Green and Red. Purple and Pink.

Christmas. It's most peoples' favorite time of the year. Sure, your wallet deflates faster than it inflates this season, but in most peoples' heads, the spending is worth it to celebrate the love and camaraderie that exists between all men. We celebrate our friends, our family, the fact that we're alive, and of course we celebrate the birth of Christ. He was born to save us. We're celebrating the fact that a child, born most innocent, would knowingly someday suffer and die for us. There's something wrong with that thought. It's barbaric.

Here we are, buying gifts for our friends, celebrating with our families, preparing lush feasts, decorating our houses with the brightest of lights, all in the name of a prophetic slaughtering of an innocent. Sure, the slaughter brings our salvation, but instead of celebrating the prophetic slaughter, shouldn't we be feeling ashamed of ourselves? What have we to celebrate anyway? That a child was born in a manger, in a stable, in the coldest of nights. We forget all too easily that Christ was not merely born to die for us, but rather he was born to show us who we could be. He chose to be born not in the humblest of settings, but rather under the most opressive of settings. Being born in a manger isn't simplicity, but rather the fact that he, being the child of a couple married in unlawful circumstances, mother pregnant even before the marriage, they weren't sent to the stable because there were no rooms available. If ever, the innkeeper could have offered his room to a laboring Mary. This was the effect of society looking down on these "sinners." They were opressed. The Christ chose to be born in opression. This would be the initial look at the life that would be lived out rallying against that same opression.

So all in all, I learned to see something differently this Christmas. If there is anything to celebrate, it isn't that Jesus was born to suffer and die for us, but rather, I celebrate that he gave us our life's meaning. I celebrate my capacity to do something for the world. I celebrate the fact that I can, and hopefully will bring about social justice and love in all men.

My Busmate is an Underwear Model

Odd tidbit. I saw a certain "Kian Kazemi" in one of Pepper Tehankee's social event photos. The caption read that he was a model. I then remembered my busmate by the same name. He was a chubby, sort of mischevous guy who was kicked out of CSA. I snickered at the thought they they were possibly one and the same. Then 2 days later, I discover that it was him. He was in Pinoy Big Brother 2. He's an underwear model for Bench. O.o ... way to go Kian? At least he found his place in the world... Seriously, it's nice he made something of himself... Way to rise up from the ashes.

Final Answer.

Screw this. You call it "a matter of the body" or of "material pragmatism."
I say I WILL FIGHT TO MAKE THIS WORLD A BETTER PLACE BECAUSE IN MY HEART I KNOW OUR PEOPLE DESERVE BETER. Months of discernment has led me to this: I as a Catholic, support the Reproductive Health Bill. I do so in good will, and in good conscience. This world is not merely for us to practice Catholic doctrine. This world is to be lived in good faith, through the example of Christ. It is both a matter of the body and a matter of the mind. It is both of material pragmatism and spiritual idealism. I know better than to seperate this world with the next. Heaven is NOT my goal, rather my final destination. My goal is The Kingdom ON EARTH as it is in Heaven. Splagchnizomai is my way. I will not be a meek sheep. I will be what God has called us to be. I will be as Jesus has revealed us to be. I too will be the good shepherd. I too will be the man for others. I too will live my life in this simple way, and I too shall say that let the Scribes and Pharasees come and have me crucified. I would rather like my saviour die, bleeding on a cross, than to say I had not fought at all for what my conscience dictates. Quo Vadis Ateneo? We go to be shepherds as well.

FINAL ANSWER.

Ateneo’s Freudian slip
By Minyong Ordoñez
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:34:00 12/17/2008
Filed Under: Schools, Family planning, Legislation, Religion & Belief

Methinks Ateneo de Manila University’s big blue advertisement for its 150th year, which appeared in the Philippine Daily Inquirer last Dec. 10, is a Freudian slip. Why was Ateneo buying expensive two full pages of advertising and making a big deal of proclaiming its deepening spirituality? Is the depth of Ateneo’s spirituality being doubted nowadays?

Or was the big blue ad a mea culpa, mea maxima culpa for the shallow spirituality reflected in the defiance of the Catholic Church’s magisterium by 14 Ateneo professors who wrote a position paper that Catholics could support the Reproductive Health Bill in good conscience? Where did these 14 professors get the authority to interpret the official teachings of the Church?

Forty-two world-class Catholic scholars from North America, Europe and the Middle East were aghast! Aghast enough to rebuke the Ateneo professors with an authentic Catholic discernment proving that Ateneo de Manila academics are greatly mistaken. No Catholic can in good conscience support House Bill 5043.

