Easter from Culture to Culture

 

Easter always falls on a Sunday. Many churches will offer worship services on Good Friday (the Friday just before Easter) along with one or more services on Easter Sunday itself. Easter Sunday marks the end of the 46-day preparatory season of Lent, which is significant in cultures around the world.

The exact date of Easter varies from year to year, but it typically falls during the month of April or sometimes late March. This seasonal timing gives the holiday its strong associations with springtime and rebirth in the natural world. Easter icons such as eggs, baby chicks, bunnies and tulips symbolize new life and renewed hope. Those are powerful ideas to embrace whether you celebrate Easter for religious reasons or simply because you enjoy the vibrant traditions that go along with the holiday.

The Resurrection Sunday church service is at the heart of African-American Easter traditions. Everyone dresses up in their best—new suits, shined shoes, bright dresses, hats, gloves. The worship services feature prayer, singing, Easter pageants, parades and speeches or recitations. Afterwards, the day focuses on family and togetherness, including a big dinner and often an egg hunt for the kids. Hiding a special empty golden egg that represents Jesus’ empty tomb is a time-honored Easter tradition for many African-American families.

“Pascha” is the term for Easter used in the Eastern Orthodox Church (also known as the Greek Orthodox Church). The date of Orthodox Easter is reckoned according to a different calendar, so it usually falls a few weeks later than Easter in Western Christian traditions. The word “Pascha” is familiar both within and beyond the Orthodox Church because of the traditional “Paschal Greeting” (also called the Easter Acclamation). In this celebratory exchange, one believer proclaims “He is risen!” and a fellow believer responds with either “Truly He is risen!” or “He is risen indeed!”

Easter is a very important religious holiday for Latinx people. The celebration is an entire week of events that begins with Palm Sunday (“Día de Ramos” in Spanish) and ends with the celebration of Jesus’ Resurrection. During the Holy Week (“Semana Santa” in Spanish), masses and prayer services are held on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and it’s common to see processions through towns and cities and people carrying crucifixes or statues of Jesus. Most of those events involve the entire family because they explore the biblical ideas of sacrifice, giving and forgiveness.

A simple “Happy Easter” wish can be a great option, especially when the card itself has already said a lot or when keeping it short simply feels right for your relationship with your recipient.

If you belong to a Christian faith tradition, then sharing the hope and joy of Christ’s Resurrection may be the key message you want to send in an Easter card. And there are lots of great ways to do that.

Celebrating the miracle of Easter, the beauty of God’s creation and the blessing of having you in my life.

 

PSEi declines after peso hits new record low

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) was slightly lower on Friday, March 27, after the peso slid to a new low amid high oil prices fueled by the conflict in the Middle East. Read more

The peso weakened to ₱60.55 per dollar, surpassing the previous historic low of ₱60.3 set earlier this week, according to data from the Bankers Association of the Philippines. Read more

Fuel hikes to ease next week

 

Fuel hikes to ease next week; Camago-3 gas breakthrough a major step in oil security

PUBLIC utility vehicles (PUVs) continue to ply their usual routes along a busy street in Davao City on Thursday, March 26. (Photo by Keith Bacongco I MB)

Fuel prices are expected to offer a slight reprieve to motorists next week, as easing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East begin to cool global energy benchmarks. According to industry data based on the four-day trading Mean of Platts Singapore, gasoline prices are projected to remain flat or see a minimal increase of up to ₱3 per liter. Read more

Meanwhile, Senator Pia Cayetano on Friday, March 27 welcomed the successful drilling of the Camago-3 gas well, saying it a breakthrough for the Philippine’s energy security and local energy production. Read more

Monitoring ‘happiness’

 

Mahar MangahasMarch 21, 2026 12:09 am

March 20th was the United Nations’ annual International Day of Happiness, which stemmed from a 2012 UN Resolution initiated by Bhutan, the famed originator of the Gross National Happiness (GNH) concept. It explains the timing of the release of: (a) the Social Weather Stations (SWS) report, “Fourth Quarter 2025 Social Weather Survey: 33% of Pinoys are ‘very happy’ with life; 23% are ‘very satisfied’ with life” (www.sws.org.ph, 3/19/26), and (b) the 2026 World Happiness Report (WHR), published by the Wellbeing Research Group of the University of Oxford in partnership with Gallup, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, and the WHR’s editorial board.

Happiness of Filipinos according to SWS. The SWS report discloses its two survey questions for monitoring happiness, one with the adjective “happy” (masaya) and another with the adjective “satisfied” (nasisiyahan), and both describing the respondent’s present life as a whole. Each option has a four-point scale: Very Happy/Fairly Happy/Not Very Happy/Not At All Happy and Very Satisfied/Fairly Satisfied/Not Very Satisfied/Not At All Satisfied. SWS has asked the “happy-life” question 49 times since 1991, and the satisfied-life question 57 times since 2002; see the report’s charts and tables.

