A Chance of Religiousness?

One of the most important parts in my life is the belief in supernatural power which governs the universe. Maybe because I was born and raised up in a parish house in Germany.

It doesn't matter which religion we belong to or believe in: the recognition of God as object of worship, the form of worship should be our primacy need. Sad to say, more and more people get another opinion nowadays.

During my stay in several Western countries, I experienced icy and conceited comments such as religiousness isn't popular any more. Religiousness makes people unwilling and morose because of exaggeration and sometimes even hypocrisy. Increasing negative headlines about the "institutional church" in the past and now, and embarrassing comparisons lead only to discord.

How comes? We want to see the religiousness of our fellow creatures. We want to understand their ideology.

But we are also poking our nose into other people's business too much. Let's look behind the scenes and let's find out what religious behavior promotes: humility in actual life. Maybe. It's hard for us to do without affecting others.

We even forget the real meaning of religiousness. St. John Crysostom subscribed the topic "Pagans and Christians" very well: "There would be no pagans if we were good Christians. But the pagans see us manifesting the same desires, pursuing the same objects - power and honor - as themselves, how can they admire Christianity?"

They see our lives open to reproach and our souls worldly. We admire wealth equally with them and even more. How, then, can they believe? From miracles? But these are no longer wrought. From our conversion? It has become corrupt. From charity? Not a trace of it is anywhere seen. (Quotation "Winnowing Fan", Vol. XX, June 2003, S of G Foundation, Makati).

I am proud having people in my surroundings who taught me be how to be on the right track - unconcerned and unnoticed. Natural and uninhibited, they showed me how to put real religiousness into action besides praying and going regularly to church. I call such people religious. I mean it as praise because they don't like to blow their trumpets while a acting as Christians in our daily life. Having such people around us make it easier to practice forgiveness... .

Beans or beef?

I LOVE both. Veggies and any kind of meat. Yesterday I came across a new slogan: pass the beans, hold the beef to save yourself and the planet.

I suddenly felt guilty while really enjoying a wonderful steak. With salad of course. But here is the thing:

Humans need to eat more beans and lentils and less red meat to protect the planet and our own health, researchers said. Meat intake for adults would be limited to 14 grams per day, that’s about half a slice of bacon. Again: half a slice of bacon! How many slices did you take for your breakfast today?

Where did I get all this stuff? Food production and consumption must change drastically to avoid millions of deaths and “catastrophic” damage to the planet, according to a study published Wednesday (January 16, 2019) in the scientific journal The Lancet.

The key to both goals is a significant shift in the global diet and would mean eating about half as much sugar and red meat and twice as many vegetables, legumes, fruits and nuts, the study found.

Researchers from the EAT-Lancet Commission said, and allow me to quote, that if people followed the “Planetary Health” diet, more than 11 million premature deaths could be prevented each year, greenhouse gas emissions would be cut and more land, water and biodiversity would be preserved.

The diet would see adults limited to 14 grams of red meat a day (about 30 calories — a quarter-pound burger patty contains roughly 450 calories), no more than 29 grams of poultry (around one and a half chicken nuggets) and 13 grams of eggs, or just 1.5 eggs per week.

The diet is the result of a three-year project commissioned by The Lancet and involving 37 specialists from 16 countries.

I don’t know how you feel right now, my dear readers while getting to know this: “We are in a catastrophic situation,” said co-author Tim Lang, a professor at the University of London and policy lead for the EAT-Lancet Commission that compiled the study.

Lang said feeding a growing population of 10 billion people by 2050 with a healthy, sustainable diet will be impossible without transforming eating habits, improving food production and reducing food waste.

“We need a significant overhaul, changing the global food system on a scale not seen before,” Lang said.

“The food we eat and how we produce it determines the health of people and the planet, and we are currently getting this seriously wrong,” Lang added.

Life-threatening diseases including obesity, diabetes, malnutrition and several types of cancer are linked to poor diets.

Researchers said unhealthy diets currently cause more death and disease worldwide than unsafe sex, alcohol, drug and tobacco use combined. Honestly, it’s difficult for me to believe this.

The dietary changes would be felt more in some regions than others. For example, people in North America eat almost 6.5 times the recommended amount of red meat, while people in South Asia eat only half the amount suggested by the planetary diet.

Meanwhile, meeting the targets for starchy vegetables such as potatoes and cassava would require big changes in sub-Saharan Africa, where people on average eat 7.5 times the suggested amount.

“More than 800 million people have insufficient food, while many more consume an unhealthy diet that contributes to premature death and disease,” said Walter Willett of Harvard University. “If we can’t quite make it, it’s better to try and get as close as we can.”

