DO LIVE FOR SOMETHING!

Admittedly, this sounds like a very easy request. Already, Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847), a Scottish minister, professor of theology, political economist, and a leader of both the Church of Scotland and of the Free Church of Scotland, treated that topic already with plenty of flowering words. 

“Innumerable human beings live, move and have to pass away – free from worries but unknown and unnoticed. Incomprehensible and inscrutable: no line written and no word talk by themselves are still in the memories of their bereaved. Their gleams of light switched out in the darkness of life’s night”.

Why do people like to live like this even knowing they have to leave the platform of their lives one day? Still in mind is the one question of Brother Francis Castro of the Little Brothers of Jesus about the “burning flame inside him that makes him jump out of his bed … and hurry to work…”. The Little Brothers of Jesus congregation was established in the Philippines in 1977. It now has two communities — in the Diocese of Antipolo, northeast of Manila, and in the Quezon City district of the Archdiocese of Manila. Four brothers — three Filipinos and a native Vietnamese with French nationality — live in the communities with a French priest of the order.

Brother Francisco C. Castro, head of the congregation´s Philippine region, reflects on his experiences of quiet witnessing among poor Filipinos as part of spirituality.

In our daily life, we do have plenty of situations where we could show our real calling. Thomas Chalmers describes it as follows, “Good deeds are shining like stars from heaven”!

So, do live for something. For your beloved fellow creatures in your private surroundings as well as at your workplace. And do it for yourself. Do it now!
Kindness, helpfulness, hospitality, obligingness, ready to do favors – and our moment of virtue  will not be destroyed by time’s storm. Love and mercifulness from the bottom of our heart is shared with people who will cross our path – and nobody will forget you.

I really wish you time for this. Time for special thoughts and doings. I wish you time, but not for haste, hurry and precipitation, but time for contentment and satisfaction. I wish you time to sort out yourself everyday and every hour, simply to find strength. I wish you, my dear reader, a continued blessed Advent season.

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Email: doringklaus@gmail.com or follow me on Facebook, Linkedin or Twitter or visit my www.germanexpatinthephilippines.blogspot.com or www.klausdoringsclassicalmusic.blogspot.com .

Being Compassionate

 

By Engr. Carlos V. Cornejo *

* Former Chairman of the Electronics Engineering Department of Mary Our Help Technical Institute, a Don Bosco Engineering School for Women in Minglanilla, Cebu.  Teaches subjects on engineering, business, values and Catholic doctrine.  Has Masters in Business Administration from University of San Carlos and Masters in Telecommunications Engineering from University of Melbourne.  

Compassion means empathizing and caring for the unfortunate situation of others.  When we have compassion, we put ourselves in the shoes of others in their misfortunes and feel what they feel.  Compassion is supposed to not only feel pity but also to try to remedy the sufferings of others.  

When we feel compassion for a friend who has lost a loved one, we try to tell him we feel his sorrow and that we are united with him in his suffering, perhaps with a word or two of condolence.  We could not fully remedy his pain and our condolences are all we could offer. But it would be a big help to alleviate his pain.  

St. Thomas Aquinas discussed the virtue of compassion in his Summa Theologiae by asking a question: “Whether pain and sorrow are alleviated by the compassion of friends?” The question may seem odd to the modern mind because the answer seems obvious.  But St. Thomas' reasoning however is enlightening.  He offers two reasons.  First, as mentioned it is to lessen the weight of the burden of others by telling them we are united with their sufferings.  His second reason however is more positive.  He argues that because the virtue of compassion is rooted in love, when a person who is suffering witnesses the love his friends have for him, he experiences a care that he has not experienced before.  In short, it’s not just compassion but also love.  The friends of the grieving person are therefore telling him, “We love you, that’s why we feel sorry for your misfortune.”

