MikeLigalig.com

For Sangay and other moderates, the over-arching goal is to secure political and cultural freedoms and autonomy in Tibetan areas of China.

He believes the new generation of Tibetans inside Tibet will be the "most important factor" in deciding its future.

Young Tibetans "have not seen the Dalai Lama, nor they have met with the exile administration," he said. "But their sense of belonging to Tibetan identity... is very strong."

http://www.msn.com/

He also welcomed Xi's recent comments about the importance of Buddhism in Chinese society, and said he was in informal talks about making a historic pilgrimage to a sacred mountain in China.

Barry Sautman, a Tibet expert at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said the Dalai Lama's praise for Xi was likely tactical.


Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi (R) speaks during a press conference to mark 25 years since the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel prize, at the Central Tibetan Administration in Dharamsala, on October 1, 2014 © AFP/File

Praise for Xi

Since then, the Dalai Lama has said he is "optimistic" about the current administration in Beijing, in what some see as a possible sign of a thaw in relations.

In an interview with AFP this week, he praised China's President Xi Jinping for cracking down on official corruption and seeking to introduce "proper rule of law".

"These things show he (Xi) is approaching these problems more realistically" than his predecessors, the Dalai Lama said.

"Given the economic growth of China... you can clearly see some countries, even European countries, have some hesitation in dealing with sensitive issues like Tibet," said Lobsang Sangay, who took over as head of the exiled Tibetan government in the Indian hill town of Dharamsala after the Dalai Lama retired from politics in 2011.

"Nonetheless, at the people's level, I think the interest for Tibet still remains."

Sangay called for more international help in June, when he renewed a push for the Dalai Lama's "Middle Way" path of peacefully advocating greater autonomy for Tibet.

The Dalai Lama himself accused South Africa of "bullying a simple person", using uncharacteristically undiplomatic language.

But South Africa is by no means alone in its reluctance to antagonise China, its largest trading partner.

Even Norway, one of the world's wealthiest countries and the home of the Nobel peace prize, snubbed the Dalai Lama when he visited earlier this year in what it called a "necessary sacrifice" to normalise its relations with China.

But, a quarter of a century later, some Western leaders are turning their backs on the Tibetan spiritual leader -- albeit often reluctantly -- under pressure from rising power China.

On Thursday, a summit of Nobel peace laureates due to be held in Cape Town later this month was cancelled after several pulled out in protest at the South African government's failure to give the Dalai Lama a visa.

The decision provoked an outburst of fury from fellow laureates including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who said he was "ashamed to call this lickspittle bunch my government".


On October 5th 1989, the Dalai Lama, the exiled religious and political leader of Tibet, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his nonviolent campaign to end the Chinese domination of Tibet.

Dalai Lama marks Nobel anniversary as Western support wanes

AFP
afp.com 05 October 2014

As the Dalai Lama marked his 25th year as a Nobel laureate this week, a row over South Africa's failure to grant him a visa underscored the huge challenge facing the movement he launched more than half a century ago.

The Tibetan spiritual leader was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1989, amid international condemnation of Beijing following a deadly crackdown on peaceful protesters in Tiananmen Square earlier that year.

The award catapulted the charismatic Buddhist monk into the global spotlight, and in the decade that followed he was courted by US presidents and Hollywood stars alike as he criss-crossed the world campaigning for greater autonomy in his homeland.

fast becoming a nervous wreck here.  (heaven forbid.)  eid al-adha (festival of the sacrifice) in this largely muslim country is being celebrated with the slaughter of thousands, yes, thousands, of cows on the streets. 

most foreigners of other religions leave this place or time their vacations during this festival period.  those who stay choose to remain indoors.  i am with the latter.  a planned december vacation at my home country is too near this time of year to waste money on an unplanned trip.  so here i am, with windows closed and curtains drawn.

i made the mistake of biking in the early morning during this same festival last year, says an american expat here.  what i saw was a b movie.  simply horrific, he adds.

myself, i had terrible nightmares last night.  descriptions of the scenes that i may witness have gotten into me.  i'll do my damnedest not to witness any.  never had being imprisoned felt so reassuring.

