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Earthquake: Ang Pagdako sa Tubig sa Balamban, Cebu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHy4BeopFiw#ws
Dinaganay sa University of Cebu UC Pero Ang Uban Gabayhon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWfdGOAvCNM#
Earthquake Damage in Negros Oriental

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMjChFE0q5U#
Iloilo Earthquake

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjeghJy_SzQ#
Cebu Earthquake Leaves Streets in Pandemonium

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Co09ikiNmzo#ws
Tsunami Fear Grips Cebu City

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1Xw3xNAhvI#
Negros Oriental Hurt by Earthquake

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJpvBoAPyjA#
Dagan Cebu

President Benigno S. Aquino lll's Speech during the Eucharistic Celebration and other religious services on the eve of the 25th Anniversary of EDSA People Power Revolution
EDSA Shrine, EDSA Corner Origas Avenue, Mandaluyong City
24 Feb 2011

Bishop Bernardino Cortez, Auxiliary Bishop of Manila; other members of the clergy; Senator Drilon; our Cabinet members; commissioners and officials of the EDSA People Power Commission; fellow workers in government; honored guests; mga minamahal ko pong kababayan: Magandang gabi na po.

It has been twenty-five years since EDSA, twenty-five years since our people poured into the streets to achieve the unthinkable: the end of a violent regime through non-violent means.

It is only appropriate that this milestone is commemorated here in this shrine. The images of EDSA, after all, cannot be divorced from the images of the church. Look at the pictures of EDSA -- they show nuns, priests, rosaries, and people carrying statues of the Virgin Mary on their shoulders. This is because EDSA was not merely a political act; it was also an act of faith. And it was this faith that somehow helped keep EDSA from turning violent.

It is interesting to note that our celebration of 25 years of EDSA today coincides with the wave of democracy now sweeping parts of the Arab world. Even by just watching on TV, the emotion in Egypt and Tunisia was so palpable that it brought back memories of our own experience in 1986. While ours was less violent, the similarities between EDSA and Tahrir (takhreer) Square are uncanny. This shows that the human passion and thirst for freedom is so universal that no autocratic regime anywhere in the world could succeed in its attempt to stay in power forever.

It would seem that 25 years after the restoration of democracy through EDSA, this country should be well on its way towards making democracy truly felt by the people -- through a better economy that produces quality jobs and services.

We, unfortunately, are not quite there yet. The past 25 years have been marked with significant gains, followed, sadly, by backsliding. We would sometimes take two steps forward, then one step backward. This is what our government today is confronting: the challenge of making progress irreversible and growth equitable and felt by every Filipino. Only then can we say that the democracy we fought so hard for really works.

The good news is, we are getting there. We passed a national budget on time for the first time in the 11 years. We have put an end to excessive bonuses at government-owned-and-controlled corporations, to remind them that they are there to serve the people and not themselves. We have ordered some of the most comprehensive restrictions on commercial logging, not to hurt the industry but to protect our environment for the sake of future generations. This year alone, we are building new irrigation and rehabilitating silted irrigation systems for our farms, so we can produce an additional 1.56 million metric tons of palay per year.

Moreover, we are fighting corruption not only in the Armed Forces by seeking to stop an unjust plea bargain between the Ombudsman and General Carlos Garcia. But beyond that, we are allocating to the AFP resources to benefit ordinary soldiers as well as the PNP. This year, we will build 20,000 housing units for our soldiers and policemen, and providing it to them at very low prices, very much lower than what they are currently paying to rent dwellings that they do not own.

This good news does not always make it to the headlines but it is happening and we are committed to achieving more in the coming years. If there is one key lesson from EDSA that I would like to impart to all of you, it is that the democratic struggle should go beyond a single event. People Power did not end at EDSA. The work goes on toward building a more fair and equitable society.

To fulfill the promise of EDSA, we have programs to ensure that the most needy among us are not left behind. Conditional Cash Transfers will keep poor children in school so they can have a better future. More schools and public health centers will help keep them healthy as they acquire the skills to earn a decent living. All of these and more are being done not so much for ourselves but for our children and our grandchildren.

Those who were spared the misfortune that was martial law must now be the beneficiaries of our hard-fought democracy. I would like to think that this celebration is for them, the young people. After all, this is what EDSA was really for.

Remember our faith teaches us, we will be asked: What did you do to the least of our brethren? At EDSA, we stood side by side with complete strangers with full confidence in them that they were with us in trying to transform our society. That is the key. That is what we have to do to get our country truly transformed.

Thank you. Good evening.

ILOILO CITY, Feb. 7 (PNA) -â€" The city government here is reminding drivers and traffic implementers that the elderly, pregnant women, and persons with disabilities (PWDs) are allowed to take vehicles and disembark in any portion of city streets.

Jeffrey Celiz, political liaison officer and spokesperson of Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog, said the local chief executive has already instructed Engr. Joe Tengco, the action officer of the Transportation Management and Traffic Regulation Office (TMTRO) to remind every traffic enforcer that the city gives due consideration to the said sectors under the loading/unloading ordinance.

Celiz said Mabilog has ordered that a copy of the ordinance that provides the loading/unloading exemption be distributed to the offices at the city hall for information dissemination.

by PNA

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will head the transitional government, according to an agreement signed in Qatar's capital Doha on Monday, Xinhua reported.

Rival Hamas and Fatah signed the agreement to form a unified transitional government for the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with Abbas as prime minister.

The new government is expected to be formed within the next few weeks, the pan-Arab TV channel al-Jazeera reported Monday.

