Communication for Communion

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

roycimagala@hotmail.com

THAT, IN effect, was the gist of the 10-page speech made by the director of Vatican ’s press office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, before the Spanish bishops’ conference recently. It summarized his vast experience and many insights he gained over so many years of working with the media.

In other words, he was saying that in spite of the many aspects and requirements of media work that need to be integrated as smoothly as possible, one should not forget that the main and underlying interest of the Church in media is to spread the truth, to evangelize and to build up greater communion.

His views certainly deserve to be studied well and learned thoroughly. Everyone in the Church involved in media work, from the parish to the diocesan levels and beyond, would do well to make them a guiding light.

The Church cannot and should not be lagging behind in making use of the tremendously advanced technologies that now greatly escalate media’s reach and scope. With them, a lot can be gained for the good of the Church.

In fact, Fr. Lombardi said that Catholic media should be an ethical model for the secular media by promoting peace, justice and a vision of an integral human development. Yes, dear, it’s about time that those in this task have this clear and deep understanding of their work.

That’s a heavy and dynamic responsibility, requiring constant renewal and creativity, prudence and passion. But as long as those involved have the necessary attitude and continuing training—nothing less than being holy and competent—there’s no question that they can hack it.

If these conditions are met, I believe that not even the worst scenario that the Church can get enmeshed in, as in handling big, screaming scandals involving high ecclesiastics, can undermine the Church’s credibility, her true nature and purpose.

With these conditions, the Church, in spite of her members’ sins and defects, big and small, can still remain radiant and beautiful, ever able to function well in her continuing work for human redemption.

I’d like to highlight some of Fr. Lombardi’s views which I think are relevant to our local Church situation. Among them are the following:

- “We must always try to favor understanding and dialogue between different positions and different people and not accentuate the opposition. We must be able to ‘live’ the tensions with patience, including the price of being criticized.

- “We must always use with determination a respectful, balanced and non-aggressive language towards others, capable of inspiring serenity of judgment and mutual understanding.”

When I read these words, I was reminded of high Churchmen who shamelessly violate this indication. With high-calibered language, they intemperately take partisan positions in political and social issues, pouring sarcasm all over the place and carpet-bombing their opponents with ridicule.

It’s not just a matter of ruffling some people’s feathers that often is unavoidable in expressing opinions. There seems to be a systemic perversity in pulverizing those in the opposite side.

It’s truly a sad spectacle, brutal, ugly and completely unfit for Church officials to do. I remember my mother telling me, no matter how right I may be in my views, I have no right to be ill-mannered in expressing them or in dealing with others. I have always tried to follow that principle.

Fr. Lombardi also said that “the truth must always be told, even in the face of difficult questions. When a question deserves an answer it must be given without waiting.”

Wow! That’s tough. But I agree with it. While discretion is also needed, it should not be an excuse for not doing one’s work punctually and misreading the people’s right to information.

Another aspect of media work that Church personnel should give special attention to is the personal touch they should have when doing business with those in media. They have to avoid being officious, cold, even cavalier in their dealings. They have to learn to be very human, warm and personable.

Even if certain protocol has to be followed, and some steps and systems of communicating have to be pursued, the human need for cordiality and true friendship should never be neglected.

Charity, which generates true communion in the Church, never departs, with God’s grace, from this level, despite our differences.

 

In Memoriam

By Juan L. Mercado

INQUIRER’S HEADLINE was concise: “Corky Trinidad, 69.”  So was Associated Press’ report that followed. “Honolulu Star Bulletin’s award-winning editorial cartoonist, Corky Trinidad died Friday, after 40 years of poking fun at life and politics…

“Born in the Philippines, Trinidad was the first Asian editorial cartoonist to be syndicated in the U.S,” AP added. “He specialized in caricaturing and skewering politicians, most notably Ferdinand Marcos.”

Pancreatic cancer ended another story of how corrupt dictatorships drive the best and the brightest” of a country into nations that “allow them to breathe free.”

Francisco Trinidad, Jr. came from a family of journalists. His parents were broadcaster Francisco “Koko” Trinidad and columnist Lina  Flor. An Ateneo graduate, he joined Philippines Herald, in 1961 as political cartoonist.

International recognition came quickly. Los Angeles Times-Washington Post Syndicate  started publishing his cartoons. Corky created the comic strip: “Nguyen Charlie” during the Vietnam War. He joined the  Star-Bulletin  in 1969.  His cartoons were picked up by diverse papers  from  New York Times to  Politiken in Sweden,  Buenos Aires’ Herald  and Manila Chronicle.

