The Ilocos Times

By Noralyn Dudt The adage “ROME wasn't built in a day” attests to the need for time, and patience   to create great and impressive things. It's a rather unique expression that functions as an injunction or plea for someone to be patient. Magnificent structures and transformative elements require serious thought and great planning. They can't be built overnight. They can be decades and even centuries in the making. As the capital of the great Roman Empire, Rome was renowned for its architectural beauty, parks, gardens and fountains. Historians, poets, essayists    refer to it as "The Grandeur that was Rome."   Rome had scale and opulence that was unprecedented.   Thus, the proverb,   "Rome...."   is a metaphor for excellence of the highest order.   The English playwright, John Heywood's wrote   that "Rome wasn't built in a day....but they were laying bricks every hour"   is a reminder of the fact that it requires time and patience

Imagine a "pabuniag," ( baptism) a "pakasar," (wedding) or a "pamunpon" (funeral) and several Manongs are missing. "Where's Manong Jose, Manong Pedring, Manong Ben, Manong Damian," everyone asks. Who were the Manongs, what were they, and where did they come from? The term "Manong" comes from the Ilokano word for "elder brother" a term so endearing that denotes respect, yet loaded with familial responsibilities. In the old days, the "manongs and the manangs" of the family carried the responsibility of assisting their parents in providing   the needs of their younger siblings even after they got married and had families of their own. It was quite a responsibility in a place called the Ilocos region where arable land was scant, a narrow strip of land wedged between the mountains and the sea. It's a place unlike Central Luzon and the Visayas where large tracts of land called "hacienda" or plantations

By Noralyn Dudt BACK in 1790 when Pierre L'Enfant was at work designing what was to become the nation's capital with wide boulevards and common squares,   he probably never envisioned the Washington, DC   that it is today. Although he had helped George Washington's Continental Army in fighting the army of another George (the   King of England) and had an inkling what the new republic would look like, he may not have foreseen nor understood the magnitude of what it would take   to smoothly   run a   democratic republic. That this new nation would require three branches of government to check each other may not have crossed his mind. This was a rather new idea—not since the Athenians   who introduced the concept of democracy around two thousand years earlier. That checks and balances would need a myriad of federal agencies to   efficiently maintain   the functions of government would have been unthinkable at the time: the Supreme Court, the Department of Defense; the Depar

By Noralyn Dudt WASHINGTON DC, the U.S. capital abounds in monuments, memorials, museums, and galleries. When the city was first designed in 1790, the planner whom George   Washington commissioned, Pierre L'Enfant envisioned a grand capital of wide avenues, public squares and inspiring buildings in what was then a district of hills, forests, marshes, and plantations. The centerpiece of L'Enfant's plan was a great "public walk." That's now what we call our National Mall. Stretching for 2 miles, from Capitol Hill to the Potomac River,   this "public walk" is   a wide, straight strands of grass and trees. The Smithsonian museums flank both sides and war memorials are embedded among the famous monuments that memorialize Washington,   Lincoln and Jefferson. With 21 museums including the National Zoological Park, the Smithsonian institution is the world's largest museum, education and research complex.   In one of the most visited museums—the Mus

  By Noralyn Dudt THE MALL in Washington DC is not a shopping place. It's America's public square. It's a place where massive demonstrations occur and requires an extraordinary amount of planning and preparation that involves the Park Police, Capitol Police, Secret Service, the VDOT and the MDOT ( Virginia and Maryland Department of Transportation), the Red Cross, the RFK Stadium for parking, and the METRO subway system for convenient transportation. Preparation includes making sure that routes to hospitals are not blocked in case the demonstrators get injured.   And the "porta-potty" stalls   are ordered to make sure demonstrators will be able to relieve themselves. The idea of multiple departments moving together in a bureaucratic ballet illustrates one of America's endearing quirks: FEDERAL Employees will work their fingers to the bone ensuring that you have the right to tell them how disappointed you are in the system that employs them. Founded on Ju