It is not immediately clear whether current Prime Minister Salam Fayyad would join the upcoming transitional government.

On Sunday, an official from Abbas' Fatah party said Palestinian rivals had accepted a Qatari proposal that Abbas should lead the interim government to end the chronic split.

The United States will do everything it can "to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and creating an arms race, a nuclear arms race, in a volatile region," President Barack Obama told CNN in an interview Sunday.

Head of the Administration said it intends to seek settlement of the Iranian nuclear issue through diplomatic means, but it did not rule out any options.

Commenting on Israel's intention to strike at the Iranian nuclear facilities, Obama suggested that a decision on this matter is still pending.

However, he said the Israelis have every reason to worry.

"I think they, like us, believe that Iran has to stand down on its nuclear weapons program," said the American leader.

"Until they do, I think Israel righly is going to be very concerned, and we are as well."

He stressed the United States and Israel will act together on this issue.

Earlier, American media leaked information quoting the Pentagon chief Leon Panetta saying that Israeli strike on the Iranian nuclear facilities was very likely to take place "in April, May or June." - by PNA

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by PNA

Japan and the United States have agreed to move 4,700 Marines in Japan's Okinawa to the U.S. territory of Guam, local media reported on Sunday.

The two countries agreed in 2006 to transfer some 8,000 Marines to Guam and also move the U.S. Marines' Futenma airbase in Okinawa to less crowded Henoko, which is also on the Japanese island.

But the implementation of the planned roadmap has been delayed because successive Japanese governments have not yet win over the residents on the island for the acceptation of the deal.

Japan and the United States have already agreed to separate the planned transfer of Okinawa-based Marines to Guam from the issue of relocating the Futenma base by moving 4,700 of the roughly 8, 000 Marines in Okinawa to the U.S. territory in the Pacific without waiting for the relocation of the base, Kyodo News reported.

by PNa

As many as 16 people, including children, were killed Sunday in separate attacks carried out by alleged "armed terrorist groups" across Syria, state-run SANA news agency reported.

Two children were killed when an explosive device planted by "terrorists" went off behind a high school in eastern al-Boukamal area, said SANA, adding that their father and a brother were injured by the blast.

In the southern Daraa province, two law-enforcement members were ambushed and killed by unidentified gunmen when they were driving to work.

In the northern Idlib province, a suicide bomber driving a car blew up at a law-enforcement force's checkpoint, killing one law- enforcement member and injuring five others.

Meanwhile, an armed group attacked a family in the central Homs province, killing eight of its members, said SANA, adding that the armed forces intervened and clashed with the group, killing all of its members.

Conclusion: Roy Becomes a Christian!!!

By the time Roy and I had worked through all of this, including questions and reading through the passages, I knew it was his day of salvation. At this critical juncture in the conversation, the Spirit seems to lead us at times to pray right then with the person if the person is ready to do so, or to recommend that the person takes some time that day to think about it further and pray to God in private. I sensed the Spirit leading me to encourage Roy to take what we had just spoken about, pray about it and think about it that afternoon, and then to seize the opportunity to invite the Spirit of God to come and live inside Him to make him a Christian. Then I asked him to tell his Christian friend in the lab, and call me, as soon as he invited the Spirit of God to come within him. Roy promised me he would.

The next morning I received a sweet phone call. Roy had taken some time to reflect privately. That very Tuesday night he prayed to invite the Spirit of God to come and live inside him!!! Both his friend in the lab and I were overjoyed, and about ten days later the three of us stood together in the cold Pacific ocean in Santa Cruz. We baptized Roy physically as a symbol of the baptism in the Spirit he experienced that Tuesday night!!! What a joy it is to watch a person born into the family of God by the Spirit, to witness their transformation from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light!!! That is the gospel of God at work in our day!!!

Romans 8: God's Greatest News: THE INDWELLING SPIRIT IS THE KEY

Romans 8:1-4; Romans 8:14-17; Romans 8:26-39

In Romans 8:1-4, Paul finally puts the terrible plague of sin to rest. He summarizes in these four verses what he has taken all of chapters 1-7 to communicate:

    "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit."

This is where Paul shifts his emphasis in Romans 1-8 away from sin and onto the Spirit. This is one of the most profound and fundamental shifts every Christian must make in order to grow in maturity in the Spirit: to quit focusing on sin and the overcoming of sin in our lives and start focusing on the Spirit, living in relationship with Him, coming to rely on His power, resting in His adequacy. This is where I told Roy that the Christian life is not a wearisome and neverending battle against sinful urges, but it is a remarkable relationship with the God living within. The focus of being a Christian is on God, not on sin; the heart of Christianity is walking with the Spirit through every event of life, not just looking to have victory over sin that day. This is what Christianity is about: a relationship, not a rule; a life, not an ethic; a joyous marriage of intimacy, not a burdensome battle against sin.

This glorious relationship is defined by the indwelling Spirit, who is called a "Spirit of adoption as adult sons," whereby we are accepted forever into the inner circle of God's family to enjoy fellowship with Him around His table. Paul tells us this in Romans 8:14-17:

    "For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, 'Abba! Father!' The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him."

Thus, we are accepted as adult sons in God's inner family circle. This enables us to call God our Father using a common term of endearment. And our eternal security in the indwelling Spirit is clearly seen in these verses: the Spirit defines us as Christians, and He witnesses within our spirits that we are indeed children of God. Once a child of God as verified by the indwelling Spirit, always a child of God through the indwelling Spirit!!

