two prayers

Last night my little boy confessed to me
Some childish wrong;
And kneeling at my knee,
He prayed with tears--
"Dear God, make me a man
Like Daddy--wise and strong;
I know you can

Then while he slept
I knelt beside his bed,
Confessed my sins,
And prayed with low bowed head.
"O God, make me a child
Like my child here--
Pure, guileless,
Trusting Thee with faith sincere."

Andrew Gillies

My teacher's not in!

I'm busy this week doing school stuffs. I just finished writing and already passed my ethno research. I'm now doing my guidance and counseling stuff and I hope to finish it this weekend. Thiough I don't know if that's possible because this week is our church's anniversary and I am in charge of the Praise and Worship team. Boy am i getting busy these days.

This hour is supposed to be my literature class but since the instructor is out, why waste time, why not update my blog and write on what's botheinr me today.

During my ethno research, I had a chat and long conversations with Pastor Nito Barlaan our guide and when I introduced to him that my partner is an Iglesya ni Cristo member he raised his eye brows.

(Iglesya ni Crsito is a local cult that believes that Christ is a man, their's is adaption christology. Their soteriology is exclusivist. They believed that Felix manalo, a Filipino pastor, is the last messenger of God and that their church is the revival of the biblical church. They believe that the church ceased to exist somewhere in history and was only revived or reestablished in 1914 through Felix Manalo.)

Okay, I'm not in anyway offended by my classmate's beliefs and I consider him an outstanding person and, may I say, better than some "orthodox" Christians that I knew.

What is interesting with the common Filipino is the way they refute the iglesya's christology and that is in insisting that Christ is God. This is heretical, permit me to use this archaic word, because the orthodox belief is that Christ is a God-man. The debate on homseous and homo blah, blah, blah, stuff and all that christological controversies settled, in one of those councils of bishops and what have you, (soory my books is not with me), that Christ is a Gosd-man with the argument that it is a hypostatic union of blah, blah, blah, (All these cocneptual stuff is killing me).

But is a scientific understanding of Christology important?

Look at the way common Christian Filipinos refute adaptionism and Arianism and that is by insisting that Christ is a God, period. They will tell that Christ is a God that became a man in the course of history and then that' s that. God-man is not a common held Christology of the common people.

This is strange because of the Filipino's religous leaders religious zeal in thwarting the "heretical" doctrine that Christ is a mere man, they have revived one of the classical heretical christology: Christ is God.

I'm no Christological expert and one of the thing that assures me and bothers me at the same time, is that most Christians contend theme selves in knowing that they knew christ and that they have a relationship with him. Does it matter that their christology is "heretical" or orthodox?

Christology is an academic development of theology and is not evil in itself. But. what is true christology?

Christology from above or christology from below, I think the correct christology is the christology from and of the heart.

When I die what will God ask me?

Is Christ a man or (a) God? Or God will simply look in my heart.

Just asking.

I think someone is right when he said that the only true Christology is in being Christlike.

Daraitan and How Illegal logging is done

Barangay Daraitan is a small community composed of more than 500 families. It is surrounded by the mountains of Quezon Province namely Nilindigan, Atburan, and Nilubugan (this is according to the residents but the official names of these mountains may vary) and other unidentified mountains of Quezon and Rizal Province. Geographically, Daraitan is part of the Municipality of Gen. Nakar, Quezon Province but politically, since the people have to circumnavigate the mountains in order to avail of services from the local government of Nakar, the people of Daraitan chose to be part of the Municipality of Tanay, Rizal. Daraitan has its own elementary school and high school. The literacy is around 95 percent. Although the community is small, yet it has many denomitional missions and chapels and cults active in the area. There are two Baptist chapels, a Seventh Day Adventist chapel, a Mormon chapel, Back to Christ (a mystic cult) chapel, a Rizalista conclave, and a Dating Daan Coordinating Center.

According to the local people, Daraitan was purchased by the early settlers from the Dumagats, the indigenous people, for cans of sardines and trinkets.

The people are mostly Tagalogs, Bicolanos, Ilocanos, Pangasinenses but there also Ilonggos and other Visayans. One of the theories on the diversity of the people here is treasures. According to local stories, the mountains surrounding Daraitan contains Japanese treasures. This attracted prospectors and treasure hunters from all over the country. There were also stories that the legendary Yamashita treasure was hidden in these mountains. A resident told us that an army general and his entourage carrying laptops and other hi-tech equipments once went to Daraitan; the residents theorized that they were treasure hunting.