By Noralyn Dudt I'm writing this on board the Viking Jupiter cruise in the South Atlantic. To mitigate the effect of the tons of delicious foods that I am eating, I have been going   to the gym   to run on the treadmill. It has been days and I'm still here. My running at a speed of 5.5 km per hour has not gotten me anywhere. And with the vast ocean around me, there seems to be no "land" in sight. The cleaning crews do their cleaning and scrubbing early in the morning, and do it all over again by midday, and in the late afternoon.   All of these remind me of the term "Sisyphean."   It's never ending, not arriving at any place....a Sisyphean task it's called. Where and how did such an odd-sounding   term originate? Sisyphus in one of the Greek myths was the founder and   king of Ephyra ( now known as Corinth ) who was punished for his trickery by being forced to roll a massive boulder to the top of a steep hill. Every time the boulder neared the t

  By Noralyn O. Dudt In 279 BC, King Pyrrhus of Epirus (an ancient state in Greece) defeated the Roman legions in the Battle of Asculum. Although he was the victor, he lost many of his Macedonian troops including his commanders and his friends, a toll so devastating that it was tantamount to defeat.   A "pyrrhic victory"   it was. Pyrrhic victory is a phrase that may not be familiar to many.   The term is used as an analogy in business, politics and sport to describe struggles that end up ruining the victor. It's a victory that comes at a great cost. The losses are so high and heavy   that they outweigh the gain   so as to render the struggle not worth the cost. It's a triumph that negates any true sense of achievement and ultimately   damages long-term progress. The journal, "The Military Engineer" explains that regardless of what happened with the landmark battle,   King Pyrrhus was a brilliant historical example   of hard-won, hard-fought,   but ul

Singapore , a small country in Southeast Asia has been dubbed an economic "miracle."   On what account they call it so, I am not so sure.   I always thought a miracle was something that only a Divine Being could perform when something is deemed hopeless. To the secular, it may be called magic, like when Cinderella's fairy godmother turned a pumpkin into a coach as her ride to the Palace ball. So how did this once   upon a time sandbar   called Singapore become an economic "miracle." Did it suddenly find favor from a god who decided that Singapore needed a better economy? Or did Singapore's government have magical qualities that could just wave a wand and turn this little backwater place into an economic tiger? Let's take a look at what kind of people populate this city-state. It has a diverse population,   the result of considerable past immigration. The Chinese in Singapore are Singapore's largest ethnic group making up three-quarters of the cou

[Conclusion] By Noralyn Dudt The second part of this series on   Democracy   focused on the success of northern European countries with Lutheran backgrounds and homogenous populations (Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Germany) in achieving the ideals of democracy.   As the previous discussion   may have inadvertently given the impression   that having   a Lutheran background is the only way to succeed in achieving democratic goals, let me point out those countries that do not have a Lutheran majority but also rated high. Canada whose population is almost as diverse as the United States is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy. Canada has been very welcoming to immigrants and values multiculturalism. There are services designed to help new immigrants find housing and jobs, improve their language skills that are funded both nationally and locally. Canada ranks high in the EIU democracy rating. So why was Canada ranked higher than the United States? Is it because its universa

By Noralyn Dudt Conclusion The Augustinian friars   must have been a very dedicated group of apostles. Such dedication is exhibited in the   still standing churches of the Ilocos region. The friars would build a church in one town and then use that as a center for evangelization of the surrounding area.   Visitas or peripheral missions they were called. The church in Bacarra was such a center --to reach the most   northwestern tip of Luzon Island : Bangui, Burgos,   Vintar. Pasuquin, Adang ( the current Adams) Banban ( now a barrio of Bangui) and Vera ( its new name unknown). The Batac church served as the center of the Visita to Dingras and Paoay. While the San Agustin Church in Paoay has been completely rebuilt and had made it to the World Heritage List,   it took some time to convince and motivate others to help with renovating the seriously-damaged   St. Joseph Church of Dingras. My good friend and former dorm mate Evita Castro de Alban wrote a piece about the St.Joseph Chur