But Paul doesn't shrink from telling us that this life will not only be about a glorious relationship with God through the Spirit, it will also be attended by suffering. Suffering is an unavoidable reality in the life of the Christian, and we cannot share the gospel of God without telling the prospective believer that suffering will come as surely as night follows day.

But there is a deeper truth beyond the suffering, and it is this truth that enables us to withstand suffering and endure it: that through it all, GOD IS FOR US!! The Spirit of God within us intercedes FOR US from within us; the glorified Son, our legal advocate in the courtroom of heaven, stands at the right hand of the Father and intercedes FOR US; and God the Father is FOR US!! If God be for us, who can stand against us? It is on these notes of great joy and victory that Paul concludes his explanation of the gospel of God in Romans 8:26-39:

    "And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren; and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, 'For Thy sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.' But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Amen and Amen!!

Romans 6,7: God's Great News: A Christian's IDENTITY IS CHANGED!!

Romans 6:1-11; Romans 7:14-25

One of the crucial questions in Roy's mind, and in the minds of most people seriously contemplating becoming a Christian, is this: what will happen to me if I become a Christian? What changes are in store for me?

Greater changes than any of us can ever imagine at the point of conversion. I am convinced that the change in identity, relationship with God, and eternal destiny that occurs in an instant at the point of conversion is a reality that takes us the rest of our lives even to begin to fathom. The change is so great that Paul uses the language of life and death, the starkest contrast on the human horizon, to depict the change in Romans 6:1-11:

    "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus."

Thus, our new identity is that we are Christians, we are "in Christ Jesus." We have been crucified with Him and raised with Him, mysteriously dying to sin with Him and raised to life with Him. He is in us by the Spirit, and we are in Him through the Spirit. The most simple way to say this is the 5-word statement: JESUS CHRIST IS MY LIFE. Paul said the same simple truth a slightly different way in Philippians: "for me to live is Christ." We change from a "me" to an "us," entering an eternal relationship of oneness with Jesus Christ that is like an eternal marriage. Our identity is changed forever.

But a curious dual-reality also accompanies this change in identity. Sin's power over us is broken, but its influence remains strong. We live in newness of life by the Spirit, but residual sin still afflicts us. This is the painful reality of the Christian life, which Paul portrays for us in all its torturous difficulty in Romans 7:14-25:

    "For we know that the Law is spiritual; but I am of flesh, sold under sin. For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not wish to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that it is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which indwells me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. for the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish. But if I do the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I MYSELF with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin."

The great news Paul perceives at the end of this tortured journey is the fundamental new identity in the Christian; it is WHO THE CHRISTIAN REALLY IS!! It is what Paul calls "I Myself," the one who serves the law of God. That is what defines Paul now, not the sin that before enslaved him and defined him as a "sinner." Thus, the glory of becoming a Christian is that you not only find God through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, you find yourself as well. We have a new and eternal identity, separated in the here and now from sin. What great news!!

This news then propelled Roy and me forward into the greatest news of the great news, found in Romans 8: the news about the indwelling Spirit!! We have heard about the plague of indwelling sin, and we recognize that indwelling sin still afflicts us even now as Christians. But over and against the scourge of indwelling sin is the glory of the indwelling Spirit of God. To Paul, this is the key to Christianity, this is the greatest news of all!! Let's explore this greatest news in Romans 8:1-4; 8:14-17; and 8:26-39.

Romans 3-5: God's Great Solution: THE CROSS OF CHRIST

Romans 3:21-26, 4:22-25, 5:6-10

God's solution to the problem is scandalous and glorious, unthinkable yet its logic is inescapable, an object of terrible pain and greater beauty. God's solution was a brutal sacrifice on the most painful machinery of death ever devised by man. It was a death by slow torture, death by agonizing and prolonged suffocation. It was a humiliating death of public nakedness. It was the cross. And it was God the Father who put God the Son on that cross, that we might be saved. It was the chosen self-sacrifice of God that was God's solution to humanity's greatest problem. He could have left us alone with our problem, but He became one of us to solve our problem, because He loved us. At the center point of history it casts its shadow on all that happened before and all that has happened since. The axis around which the Bible, Romans 1-8, and human experience revolves is the old rugged cross. God's great solution is the cross of Christ.

Paul introduces this grand solution at the darkest point of Romans 1-8, after Paul's withering depiction of all humanity under sin in Romans 3:9-20. He introduced the cross in Romans 3:21-26:

    "But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as an atoning sacrifice in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."

The central role of faith in the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ is reiterated by Paul in Romans 4:22-25:

    "Therefore also it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Now not for his sake only was it written, that it was reckoned to him, but for our sake also, to whom it will be reckoned, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, He who was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification."

The salvation of the sinner at the foot of the cross of Christ is illuminated by Paul in Romans 5:6-11:

    "For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life."

As Roy and I went through all these things, he started to catch a glimpse of the grandeur of the cross of Christ. He saw very clearly that salvation for the sinner can be found only at the cross of Christ, which was the supreme expression of God's love in history. The cross of Christ is God's way of salvation for humanity, and it is the only way by which a sinner can be reconciled to God.