- very sad and scared 

i think the problem here is our focus on our differences where none should exist.  is that necessary?  did boholanos ever complain when cebuanos get hired in the hotel industry in bohol?  for that matter, did cebuanos ever complain that there are many boholanos working in cebu?  i can't believe it's leaders themselves who put emphasis on imagined differences.  sure, we may have different religions, but does that make us different when we're all filipinos?  now, really... 

marutoy gyod ning gagmay uy...

gai mig ikaunom bi...

the "sonnetized, classicized" version is masterly.  it also managed to take the essence of the original song.  great writing there, i must say.  salud!  bow.

sure na sure ko.  di lang catholics, okay? 

aaarrrggghhh!  insik, yes, insect, no.

they strike me more as incorporators of an IT company.

give us super lolo too!

Quote from: hubag bohol on September 28, 2014, 07:10:19 PM
A dying breed...

i beg your pardon?

Quote from: chicogon on September 22, 2014, 05:14:18 AM
Kahinumdom kos mga drama sa TB nga nidagayday na sa kangitngit sa kalimot hehehe

marami kasing drama kings and queens dito, hihihi.  ako po si drama princess.

...nga dedicated to his wan and onli lab, namely...

unsa man gyod intawon ang sala ni lolo uy?  dumot ba kaha ni? 

kadtong galingkod akong pilion, hands down.  poetic, classical, shakespearian, as in 'farting is such sweet sorrow...'

hihi, i kan hardli wit por da itutuloy ap dis laber boy protagonist in this story.  waiting, fr chic!

Quote from: hubag bohol on September 22, 2014, 06:27:38 PM
“The Chinese are used to spitting. We are used to snapping our fingers to get attention, or even yelling,” said Mr. Shi, the Chinese travel agency federation chief. “But if you do that with a French waiter, they will ignore you even more.”

hahaha!

Quote from: hubag bohol on September 22, 2014, 06:26:50 PM
“Whereas Japanese are reserved, polite and formal, the Chinese have a strong sense of national pride like the French, and they are not shy,” he said.

there it goes.  arrogance deserves another... (?)

just watch your manners, dear intsiks, plain and simple.  and do as the germans do; study well (read up, in other words) the place and the people before taking the trip.  that way your expectations would be more realistic.

aaarrrggghhh!  how could you, hubag, how could you?  who is the horrific criminal behind this horror? 

the eye is still round, as you can see with your eye (in whatever shape it's in).   

Tirana (Albania), 21/09/2014 - Pope Francis (R) waves to the faithful as he arrives for the Holy Mass in Tirana, Albania, 21 September 2014.  The photographs above him show Albanian priests who were killed during the former communist regime.  Pope Francis arrived in Albania for a one-day visit and was to address religious co-existence between the Catholic minority and Muslim majority in the former communist nation.  The Pope chose Albania for his first Europ0ean visit to honour the victims of 'a terrible atheistic regime' and show how Muslims and Christians can live peacefully side by side. (Papa) EFE/EPA/CIRO FUSCO/POOL

In Derven, some 20 kilometres away, it is a similar story. Muslims also helped Catholics rebuild their chapel which was destroyed in 1967 by the communists.

"My most important mission was to clean up a land contaminated with the venom of dictatorship and atheism," said father Carmine Leuzzi, looking back on those years.

The priest, sent to Albania from Italy's Bari, has been watching over 500 Catholic families in Derven for the past 18 years.

"On Sunday, we will all go together to Tirana for the Holy Father's mass, and I hope those who cannot go will be watching on television."

http://news.yahoo.com/

"The pope's visit is a reason for pride for all Albanians, regardless of their religion," said Malbardh's 42-year-old mayor Agim Lika.

"As a small country, with a tiny Catholic community, we are delighted to be chosen by the pope for his first visit in Europe."

Locals in Malbardh have long worked to keep their different communities close, and believe the Muslim majority owes protection to the minority Catholics.

"In our village, when someone gets married, according to tradition there must be witnesses from both faiths," said Hajdar, a former railroad worker with a cigarette poking out from under a nicotine-stained white moustache.

Here in Malbardh, Muslims make up around 90 percent of the village's 2,500 inhabitants, with the remaining 10 percent Catholic.