Being compassionate also means being generous with others or being helpful especially to those who are in need materially or spiritually.  The Catholic Church lists down two kinds of compassionate actions that we could render to others that are based on Scripture.  One is corporal or bodily in nature and the other spiritual.  These are the corporal works of mercy and the spiritual works of mercy.  The corporal works of mercy are:  to feed the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty, to clothe the naked, to give shelter to travelers or homeless, to visit the sick, to visit the imprisoned, and to bury the dead.  The spiritual works of mercy are:  to instruct the ignorant (especially with religious knowledge), to counsel the doubtful (especially giving spiritual advice), to admonish the sinners (correcting others with love or practicing tough love), to bear wrongs patiently (patience with the weaknesses of others), to forgive offenses, and to pray for the living and the dead.  

Compassion seems to be the modern world’s favorite virtue.  It is the slogan of those seeking social justice.  We often hear cries of compassion towards the poor and the marginalized, the downtrodden of society, the discriminated people such as those of different skin color other than white, the bias against women in the workplace, etc. These are good causes in themselves but sometimes there is a kind of compassion related to this that is misplaced.  We refer to the kind of compassion that is used to justify abortion and euthanasia.  With abortion some groups feel compassionate towards the distraught mother who perhaps could not afford to raise the child therefore the baby ought to be aborted.  With euthanasia on the other hand, it seems to offer a stronger argument because they are trying to relieve dying people of unnecessary pain when death is inevitable.  Dr. Peter Kreeft, would counter that the life of a person is more important than our feelings of compassion for the dying.  We are not the creators of life therefore we have no authority to take it away.  We can’t act like gods.  Only God is God.  As the Muslims would say in their Shahadah, there is no god but God.  Therefore, only God can decide when to take away a person’s life.   

The joy of Advent

By Fr. Roy Cimagala *

          THAT’S what the main theme of the 3rd Sunday of Advent

reminds us of. There is joy in this season of Advent even as we

prepare ourselves for the birth of Christ with practices of penance

that are proper to this season.

          The 3rd Sunday of Advent is also called the “Gaudete”

Sunday. The expression comes from the entrance antiphon of the Mass

that cites some words of St. Paul, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again

I say, rejoice! The Lord is near.” (Phil 4,4)

          It’s important that we don’t lose sight of our need for joy

even as we go through the exercise of penance which is what is called

for in this season of Advent. And that’s because, as St. Paul said,

the Lord is near. This piece of news should gladden our heart even as

we intensify our penitential acts to prepare ourselves properly to

receive him.

          This Good News, which with faith we can consider as already

done, should remind us of the bigger picture about ourselves. We come

from God and not just from our parents. We are meant to be with God in

our definitive state of life in eternity. Our life here on earth is

simply a training and testing ground to see if what God wants us to be

is also what we want to be.

          Joy is the ideal condition for us to be in while we are here

on earth. Yes, even when we encounter difficulties and all the

negative things in life, we can and should try to live in joy, but

understanding it as a joy in and with Christ. Especially in these

pandemic times, we should avoid feeling sad, empty, helpless, or

feeling overwhelmed.

          This was what Christ promised to give us if we are united to

him, like a branch to the vine. “If you keep my commands, you will

remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain

in his love,” he said. “I have told you this so that my joy may be in

you and that your joy may be complete.” (Jn 15,10-11)

          With these words, we are clearly told where our true and

complete joy will come from. It’s from Christ, from God, and not just

from some earthly and temporal source. It’s a joy that we can always

have in any season or weather, fair or foul. It’s a joy that

transcends whatever earthly and temporal condition we may be in.

Whether we are up or down, successful or defeated and lost, we can

still have that joy.

          We need to work out our true union with Christ to have this

kind of joy. To be sure, Christ is already with us. We should just be

with him. And it’s not difficult to be with Christ, because he is

already with us always. Being the pattern of our humanity, the savior

of our damaged humanity, he cannot be absent from us. It’s rather us

who can dare to ignore and resist him. We have to be wary of that

tendency and do something about it.

