By: JohnMA 

Did you know….

1.  80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies:  Diebold and ES&S.

2.  There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry.

3.  The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers.

4.  The chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was “committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year.”

5.  Republican Senator Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S.  He became Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines

6.  Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, long-connected with the Bush family, was recently caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics Committee.

7.  Senator Chuck Hagel was on a short list of George W. Bush’s vice-presidential candidates.

8.  ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the U.S. and counts almost 60% of all U.S. votes.

9.  Diebold’s new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes.  In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters.

10.  Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket machines, all of which log each transaction and can generate a paper trail.

11.  Diebold is based in Ohio.

12.  Diebold employed 5 convicted felons as consultants and developers to help write the central compiler computer code that counted 50% of the votes in 30 states.

13.  Jeff Dean was Senior Vice-President of Global Election Systems when it was bought by Diebold.  Even though he had been convicted of 23 counts of felony theft in the first degree, Jeff Dean was retained as a consultant by Diebold and was largely responsible for programming the optical scanning software now used in most of the United States.

14.  Diebold consultant Jeff Dean was convicted of planting back doors in his software and using a “high degree of sophistication” to evade detection over a period of 2 years.

15.  None of the international election observers were allowed in the polls in Ohio.

16.  California banned the use of Diebold machines because the security was so bad.  Despite Diebold’s claims that the audit logs could not be hacked, a chimpanzee was able to do it!

17.  30% of all U.S. votes are carried out on unverifiable touch screen voting machines with no paper trail.

18.  All — not some — but all the voting machine errors detected and reported in Florida went in favor of Bush or Republican candidates.

19.  The governor of the state of Florida, Jeb Bush, is the President’s brother.

20.  Serious voting anomalies in Florida — again always favoring Bush — have been mathematically demonstrated and experts are recommending further investigation.

]]> http://johndimple.wordpress.com/2008/02/12/20-amazing-facts-about/feed/ johndimple http://johndimple.wordpress.com/2008/02/12/the-warrior-and-healer-the-woman-coming-to-terms-with-herself/ http://johndimple.wordpress.com/2008/02/12/the-warrior-and-healer-the-woman-coming-to-terms-with-herself/#comments Tue, 12 Feb 2008 06:20:13 +0000 johndimple http://johndimple.wordpress.com/2008/02/12/the-warrior-and-healer-the-woman-coming-to-terms-with-herself/

The realities of women’s issues have become highlighted during our times, when more women writers are becoming increasingly aware that they have to use their own terms in defining the way they perceive their own lives and the realities of the human condition. Today they write of love, motherhood, sex and marriage, with the new perspective that these issues are not less valid than their stories and poems documenting or commenting on the political, economic and social issues of our times. For at a deeper level of understanding they realize that these political, economic and social issues are not things outside of women’s lives: these are very much within their condition as mothers, wives, lovers, sisters, daughters, or simply persons complete unto themselves.

Indicators of this consciousness newly shaping are found in very recent works of women, which issue from a clearly defined woman’s perspective. Among these works are the poems of Grace Monte de Ramos and Lina Reyes. Both poets re-define the verities of womanhood in radical terms. In Monte de Ramos’ “Brave Woman”[21] we confront the reality that when fathers, husbands, sons, brothers, lovers and friends go off to the slaughter of war, it is the women who suffer most. This young feminist poet gives us the image of the mother-persona grieving for her two soldier sons and the dissident son who died. But this is more than the image of the traditional grieving mother because the mother-persona transcends her grief by defining its cause in uncompromising terms, and reaches a new level of awareness of community with other women all over the world who recognize that their nurturing spirit is wasted by an order which devalues life and other basic human concerns:

Silent, I mourn a woman’s
Bitter lot: to give birth to men
Who kill and are killed.

Another young feminist poet, Lina Reyes, wrote about the war waged by Filipino soldiers against the Isnegs of Sanchez Mira in her poem “What Are They Like?”[22] This poem was written after Lina went with the fact-finding mission that investigated human rights violations in Cagayan Valley and Kalinga Apayaw. She headed the documentation team and wrote voluminous reports. This poem, however, demanded to be born because she “could not be satisfied by mere abbreviations of feeling.” For her this poem was “an act of liberation from my own sense of powerlessness in the face of what I saw and experienced.”

The question-and-answer structure of the poem, adapted from Denise Levertov’s poem about the war in Indo-China, suggests the dialogue between two personas looking at realities using two different frameworks: one, the mechanistic framework of facts used by the reporter or the soldier obeying orders, and the other, the humanizing framework of the intuitive person, verily the healers, poets and spiritual adepts in our midst. Both frameworks articulate with unflinching realism the rifts between our peoples because of an order that thrives on violence and fear. The questions open areas for deeper understanding; the answers empower this understanding to move towards radical change. And the poetic sensibility succeeds in bringing home the truth that the two frameworks need not be warring opposites in our society. Hopefully, through the writers’ nurturing sensibility, their deep understanding of the human condition and their refusal to participate in an order that is destructive of human lives and basic human values, the healers and warriors can join hands and hearts in the never-ending battle for freedom, justice and equality.

The babaylanes led their people in uprisings to protest against the desecration of their faith and the imposition of an alien creed. It is this image of the warrior who is at the same time a healer which offers women of today an alternative to the patriarchal framework, one that will enable them to break out of the molds into which they have been calcified by colonial experience. It is also this alternative which is essential towards fulfilling the vision of the transformation of women’s lives so that they will truly become productive and creative human beings who are free and equal partners of men.