This is the essential news of Christianity: that the terrible problem of indwelling sin can be solved by faith in the cross and resurrection of Christ. The logic to this argument is this: 1) A person born in sin and thus tainted by sin has no moral authority to judge another and forgive sin -- we cannot heal ourselves; 2) Only God, perfect in morality and sitting in judgment over the world, can forgive sin; 3) God's method of providing forgiveness for sin is always through a blood sacrifice, where the lifeblood of an innocent was shed to cover the sin of the guilty, starting with Passover and continuing in Leviticus with the laws of atonement; 4) An atoning sacrifice thus had to be provided for a person's sin to be forgiven by God; 5) In an act of pure grace, God provided Himself as the ultimate atoning sacrifice, a perfect and final substitution of a sinless Christ for a sinful humanity; 6) God accepted that sacrifice of atonement at the resurrection; 7) Any human being can accept God's forgiveness for sin through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

This is the incontrovertible logic of salvation as put forth by Paul in Romans 1-5. It makes the cross of Christ the only means of salvation for humanity. There is no other. Many in our politically correct world today would rise up and tell us that there are many ways to God. But this simply is not true. There is no door to God for a sinful man or woman to enter unless the terrible padlock of sin is removed. And GOD'S way of transcending sin is only by faith in the forgiveness offered by God at the cross of Christ. MAN's speculations about "many paths to God" are only the empty hopes of sinful men and women who do not wish to humble themselves before God, ask for forgiveness, and change their moral lifestyle.

Thus, the cross of Christ is both the scandal and the glory of Christianity. It is a sign of abject humility that its detractors try to transform into a symbol of arrogance. It is a sublime gift of God's own self, His ultimate grace, to die the worst death imaginable. What more could God give? What can man or woman possibly add to this inescapable logic of salvation? Only God can forgive sin, and He has forgiven it at the cross of Christ. All we must do is accept that sacrifice by faith, and receive His forgiveness for ourselves. There is no other way to find forgiveness, liberation, and peace.

At this point in the conversation, Roy was profoundly moved by the cross of Christ. As well he should be, because Paul immediately talks of the profound changes effected in the life of the believer once he has accepted the atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Those changes are depicted in Romans 6:1-11 and Romans 7:14-25.

Romans 1-3: Humanity's Great Problem: INDWELLING SIN

Romans 1:18-20; Romans 3:9-20; Romans 3:23

Once Roy's eyes were opened to consider what a true Christian is from Rom. 8:9, and I spoke of how the Spirit comes in by invitation only, I told Roy that we had to face some very bad news. Often we have to face the bad news before we are ready to hear the good news. This bad news can be condensed into one word: SIN. It is the chief subject introduced in Rom. 1:18-20:

    "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse."

It is summarized in Rom. 3:9-20:

    "What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written, 'There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one. Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving, the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin."

And it is synthesized in Rom. 3:23:

    "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God ..."

As I took Roy through these passages, which converge to the synthesis of the universality of sin in Rom. 3:23, it seemed obvious to both Roy and me that we needed to have a clear definition of sin. Sin, I told him, is this: an all-pervasive sickness of the heart, characterized by an intense need to assert our own self-sufficiency; a plague of self-centeredness that infects every part of the body from head to toe and back again as we see in the physiological imagery of Rom. 3:9-20. Sin makes us say to God in a thousand ways: "I DON'T NEED YOU!" We can communicate this overtly when in open rebellion against Him, and we can utter it covertly and piously when we try to take control of our lives through legalism, rules or formulae when we are believers. Sin is a sickness unto death, a selfishness which is so common to us we are almost completely unable to identify it. It has been the scourge of humanity since it was introduced into the human river at the source by Adam in the garden.

Roy and I spoke further of the slick nature of sin. The most insidious aspect of sin is its banal commonality. It is so commonplace we have accepted it as normal. This is just "being human," after all. Consequently, the term "sin" has fallen out of vogue. Many would argue that there is no such thing as sin, just unfortunate choices made by inherently good people. But the twisting and infernal effects of sin on humanity are more clearly reported in the annals of the twentieth century than in any preceding century. Who would argue that humanity is without sin when standing in the shadow of the ovens at Auschwitz? Who would dare talk about "inherently good people" while reading about the Stalinist purges in the former Soviet Union? Who could foolishly deny sin and the existence of evil in the world when digging up the skulls in the killing fields of Cambodia? And who would argue about the insidious and crafty effect of sin on our own supposedly "civilized" nation that has shamelessly aborted over 30 million innocent babies over the past thirty years? In the gnawing chaos of the modern world, it floors me that people steadfastly refuse to admit the reality of indwelling sin.

But to those who are still trying to cling to the sinking ship of an "inherently good humanity," J. I. Packer offers a good definition of sin to make them pause as well. He has this to say about indwelling sin, or the depravity of man: "Not that in every point man is as bad as he could be, but that in every point man is not as good as he should be." Who would disagree with this postulation?

It is most essential that any person seeking to become a Christian be confronted with the stark reality of sin first. If we do not have an understanding of the terribly bad news of sin, then the great news of salvation falls flat. Without stepping into the darkness and feeling its cold and clammy grasp, the rising sun will seem to carry only cold comfort. Without understanding the magnitude of the problem of sin, the cross of Christ seems like a strange rite of sacrifice imposed on an innocent Man by a capricious God. But when we stop to consider our sin, when we rise up to understand its insidious and all-pervasive influence in our lives, then we begin to taste our need for salvation. Then our theology of the "depravity of man" ceases to be an intellectual discussion and we encounter the "depravity of ME." When I have to face the depravity of me, I find myself in a place of dire need, a man sickened by a plague that poisons me from head to toe. I need a doctor, and I need Him now.