          For this, we really have to activate our faith that, if

lived well, can always give us hope, in spite of the tragedies that we

can encounter in life. Faith lived well also gives us the ability to

love everybody, whatever the conditions may be. A faith-based love

makes everything beautiful and lovable, even if by worldly standards

things are bad and ugly. This is what makes us live in joy despite

whatever!

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

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

France under PH red list amid Omicron variant threat

By THIRD ANNE PERALTA-MALONZO, SunStar

THE Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Emerging Infectious Diseases has included France in the list of countries under red list amid the threat of the Omicron variant of Sars-CoV-2, which causes the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), Malacañang said on Wednesday, December 8, 2021.

Resolution 152-A issued by the IATF on December 7 stated that travelers from France, or those who have been in the territory over the past 14 days prior to arrival in the Philippines will not be allowed entry in the country from December 13 until December 15.

Passengers who have been to France within 14 days immediately preceding arrival in the Philippines and who arrive on or after 12:01 a.m. of December 10, but before 12:01 a.m. of December 13 will still be allowed entry but they are required to undergo 14-day mandatory facility-based quarantine with a reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test on the seventh day, with day one being the date of their arrival.

Travelers with negative RT-PCR results are still required to complete the 14-day facility-based quarantine.

Travelers who merely transited France and did not go out from the airport are not covered by the ban but are still required to undergo quarantine protocols.

Only Filipinos returning to the country from countries under red list via government-initiated or non-government-initiated repatriations and Bayanihan Flights may be allowed entry, subject to existing testing and quarantine protocols for red list countries/territories/jurisdictions.

France joined Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Eswatini and Mozambique among the countries under red-list or with travel restrictions in the Philippines due to the Omicron variant.

The highly mutated Omicron variant (B.1.1.529) was first detected in Botswana, then in South Africa.

For all international inbound travel, testing and quarantine protocols also cover minors, regardless of their vaccination status.

Advent time to develop deep yearning for Christ

By Fr. Roy Cimagala*

          “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of

heaven suffers violence, and the violent are taking it by force.” (Mt

11,12)

          With these words, Christ is actually telling us that we have

to be forceful and determined in following the will of God who wants

us to be his image and likeness, children of his, and sharers of his

divine life.

          And the season of Advent is a good time to develop this

burning desire to be with Christ. Actually, more than just being with

Christ, we are supposed to be like Christ, to be “another Christ”

himself. That’s what God wants us to be. That’s how we become God’s

image and likeness, children of his.

          We have to develop an abiding and burning desire to fulfill

the real purpose of our life which is precisely for us to be “another

Christ.” We should be clear about this ultimate purpose of ours so we

can have the proper sense of direction and focus in our life, and the

corresponding urge to fulfill it.

          Our problem is that we often take our life’s real and

ultimate purpose for granted, preferring to sway and dance according

to the music played simply by worldly conditions. We prefer to be

guided by our senses and emotions, or by our reasoning alone as

expressed in our man-made different ideologies, philosophies, sciences

and technologies, etc.

          We ignore the guiding light of our Christian faith that

gives us not only a global picture of things but also the means to

attain our true goal of eternal life with God in heaven. We have to

remember that our Christian faith shows us the ultimate dimensions and

purpose of our life that definitely includes the spiritual and

supernatural realities.

          We often fail to realize that our earthly life is a voyage

of faith in time that is heading towards the eternity of God. This

predicament has to be resolved, and the earlier the better—of course,

with due consideration to the readiness of each one of us to

appreciate the value of our Christian faith, something that has to be

worked on.

          In this regard, the first thing to do is to look at the

example of Christ who is “the way, the truth and the life” for us. In

several occasions, Christ would say that what he was doing was in

fulfillment of what the prophets of old, the advance proclaimers of

God’s will for Christ and for all of us, said. (cfr. Mt 26,54.56; Mk

14,49; Lk 18,31; etc.)