In the big blue ad, Fr. Bienvenido Nebres, S.J., president of the Ateneo de Manila University, focused his message on Ignatian spirituality, tracing its roots to the classic spiritual exercises. Popularly called retreat, it was conceived by Jesuit founder St. Ignatius of Loyola. It is de rigueur for priests and lay persons pursuing personal spirituality and holiness.

Nebres defines spirituality as the spirituality that understands the way of the cross, a terrific insight that hits the nail on the head. It is precisely the kind of spirituality that’s patently omitted in the rationale of the RH bill.

Many congressmen and congresswomen who favor the bill insist that they are good Catholics. They are conversant with the economics of poverty but not fully knowledgeable or playing possum on doctrinal matters.

Sanctity of life. Divine dignity of women. Selfless love within the family. These are the pillars of strength of an authentic Christian living, and of a society with unerring moral compass.

Population demographers, social engineers, secularized politicians, hip-shooting opinion peddlers, modernist theologians plus the 14 Ateneo professors have got their values anchored on practical materialism and personalism. They cannot discern Pope Benedict XVI’s teachings on agape (self-less and sacrificial love for family). Or Fr. Nebres’ Christ-centered insight on spirituality that understands the way of the cross.

Many Ateneo alumni of the 1950s and 1960s underwent outstanding tutelage from doctrinal Jesuits of the post-war years. To cite a few: John P. Delaney, S.J., who championed the sanctity of marriage and devotion to the Holy Eucharist among Ateneo and University of the Philippines students; Fr. Henry McCollough, S.J., who taught that faith and reason is the right approach in understanding and practice of the Catholic faith; Fr. Lino Banayad, S.J., a Catechism expert who clearly defined what’s wrong and what’s right in his ethics classes; Fr. Catalino Arevalo, S.J., a top-rate theologian who can explain the Catholic faith in simple human terms; Fr. Horacio de La Costa, S.J., a world-class historian who found Catholicism as the driver of time-honored Filipino values; and Fr. James B. Reuter, S.J., an inspiring retreat master and marriage counselor, a father confessor with a soothing doctrinal admonition.

Many Ateneo alumni are asking questions. Whatever happened to “Ratio Studiorum,” the Jesuit-conceived curriculum concept that inspired many Ateneans in the past to pursue excellence of mind and spirit? What is happening out there in Loyola Heights? Are there two schools of thought in Ateneo today?

On one side are followers of the Church magisterium who obey the Church teachings with humility as taught by Jesus Christ in his Sermon on the Mount. On the other side are a coterie of modernists, populists and personalists whose attitude on Catholicism is a matter of feel not faith, a matter of body and not of soul, a matter of material pragmatism not spiritual idealism, a matter of worldliness not of saintliness and a matter of selfish love not self-less love.

The media savvy lawyer and priest, Fr. Joaquin Bernas, S.J., who wrote his opinion on the RH Bill does not augment Fr. Nebres’ kind of spirituality at all. He chose to skin the cat in many ways, replete with ifs and buts, hence the good father was disabled from making a truly Catholic stand on morality. Methinks Fr. Bernas is too fascinated with life in a pluralistic society. He chose to be a politically correct constitutionalist first, an ordained Catholic priest second.

A top-rating TV preacher in America, the late Bishop Fulton Sheen, had an unequivocal view on moral issues. He said, “Right is right even if only one person believes it and millions don’t. And wrong is wrong even if millions think it’s right and only one thinks it’s wrong.”

Quo vadis, Ateneo?

Minyong Ordoñez is a retired chair of Publicis Group of Companies, a Paris-based communication company. He is an Ateneo alumnus, High School 1955 and Bachelor of Science in Journalism 1961. Email: hgordonez@gmail.com

Pinoy Kanto Twilight

Blatantly stolen from Aldo Tong and Karen Santos >.< I just HAD to repost this.

TWILIGHT
(Filipino kanto boy's version)

Kasi pare ganito daw yun. may isa daw babae na hot daw pare. pero maputla siya kasi hindi siya inalagaan ng nanay niya pare. tapos pare emo daw siya kasi nga daw hindi siya mahal ng mundo at para siyang patay na bata na galit sa mundo. tapos pare, lumipat daw siya ng tirahan kasi daw masyado daw siyang emo para sa luma niyang tirahan. sabi niya sa nanay niya "tangina mo nay gusto ko lumipat kay tay". tangina pare hindi nagalit nanay niya. sabi lang ng nanay niya "tangina mo pare wag ka magmura".

