Amen to that

In a protest rally against a vasectomy bill in the Philippine Congress, a vendor's hotdog stand says it all.

Amen to that

In a protest rally against a vasectomy bill in the Philippine Congress, a vendor's hotdog stand says it all.

Uniformed porters

One way to see some of the Philippines' 7,000 islands is though luxurious ferries like the Superferry.

Underground cathedral

Photo credit: Bong Edralin

Spelunking in Cagayan de Oro

Sugarcane man

Photo credit: Bong Edralin

Photo credit: Bong Edralin

There's a lot to be happy about. It's just a matter of not putting any obstacles to it.

Photo credit: Tata

That's Cagayan de Oro River.

8th Grade Education in 1895

I got this from my high school e-group. I'm not sure who the author is so I can't give the right credit.

Anyway, this made me wish we have the kind of instruction that these kids in 1895 had.



What it took to get an 8th grade education in 1895--

Remember when grandparents and great-grandparents stated that they only had an 8th grade education? Well, check this out. Could any of us have passed the 8th grade in 1895?

This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina, Kansas, USA. It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Geneal! ogical Society and Library in Salina, KS, and reprinted by the Salina Journal.

8th Grade Final Exam: Salina, KS -1895 Grammar (Time, one hour)

1. Give nine rules for the use of capital letters.
2. Name the parts of ! speech and define those that have no modifications.
3. Define verse, stanza and paragraph.
4. What are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of "lie," "play," and "run."
5. Define case; Illustrate each case.
6 What is punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation! on.
7 - 10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.

Arithmetic (Time, 1.25 hours)

1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
2. A wagon box is 2 ft. deep, 10 f! feet long, and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?
3. If a load of wheat weighs 3942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1050 lbs. for tare?
4. District No. 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?
5. Find the cost of 6720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton.
6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at $20 per meter?
8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance of which is 640 rods?
10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt.

U.S. History (Time, 45 minutes)
1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided.
2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus.
3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
4. Show the territorial growth of the United States.
5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas.
6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Be! ll, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe ?
8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865.

Orthography (Time, one hour) Do we even know what this is??
1. What is meant by the following: Alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication.
2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?
3. What are the following, and give examples of each: Trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals.
4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u.'
5. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e.' Name two exceptions under each rule.
6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.
7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis, mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup.
8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.
9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane, vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.

Geography (Time, one hour)
1 What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas?
3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?
4. Describe the mountains of North America.
5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia, Odessa, Denver, Manitoba, Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco.
6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S.
7. Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each.
8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?
9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.
10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth.

Notice that the exam took FIVE HOURS to complete. Gives the saying "he only had an 8th grade education" a whole new meaning, doesn't it?

Laughing all the way to the bank

Laughing All The Way to the Bank


Dan Brown must be laughing all the way to the bank.

First, there is the windfall that he is certain to receive from his book “The Da Vinci Code,” of which six million copies have been printed so far. There is likewise the celebrity status that he gained overnight just by this one book (his first success after a string of ho hum flops). There is also the certainty that the Person he horribly slandered will NOT lift a finger to defend Himself, much less zap Brown to an eternity in hell for his infinitely malicious lies. There is also the certainty that His followers will NOT take Brown to the gallows nor burn him in the stake. In fact, I am sure His followers will even pray for Brown’s conversion, at least ask God that Brown continue to live until he has begged God for forgiveness for his indescribable offense.

Yes, Dan Brown is wreaking havoc on the Church, leaving in his wake a wide swath of devastation which would make all previous heresies (including that of Martin Luther) look like a Boy Scouts’ powwow.

But if the Church is now reeling under the weight of Brown’s rampage, we Catholics have no one else to blame but ourselves.

First, the likes of Brown are in a manner of speaking like maggots. Maggots exist only when there is carrion. The Da Vinci Code, like the other Brown books, wouldn’t have gone no farther than the dustbin of history had every one who fancies himself a Catholic only tried to really learn his faith.