          For this, we need to exert some forcefulness. Not

destructive violence, not pervert obsession, but a certain

forcefulness that helps us to grow properly and love God and care for

one another. That´s what we need. This is clear in our human and

natural conditions, both in our personal and social aspects. And if we

have to consider our ultimate supernatural goal, then this

forcefulness becomes even more necessary.

          We have to follow the example of Christ. In fact, we have to

assume the same mind and mission of Christ. It’s clear that Christ

already had in his mind that he has to follow and fulfill a purpose

and a mission already spelled out for him beforehand. This should also

be the mentality we ought to have. We have a purpose and mission

already spelled out for us beforehand, and we should do our best, with

God’s grace, to fulfill it.

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

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

Teleconsultation: How to deal with health problems without going to the doctor’s clinic

 

by Faith Argosino, Manila Bulletin

•       Learn more about teleconsultation or telemedicine before you actually need it

•       Many people now ‘see’ doctors and health professionals through teleconsulation to get answers on feelings of being unwell

•       Teleconsultation starts with a message sent via viber or messenger, or an email, or a query in the hospital website

•       On the appointed day, the patient will get a message to start the video call for the teleconsultation

It’s definitely the age of online relationships and transactions — commercial, personal, and medical, all because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

For medical needs, teleconsultation or telemedicine is what has kept people in touch with medical professionals in the last 21 months of the pandemic for all health problems including those not related to COVID-19.  It peaked and became quite standard procedure after the surge in COVID-19 cases came in August 2021 and hospital facilities were overwhelmed.

By today, more than half of the population must have experienced teleconsultation.  It starts with a mobile number or a web address where the patient books an appointment.  The patient pays through an online cash facility either through bank transfer or Gcash. On the appointed date and time, the patient gets a message or a call (depending on the medical professional’s procedures), and the teleconsultation begins.

It’s nothing new to the younger generation, talking to someone through a video conference app.  But it would feel quite awkward at first to older citizens who are not as technically-aware of how mobile gadgets operate.  The first time someone I knew did that, she confessed that it felt quite odd relating one’s health feelings to a doctor through a video teleconference app. The conversation is not always spontaneous because of signal transmission, so one has to allow the other to stop talking before saying more.

But those are minor lapses that people have hurdled to get solutions to health issues. Today, it is important that every person — young and old — get informed about how telemedicine works and where to get it.  It’s especially important when one begins to feel unwell with symptoms related to COVID-19 when one should immediately isolate to prevent the spread of the virus.

Here’s what you need to know about telemedicine:

Teleconsultation, telemedicine, teleconsult

Teleconsultation or telemedicine (or teleconsult as other medical organizations call it) refers to a consultation conducted via the internet. It is the delivery of health care services performed by medical professionals using information and communication technologies to exchange valid information for the diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of disease.

Smart gadget and internet connection

The primary things to have in order to consult a medical professional through teleconsultation are:  a smartphone that will allow video conferencing (like zoom, messenger or viber); and a good internet connection If your house has internet connection, that’s perfect.  But if not, make sure you have data to allow internet connection.

Teleconsultation

Where to get this service

The Department of Health (DOH), almost all hospitals, and many health/medical organizations offer teleconsultation.  Among them are St. Luke’s Medical Center, Makati Medical Center, and the Bayanihan E-Konsulta project of the Office of the Vice President.  It is available to COVID and non-COVID patients within Metro Manila and nearby provinces.

Department of Health

The DOH COVID-19 Hotlines 1555 and (02) 894-COVID (26843) are available nationwide for all COVID-19-related concerns since last year, including consultations with volunteer doctors from the Philippine College of Physicians and the University of the East-Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center (UERMMC).

Contact the DOH hotline numbers if you’re a COVID patient. The service is free.

In April this year, Vice President Leni Robredo’s office launched the Bayanihan E-Konsulta—a free teleconsultation service on Facebook—with the help of volunteer doctors and health professionals.

