The Ilocos Times

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 Dominic B. dela Cruz ( Staff Reporter) Laoag City —As the closed-circuit television (CCTV) system has proven effective on both deterring and solving crimes, the Sangguniang Panlungsod here amended City Ordinance No. 2020-054. The amendment expands the coverage of its application, requiring a minimum specification, number and location of CCTV installation, and regulating the examination, duplication and recording of CCTV footage along with penalties of violations. Laoag councilor Jason Bader Perera, who authored the ordinance said the ordinance shall now include business establishments with a capital lower than PHP500,000, and on their own discretion may install a CCTV security system in accordance to their needs. Bader added that this include all restaurants and carinderias, irrespective of the amount of their capitalization, that are serving alcoholic beverages to the public. The amended ordinance also includes all privately owned educational institutions and dashboard ca

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

  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

By Noralyn Dudt For centuries , obesity has been viewed as a character flaw. Despite decades of research into the genetic and biological influences on body weight, people with obesity continue to be stigmatized,   more so than those with other chronic disease, as if their weight were their fault. In the latest issue of the European Journal of   Clinical Nutrition, researchers, clinicians and public health experts discussed and argued that overeating is not the primary cause of obesity. Looking at clinical trials and previous research,   they   came to the conclusion that the "process of gaining weight causes us to overeat." The usual way of understanding obesity is simple : if one consumes more calories than needed to fuel oneself, the surplus is deposited into body fat resulting in weight gain. Because, according to this approach, all calories are alike to the body   and the only way to lose weight   is to eat fewer of them, or burn them   off with exercise. For a ce

MISS GAY ALLAWAGI WINNERS. (Counterclockwise) Miss Kyle Ranada (1 st  runner-up); Miss Gay Allawagi 2022 Miss Joanne Garduque (center); Miss Shane Marva San Jose ( 2 nd  runner-up); Miss Allen Inigo Butay and Miss KC Andrez.( Photo courtesy of Brgy. 11 SK officials) San Nicolas , Ilocos Norte—Residents of Brgy. 11 in this town celebrated their Allawagi Festival Year 2 from Oct. 26-30, 2022 with a series of activities. “ Napalaos man iti pinagyaman ko kadagiti amin nga adda iti likudan iti pannaka-selebrar iti Allawagi Fesival Year II kalpasan a duwa a tawen a saan tayo a sinelebraran gapu iti saan a napak-pakadaan nga isasangbay iti COVID-19 pandemic” Brgy. 11 Punong Barangay Dominic Dela Cruz said in his message during the Miss Gay Allawagi 2022. The weeklong Allawagi Festival Year II celebration kicked off with a Walkathon, Zumba, Holy Mass in commemoration of the barangay’s patron saint San Fernando and a barangay assembly on Oct. 26, 2022 followed by the opening of the basket