“He  left  the Philippines   because  of  harrassment  by  Ferdinand  Marcos,” recalls  Carl Zimmerman, former  AP chief in  Manila.  Married to a Filipina, Zimmerman   became  Star Bulletin   editorial  writer   ”If Corky  stayed ( until martial law)  he’d  have  wound up in prison.

In  early  70s,  I  wrote  for  Star  Bulletin. When I  passed  by Honolulu,  Corky picked  me up for lunch  with  wife, Hana.  He  asked  about the emerging dictatorship — and home. . “I know how men, in exile, feed on dreams,” Aeschylus wrote.

Zimmerman  was  visiting   Press Foundation of Asia when military agents arresting journalists  scooped me in.  Waving   the photocopied  arrest  warrant, with  Juan Ponce Enrile’s  signature, I said: “Here Carl”.  ”Are  you  a  foreign  journalist?,” the  agitated colonel asked, snatching away the warrant.  ”You’re  not   to  see  this.”

Corky  became  the  first  of  many   journalists  who’d  seek refuge abroad.  Australia opened doors for  columnist-painter Alfredo  Roces and  Amando  Doronila.  Chinese Commercial News’ Rizal Yuyitung  settled in Canada. Brother Quintin  opted for San Francisco.  Manila Times Eddie Monteclaro signed up with Chicago Tribune. I joined  the UN.

Other exiles from  the  Marcos dictatorship  included: Benigno and Corazon Aquino, Raul Manglapus,  Eugenio  Lopez, Jr, Sergio Osmena, Jr  Herherson Alvarez,  human rights lawyer Juan Quijano.  Charito Planas slipped out the backdoor to Sabah, disguised as a nun.

Ambassador Eduardo Quintero  exposed Marcos bribery of constitutional convention delegates. “Persecution drove Quintero to self-exile in the United States where, in December 1984, he died of heart attack at age 84,” Doronila adds. “He was vindicated by the Supreme Court in 1988, four years after his death.”

“By their exiles, you shall know them”. Look  at  what Marcos, Estrada and   Macapagal-Arroyo  tossed up.

Fabian Ver  and Eduardo Cojunagco squeezed into escape helicopter bucket seats. ”   Police officials  Michael  Rey Aquino and  Cesar  Mancao  ran before they could be grilled  about the mastermind in  publicist Salvador “Bobby” Dacer. To  dodge  testifying on kickbacks,  Estrada auditor Yolanda Ricaforte left no forwarding address. Neither did members of  Erap’s  ”midnight cabinet:: Jaime Dichavez,  Dante Tan & Co  Agriculture undersecretary  ”Joc-joc”    Bolante skipped  town to dodge questions  on the fertilizer scam.

Every day, Corky  would  draw  a color cartoon for the front page and a black-and-white one for the editorial page.  And for  40 years, he did that.  Yet, he found  time to teach cartooning at the University of  Hawaii.

“Corky  enchanted  and infuriated  more readers  than anyone else in this newspaper’s history.”, said  Mary Poole, Trinidad’s editor.  “Politicians he skewered were   first in line to acquire the original drawings. That  included  U.S. presidents visting Hawaii.

He  kept  an eye on twists of  Philippine politics. In December 2007, he emailed me his cartoon  on the Magdalo caper at the Penninsula Hotel.   It depicts a handful of soldiers, perched on a mall stand, demanding:  “Gloria  Resign.” Heedless crowds  walk by   ”What’s all that about?,” a woman asks.  A man replies: “Edsa 52.”

Exiles often  sink roots into the country that gave them liberty denied at home. America  became the home of his choice, Corky said  at one ceremony honoring him. . But  he “did not take  any of  citizenship benefits for granted.”.  He  gave  to his adopted country much of  the talents that he brought from the Philippines.

Among other things,  he  trained a new generation of cartoonists.  Cartoonist Jon J. Murakami, for example, met Corky as a fifth grade student.  “Corky really became the face of the Star-Bulletin for many years,” said Zimmerman. “

The paper’s  obit noted:  “Trinidad’s philosophy for young cartoonists was as simple as it was elegant: Take  a  stand”

“Aside from following  basic  aims of informing, instructing and entertaining, the editorial cartoon, first and always, must make a statement,”  Corky  wrote. “It must  BE  a statement…. I have never seen  a great cartoon that sat on a fence…And a few drawing skills help.”

Was  America’s  gain therefore  our loss?  Human lives are  not a zero-sum  game.  A country of migrants,  like  the  Philippines,  must tell  its   sons and daughters: “Bloom wherever you are planted.”