In fulfilling the healing vision, Filipino women need to awaken to the psychological processes of individuation and connectedness. Individuation involves the woman’s conscious assertion of the awakened self in order to fulfill the natural human impulse to grow, to create anew, to explore the depth, breadth, and height of inner space, and to expand horizons of achievement. On the other hand, connectedness is the process by which women consciously examine the images of their past and forge a stronger sense of community with each other and with other creative forces in society in order to destroy old and destructive structures and establish new ones.

Today’s writers, particularly women writers, carry the burden of articulating women’s experiences as they go through these processes of change, to enable more and more women, as well as men, to wrestle with the ghosts and monsters of their lives, whether these monsters and ghosts are in the past, the present, or the future. For women writers, the task to remember is also the task to dream. They must not only be able to find more babaylanes in the past, the Leona Florentinos and Magdalena Jalandonis who wrestled bravely with the monster of silence and actualized their creative power. They must also enable more women in the future to use their strong, clear voices in order to affirm their womanhood and enrich the experiences of our shared humanity.

Hopefully, their own daughters, granddaughters, and great granddaughters of the 21st century will be able to live through holocausts and revolutions and read that their foremothers did their task well so that they too might write more freely as human beings and live more fully as women. The present women’s struggle to assert identity and to create a stronger sense of community shall have been for the survival of the very young writers who are now doing their first exercises at the babaylan’s altars and worktables. They must be encouraged to go on and fulfill themselves. For the sacred clearing in the forest and the vision of pintadas could still be lost to women if they are not wakeful. If they remain mindful of the memory and faithful to the vision, it is possible that every time a young woman writer comes to join that circle of women chanting the rhythms of the fire, she will learn to re-affirm what earlier wise women demanded of themselves ages ago: to celebrate without guilt the gift for the healing words of power.

The establishment of the feudal/patriarchal socio-economic and political system obliterated the role of the babaylan, the woman as priestess, healer and poet for the next four hundred years. And it was not until the late 1890s and after the turn of the century that the Filipino woman poet re-emerged. Of these rare women forbears, we know of Leona Florentino of Ciudad Fernandino of Vigan, and Magdalena Jalandoni of Jaro, Iloilo. They were the subjects of a study “The Filipina as Writer” by literary scholar and critic, Dolores Feria.[8]

Feria sifts through the meager facts and stories about Leona Florentino and laments that despite Florentino’s being our first full-time Filipino woman of letters, we only have 22 extant poems gleaned from what was a prodigiously active creative life. But the poems offer us the evidence with which we gauge the position of Leona Florentino in our literary history. Feria affirms that Florentino provided for us the bridge between the purely oral expression of folk poetry and the written phase of the later women writers.

The twenty-two poems were compiled by Leona’s son, the revolutionary journalist Isabelo de los Reyes, who sent them to Madame Volska in Paris. These were published in the Bibliotheque Internationale Des Ouevres de Femmes and exhibited in the Exposicion General de Filipinas in Madrid. More than anything else, these verses reveal to us Florentino’s primary achievement, her breaking away from one of the patriarchal traditions which demand that “one’s life must be firmly disconnected from one’s writings if the feminine gender is involved.” Judged within the context of her time, Leona Florentino’s rebellious life cannot be dissociated from her poetry. She had dared to choose her poetry over and above her husband, the alcalde mayor, when he demanded that she give up her poetry or lose him. Sent away to live alone in An-annam, Bantay, she took on again her maiden name and continued to create her verses. She even wrote erotic poems dedicated to Castora, her wine seller, at a time when patriarchal codes of behavior held women captive in repressive sexual taboos.

Unlike Leona Florentino, Magdalena Jalandoni, the first woman novelist of the country, wrote purposely for publication. But like her contemporaries in the west, she first had to hide behind a pseudonym because in the early 1900s it was considered unbecoming for a woman to write for publication. The new American regime brought the ideas of freedom and equality but the system was still patriarchal in essence. Magdalena Jalandoni was indeed a brave women to survive the censure of her widowed mother, who, because of years of patriarchal training, felt that her daughter’s “masculine traits,” i.e. writing, being brilliant in school, being an eloquent orator, were dangerous. The beatings from her mother did not stop Magdalena Jalandoni from writing secretly at the age of 15 her first novel, Ang Mga Tunok Sang Isa Ka Bulak.

Soon she began to write under her own name on subjects which were not yet open to women. For example, she wrote impassioned verses which scandalized her mother, and an article on the women’s suffrage movement, even after her mother forcibly prevented her from joining the few women who demonstrated at the public plaza in Jaro, agitating for the Filipino woman’s right to vote. Jalandoni also went against the traditional destiny of women when she insisted on remaining single unless she found “a man with the soul of an artist… and as a first test, the man must first write a good novel.”

For 71 years, she wrote 24 completed novels and 70 volumes of corridos in Hiligaynon. And when she died on September 14, 1978, she had an unfinished novel on her desk. Of this lifelong involvement with writing, she says: “… As I think out my novels in the deep of night, I forget while writing that I am an old woman… My love for writing seems to be… a feeling which is only lent to me during those holy moments when I am writing.”

