‘Yes you can’

‘Tis summertime and many people are taking a break, going off to distant or secret places in order to heal, to be healthy, to help themselves and others, to try to become whole again. You too, and take a book along. One good summer reading fare would be the gem of a book “Yes You Can Prevent and Control Cancer” (332 pp., First NuConsciousness Publishing, 2009) by Christine E.V. Gonzalez, Ph.D., co-founder of the Wellness Institute. The book, subtitled, “a personal journal for daily living and total wellbeing” was launched last Saturday at the...

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Suicide

I wrote about suicide a couple of years ago when a 12-year-old named Mariannet Amper of Davao City took her own life (“Suicide has no heroes”, Nov. 15, 2007). Poverty was initially thought to be the main reason for her suicide. The distraught and poverty-stricken family had to deal with the media frenzy and the blame game that attended the tragedy. Mariannet became a poster girl for poverty. As it turned out, and as the psychotherapists later discovered, the reason the girl killed herself was not as simple as it appeared and poverty was not all...

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Mother Nature’s RP lawyer hailed

MANILA, Philippines—Environmental lawyer Antonio Oposa Jr., he of varied and risky advocacies for Mother Nature, is this year’s recipient of the Environmental Law Award (for 2008) from the US-based Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL). He is the first Asian and Filipino to win the award. Philippine Ambassador to the United Nations and former Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilario Davide was expected to attend the ceremonies to be held Tuesday (Wednesday, Manila time) in Washington, D.C. The award “recognizes individuals who have made...

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Happy

Wishing you a glorious, shimmering Easter. Stunned by God’s love, I, too, cry out, Rabboni! As the financial crisis creeps worldwide and economic depression touches people’s lives in the most personal way, the subject of happiness is frequently studied by experts, by psychologists, psychiatrists and sociologists mostly. What does it really take to make one happy? Early last year, just before the economic crunch badly crunched us all, there was much ado about new research findings that challenged the long-held Easterlin Paradox—that happiness does...

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On the street whey they live: From Paraiso to Paris

Philippine Daily Inquirer/Feature/by Ma. Ceres P. DoyoMANILA, Philippines – From the time they met some five years ago, Marvin Benosa and partner Pamela, both in their early 30s, have been living on the streets of Manila. They have been cohabiting, procreating, and raising their two children, one aged 3 years, the other, 10 months, in the outdoors. Namamasura (scavenging) is how Marvin describes his way of earning a living. Elizabeth Sanchez, 38,...

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From Paraiso to Paris

MANILA, Philippines – From the time they met some five years ago, Marvin Benosa and partner Pamela, both in their early 30s, have been living on the streets of Manila. They have been cohabiting, procreating, and raising their two children, one aged 3 years, the other, 10 months, in the outdoors. Namamasura (scavenging) is how Marvin describes his way of earning a living. Elizabeth Sanchez, 38, also lives on the street and sells cigarettes for a living. Last year, doctors at the Ospital ng Maynila discovered she had Stage 4 breast cancer and performed...

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Low carbon Holy Week

By Ma. Ceres P. Doyo Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 00:08:00 04/09/2009 IF WE feel drawn to contemplating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ this Holy Week, we might as well also contemplate the crucifixion of Mother Earth. But we must bear in mind that the high point of Christianity is not the crucifixion but the resurrection. The whole of creation, too, must rise in triumph. We cannot leave Earth to grovel and groan behind us. Theologian and ecologist Sean McDonagh who spent years in the Philippines wrote in his book “The Greening of the...

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A healing place called Nazareth

Sunday Inquirer Magazine/Feature/By Ma. Ceres P. Doyo “GOD is here.” The narrow, tree-lined road leads to the gate of the wooded place on which this sign is tacked. Indeed, it’s a special place, a hidden garden for body and spirit. But more than the place, it’s people who are special here. Here the wind whispers constantly through the leaves and into one’s soul. Mother Nature and human nature conspire to bring about newness and hope. The sun-drenched...

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We are not diminished

By Ma. Ceres P. Doyo Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 22:16:00 04/01/2009 Those who are planning to declare, or have already declared a fatwa on Chip Tsao, the Chinese columnist of HK Magazine who called the Philippines “a nation of servants” and several other very demeaning things, please rethink your move. His splattered blood and brains are not worth your effort. Thou shalt not kill. The guy just happens to have no class, no breeding. He could be a survivor of amniocentecis, melamine milk poisoning, or a horrible childhood. Have mercy....

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