Thankfully, Roy did not question the reality of sin. As I said before, he is one of the smartest men I know. He had by the time we spoke together considered not just the depravity of man, but his own "depravity of me." But admitting the reality of sin, and even beginning to fathom the depths of its horrible effects on me myself, immediately begs a question: If humanity's greatest problem is indwelling sin, what is the solution to the problem? Paul gives us God's mysterious solution to this problem in Rom. 3:21-26, 4:22-25, and Romans 5:6-10.

Starting with the Definition of the Christian

So, let's return to Roy's question: "How can I become a Christian?" I turned to Roy and said, "Roy, if you want to become a Christian, we better start with the definition of what a Christian is." Roy agreed that this was the most logical way to begin. Then I said, "Let me give you a Biblical definition of what a Christian is, because there are so many misconceptions swirling around about who Christians are and what Christianity is. This is not my own definition, but the definition first expressed by the Apostle Paul in his magnum opus, the Epistle to the Romans. Here is Paul's definition of the Christian, found in Romans 8:9:"

    "However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him."

"Thus, A CHRISTIAN IS ONE IN WHOM THE SPIRIT OF GOD LIVES, BY INVITATION. Paul is saying here that humanity basically fits into two categories from God's perspective: those who are "in the flesh," i.e. those who are human beings born of the flesh but not indwelled by God, and those "in the Spirit," i.e. those who are human beings born of the flesh but indwelled by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God is thus the key to becoming and being a Christian. Without Him living within, a person cannot be a Christian. The indwelling Spirit is the necessary and sufficient condition of being a Christian.

"This means that the Christian has a rich spiritual life by the union of the Holy Spirit with their human spirit. Christianity becomes a marriage of oneness between the indwelling Holy Spirit and our spirit. This means the Christian is a Christian based on a profound relationship, a relationship of incredible intimacy where God is with us and in us every moment of every day, wherever we find ourselves: in bed, at our desk at work, standing in line at WalMart, eating a meal, even in the bathroom. This also means that being a Christian is a profoundly internal change of the human heart through this new spiritual oneness with the indwelling Holy Spirit, not just some set of religious rules you sign up to follow."

Roy was taken aback by this definition, but I can still remember that blazing fire in his blue eyes as he considered this for the first time. As I have subsequently found with every person with whom I share Christ in this way, he had never heard nor even imagined that this was the definition of a Christian. The elegance of this definition compelled him immediately.

It also started the conversation right where Roy was at the moment he stepped into my office. When a person is honestly considering what is means to become a Christian, he or she will already have a conception of what a Christian is. But because they are asking questions, they are clearly in search of a more complete answer. By starting with the definition of a Christian, we are starting from where the person is at that moment, addressing the immediate need the person has, and doing so with complete philosophical and personal integrity. Any honest and open dialogue starts with the process of defining the key terms.

The genius in sharing our faith this way is that it allows the Christian to make the Biblical definition of a Christian the starting point of the conversation. In one fell swoop, we have obliterated many of the basic objections a person has about becoming a Christian, simply because they have misunderstood what a Christian is. Because this definition is both so compelling and so radical, it allows the conversation to proceed down a Biblical path. It also helps us to clarify for ourselves exactly what a Christian is, so we can begin the conversation being clear in our own minds. This is far preferable to allowing the conversation to be determined by the questions, doubts and rabbit trails in the mind of the person seeking information. Not that those questions or concerns are invalid ... but it is better to frame the conversation with Biblical definitions and concepts.

Let's reflect further on the enormity of this definition, and why it is such a good starting point for communicating the gospel of God. What keeps most people from becoming a Christian in the first place is a general misconception of what a Christian is. Some fall into a trap of categorizing a Christian in sociological terms: a person is considered a Christian because he lives in a place or in a country considered historically "Christian," rather than a country considered historically "Muslim" or "Atheist" or "Animist." For example, this misconception gives birth to the false notion that "Of course I'm Christian ... I'm Texan," as I have heard some people say down in my ancestral home state. This defines someone as Christian purely on the basis of external, statistic analyses of large populations, not based on the state of the individual person's heart.

Another false definition of a Christian falls into the category of "I am Christian because I do Christian things." These "Christian things" might include going to church every Sunday, trying to follow the Golden Rule and the Ten Commandments, giving a tithe to a local church, teaching Sunday School, having a half-hour daily "quiet time" of Bible reading and prayer, etc. This gives birth to the false notion that I am defined by the "Christian" things I do. Again, the focus here is on externals, outward activities accomplished, rather than on the state of the person's heart. But Christianity is more about "being" than it is about "doing," at least at the point of the definition of a Christian. And if the definition is right, the "being" will lead to much fruitful "doing" over time.

The tragedy of this errant definition is that being a Christian is synthesized to an ethic only, a rule of behavior. But being a Christian is far more about a relationship than about a rule. It is not an ethic to follow, it is a life to live. It is not a set of rules to try to live up to, but a profound relationship to enter into. It is more like a marriage than a marriage certificate.

So, having considered some of the misconceptions arising from false definitions, let me recap: Paul tells us in Romans 8:9, "However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him." Thus, A CHRISTIAN IS A PERSON IN WHOM THE HOLY SPIRIT LIVES BY INVITATION.

Those last two words are crucial: BY INVITATION! The Spirit of God does not live in a person from birth. Every boy and girl baby since the days of Adam and Eve has not been born with the indwelling Spirit, but with indwelling sin. This is an iron rule, with only One notable exception. Sin has been the great problem of humanity since the dawn of time, and this problem has to be addressed with total honesty and integrity as the next step of sharing our faith.