According to Bayanihan E-Kontulta’s social media page, the initiative was implemented to support medical frontliners and hospitals to combat the surge of COVID-19 cases. The program also aims to serve those who are unable to get medical care due to overcrowded hospitals.

 

COVID and non-COVID outpatients in Metro Manila and nearby provinces in the NCR Plus bubble are eligible for free medical service under the program. All you need to do is message the Bayanihan E-Kontulta page and click get started. They will set you an appointment with a physician who will advise your next steps.

The initiative has been handling mostly COVID-19 cases. From April 7 to 12, Robredo reported that they attended to 10,830 medical queries. By August, the initiative was serving 400 queries a day.

Aside from its free consultation services, the page also posts contact information and locations of different organizations and hospitals that offer the same service (some have fees, most are free). Until now the Bayanihan E-Konsulta page is still active and accepts any type of medical queries. For emergency purposes, patients are advised to call the program’s contact numbers at 0919 977 3333, 0915 777 7777, or (02) 8865-0500.

St. Luke’s Medical Center

St. Luke’s Medical Center (SLMC) offers teleconsultation services for COVID and non-COVID patients. They provide step-by-step guidelines on their website on how to get that service, including the modes of payment.

According to the guideline, a patient should call either the Global City or Quezon City hotline of St. Luke’s. An officer will take the call and help one book an appointment with a doctor. The caller will be required to provide personal details such as full name, date of birth, contact number, email address, preferred doctor, preferred date and time of appointment, and reason for teleconsultation.

The struggle to be immaculate

By Fr. Roy Cimagala *

          THE Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed

Virgin Mary, celebrated annually on December 8, reminds us of that

most wonderful truth of our faith that we all are actually meant to be

immaculate, that is, sinless, completely holy which means we are truly

and entirely identified with Christ who is holiness himself.

          Yes, we may not be conceived immaculate like what the

Blessed Virgin Mary enjoyed as a divine privilege given to her, but we

should strive, with God’s grace, to be sinless, always fighting

against sin and against anything that can lead us to sin. In a sense,

we have to develop a zeal to be immaculate, like Our Lady, which

definitely would involve constant struggle against sin and

temptations.

          That may be an impossible pursuit, since we all know that we

are all sinners, but it should not prevent us from doing our best to

struggle to be as sinless as possible. In this regard, we should never

forget to develop and strengthen our personal skills in handling

temptations. This concern never goes passé, and it touches a basic,

indispensable aspect of our life in all levels.

          These days, temptations can come to us in the subtlest and

trickiest of ways. This can be due, at least in part, to the increased

level of sophistication both in people’s thinking and in world

developments, especially in the area of technology and ideology.

          With these developments, temptations can easily come

undetected, and sin can be committed in a most hidden way and can even

be easily rationalized. How important therefore it is for us to always

grow in humility and simplicity, aggressively finding practical ways

to achieve them! If not, we would just be lost.

          As can be easily noted these days, the healthy fear of God

is disappearing. In its place, a most heinous sense of self-importance

is dominating. The criteria to determine what is good and bad have

become blurred. They have gone almost completely relativistic and

subjective, declaring total independence from any absolute and

objective rule or law that comes from God.

          Truth is, we always need God in our battle against

temptations. We should disabuse ourselves from the thought that with

our good intentions and our best efforts alone, we can manage to tame

the urges of temptations.

          We cannot! That’s the naked truth about it. We only can if

we are with God. And we have to be with him in a strong, determined

way, not in a passive or lukewarm way. Do flies flock on a hot soup?

No. But they do on a cold or lukewarm soup.

          We need to do everything to be with God. Our mind and heart

should be fully and constantly engaged with him. We always have reason

to do so—at least, we can thank him for what we are having at the

moment: health, food, air, work, etc.

          And to be with God can mean that we have to be actively

involved in the lives of others, since our relation with God always

passes through our relation with others. The more we get involved in

the lives of others, knowing them well, praying for them, helping them

in any we can, etc., the more we get to be with God. And the more we

are with God, the stronger we become to resist sin and temptations.