 

Marital Problems

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

THOUGH I talk with a lot of young people, mostly students, I actually get to deal with older folks most of the time. And I must confess that one of the most difficult moments I have is when I have to grapple with painful cases of people with serious marital problems.

These are times when I pray really hard, importuning our Lord for more light and strength to bring me to see things more clearly and resolve them in the most prudent way.

Sometimes, I think there must be something really wrong in the air these days, because my impression is that now we have more couples whose marriages are in deep trouble.

There are times when I wish to run away from the cases, even to go as far as to tell off the persons involved, especially if at first glance I can already detect instances of stupidity committed by one or both of the parties.

I would rather wrestle, hands down, with the current global financial crisis than get mixed up in these complicated marital cases.

But I know fully well that that would not be priestly on my part. I cannot avoid the reality that like it or not, I have to handle these cases, especially if I wouldn’t have any other, more prudent priests to refer the persons to. I can’t deny it’s part of the pastoral care I have to give to everyone who comes.

And so, I just have to brace myself to take on that most delicate, agonizing and thankless task, listening to the endless twists and turns that the parties tell me, stretching my patience for as long as needed, and sharpening my wits and discerning powers.

At the end of the day, I feel many times completely drained. Aside from the monumental effort it requires for study, consultations, etc., it also entails, at least for me, a tremendous emotional stress. I can’t help but empathize with both parties, and thus I suffer with them.

No matter how much I try to protect and defend myself by intellectualizing or objectivizing things, the drama is usually so intense that it manages to get under my skin.

And that’s not the most difficult part. The most trying part is when you start to explain and clarify things. With emotions revved up to their limits, even defining the nature of marriage seems to need a first-class miracle.

Sometimes I get the impression it would be far easier to give a lecture on marriage to bulls and cows than to couples who are bent to decouple.

You can just imagine what is needed when you start making finer distinctions! Let me quote some recent words of Pope Benedict to the Roman Rota to give you an idea of some of these distinctions that need to be made:

“It is opportune,” he said, “to recall again some distinctions that draw the demarcation line above all between ‘psychic maturity which is seen as the goal of human development’ and ‘canonical maturity which is the basic minimum required for establishing the validity of marriage.’

“Secondly, the distinction between incapacity and difficulty insofar as ‘only incapacity and not difficulty in giving consent and in realizing a true community of life and love invalidates a marriage.’

“Thirdly, the distinction between the canonistic dimension of normality, inspired by an integral vision of the human person that ‘also includes moderate forms of psychological difficulty,’ and the clinical dimension that excludes every limitation of maturity and ‘every form of psychic illness.’

“And lastly, the distinction between the ‘minimum capacity sufficient for valid consent’ and the idealized capacity ‘of full maturity in relation to happy married life.’”

I must say that even though I’m no canon lawyer, I suspect that many canon lawyers do not get these distinctions right. And that’s not surprising, since these distinctions are really very slippery to handle.

I feel that what’s needed is a sustained effort to catechize everyone about the nature and requirements of marriage, involving first of all our bishops and clergy, and the experts.

They should be generous and creative enough to make the finer points more understandable to all, especially those who are married or about to get married.

 

Little Miss Valentine’s 2009

By Jay Bolusa

February 17, 2009 – It is still very cold here in New York — 26 degrees F — but the wind chill factor is in the single digits. The whole week will still be like this and Thursday we can see some snow.

Last Saturday, Valentine’s Day, I attended the Little Miss Valentine’s 2009 here at the World Astoria Manor. Here, little girls of Filipino descent, vie for the title of Miss Valentines. They are usually presented on the Christmas party of the Social Club of New York, the sponsor, on the second week of December and from then on the contestants’ families work so hard to raise funds for their daughters to win.

The contestant who raises the highest amount is declared the winner and is crowned on Valentine’s Day. The funds that will be raised in this occasion will be used by the association to bankroll its various projects in the Philippines, especially the scholarship program, which is a very laudable cause.

This years’ winner is Nicole Ocampo. Margie Beof invited me to this affair. Her daughter Desiree Marie Wisotsky was Miss Valentines 2008, and turned over her reign to Nicole. This was the first Valentine’s party I have ever attended where it was a family affair. Families danced together with their friends with them.