Due to the exploitation they experienced, the Dumagats, the original residents of the area, are now weary of the lowlanders and are continually being driven into the interior of the mountains. Our guide Pastor Nito told us that the Dumagats won’t accept candies even from missionaries.

The communist insurgent the New People’s Army is also active in the area. They are the protectors of the illegal loggers; they are also feared and respected by the people of the community. “A misbehaving member of the community is first given a warning, if he/she didn’t pay attention; he/she simply disappears,” Narrated Mang Mulong. This a typical story, not only here in Daraitan but anywhere where the NPA exerts influence.

With the enforcement of the total log ban, logging ceased to be Daraitan’s’s main source of income. Technically, Daraitan is an agricultural community. In reality, however, what the log ban did was to force the people of Daraitan to engage in clandestine logging. Carabao logging (although they use horses) is the term used to describe this activity. According to the residents 80 percent of the people here depend on Carabao logging for survival; the rest survives on kaingin and river delta agriculture and on private employment. The whole economy of the barangay is based on the movement of the raw lumber from the mountains to the hardware stores in the neighboring town of Rizal especially in Taytay where the demand for lumber is highest.

The movement of illegal lumber in Daraitan follows two systems: one is over water which the local calls “Bulaog” and the other is over land. The transportation of raw lumber over land is what will be discussed here since this is the system used at Daraitan.

The land transportation of raw lumber follows a five step process. The first is the felling of trees by the “operators” i.e. chainsaw operators. These operators, if they own the chainsaws, get 3 PHP (.06 USD)* per board foot; but if the operators do not own their chainsaw, they get 2 PHP (.04 USD) per board foot; the 1 peso is for the rental of the chainsaw. Since the trees are fast disappearing, the operators have to go deeper into the interior of the mountains to look for trees. They usually spent from two weeks to a month there.

The operators have helpers that are paid .75 PHP (.015 USD) per board feet. The operators cut the felled trees into 2” thick raw lumber slabs called dos por lapad on site for easier transportation.

The next process is called “borlet”. Borlet is the transportation of the dsos por lapads from the felling area into the into the horse loading site. Borleeters slide the cut raw lumber down the mountain slopes down into the loading area. It is a dangerous job; residents said that the most common accident that can happen to a borleeter is a crushed leg or legs that usually end up to amputation. This happens when the dos por lapads, in its downward travel, got snagged by a rock or any other obstruction catapulting it back to the borleeters. A borleeter receives 1.50 PHP (.03 USD) per board foot for short distances they slide the dos pro lapads and double that amount if it is far.

After borleting, it is now the turn of the”mangngabayos”. The mangangabayos transport the dos por lapads by horse back. They are tied to the horses through specially designed saddle called the “sangkarol and the siyete”. Sangkarol is a handmade local saddle while siyete is a wooden frame used to fasten the raw lumbers on the horse’s sides.

The mangangabayos receive from 6.50 PHP (0.13 USD) to 8 PHP (0.16 USD) per board foot. They usually travel from six to eight hours through the mountain. They earn an average 500 PHP (10 USD) per trip.

Awis is another method of carrying raw lumber. This is done by manually carrying the dos por lapads using a headsling called awis. Seeing people carrying raw lumber this way is heartbreaking. (See post below for picture of how awis is done.)

It was already dark when our guide Pastor Nito Barlaan hurriedly called us to look at a man coming down the dirt road. We saw a man manually carrying 2’x 12”x 10’ dos por lapad on his back. The man was half-lumbering, half-running because he had to maintain his balance and with the distance he traveled carrying that load through the mountains and jungle, we can only imagine his tiredness. Pastor Nito told us that it’s about four to six hours travel one way. The awis carriers are paid the same rate as the mangangabayos but without the horses.

Old time awis carriers develop tumor like growths on their napes because of the load they carry.

The mangangabayos and the awis carriers then drop the dos por lapads to their financiers’ warehouses where the lumbers are stockpiled for transporting to the hardware and lumber store and furniture makers in the neighboring towns of Rizal.