The sad fact is, perhaps only 10% of all Catholics in the world, Filipinos included, really know what the whole thing is all about, opening ourselves wide open to the lies of Dan Brown.

Ask at random any Catholic to whose conception the “immaculate conception” refers to and he will tell you it’s Jesus’. Ask any Catholic who came first, God the Father or God the Son, and he will tell you it’s God the Father. Ask any Catholic if he goes to confession and he will probably answer “Oh, I do it all the time, directly.”

We are in such a mess that if we are sued in court for being Catholics, the prosecution will not have enough evidence to convict us.

So what can we do about it, issue our equivalent of a “fatwah,” hold bloody riots all over the world against Dan Brown and perhaps Sony Pictures? Of course, not. That would not be what our Founder would like us to do.

One thing which every Catholic will have to do is simply to learn his faith by heart. Those who already know should take it upon themselves to help instruct others. Those who as yet do not know should take it upon themselves to go to their parish church, each one bringing along a dozen others to listen to the those who already know. Every parish must make it its most urgent business to instruct. Being preoccupied with the coming fiesta is commendable, but let the more important things be tackled first.

Just a reminder. We must have recourse to the guidance of a priest. (And to our dear priests: please try to be on top of everything.) Likewise, we should use extensively the book Catechism of the Catholic Church and the various papal encyclicals and instructions. Let’s tune in to EWTN, check out Zenit on the Internet. In everything, let us NOT rely on our own interpretation.

Dan Brown and Sony will have to reckon with God for what they have done to His beloved Son. In the meantime, let us take measures to avoid ourselves being swept into the lies of these two. Let’s start today.

English: The Lingua FRanca of the World

English: The Lingua Franca of the World

I’ve heard it once before but I was too young then to understand and sound the alarm. Now that I’m older and able to understand, I’m clanging the alarm bells as loud as I can: treat as if he has the plague any one who belittles English, especially one who claims it’s foolish to aim for proficiency in it.

I remember in my youth the tempest created by those who actually tried to remove English from our schools, claiming our being Filipinos demand no less than the use of Pilipino in every aspect of our lives. That’s how “salumpuwit” and “salongsoso” came to be used in favor of the more familiar “chair” and “bra.” (Imagine what these people could have come up to replace “men’s briefs.”) I recall my attempts to hide my contempt at what seemed to me like demented attempts to create something ex nihilo. Not since God created something out of nothing has the feat been attempted. Why the “nationalists” of my youth apparently believed they could escapes me. I mean, why ram Pilipino down Filipinos’ throats when the language isn’t even palatable to three-fourths of the population? Conversely, why banish a perfectly sound language as English just to promote a deficient national language?

Alas, the whole world was turning red then, the so-called wars of liberation were raging everywhere. In our country at that time, “nationalist” was in, “foreign” was out. The crazies won, English was banished from our schools.

Friends, we are right now witnesses to the folly of those “nationalist” mountebanks. Those who are still alive today probably want to slit their throats in remorse, as they scan the horizon and see nothing but the anguish of their victims. True, many Filipinos still believe their English is superior to that of other non-native English speakers, but that’s wistful thinking. The truth is, our English sucks.

Our spoken and written English remains at the level of a sixth grader. We should be doing all we can to check the decline, not falling over ourselves trying to throw it overboard. To claim that we should ditch English in favor of Mandarin simply because more than half the world’s population speak Chinese is irresponsible. Don’t get me wrong—Mandarin will probably become another global commercial language. I believe that Mandarin, simply because of the hseer number of people speaking it, will ultimately become another lingua franca of the world. Already, futurists see the ascendance of Mandarin. In fact, Cambridge recently started offering British students a Mandarin course in anticipation of such development.

But (and that’s a big but) not in another fifty years, and by no means will it mean the death of English. No, not by any means.