Beans of beef? What’s your decision at the moment?

(My column in MINDANAO DAILY NEWS)

Person with HIV lauds new AIDS law

By: Marc Jayson Cayabyab (The Philippine Star)

MANILA, Philippines — A person living with HIV lauded the passage of the Philippine HIV and AIDS Policy Act, which sets a human rights approach to address the spread of the disease and eliminate discrimination.

In an interview with Cignal TV / One News’ “The Chiefs” that aired yesterday, Billy Santo said he can now enjoy a normal life as a financial adviser for an insurance company.

He recounted his struggle with discrimination since he was diagnosed at the age of 23, brought about by his stint as a sex worker at 17 to make ends meet.

Republic Act 11166 seeks to amend the old law “Philippine AIDS Prevention and Control Act of 1998” where people living with HIV are not as protected from the stigma and discrimination, according to Anastacio Marasigan, executive director of TLF Share.

Santo said the old law, where minors were not allowed to undergo HIV testing without the consent of their parents, prohibited him from seeking treatment at a young age. He was also orphaned at an early age.

“The youth can really have the benefit from this new law. Given the fact that I was young and did not have access to these services and treatment, it prevented me from seeking treatment. It became a barrier for me,” Santo said.

Under the new law, a minor who would like to get tested need not get consent from his parents or guardians.

The new law is also anchored on the rights of people living with HIV to be protected from discrimination and to avail themselves of basic social services despite their condition.

Santo recalled the time he was fired from his job because his superior, who was pregnant at the time, was afraid of contracting HIV from him.

“I faced a lot of discrimination… When I was pushed down to my limit, this is when I said, this is enough. I need to stand up and show people I am still a human being capable of being loved, to live and to work,” Santo said.

The new law even included among the prohibited discriminatory acts the denial of burial services.

Santo said he heard of a case a year ago that a person who died of HIV was refused embalming services in the morgue. The person was also put inside a garbage bag and the casket was wrapped in plastic.

DFA given 5 days to wrap up passport probe

Rainier Allan Ronda (The Philippine Star) 

MANILA, Philippines — The National Privacy Commission (NPC) has given the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) five days to wrap up its investigation into the passport mess.

Speaking to reporters, NPC commissioner Raymund Liboro said yesterday’s initial meeting was brief but productive.

“The NPC’s investigation continues. In their own preliminary probe, the DFA said it is in control of the data. That says a lot already to assuage the public. The data in question is not controlled by any unauthorized parties. That was what today’s meeting with the DFA established. The data is under their safekeeping,” Liboro said.

Liboro added that he looked forward to next Monday’s fact-finding meeting, which will include representatives from both the DFA and Asia Productivity Organization (APO).

“The lessons we could learn from this incident would go a long way in ensuring better government practices. They would form part of the recommendations the NPC shall later issue to government offices contracting third parties,” he said.

Liboro added that the NPC was looking for ways to further protect personal data.

“The law obliges data controllers like the DFA to strictly implement contractual means to protect data when they deal with third parties and government contractors. We look forward to improving on that based on lessons we learn here,” Liboro said.

In the letter-request sent to NPC Tuesday afternoon, DFA’s data protection officer Menardo Macaraig said the department’s “preliminary inquiries on the matter indicate that there was no data breach because the APO protection unit, a government-owned and controlled corporation and recognized government printer, remain in custody and control of said data.”

Macaraig added that the data have not been shared with or accessed by an unauthorized third party, which may use it for illicit purposes.  

The DFA had requested the NPC for 10 more days to provide information on the incident.

The NPC, in a letter dated Jan. 14, invited Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. or the data protection officer of the DFA to a meeting yesterday morning.

“We went there to convey DFA’s request for a postponement. They gave us five days. The meeting will be Monday morning,” DFA office of legal affairs director Anthony Mandap told The STAR.

As this developed, Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo yesterday rejected the call of leftist lawmakers for the House of Representatives to investigate the passport incident in the DFA.

“Investigations are not the job of the House – inquiries but not investigations. And inquiries have to be in aid of legislation and in reality, what legislation can we introduce in a few months?” she told reporters.

Arroyo said she was leaving the matter to Camiguin Rep. Xavier Jesus Romualdo, who chairs the committee on good government and public accountability.

Meanwhile, the recruitment and migration sectors lauded the DFA order removing the requirement of birth certificate for passport renewal.

According to Emmanuel Geslani, who has served overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) for 35 years, they do not bring original copies of their birth certificate.