GOD'S GREAT NEWS --
How to Share the Gospel of God (Romans 1-8)

by Dorman Followwill

Roy

I want to begin with a story about one of the smartest men I have ever known. He was a graduate student in Geology at Stanford, a clear-thinking Canadian by birth, and a confirmed atheist. He was a scientist, a zealous disciple of the philosophical naturalism which pervades the academy. He was living with his girlfriend, and the research he was undertaking would make him a world authority in one particular area of hydrology. He epitomized what the world conceives as the highest form of evolved humanity: young, good looking, extremely intelligent, ambitious, sexually liberated, feeling no need for God. His name was Roy.

But while Roy may have felt no need for God, God felt a need for Roy. God strategically placed Roy in a graduate laboratory with a strong Christian man who befriended Roy, listened to him, discussed life and philosophy with him, lifted weights and ran stadium stairs with him, and generally loved him in a thousand everyday ways. Roy was particularly drawn to the quality of marriage relationship this Christian man had with his wife. Ever so slightly, Roy started to become interested in this man's Christian faith.

This process resulted in Roy attending his first ever Christian service on Easter Sunday in 1992. He came to the Easter Sunrise Service at Stanford, an outdoor celebration of resurrection life. There he heard the gospel of God preached for the first time. Just the other day I found his response card filled out that morning, stating that he had attended the meeting and wanted some more information.

But these things take time. Another year went by, during which Roy's friendship with this Christian man deepened on all levels. They spoke much more frankly about each objection that inhibited Roy from becoming a Christian. By the Easter Sunrise Service in 1993, many of us were expecting Roy to become a Christian. But more time was needed, as his final questions were being resolved.

Finally, in the summer of 1993, on a Tuesday afternoon, Roy called me at my office and said he wanted to see me. He came into my office, and proceeded to ask me the golden question of questions: "How can I become a Christian?" This was the crucial moment, the day of salvation in Roy's life. Here is how I responded to his question.

I will share in these pages how I answered Roy's question. But the question for each of you is this: how would you have responded? What would you have reached for? Many of us would reach for a tract that we have on hand that encapsulates the gospel. Some of us would grab the little mustard colored book by Campus Crusade. Some of us would grab the phone and refer the question to a pastor. But my hope and prayer is that after this study, all of us would reach for the Bible, and share about the gospel of our Jesus Christ right from the pages of Scripture. There is no firmer ground.

Conclusion: The Cross is Central for our Church

In conclusion, we spoke at the beginning about how the Presbyterian Church of Old Greenwich has a large cross erected in the architectural center of the church. And in our church, we have been laying a new foundation over the past several months, with our proposed Welcome Booklet. In that booklet, we include a Doctrinal Statement, comprised of seven points of doctrine:

    Concerning the Bible
    Concerning God
    Concerning Man: His Creation, His History, His Destiny
    Concerning the Cross
    Concerning the Christian's Responsibility
    Concerning the Church
    Concerning the Future

When we were writing this statement, we were totally unaware that there were seven points. We were also keenly aware that the statement needed to place central emphasis on the cross of Christ, since it is the axis of the Bible, since it is the pivot point of human history, and since it is the central and only solution to the human problem. But what we did not know was that we put the word about the cross right in the center of the doctrinal statement, point #4 out of seven! It seems that the cross is always the center, even when we are not aware of it! This, then, is the central doctrine of our church:

Concerning the cross

Jesus Christ's sacrifice on the cross is the crux of our faith, the axis of the Scriptures, the pivot point of human history, and the defining moment of God's redemption history. Fulfilling all the promises of the Hebrew Scriptures for a divine solution to man's terrible problem of sin, Jesus Christ humbly submitted Himself as a sinless substitute to die on a cross for sinful man across all time. His sacrifice alone satisfied God's holy requirement for atonement for man's sin. God's acceptance of His sacrifice was seen in Christ's resurrection on the third day. Only through the cross of Christ is sinful man reconciled to God, and because we have been crucified with Christ, we are fully identified with Him. The love of Christ on the cross becomes the love God desires to pour through us in our marriages, in our families, in our relationships within the body of Christ, and in our relationships with the world.

(Gen. 3:15, 22:1-19; Ex. 12; Lev. 16, 17; Num. 21:1-9; Ps. 22; Is. 52:13-53:12; Matt. 26-28; John 15:12, 13; Acts 2:22-36; Rom. 1:18-5:21; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 5:18-33; I John 3, 4)

May the cross of Christ remain central to all we think and do at our church, in our homes, and in our hearts!!

continuation:
The pathway to becoming a righteous person is the key journey in Judaism. This journey is torturously portrayed in the book The Chosen by Chaim Potok. In the book, a Jewish boy named Reuven befriends a boy genius named Danny. Danny is a genius of memory, with a perfect photographic memory. But he is arrogant. Danny's father is a tzaddik, a "righteous one." He is also an Orthodox rabbi. The story unfolds about how this supposed tzaddik set about to raise his son Danny as a tzaddik. He raises him for years in absolute silence from his father. The only time they talk is when they study Talmud. That book is a tragedy: man's way of making a tzaddik, a righteous one, is by a father's silence; God's way of infusing His righteousness into us was by sending His Son to die on a cross for us, then raising His Son again, that He might give His Son's righteousness to us as a free gift when we believe. Man's way is to make another man walk the path of pain; God's way is to walk the path of pain Himself, that He might make the treasure of His righteousness a gift freely given to believers!! This is why we sing:

    What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
    What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

    This is all my hope and peace, Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
    This is all my righteousness, Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Not only can we find real righteousness at the cross of Christ, but we find there the first thing we need before all other things: we find forgiveness.

