Wysteria Blend
Thursday, October 20, 2005
Jesus In The NowThanks to Ate Char, KN and I caught this documentary on National Geographic about certain issues in The Da Vinci Code. Mainly, the talk was on Mary Magdalene as the Holy Grail, the vessel of Christ's children. They also talked about Mary as an apostle to the apostles; Mary branded by the church as a prostitute for the purpose of showing Jesus as a saint, because he was never married and sex is bad; Mary as the special one because she was the one who first saw Jesus after the resurrection...
I have my views about the subject. I'm not contesting the teachings of my faith. I'm merely being an open-minded person of the 21st century.
Personally, I don't see anything wrong with Jesus being married. So what if He were? I don't feel that it changes anything. He's still our savior. And so what if He had children? Isn't marriage the vehicle for procreation? In another light, perhaps the church is against the thought of Jesus married to Mary Magdalene because we all grew up being taught that Mary was a prostitute. However, what is our basis for saying that? From what I remember there is no black and white mention of Mary being a prostitute in the Bible.
I have a feeling The Da Vinci Code movie will be banned in the Philippines. If I have thoughts like these, and am a die-hard Catholic, what about the others with faith not as strong as mine?
Someone enlighten me please!
Monday, October 17, 2005
All Hail To Our Beloved Assumption!On October 16, 2005, I went back to my alma mater wearing my old high school uniform and proudly sang the school song along.
Old Girls' Day is always such a fun and nostalgic event. Nostalgic because of all the remiscing of the years that have passed, watching a series of short videos on what has been in the lives of the silver, ruby and golden jubilarians, and paying tribute to all those who have gone before us - nuns, teachers and classmates. It's fun because of the numerous song and dance numbers prepared by the jubilarians of the year, hording cans of Assumption tart, seeing all these successful women and mothers wearing their uniforms, pretending they're 17 again.
It's been close to 7 years since the last time I wore the AC uniform, close to 3 for Bam, and almost 50 years since Tita Azon graduated from high school. Then there was Tita Baby, the Golden jubilarian, who performed with her class in a song, dance, and Tai-chi sequence. So yesterday, Bam, Regina, Tita Azon, and I had our picture taken in the newly renovated Mother Rose Auditorium - that's 3 generations of Assumption girls in uniform.
All hail to our beloved Assumption!
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Are you for death penalty? I'm NOT!Are you for the death penalty? I'm not! I most definitely do not believe that you should right a wrong with another wrong.
I've had this sort of conversation with people in the past. I've even participated in a class debate about it and my stand has always been the same. I AM AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY because it is unethical and there is always a chance that the accused is INNOCENT!!!
Why did I bring this up? I've been following the case of one Francisco Larranaga, aka Paco, who was wrongfully accused of participating in a gang rape and murder of the Chiong sisters in Cebu. Based on the testimonies of his friends, teachers, and condominium security guard, plus evidence such as pictures, logbook entries, and test papers, one can clearly see that the guy is innocent, was nowhere near Cebu during the date and time of the crime, was happily partying in a bar in Quezon City right after taking his test in a Culinary school in Katipunan, and only flew to Cebu the next afternoon where his friend picked him up to take him home. And yet our judicial system chose to undermine the alibi and believe in the lone star witness who happens to be a drug addict and former member of a satanic cult. To top it off, they put Paco on death row. Now, where's the justice there?
That was just the short of it. Other parts of the story include:
1. There are 6 other boys implicated in the case: 4 also to be executed, the other 2 given double life imprisonment because they were minors at that time.
2. There was an announcement in the Cebu police force that promotions would be made. So those policemen took it as an incentive to "solve" the case, implicate whoever the star witness told them to, and even made arrests WITHOUT a warrant of arrest. That's how the other boys got into the picture. Isn't that illegal?
3. There are 4 witnesses referred to as police assets who claim similar stories; however, there are some discrepancies. One claims to have seen a red car; the 2nd says there was also a white car; the third said the red car was a taxi but no white car; the fourth said there was only a van and a red car. So why did they all see different things?
