Column: ROTARY GREEN
By Chaie Reforma
Title: Pilipinas Verde on the Move
There can never be enough environment preservation efforts to sustain our ecosystem for generations to come. The Rotary Club of Makati San Antonio knows this only too well. That is why it has become such a believer in greening efforts that it has launched its very own environment program called Pilipinas Verde. Pilipinas Verde is a program for the enrichment, rehabilitation and development of the environment. Still in its very early stage of conception, it already has three major thrusts which are being pursued through critical programs that address the growing need for greater awareness and affirmative action in the fight against environmental degradation.
The first project under the Pilipinas Verde banner is the Puno Pilipinas tree planting program. Aligned with the United Nations Environment Development Program, it aims to contribute to the Billion Trees campaign. A thousand trees are earmarked for 2010 and the aim is to grow this number twofold in the next three (3) years. Five locations have been identified for reforestation and these are: the La Mesa Watershed Nature Preserve, Timberland Heights in Montalban Rizal, the Trece Martires community, the Family Haven Farm in Tanauan, Batangas and the Buso-buso farm in Antipolo. This program has been enjoying popular support among the the club members and their families who always participate in the tree planting activities.
The second program is the Natural Farming Seminar series. It aims to raise awareness and appreciation for using natural methods in farming or even just planting simple vegetation in one’s own backyard. We become instruments in spreading the word about Natural Farming by conducting educational seminars that promote the concept of working with natural energies rather than trying to subdue nature. In brief, what natural farming does is to make use of beneficial microorganisms in bringing the soil and the environment back to its original form without the need for insecticide or fungicide. While this approach may yield more benefits for small farms rather than big agricultural businesses, it is -- we believe -- the best approach so far to a truly sustainable living.
Third, we have the One Bag Down program that aims to help in reducing waste especially in tourist sites where there is a tendency for garbage to pile up due to high traffic. Cleaning up the world may seem like a daunting task, especially if we consider how much mess everyone has made through many, many years. Big, elaborate rebuilding plans are needed -- and everything needs to be put into action. We must not forget, however, the very basic task: if the world has become littered with garbage, then the most logical starting point is to pick them up and do some real cleaning. It may sound like a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it.
These programs are the basic starting points of our effort to carry out a legacy that instills a deep respect for the environment as the only source of sustenance in this world. Our natural human instinct is to protect rather than to destroy and every one of us has the responsibility to harness the environment for its many benefits without destroying it so that future generations may also reap its blessings.
Ms. Reforma is President of the Rotary Club of Makati San Antonio
Monday, November 1, 2010
violeta12
Column name: Travel Blogger
Name of article: Forest Rainbow Under
By Violeta Imperial
I woke up early for morning prayers and rituals and I discovered that there is NO WATER in the shower. I will definitely check out earlier even though I had planned to stay for two nights.
I continued my beautiful morning. I enjoyed the very lovely sunrise at the lake that was so serene and peaceful. I joined the boat resort for the fish feeding and enjoyed every moment of my photo opportunities. After the ride, sumptuous breakfast is waiting for us, the crackling chicharong tilapia, the brewed coffee, fried rice and vegetable omelet. I enjoyed our meal, while looking at the lake, looking at the fishpond, and watching the tourists doing their early lake tour.
The habal habal arrived early (it’s a local motorbike that could carry a maximum of ten passengers). Our first stop, the first waterfalls, was so magnificent. Next stop is the Slide for Life or Zipline as they call it here. It is said to be the highest in the Philippines. Honestly, I felt like a scared chicken as if all the memories of my happy life flashed back and I still want to live. My heart beat as fast as we went down. I closed my eyes and missed the sight of the first enchanting forest around the second waterfalls. But because I wanted to take photos, I opened my eyes, and I saw this magical rainbow below me, for first time. And it is a FULL Rainbow BELOW me. I hurriedly turned on my camera and discovered that it is already low in batteries and my companion’s camera was still inside her bag. For all those who are reading this, it’s a lesson learned for me.
There is a T’boli souvenir shop here where you can get authentic tribal clothes for a donation. How I wish sometimes, that they would make sizes for big people also, they keep forgetting we also have money to donate. In the photo, it looks like it fits me well, but my hand behind is holding the ends together.
Next is the road trip around the lake, showing us the best rice fields and the closed resort owned by a local politician? I saw some opportunities to invest in these happy T’boli villages. We stopped by one fruit store to buy bananas. Our driver saw a friend whose wife just gave birth and he was asking for money for the baby’s milk. Our hearts sank with massive compassion and asked how much the milk was. 200 pesos for the new born he said, so we gave 100 pesos each. Then we boarded back to our motorbike and before we left, I asked, how many kids to you have, he said ten kids. I felt ripped off, but I guess it is still good to help.
Next is the T’boli house and the T’boli museum, so much I want to learn from them but had very limited time. I observed that the women mostly are the ones into this kind of supplementary livelihood; it reminded me of the ladies who belonged to Women in Nation Development for Sarangani (WINDS).
On our way to back to General Santos, I was seated beside a T’boli lady who was wearing authentic native clothes. I loved her skirt that I drooled with envy, I wanted to buy it. She is so proud of her tribe and I loved that even more. How I wish that the other Indigenous People are as proud of their culture and tradition, like the lady. Only wise and mature societies could understand the importance of Indigenous People. Those who discriminate against them are so foolish, I think.
Ms. Imperial is a community based ecology tour provider, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) organizer, nature lover and scuba diver
Name of article: Forest Rainbow Under
By Violeta Imperial
I woke up early for morning prayers and rituals and I discovered that there is NO WATER in the shower. I will definitely check out earlier even though I had planned to stay for two nights.
I continued my beautiful morning. I enjoyed the very lovely sunrise at the lake that was so serene and peaceful. I joined the boat resort for the fish feeding and enjoyed every moment of my photo opportunities. After the ride, sumptuous breakfast is waiting for us, the crackling chicharong tilapia, the brewed coffee, fried rice and vegetable omelet. I enjoyed our meal, while looking at the lake, looking at the fishpond, and watching the tourists doing their early lake tour.