Magdalena Jalandoni succeeded in becoming the Philippines’ first long-term woman of letters. She fulfilled what she demanded of herself early in her creative life; “To be perfectly free to write as I please.” But her success, like Leona Florentino’s, entailed a life of isolation, made even lonelier by the fact that outside Panay she is still virtually unknown by many Filipino writers, teachers, students and scholars in literature.

The price paid by these early women writers for their love for writing proves beyond doubt that the deep social prohibitions against the acknowledgement and fulfillment of a woman’s creative power has had a long history. For many contemporary Filipino women, this struggle is still in the semi-feudal/patriarchal matrix wherein the traditional roles and values associated with women and the traditional ways of fulfilling them are fixed. There is little room for them to go beyond these patterns either because of sheer fatigue from the unabated denial of self, or the irrational fear of self-exploration and adventure towards self-fulfillment, born out of years of subjugation to the male voice of authority. As a result, they have come to see themselves as frail, timid, domesticated and subservient creatures, convinced of their own inferiority and intrinsic weakness

You enjoyed my first list so much, here’s another! Please enjoy and always remember … introverts value and teach the virtues of solitude, the power of self knowledge, the communicative aspect of silence, the joy of reading and the ecstasy of communion with nature.

1. All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveller is unaware. - Martin Buber

Introverts love “the journey”. They understand the unfolding process from within and are comfortable with this mystery of life.

2. When we dare to be really quiet we can come very close to our selves and the worlds innermost being. - James Carroll

Oh, the joys of solitude.

3. A book is like a garden you carry in your pocket.
- Arabic proverb

Who loves to read more than the introvert?

4. You do not belong to you. You belong to the universe. The significance of you will remain forever a mystery to you, but you may assume you are fulfilling your significance if you apply yourself to converting all your experience to the highest advantage of others. - R. Buckminster Fuller

Introspection leads to expression, not the other way around.

5. Without going outside, you may know the whole world. - Lao Tzu

6. There is a hell - to be alone. And a heaven - to be able to be it.
- Paul Bjerre

This is our greatest teaching as introverts. Extroverts make up 70% of the population and they can’t see the heaven in their hell of loneliness. Just think, if they learned there would be no more cell phones!

7. The way out is through the door. Why is it that no one will use this method? - Confucius (Kung Fu Tzu)

Introverts are masters of seeing the obvious. We are not distracted.

8. What you truly learn best will appear to you later as your own discovery. - Moshe Feldenkrais

Introverts learn differently. We don’t learn by talking in class. We learn by connecting the dots, by taking something inside and making it our own. Please don’t make us “contribute in class”.

9. The moons reflection in the water of the river doesn’t move, it doesn’t float away. It is just the water passing. - Taisen Deshimaru

Introspection, yes!

10. Man is not shaped by circumstances. It is the circumstances that are shaped by man. - Benjamin Disraeli

Everything starts within.

Philippine societyThe Philippines is a mixed society, both singular and plural in form. Singular as one nation, but it is plural in that it is fragmented geographically and culturally. The nation is divided between Christians, Muslims, and other religio-ethno-linguistic groups; between urban and rural people; between upland and lowland people; and between the rich and the poor. Although different in a lot ways, the Filipinos are very hospitable and give appropriate respect to anybody regardless of race, culture and belief.

These traits are generally positive but these practices also have the tendency to be applied in the wrong context. Close familial ties can also lead to nepotism. Pakikisama can lead to intolerance or even outright hostility of differences and of individual liberty. A debt of gratitude is sometimes repaid by giving special favors to the other person regardless of the moral outcome.

There is also a tying between Asian, European and Latin American etiquettes from previous external travelers and explorers who have influenced the Filipino culture as these behaviors and social norms and beliefs are found in the Filipino mainstream culture. Some of these behaviors continue over with Overseas Filipinos.

 Family

It should be emphasized that the close familial ties are upheld to the highest extent. The primary social welfare system for the Filipino is the family. Many Filipinos live near their family for most of their lives, even as independent adults. A nuclear family is very common among Filipinos. When it comes to the divorce policy in the Philippines it is illegal. President Arroyo provides insight and believe it is “un-Filipino, immoral, unconstitutional and a danger to the Filipino family.” Others point out that in the past that ancestral tribes did practice divorce and that the “reign of the Pope via the Spanish crown” to be the source of such laws.

Courtship amongst the Filipino people is heavily influenced by Spanish and Roman Catholic traditions. Many parents disapprove of girls visiting boys’ homes. Usually, the boy comes to the girl’s house to formally introduce himself to her parents and family. The Filipino must win the Filipina’s parents approval. At home, painful corporal punishment is almost always practiced among the Filipino family as children are often hit as a form of discipline. Filipinos use their belts, hands and canes to hit their children.

Among great distances of the family, balikbayan boxes are transferred through vast distances as some are compelled to move to international territories. These overseas Filipinos send huge boxes called the balikbayan box to their families back in the motherland containing goods, gadgets and/or popular trendy items. They also bring balikbayan boxes when they return to their motherland on vacation to visit their family. Sometimes their families at the Philippines return the favor and send exotic food items only found in the Philippines or indigenous property expressing Filipino workmanship. It is another way to express cultural exchange and a way of helping out their families at home.