Personally, I think the happy-life option goes straight to the point; I also like to focus more on downside rather than the upside. In 2025, SWS used both options in two surveys, with these average results (in percentages): 32 Very Happy, 52 Fairly Happy, 14 Not Very Happy, and 2 Not At All Happy; and 29 Very Satisfied, 51 Fairly Satisfied, 14 Not Very Satisfied, and 6 Not At All Satisfied. For me, these may be simplified into 16 percent “unhappy” and 20 percent “dissatisfied.”

Back in 2021, when SWS did four surveys, the average unhappy was 17 percent and the average dissatisfied was 21 percent, i.e., 2025 showed a tiny improvement in subjective well-being. (I cite 2021 at this point, for comparability with the WHR which uses a three-year rolling average—last year’s WHR involves data as far back as 2022.)

Happiness according to the World Happiness Report. The WHR’s data are from the annual Gallup World Poll, which asks about life-satisfaction, by likening it to being somewhere on a 10-step ladder (from the ground numbered 0 to the top numbered 10, thus 11 points in all), where 10 is the best life, and 0 is the worst life that the respondent thinks could possibly happen to him/her. This is asked with regard to one’s present life, and also with regard to one’s expected life in five years’ time, and then the two are averaged. The WHR uses rolling averages: its 2026 figure combines 2023 to 2025, and its 2025 figure combines 2022 to 2024.

Personally, I prefer questions answerable by choosing words rather than by choosing a number. The only thing definite about a 0-10 scale is that five is the middle, and therefore, all steps of six upward are satisfactory, while all steps of four downward are unsatisfactory.

In the WHR of 2026, Finland at 7.76 is No. 1 again, while Afghanistan at 1.45 is No. 147 and last (the published figures have three decimal places but here I round to two places). At just over 5.00 is South Africa, No. 101; therefore 101/147 or 68.7 percent of the “peoples” (not identical to “countries”) are, on average, satisfied with their lives to some extent, while 31.3 percent of them are not.

The Philippine score is 6.21, up a little bit from 6.11 in WHR 2025. Its rank is 56th versus 57th last year. Here are the current WHR scores and ranks of our Asean neighbors: 36th Singapore, 6.58; 45th Vietnam, 6.43; 52nd Thailand, 6.30; 71st Malaysia, 6.00; 87th Indonesia, 5.62; 92nd Laos, 5.52; 121st Cambodia, 4.46; and 129th Myanmar, 4.29. I see no figures for Brunei and Timor Leste.

We should not envy any other peoples that have higher scores, nor feel superior to those with lower ones. Happiness is not an international sport; it is no basis for national pride or shame. Other peoples’ achievements do not lessen us; their failings do not enhance us. What happens abroad can teach us what to imitate and what to avoid.

And Bhutan? There’s no WHR data for the country that officially eschews the gross national product. As of a decade ago, its GNH had only two data points (see “Gross National Happiness,” 11/28/15). In 2022, its GNH index was reportedly at .781, with 9.5 percent “deeply happy,” 38.6 percent “extensively happy,” 45.5 percent “narrowly happy,” and 6.4 percent “unhappy.” (investopedia.com)

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mahar.mangahas@sws.org.ph

Ivy Reyes Padilla

 

Ivy Reyes Padilla, a 25-year-old Filipina beauty queen and entrepreneur from Cagayan de Oro City, proudly stands as an official candidate for Binibining Pilipinas 2026. Known for her dedication to empowering modern Filipina beauty, she continues to inspire through her advocacy on fitness, nutrition, and holistic well-being.

Her pageantry journey reflects both passion and perseverance—from competing in Miss Teen Philippines 2019 alongside notable candidates, to earning the title of 1st Runner-Up at Miss Fit Philippines 2025. Today, she carries her hometown’s pride, representing the “City of Golden Friendship” on a national stage.

Beyond the spotlight, Ivy is the founder of Project Second Sunrise, a platform that promotes purpose-driven living and self-improvement. As she steps into this new chapter, she embodies grace, strength, and a commitment to meaningful impact.

#BinibiningPilipinas2026 #IvyPadilla #ModernFilipina #BeautyWithPurpose #PageantJourney #CagayanDeOro #WomenEmpowerment #FitnessAndWellness #ProjectSecondSunrise #PhilippinePageantry #pageantbulletin #fblifestyles

Going beyond our human and natural justice

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Chaplain

Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)

Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

THAT’S how true love is! It, of course, does not do away with natural and human justice, but it does not get stuck with it either. It goes further. Human and natural justice somehow involves self-interest that is of the good kind. But charity enables us to give our all even at the expense of what is legitimate to us according the standards of human and natural justice. It is willing to suffer injustice.

