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Showing posts from April, 2014

The unborn is not a potential human being, but a human being with potentials

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Is abortion a simple issue? (Some would like to make it simple, as RoeVsWade attempted, and look at what it has gotten us in the last 50 years or so. More debates with no resolution in sight.) The question really is: what is a human being? Is a human being easily definable by human beings? Many will say Yes, if we focus on just an aspect, say biology, or sociology. But, a human is not just a biological creature or a social animal, as we know. There is the psychological aspect, a hint that maybe, a human is not limited in essence to his/her materiality. A human could ontologically be also of non material nature and thus is spiritual, which could account for spiritual/ religious lives of many. Humans have developmental lives from conception to old age. They are social animals with senses and have sensual lives. They are normally part of an economic society, so they have economic lives. In short, they are complex beings by no small measure. So, i think the honest answer is No, human bei...

Pew Research shows #Filipinos love #America more than Americans do!

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Seems Filipinos are more American than Americans... Source: https://www.facebook.com/pewresearch/photos/a.10150104336026356.281829.124336306355/10151992303961356/?type=1

Shocking photos of bloodied #Filipino child #penitent!! #holyweek #Easter

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Filipino-style religious upbringing.. Source: https://touch.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=409076342565690&id=100003899834884&set=a.237740579699268.1073741827.100003899834884&refid=17

Global wisdom applied to #traffic and public transport #infrastructure development

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“If the city decides to buy cars, buy cars, buy cars and buy more cars… a day will come when nothing will move. Should planners allow that to happen?” – Delhi High Court on BRT Case (2012) “Parking is not a constitutional right, it is a commodity and one has to pay the price according to its usage” “Number of people transported is more important than number of vehicle transported” – National Transportation Policy, 2005, India “A Developed Country is not a place where poor have cars. It’s where the rich use Public Transportation” Enrique Peñalosa, Mayor of Bagota, Colombia “Each million we invest into urban motorways is an investment to destroy the city“ – Mayor Hans Joachim Vogel, Munich (1970) “If we’re going to talk about transport, I would say that the great city is not the one that has highways, but one where a child on a tricycle or bicycle can go safely everywhere...

#Philippines: Brain drain abroad, drained brains at home, brain-dead in charge

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English is the established language of international business, law, internet, and yet despite a significant headstart over its ASEAN neighbours, the Philippines just sat back and did little to capitalise on its initial comparative and competitive advantage, resulting in Filipinos being relegated to menial jobs worldwide - always the servants, never the masters -, and consequently the country has now been overtaken economically, and culturally, by its ASEAN neighbours, who garner international respect for their work ethic, innovation, and whose companies climb in the Global 1000. Even within the much lauded BPO industry it is simply providing 'cheap bums on seats', but the drive and control come from foreign companies, who could depart as quickly as they came, and already the signs of changes in the voice market are starting to bite Filipino apathy in the bum (the largest voice company in the UK has just closed all operations in the Philippines and transferred all activiti...

#Philippine #democracy a sham as last pretenses of integrity disappear

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There is nothing in politics more hypocritical, egocentric, or dangerous to the well-being of a nation than a plutocracy masquerading as a democracy, except maybe when it is headed by a puppet of big business, who also happens to be a noynoying clown, and, just for good measure, a fawning poodle to barack obama. Woof, woof, – fetch. Such administrations soon becomes the victim of their own propaganda, ignores its mandate, magnifies inequalities, applies preferential justice and political persecution, and are ultimately unable to separate fact from fiction, right from wrong, and legal from illegal, as pnoy aquino and his cabal of crooks/coven of witches demonstrate repeatedly, ably supported by an unethical media. Even the pretence of integrity eventually disappears as as the naked drive for power becomes all consuming, with subterfuge and Machiavellian schemes the only order of the day. Enemies becomes the embodiment of all evil, and its leaders the epitome of all virt...

#Philippines' damaged culture issue remains relevant today after 25 years!

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I came across an old article about culture in the Philippines from The Atlantic magazine – 1987. Interesting to revisit it after 25 years to see what remains valid “The countries that surround the Philippines have become the world’s most famous showcases for the impact of culture on economic development. Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore–all are short on natural resources, but all (as their officials never stop telling you) have clawed their way up through hard study and hard work. "Unfortunately for its people, the Philippines illustrates the contrary: that culture can make a naturally rich country poor. There may be more miserable places to live in East Asia– Vietnam, Cambodia–but there are few others where the culture itself, rather than a communist political system, is the main barrier to development. The culture in question is Filipino, but it has been heavily shaped by nearly a hundred years of the 'Fil-Am relationship....

#Bangsamoro swindle: #PNoy gave away to #MILF most resource-rich parts of #Mindanao

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Rigoberto Tiglao writes in his latest *Manila Times* article how, under the current agreement, the Philippines essentially loses sovereign control over the Bangsamoro region... "In the case of the two existing autonomous regions—in Muslim Mindanao and in the Cordilleras—which the Constitution authorized, its Section 16 specifies; 'The President shall exercise general supervision over autonomous regions to ensure that laws are faithfully executed.' "Nowhere in the entire pact and its annexes is there such a provision. In fact, nowhere in those documents is even a mention of the Philippine President — the symbol of the Republic, the head of state and government — except in the CAB, as being one of the four people in whose “presence” the pact was signed. "The Bangsamoro Government is clearly a parliamentary system for the Bangsamoro — which the Constitution does not provide for." Full article: http://ww...