The Coronation Ball started at 7:00 p.m. and ended at 1:00 a.m. the following morning. It was a beautiful sight to see parents dance with their children in the hall. It changed my view of Valentine’s Day celebration, where before I always thought that it’s a day for sweethearts, lovers, husbands and wives to celebrate. I now see it is better this way, to celebrate with families and friends — each family dancing with their own. I danced with the Wisotsky family, Daniel, Margie, Paul and Desiree, with their friend Angelica from 8:00 p.m. till the wee hours of the morning with only short breaks in between. It was happiness I felt, not exhaustion, after four hours of non-stop dancing.

Margie Beof was born and raised in Aborlan and migrated to California with her parents when she was in second year high school. She married Daniel, who is a retired Marine Officer. They were blessed with three children, John Paul, Paul Thomas and Desiree Marie. If only all the families would change their view of celebrating Valentine’s Day and enjoy this with their families, I believe this would be a better world to live.

What an ideal family! But not most of the Filipino families here are like this. A lot I know have fractured relationships. Materialism has crept into them that the children, at very young ages, have already embraced the western culture. As Filipinos, we have a lot of traits worthy to be preserved — if only some of these Filipinos I know will teach their children our culture, they will have lesser headaches raising them.

I truly lament for these parents. But there is always time, if only they start the change. I am praying for that day. Until next week, Ciao and God Bless!

 

Stitching Sheets of Loose Sand

By Juan L. Mercado

ENVIRONMENT AND Natural Resources Secretary Lito Atienza spiked an order that stretched for six years a permit allowing Basey Wood Industries to log, yet again, in a 57,525-hectare concession in ecologically brittle Samar Island.

The country’s last old growth forests cluster in Samar. They’re crammed with diverse wildlife and plants. It is “one of the top 200 endangered spaces on the [planet],” World Wildlife Fund (WWF) says. The UN Development Program, the Global Environment Facility and the government launched the Samar Island Natural Park to protect this resource.

But former Environment Secretary Angelo Reyes unleashed Baswood loggers anyway. “I can’t find any logic why we should allow the cutting of trees on such a massive scale,” his successor told the Inquirer. “We’re concerned about climate change.”

Atienza was referring to the report of the Nobel Prize recipient Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “Abrupt and irreversible climate changes” would occur if business-as-usual practices are not decisively curbed, the report states.

The IPCC scientific analysis leaves “little wiggle room for politicians.” Yet, San Jose Timber Corp. drove an opening wedge into Samar’s 18-year-old logging ban. A politicking environment and natural resources secretary, Mike Defensor, authorized Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile’s firm to chainsaw in a 95,770 hectare concession that straddles protected zones for 16 years and five months as “restitution.” Got that?

These decisions reignite the old festering debate: Can forests be managed so that loggers, who’ve always corralled benefits with their political clout, finally share with impoverished forest dwellers? And can this be done while conserving the environment so it will meet today’s needs, without hocking future generations’ rights?

Yes, replied 155 foresters from 33 countries who met in Vietnam for the International Conference on Managing Forests for Poverty Reduction. But it’ll take an overhaul of mind-sets and policies, says “A Cut for The Poor,” the 247-page report on the Ho Chi Minh meeting.

All too often “forests have been off-limits to all but the privileged and powerful … with their chain-saw gangs, skidders and testosterone-charged bulldozers,” Food and Agriculture Organization’s Patrick Durst said. Logs are big bucks, inviting illegal, shadowy activities. “When lucrative timber is at stake, local people are invariably shut out. If involved, they are usually wage laborers, who help harvest timber wealth, hauled or floated to cities –never to be seen again.”

Does that describe today’s forest plunder in Surigao del Sur province? There, Picop Resources razes the remaining timber stands like there were no tomorrow. No. Durst was speaking of the last 150 years’ experience in Asia, showing how intractable poverty spurs the search today for ways of using forests other than bankrolling second mansions for loggers.

Forest dwellers huddle among Asia’s poorest. There are about 60 million highly forest-dependent people in Southeast Asia, Latin America and West Africa. About 11 million Filipinos scrounge on less than a dollar (P43 at current exchange rates). Rural folk often turn to forest products as a “livelihood strategy of last resort.”

Policymakers, however, claim allowing the poor to use forests results in degradation. “Forest-dependent poor are first in the line of fire for restrictive and punitive measures.” The University of the Philippines’ Juan Pulhin and Patrick Dugan, for example, document how Filipino rural families must draft complex forest management plans to harvest miniscule portions of timber.

Obsolete mind-sets buttress this unjust status quo. “Some foresters think forestry is about trees,” the FAO’s Jack Westoby wrote in 1967. “This is wrong. Forestry is about people. And it is about trees only insofar as they serve the needs of people.”

