Due to the recent events in the Philippines, people have again been flooding to help out the disaster stricken Cagayan de Oro. It's a good thing to help people who have been affected by the flood, yes, but do we always need a disaster for us to take action and be motivated to do something.?
We have had Ondoys, Pedrings and now Sendong, but we still haven't learned anything valuable from these disasters. It is always act after the disaster. It is never do something to make sure no disaster will happen. Our leaders attend parties instead of doing something, instead of attending to their country's needs. They say that the party is important to build connections and so and so. But at the expense of so many lives.What happened to the action that our leaders promised us they will do to help the country? Has it all gone to funds for their clothes and trips abroad?
The Philippines is a country full of natural wonder I marvel at, but it is slowly disappearing, thanks to illegal mining, hunting and depletion of various fauna and flora that can be found no where else in the world. Are all these becoming the trade-off to a "better future" that government is aiming for.? If so will this so called future be nothing more but gray and metal?
Nothing is being done to stop the crimes that nature is going through. The only action that our leaders and government have taken are to save themselves and make sure their seats are only filled by their power hungry and money driven butts. The Ampatuan Massacre which has seen so many court trials, has not yet been solved. The fight to save Palawan's natural beauty and to preserve it against illegal mining is still on going, heck the battle against illegal mining has been going for years and nothing has been done. The RH Bill has been discussed over and over, and still hasn't been approved. Must we wait until every nook and cranny of our country is occupied for it to get passed.?
We want to save so much of our country's resources and natural wonders, but have we even done enough to secure a small percentage of it is safe from disappearing completely.? Until the time the floods we will experience are floods of expensive wine, we all have to brace ourselves for another disaster, because our country's leaders will have a good time drinking to their heart's content.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Monday, December 12, 2011
CBCP wants anti-discrimination bill cleansed of provisions on gay rights (Repost)
"MANILA, Philippines—The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) is now training its guns on the anti-discrimination bill, saying the possible enactment of the bill into law would open the door for the legalization of same sex marriages.
Speaking at a weekly forum in Greenhills, San Juan City, on Wednesday, lawyers of the CBCP and a Catholic bishop hit the Senate for amending the previous version of the anti-discrimination bill or the Senate Bill 2814.
The Senate has recently passed on third reading the bill which is after penalizing all forms of discrimination.
The SB 2814, known as Anti-Ethnic, Racial or Religious Discrimination and Profiling Act of 2011, will be discussed by a bicameral conference committee tasked to harmonize the Senate bill with similar bills passed by the House.
Ronald Reyes, a lawyer of the CBCP, said they had no qualms about the bill before but became concerned when the bill was amended and “sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity” were included.
“It’s opening the door for same sex marriages, which our country doesn’t allow,” Reyes told reporters.
He said the Catholic church, which would not officiate same sex marriages, might be punished if the bill became law.
“This is alarming and it might change our society,” Reyes said.
Another CBCP lawyer Jo Imbong said the LGBT (lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender) should not be considered the same as the elderly, the handicapped, and the poor.
“These people are disadvantaged not by their own choice. But the third sex, they choose this. How can you give protection to a choice like that?” Imbong said.
Imbong said the bill violated religious freedom and the “no prior restraint” accorded by the law to freedom of speech.
“The government may not penalize a religious organization for … excluding a person from Church responsibilities, for example, based upon that person’s moral behavior which could include the practice or promotion of homosexuality,” she said.
The bill would hinder the Church from teaching what it believed to be right or wrong, Imbong said.
The lawyer noted that under the bill, the priest who refused to officiate same sex marriages may be fined with P500,000 and jailed for 25 years.
Antipolo Bishop Gabriel Reyes said the Episcopal Commission on Family and Life of the CBCP has been appealing to the Senate and the House of Representatives to exclude the LGBT from the bill."
Speaking at a weekly forum in Greenhills, San Juan City, on Wednesday, lawyers of the CBCP and a Catholic bishop hit the Senate for amending the previous version of the anti-discrimination bill or the Senate Bill 2814.
The Senate has recently passed on third reading the bill which is after penalizing all forms of discrimination.
The SB 2814, known as Anti-Ethnic, Racial or Religious Discrimination and Profiling Act of 2011, will be discussed by a bicameral conference committee tasked to harmonize the Senate bill with similar bills passed by the House.