So lumipat siya sa tatay niya di ba? pagkarating niya dun sabi niya, "tangina erpat bakit maulan dito?" sabi ng erpat niya "gago "bur" months na! malamig na tangena". so nagtaka yung babaeng simula ngayon ay tatawagin na lang nating "babaeng maputla at emo".

So pumasok siya sa school di ba? binigyan siya ng truck ng tatay niya pare. sabi ng tatay niya "tangina mo sa'yo na tong truck ko". sabi niya "salamat tay".

Pagkarating niyang school tsong, may nakita siyang lalaking mukhang bangkay pero pogi. sakto. pogi pero mukhang bangkay. sabi ni babaeng maputla at emo "hot pare".

Nung chem lab na ni babaeng maputla at emo, natagpuan niyang lab partner niya yung poging bangkay. so nung tinignan siya nung poging bangaky, ang asim ng mukha nito. mukhang nandiri ata kay babaeng maputla at emo.

Sabi ni poging bangkay "tangina mo". sabi ni babaeng maputla at emo "tangina KA". sabi ni poging bangkay "tangina NIYA oh *tumuro sa teacher nila*". sabi ni babaeng maputla at emo "oo nga noh. TANGINA MO". sabi ni poging bangkay "tangina mo gago bampira ako". tapos naghubad siya ng damit at kumintab ang katawan niya kasi linagyan niya ng glitters ang abs niya kasi tigas siya at ganun na ang mga tigas ngayon na nagpupuntang emba.
So pare na in love si babaeng maputla at emo kay poging bangkay. si poging bangkay naman sige lang kasi sex din daw yun. so ayun. angshweet shweet nila.

"Eow poh... ahihihihi"

"Bebe mwahugz,..... ^^,"

So tapos nun nagpunta sila sa damuhan kasi.... alam mo na. tapos sabi ni poging bangkay "ikaw na buhay ko ngayon" sabi ni babaeng maputla at emo "tangina mo gago patay ka na". sabi ni poging bangkay "TANGINA KA".

Tapos nagsex sila

So basically pare yun lang yung mga importanteng nangyari sa buong storya. intense noh? kaya pala nahhook lahat ng tao.

* * *

Imagined Poverty

Intro: Benedict Anderson explained in his article "Imagined Communities" that the difference between Imagined and Imaginary is that Imaginary means simply a construction purely in one's imagination. The thing imaginary is simply a figment of imagination without realistic grounding. Imagined on the other hand, at least in his defined social sense, simply entails a mental construction that has a realistic social grounding, although lacking in actual physical affinity.

Borrowing Ben Anderson's definition of Imagined, I would like to apply it to poverty, and thus defining a concept of imagined poverty. Imagined poverty is the feeling of poverty that has a social, even a pseudo physical basis, but in comparison to true poverty, it pales drastically.

Now, back to regular programming.

26% of our population live under conditions of gross malnutrition. That's a shy 3% difference from sub-saharan Africa. What's worse is that most of this gross malnutrition happens in the poorest of provinces, hidden from the eyes of the bourgeois. Really, the only people who can help the hungry are those who have food to spare. The problem is, either they don't know about the hungry, or they think themselves poor as well. Point one is that I myself was shocked to discover the above statistics for myself. I'm pretty sure the same goes to most of the members of the ABCs. Point two is that in these times of crises, and as the Philippines is always in a crisis, the people think to themselves that "hard times are coming," so they save up, conserve, panic buy, and other popular middle class defence mechanisms. This is precisely imagined poverty. The ABCs are too busy thinking of their shrinking wealth, and how times are getting harder, that they fail to discover a class yet below theirs. The Ds and Es are forgotten. Those who have had nothing to begin with are left to the periphery of some obscure province somewhere they don't care to tread. It's a sad case of out of sight, out of mind. This is precisely the problem with imagined poverty... We fail to realize that our dwindling wealth is not merely our own, but it was meant to be shared with those who have none. Instead of investing your savings in the stock market (another imagined institution) and wait for funds to theoretically grow, why don't we invest in people? Why don't we invest in infrastructure? Why not in new businesses? Why not in social enterprises? Jobs are created, wealth is shared, and a sense of community ensues. It is when we connect with the periphery, getting to know them, do we understand their needs, and with our resources and educated minds, we can bring about a sense of true community. Egalite. Fraternite. Liberte. It's not about our individual imagined poverty. It's about sustainable growth in the community. We may be as Anderson said, an imagined community, but the affinity does not necessarily need to be theoretical.