A people-centered approach is today’s quiet revolution in forestry philosophy, Durst said. The conventional wisdom that bigger is always better in forestry is crumbling, albeit slowly. Will private companies and governments allow local people to extract and process timber that’s uneconomical to remove from the forest? “Big trees have the potential to be a significant pathway out of poverty for many of the little people.”

The task ahead is to “capture opportunities in forest harvest and wood processing to benefit the marginalized. New and rediscovered old technologies, plus marketing and institutional development, open windows of opportunity…”

“A Cut for The Poor” spotlights the need for action in: (a) Policies — Rules for small-scale operators must be simplified so the rural poor can participate. Simplification also curbs graft. (b) Economic Issues — Measures must shift the poor from merely providing labor. (c) Benefits — Community-based forest enterprises need clearer sharing arrangements. (d) Information—Data on new and rediscovered technology and markets must become available.

Poverty reduction is not a by-product, “A Cut for The Poor” stresses. It should be an explicit priority of forest management that engages the private sector. “Clear property rights, stable policies and strong local institutions are essential.”

Reaching the rural poor is like “stitching sheets of loose sand,” Sun Yat Sen once said. But the alternative is continued exploitation of people by misuse of a resource they have a right to.

 

Plastic Ban (Part 2)

By M. V. Asuncion

PLASTIC BAN (Part 2) … Sa maraming lunsod at bansa sa ngayon sa buong mundo nakasalang ang mga ordinansa at pagsasabatas sa ban ng plastic shopping  bags.  Mula Australia hanggang United Kingdom,  Africa, Asya at North America, pinag-iisipan ng mga korporasyon at mga politicians and pag-ban sa toxic plastic bags.
Sa Ireland kung saan nagsimula ang plastic bag ban,  bring your own bag sa pamimili sapagkat hindi ka bibigyan ng bag.  Kung walang sariling shopping bag, bibili ka na. Nakasanayan na ng mga taga dun na magbitbit ng sarili nilang bag.
Hindi libre ang plastic shopping bags sa China, New Delhi, Melbourne, Denmark, Netherlands, Hongkong, at Paris.   Bukod sa plastic bag charge,  naiban  sa China ang paggawa ng ultra-thin plastic bags.  Simula ng pinatupad ang plastic bag charge sa mga bansang ito, bumaba ng malaki ang plastic bag usage.  Hinikayat ang paggamit ng paper bags, compostable plastic bags, at reusable bags tulad ng cloth bags.
May isyu hinggil sa paggamit ng paper bags. Sapagkat gawa sa papel, ibig sabihin galing din sa puno.  Marami diumanong puno ang magagamit para matugunan ang pangangailangan upang i-replace ang gamit ng plastic bags.  Sa huli, hindi rin ito makabubuti sa kalikasan.  Bagama’t may ganitong kontensyon, ginagamit pa rin ang paper bag na substitute sa plastic bag.
Kayang-kaya nating ipatupad ang ban ng plastic bag dito sa atin.  Kailangan lamang ng suporta ng lahat ng mamimili at ng mga may-ari ng malalaking tindahan.
Ang pag-ban sa plastic shopping bag ay magbubukas naman ng malaking oportunidad para sa mga gumagawa ng bayong, baskets, cloth bag, at paper bag gawa sa indigenous materials.  Tataas ang demand para sa mga ito kung kaya lilikha ito ng employment at livelihood activities.  Walang ganitong oportunidad sa plastic na binibili lang natin sa Kamaynilaan.  Makatutulong na tayo sa kalikasan, makalilinis pa sa kapaligiran, at makalilikha pa ng kabuhayan.
Totoo, hindi ganun kadali yun. Paano ang mga plastics sa palengke, yung mga ginagamit sa kaliwa’t-kanang mga karinderia, at sari-sari store?  Malawak na masyado ang paggamit ng plastics sa atin.  At, dahil dito, mas lumalaki ang pangangailagan na dapat mayroon na tayong gawin upang ito ay ma-kontrol at malutas ang “wasteful” at “harmful” na paggamit ng plastic.
Ipanumbalik natin ang kagawian ng ating mga magulang, ni Lola… namimili gamit ang iisang sisidlang bayong o basket.  Kaya? Kaya ba nating maging unang “Plastic Bag Free City” sa Pilipinas?  Kaya ba nating ma-iangat ng isang lebel ang pagiging Cleanest & Greenest?  Most importantly, kaya kayang gawing resolusyon ito ng isang Konsehal?  Hmmm…

 

Inter-generational

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

WE HAVE to be more sensitive to this aspect of our life these days. With the current pace and widening diversity of development, we need to be truly skilful in handling the intricate and more felt requirements of inter-generational integration.

