blackshama's commentary on Philippine issues

No te olvideras is the the whole message of historical -romances- in- war movies like Mark Meily's Baler (VIVA films). It seems that every decade there is a big budgeted Pinoy Spanish era movie. Ten years ago we had Marilou Diaz-Abaya's Rizal (GMA Films). So those who saw it then can't help but compare Baler with Rizal . But that is where the comparison ends. Rizal is a hagiography with certain liberties taken while Baler is a love story with extreme liberties taken. Now one wag who happens to be gay once said on ANC TV when asked which is the most notable film of the last 30 years " Rizal is the most beautiful ugly movie made!" (Bernal's Himala was the best movie ever) I'm sure this movie critic cum wag will say the same thing if not worse! I saw Baler in the same Ayala cinema I saw Rizal ten years earlier. Worst of all since I bought my ticket quite late, I found myself in the same crummy seat from where I saw Rizal ! Baler can be forgiven for ...

Nothing shows that we are so far from Christ as Christmas. As Saint Luke tells us, the baby was born of a virgin, had no room for him at the inn, and was born where animals were kept in a manger. He was wrapped in swaddling clothes not the fancy one but what the poor have. Mary and Joseph were poor. The manifestation that this wasn't an ordinary baby came from what the shepherds say what the angels told them. The first visitors to see the baby were what the scriptures say are downtrodden. The baby was born empty of the trappings of one who has power. None of the shepherds offered a present as the Lucan gospel tells us. It was the magi who gave the precious presents of myrrh, gold and frankincense since they recognized that the child was of royal lineage and has absolute power. But the baby would follow the Israelite way of being refugees and flee to Egypt. This baby has experienced everything! Even this power had to be emptied and whatever power Christ exhibited during his earthly ...

Pope Benedict XVI is like any good professor should be. He just given new insight on something very Darwinian. In a year end message to the Roman Curia , Benedict linked why there are two sexes only and why the environment has to be protected. The whole Darwinian understanding of sex is premised on the existence of 1) Males and 2) Females. Now it is only males and females period. Either males or females may do sexual selection and reproduce and by consequence any sexual preference aside from heterosexuality (which doesn't result in reproduction) will be naturally selected out. That is the Darwinian understanding. Any so called "homosexual" behaviour in animals is only an facultative way to achieve heterosexuality. Straightness rules in evolution and this means a male/female binary only. But some scientists like Joan Roughgarden have provided evidence that there might be multigenders in nature. But Roughgarden has to prove that these genders are functional with respect to ...

According to the Philippine Star , the Presidential Task Force on Education chaired by Ateneo de Manila president, Fr Ben Nebres recommended to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo that tertiary education be at least for 5 years. Fr Nebres essentially suggested the European Bologna system wherein applicants for university will have to spend 2 years of preparatory courses before moving on to three years of university study. This is similar to university qualifying programs offered by some Commonwealth universities. At the end of these two years, the student may enter the job market or proceed to university. This presupposes that the two year qualifying courses provides skills necessary for the job market. The proposed system is essentially a two cycle system The proposal also calls for mandatory university aptitude exams. This is necessary is this qualifying scheme is to be implemented. There are certain overlaps with the American Associate in Arts degree system. But if Fr Nebres and his c...

Who can forget high school? Many songs have been written about high school days. Jim Croce's Salon and Saloon perhaps encapsulates what it was all about. " Sometimes I think about our good old high school days You would always kid about my adolescent ways Oh, Mary, Mary, good to see you too Haven't seen to many of the old crew The time just flew, and how are you?  " Of course, for many Pinoys Sharon Cuneta's "High School" remains as The High School song. Enough of those songs. But the University of the Philippines Intergrated School (UPIS) last Saturday celebrated its 2008 General Alumni Homecoming and Reunion at the university's Bahay ng Alumni. The UPIS is the merger of UP elementary, high, and preparatory schools. The reunion is different from all others since it was also in celebration of the university's centennial. Thus it was well attended beyond expectation. Well some of the alums and teachers I haven't since since we parted after the...

The Starbucks at the UP Ayala Technohub is as of now, a quiet place for writers, academics and the UP Diliman litterati to pen their thoughts. Ayala sure did landscape the place to emphasize the complementarity of industry and academe. My environmental science graduate class went around and took note of how Ayala included natural watercourses in their landscape design. According to our research in landscape ecology, these design attributes ensure that biodiversity co-exists with human activity. The Plaza has a Greenbelt 4 like pavement fountain and indigenous trees. Here is another view looking towards the commercial space and foyer. Surely the UP-Ayala venture is a fitting symbol of the next 100 years of the University of the Philippines as a national and forward looking university.

EWTN has noted that President-elect Barack Obama no longer goes to the Church of the Lord, but to the Church of the Gym. The same global Catholic network also noted that US presidents have regular churchgoing habits whether they are Episcopal, Catholics, Methodist etc. Americans while holding steadfastly to the separation of church and state doctrine, still expect their presidents to go to church. Americans tolerate religion in public life as long as no religion is given preferential treatment. Obama may herald a European type of secularism that completely separates the religious from public life.