While Jesus was on the cross, He spoke seven words. The first word was "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Forgiveness is the first thought of Christ on the cross and the first need of humanity. But what was happening when Jesus uttered these words? He was in the process of being crucified. At the crucifixion, the Creator God who made the tree from which the cross was hewn had chosen to lay His bleeding back on its unplaned roughness. It was an ironic end for a carpenter who had spent the greater part of His life working with wood. That main vertical board was about 7-9 feet in length, the cross board slightly less long. Jesus was tied to both so He wouldn't writhe in pain and unsettle the nails as they were being driven through Him and into the wood. Once He was tied down, the horrible nailing began. Long iron nails like railroad spikes were taken out of a bag held by a Roman footsoldier. The nail was placed on the palm of the hand, and was hammered down. Through His hands which the night before had gently washed the feet of His disciples were driven hard, cold spikes of iron. I wonder if maybe Jesus' words were uttered in the brief moments between the falls of the hammer. "[Hit -- the first hammer blow] Father, [hit] forgive them; [hit] for they [hit] know not [hit] what they do [hit.]" A cadence of ultimate cruelty and greater kindness, one answering the other. But the sound of His forgiving voice rings still through this first word of the cross, while the vicious hammering rang out only once in time.

The glory of the cross is that Jesus offers forgiveness to any and all who come to Him at the cross. Think about all the weight of guilt carried around by those who don't yet know our Jesus!! It is a terrible burden, and we sleep with it, rise with it, eat with it, and carry it all day, being unable of ourselves to be rid of it. If only we would come, just as we are, to Him, and hear Him forgive us as He forgave the nailers. Any who come will never be turned away. This is why we sing:

    Just as I am, without one plea, But that thy blood was shed for me,
    And that thou bidds't me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come! I come!

    Just as I am, thou wilt receive, Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve,
    Because thy promise I believe, O Lamb of God, I come! I come!

May any who are here who carry the load of guilt, any who have not yet found the healing power of God's forgiveness, come to Jesus Christ right now!!

But the good news of the cross does not end with forgiveness. The cross brings peace between God and man. Paul tells us in Rom. 5:1 the first result of believing in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the cross: "Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

When I think of the peace purchased by the cross, I think of my trip to Israel. Now Jerusalem is supposedly a city of peace, according to its name, but we all know that is one of the great ironies of the world. It is far from a city of peace; recently it has been a war zone. But when we went into Israel, we learned something fascinating: that if you wish to travel in the war zones of the West Bank, Gaza Strip or East Jerusalem, where tensions between Jews and Arabs run highest, you will be endangered unless you are a Christian pilgrim wearing a clearly visible wooden cross around your neck. The Arabs will respect you as a Christian pilgrim and leave you be, and the Jews will respect you as a tourist, given the fact that tourism is a major source of revenue for the country. I remember walking through the war zones bearing the sign of the cross, and walking in peace. This is a parable to me: I can walk anywhere in this world experiencing total peace with God, because I have believed in Jesus Christ and what He did for me on His cross. This is why we sing:

    I saw the cross of Jesus, When burdened with my sin;
    I sought the cross of Jesus, To give me peace within;
    I brought my soul to Jesus, He cleansed it in his blood;
    And in the cross of Jesus I found my peace with God.

Finally, not only can I find peace with God at the cross of Christ, but I can find at the cross the model for how human relationships are supposed to work. Good human relationships are based on self-sacrificing yielding, the giving of God's love and not the taking from another to meet my needs. The cross of Christ is the ultimate model of a loving relationship: that God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son. And the cross is to be the model for all relationships between disciples of Christ in the church, according to the command Jesus gave to the disciples just before He went to the cross, that they love one another just as He loved them. The cross is also the model of loving husbanding, the husband laying down his life for his wife. The cross is the model of loving relationships with the world, in the church, and in the home.

I have never read a better story outlining this than in Chuck Colson's book The Body. It is the story of Father Maximilian Kolbe. For years he had presided over the largest friary in the world, gently but strongly shepherding the other 762 priests and lay brothers there. Then, on Feb. 17, 1941, Father Kolbe was arrested by the Nazis, and in May 1941 was sentenced to Auschwitz. He was told that life expectancy for priests was about one month. He labored there until one night in July, when news spread that a man had escaped from Barracks 14, where Father Kolbe lived. Unlike many other escapees, the man was not caught. So, Camp Commandant Fritsch forced all the men in Barracks 14 to stand all day at attention. At the evening roll call, he announced, "Ten of you will die for the fugitive in the starvation bunker. Next time, 20 will be condemned." The exhausted prisoners swayed with terror. For out of all the gruesome tortures of Auschwitz, the starvation bunker was the worst. Death on the gallows, a bullet in the head at the Wall of Death, even the grisly gas chambers, were humane when compared to Nazi starvation, where both food and water were denied the prisoners. In there, the prisoners ceased to look human after even a day or two. Their throats became like paper, their brain turned to fire, and their intestines dried up and shriveled within them. Even the guards were frightened by the prisoners who dried to death in the starvation bunker.