We cannot help but deepen our respective generational specializations of interest, in all their social and cultural varieties. I suppose this is how things go. We even have to foster the legitimate differences. But we need to learn how to form one organic whole, since in the end we all are one human family.

For example, in any diocesan clergy gathering that I attend, I can’t fail to notice the spontaneous groupings that appear, formed more by generational factors than by any other element. The young congregate among themselves, the seniors keep to themselves.

There are exceptions, of course. But they are more amusing than anything. Like, I met a retired Monsignor, approaching 80, so techie he could shame many younger ones with his knowledge and skill of the modern gadgets. He even used some technical lingo not yet in my vocabulary.

Where there is more unity and harmony in one group, say in a parish, there’s a lot of good that can be done. In contrast, where there is an infestation of envy and quarreling, many things get wasted.

In the place where I’m staying at present, we are just 10 residents—3 priests and 7 lay professionals—but I readily see the differences and feel the normal tension that goes with them, something that needs to be managed well.

At 57, I’m the eldest of the group, followed by a 55-year-old priest who was a former engineer. The rest are in their thirties. And our director is the youngest at 24 years of age. One is a university professor, the others are almost all engineers and architects, working in different schools and offices.

In our daily get-togethers, especially the ones after dinner, I can’t help but feel at the same time happy, excited and challenged by the rich mix of topics that get into our conversations.

I learn a lot from them, especially when they talk about new developments in their profession, people they meet and do business with, and the plans and projects they handle.

I just hope they also learn from me, since I too give a generous share of my views. But it gratifies me no end to see how everyone tries to go out of their own selves to engage everybody else in hearty exchanges, with refined efforts to adapt and please others manifest in a discreet and natural way.

I could see the mutual complementation taking place among ourselves, in an atmosphere of cheerful family life. Each one contributes something, everyone listens. Many times, I say a quiet prayer of thanksgiving for all this, a real blessing.

I suppose this is part of the secret to achieving a kind of inter-generational integration among all of us in society. We need to forget ourselves more and just think of the others, eager to serve and to please others.

And this can always be done, because it always starts with small, normal and ordinary things we are supposed to do with one another. We have to be nice, even affectionate, develop a keen, sincere interest in the others, in what they do and even in their concerns.

With little goodwill that we try to nurture and grow, a lot of good is produced, benefiting everyone. We have to learn to go beyond our natural differences, our understandable likes and dislikes, to be able to enter smoothly into the lives of others.

We need to learn to disregard irritating details, and to keep rectifying our intentions and purifying our memory, since anything can dirty them anytime even within a span of a minute.

We are all human, it’s understood, but we too are capable of rising high above our purely human conditions to meet the standards of real charity. We have to be quick to understand and forgive. We have to be very careful with our tendency to judge.

In my years of talking with people, I accomplish more by listening and understanding and encouraging than by making suggestions. Often the people themselves discover what they need to do.

I find this an effective way to handle inter-generational differences.

 

Miracle at Hudson River

By Jay Bolusa

February 10, 2009 – Right around the corner of our neighborhood here in the Upper East Side of Manhattan at 64th Street and Lexington Avenue, you will see every day an armada of media vehicles with satellites almost as high as the buildings.

This has been going on since the announcement of Bernie Madoff’s $80 billion Ponzi scam.

The only time that these media people vanished for a day was when Captain Chesley B. Sullenberger landed U.S. Airways Flight 1549 at Hudson River five minutes after take off. This emergency landing on water, in the middle of the city, with all passengers surviving, is now known as “The Miracle at Hudson.”

Immediately, we saw these media vehicles disappear to the west side to see what happened to the plane. They were only back after all 155 passengers of the place were rescued.

Yesterday, Mayor Mike Bloomberg of New York honored the crew of Flight 1549 and gave them the key to the city, and in the evening, treated them all to dinner. “The Miracle at the Hudson” is the only aviation accident where all passengers were saved. It is one of the finest moments in aviation history.

The New York Magazine called Captain Sullenberger “The Last Aviator” and expounded “why they don’t make pilots like Sully anymore?” The event of January 15, 2009 will forever be remembered by not only the New Yorkers, but the world as well, not only for the successful landing at the Hudson River but the swiftness of the response of the rescue team, policemen and divers from New York and New Jersey. All of these were captured live by cameras in the surrounding area and the media. It was a day which will be etched forever in our memories.