The transportation of the dos por lapads from the financiers’ warehouse to market is done covertly. There are two ways this is done: one is through direct bribing of the military and police checkpoints and the other is through clandestine operation using especially designed jeepneys called tambors. These tambor jeepneys have especially designed compartments under the seats; the seats are higher than ordinary jeepneys in order to have more storage space for the dos por lapads under it. They also have especially designed chassis that allows dos por lapads to be stowed under them; some even have removable hollow roofs.
There are also Elf trucks that transport calamansi from the plantation to the market; but according to some residents, underneath those sacks of calamansi are raw lumbers.

*The exchange rate used through out the paper is 50 PHP to 1 USD.

Etnographic

My classmate Rommel and I did an ethnographic research, our finals for social sciences 2, at _______, Tanay, Rizal.

(A sling is attached to the head and tied (in this case nailed) to the lumber/s. )

Since the log ban, mechanized transportation of lumber is now not possible. This is one way of transporting lumber from the mountains to the "drop point". A carrier has to carry four to five pieces of this in order to earn five hundred pesos, about ten dollars, (I was only carrying one and I'm already seeing stars!). They carry these from eight to nine hours of mountain trekking. Experienced lumber carriers developed tumor like growth on their napes because of the load. "People here vomit blood to earn money," one of the residents said. We were warned by our guide Pastor Nito barlaan not take pictures lest we be mistaken for a forest ranger or an intelligence officer and "never get home". And since we do not anyone who will agree to be photographed (we dare not ask because their stares alone is enough warning), I had no choice but to demonstrate how it is done.

(Rommel, me, and Pastor Nito Barlaan )

We also tried to take pictures of caravan of horses carrying logs at night but after hearing some stories of disappearances, I deemed it better to ask Rommel, an illustrator, to just draw the images.

(Notice the blisters on the hose's side.)

These jeeps transport people and goods at daylight and illegal lumber at night. They have a specially designed seats, chassis, and sometimes even roof that allows lumbers to be stored where they are then delivered to hardwares in Taytay, Rizal. There are also elf trucks carrying Philippine lemons but according to our sources these sack of lemons are just camouflage because underneath these sacks are illegal lumbers.

The small time loggers are protected by the communist insurgents and exploited by the law enforcers, that is what these people say.

(Wordplay lang: Writing, papers, papers, snoopers, snoppers, illegal loggers, I wish school's over.)

Idolatry

For all his life a man of many words, many meanings, Lewis knew that even in his prayer he had created idols, linguistic idols perhaps, and that even in this poem (“Footnote to all Prayers) in which he tried to capture the very thought of the idolatry in prayerful word was an idol itself…and a bad one at that, when he compared the one speaking with the one spoken to.
William Griffin on C.S. Lewis


I spent four days in a Catholic seminary as a delegate in the 6th Luzon Tertiary Press Conference; and in the four days that I was there, I appreciated the place because of its serenity.

I am a Baptist and as a Baptist, one of first indoctrinations I receive was the sin of idolatry and the indoctrination classes usually cite the Catholic Church as the epitome of idolatry. This is most unfair to the Catholics.

The Catholics have emphatically defended that symbolism in their worship, sacraments and Christian life is not idolatry.

I knew Baptists and Methodists who would rather be dead than enter a Catholic Church and I was baffled by this attitude because instead of seeing Catholics as a brother seeker of salvation, they are regarded as hostile enemies.

What is idolatry?

Deu 27:15 " 'God's curse on anyone who makes an idol of stone, wood, or metal and secretly worships it; the LORD hates idolatry.' "And all the people will answer, 'Amen!'


As I was reading some of the verses in the Old Testament about idolatry, I realized that the ire of God is in the fact that Israelite have the tendency to abandon God and revert to paganism. God is angry at idols because the idols take away something from God; they take away reverence in God; they take away remembrance of God; they take away God.
Idols and images have its conception in the mind. These Old Testament idols create images of gods, the images of gods that is in the mind of the pagans, these images are represented in graven images created by the pagans, these graven images are representation of the pagan’s lawlessness, immorality—the elements of the pagan gods and their idols. These graven representation of lawlessness and immorality creates a powerful symbol of lawlessness and immorality and this is what threatened God and Israel—lawlessness and immorality.