The habal habal arrived early (it’s a local motorbike that could carry a maximum of ten passengers). Our first stop, the first waterfalls, was so magnificent. Next stop is the Slide for Life or Zipline as they call it here. It is said to be the highest in the Philippines. Honestly, I felt like a scared chicken as if all the memories of my happy life flashed back and I still want to live. My heart beat as fast as we went down. I closed my eyes and missed the sight of the first enchanting forest around the second waterfalls. But because I wanted to take photos, I opened my eyes, and I saw this magical rainbow below me, for first time. And it is a FULL Rainbow BELOW me. I hurriedly turned on my camera and discovered that it is already low in batteries and my companion’s camera was still inside her bag. For all those who are reading this, it’s a lesson learned for me.
There is a T’boli souvenir shop here where you can get authentic tribal clothes for a donation. How I wish sometimes, that they would make sizes for big people also, they keep forgetting we also have money to donate. In the photo, it looks like it fits me well, but my hand behind is holding the ends together.
Next is the road trip around the lake, showing us the best rice fields and the closed resort owned by a local politician? I saw some opportunities to invest in these happy T’boli villages. We stopped by one fruit store to buy bananas. Our driver saw a friend whose wife just gave birth and he was asking for money for the baby’s milk. Our hearts sank with massive compassion and asked how much the milk was. 200 pesos for the new born he said, so we gave 100 pesos each. Then we boarded back to our motorbike and before we left, I asked, how many kids to you have, he said ten kids. I felt ripped off, but I guess it is still good to help.
Next is the T’boli house and the T’boli museum, so much I want to learn from them but had very limited time. I observed that the women mostly are the ones into this kind of supplementary livelihood; it reminded me of the ladies who belonged to Women in Nation Development for Sarangani (WINDS).
On our way to back to General Santos, I was seated beside a T’boli lady who was wearing authentic native clothes. I loved her skirt that I drooled with envy, I wanted to buy it. She is so proud of her tribe and I loved that even more. How I wish that the other Indigenous People are as proud of their culture and tradition, like the lady. Only wise and mature societies could understand the importance of Indigenous People. Those who discriminate against them are so foolish, I think.
Ms. Imperial is a community based ecology tour provider, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) organizer, nature lover and scuba diver
behn12
Column: ETAL
By Behn Cervantes
Title: From a Distance
I have been to Paris four times. I have been to London the same number of times, but I have never trod the Eiffel Tower, the London Bridge or the Big Ben sites. Ever!
And, I have NO intention of doing so.
I think these architectural wonders should be appreciated, yes from a distance. I do not know the lyrics of the song but they should include the sentiments that sometimes things are to be appreciated ...from a distance, with objectivity.
Imagine my shock when my friends and I chanced upon Stonehenge during sunset. It was eerily glorious. It was beautiful! You understand why ancient Brits made it a religious site. With that glorious thought in my mind, I was astounded when someone warned me about stepping on human feces. In the Stonehenge shrine?! It was the doing of some crackpot who wanted to destroy the spiritual ambience. Indeed, some gang mate of that idiot also peed among the stones so I smelled urine.
What a bummer!
I would have preferred remembering it from a distance.
This feeling of disgust strengthened my position that certain sites are better from a distance. The Empire State and Chrysler Buildings I have appreciated, yes from a distance. When a visiting friend suggested we go to the top of the erstwhile Twin World Trade Center, I suggested he do it alone confessing that in the six years i lived in the New York area I had never become 'familiar' with the now gone buildings.
However, i love surprising friends like Maris Diokno with the delicate designs of the Woolworth Building, a truly under-rated attraction of Lower Manhattan. Actually, its many fine details i connect to the 'poor, little rich girl' traits of owner and heiress Barbara Hutton.
Fortunately, it isn't as 'touristy' as the Empire, Chrysler, or the World Trade Buildings so lesser visitors cross its facade although the building has a number of architectural attractions. In fact, at some point, it was the tallest skyscraper in Manhattan.
I loved both St. Mark's Cathedral and the Eiffel Tower…from a distance. They make architectural sense.
Distance allows a viewer to fill in whatever blanks with his or her own expectations. After all, proximity breeds contempt.
This morning while island-hopping Alaminos' 100 Islands, the boatman asked me "Do you want to get off?" I looked at the garish yellow sign identifying the island and replied "No thanks."
Too often, visitors come upon distracting graffiti and discarded plastic wrappers in venerated architectural wonder. For example, I detested walking though the legendary Banaue Rice Terraces and finding litter on its trails.
I hated the rusty galvanized roofs that now protect natives from the elements. I appreciate instead the grass that once covered their huts.
I also do not appreciate the modern T-shirts with smart aleck sayings worn by contemporary native youth. I think the more colorful native attire would have been far more photogenic for both international and local tourists.
We traveled so far for such color and authenticity, after all. In a near-by hut, I heard American music while a neighbor had a Manila noon-time show. These were aurally and visually wrong indeed.
Proximity does breed contempt.
Mr. Cervantes is a cultural activist-stage-film-television actor-director-playwright-columnist, founder of the UP Repertory Company and inveterate traveler
By Behn Cervantes
Title: From a Distance
I have been to Paris four times. I have been to London the same number of times, but I have never trod the Eiffel Tower, the London Bridge or the Big Ben sites. Ever!
And, I have NO intention of doing so.
I think these architectural wonders should be appreciated, yes from a distance. I do not know the lyrics of the song but they should include the sentiments that sometimes things are to be appreciated ...from a distance, with objectivity.
Imagine my shock when my friends and I chanced upon Stonehenge during sunset. It was eerily glorious. It was beautiful! You understand why ancient Brits made it a religious site. With that glorious thought in my mind, I was astounded when someone warned me about stepping on human feces. In the Stonehenge shrine?! It was the doing of some crackpot who wanted to destroy the spiritual ambience. Indeed, some gang mate of that idiot also peed among the stones so I smelled urine.
What a bummer!
I would have preferred remembering it from a distance.
This feeling of disgust strengthened my position that certain sites are better from a distance. The Empire State and Chrysler Buildings I have appreciated, yes from a distance. When a visiting friend suggested we go to the top of the erstwhile Twin World Trade Center, I suggested he do it alone confessing that in the six years i lived in the New York area I had never become 'familiar' with the now gone buildings.
However, i love surprising friends like Maris Diokno with the delicate designs of the Woolworth Building, a truly under-rated attraction of Lower Manhattan. Actually, its many fine details i connect to the 'poor, little rich girl' traits of owner and heiress Barbara Hutton.
Fortunately, it isn't as 'touristy' as the Empire, Chrysler, or the World Trade Buildings so lesser visitors cross its facade although the building has a number of architectural attractions. In fact, at some point, it was the tallest skyscraper in Manhattan.