4. When asked who the suitors of the Chiong sisters were, the mother mentioned some names... Paco's name was not one of them. However, when asked to testify in court, she claimed that Paco threatened her daughter, just before she was abducted, to leave her boyfriend and go out with him instead or else... How did she know that?
5. The lone star-witness, Rusia, confessed to being part of the gang who kidnapped the sisters, and in fact said he raped Jackie, one of the sisters. Because of this he was acquitted. Just for confessing? That hardly seems right.
6. So now, the mother of the sisters admitted to giving money to Rusia, a birthday cake, and some gifts, because she believes, eventhough he did the bad deed and even to the point of his being abusado, he will give justice to her daughters. Talk about stupidity.
7. The body of Joy, the other sister, was said to have been found. But where is the Jackie? Still missing after 7 years!
There are too many other stories included. I can't relay them all. But on that note, please spare a few seconds to join in the appeal to GMA to save Paco. All you have to do is visit http://www.es.amnesty.org/actua/larranaga_ago05/index.php and leave your name and email as a signature for the petition. To know more about the goings-on, visit http://www.framedinthephilippines.com/html/index.htm.
Monday, October 10, 2005
Saturday-Sunday ThrillsSaturday was great. It was Kuya's birthday so we had dinner at Kaya then Pen, and Macie was just absolutely adorable doing all the actions of "Eensy Weensy Spider," "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," and "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" then clapping right after.
But before that, except for Andy and Wap, VOSA was complete. Yay! Too bad I had to play the piano but the singing sounded great. Bam, Mikey, Hope, Willow, Chris, Matt, Bridget, Anna, and Crissy, all in perfect symphony... except for some other person who just suddenly appeared from nowhere, but what the heck!
Then Sunday was the blessing of the Dasma house. It was a whole day affair with lunch, merienda, swimming, mahjong, another merienda, Poker, Magic Sing, then dinner. It was fun watching all the cousins swim while taking lots of lomos of the fun faces. And it was also fulfilling to record our favorite choral arrangement in the acoustics of the empty living room. And it was entertaining to watch Macie run around, have Regina chase her, while doing more of her song and actions numbers. Then the rest of the evening was spent in the company of Wap, Bam, Anna, Crissy and Kuya Dondi.
I'm still a bit sleepy so please forgive any wrong grammar and incoherence I may have committed.
Current Music: Keep On Hoping - Raul Midon
Friday, October 07, 2005
Stories of SalemWith Bam's insistence, I finished reading "Acceptable Risk" by Robin Cook. Wow! She's right! That book was something. It's a contemporary suspense novel that fuses modern medicine with the truth about the Salem Witch trials.
I never really gave what went on during the Salem With trials much pondering. I just always thought that they were a bunch of people practicing Wicca or something like it. It turns out that they're far from being witches. Based on the facts presented by Robin Cook in this novel, what caused the "witches" to act the way they did was caused by what you can most probably call drugs. During the olden days, only the poor ate rye bread because there was a surplus of the crop and they could easily make it. However, since they did not have proper storage places for their food, they grew molds. These molds contained some kind of (I think it was) ergot which is the main ingredient in modern day LSD. So the "witches" never invited devils into their homes. The hallucinations and mutilations they were experiencing were merely caused by this type of fungus.
In the novel this scientist named Edward and a few other colleagues decided to research on the mold, which were leftovers from a storage bin found in the old home of a "witch" descendant in Salem. They turned it into a medicine called Ultra which they claimed is an anti-depressant, enhances long-term memory and sense of smell, and brings out the confidence of a person; however, forgetfulness and violence were some of its side effects. How did they know that? They tested the drugs on themselves to see what it can do without testing its toxicity. After a month of taking the drugs they turned animal-like, mutilating themselves, animals, and even other people. They became just like the accused witches.
Which brings me to another thought. Nowadays, there are other ways to test drugs for toxicity. What happened to people of the stone age when technology was still non-existent?