How are the Palaweños in New York coping with everything that is happening around us, the recession in particular? I am glad that nobody I know lost his job. YP is still having fun on weekends with Tina Macolor and Carmen and friends. Veronica Escalona is busy escorting Margie Beof on rehearsals for the Mrs. Philippines- America Contest.

Margie Beof is the daughter of Jose and Lolita Beof of Aborlan, Palawan. I remember Lolit when I was still working at the City Court of Puerto Princesa way back in the 70s. When Judge Oscar P. Siat was on vacation, Judge Avelino Abiog took over and he brought along Lolit as his stenographer.

The Beofs moved to California when Margie was in second year high school and she finished schooling here. She is now married to a retired cop Daniel Wisotkay and blessed with three children. Margie is now a candidate for Mrs. Philippines- America. The final selection and coronation will be at the Sheraton Hotel in New Jersey this March 14, 2009. I will tell you whether our beauty from Palawan will be lucky for this Brains and Beauty Contest here in New York. Let us just pray for her success for this will be our honor as well.

Till then, Ciao and God bless!

 

Cascading Idiocy

By Juan L. Mercado

“CAN WE get out of this house soon — please?” That antsy plea came from our then five-year old daughter.  With other visitors, we stood inside the Taj Mahal.  But like other kids, she preferred to romp in the Taj gardens, glistening in the Agra winter sunlight.

Following Empress Mumtaz Mahal’s death, Emperor Shah Jahan built this gleaming mausoleum for her over 17 years (1631 to 1648). The result is “the jewel of Muslim art in India.”

“See Taj Mahal at full moon,” urges tourist brochures. But even at high noon, this domed grave and spires take one’s breath away. The Taj adorns journals, family albums, even tacky postcards. Unesco named Taj as a “world heritage site” in 1983.

A wall inscription hints at the grief that shattered the Emperor. “Should the guilty seek asylum here? Like one pardoned, he becomes free from sin…,” it says. “In this world, this edifice has been made to display thereby the Creator’s glory.”

The Taj commands instant recognition. But “few are aware of the tragedy that inspired its creation,” writes Queen Raina Al Abdullah of Jordan.  Empress Mumtaz Mahal died in child birth four centuries ago. “A woman still dies from causes related to pregnancy or childbirth every minute of every day today.”

Born in Kuwait, commoner Raina’s father was a physician. She graduated with a computer science degree from American University in Cairo. She married Prince Hussien who ascended to the throne. Today, 38-year old Queen Raina devotes time to charities and serves as Unicef’s “Eminent Advocate for Children.”

Eleven Filipina mothers die everyday. About 4,500 succumb yearly to preventable causes:  hemorrhage, hypertension, infection. Abortion is often as a bloody substitute for hard-to-come-by family planning.

The maternal death toll worldwide is more than 536,000 women each year. “State of the World’s Children 2009” notes. That comes to roughly 10 million per generation – equal to more than two Singapores.

“Women bear and raise the new generation,” Queen Raina points out.” They are critical actors as workers, leaders and activists. When women’s lives are cut short or incapacitated as a result of pregnancy or childbirth, the tragedy cascades. Children lose a parent. Spouses lose a partner.  And societies lose positive contributors.”

“There are only two families in this world,” author Miguel de Cervantes once noted. “The haves and the have-nots.” This fault line is most tragic in maternal and infant deaths.

Women in least developed countries, like Mali, are 300 times more likely to die in childbirth than women those in well-off Norway. Yet, most research focuses “on incremental advances in highly technical care for 2 percent of deaths in advanced nations.

Along with collapsing Zimbabwe, the Philippines shares a dubious distinction with 68 other countries: we contribute nine out of ten maternal, neonatal and child health deaths worldwide.

The wife and I have a Swedish daughter-in-law.  We showed her the Unicef report that reveals the lifetime risk of maternal death for Filipinas is 1 in 140. For Swedes, it is 1in to 17,400 life time risk. Her blue-grey eyes widened.

“Across the human life span, an individual faces the greatest risk of mortality during birth and the first 28 days of life. About half of Filipino children’s death occurs within this narrow deadly window. Worldwide, the toll is about 10,000 a day. “Most of these deaths occur at home and are unrecorded,” Unicef notes. “They remain invisible to all but their families.”

Under five mortality rates (U5MR) pegs chances for a kid keeling over before his fifth birthday. Survival beyond five hinges on “which part of a country are they born. And to what type of household.”