Respect

Among the respect due, the use of “Po” and “opo” are common expressions of respect for one’s elders in Tagalog culture (especially true among those living in Luzon). Grandparents and the elderly are also given a gesture of respect by the placing of the back of the senior’s hand (at the fingers) against one’s forehead, called “mano”. Not only is respect due to elders but also among peers. Younger siblings are expected to respect their older brothers and sisters^[1], especially by addressing them with the proper honorifics. Filipinos use pakikisama, or camaraderie in English, to maintain a harmonious relationship.

Hiya is shame and is a motivating factor behind behavior. It is a sense of social propriety and of conformity to societal norms. Filipinos believe they must live up to the accepted standards of behavior; and if they fail to do so, they bring shame not only upon themselves but also upon their family. An example might be a willingness to spend more than they can afford on a party rather than be shamed by their economic circumstances. If someone is publicly embarrassed, criticized, or does not live up to expectations, they feel shame and lose self-esteem.

Utang na Loob, or Debt of Gratitude, is owed by one to a person who has helped him through the trials he had undergone. There is a local saying that goes: ‘Ang hindi lumingon sa pinanggalingan ay hindi makararating sa paroroonan’, meaning, ‘One who does not look back to where he started, will not get to where he is going.’ If you’re at the top-most part, don’t be too high because someday you”ll have a great fall.

There are other expressions of respect such as Amor Propio means concern for self image; Delicadeza means a sense of discretion; and Palabra de Honor means “word of honor.” As a part of Filipino table manners, it is considered disrespectful if someone will not accept hospitality.

 Community

The creation of alliances with neighbors and the helping attitude whenever one is in dire need is what Filipinos called bayanihan. Often, the bayanihan spirit in action can be seen when a bus gets a flat tire. The bystanding or surrounding Filipinos would assist the bus driver in whatever undertakings to get the bus back on going. This can be contrasted with the individualistic attitude more prevalent in some other societies.

There are several ways that Filipinos get around by riding jeepneys, buses and cars. In urban areas, there are trains such as LRT and MRT as well as boats, taxis, and ferries. In rural areas carabaos are often used for transport.^[2] Bus transportation is used to get from one major city to another. Taxis or tricycles are used to get to place to place within the city.^[3] The driving style in the country follows that one honks the horn to warn of oncoming vehicle.^[4]

 Superstition

Main article: Philippine mythology

Before the arrival of the Spaniards and the introduction of Roman Catholicism in the 1500’s, the indigenous inhabitants of the Philippines were adherents of a mixture of animism, Hinduism and Buddhism. Bathala was the supreme God of the Tagalogs, represented by the langit, or sky, but not all the Tagalogs believed in it. The Ninuno, or the ancient ancestors, were the people who taught Filipinos/Tagalogs who will be in the future; they believed in the supreme God. For the Bikolanos, the supreme God was Gugurang. Other Tagalog Gods and Goddesses include araw (sun), buwan (the moon), tala (the stars), and natural objects (such as trees, shrubs, mountains, or rocks). However, they were not the Western kinds of Gods and Goddesses; they were representations for some Filipinos/Tagalogs; or they were representations as gifts. As the major religions began to sweep the island, most Filipinos became Christians, who only believe in one God; but some Filipinos became Muslims, especially in the southern part of the country (such as Mindanao). Spirits such as the aswang (ghoul), the tikbalang (a creature with the head of a horse and the physique of a man), the kapre (a giant that is seen smoking tobacco), the tiyanak (monster-like, vampire-esque child), the santelmo (fireball), duwende (dwarves and elves), the manananggal (witches that can split their bodies at their torsos and feed on baby’s blood), engkanto (minor spirits), and diwata (fairies/nymphs), are believed to pervade the Philippines. Aside from that, voodoo practices were practiced by the pre-colonial inhabitants, such as pangkukulam, or witchcraft. Beliefs such as usog (a child greeted by a stranger will get sick) and lihi (unusual craving for something during pregnancy) are also present. These beliefs were carried on up to the present generation of Filipinos, which has led some foreign authors to (incorrectly) describe them as ‘Pagano-Christians.’

Voodoo, psychic surgeons and medicine men and women are commonly practiced in most indigenous Filipino rituals. These spiritual-ritual practices are mostly located in the rural areas, throughout the islands. In Filipino, the people who casts spells and lays curses are called mangkukulam, the people who curse their enemies by putting insects inside their bodies are called mambabarang, and in contrast to these two, the healers of these curses are called albularyo.

Psychic surgeons are people who are seen using sleight-of-hand operations to remove tumors and diseased tissue. These spiritual healers are seen sticking their hands into the patents body extracting bloody human flesh leaving the patient scar free. While others see this practice of as being fake, others who still accept this alternative healing method as a way to take advantage of its placebo effect. See YouTube video on “Psychic Surgery“.

Wealth and beauty

The belief that “white is beautiful” is held by Filipino women and practised by staying out of the sun to keep one from getting dark. Even at a young age, children are taught and practice this belief.^[5] Furthermore, many of these women use bleaching or whitening skin products to keep skin white, and they also use anti pimple or anti blackhead products.^[6] Bias towards favoring white skin came from influential occupations of the Spanish and Americans which many Filipinos still continue to believe today.^[7]

Fatness may also be associated with wealth, while being too skinny may be seen as a sign of poverty.

Rebonding and hair relaxing are popular among teenagers. Spa treatments are also famous. Indulging in various salon treatments are a common activity among well-off Filipinos which helps in the rising popularity of salons such as F Salon, Ricky Reyes and David’s salon which includes famous hair stylist such as Fanny Serrano, Jun Encarnacion and Ricky Reyes.