Charity, in fact, is what perfects human and natural justice. But make no mistake about it. It should be the charity as shown, nay, commanded, to us by Christ himself. He showed this charity in its purest form when he offered his life as a ransom for our sins. It’s a charity that is purely gratuitous and most magnanimous. He suffered the greatest evil here on earth, and in return, he offered forgiveness and mercy.

How is this charity a perfection of our justice? It perfects our justice since it does not so much get stuck with what wrong we committed as it renders the best consideration of who we really are. We might commit many mistakes, even grave sins, but we continue to be children of God. And it’s for that reason that it, as shown by Christ, is willing to suffer for us and die for us if only to pay for whatever sin we commit.

This, of course, does not mean that we should do away with our human and natural justice. We can and we should pursue the requirements of our human and natural justice. But we should not get stuck there. We should continually ask for God’s grace to acquire the relevant spirit, attitude, virtues and skills of how to raise our sense of justice to the level of divine charity.

We need to see to it that we learn how to go beyond our human and natural justice by being merciful the way Christ is merciful with everyone of us. And everyday, we actually are given many opportunities to live mercy that goes beyond our brand of justice.

When we take the initiative to love and understand people, irrespective of how they are and what they may have done, we are already practicing mercy. When we are quick to disregard differences and just work for the common good, when we try to find excuses for the weaknesses if not the mistakes of others, we are clearly being merciful.

We should try our best to be above purely human considerations in our dealings with others, and just follow the example of Christ. That way we would know how to make our human and natural justice give way to mercy, the ultimate expression of charity.

I wonder if our idea of what Christian life ought to be includes this very important factor of mercy and charity. Only when we have these desires to dispense divine mercy to others can we sincerely say that we are truly Christian, another Christ if not Christ himself, as we ought to be.

In our daily examination of conscience, let us try to see if we have been doing something concrete in this regard. Are we willing to bear the sins of others, in an effort to reflect Christ’s attitude toward all of us who are all sinners? Are we quick to forgive and bear the consequences of the mistakes people commit even as we try to sort out things according to our human and natural justice?

Happiness in today's world

 

Happiness in today’s world is a subjective, often elusive state blending emotional joy, deep contentment, and personal meaning rather than just constant pleasure. It is increasingly defined by strong relationships, mental well-being, and resilience, rather than just material success, although consumerist culture influences.

Happiness is a state of mind. Specifically, it is a state of “well-being and contentment.”

Happiness is a positive emotional state characterized by feelings such as contentment, joy, and life satisfaction. Explore ways to improve happiness.

But the definition can be tricky and assumptions about the word can cause confusion. Many don’t even realize learning how to be happy is something that can be intentionally practiced. Some people, when they hear the word ‘happiness,’ assume it is speaking of an emotion such as pleasure or joy. For them, it is what people feel in the immediate here and now.

This is the reason some people say, “Don’t pursue happiness, seek joy. Happiness is fickle and fading, joy remains forever.”

But this short-term definition of happiness is not how everyone understands the word. Some define it to mean long-term satisfaction.

In fact, when I speak of experiencing happiness in life, I am not thinking of short-term emotions at all. I think of a quality of living—a much longer-term view of the word.

Both definitions are understood to be correct and speak of different realities.

But are they really that different? I don’t think so.

After all, a long-term experience of life satisfaction is almost certainly made up of many short-term feelings of joy and pleasure. Does that mean every day is a great day with no trials, temptations, or downturns? Certainly not. But it does mean when we look back at the many seasons of life, we can look back satisfied at how we navigated them.

The long-term feeling of life satisfaction is most experienced when we embrace the emotion of joy in the here and now.

And we accomplish that by taking steps each day to be happy.

What makes you feel happy now? Doing something you’re good at, such as cooking or dancing, is a good way to enjoy yourself and have a sense of achievement. Try to avoid things that seem enjoyable at the time but make you feel worse afterwards, such as drinking too much alcohol or eating junk food.

Why is being happy important? Experiencing happiness is important for our emotional and physical health. A stronger sense of happiness and wellbeing has been shown to lead to better relationships, increase social connection and contribution to the lives of others, as well as contributing to healthier physical wellbeing.

Is being happy the most important thing in life? Happy people are healthier all around and more likely to be healthy in the future. Happy people live longer than those who are not as happy. Happy people are more productive and more creative, and this effect extends to all those experiencing positive emotions.

Am I happy? Yes. Living in the Philippines for almost 28 years for good, I learned to be happy. Even during hard times. Filipinos are generally a happy people. They can smile whatever the situation. Their happy-go-lucky nature and positive mindset allow them to bounce back from the direst of circumstances, from disasters, from wars, and surely from today’s global situation.