Ronald Reyes, a lawyer of the CBCP, said they had no qualms about the bill before but became concerned when the bill was amended and “sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity” were included.
“It’s opening the door for same sex marriages, which our country doesn’t allow,” Reyes told reporters.
He said the Catholic church, which would not officiate same sex marriages, might be punished if the bill became law.
“This is alarming and it might change our society,” Reyes said.
Another CBCP lawyer Jo Imbong said the LGBT (lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender) should not be considered the same as the elderly, the handicapped, and the poor.
“These people are disadvantaged not by their own choice. But the third sex, they choose this. How can you give protection to a choice like that?” Imbong said.
Imbong said the bill violated religious freedom and the “no prior restraint” accorded by the law to freedom of speech.
“The government may not penalize a religious organization for … excluding a person from Church responsibilities, for example, based upon that person’s moral behavior which could include the practice or promotion of homosexuality,” she said.
The bill would hinder the Church from teaching what it believed to be right or wrong, Imbong said.
The lawyer noted that under the bill, the priest who refused to officiate same sex marriages may be fined with P500,000 and jailed for 25 years.
Antipolo Bishop Gabriel Reyes said the Episcopal Commission on Family and Life of the CBCP has been appealing to the Senate and the House of Representatives to exclude the LGBT from the bill."
Freedomland
Last Saturday was the Blood Moon (Lunar Eclipse), and since I am a very lunar person (a Cancer, a Water Dragon and my name being Chinese for Moon) I felt the effects of it. It's quite hard to explain, it runs in the Chinese side of my family who hail from Xian in China. But the Blood Moon usually symbolizes an end to something old and a beginning of something new.
Since Saturday, I just keep getting the urge to keep doing something and be more productive. I naturally hate being stagnant and idle especially if I know I have the things to do something (e.g. jewelry, organic beauty products, tutoring, etc.)
So since the Blood Moon, I have had so many ideas and designs running through my head and having the urge to make them to reality, instead of some floating abstract thing in my mind. I'll be posting them soon here. :)
So anyway, I guess the point of the this post is just to say that no matter how awful and ugly something or some event maybe, there is always something good (no matter how small) that can come out of it. It may seem like an almost impossible thing to happen, but it happens. Trust me. I recently moved out of my parent's house, because of issues that only a few may understand. It hasn't been a week, but it feels like it's been at least a month of being free to be who I am and explore each facet of who I am. Life may always seem like it always gives you lemons, but it's your choice to make lemonade or suck on the sour fruit.
What you think you can't do, you can. What you think you can't have, you can have. All the limitations we put on ourselves are all illusions. Yes life if hard, but it's nothing impossible to get by. It will seem like the hardest thing to do, but in truth, that is how all great men and women in the past made it. All of them had to suffer and go through hell and back, but what made them great is that they didn't take anything for granted and kept fighting, even if the odds were against them.
So from Freedomland, this is Yue, updating his blog. Till next time. :)
Since Saturday, I just keep getting the urge to keep doing something and be more productive. I naturally hate being stagnant and idle especially if I know I have the things to do something (e.g. jewelry, organic beauty products, tutoring, etc.)
So since the Blood Moon, I have had so many ideas and designs running through my head and having the urge to make them to reality, instead of some floating abstract thing in my mind. I'll be posting them soon here. :)
So anyway, I guess the point of the this post is just to say that no matter how awful and ugly something or some event maybe, there is always something good (no matter how small) that can come out of it. It may seem like an almost impossible thing to happen, but it happens. Trust me. I recently moved out of my parent's house, because of issues that only a few may understand. It hasn't been a week, but it feels like it's been at least a month of being free to be who I am and explore each facet of who I am. Life may always seem like it always gives you lemons, but it's your choice to make lemonade or suck on the sour fruit.
What you think you can't do, you can. What you think you can't have, you can have. All the limitations we put on ourselves are all illusions. Yes life if hard, but it's nothing impossible to get by. It will seem like the hardest thing to do, but in truth, that is how all great men and women in the past made it. All of them had to suffer and go through hell and back, but what made them great is that they didn't take anything for granted and kept fighting, even if the odds were against them.
So from Freedomland, this is Yue, updating his blog. Till next time. :)
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