Like in other Asian countries, most Filipinos are myopic (nearsighted).^{[citation needed]} This contributes to the large scale Philippine optical industry, which includes famous eyewear stylist Dr. Vivian Sarabia.

In formal gatherings, men wear Barong Tagalogs, a translucent pearl white shirt, usually made of piña (pineapple) fibers or jusi [hoo-si] (banana) fibers. But in informal settings such as at home or at picnics, Filipinos are either barefoot or wearing slippers. Due to the humid tropical climate, men are often found in a tank top or go barechested, wearing shorts and a towel on their shoulder to wipe away the sweat.^[8]

In the rural areas of the country, some resort to bathing naked in public.^[9] Those who live near rivers take baths there; natives use river stones analogous to washcloths to scrub themselves. Since water pressure is lacking in many areas of the country, many people resort to using buckets (timba at tabo) for bathing.^[10][11] People are so used the routine of using the bucket bath method that they continue to use it even when water pressure is more than adequate for shower use.^[12] Places that have adequate water pressure like hotels do have running shower heads.

 Death customs in the Philippines

Death in the Philippines is one of the most important occasions in family life, as attested to by a humorous statement that families have large reunions only during “Binyag, Kasal at Libing” (”Baptisms, Weddings and Burials/Funerals”). Once a Filipino dies, it is traditional to hold a wake. Deceased men are dressed in the traditional Barong Tagalog while women are dressed in either black dresses or in their best dress. Relatives that are closer to the deceased are customarily dressed in black, while women use black veils, similar to their Latin American counterparts. Caskets of Filipinos are often covered with glass, with the inner part of the lid containing ribbons with the names of the deceased person’s immediate family. The casket has a crucifix between two candles (nowadays “candles” with electric bulbs) behind it. Flowers are often given in condolence to the family, with a message from the donor written on a ribbon attached to the flowers. Family members keep vigil, pray, eat, talk and socialize with guests. It is traditional, as with the other aspects of Philippine culture, to be hospitable to the guests; this is done by offering food and refreshments to those mourning with the family. After the death of a person, a nine-day period of having a novena of prayers and masses offered up for the deceased is held, although the beginning of the Pasiyam varies, but usually ends the week after the death. Another period follows after death, the 40-day mourning period. Family members usually indicate their state of bereavement by wearing a small, black, rectangular plastic pin on their left breast or breast pocket area. A mass is held at the end of this 40 day period. Common belief states that the soul goes to Heaven after these 40 days, following the belief that Jesus Christ ascended to Heaven after the said period of days. The 1st year death anniversary is also a bit significant, as well as the subsequent birth anniversaries of the deceased.^[13] Relatives from foreign lands would also come home to mourn for the deceased. ^[14] Women are seen wearing black clothings and veils during a funeral. Widows are seen wearing black attires for the whole year.^[8]

 Communication

Some urban and rural Filipinos often call for attention by saying “hoy!” (meaning: Hey!, in the Tagalog language) or using a rising hiss like a snake by saying “psst.”^[15]

In order to greet a friend, or express “what’s up,” one usually whips his head upward for acknowledgment.^[16]

The use of lips to point is widely practiced. Instead of using your pointer fingers, Filipinos may point with their lips extended out to indicate the position of an object.^[17]

Telecommunications and e-mail are popular as well as the usage of cell phones. Many Filipinos, even those who live in poverty, own mobile phones. Sending SMS messages is a common way of communication, as it is a cheaper way compared to making a call. The Philippines is considered to be the Txt capital of the world sending millions of SMS messages a day.

 Celebrations

Main article: Public holidays in the Philippines

 National Holidays

• February 25 - E.D.S.A Revolution
• April 9 - Araw ng Kagitingan
• May 1 - Labor Day
• June 12 - Independence Day
• August 28 - National Heroes Day
• November 30 - Bonifacio Day
• November 1 - All Saints Day

 Native Holidays

• January 1 - Bagong Taon (New Year’s Day).
• January 9 - The Black Nazarene procession in Quiapo and Manila.
• Third Sunday of January (date varies) - The Fiesta del Santo Niño de Cebu (Festival of the Child Jesus of Cebu); Sinulog in Cebu; Ati-Atihan Festival in Kalibo, Aklan.
• Lent; March or April (date varies) - Semana Santa (Holy Week).
• May - Flores de Mayo. Summer-starting festivities when the rain starts pouring back, after a blistering hot summer that begins around mid March, these festivities may have been rooted to the celebrations of the farmers as they welcome back the fertile season. Celebrations around towns showcase crops, food and delicacies. One famous festivity is the “Pahiyas”, a colorful celebration in Lucban, Quezon where houses are decorated mainly with dried rice papers in different shapes and colors. Crops also accentuate these houses in artful shapes and styles.
• Third Saturday and Sunday of September (date varies) - The Peñafrancia Festival in Naga City, Camarines Sur, Bicol Region. During the festivities, people attend church services, followed by parades on the streets, fireworks, and feasting in honor of the Roman Catholic faith and native culture, and are attended by hundreds of thousands of Filipinos each year. The Peñafrancia Festival is also highlighted by a fluvial procession in the Bicol River.
• November 1 through 2 - “Araw ng mga Patay” (Day of the Dead, All Saints Day and All Souls Day). Also known as Undas, taken from the fact it is held on November 1. During All Saints/Souls Day, it’s traditional to visit the cemeteries and pay homage to their dearly departed. The usually solemn cemetery takes on a party atmosphere, with much merry-making rather than a solemn celebration.
• December 24 - Noche Buena (Christmas Eve).
• December 25 - Araw ng Pasko (Christmas day).
• December 31 - Bisperas ng Bagong Taon (New Year’s Eve).

