to deal with your own inner crisis and problems, you will never learn the meaning of real maturity.

He who has no problems does never grow. It's as simple as that. You have to experience an inner turmoil and deal with it effectively before you can grown strong enough to help others.

As long as you never have a problem, you might remain child emotionally. The hardship of basic training are what make a soldier ready to stand his ground and fight bravely. Problems - and allow me to say ALL sorts of problems - cause us to be and become mature people who are capable of handling the tension and stress that male up the everyday fabric of life.

My dear reader, I really don't know about you, but I never ask God to take away my problems. I asked and still asking Him, rather, to help me work them out. In other words, I don't ask WHY, when I have to face a problem. I ask WHAT. What is it Lord, that you want to teach me? What is it that you want me to learn from this cross you are sending me right now? What are the new directions in life do you want me to take? I know that if I can work it all, I will be a more solid individual, capable of handling future crisis more readily.

I learned this only now - or maybe several years ago. I am 65 now.

So, the next time a problem arises in your life, don't gripe and complain. Look at it in an adut manner and see it an as opportunity to grow.

May this beautiful prayer help you to grow:

"Lord, please give me the serenity to accept the things that cannot be changed; the courage to change what can be changed; and the wisdom to know the difference! Amen."

One year total closure of Boracay recommended

By Analou De Vera, Manila Bulletin

Total closure for a maximum of one year was recommended by the interagency task force to address the looming environmental problems that the world-famous Boracay Island is now facing.

The joint recommendation was announced during a meeting on Thursday attended by Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Roy Cimatu, Tourism Secretary Wanda Tulfo-Teo and Interior and Local Government Officer-in-Charge Eduardo Año.

The inter-agency task forced tasked to rehabilitate Boracay led by DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu (right), DILG OIC Sec. Eduardo Año and DOT Sec. Wanda Tulfo-Teo (left) issued a joint declaration recommending the total closure of the island to address several environmental issues.
(DOT / MANILA BULLETIN)

The government officials proposed to President Duterte the “closure of the Boracay Island as tourist destination for a maximum of one year effective one month after its declaration,” said Cimatu, as he read the joint recommendation of the three agencies.

Cimatu stated that closing the island to tourists will give them ample time for the undisrupted implementation of the different measures that will be undertaken “to restore and eventually sustain Boracay Island as a prime tourism destination.”

The following measures were recommended by the agencies during the proposed closure of the Island:

• Upgrading of the sewerage system including the sewer lines to meet the requirement of the entire island as a major tourist destination;
• Installation of all required solid waste management facilities and mechanisms in addition to full compliance with the provisions of the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act;”
• Removal of illegal structures in forestlands and wetlands, easement areas and even geologically hazardous areas such as those with sink holes;
• Road widening/ construction, pipe laying and excavations; and
• Rationalization of transport system.

The total closure will take effect 30 days after President Duterte declared a state of calamity in the island. “We are recommending to the President the declaration of the State of Calamity and then after a month, declaration of the closure of Boracay,” Año said.

Meanwhile, Teo said they already coordinated with the different airlines for rebooking of flights and encouraged tourists to visit other travel destinations in the country.

Cimatu said that from 2016, their monthly monitoring results revealed high concentration of fecal coliform in Bulabog beach, which is located at the eastern portion of the Boracay Island.

The Bulabog beach, according to Cimatu, is frequently use by tourists for kite boarding sports. “There are incidents of tourists complaining of skin diseases which included a foreigner complaining on TV” Cimatu said.

In terms of solid waste management, Cimatu reported that about 90 to 115 tons of garbage is being generated per day, “however, the LGU (local government unit) can haul out only 30 tons per day, hence leaving 85 tons of waste in the island per day.”

Cimatu also added that the island’s centralized Materials Recovery Facility has been converted into a dumpsite.

Moreover, the agencies initially identified that there were 937 illegal structures within the forestlands and wetlands, as well as 102 establishments were illegally built within the easement areas, Cimatu said.

After a month that the agencies have started the cleanup, “numerous non-compliant establishments were issued notices of violations and show cause orders, and some establishments conducted voluntary demolitions,” Cimatu noted.