I loved both St. Mark's Cathedral and the Eiffel Tower…from a distance. They make architectural sense.
Distance allows a viewer to fill in whatever blanks with his or her own expectations. After all, proximity breeds contempt.
This morning while island-hopping Alaminos' 100 Islands, the boatman asked me "Do you want to get off?" I looked at the garish yellow sign identifying the island and replied "No thanks."
Too often, visitors come upon distracting graffiti and discarded plastic wrappers in venerated architectural wonder. For example, I detested walking though the legendary Banaue Rice Terraces and finding litter on its trails.
I hated the rusty galvanized roofs that now protect natives from the elements. I appreciate instead the grass that once covered their huts.
I also do not appreciate the modern T-shirts with smart aleck sayings worn by contemporary native youth. I think the more colorful native attire would have been far more photogenic for both international and local tourists.
We traveled so far for such color and authenticity, after all. In a near-by hut, I heard American music while a neighbor had a Manila noon-time show. These were aurally and visually wrong indeed.
Proximity does breed contempt.
Mr. Cervantes is a cultural activist-stage-film-television actor-director-playwright-columnist, founder of the UP Repertory Company and inveterate traveler
devera12
Column: Beyond Images
By Atty. Leonard de Vera
Title: We Must Decongest Metro Manila
We live like ants in Metro Manila. Like ants, we go on a never-ending circle of movements leading to nowhere.
We build more LRTs and MRTs in Metro Manila to lighten up the traffic mess. Yet, yearly, we introduce thousands more of buses and jeepneys, trucks and cars, motorcycles and tricycles to ply our narrow streets. We do not create new streets nor expand existing ones. We have created a perfect recipe for traffic chaos.
Let us appeal to common sense. If we create a good railroad (train) system that will ferry hundreds of thousands of people who work in Metro Manila but live in the nearby provinces of Laguna, Cavite and Batangas in the South, and in Bulacan, Pampanga, and Nueva Ecija in the North, imagine how this will greatly decongest the population of Metro Manila.
Not only will it lessen the overpopulation of the more than 12 million people of Metro Manila residents who live in poor and unhealthy and cramped-up conditions, it will lessen the volume of vehicles entering Metro Manila.
A good train system will make daily commute possible from these nearby provinces. The delivery of food, vegetables, goods, products of all kinds can be done in the most orderly manner thru the railroad system.
The air in Metro Manila will be less polluted with smoke and fumes. More factories will move out to the nearby provinces where the cost of purchased or rented land and labor are not as prohibitive as that of Metro Manila.
More lives will be saved as ambulances and private vehicles rushing emergency patients to the hospitals are able to reach the emergency rooms on time.
There will be less crimes of road-rage brought about by the maddening effect of an insane traffic monstrosity. A monstrous traffic creates monsters out of some desperate drivers.
Private businesses and public services of the government need not move out of Metro Manila. But the availability of an efficient public transportation system like that offered by the railroad will encourage these businesses and services to open more branches in the provinces even if they chose not to move out of Metro Manila. More private schools, hospitals, manufacturing plants, and thousands of small and medium-range industries will burgeon in the provinces.
Thousands of steady jobs will be created. Workers will live in decent homes unlike those living in rat-holes apartments and boarding rooms in Metro Manila.
This is one project we must focus on. This is one necessity that will and can justify the grant of emergency powers, if need be, to fast-track the completion of an efficient railroad system. Emergency powers are needed to address the stultifying effects of the squatters and political blackmails of some politicians.
Point to any prosperous country in the world, in Asia, America, Europe and Africa, and you will not find one wealthy country that does not have an efficient railroad system.
Let us wake up from our catatonic stupor engendered by lack of imagination. Let us be thinking men. Not like ants in perpetual motion constantly searching for food. Man not only searches for food but needs a decent home, working in productive jobs, in an orderly and peaceful society. This is what makes us- Human.
Atty. De Vera is a trial lawyer. He is Chairman of the Equal Justice for All Movement (E-Just)
By Atty. Leonard de Vera
Title: We Must Decongest Metro Manila
We live like ants in Metro Manila. Like ants, we go on a never-ending circle of movements leading to nowhere.
We build more LRTs and MRTs in Metro Manila to lighten up the traffic mess. Yet, yearly, we introduce thousands more of buses and jeepneys, trucks and cars, motorcycles and tricycles to ply our narrow streets. We do not create new streets nor expand existing ones. We have created a perfect recipe for traffic chaos.
Let us appeal to common sense. If we create a good railroad (train) system that will ferry hundreds of thousands of people who work in Metro Manila but live in the nearby provinces of Laguna, Cavite and Batangas in the South, and in Bulacan, Pampanga, and Nueva Ecija in the North, imagine how this will greatly decongest the population of Metro Manila.
Not only will it lessen the overpopulation of the more than 12 million people of Metro Manila residents who live in poor and unhealthy and cramped-up conditions, it will lessen the volume of vehicles entering Metro Manila.
A good train system will make daily commute possible from these nearby provinces. The delivery of food, vegetables, goods, products of all kinds can be done in the most orderly manner thru the railroad system.
The air in Metro Manila will be less polluted with smoke and fumes. More factories will move out to the nearby provinces where the cost of purchased or rented land and labor are not as prohibitive as that of Metro Manila.
More lives will be saved as ambulances and private vehicles rushing emergency patients to the hospitals are able to reach the emergency rooms on time.
There will be less crimes of road-rage brought about by the maddening effect of an insane traffic monstrosity. A monstrous traffic creates monsters out of some desperate drivers.
Private businesses and public services of the government need not move out of Metro Manila. But the availability of an efficient public transportation system like that offered by the railroad will encourage these businesses and services to open more branches in the provinces even if they chose not to move out of Metro Manila. More private schools, hospitals, manufacturing plants, and thousands of small and medium-range industries will burgeon in the provinces.
Thousands of steady jobs will be created. Workers will live in decent homes unlike those living in rat-holes apartments and boarding rooms in Metro Manila.
This is one project we must focus on. This is one necessity that will and can justify the grant of emergency powers, if need be, to fast-track the completion of an efficient railroad system. Emergency powers are needed to address the stultifying effects of the squatters and political blackmails of some politicians.
Point to any prosperous country in the world, in Asia, America, Europe and Africa, and you will not find one wealthy country that does not have an efficient railroad system.