Arts, culture and music

The Filipino cultural arts cover variety of forms of entertainment. The Music in the Philippines features several styles. Some are contemporary such as Filipino rock and Filipino hip hop. Some are traditional such as Filipino instruments and Filipino folk music. The Cinema of the Philippines has produced many comedies, accounts of hardship, action films, and love movies. Some box office movies includes Ang Tanging Ina which stars Ai-Ai de las Alas; Sukob by Kris Aquino and Claudine Barretto. Filipino entertainment also includes Filipino television shows.

 Arts

Main articles: Arts of the Philippines and Literature of the Philippines

Weaving is popular in the northern mountain Filipinos. Pottery was also common in pre-Hispanic societies. Ornate carvings are found in the southern Philippine islands. Similarly, wooden art is also quite popular and is displayed in various parts of the home.

Artistic paintings created by Filipinos began in the 17th century during Spanish colonial times and continued until the present, with such revered artists as Luna, Fernando Amorsolo, and Zobel. Other popular artists include Hugo C. Yunzon reflecting an earthy style that touches on indigenous Malay culture in pieces such as Early Risers and Mariang Makiling,^[18], Nestor Leynes with Mag-ina Sa Banig, and Tam Austria with Mag-Anak.

Filipinos have unique folk dances like tinikling where assistants take two long bamboo sticks rapidly and rhythmatically clap sticks for dancers to artistically and daringly try to avoid getting their feet smashed between them. Also in the southern part of the Philippines, there is another dance called singkil using long bamboo poles found in tinikling; however, it is primarily a dance showing off lavish Muslim royalty. In this dance, there are four bamboo sticks arranged in a tic-tac-toe pattern in which the dancers exploit every position of these clashing sticks. Dancers can be found trying to avoid all 4 bamboo sticks all together in the middle. They can also try to dance an entire rotation around the middle avoiding all sticks. Usually these stick dances performed in teamwork fashion not solo. The Singkil dance is identifiable with the use of umbrellas and silk clothing.^[19] See YouTube tinikling video and YouTube singkil video.

 Architecture

Pre-Hispanic architecture is usually characterized by using indigenous woody materials. The bahay kubo is the mainstream form of housing. It is characterized by the use of indigenous materials such as bamboo and coconut as the main source of wood. Cogon grass and Nipa palm leaves are used as roof thatching, although coconut fronds are also used. Most are usually on stilts due to the frequent floods and rainwater during the wet season. Regional variations include the use of thicker and denser roof thatching in mountain areas, longer stilts on coastal areas especially if the structure is built outright on the water. The architecture of some tribes in other regions are characterized by very angular wooden roofs, bamboo in place of leafy thatching and ornate wooden carvings, especially on Mindanao island.

The Spanish introduced stones as housing materials. The introduction of Christianity brought western style churches and subsequently became the center of most towns. Colonial era architecture still survives in Intramuros and Vigan.

Contemporary architecture usually favors western style structures although pre-Hispanic housing is still largely common in rural areas. American style suburban gated communities are popular in the cities, especially Metro Manila and the surrounding provinces.

 Heritage

 Cuisine

Main article: Filipino cuisine

Filipinos cook a variety of foods influenced by Spanish, and Asian cuisines.

A typical Filipino meal consists of at least one viand (ulam in Tagalog) served with boiled or fried rice (kanin), which is eaten much like Westerners eat potatoes. Filipinos also regularly use spoons together with forks, as opposed to knives and forks in Western culture. They also eat with their hands, especially in informal settings and when eating seafood. Accompanying rice, popular dishes such as adobo (a meat stew made from either pork or chicken), lumpia (meat or vegetable rolls), pancit (noodle dish), and lechón (whole roasted pig) are served on plate.

Other popular cuisines or dish include: afritada, asado, chorizo sausages used in pancit or fried rice, empanadas, mais (corn), mani (roasted peanuts), paksiw (fish or pork, cooked in vinegar and water, some spices like garlic and pepper), pan de sal (salted bread rolls), pescado (fried or grilled fish), torta (omelette). Indigenous Filipino and regional cuisines include: dinuguan, kare-kare (ox-tail stew), kilawen, pinakbet (vegetable stew), pinapaitan, and sinigang (tamarind soup with a vareity of pork, fish or shrimp). Some delicacies eaten by the Filipino people but are reprehensible to some western cultures include balut (boiled egg with a fertilized duckling inside). Another is longenisa a sweet sausage

Popular snacks and deserts indulged are chicharon (deepfried pork or chicken skin), halo-halo (crushed ice with condensed milk, flan, and sliced tropical fruits), puto (little white rice cakes), bibingka (rice cake with butter or magarine and salted eggs), ensaymada (sweet roll with grated cheese on top), polvoron (powder candy), and tsokolate (chocolate) are eaten outside the three main meals. Local liquors such as lambanog, tuba, and basi are served on cup.