It’s likewise foolish to point out the economic hegemony in Asia of the Chinese and the Japanese, both lousy English speakers, as if it’s their being non-English speakers that’s the cause of their economic success. Come on, now, let’s be serious. In fact, all one needs to do is to look up “teaching English in China, Japan, and Korea” to be completely overwhelmed by the sheer number of schools in these countries offering English courses. And look at the Koreans- they’re coming in in great numbers just to learn English. Don’t these two tell us something? If English is not important, why would there be so many English schools in China, Japan, and Korea, and why would the Koreans bother to come over?

Finally, ask the thousands who--despite the almost P10,000.00 fee (not to mention the P5,500.00 review) -- take the IELTS test. If a band 9 score will not instantly open erstwhile closed corporate doors in Europe, Australia, Japan, the USA and elsewhere, why do you think would these young men and women bother?

English is here to stay. The sooner we try to get up steam and regain the English proficiency that we have lost, the better it will be for us.

Human at Conception


I came across this interesting pamphlet “What They Never Told You About the Facts of Life” by Human Development Resources Council, Inc in Norcross, Georgia, USA which I’d like to tell you about.

The first thing the pamphlet did was to confirm what every pro-life – but unfortunately not everybody – knows: that human beings first become human at conception. Pro-contraception advocates and even doctors will tell you it’s not, that life starts the moment the fertilized egg implants itself in the mother’s uterine lining. Meaning that before seven weeks, the fertilized egg is fair game.

“The moment your mother’s egg was fertilized, 46 chromosomes with 30,000 genes combined to determine all your physical characteristics: sex, facial features; body type, color of hair; eyes and skin. Even more amazingly, intelligence and personality - the way you think and feel – were already in place within your genetic code. At the moment of conception, you were already essentially and uniquely ‘you.’” At conception, each parent contributes 15,000 chemical “instructions sheets” (genes) that determined not only what you look like, but also your health, talents, tastes, athletic abilities, intelligence, allergies, and more.

Quite interestingly, this squares off with what the Church teaches. You know the Church teaches that us that every human being is intimately known to God, his name etched in the palm of God’s hand. In the Bible you will read there something about God knowing us even before the womb, making this man-made contention by pro-contraception advocates about life starting only at implantation a rather difficult thing to swallow. I became me because God from all eternity had willed it, and not because from trillions of choices God chose me to become me at implantation.

Indeed, if we are to believe what pro-contraception people say, we will have to tear away certain pages of Luke and the one on Samson for being false. If a person becomes human only at implantation, how could the Archangel Gabriel have announced to Zachariah the coming to the world of John the Baptist? The obvious conclusion therefore is that the coming to the world of every person emanates from the mind of God and is only given a physical (and spiritual) dimension at conception. At conception, John the Baptist was already John the Baptist. The same can be said of Mary. Conceived without sin, she was without sin at conception, a characteristic only Mary has. Her coming into the world was also foretold- from Genesis time pa. Samson’s birth was also foretold.

The pamphlet continues: “A wondrous and dynamic chain of events takes place within the womb. In the brief span of two months, you progressed from a single cell to a tiny human with all the organs present and functioning. The rest of your time in the womb was devoted to refinement, growth, and practice. While still in the womb, you began to move, swallow, and “breathe” amniotic fluid , react to stimuli and generally prepare yourself for life on the outside.” The baby’s growth in the first two months is so rapid that had the pace been continued all of nine months, he would have been born 14 tons!

To every doctor, nurse, health worker, manufacturer, and end user who prescribe/endorse/use contraceptives: you claim it is alright to flush away human life within seven weeks (i.e., before implantation) because you are saying the human being is not yet human until after seven weeks.

Question 1. By whose authority do you say so? By what unique claim to knowledge does he/she/it says so? (Just for our readers to know, the life at conception teaching has been taught by the Church- who cannot err in matters of faith and morals - consistently since Peter. For almost two thousand years mankind has believed so; it was only during the last century that that this alternative theory cropped up.)

Question 2. Have you tried finding out the truth for yourself, I mean really tried? Did you beg for the right answer?

Question 3. Good if what you believe in is true. But what if it’s not? What if life indeed begins at conception? Can you ever sleep soundly after knowing you have thwarted God’s hands?

Good day.