This is the way toward the ideal of becoming immaculate like our

Mother Mary.

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

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

Christmas and vacation

During the Christmas holidays, we tend to get so caught up in the hustle and bustle of the season that we sometimes forget the essence of Christmas. We even remove Christ from the word Christmas, reducing it to X’mas or substituting it with the name of a product or a shopping center.” Yes, guys, honestly, that’s it… I really don’t enjoy receiving “XMAS GREETINGS”…

Somehow, I am looking forward to a two weeks vacation “between the years” – meaning to say between December 23 and January 7. No teaching. I might spend only a few hours in my agency office.

A rest from some occupation, business and other stressful activities is waiting for me. Strictly speaking, vacation concerns those who are in school or studying in colleges and universities. “Furlough” would be the appropriate term…

Christmas and vacation: Speaking about myself – I want to bring back Christ to the holiday season and indeed wish to share my blessings with the less fortunate. One of the best-known religious poems is “The Hound of Heaven” written by Francis Thompson, who tried to run away from God. He wanted to have a vacation from God. In reality, it is Thompson’s own life. His poem shows clearly the fact in this world that we can have a vacation from physical and mental activities, but never from God.

As I stated before: according to the book of Genesis, after God created the universe in six days, he rested on the seventh day. In other words, he took a vacation. So if God rested after working for some period of time, there is no reason why man, who is finite and limited in his physical strength, should not take a vacation.

Vacation is freedom or release from tension or pressure of work. And, believe me, I learned already from my students that they will enjoy Christmas and vacation. Many of us feel tired and weak. We are stressed, overwhelmed, depressed and worried about the future – the enumeration, in any order whatever, could be incessant.

Relaxation, meditation, and reinvigoration are badly needed for most of us nowadays. Life, affected by the “burnout syndrome” needs to be animated with energy and strengths.

Yes, Christmas has always been equated with all these worldly ways. Sure, there is indeed nothing wrong with this. Let’s don’t only focus on non-stop merrymaking and countless gifts. Let’s take a break, and let’s try to imagine and enjoy the real meaning of Christmas. Merry Christmas again to everyone – also from this corner…

Charity requires toughness

By Fr. Roy Cimagala *

          WHEN Christ talked about the lost sheep and how the good

shepherd would do everything to find it (cfr. Mt 18,12-14), he must be

telling us that we should be tough in our love and care for one

another, such that even if someone is in grave error, we should do our

best to help and save him rather than leave him to remain lost.

          This is the charity Christ is showing us. It’s the charity

that is meant for us. With God’s grace, let us learn to develop that

charity, cultivating the relevant allied virtues of optimism, patience

and fidelity, so that instead of being turned off or scandalized by

the evils of others, we would even rev up our concern and solicitude

for those in some form of disorder.

          We need to be tough in this life, otherwise we will fail to

follow Christ who is the epitome of how we should be since he is the

pattern of our humanity, the savior of our damaged humanity, the “way,

the truth and the life” for us.

          Christ was tough to carry out his mission of saving us. He

knew from the beginning that he would be betrayed by someone close to

him, that he would suffer and die a most ignominious death, but these

did not deter him from pursuing his mission. His love for us was and

is such that he can take on anything that would come his way.

          Christ already warned us of the kind of suffering to expect

in our life. “They will seize and persecute you,” he said. (Lk 21,12)

“You will even be handed over by parents, brothers, relatives, and

friends, and they will put some of you to death.” (Lk 21,16)

          All these should not affect our charity. If anything at all,

we should even be more charitable with those who give us trouble.

Thus, St. Paul described such charity when he said that “love bears

all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all

things.” (1 Cor 13,7) Christ already reassured us that as long as

suffer with him, we will also have the victory of his resurrection.