 World Heritage Sites

Several sites in the country have been recognized as UNESCO World Heritage Sites and these are the Baroque Churches of the Philippines, The Far Eastern University Art Deco Complex, Historic Town of Vigan, Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park, Banaue Rice Terraces, and Tubbataha Reef Marine Park. There is also a Filipino Heritage Site and society in Tampa, Florida totally dedicated with its own FilFest (Filipino fest).

 Native games and sports

Sipa is the national sports in the Philippines. Other popular recreational sports include boxing, patintero, billiards, basketball, chess, ten-pin bowling and football. Boxing, billiards, basketball and soccer are popular among Filipinos. The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) was founded in 1975. Dodge ball or mistakenly called as “touch ball” is also a favorite sport of those who play in schools during break time.

The sports where the Filipinos have gained international successes are boxing, billiards (notably nine ball), ten-pin bowling, chess and football (soccer). Notable champions include Paulino Alcántara, Francisco Pancho Villa, Manny Pacquiao, Mansueto Velasco, Flash Elorde, Efren Reyes, Francisco Bustamante, Rafael Nepomuceno and Eugene Torre.

The Palarong Pambansa, a national sports festival, has its roots in an annual sporting meet of public schools that started in 1948. Private schools and universities eventually joined the national event, which became known as the Palarong Pambansa in 1976. It serves as a national Olympics for students, with victors from competitions at the school, province, and regional level emerging to participate. The year 2002 event included the following sports: soccer, golf, archery, badminton, baseball, chess, gymnastics, tennis, softball, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, track and field, and volleyball are starting to gain great public interest in the country.

There are also many styles of traditional Filipino Martial Arts known under various names over the years. Kali, also called Arnis by westerners, has varying sources of origin depending on the island and/or tribe of origin. It is difficult to ascertain a single originating or “pure” Filipino martial art due to the lack of written historical record. There is considerable controversy on this subject.

Influences in the development and evolution of Filipino Martial Arts includes that of the Indian, Indonesian, Chinese and Spanish.

The distinguishing characteristic of martial arts originating from the Philippines is most commonly the emphasis in curriculum of teaching weapons before or simultaneously with the empty-hand forms and also for the curriculum concept of “angles of attack.”

 Native toys and games

Main article: List of traditional Filipino games

Filipinos play card games styles such as pusoy and pusoy dos. These games use poker suits. Pusoy is described to be the 3-5-5 or good-better-best variant of the game.^[20] Pusoy dos is described to be variant where one tries to get rid of all his cards by choosing poker hands wisely.^[21] The origin of pusoy came from Chinese pai gow blended with poker^[22] and the origin of pusoy dos came from coastal China around 1980^[21].

Filipinos play sungka, a board game consisting of small sea shells which players try to take all shells but the winner is determined by who has the most shells at the point were all small pits become empty. This is an Asian game that westerners first observed in 1894.^[23]

Filipinos are creative in that they have made toys using insects such as tying a beetle to string and sweeping it circular rotation to make an interesting sound. Salagubang gong is a toy is described by Harvard entomologist Charles Brtjes in his trip to Negros illustrating a toy using beetles to create a periodic gong effect on the kerosene can as the beetle rotates above the contraption.^[24]

Filipino games can also include piko, patintero, jack-en-poy, bang!, bahay-kubo, nanay-tatay, and many more. Many children enjoy these games.

Tribal groups

Main article: Indigenous peoples of the Philippines

Certain indigenous groups such as the Negritos, Mangyans, and Manobos who live in remote areas of Luzon, the Visayas, and Palawan have largely retained the pre-Hispanic beliefs of their ancestors. Having been somewhat isolated from mainstream society, their cultures differ greatly than that of the majority of Filipinos.

Negrito photographed by Ken Ilio

Tawbuid photographed by Derek Daniel

 Other cultural production

 Homosexuality groups

The homosexuality subculture was a product of the 1960s. Gay people express themselves in occupations such as barbershops or beauty professions or in clothing design.^[25] They also have their own style of linguistic communication. Homosexuality in the Philippines is widely accepted and viewed as part of normal life, though it is still met with some discrimination because of the nation’s dominant macho population. However, due to the country’s strong Roman Catholic affiliation, gay marriage nor even civil unions are prohibited.

What makes the elite fighters stand out from the good ones? Power, speed, intelligence, heart, and charisma are a combination that the great ones have. The big contracts, money, fame and gold medals are how we distinguish the true prizefighters.

On June 6, 2001 I went to Las Vegas to watch a great one. I went to see Oscar de la Hoya capture his 7th world title in 5 different weight classes. As I stood in line to get in, I overheard a guy talk about some great African fighter that had it all to be one of the great ones. I had to ask him the guy’s name. “Ledwaba,” he said,  “he’s going to kill his opponent.” He said that it’s a mismatch and that there wasn’t a line for the fight; that I should watch him.

I sat with great anticipation to watch this killer. The challenger was a former WBC flyweight champion named Manny Pacquiao. My first thought was… a flyweight fighting a junior featherweight? This guy is going to get destroyed! The outcome of the fight was 6 rounds of punishment. Manny Pacquiao came out of nowhere to do to Ledwaba what people thought he would do to Manny. A new star was born!

Manny Pacquiao is an exciting fighter who possesses all the qualities to become one of the great ones: a southpaw with speed, power, boyish looks and charisma. Pacquiao has made more than just a splash since that in June in 2001. He has continued to face quality opposition besides Ledwaba. He’s fought Agapito Sanchez to a draw, an unpopular decision by most standards. Add Eliecer Julio, Emanuel Lucero, Marco Antonio Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez, not bad for an unknown fighter from the Philippines.