Nationwide, some 56 percent of the population of three million are Muslim. They are followed by Catholics who make up 15 percent, and Orthodox Christians who account for 11 percent.

Pope Francis, who pays a one-day visit to Albania on Sunday, chose it for his first European trip in a tribute to the peaceful coexistence of its Muslims, Orthodox and Catholics, who share power in a national unity government.

Muslims owe Catholics protection

To get to the church, visitors have to take an off-road car, donkey or pilgrim's stick up a steep, winding path high above the village.

Surrounded by his Muslim friends, Nikoll Gjini, a Catholic in his 60s, gestures proudly towards the new church, shaded by majestic oak trees.

"Without their help with building materials and construction work, we would have never been able to rebuild it," said the former chemical industry worker.

At the tiny church, a priest celebrates mass only on major holidays such as Christmas and Easter, but the "holy place" is vital for the small community.


The Muslim guard of the church of the village of Derven, Kujtim Balloku, walks in front of the church on September 19, 2014 (AFP Photo/Gent Shkullaku)

Nobody in the Muslim village of Malbardh, 60 kilometres (35 miles) north of Tirana, remembers exactly who built St Nicolas church or when. Already in a poor state when the communists took power, it was left to crumble to ruins.

But after the fall of the regime in 1992, Malbardh's Muslims took ecclesiastical authorities by surprise by asking together with their Catholic "brothers" for permission to rebuild the church on its foundations.

"They did not take us seriously. They thought we were trying to get noticed, but we wanted at all costs to rebuild this church," said Hajdar Lika, a sprightly 77-year-old Muslim.


A boy stands on September 19, 2014 at the door of the church of the village of Malbardh, some sixty kilometres (37 miles) north of Tirana, rebuilt by Muslim families (AFP Photo/Gent Shkullaku)

Albania's lesson in Muslim-Christian tolerance

AFP
By Briseida Mema and Calin Neacsu
September 20, 2014


People gather in front of the church of the village of Derven, Albania on September 19, 2014 (AFP Photo/Gent Shkullaku)

Malbardh (Albania) (AFP) - Perched up an Albanian mountain, the mediaeval church of St Nicolas was rebuilt from a crumbling ruin with help from local Muslims after the fall of communism, a symbol of the religious tolerance Pope Francis will be celebrating here on Sunday.

Majority Muslims and the tiny Catholic and Orthodox communities all faced persecution under the ruthless regime of Enver Hoxha, who in 1967 declared Albania the first atheist country in the world.

Countless churches and mosques were destroyed at the time -- as many as 1,820 Catholic and Orthodox places of worship according to the Vatican -- with scores of clergymen executed or dying in detention.

  what a sadist. fyi, he's a piglet jedi.  touch him and you'll smell worse than a pigsty, chuck.

i'm impressed.  but i'll be amazed when they start inventing eyes cubed.  yes, eyes as in mata nga naay kalimutaw, di eyes nga ice hielo.  ice cube is common, but eyes cube?  that would be the day.

As the country grows economically, it must recover its full fund of social capital by remembering, recording, and, ultimately, reconciling, McCoy adds. A society cannot grow without a sense of justice.

Hence the crucial role played by today’s prosecution of those behind the pork barrel scam, as underpinned by a President, Ombudsman and Commission on Audit, flawed by errors yet bearing impeccable credentials that buttress ongoing trials…

So, speak, memory.

(E-mail: juanlmercado@gmail.com)

http://opinion.inquirer.net/

So we recall, maybe compulsively, especially for those too young to remember. Many of us who were first brutalized are now coming to our life span’s end.

Impunity here has recast killers into politicians. Despite the veneer of a restored democracy, an ingrained institutional habit of human rights abuse hobbles the country still. Those who coddle Palparan and Co. seem emboldened by the crumbling of Vice President Jejomar Binay’s reputation, Mar Roxas’ paralysisâ€"and next-door Thailand’s rule by junta.

In September 1992, the US District Court in Honolulu ruled Ferdinand Marcos guilty of systematic torture. It held his estate liable for damages to all 9,541 victims and awarded nearly $2 billion in damages. It’s the biggest personal injury verdict in legal history. And in 2013, President Benigno Aquino III signed the Human Rights Reparation Act.