Übersetzerdienste - Translation Services

Übersetzerdienste - Translation Services

Even after retiring as German Consul, I am still accredited as a German translator and interpreter for the German, Swiss and Austrian Embassy as well as for Regional Trial Court Davao City and all courts nationwide. Please pm for via doringklaus@gmail.com further information. I'll be answering your messages as soon as possible. Please be patient. Auch nach meiner Pensionierung als deutscher Konsul bin ich weiterhin als deutscher Übersetzer und Dolmetscher für die deutsche, schweizerische und österreichische Botschaft sowie für das Regional Trial Court Davao City landesweit akkreditiert. Für weitere Informationen senden Sie bitte eine PN an doringklaus@gmail.com. Ich werde Ihre Nachrichten so schnell wie möglich beantworten.

When the lab never sleeps

What AI-powered science means for the future of medicine

By Dr. Kaycee Reyes

Published Mar 26, 2026 08:48 pm

• The AI agents can hallucinate facts. They are bound by their training data. They needed human guidance at every major decision point.

There’s a particular kind of exhaustion that only happens in medicine. Not the physical kind, though that’s real too, but the kind that sets in when you know exactly what a patient needs and you also know that the science simply isn’t there yet. I’ve felt it in the clinic. I felt it during the pandemic, watching colleagues scramble for answers in real time, watching the virus mutate faster than our therapies could keep up. We had brilliant people working around the clock across every field imaginable, and still, the gap between what we understood and what we could actually do felt enormous. What I kept noticing, even then, was that the bottleneck wasn’t intelligence. It was coordination. Getting the right minds in the same room, speaking the same language, moving fast enough to matter.

That memory came rushing back when I read a study published in Nature last October that stopped me mid-scroll. A team from Stanford had done something quietly extraordinary: they built an AI system—they called it the Virtual Lab—where multiple AI agents, each assigned a different scientific identity (an immunologist, a machine learning specialist, a computational biologist), essentially held research meetings. Together, guided by a single human researcher, they designed new nanobodies capable of binding to recent variants of SARS-CoV-2.

Let me translate that out of scientific jargon for a moment.

Nanobodies are tiny, elegant antibody fragments, derived originally from camels, of all things, that can bind to viral proteins with remarkable precision. They’re smaller and more stable than conventional antibodies, easier to produce, and potentially powerful as therapeutic tools. The challenge with SARS-CoV-2 is that the virus keeps evolving. By the time a therapy is developed for one variant, the virus has already moved on. It’s like trying to catch smoke.

What the Virtual Lab did was compress the discovery timeline dramatically. The AI agents debated, critiqued each other, wrote their own code, designed a multi-step pipeline using state-of-the-art protein modeling tools, and ultimately produced 92 candidate nanobody sequences, all in a matter of days. When human researchers in the lab then tested these computationally designed molecules, more than 90 percent expressed and folded properly. Two of them showed genuine, promising binding to the most recent viral variants while still recognizing the original strain.

That last detail matters more than it might seem. Cross-reactivity, the ability to work across multiple variants, is exactly what makes a therapeutic candidate worth pursuing further.

Now, I want to be careful here, because this is where health communication so often goes sideways. This is not a cure. These are early-stage candidates. The road from a promising binding profile to a clinically approved treatment is long, expensive, and uncertain. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.

But what this work represents conceptually is worth sitting with.

For most of medical history, breakthrough science has required large, well-funded, deeply connected research teams. Most research institutions in the world, including many excellent ones right here in Asia, simply don’t have that kind of concentrated expertise under one roof. The Virtual Lab model suggests a future where that gap narrows, where a smaller team with access to the right AI infrastructure can punch significantly above their weight class.

There are real limitations, of course. The AI agents can hallucinate facts. They are bound by their training data. They needed human guidance at every major decision point. The researchers were clear about this. The human researcher wasn’t decorative. They were essential, providing context, catching errors, making judgment calls that the agents couldn’t.

That balance, I think, is the real lesson here. The most interesting future of medicine isn’t AI replacing physicians and scientists. It’s AI doing what it does brilliantly, processing complexity, synthesizing across disciplines, iterating rapidly, while humans do what we do that machines still genuinely cannot: ask the right questions, weigh ethical considerations, and take responsibility for outcomes.

As someone who practices medicine, runs a clinic, and thinks about health futures professionally, I find this moment less frightening than some of my colleagues do, and more genuinely exciting. We are watching the infrastructure of discovery change in real time.

The lab, in a sense, never has to sleep anymore.

What we do with that, the questions we choose to ask it, the oversight we insist on, the equity of access we fight for… That part is still entirely ours.