This where idolatry lies; in the mind that conceives of a god and the hand that creates idols that represents these conceptions, the worshippers of the idols and the worship and power given to the maker of the idols. The idols revert worship back to humanity itself—the creator of the idols. Idolatry in reality is not worship of other gods; it is the worship of humanity.


Is God insecure of mere sculptures? Is God angry at sculptures?

I know a Baptist pastor who burned all the sculpture and removed even family pictures in his house just to satisfy the Old Testament literalism on idolatry.

Maybe to solve the problem of idolatry God gave us the ultimate representation of God, the idols of all idols—Jesus Christ, the Word, the concept of God in a graven image sculpted by the Holy Spirit. The Cosmic Idol.




As I was exploring the Catholic Seminary, I saw moss covered crosses in threes, its footings covered with flowers, in the seminary’s ground. And in the quiet solitude of my exploring, instead of being offended by the crosses, I felt attuned to the Divinity.

What if these idols and images bring one closer to God? What if these idols and images are representation of how one felt about God? What if it brings reverence to God? What if the element that created these graven images is order, godliness, holiness etc


Col 3:5 You must put to death, then, the earthly desires at work in you, such as sexual immorality, indecency, lust, evil passions, and greed (for greed is a form of idolatry).

What then is idolatry and who then are the idolaters?

We need to create images of a concept in order to understand it, and this is what is wrong with the idolatry in the Old Testament—they are images of man and the wrong conception of God.

Idolater, spelunker, searcher, seeker, anti-matter, what’s the matter?

Pacquation

Manny Pacquaio the champion
Went beyond my expectation
I thought he will abandon
The temptation
To run in the election
Because he is a boxing champion
And not a political person


But alas, alas, perdition and percolation
The guy will not run in the election
for the vice mayoralty of the capitol city of the nation
But instead he gave in to the temptation
And went beyond my imagination
Because the champion
Confirmed his intention
Of running as a candidate in the election
As a senator of the nation

Circumlocution, abomination
Lobotomy and mucus excretion
Heavens, if Manny won the election
I advise rectal intrusion
For the Filipino nation

Mumbling

I was thinking about infinity, what is it?
I think infinity is any reality that we cannot grasp. I mean, it does not have to be immeasurable; it can be something that is beyond, just beyond, hmmm, comprehension--anything that defies mental picture. Distance is not infinite because you can limit it; space, you can imagine; actually there is nothing infinite with the human mind, we can only have infinity if we talk about measure. Measurement is what defines infinity and not the limitation of the mind. And when measurement enters the mind, that’s when infinity begins.
Maybe I need psychotherapy.

Four days

I was busy this last four days reprenting our humble campus as the chief of the student publication in this years Luzonwide tertiary press conference held at Tagaytay City. With me is Mary Anne and Marco Joseph Balbin my co-staffers. We were billeted in the SVD seminary.

I am posting some pictures to show how busy and how hard the work we did there.

I was reading a C.S. Lewis biography that I bought in the seminary.


Mary Anne dew Leon our entertainemnt editor and column writer trying to show how serious the art of writing is. (No she's not cross eyed.)

Joseph Marco Balbin our copy reader preparing for the competetion.

We were in the middle of the lecture when my Nokia 5110 beeped. I was so embarassed when the speaker shouted "QUIET!".

Our honorable faculty adviser.

This is weird. The viand is packed in the styropor box.

Wild flowers.



Lots of crosses in this seminary.

Listening to Jimi Hendrix's Ultimate Experience, James Taylor's Mudslide Slim, James Brown Best Album and Hillsong Albums while exploring the SVD seminary.

Scooters/James Brown

Long live Voltes Five and perdition to Prince Zardos and the Bozanian! Can somebody please tell me when will this end? I am not talking about the intergalactic battle between Voltes Five and the Bozanian Empire. I’m talking about something more nonsensical and insane: the Filipinos obsession with motor scooter.

Before, my country men had altered their scooters mufflers to make it sound like a 2000cc Harley Davidson Easy Rider. I tell you this is insane. You can hear this booming motorcycle engine harrumphing down the road, and you’d expect a zooming Arnold Schwarzenegger on an inhuman sized motorcycle only to find a skinny Filipino on a 100 cc Honda scooter walking by. It’s funny, but once you hear a group of these loud, undersized bikes, Hell’s Fart Riders is what they are, broom-brooming down the road you’d wish the Children of the Corn would meet them and reap them heads of them miniscule riders. They’re noise polluters and what’s insane is their proud of it.