Economics for Poverty

When someone says company, people think profit, growth potential, supply and demaind, market shares etc.

Hapinoy. It's not an NGO, and it's not an outreach program. It's a company. It makes money from it's business, and it's growth potential is great. It helps women all over the Philippines improve the lives of their families, and it brings together a network of sari-sari stores that have the common goal of building better lives for everyone. It is open to new home made products, and open up small scale producers to wider markets. They are not merely a company. They are a social enterprise. (To learn more about Hapinoy, visit (http://www.hapinoy.com)

The problem with companies isn't that they do not have the potential to be social enterprises. On the contrary, as Hapinoy has shown, companies can more than simply money making enterprises that seeks only the growth of it's wealth. It's about paradigms. When companies seek only for profit, they then only see solutions that lead to profit. When they seek to improve the lives of people, as well as make a profit, then the solutions they find leads to a better life for all. What most can learn from the Hapinoy experience is that the problem with market enterprises is that they precisely look at humanity as merely one of two things: producer, or market. We are merely statistics. Market enterprises lack humanity. As Raul Lejano once told us in class, the future lies in networks, or in this case, social enterprises. It is only once we truly get to know the producer, as well as the consumer do we get to truly succeed. Growth comes not merely from the central company but also from the collective efforts of producer, company, and consumer. The whole point of economy is to make like better.

Ranting.

Lecheng Humanae Vitae yan. Sana di nalang siya naisulat nang Paul VI na yan. Andaming unsolid points ng document, patuloy parin ginagamit... HAAAAAAY.

P.S. The UST people can just go suck my humanities.

A Failed Catholic University

"As a Catholic University, the Ateneo de Manila seeks to form persons who, following the teachings and example of Christ, will devote their lives to the service of others and, through the promotion of justice, serve especially those who are most in need of help, the poor and the powerless. Loyal to the teachings of the Catholic Church, the University seeks to serve the Faith and to interpret its teachings to modern Philippine society."

Reading this on the university website, a cross between a frown and a smirk formed on my face.

A newspaper article by John Nery in the PDI that initially came out on the 25th of November discussed how the calls for change in the 40 year old "Down From The Hill" Manifesto of Ateneo's Martial Law days have, in a sense, come into being. The Ateneo, more than any other tertiary institution has made a distinctive mark in Philippine society. It is proudly a venue for the discourse of the essence, effects, and solutions of social realities. We are proudly a collection of some of the Philippines' best minds. We are scientists, professionals, trained by the best in both an intellectual, physical, and social sense. The fact that multiple university affiliated organizations discuss and deliberate stands on key social issues serve to show a university steeped in social value. We have succeeded in this sense. As a Catholic university though, we have failed.

Passing by Zen Garden today, I stopped by the social awareness canopies displayed at the center. The largest of the issue walls was that concerning the Reproductive Health Bill. Various Ateneo socially oriented organizations such as the Ateneo Debate Society, Entablado, the Assembly, and other organizations such as the Ateneo Statistics Circle, the Ateneo Economics Association and the Ateneo Student Catholic Action displayed their stand on the matter, with a short rationale. I applaud said organizations for making an informed decision on the matter. In general, the points were well thought out, and obviously come from a very socially aware point of view. We truly are a university of social relevance.

The problem is, although we thrive in the social aspect, in service to the Filipino people, we forget that we, above being a Filipino university, are a Catholic university. Reading the organizations' stands was wonderful, but amidst all the economic and social data and critical analyses, not once did I read a statement pertaining to the Catholic aspect of their stands. We in general forget that we are not merely social scientists, natural or applied scientists, managers, or artistic scholars. We are, as a majority, Catholic. Our organizations exist under a Catholic perspective. We can continue saying, as most of above mentioned organizations mentioned, that we are for the RH Bill because it is "beneficial to the poor", and it "supports women's health rights", and that it is "needed in our third world situation," but the call to us is not merely to know reality in the social perspective, but we must also realize our role as Church in the proceedings. Where is the critical analyses of church documents? Where is the Theology? Where is Splagchnizomai? What our education fails to incorporate in us is this: We are Catholic scientists. We are Catholic managers. We are Catholic artists. The call as a university is to meld Science and Catholicism. This is the original virtue of the first universities established by the Church hundreds of years ago. This is the virtue of our university. The divorce of our academics and our Theology is heartbreaking. In this sense, can we truly say we, the collective Ateneo de Manila, are a Catholic university?