Let us wake up from our catatonic stupor engendered by lack of imagination. Let us be thinking men. Not like ants in perpetual motion constantly searching for food. Man not only searches for food but needs a decent home, working in productive jobs, in an orderly and peaceful society. This is what makes us- Human.
Atty. De Vera is a trial lawyer. He is Chairman of the Equal Justice for All Movement (E-Just)
Saturday, October 30, 2010
harry12
Column: TALK TO HARRY
By Harry Tambuatco
Title: Give P-Noy time to date?
On the broadsheets was a report on Balsy Aquino Cruz requesting Filipinos to be sensitive to her brother allowing him room to date women …”he is a bachelor”. In big corporations, CEOs are screened and scrutinized before they are given the responsibility of management and in most cases with preference to married men with families. Why is this so? No one wants a heartbroken CEO. Do you remember your first heartache… having fallen in love and the world turns rosy yet simultaneously susceptible to darkness? We read of suicides and murders that are love driven. Surely you remember what drove you to marriage, if only to appease the situation, marriage being an option out of the misery one feels when abandoned. What I am trying to say is we are all vulnerable. Love is a power so strong few, very few can get a handle on. It can drive you crazy and do stupid things; irrational at times but consequential at the least. This does not mean married men no longer fall in love either and go “goo gaga” but at the very least they are grounded. Grounded with family and children and responsibilities, this is the reason we mandate CEOs to be before we allow them to rule. To find new love as to meeting ones soul mate is probably the most successful and opportune time of anyone’s life, but lets be real, this is at most times a fantasy and unless you find a hobby or work you can immerse yourself into, life can get boring, and yes even with financial success. Sports, yes a perfect alternative. Music, if only you are gifted. Art, if you have the eye for it. Money, well this can be dangerous… who was it that we iconized as a kleptomaniac in the 70’s?
So what to do with a bachelor? Yes, let us please give him the space… after all we Filipino’s are romantic and love the thought of people in love. We also enjoy a good cry (as to why? you tell me). But what if our president gets heartbroken and at the moment of crisis wherein we need the leader to guide us, what then? When you were heartbroken, could you function? Ah wait, yes there are those who are macho, and believe man is an island… is he? I find it strange dating is even a consideration at his stature after promoting he has decided to be leader of our democracy. Is there room for romance in our economy? Is there sense of love in the fight against corruption? We can only imagine heart break, introducing sensitivities of lonesomeness living in an environment of emptiness… you try living in the palace with guards and paparazzi broadcasting your every move. But what the heck, you decided to be our President. And now your sister asks we allow you time for love, and what? Allow vulnerability? With the country at stake? You tell me.
The popularity that the President enjoys in media is a saving grace. To be President and single has to be a challenge. He has three loving sisters but likewise have husbands and children to boot (well maybe not all). How long in the next six years are we to wait in case he is driven by love to anxiety. The heart knows no boundaries.
Mr. Tambuatco is Channel Director of the Global News Network
By Harry Tambuatco
Title: Give P-Noy time to date?
On the broadsheets was a report on Balsy Aquino Cruz requesting Filipinos to be sensitive to her brother allowing him room to date women …”he is a bachelor”. In big corporations, CEOs are screened and scrutinized before they are given the responsibility of management and in most cases with preference to married men with families. Why is this so? No one wants a heartbroken CEO. Do you remember your first heartache… having fallen in love and the world turns rosy yet simultaneously susceptible to darkness? We read of suicides and murders that are love driven. Surely you remember what drove you to marriage, if only to appease the situation, marriage being an option out of the misery one feels when abandoned. What I am trying to say is we are all vulnerable. Love is a power so strong few, very few can get a handle on. It can drive you crazy and do stupid things; irrational at times but consequential at the least. This does not mean married men no longer fall in love either and go “goo gaga” but at the very least they are grounded. Grounded with family and children and responsibilities, this is the reason we mandate CEOs to be before we allow them to rule. To find new love as to meeting ones soul mate is probably the most successful and opportune time of anyone’s life, but lets be real, this is at most times a fantasy and unless you find a hobby or work you can immerse yourself into, life can get boring, and yes even with financial success. Sports, yes a perfect alternative. Music, if only you are gifted. Art, if you have the eye for it. Money, well this can be dangerous… who was it that we iconized as a kleptomaniac in the 70’s?
So what to do with a bachelor? Yes, let us please give him the space… after all we Filipino’s are romantic and love the thought of people in love. We also enjoy a good cry (as to why? you tell me). But what if our president gets heartbroken and at the moment of crisis wherein we need the leader to guide us, what then? When you were heartbroken, could you function? Ah wait, yes there are those who are macho, and believe man is an island… is he? I find it strange dating is even a consideration at his stature after promoting he has decided to be leader of our democracy. Is there room for romance in our economy? Is there sense of love in the fight against corruption? We can only imagine heart break, introducing sensitivities of lonesomeness living in an environment of emptiness… you try living in the palace with guards and paparazzi broadcasting your every move. But what the heck, you decided to be our President. And now your sister asks we allow you time for love, and what? Allow vulnerability? With the country at stake? You tell me.
The popularity that the President enjoys in media is a saving grace. To be President and single has to be a challenge. He has three loving sisters but likewise have husbands and children to boot (well maybe not all). How long in the next six years are we to wait in case he is driven by love to anxiety. The heart knows no boundaries.
Mr. Tambuatco is Channel Director of the Global News Network
Ong12
COLUMN: BEYOND REALITY
BY CEZ MANDI ONG
TITLE: IS IT REAL?
I am no “Ghost Writer” nor have I a penchant for the things of the sort, maybe because I am a Psychologist by profession and have had behavioral studies as my proficiency. We have learned the connectivity between unusual circumstances and the real world. Explaining the correlation between the two apparently became a debatable issue for sometime. Many prominent researchers on the incidence of some “Paranormal Activities” have failed in their quest for the right answer as to where, why and how did they evolved. Are they for real?
When I was a student at Silliman University in Dumaguete City, I was no exception to the old town myth and tales of the unknown. I very well recalled on my first day at the Nurses Home (one of the ladies dorm in the university), the lady cleaner of the dorm who happened to attend the same church as me. The first caution she told me was never to loiter in the hallway premises or the surrounding fences at unholy hours. I asked, “why is that?”, her reply was just “basta lang! “, in Visayan vernacular, that means “just so” in English, simplified as just so you do not come across unexpected circumstances to scare you. I find that statement challenging. I come from Cotabato, Who scares who?? I find the story of voodoo tales rather tempting and curious. It was like a Nancy Drew mystery story series about to unfold before my eyes and I couldn’t help but find out and uncover the truth behind the scare fever.