I’ve now become one of Manny “Pac Man” Pacquiao’s biggest fans. Manny is a fighter that has brought new life to sport of boxing,  a flamboyant fighter that has skyrocketed to everyone’s pound for pound list. He doesn’t have a safety first style, he is not a runner or a quitter. He bleeds, never stops punching, and always stalks his prey until he beats them.

I don’t know if everyone is as excited about his fiery competition as I’m, but no one will ever consider “Pac Man” a stepping stone or a walk in the park. Not bad for a Philippine youngster who came from poverty and now has money, fame, and a gold medal like all the other greats. Watch out because there’s a new face in boxing, and he is aiming to take over… His name is Manny Pacquiao. 

“Before I knowed it, I was sayin’ out loud, ‘The hell with it! There ain’t no sin and there ain’t no virtue. There’s just stuff people do. It’s all part of the same thing.’”
—The Grapes of Wrath [1939] John Steinbeck [Read the review]

“Ravished! How ravished one could be without ever being touched. Ravished by dead words become obscene, and dead ideas become obsessions.”
—Lady Chatterley’s Lover [1928] D. H. Lawrence [Read the review]

“All this happened, more or less. The war parts, anyway, are pretty much true. One guy I knew really was shot in Dresden for taking a teapot that wasn’t his. Another guy I knew really did threaten to have his personal enemies killed by hired gunmen after the war. And so on. I’ve changed all the names.”
—Slaughterhouse-Five [1969] Kurt Vonnegut [Read the review]

“The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.”
—To Kill a Mockingbird [1960] Harper Lee [Read the review]

“The sun burnt every day. It burnt Time. The world rushed in a circle and turned on its axis and time was busy burning the years and the people anyway, without any help from him. So if he burnt things with the firemen and the sun burnt Time, that meant that everything burnt!”
—Fahrenheit 451 [1953] Ray Bradbury [Read the review]

“It was that kind of a crazy afternoon, terrifically cold, and no sun out or anything, and you felt like you were disappearing every time you crossed a road.”
—The Catcher in the Rye [1951] J.D. Salinger [Read the review]

“I believe that today more than ever a book should be sought after even if it has only one great page in it. We must search for fragments, splinters, toenails, anything that has ore in it, anything that is capable of resuscitating the body and the soul.”
—Tropic of Cancer [1934] Henry Miller [Read the review]

“The Planet drifts to random insect doom…”
—Naked Lunch [1959] William S. Burroughs [Read the review]

“History…is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.”
—Ulysses [1922] James Joyce [Read the review]

“Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct; nor was any item of news, or any expression of opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment, ever allowed to remain on record. All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary.”
—1984 [1949] George Orwell [Read the review]

Top 10 Bizarre Literary Deaths

The Feast of Lubercus

The first interpretation has this celebration originating as a pagan tradition in the third century. During this time hordes of hungry wolves roamed outside of Rome where shepherds kept their flocks. The God Lupercus, was said to watch over the shepherds and their flocks and keep them from the wolves. Every February the Romans celebrated a feast called Lupercalia to honor Lupercus so that no harm would come to the shepherds and their flocks. Also during Lupercalia, but in honor of the goddess Juno Februata, the names of young women were put into a box and names were drawn by lot. The boys and girls who were matched would be considered partners for the year, which began in March. This celebration continued long after wolves were a problem to Rome.

Valentine’s Day started in the time of the Roman Empire. In ancient Rome, February 14th was a holiday to honour Juno. Juno was the Queen of the Roman Gods and Goddesses. The Romans also knew her as the Goddess of women and marriage. The following day, February 15th, began the Feast of Lupercalia.The lives of young boys and girls were strictly separate. However, one of the customs of the young people was name drawing. On the eve of the festival of Lupercalia the names of Roman girls were written on slips of paper and placed into jars. Each young man would draw a girl’s name from the jar and would then be partners for the duration of the festival with the girl whom he chose. Sometimes the pairing of the children lasted an entire year, and often, they would fall in love and would later marry.

Under the rule of Emperor Claudius II Rome was involved in many bloody and unpopular campaigns. Claudius the Cruel was having a difficult time getting soldiers to join his military leagues. He believed that the reason was that roman men did not want to leave their loves or families. As a result, Claudius cancelled all marriages and engagements in Rome. The good Saint Valentine was a priest at Rome in the days of Claudius II. He and Saint Marius aided the Christian martyrs and secretly married couples, and for this kind deed Saint Valentine was apprehended and dragged before the Prefect of Rome, who condemned him to be beaten to death with clubs and to have his head cut off. He suffered martyrdom on the 14th day of February, about the year 270. At that time it was the custom in Rome, a very ancient custom, indeed, to celebrate in the month of February the Lupercalia, feasts in honour of a heathen god. On these occasions, amidst a variety of pagan ceremonies, the names of young women were placed in a box, from which they were drawn by the men as chance directed.

The pastors of the early Christian Church in Rome endeavoured to do away with the pagan element in these feasts by substituting the names of saints for those of maidens. And as the Lupercalia began about the middle of February, the pastors appear to have chosen Saint Valentine’s Day for the celebration of this new feaSt. So it seems that the custom of young men choosing maidens for valentines, or saints as patrons for the coming year, arose in this way