The trauma of Marcos’ terror remains deeply imbedded within society’s collective memory and institutional fabric. “The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory,” historian Milan Hubl cautions.

Has memory of “death from a thousand cuts” been smudged out? Is Sept. 21, 1972, beyond our capacity to remember? Most students today, surveys tell us, have the sketchiest notions of Marcos’ “unanimity of the graveyard.” The sense of stewardship, for nurturing restored freedoms is patchy.

Impunity is a little-understood process with far-reaching ramifications, the VI International Symposium on Torture at Buenos Aires noted. To cope with a traumatic past, South Africa created a nonpunitive Truth Commission. South Korea imposed harsh prison terms on former presidents. Argentina was forced to form a truth commission that produced the famed report “Nunca Mas” (Never Again).

Battered by coup attempts on her administration, President Corazon Aquino abandoned attempts to prosecute the military. President Fidel Ramos, “transformed impunity from a de facto to a de jure status.” In boozy till-dawn sessions, Joseph Estrada let the rot continue.

Impunity left what UP historian Maris Diokno called “an entrenched legacyâ€"a lingering collective malaise that, subtly but directly, shapes and distorts the nation’s political process.”

At the 5th CSU, one Lieutenant Aguinaldo (PMA ’72) worked with classmates Billy Bibit and Vic Batac (’71), beating victims together and forging bonds that later knitted into the Reform the Armed Forces Movement. At the MISG, it’s said, Colonel Abadilla, Robert Ortega and Lacson tortured together for over a decade, forming a tight faction that’d rise together within the police after Marcos’ downfall.

RAM colonels drilled in inflicting pain emerged in the late 1980s. Egged on by cashiered Juan Ponce Enrile, they launched six coup attempts. “No other military in the world launched so many coups with so little success.” They got away scot-free.

Freed from judicial review, the torturers of the Marcos era have continued to rise within the police and intelligence bureaucracies, allowing the pervasive brutality of martial law to persist.

The military was the fist of authoritarian rule. The 5th Constabulary Security Unit and Metrocom Intelligence and Security Group developed “a distinctive theatrical torture.”

Call it “social inversion,” McCoy suggests. Through psychological manipulation and sexual torture, young officers broke their social superiors, priests and professors. “They gained a sense that they’d remake the social order at will.”

Exhibit A is the Philippine Military Academy’s Class of 1971, including Lt. Panfilo Lacson, in elite antisubversive units. “Torture became duty, and officers spent years in a daily routine of terror. The experience became central to their socialization” and produced “an inflated belief in the efficacy of violence.” They morphed “from servants of the state into would-be masters.”

The Marcos regime’s 3,257 extrajudicial killings exceed the 2,115 extrajudicial deaths under Gen. Augusto Pinochet in Chile, University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Alfred McCoy told a conference on the legacies of the Marcos dictatorship at Ateneo de Manila University.

Here, 35,000 were tortured and over 70,000 imprisoned, McCoy adds in his paper “Dark Legacy.” Add 737 Filipino desaparecidos, or the disappeared, including Cebu Redemptorist priest Rudy Romano.

The Marcos regime intimidated by random displays of torture victimsâ€"becoming a theater state of terror. This had “a profound impact” upon the military (think Jovito Palparan) and society.

a fine read worth sharing with tblanders...


Viewpoint

‘Speak, Memory’

By Juan L. Mercado
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Saturday, September 20th, 2014

“Awakening of consciousness is a series of spaced splashes … until bright blocks of perception are formed … affording memory a slippery hold,” novelist Vladimir Nabokov wrote in his book “Speak, Memory.”

That aptly sums up the 42nd anniversary of the imposition of martial law tomorrow (Sunday). Creeping amnesia is blotting out memory.