Being in a dorm for the first time, I couldn’t just sleep, and the air from the ceiling fan was even more torturing because of its screeching sound. I completely forgot the story of the day. I opened the door to peep in the hallway to see if an attendant could help me out in the tightening of whatever screw was on the loose to calm down the irritating sound. And since its 2’ o’clock in the morning, what do I expect? So I started to look around the mess hall for some pliers, when all of a sudden an old man appeared and asked me what I was doing? Politely I told him my concern. In one of the drawers he pulled out a screw driver and went straight up to my room and brought a wooden ladder to reach the ceiling. I couldn’t thank him enough. After few minutes I went to bed and slept.
I woke up late that morning. The three ladies who occupied the other three beds in my room interrogated me. They were half awake when I went up to the room with the man to fix the fan. It surprised me when they ask, if I was sleep walking and talking at night? ”My answer of course was NO. The three of them blurted laughing. I narrated the whole incident and the three of them wrapped their arms around and said, I send them goose bumps. They told me, how could that be? This dorm is a ladies dorm and no way will a man be a resident utility man of the area or will be allowed to stay up late in the ladies dorm premises. That means I had a ghost encounter last night? They all 3 nodded and said, “Sorry, we were not able to warn you”. What was even surprising was, when I look around the hallway old photographs of year 1908 were photos of earlier settlers in the campus who help built the foundations of the nurses home, I saw in one of them the picture of the old man who fixed the fan that night. I would just want to think that what happened that night then was just a dream. The presence of the uncalled for helper ghost is a puzzle, but whatever that was, I know for myself that it was real.
This is my first ghost encounter. I will tell you more in the next issues. But for now, I wish to invite readers to write me their paranormal encounters and will reply to them as soon as I can. This is just the beginning of many tales about the unknown. Conclude for yourself, are these real???
Ms. Ong writes about paranormal phenomena exclusively for OpinYon
BY CEZ MANDI ONG
TITLE: IS IT REAL?
I am no “Ghost Writer” nor have I a penchant for the things of the sort, maybe because I am a Psychologist by profession and have had behavioral studies as my proficiency. We have learned the connectivity between unusual circumstances and the real world. Explaining the correlation between the two apparently became a debatable issue for sometime. Many prominent researchers on the incidence of some “Paranormal Activities” have failed in their quest for the right answer as to where, why and how did they evolved. Are they for real?
When I was a student at Silliman University in Dumaguete City, I was no exception to the old town myth and tales of the unknown. I very well recalled on my first day at the Nurses Home (one of the ladies dorm in the university), the lady cleaner of the dorm who happened to attend the same church as me. The first caution she told me was never to loiter in the hallway premises or the surrounding fences at unholy hours. I asked, “why is that?”, her reply was just “basta lang! “, in Visayan vernacular, that means “just so” in English, simplified as just so you do not come across unexpected circumstances to scare you. I find that statement challenging. I come from Cotabato, Who scares who?? I find the story of voodoo tales rather tempting and curious. It was like a Nancy Drew mystery story series about to unfold before my eyes and I couldn’t help but find out and uncover the truth behind the scare fever.
Being in a dorm for the first time, I couldn’t just sleep, and the air from the ceiling fan was even more torturing because of its screeching sound. I completely forgot the story of the day. I opened the door to peep in the hallway to see if an attendant could help me out in the tightening of whatever screw was on the loose to calm down the irritating sound. And since its 2’ o’clock in the morning, what do I expect? So I started to look around the mess hall for some pliers, when all of a sudden an old man appeared and asked me what I was doing? Politely I told him my concern. In one of the drawers he pulled out a screw driver and went straight up to my room and brought a wooden ladder to reach the ceiling. I couldn’t thank him enough. After few minutes I went to bed and slept.
I woke up late that morning. The three ladies who occupied the other three beds in my room interrogated me. They were half awake when I went up to the room with the man to fix the fan. It surprised me when they ask, if I was sleep walking and talking at night? ”My answer of course was NO. The three of them blurted laughing. I narrated the whole incident and the three of them wrapped their arms around and said, I send them goose bumps. They told me, how could that be? This dorm is a ladies dorm and no way will a man be a resident utility man of the area or will be allowed to stay up late in the ladies dorm premises. That means I had a ghost encounter last night? They all 3 nodded and said, “Sorry, we were not able to warn you”. What was even surprising was, when I look around the hallway old photographs of year 1908 were photos of earlier settlers in the campus who help built the foundations of the nurses home, I saw in one of them the picture of the old man who fixed the fan that night. I would just want to think that what happened that night then was just a dream. The presence of the uncalled for helper ghost is a puzzle, but whatever that was, I know for myself that it was real.
This is my first ghost encounter. I will tell you more in the next issues. But for now, I wish to invite readers to write me their paranormal encounters and will reply to them as soon as I can. This is just the beginning of many tales about the unknown. Conclude for yourself, are these real???
Ms. Ong writes about paranormal phenomena exclusively for OpinYon
Friday, October 29, 2010
Banico14
Column: Moving Forward
By Albert Banico
Title: Why Invest in the Disaster-Prone Areas?
Like all vulnerable groups, significant portion of Filipinos is simply unable to move out from one place to another – not only because of poverty and/or lack of space elsewhere, but also because of investments they already made in their long valued locality.
Whether they are in the active-risky volcano driven area, island barangay, coastlines where ocean and typhoon surge are most expected, rivers in the rural and urban poor setting, or landslide prone localities where mining is actively taking place, moving on is not an easy way. In such cases, emotional and financial investments are valued, and together they create socio-cultural conditions that render them unable to move during actual or ongoing disasters.
Safe spaces are not necessarily scarce but are inaccessible and expensive for the local people with limited income living in disaster prone areas. For that matter, a risk area becomes a utopian settlement for the poor. Their investment priority is to build their homes in that place. Little economic activities thrive such as planting root crops and coconut; domestication of a few animals like chicken and pigs. Coupled with the “good” family memories make it difficult for them to respond immediately to the calls of evacuating the risky areas. In a way, the investment itself is a tested risk and the introduction of a new risk (such as migrating to unknown areas) is considered riskier.