Geslani agreed with Locsin that requiring birth certificates for passport renewal was an additional burden, adding that the old passport is sufficient evidence of a person’s citizenship.

The Consular Affairs Office recently started issuing 10-year-validity passports but there are thousands of OFWs who still hold five-year-validity passports. – With Pia Lee-Brago, Jess Diaz, Rudy Santos

Much The Better!

We could spend all year living healthier, more productive lives, so why do we only decide to make the change at the start of the year? Why do we all make (and break) New Year resolutions?

Many of us will start 2019 with resolutions – to get fit, learn a new skill, eat differently. If we really want to do these things, why did we wait until an arbitrary date which marks nothing more important than a timekeeping convention? British psychologist Tom Stafford asked this. And not only he. The answer tells us something important about the psychology of motivation, and about what popular theories of self-control miss out.

Today is a very cool and rainy day. I am lazy. Not on the mood to do anything. It's even difficult to write this column. But my motivation gets bigger and bigger while writing. New Year resolutions? Many writers discussed about this topic already. Here are my two cents in.

While celebrating during New Year's night, my family and friends found out, that what we want isn't really straightforward. At bedtime you might want to get up early and go for a run, but when your alarm goes off you find you actually want a lie-in. When exam day comes around you might want to be the kind of person who spent the afternoons studying, but on each of those afternoons you instead wanted to hang out with your friends. Believe me - I heard it many times from my students.

You could see these contradictions as failures of our self-control: impulses for temporary pleasures manage to somehow override our longer-term interests. One fashionable theory of self-control, proposed by Roy Baumeister at Florida State University, is the 'ego-depletion' account. This theory states that self-control is like a muscle. This means you can exhaust it in the short-term – meaning that every temptation you resist makes it more likely that you'll yield to the next temptation, even if it is a temptation to do something entirely different.

A corollary of the 'like a muscle' theory is that in the long term, you can strengthen your willpower with practice. So, for example, Baumeister found that people who were assigned two weeks of trying to keep their back straight whenever possible showed improved willpower when asked back into the lab. 

But, and more importantly, that theory doesn't give an explanation why we wait for New Year's Day to begin exerting our self-control. If your willpower is a muscle, you should start building it up as soon as possible, rather than wait for an arbitrary date.

Another explanation may answer these questions, although it isn't as fashionable as ego-depletion. George Ainslie's book 'Breakdown of Will' puts forward a theory of the self and self-control which uses game theory to explain why we have trouble with our impulses, and why our attempts to control them take the form they do. The virgin page of a new calendar marks a clean break between the old and new you - a psychological boundary that may help you keep your resolutions(Credit: Getty Images).

And, so to speak with Tom Stafford again, Ainslie gives us an answer to why our resolutions start on 1 January. The date is completely arbitrary, but it provides a clean line between our old and new selves. The practical upshot of the theory is that if you make a resolution, you should formulate it so that at every point in time it is absolutely clear whether you are sticking to it or not. The clear lines are arbitrary, but they help the truce between our competing interests hold.

Good luck for your 2019 resolutions!

Duterte promises to hike teachers' pay

By: Alexis Romero (philstar.com)

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte Thursday vowed to increase the pay of teachers this year — days after his administration was criticized for allegedly red-tagging members of a teachers' group.

Duterte said he prioritized soldiers in the pay increase because of the risks they are facing. 

Related Stories:

Diokno announces 2020-2022 wage hikes for gov't employees, military

Diokno: ‘Unconstitutional’ to implement salary hike without passing 2019 budget

"I was talking to (Budget Secretary Benjamin) Diokno at the year-end to find out how things could be (afforded). I told him I prioritized soldiers because I know what will happen," Duterte said during the groundbreaking of the Gregorio National High School in Bukan, Bulacan.

“Kayo ang isusunod ko this year (You will be next this year)," he added. 

Duterte said he was ready to talk to representatives of teachers' groups in Malacañan to discuss the pay hike.   

Filipina beauty wins Miss Tourism World Intercontinental

By: Jan Milo Severo (philstar.com)

MANILA, Philippines — After ending 2018 with a Miss Universe title, the Philippines kicked off 2019 with a bang and continued its winning pageant streak after Francesca Taruc was crowned on Tuesday as Miss Tourism World Intercontinental.

Francesca was also awarded Best Body during the preliminary round of the competition held in Nanjing, China. Candidates from Tatarstan and Ukraine were first and second runners-up, respectively.

Reports said that Francesca was set to represent the country in the Miss Freedom of the World 2018 in Kosovo but upon her father’s advice, chose to finish her studies first. 