Ferdinand Marcos’ heirs try to scrub blank a nation’s memory. “One of the best things that happened.” “Tayo ang nagligtas ng demokrasya,” insists Imelda Marcos, now 85. “We saved democracy.” Amnesia anchors Bongbong Marcos’ hinted run for the presidency in 2016.

makasabot ko sa trono ug sa close-in guards, pero asa man iyang korona?  umbrella as crown or scepter?

sukad nadakdak akong netbook sa sawog hinay na kaayo kong makaabli ug maka-post kay dagiton kanunay akong pila ka minutos ug "not responding".  aaarrrggghhh, bikogan man usa ko aron maka-post.  kaso, tubagbohol ra pod, di sa ubang website.  i wonder why.

our regal cat tuxe had died september 12.  he was 12 years old.

tuxe succumbed to a cat disease he'd been suffering for over a year.  he'd visited the vet so many times, including home service, that i can no longer remember the number of times.

we may feel empty without you, tuxe, but we wish you true happiness in cat heaven.

we will always remember you as that noisy and terrified kitten who went out of a rolled canvass cloth, thrown by a pedicab driver at our gate, unwanted, ugly.  but my husband picked you up, fast, before our dog could bite you.

then you grew up to be one of the most beautiful cats i've ever seen.  and you learned to listen to human conversations. or did you pretend to listen, wise tuxe, because you knew how crazy humans can be such that you entertained them by looking and concentrating on one who was talking at the moment?   

ave atque vale, tuxe.  hail and farewell, tuxe.

(sigh.  i am sad.)   

hey, donat angin mi.  siryus kong pagkatawo.  you are the hang, gaw!

agree.  i don't favor the death penalty, that's why. 

Quote from: hubag bohol on September 21, 2014, 01:24:31 PM
He he, di pa gani na love story...

in which case, palihog please paki, sumpaji tong love story balak sa lain nga thread as posted by fr chic.

sayang wa kahunahuna si ginang nga si ginong na lang unta iyang dung-agon.

i can assure you; any hanggaw sa tb is well worth a read.  puro lami, morag kinampay.

how classical naman is your tagawog, bai hubs.  balak nga kinasingkasing gajod.

hihihi, arang gajod.  sakto tingali ni kun gihimong diyos ang kwarta.  in which case, makakaon ra unyag tagam ugma damlag.

hello, vistabel.

pleeeaaase!  and sumpay, fr chic!!!

inosente god tatot.  medyo hanggaw ni si ondoy da.

nosebleed.  mahala sad nang imong gipangnganlan uy.  palit na lang ug portable electric generator uy.  gawas hinoon kun ang imong gamiton kanang mga fake nga swarovski crystals made in china nga gihimong borloloy.

aw, no question.  glad you like to drink ihi.

i find that sign charming.  where else can you find crazy pipes?  but this one in china must be terrible to do business with...

aswang ba nimo uy.  tubaga ko sa akong mga pangutana, ajaw ko tagaeg alternative.

sayang di ko makakita sa ubang images.  favorite gyod nako ang ubi, both the lagutmon and the color.

cool.  but must it be only mountain dew?  what about 7-up, or lem-o-lime?  should it be a glass bottle or plastic bottle?

Cats are smarter than dogs. You can't get eight cats to pull a sled through snow. (Jeff Valdez)

Of all animals, the cat alone attains to the comtemplative life. He regards the wheel of existence from without, like the Buddha.(Andrew Lang)

I believe cats to be spirits come to earth. A cat, I am sure, could walk on a cloud without coming through. (Jules Verne)

There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats. (Albert Schweitzer)

Thousands of years ago, cats were worshipped as gods. Cats have never forgotten this. (Anonymous)

Dogs believe they are human. Cats believe they are God. (Anonymous)

The smallest feline is a masterpiece. (Leonardo da Vinci)

I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul. (Jean Cocteau)

from collette:

There are no ordinary cats. (Colette)

Time spent with cats is never wasted. (Colette)



By associating with the cat, one only risks becoming richer. (Colette)

from stephen baker:

Most beds sleep up to six cats. Ten cats without the owner. (Stephen Baker)

Kittens are born with their eyes shut. They open them in about six days, take a look around, then close them again for the better part of their lives. (Stephen Baker)



Cats' hearing apparatus is built to allow the human voice to easily go in one ear and out the other. (Stephen Baker)

from ernest hemingway:

One cat just leads to another. (Ernest Hemingway)



A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not. (Ernest Hemingway)

from mark twain:


Of all God's creatures there is only one that cannot be made the slave of the leash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with a cat it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat. (Mark Twain)



If animals could speak the dog would be a a blundering outspoken fellow, but the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much. (Mark Twain)

Dogs have owners, cats have staff. (Unknown)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmrqQHi_VQ4#ws

...and tidy up the table after.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0GPQ5NentI#

does this also hold true with hair dryers?