There is an observation that Filipinos often improvise and make productive and innovative use of whatever is available. These qualities have been repeatedly demonstrated in their capacity to adapt to live in any part of the world and in their ability to accept any change (Okamura & Agbayani, 1991).
However, this observation is supported by the so called Filipino faith related to the concept of bahala na (“It’s up to God” or “Leave it to God”), which has tended to be incorrectly equated with an expression of fatalism and a passive acceptance or resignation to fate. Bahala na can instead be viewed more positively as determination in the face of uncertainty or stressful, problematic conditions. Although it is an indication of an acceptance of the nature of things, including one’s own inherent limitations, bahala na operates psychologically to elevate one’s courage and conviction to persist in the face of adversity and to improve one’s situation (Enriquez, 1987; Okamura & Agbayani, 1991).
On the other hand, the fatalists among the poor and the vulnerable refuse to move not only because of their inability to adapt their life in safer ground but also because they put everything to risk in a disaster prone area. And since there are no options left for them, it is right to address these kinds of circumstances where social mobility of people is limited horizontally and vertically. This leads them to restrict their response to disaster and become fatalistic in the end. I understand that this is based on the case of a developing country and similar localities but it is worth looking at developed countries.
Looking at cases where people thrive in places like Benguet and Compostela Valley, experts will always ask why people continue to persist despite of the serious warnings by authorities. Residents and victims alike go back or continue to stay possibly because of an assumption that they are already adapted to the disastrous conditions and experiencing it all their life.
In case of the developers that purchased land near or within a risk area, people who purchased such property are victims of future catastrophic time bomb, because risk maps and information are not available to the public.
Mr. Banico is one of the Founding Board Members and Advocacy Directors of GREEN RESEARCH Environmental Research Group. He is also a founding board member of the Asian Research Center on Climate Change.
By Albert Banico
Title: Why Invest in the Disaster-Prone Areas?
Like all vulnerable groups, significant portion of Filipinos is simply unable to move out from one place to another – not only because of poverty and/or lack of space elsewhere, but also because of investments they already made in their long valued locality.
Whether they are in the active-risky volcano driven area, island barangay, coastlines where ocean and typhoon surge are most expected, rivers in the rural and urban poor setting, or landslide prone localities where mining is actively taking place, moving on is not an easy way. In such cases, emotional and financial investments are valued, and together they create socio-cultural conditions that render them unable to move during actual or ongoing disasters.
Safe spaces are not necessarily scarce but are inaccessible and expensive for the local people with limited income living in disaster prone areas. For that matter, a risk area becomes a utopian settlement for the poor. Their investment priority is to build their homes in that place. Little economic activities thrive such as planting root crops and coconut; domestication of a few animals like chicken and pigs. Coupled with the “good” family memories make it difficult for them to respond immediately to the calls of evacuating the risky areas. In a way, the investment itself is a tested risk and the introduction of a new risk (such as migrating to unknown areas) is considered riskier.
There is an observation that Filipinos often improvise and make productive and innovative use of whatever is available. These qualities have been repeatedly demonstrated in their capacity to adapt to live in any part of the world and in their ability to accept any change (Okamura & Agbayani, 1991).
However, this observation is supported by the so called Filipino faith related to the concept of bahala na (“It’s up to God” or “Leave it to God”), which has tended to be incorrectly equated with an expression of fatalism and a passive acceptance or resignation to fate. Bahala na can instead be viewed more positively as determination in the face of uncertainty or stressful, problematic conditions. Although it is an indication of an acceptance of the nature of things, including one’s own inherent limitations, bahala na operates psychologically to elevate one’s courage and conviction to persist in the face of adversity and to improve one’s situation (Enriquez, 1987; Okamura & Agbayani, 1991).
On the other hand, the fatalists among the poor and the vulnerable refuse to move not only because of their inability to adapt their life in safer ground but also because they put everything to risk in a disaster prone area. And since there are no options left for them, it is right to address these kinds of circumstances where social mobility of people is limited horizontally and vertically. This leads them to restrict their response to disaster and become fatalistic in the end. I understand that this is based on the case of a developing country and similar localities but it is worth looking at developed countries.
Looking at cases where people thrive in places like Benguet and Compostela Valley, experts will always ask why people continue to persist despite of the serious warnings by authorities. Residents and victims alike go back or continue to stay possibly because of an assumption that they are already adapted to the disastrous conditions and experiencing it all their life.
In case of the developers that purchased land near or within a risk area, people who purchased such property are victims of future catastrophic time bomb, because risk maps and information are not available to the public.
Mr. Banico is one of the Founding Board Members and Advocacy Directors of GREEN RESEARCH Environmental Research Group. He is also a founding board member of the Asian Research Center on Climate Change.
Banico12
Column: Moving Forward
Karmic Cycle, safety and disasters (2)
By Albert Banico
Today, various fora, meetings and gatherings that deal with our national problems are happening everywhere.
Consequently, governance leads to corrupt and incompetent behavioral pattern instead of building showcases of best practices because standing procedures are not clear and institutions compete with each other instead working of together. Hearing and learning some of them, it seems that these issues cannot be resolved within a single generation. Perhaps they are consequences of decisions that were made in the past. Planning efforts that are short sighted data that are insufficient and solutions that are not applicable are primary problems of people who continue to uphold the levels of thinking that never work.
Environmental and other natural disasters such as constant sinking of ships, vehicular accidents, landslides, and floods are very risky situations. However, if we continue to allow drunkards, illiterates, addicts or emotionally disturbed drivers in the streets and even construct more foot bridges that are never studied why people don’t like it, you can expect that accidents will always happen.
If we continue to allow vessels that are only fit for rivers and not for an open seas or tolerate sub-standard ships and planes as we relax the business environment for those who own the capital while we are too regressive for those who pay, let us expected more misfortunes. Permitting to construct villages and subdivisions either near or close to the river banks; reclaiming rivers and waterways for commercial use; building homes along the landslide prone areas, water sources and health hazard locations, will only just lead to future counting of casualties.
With all of this, as government units and agencies consistently consent without appropriate planning, frameworks, directions and rehabilitation strategies; always failing to anticipate insufficient funds for basic services. Public money is wasted to an endless cycle of search, rescue and rehabilitation purposes.
The local government code aims to empower the communities. It was not intended to decentralize the incompetence and corruption. In the context of various threats to our life support systems, biodiversity, coastal areas, coral reefs, mountains and forests, government people are supposedly not ordinary employees. It seems that not all public servants, even if equipped by their eligibility or academic degrees do not have the creative initiative or a deeper understanding of public service. Some choose to be imprisoned to the task given to them while some who think to earn more money at the expense of others. Some explore creatively the ways and means for their own benefit while laws do not prohibit them to do so.