Francesca hails from Angeles City, Pampanga. She graduated from the Holy Angel University in Pampanga with a degree in Mass Communication. The newly crowned beauty queen is also a model and a vlogger. 

21-hour Traslacion 2019 ends with 'no untoward incidents'

MANILA, Philippines — The carriage carrying the image of the Black Nazarene reached the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo, Manila on Thursday after a 21-hour long procession that started at the Quirino Grandstand early Wednesday.

The procession started at a little past 5 a.m. on Wednesday and ended past 2 a.m. on Thursday, The STAR reports.

According to the Quiapo Church, as many as five million devotees were expected to participate in the traditional procession, which passes through major roads in the City of Manila.

The Philippine Red Cross said Thursday morning that it had given medical assistance to 1,613 patients, 747 of whom had their blood pressure monitored. Another 603 people were listed as being attended to for "minor cases" or "breathing difficulty, fainting, puncture, abrasion, bruises, laceration, toothache, nosebleed, sprain, hypoglycemia, swelling, muscle spasm, body weakness and dizziness." 

The National Capital Region Police Office, which handled security for the yearly event, said it had recorded no casualties or major untoward incidents. 

Director Guillermo Eleazar, NCRPO chief, said that around 7,200 police officers had been depoloyed to secure the route of the procession and to ensure order during the event. Police were at their posts a day before the procession and stayed on duty until the end.

"I would like to commend our police as well as the media who were there with us," he said.

"Based on our assessment, its better now than before, with the result of peace and order situation and with the result of injuries and casualties, this year it was more orderly compared to last time but we we want to improve on it more for Traslacion 2020," Eleazar also said in English and Filipino in a Facebook post.

Binibining Pilipinas still owns Miss Universe Philippines Franchise

By:

Jan Milo Severo (philstar.com) -

MANILA, Philippines — Binibining Pilipinas Charities Inc. Chairperson Stella Marquez Araneta has put an end to speculations that the local franchise of the Miss Universe pageant is now under the group of Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis Chavit Singson.

In an ambush interview with the media, Araneta confirmed that the most prestigious beauty pageant is still with her organization.

“Well, it's still with us. If some people say something else, let them talk about it," Araneta told reporters.


Araneta added that the search for the new batch of Binibining Pilipinas beauty queens would be announced soon.

Recent reports said the international organization allegedly offered the franchise to Singson.

Singson, together with his daughter Richelle who was a judge in the Miss Universe 2018 competition, came home to the Philippines with Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray after the pageant.

Apart from Miss Universe, Binibining Pilipinas winners also represent the country in other international beauty pageants such as Miss International, Miss Supranational, Miss Intercontinental, Miss Grand International and Miss Globe.

Bridges

1982, I visited Davao City for the first time in my life. I learned about the awesome project of a bridge from Davao City to Samal Island. I can't see this bridge till today. But the topic is back in the news. 

 We are all bridge builders during our whole life. I am not talking about the raised platform on a ship or a bridge mounting for false teeth or, as in the bony part of the nose. I am talking about spiritual bridges establishing connections between us and other people - or, between God and us.

Another elementary example is the "birthday bridge" or the turn to the new year, that takes us from the old into a new period of life. A very important bridge in life takes people to me and me to people. It matters not if our skin is black or white, if we are rich or or poor, man or woman, being sad or happy.

So obvious our daily life is that we might even forget simple things easily. Self-esteem, respect and freedom from anxiety are the necessary and conclusive foundations for this kind of bridge.

Small but important bridges every daily - how easily are they to be built: gestures of love - like a medicine; a handshake together with commendation and praise, encouraging words, a warm smile, instead of a superficial "How are you?" and the expected "Fine" or "OKAY LANG!".

Allow me to say it clearly and direct to the point: Separations result from crumbled or fit for demolition bridges. 

Destroyed spiritual bridges can be found at any corner. Look into your neighborhood or, don't drive away and repress this topic in your family. Insignificant trifling matters, minor arguing, misinterpretations, results in silence - and after the destroyed bridge follows an in invincible wall not only between estates but also in the hearts and minds of stubborn human beings.

I was born and grew up together with my parents in a parish house. Up to the time of my active performances - among many other things - I did learn this: 

"Build your own bridge to God and never doubt in Him. Always remember His promise. When a rainbow appears, it confirms His proximity and neighborhood and His faith. God's unique bridge, a rainbow, is always there and durable, long lasting and solid. The main bridge, which afford passage to God, is the institution "church".