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Showing posts with the label Opinion

Recycling, composting and gardening

By Ike V. Señeres Recycling , composting and gardening are all parts of the same value chain that all communities should “operationalize” everywhere, all the time, and all over the country. I should say wherever there is there is waste and wherever there is hunger, but these two are actually everywhere too, and are present all the time too! I should also say that it sounds like it is easier said than done, but that is not true either, because it is not too difficult to do, and it could be one everywhere, from Mavulis island in Batanes, to Saluag island in Sulo, from Forbes Park in Makati City to Payatas Dumpsite in Quezon City. Recycling starts with the segregation of biodegradables and non-biodegradables. For the most part, the latter has commercial values when sold as paper, plastic and metals. The biodegradables generally do not have commercial value except when these are converted into fertilizers. And that is where composting comes in. Composting could be done with or without eart

The South China Sea conflict

By Noralyn Dudt A Bump here and there can become SERIOUS COLLISIONS. Geographic coordinates 8 38N, 111 55E are the Spratly Islands, roughly midway between the Philippines and South Vietnam. Named after the 19th-century British whaling captain Richard Spratly who sighted the islands in 1843, Spratly is composed of islands,   islets, cays,   and more than a hundred reefs, sometimes grouped in submerged old atolls. While it is largely uninhabited,   it offers rich fishing grounds and may contain significant oil and natural gas reserves which are vital to the countries filing claims in their attempts to establish international boundaries. The Philippines,   Malaysia,   Vietnam,   China, Taiwan and Brunei have all laid claim. Nautical charts bear the notation "dangerous ground" on some areas that are not well sounded in the South China Sea. More recently, a "dangerous ground" designation has risen from the disputes that is becoming an international crisis as China a

THE WORLD Needs PEACE

By Noralyn Dudt NOW IN Gaza, 2 million people are jammed into an area about the size of Las Vegas. Medical supplies,   food, water and fuel are dwindling. Israel's continued airstrikes have forced hundreds of thousands of Gazans from their homes deepening the humanitarian crisis there. A blast killed hundreds at a hospital in Gaza. They were civilians who were sheltering there thinking that a hospital would never be hit. The hospital explosion compounded the escalating humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. Even before the blast, rescuers were struggling to free more than a thousand people trapped under the rubble, and fights were breaking out over loaves of bread. The situation in Gaza is a disaster in the truest sense of the word: "massacres everywhere,"   said a paramedic with the Palestinian Red Crescent. The streets reek of death. And then...a bomb hit an ancient Christian church where families with young children were taking refuge. The bombing of a church str

Rome wasn't built in a day

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

Gridlock and a dead-end street

By Noralyn Dudt Merriam-Webster defines gridlock as a traffic jam in which a grid of intersecting streets is so completely congested that no vehicular movement is possible. The grid is locked... no one can move... everyone stays in place. In the same way, gridlock in government occurs when both houses of Congress cannot agree on going forward on a particular issue. The government then is literally going nowhere. In United States politics, gridlock frequently refers to occasions when the House of Representatives and the Senate are controlled by different parties,   or by a different party than the party of the president. Gridlock may also occur within the Senate, when no party has a filibuster-proof majority. A primary cause of gridlock is the filibuster rule in Senate, which calls for a supermajority of 60 senators to bring a bill to the floor. The Congress and Senate cannot agree.... In many ways, gridlock is endemic to our national politics,   the natural consequence of sepa

Leaders turn the world around

By Noralyn Dudt A leader comes and unknowingly may   turn the world around—forward, leftward, rightward or backward and even upside down—depending on what the leader does and how he does it. Wherever we are today in our own little corner of the world, we are here or there because a leader decided to conquer a place, a leader decided to push for reforms   or a leader had the humility and grace to admit that a mistake has been made and decided to rectify it. Leaders come in an array of forms, shapes and   colors but   one distinguishing   hallmark   of a good leader is the ability to   turn his orbit around and   leaves the world a better place than when he had found it. Abraham Lincoln, the 16 th president of the United States treated those whom he encountered with honesty, humility, courage, justice   and grace. He came to power when the nation was in peril—a civil war was brewing—and he had the intelligence, the self-confidence and humility to know that he needed the best pe

Investing in people over bubbles that burst

By Noralyn Dudt In one of the first recorded Bitcoin transactions in 2010, a hungry computer geek in Florida spent 10,000 of the cryptocurrency on a couple of takeaway pizzas. By late 2017, the cost of those pizzas at Bitcoin's then market price was close to US$200 million. Not too long after that, the leading crypto's market value surpassed many of the world's largest companies, including Boeing, Toyota and McDonald's. Unbelievable? Such a vast sum, yes   for little value. Was it real ? Yes it was... but it didn't last long because it was just a bubble floating in the air. As with many other "bubbles" in the past this bubble also burst. Surely investors'   initial giddiness and excitement was soon wiped out when they realized that   their money was gone. But how can one explain   such irrational and irresponsible thinking—that investing a dollar in something "in the air" would yield a million times in such a short time?   It has to be

OFW couple plead for DMW secretary’s help

The following is an open letter penned by Ofelia A. Laguardia addressed to Dept. of Migrant Workers Sec. Susan Ople pleading for her help in the case her husband, Manual P. Laguardia Sr., which has now dragged on for three years. “WHEN THE Dept.   of Migrant Workers was created by the Marcos Administration, my husband and I—among the multitude of Filipinos beset with problems overseas—saw a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. “My husband, Manual P. Laguardia Sr. worked in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia as civil engineer for 37 years and yours truly as educator for 20 years. We both retired three years ago and I was able to return to our beloved Philippines; but my poor husband was left behind wallowing in sickness and despair because his passport was confiscated by his employer in Saudi Arabia for reasons we could not fully comprehend. “Our separation led us both to fits of depression and helplessness as since then, we were both unemployed and that our savings was being depleted fas

Other roads to Democracy

[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

Democracy, can it stay alive?

( First of a series ) By Noralyn Dudt “DEMOCRACY is messy, and it's hard. It's never easy,” is a famous Kennedy quote. If you prefer that everything should be controlled and organized, democracy would never be your choice of government. It's not neat, it is messy, it is hard. That's because it involves everyone who wants to participate. And all participants are human beings with brains and emotions, and robots these mortals   are not.   Some are new, some are experienced, some are rational, some are emotional. As a result, anything can happen. Democracy is neither a neat process nor a pretty one. But surely it can be lively. "Of the people, by the people, for the people," was how the late U.S. President Abraham Lincoln described how democracy works. A lofty concept it was,   and still is. I ponder the word and it looks almost “menacing” because one wonders how it could be attained by human beings who can be irrational,   emotional, and inexperienced. Hum