It means that corruption is not always circumstantial while incompetence sometimes can be unintentional. Both can be considered as a behavioral causing disaster that can be addressed not only by judicial means but by cultural and institutional solutions
.
Mr. Banico is one of the Founding Board Members and Advocacy Directors of GREEN RESEARCH Environmental Research Group. He is also a founding board member of the Asian Research Center on Climate Change.
Karmic Cycle, safety and disasters (2)
By Albert Banico
Today, various fora, meetings and gatherings that deal with our national problems are happening everywhere.
Consequently, governance leads to corrupt and incompetent behavioral pattern instead of building showcases of best practices because standing procedures are not clear and institutions compete with each other instead working of together. Hearing and learning some of them, it seems that these issues cannot be resolved within a single generation. Perhaps they are consequences of decisions that were made in the past. Planning efforts that are short sighted data that are insufficient and solutions that are not applicable are primary problems of people who continue to uphold the levels of thinking that never work.
Environmental and other natural disasters such as constant sinking of ships, vehicular accidents, landslides, and floods are very risky situations. However, if we continue to allow drunkards, illiterates, addicts or emotionally disturbed drivers in the streets and even construct more foot bridges that are never studied why people don’t like it, you can expect that accidents will always happen.
If we continue to allow vessels that are only fit for rivers and not for an open seas or tolerate sub-standard ships and planes as we relax the business environment for those who own the capital while we are too regressive for those who pay, let us expected more misfortunes. Permitting to construct villages and subdivisions either near or close to the river banks; reclaiming rivers and waterways for commercial use; building homes along the landslide prone areas, water sources and health hazard locations, will only just lead to future counting of casualties.
With all of this, as government units and agencies consistently consent without appropriate planning, frameworks, directions and rehabilitation strategies; always failing to anticipate insufficient funds for basic services. Public money is wasted to an endless cycle of search, rescue and rehabilitation purposes.
The local government code aims to empower the communities. It was not intended to decentralize the incompetence and corruption. In the context of various threats to our life support systems, biodiversity, coastal areas, coral reefs, mountains and forests, government people are supposedly not ordinary employees. It seems that not all public servants, even if equipped by their eligibility or academic degrees do not have the creative initiative or a deeper understanding of public service. Some choose to be imprisoned to the task given to them while some who think to earn more money at the expense of others. Some explore creatively the ways and means for their own benefit while laws do not prohibit them to do so.
It means that corruption is not always circumstantial while incompetence sometimes can be unintentional. Both can be considered as a behavioral causing disaster that can be addressed not only by judicial means but by cultural and institutional solutions
.
Mr. Banico is one of the Founding Board Members and Advocacy Directors of GREEN RESEARCH Environmental Research Group. He is also a founding board member of the Asian Research Center on Climate Change.
Banico13
Column: Moving Forward
By Albert Banico
Title: Grace for the dead and the living
If heaven is true, perhaps equality between the sinners and the saints will always come for salvation is due to the good that we do; the merits that heaven affirmed and the acceptance of a savior as the basis of divine credits.
However, truth is relatively determined in our earthly life. Remembering the souls and the saints for the believers cannot escape the realities of grief, the dead and the living. Grieving persons for example may belong to the dying sick person, the living dead and the living individuals.
The dying sick person needs assurance in his place in the Kingdom of God. In this case, the support of the community may help. In fact, it helps to unburden the family on how God loves them through the presence of those who empathized. It assured not only the temporal worldly tomorrow but also it can bring through the group effort and prayers that peace and the power of grace and salvation is with us. Psychologically it works as a support system both for the living and the dying.
The living dead refers to the isolated, abandoned, desperate and alienated individuals who are not necessarily sick but also suffering from their complicated social helplessness. These are people who are often forgotten by society and unnoticed by ministers and pastoral care. They may be children without parents or with parents begging, working or playing innocently or deliberately in the streets, the unemployed or the aged, the unfortunate, the exploited, the weak, the confused and the taken for granted soul insiders, outsiders or visitors of every churches.
They too are invited to salvation and supposedly welcome to any church community regardless of their dress and ethnicity as part of our duty. If we believed that we belong to the people of God. Their circumstances make their life difficult if not killing them and must hear the Good News and the hope of a better life.
The living refers to the grieving persons but not necessarily sick, weak or abandoned but equally need help spiritual inspiration and social motivations in the Church and society. In 1987, Joel Charon said that the poor in all societies are powerless to control their economic destiny, they are dependent on others for survival, and they have almost no impact on the direction of the economic and political order. Observation agreed that social structure for people is simply an inevitable pattern and their characteristics are almost always unequal.
Likewise, society cannot be equal due to many factors such as personal attributes and social connections. Indeed, we need less or if possible not corrupt and incompetent political and religious institutions. They should provide and create an environment where inequality and wider gaps between social stratification can be lessen or ideally eradicated in the case of death or hopefully while people are still living.
For our society cannot remain unjust forever.
Mr. Banico is one of the Founding Board Members and Advocacy Directors of GREEN RESEARCH Environmental Research Group. He is also a founding board member of the Asian Research Center on Climate Change.
By Albert Banico
Title: Grace for the dead and the living
If heaven is true, perhaps equality between the sinners and the saints will always come for salvation is due to the good that we do; the merits that heaven affirmed and the acceptance of a savior as the basis of divine credits.
However, truth is relatively determined in our earthly life. Remembering the souls and the saints for the believers cannot escape the realities of grief, the dead and the living. Grieving persons for example may belong to the dying sick person, the living dead and the living individuals.
The dying sick person needs assurance in his place in the Kingdom of God. In this case, the support of the community may help. In fact, it helps to unburden the family on how God loves them through the presence of those who empathized. It assured not only the temporal worldly tomorrow but also it can bring through the group effort and prayers that peace and the power of grace and salvation is with us. Psychologically it works as a support system both for the living and the dying.
The living dead refers to the isolated, abandoned, desperate and alienated individuals who are not necessarily sick but also suffering from their complicated social helplessness. These are people who are often forgotten by society and unnoticed by ministers and pastoral care. They may be children without parents or with parents begging, working or playing innocently or deliberately in the streets, the unemployed or the aged, the unfortunate, the exploited, the weak, the confused and the taken for granted soul insiders, outsiders or visitors of every churches.