And now, oh now, this is for the Guinness Book of World records, oh now my countrymen have installed stereos in their miniscule scooters. How on earth can they hear them stereos if their traveling with their helmets on? How can they hear their stereos given the fact that their scooters mufflers boom like a Huey Helicopter?

I want to bash my head with a sponge and hope I bleed to death at these inanities.

This stereo thing is the latest scooter craze, and the fact that these Hell’s Fart Riders travel in packs, you can imagine the noise they generate.

My countrymen have installed lifters to these scooters to make them look like motocross bikes, then they removed the lifters and lowered them to minimize ‘air drag”, as if these scooters can travel at the speed of sound, then they altered the mufflers so that they will sound like a real big bike, and now they’ve installed stereos. What’s next? Airconditioning? Anti lock Brake System? Power Steering? Spoilers?

James Brown

I was surfing the net and I read that James Brown, the king of soul, is already dead (guess that means that I'm really late with news). He died on Dec. 25, 2006. I was just listening to his CD this morning and I can't help but feel sad that such a groovy man is gone. He's a great influence to Filipino musicians. I hear traces of his sound to such diverse pinoy bands from the experimental Radio Active Sago Project to Eraserheads to Yoyoy Villame to the funky now defunked POT.

For a man who can create ecstasy out of a single chord...James Brown, you're my man! You made me feel Good!

Puppies

Our dog Chian Shai gave birth to five little pups. This was taken last Christmas, the puppies are now grown and two are already disposed of i.e. given away. My daughter was guilt ridden when she saw the condition of one of the puppies at its new owner's residence. She wanted to take it back. But I had to tell her that we can't feed them all. We already have a labrador and two native dogs and five more will definitely impoverished us more (impoverish as we already are ).

I'm happy that my daughter is growing up to be a

compassionate person.

Midterm blues

It is midterm examination week
It is midterm examination week
It is midterm examination week

Review this
Review that
Memorize this
Memorize that

After the exam
Everything’s gone
Not an iota of data
Memorized
Is left

Tabula rasa
Blanko de mesa
Quezo de bola

There has to be a better way…
To measure learning
Than regurgitating
Without digesting
All those lectures and teachings

Excerpts from Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex

By: Larry Niven

What turns on a kryptonian?

Superman is an alien, an extraterrestrial. His humanoid frame is doubtless the result of parallel evolution. A specific niche in the ecology calls for a certain shape, size, etc. Be not deceived by appearances. Superman is not a homo sapiens. What arouses Kal-Els mating urge?

What ever it is, Lois Lane probably doesn’t have it. We may assume that she smells wrong, less like a kryptonian woman than like at errestrial monkey. A mating between Superman and Louis Lane would feel like sodomy.

Assume a mating between superman and a human woman LL.

The problem is this. During orgasms one loses control over one’s muscles. Superman has been known to leave finger prints in steel and in hardened concrete, accidentally. What would he do to the woman in his arms during what amounts to an epileptic fit?

Consider the driving urge between a man and a woman, the monomaniacal urge to achieve greater and greater penetration.

Superman would literally crush LL’s body in his arms, while simultaneously ripping her open from crotch to sternum, gutting her like a trout.

Lastly, he’d blow off the top of her head. Ejaculation of semen is entirely involuntary in the human male, and in all other forms of terrestrial life. It would be unreasonable to assume otherwise for a kryptonian. But with kryptonian muscles behind it, Kal-El’s semen would emerge with a muzzle velocity of a machine gun bullet. (One can imagine that the Kent home in Smallville was riddled with holes during Superboy’s puberty. And why did Lana Lang never notice that?)

Niven also analyzed the possibility and the complications of artificial insemination between Superman and LL; like how supersperms will behave inside LL’s ovary, the possibility of all the sperms fertilizing all LL’s eggs, how birthing will be for LL, instead of caesarian delivery the superbaby (or babies) will just rip LL’s stomach and run amok flying and whizzing around the nursery etc.