“Children least likely to survive are those in the poorest households,” says an Asian Development Bank and UN study. “The poorest 20 typically accounts for considerably more than 20 percent “

The World Bank estimates that basic interventions, like attendance of skilled health personnel, could avert three out of four maternal deaths, Queen Raina points out. So, why are we still failing to safeguard women as they perpetuate the human race itself?

“Public health has indeed made breath-taking strides,” she answers. “But these benefits have not been equally shared.” The skewed patterns persist between countries or geographic regions.

This is also true between well-off urban enclaves and tail-enders. A child born in dirt-poor Tawi-Tawi is almost five times or more likely to die, during the first month of life than a child born in Manila.

There has been heartening headway in improving Philippine child survival rates. Infant mortality here has been whittled down from 57 for every 1,000 births to 23. Under-five deaths were a gross 80 in 1990. This dropped to 31 in 2006.

But this country will sell its mothers short yet again. We’ll probably fall short of meeting, the Millennium Development Goal No 5: To slash, by three-fourths the number of maternal deaths come 2015.

Other countries, like Malaysia, are well on the way to meeting this target. But we’re bogged down in cascading idiocy. Can an ex-convict, like Jose Velarde, run for president? We fret. “May 200 ka diyan Sec “Funds needed by health programs bankroll Joc-Joc Bolante’s fertilizer scam.

“Changing the trajectory for girls can change the course of the future,” Queen Raina stressed. And when these girl become mothers, they will view pregnancy and childbirth as something to celebrate, not fear.

 

Our Psychosomatic Unity

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

I THINK that from time to time, we need to jolt ourselves to get acquainted with certain concepts that actually are basic and very important to us, especially in our times of rapid changes and extreme pressures.

In our general culture and knowledge, we cannot remain in the level of the previous generations. Many things have changed. Many things also have been discovered. Objective knowledge has expanded exponentially. Don’t you think our subjective knowledge should keep in step with it?

We cannot remain indifferent to these developments, although it’s also true that we have to be more discerning and selective. The chances of our getting drowned and lost in the welter of info these days are increasing. We need to be discriminating.

And I don’t mean just the technical data. There also are quantum leaps of newly unearthed things in the world of the speculative sciences like philosophy, theology, and in other sciences that previously were considered kind of restricted areas that are meant only for some experts and specialists.

Well, these days, these specialized fields are getting to be more and more of common interest. While it’s true that the focus of specialization has tightened, the range and scope of general culture also has widened and deepened.

We seem to have waken up to the realization that these two aspects of knowledge, the specialized and the general, are meant to complement more than conflict with each other. And I think that’s a very welcome development.

And so I was happy to recently get into the field of Christian anthropology, or the study of man using scientific data but inspired by Christian faith. This was because I had to give a class to our school staff who are given continuous formation to be effective tutors of our students.

The ambitious goal of our technical school is to have a universal coverage of tutors for all the students. And so there I was, making a foray into the allied field of psychology, which I, as a priest, previously regarded as taboo. But truth to tell, I enjoyed and got tremendously enlightened while studying it.

For example, I was truly fascinated when I studied the part on what was termed as our psychosomatic unity. I used to associate that p-word with self-induced illness.

Now I realize it is a natural aspect of our life that, in fact, plays a crucial role. I believe it should be learned thoroughly especially by teachers and counselors.

As an amateur trying to understand that concept, I learned that since we are made up of body and soul, something material and something spiritual, it would be necessary to know how the contact and relationship between these two constituent components take place and work.

This, in a nutshell, is what our psychosomatic unity is all about. It’s a very interesting study that can give light to why we behave and react to things in a certain manner, or why we have a definite character and temperament. It can tell us what is healthy and not, what is ideal and is not quite so.

The soul is supposed to be the essence of our life. It gives us our nature. It integrates all the parts and levels of life, and determines how we act.

But while the soul is spiritual and oriented toward the universal and the infinite, it is united to the body, like the form cannot be separated from the substance. And the body individuates the soul, because of its materiality.

It should be very interesting to catalogue and classify the possible combinations, in general terms, of the ways the spiritual is individuated by the material. Actually, there are more interesting, even endless things that can be discovered.

This study on our psychosomatic unity surely makes us understand ourselves better, and helps us to know what to do to grow and improve our life in all its aspects. It can be a wonderful tool to help those with special problems. And these days, cases with special problems are proliferating.

I feel this is one important reason why the Vatican, for example, has recently issued a document on the use of psychology in the formation and selection of seminarians and priests.

As a priest who gives spiritual direction to students, I consider this knowledge indispensable. May we all develop an earnest interest in pursuing this knowledge!