They too are invited to salvation and supposedly welcome to any church community regardless of their dress and ethnicity as part of our duty. If we believed that we belong to the people of God. Their circumstances make their life difficult if not killing them and must hear the Good News and the hope of a better life.
The living refers to the grieving persons but not necessarily sick, weak or abandoned but equally need help spiritual inspiration and social motivations in the Church and society. In 1987, Joel Charon said that the poor in all societies are powerless to control their economic destiny, they are dependent on others for survival, and they have almost no impact on the direction of the economic and political order. Observation agreed that social structure for people is simply an inevitable pattern and their characteristics are almost always unequal.
Likewise, society cannot be equal due to many factors such as personal attributes and social connections. Indeed, we need less or if possible not corrupt and incompetent political and religious institutions. They should provide and create an environment where inequality and wider gaps between social stratification can be lessen or ideally eradicated in the case of death or hopefully while people are still living.
For our society cannot remain unjust forever.
Mr. Banico is one of the Founding Board Members and Advocacy Directors of GREEN RESEARCH Environmental Research Group. He is also a founding board member of the Asian Research Center on Climate Change.
Raval12
Name of Column: Zapros
By: Prof. Demaree J.B. Raval
Title of Article: Shame them (1)
No. of Words/Characters: 509/2991
========================================================================
That’s what Transparency International did to the Philippines when it rated the country with a 2.4 on a scale of 1-10 and placed it 139th among 180 countries in its Corruption Perception Index. Of course, the ratings are not fair - those shameful figures do not reflect our own integrity as a people, but only applies to the crooks in the Government.
For a while, we thought the Government was doing something about it when it announced that it had upped the ante against crooks through a lifestyle check that exposes public officials having properties manifestly out of proportion to their legitimate income. But it was all a show. Worse, the Government even besmirched the character of well-meaning whistleblowers, all the while blaming media for the perception that corruption has reached gargantuan proportions.
Let us continue expressing our disgust: Shame them. With the public prying into their lives, these purveyors of corruption can be stopped dead on their tracks.
Heap shame, then, on that clerk at the customs zone, who could not explain how she was able to build her multi-million house. Now she is nowhere to be found, probably now in some place to live out the rest of her life in secret, to avoid being scorned by her honest colleagues.
Put to shame, too, that official who extracted a hefty bukol to facilitate the purchase of faulty vessels now rusting in peace in some obscure port. He resigned in tearful indignity, unable to bear the daily bashing he was getting.
And, that bureau chief who, through gifts from public works contractors, was able to maintain a Swiss bank account, with his wife and sons driving around in their respective SUVs and taking regular trips abroad. The shame of exposure drove him to end it all, with a photo of his landing in the front pages, showing his tongue in the grotesque rictus of death, his feet a foot or two above the floor.
A shame campaign is itself the punishment for corruption. It is not some process that has to go through the stages of proving the guilt or innocence of, say, the giver and the taker of a bribe caught in flagrante. The verdict is instantaneous: Both parties know that they are guilty.
For a shame campaign to be waged successfully it must be implemented with impartiality. Where the thrust is merely on the pedestrian instances of corruption, we would only be encouraging those involved in grand corruption to operate with impunity. But, then again, the deterrent effect is always there, whatever else one may say about the selectivity.
When honor and personal integrity are held as the noblest virtues, a miscreant would rather commit an act of self-destruction than live a life of ostracism. Shaming tugs at the conscience and pricks it; it riles the feelings and makes one feel totally despicable. In a shame culture, a person who breaks the law would wish to sink into the ground and disappear forever, to hide from those who have borne witness to his embarrassment and disgrace.
=================
Prof. Raval is a trustee of Transparency International, and Exective Director of the South East Parliamentarians Against Corruption. He teaches at the New Era College of Law.
By: Prof. Demaree J.B. Raval
Title of Article: Shame them (1)
No. of Words/Characters: 509/2991
========================================================================
That’s what Transparency International did to the Philippines when it rated the country with a 2.4 on a scale of 1-10 and placed it 139th among 180 countries in its Corruption Perception Index. Of course, the ratings are not fair - those shameful figures do not reflect our own integrity as a people, but only applies to the crooks in the Government.
For a while, we thought the Government was doing something about it when it announced that it had upped the ante against crooks through a lifestyle check that exposes public officials having properties manifestly out of proportion to their legitimate income. But it was all a show. Worse, the Government even besmirched the character of well-meaning whistleblowers, all the while blaming media for the perception that corruption has reached gargantuan proportions.
Let us continue expressing our disgust: Shame them. With the public prying into their lives, these purveyors of corruption can be stopped dead on their tracks.
Heap shame, then, on that clerk at the customs zone, who could not explain how she was able to build her multi-million house. Now she is nowhere to be found, probably now in some place to live out the rest of her life in secret, to avoid being scorned by her honest colleagues.
Put to shame, too, that official who extracted a hefty bukol to facilitate the purchase of faulty vessels now rusting in peace in some obscure port. He resigned in tearful indignity, unable to bear the daily bashing he was getting.
And, that bureau chief who, through gifts from public works contractors, was able to maintain a Swiss bank account, with his wife and sons driving around in their respective SUVs and taking regular trips abroad. The shame of exposure drove him to end it all, with a photo of his landing in the front pages, showing his tongue in the grotesque rictus of death, his feet a foot or two above the floor.
A shame campaign is itself the punishment for corruption. It is not some process that has to go through the stages of proving the guilt or innocence of, say, the giver and the taker of a bribe caught in flagrante. The verdict is instantaneous: Both parties know that they are guilty.
For a shame campaign to be waged successfully it must be implemented with impartiality. Where the thrust is merely on the pedestrian instances of corruption, we would only be encouraging those involved in grand corruption to operate with impunity. But, then again, the deterrent effect is always there, whatever else one may say about the selectivity.
When honor and personal integrity are held as the noblest virtues, a miscreant would rather commit an act of self-destruction than live a life of ostracism. Shaming tugs at the conscience and pricks it; it riles the feelings and makes one feel totally despicable. In a shame culture, a person who breaks the law would wish to sink into the ground and disappear forever, to hide from those who have borne witness to his embarrassment and disgrace.
=================
Prof. Raval is a trustee of Transparency International, and Exective Director of the South East Parliamentarians Against Corruption. He teaches at the New Era College of Law.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)