Quote from: hubag bohol on August 28, 2014, 02:21:00 PM

look at her.  cutie, cutie, cute, isn't she?  she's certainly a british girl, right?

a great guide.  thanks, mol!

Ray Rice: Why Janay Rice Forgave Him â€" Expert Speaks

The experts are weighing in on why Janay decided to forgive Ray after this scary and abusive incident. Rebecca Donley from The Domestic Abuse Hotline told HollywoodLife.com exclusively why she believes Janay is coming to Ray’s defense.

“Every situation is different. We have just seen this one piece of their relationship and it is very likely that she really does care for this person, she is married to him, and she wants things to work out. Abuse is very complicated, there is no simple answer,” she said. “The thing is that when someone is in an abusive relationship with someone, they are using a lot of forms of manipulation, trying to drag them down, saying hurtful things, we don’t know what was going on behind the scenes, we just know what was one the video. There might be a lot of other things, financial abuse, emotional and verbal abuse as well as fear of leaving the abusive relationship.”

more at http://hollywoodlife.com/2014/09/09/janay-ray-rice-still-married-wife-elevator-beating/

warning: disturbing graphic video of domestic violence

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbwTMJroTbI#ws

On March 27, 2014, a grand jury indicted Rice on third-degree aggravated assault, with a possible jail sentence of three to five years and a fine of up to $15,000. Rice married Palmer on March 28, 2014. For the incident, Rice was suspended for the first two games of the 2014 NFL season on July 25, 2014. The criminal charges were later dropped after Rice agreed to undergo court-supervised counseling. In a news conference announcing longer suspension lengths for future domestic violence incidents, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said that he "didn't get it right" in deciding Rice's punishment.

On September 8, 2014, TMZ released additional footage from an elevator camera showing Rice punching Palmer. The Baltimore Ravens terminated Rice's contract as a result. Shortly afterward, Goodell announced that Rice had been suspended from the NFL indefinitely. (wikipedia)

Assault

On February 15, 2014, Rice and his fiancée Janay Palmer were arrested and charged with assault after a physical altercation at Revel Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Celebrity news website TMZ posted a video of Rice dragging Palmer's body out of an elevator after apparently knocking her out. The Ravens issued a statement following TMZ's release of the video, calling Rice's domestic violence arrest a "serious matter". The matter is being handled by the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office.

Raymell Mourice "Ray" Rice (born January 22, 1987) is a professional American football running back who is indefinitely suspended from play by the National Football League. (wikipedia)

the moment when two dogs imitate a baby learning how to crawl...

okay, okay.  pretty soon there could be some breaking news declaring that british girls are actually not girls but cats.

i'm almost tempted to believe that the research veers on misogyny.

wa lay bintana ang unang hulagway.

hehehe.  ayawg salig.  pagduol nimo ana, diretso sipa de ninja ang imong matilawan ana.

AMO: Inday, gitrapohan na nimo ang keyboard sa PC?

INDAY : Ay! Di lang gitrapohan, gi-arrange pa nako alphabetically.  Wa man gud nagsunod.

ooops.  you mean too early?

what a well thought-out speech.

Quote from: hubag bohol on September 06, 2014, 01:50:12 PM
Gawas niini, nagbilin sab og suicide note ang biktima mao nga gisalindot sa kapulisan nga dunay foul play.

wa ko ka-gets.  foul play kay nagbilin ug suicide note?

obvious.  kitty, when you grow up, please avoid alcoholic drinks.

red stones, toy, red stones.  di pa tantong daot akong mata.

i will cry... racial discrimination!

di pod.  obyus ra kaayo na sa ato nga ang mga hired guns di magpaila sa ilang nawong.

unsa god ni...

viva, icelander!  this must tame the volcano there...