“Nevertheless, much remain to be done to restore the island to its pristine condition,” Cimatu said.

Europe’s problems

TUE, OCTOBER 25, 2016 BY THE MINDANAO DAILY MIRROR LEAVE A COMMENT

IN MY OPINIONKlaus Doring

Germany reforms its main intelligence service! This headline surprised me and many others too in whole Europe. How comes?

The German parliament has subjected the country’s intelligence service, the BND (Bundesnachrichtendienst), to increased government scrutiny. But critics object that it also gives the BND wide-ranging new powers to spy on foreign nationals.

Germany’s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, has passed a comprehensive reform of the country’s main intelligence service, the BND. The new legislation strengthens government monitoring of intelligence activities while explicitly allowing the BND to carry out certain types of surveillance activities.

The reform comes in the wake of the 2013 revelations by American whistle-blower Edward Snowden that a number of national intelligence services, including the BND, had spied on behalf of the US National Security Agency (NSA) and that the NSA had spied on its allies. That prompted the formation of a German parliamentary committee to draft intelligence agency reforms.

The new legislation subjects the BND to monitoring by an “independent panel” of two judges and a federal prosecutor and a “permanent commissioner” from the Interior Ministry. It stipulates that surveillance of international communications networks must be authorized by the Chancellor’s Office rather than by the BND itself and explicitly prohibits economic and industrial espionage.

The new laws also provide for better protection for whistle-blowers within intelligence services and subjects the BND to annual public hearings instead of private ones, as has been the case. The reforms also explicitly allow the BND to direct espionage operations at EU institutions and other EU member states, if they are aimed at gathering “information of significance for [Germany’s] foreign policy and security.”The reform also permits the BND to cooperate with foreign intelligence services like the NSA if it serves specific purposes, including fighting terrorism, supporting the German military on foreign missions or collecting information concerning the safety of Germans abroad.

The legislation was passed with the votes of the governing Conservative-Social Democratic coalition, which said that the reforms address the concerns raised by the Snowden leaks while allowing the BND to use 20th century means to ensure Germany’s security. “How else is the BND supposed to protect us against terrorism other than listening in on conversations between people outside of Ger-many?” said Clemens Binninger of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, the chairman of the Bundestag’s NSA parliamentary committee.

Do we have to deal with so-called Extra-legal spaces?

Former Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger tweeted, “Unconstitutional BND law: I’m consulting with my colleagues at the FDP (Liberal Democratic Party).

But what matters more? Or even most? EU leaders have ended a Brussels summit without agreeing on a free trade deal with Ottawa as Belgium’s region of Wallonia refused a last minute offer. Canada’s trade minister said the deal was “impossible” at the moment. Tensions were high in Brussels on Friday (yesterday, write this piece on Saturday, October 22, 2016), after the government of Wallonia refused to budge on CETA (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) despite massive pressure from Canada, the Belgian government, and the overwhelming majority of EU officials. Ottawa’s representative Chrystia Freeland blasted the EU as incapable of resolving the impasse, saying her country was “disappointed.”

“It seems evident for me and for Canada that the European Union is not now capable of having an international accord even with a country that has values as European as Canada, even with such a kind, patient, country,” the trade minister said in the Belgian city of Namur.

The parliament of the 3.5 million-strong region voted against the so-called CETA last week , blocking the deal near the very end of the seven-year negotiation procedure which aimed to cancel 98 percent of trade tariffs between EU and Canada. The Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was to travel to Europe and sign the deal on the 27th of October.

Romania and Bulgaria were also opposed to the deal, but decided to get on board in exchange for visa-free travel to Canada from 2017. Wallonia, however, still  holds out against it, with its lawmakers concerned about CETA lowering Europe’s health standards, hurting small farmers, and giving big business power to force governments to change laws.

Also, CETA is seen as a probe for a much larger deal with the US, with citizens across Europe voicing similar com-plaints.

CETA also faced a challenge in Germany’s Constitutional Court, but was deemed to be in line with German law just over a week ago.

Europe is dealing with a lot of problems on all sights, while this nation Philippines is facing a lot of changes. For the good or the better? Future shall show us.

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