blackshama's commentary on Philippine issues

The urban dictionary defines obamination as "The disastrous result of doing or following the speakings of a smooth talker." The Pro-life camp is up in arms over Barack Obama's EO removing the Federal ban on funds for organization providing abortion services outside the USA. What Barack Obama has done according to them is "An obamination in the eyes of the Lord!"

It seems that Bayani Fernando's Pink and Blue revolution has made advances. Photo taken in a public high school in Quezon City boy's toilet

The truth is plain. We were once children. The foreword to a recent edition of GK Chersterton's "St Francis of Assisi" tells of the world of children and the price of being an adult is never being able to re-enter that world, even in a dream. Not even for a memory since many adults only have a hazy recollection of childhood especially if it was a happy one. As Merlin played by Sam Neill in the Hallmark remake of the Arthurian legend says, "My childhood was so happy for it was over in a flash" Too bad biology dictates that we end up as all adults. But the Gospel speaks of Christ telling the people that "they won't enter the Kingdom of God unless they become children once more." I have heard this in Church many many times since I was received in the Catholic Church during the feast of the Santo Niño 20 years ago. I was a young adult then and no longer a child. The Gospel reading was about Jesus after being found the the temple by his upset parents, g...

I got the email about University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman retired janitor Meliton Zamora getting 0.92 pesos as his retirement pay. I have known Zamora aka Mang Milton since he swept the floors whilst singing early in the morning before my 7:00 AM English 1 class. However some students had a closer relationship (financially) since he guaranteed their loans with the student loan board. Even with its then low fees, students had a hard time making ends meet since money was needed to pay for paper, food, school supplies and dorm fees. In a sense the socialized tuition fee scheme was meant to answer this but it could never do so completely. As for student loans, one of the first things that a newly hired prof or instructor learns is NOT TO GUARANTEE student loans since students rarely if ever pay for these. Even if the loans are quite small, when retirement time comes, the process of clearing accountabilities with the university becomes a tedious process. One may have his/her retirem...

Methinks it was in the early 90s that Ken came out of the closet. My sister has different Barbie and Ken dolls and as little girls do, she dresses up the dolls. At 4 years of age, I realized Ken had no male organ. The next year I realized that Barbie had no female organ either but she had secondary female sexual characters that Ken lacked. So I think this was the reason why Ken became a gay icon. Much later on some people thought the Teletubbies were gay. Then came Spongebob and now it is Tintin, the boy reporter as gay ! The Times has the whole gay analysis . I have a complete Tintin series and when I was a boy, I never had any inkling that Tintin could be gay. However when I was in college, I suspected that Captain Haddock could be gay. How can a Seadog have no girl in every port or at least frequented a brothel as many seamen do? The only noted female character in the whole series is Bianca Castafiore. The Captain Haddock-Tintin friendship invites gay rumours. But as the Times says...

It also amazes me that like the reinstitution of capital punishment, the Philippine Congress (and the rest of elite Pinoy society) can't settle the language issue. The Philippine Daily Inquirer takes essentially the same position as leading our own language and academics do. The language gurus in the UN and our colleges of education have long known that acquisition of literacy, numeracy and basic science skills in schoolkids are best through the mother tongue. House bill 5619, the proposed Act Strengthening and Enhancing the Use of English as the Medium of Instruction authored by Cebu Rep. Eduardo Gullas seeks to junk the bilingual policy adopted by the old education department in 1974. While it is patently obvious that English competency has declined precipituously since the Americans left us to run our own education system, the bill may be the wrong band aid for the right problem. The Marcos regime instituted a bilingual policy that split the teaching of certain subjects in basic...

This year marks the 400th anniversary of Galileo's first use of a telescope to observe the heavens. This was even noted by Pope Benedict XVI in his Feast of the Magi homily. It seems that the Church has finally come to terms with the Galileo affair as it even sponsors the scientific anniversary. Also this year is Charles Darwin year marking the 150th anniversary of the publication of the Origin of Species. The Catholic Church is also commemorating it be sponsoring a symposium hosted by the Pontifical Academy of Science.