          In other words, we have to learn how to be friends with

everyone regardless of how they are, because only then can we help

them to attain the ultimate goal common to all of us. We also have to

learn how to deal with any situation, no matter how difficult and

ugly, not so much in physical terms as in the spiritual and moral. If

we are truly Christian, we would have his desire “not to condemn the

world but to save.” (cfr. Jn 3,17)

          As one saint said it, we should be willing to go to the very

gates of hell, without entering it, of course, if only to save a soul.

This obviously would require of us to be tough and clear about the

real goal to reach, and yet flexible and adaptable to any person and

to any condition.

          In this regard, we have to learn how to fraternize with

sinners. We have to replicate Christ’s attitude towards sinners, who

actually are all of us—of course, in varying degrees. We have to give

special attention to the lost sheep and to the lost coin. We have to

open all possible avenues to be in touch with all sinners.

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

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com

What are some major social faux pas to avoid when visiting Philippines?

Ethan James Coronel

Pragmatic humanist

Interests include history, politics, philosophy, culture, economics, law and science. I love writing, playing video games and watching movies and anime.

Pragmatic humanist, as the bio says. “Pragmatic” in the sense that truth, for me, is whatever unbiased and unfabricated empirical data says is both effective and appropriate for solving issues according to their contexts and constraints. “Humanist” in the sense that social constructs NEVER reduce the worth of any human being; the only constraint to this is my abhorrence for heinous crime, which makes me support the death penalty. They keep each other in check so I don’t become a dumbass who thinks in black and white terms.

I abhor dogma and malicious propaganda. I will attack both of them relentlessly. That’s why I attack American exceptionalists and Chinese ultranationalists equally.

I am usually open-minded until you are a bigot who dehumanizes people on account of either their sex, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, creed, physical or mental disability, or socioeconomic status. Bonus demerits if you are a Nazi or a Social Darwinist.

Never get on my bad side. There is only one thing you can do for that to occur: making assumptions about who I am without providing any evidence to back up your claim. You can disagree and criticize with me but please do so civilly. If not, I will treat you like shit.

DP is Violet Evergarden from the anime of the same name.

Down to brass tacks:

As a sign of respect (unless you’re told its ok), don’t step inside a house with your shoes on. Politely leave it outside the door.

If you’re offered food casually or asked if you’ve already eaten, don’t take it at face value. In the Philippines, it is more a sign of courtesy than it is an invitation. However, if you’re a guest in a house, accept the offer and eat but don’t forget to leave a little morsel in your plate otherwise, you’ll be branded a glutton.

Never criticize a political leader no matter how strong the urge to do so or asked by your guest or a local. Just say something vague.

If you have local friends and you’re visiting, it would be a welcome treat if you bring with you some small items (‘pasalubong’). Not bringing anything creates the impression that you’re a tightwad.

Not many Filipinos appreciate their heads being touched as a sign of greeting. Shake their hands or nod to acknowledge them.

Don’t take offense when Filipinos call you “Hey, Joe.” To most of us, any Caucasian male/female is American unless you are pointedly asked what your nationality is.

Filipinos are non-confrontational so if you find yourself in situations where you need to assert yourself or correct something, avoid raising your voice or using profanity. We respond better to level-headed and even-handed treatment.

Filipinos are very sensitive and like the Chinese, we have an acute sense of “face” (or saving face). If you can, be diplomatic and never embarrass a local in front of everyone else. Talk to him/her in private if you can. Otherwise, let it go, especially if its small stuff.

We’re big on respect for elders so learn a few terms - use uncle or auntie to people older than you; or lolo (grandpa) or lola (grandma) to the seniors. Calling them merely by their names can be construed as being “fresh.”

A lot of Pinoys are lawbreakers (crossing a street while the stoplight is red, dropping cigarette butts on the streets, throwing candy wrappers or other small thrash items indiscriminately, etc.) but don’t interpret that as a license to imitate the behavior. I once saw a foreigner crossing the middle of Roxas Boulevard while the cars whizzed past. It was totally off-putting.