The prisoners anxiously awaited the random selection of the ten men who would die. Commandant Fritsch went through the lines, looking at teeth, tongues, etc. to choose the weakest breed of prisoner, like horses for the glue factory. Soon ten men were chosen. One man, #5659, was crying out, "My poor wife! My poor children!! What will they do?" But like the others, he had to take off his shoes and fall in line. But suddenly, an older prisoner did something unheard of: he broke ranks and walked right up to Commandant Fritsch. Instead of immediately shooting him, Fritsch barked out, "Halt! What does this Polish pig want of me?" Father Kolbe calmly told the Nazi butcher, "I would like to die in place of one of the men you condemned." Fritsch stared at him in disbelief ... he didn't seem to be insane. "Why?" snapped Fritsch. Sensing the need to use tried and true Nazi logic, Kolbe replied, "I am an old man, sir, and good for nothing. My life will serve no purpose." Fritsch then asked, "In whose place do you want to die?" "For that one," Kolbe responded, pointing to #5659. Fritsch agreed, and number #16670 replaced #5659 on the death ledger.

Father Kolbe then took off his shoes to join the other condemned men. As he did so, #5659 passed by him at a distance, wearing an expression of pure astonishment that had not yet become gratitude. But Kolbe wasn't looking for gratitude. If he was to lay down his life for another, the fulfillment had to be in the act of obedience itself. The joy must be found in submitting his small will to the will of One more grand. The men reached the starvation bunker. "Remove your clothes!" shouted an officer. Christ died on the cross naked, Father Kolbe thought as he took off his shirt and pants. It is only fitting that I suffer as He suffered. The ten men were herded into a dark, windowless cell. The door was shut and locked.

Gradually, the camp became aware of something extraordinary happening in the starvation bunker. Usually there were howls of pain and panic, the sounds of screams and fighting between the prisoners, but this time it was different. There was heard the sound of singing. A gentle shepherd was leading these men through the valley of death, pointing them to the Great Shepherd. Father Kolbe was the last of the men to die."

That is how powerfully the crucifixion love of Jesus flowing through us in our relationships can impact our world for good. That is why we sing:

    What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul!
    What wondrous love is this, O my soul!
    What wondrous love is this That caused the Lord of bliss
    To bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul,
    To bear the dreadful curse for my soul.

    When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down,
    When I was sinking down, sinking down,
    When I was sinking down Beneath God's righteous frown,
    Christ laid aside his crown for my soul, for my soul,
    Christ laid aside his crown for my soul.

    Thus, the cross of Christ is the central and only solution to the human problem. At the cross, sin is faced and erased for all who believe. At the cross, suffering is salved by a suffering Son. At the cross, self-righteousness is silenced. At the cross, real righteousness is infused into the believer as a free gift. At the cross, we find forgiveness from the One who even forgave the nailers. At the cross, we find peace with God in a warring world. And at the cross we find a wondrous love that is the model for all loving relationships we yearn to have.

Christ's Cross is the Central and Only Solution to the Human Problem

The simple reason the cross is the central and only solution to the human problem is because it alone faces man with his great problem of sin. As we saw in Rom. 3:21-26, the cross is God's way of salvation from sin. There is no other.

The cross faces humanity with its sin. Three times in Rom 3:24-26, God speaks of the public, open nature of the cross. Paul tells us about the "... redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as an atoning sacrifice in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." God put Christ on display at the cross, facing humanity with its sin and at the same time demonstrating His great salvation from that sin. Thus, the cross faces humanity with its sin, and it erases the sin of those who believe in the power of His blood by faith.

At the cross, the sin issue cannot be avoided. Paul accuses humanity of a grand cover-up in regards to sin in Rom. 1:18. But over and against this cover-up is the public display of God's response to sin at the cross. The public nature of the cross makes us face our sin, and either admit it unto forgiveness as the repentant thief did, or deny it and compound it by scorning the bleeding God on the cross as did the unrepentant thief. On the central cross between the two thieves died the God-Man to save them, and both were faced with the reality of their sin and the centrality of God's solution to their sin in Christ. Sin was compounded in the one who did not believe; sin was forgiven the one who believed and was saved.

Jesus dealt with the problem of sin in a very public way, uncovering man's cover-up. Jesus paid the price for sin, at the same time revealing our sin and forcing us to make a choice about Him and what He was doing. It was either scandalous and scornful to the unbeliever, or it was scandalous and salvific for me as a believer. At any rate, it was scandalous: Jesus Christ the Righteous became sin for us, displayed publicly as the sin-bearer for the world, paying the full price for all our sin. This is why we sing:

Jesus paid it all, All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain, He wash'd it white as snow.

Now that sounds fine and good in church. But what about when a brother of mine called from the VA hospital this week, in hellish torment from clinical depression, not having slept a wink for the last two nights, asking for prayer and a visit? What does the cross of Christ say to that terrible human problem, the problem of pain?

The cross is God's answer to the problem of pain, His pain matching ours blow for blow, torment for torment, hurt for hurt. If our God had lived in heaven only, issuing ethical laws and holding people accountable, we could legitimately cry foul against Him as a distant and detached deity. But our great Savior Jesus Christ left all that behind, coming to this world of suffering to suffer Himself a terrible death of torture to save us from the torture and hellish torment of sin and death. As Francois Mauriac stated in his "Foreword" to Elie Wiesel's book Night, "And I [Francois Mauriac], who believe that God is love, what answer could I give my young questioner, whose dark eyes still held the reflection of that angelic sadness which had appeared one day upon the face of the hanged child? What did I say to him? Did I speak of that other Jew, his brother, who may have resembled him -- the Crucified, whose Cross has conquered the world? Did I affirm that the stumbling block to his faith was the cornerstone of mine, and that the conformity between the cross and the suffering of men was in my eyes the key to that impenetrable mystery whereon the faith of his childhood had perished?" The conformity between the cross and human suffering is what makes the cross such a real word in a real world.

The playlet entitled The Long Silence, illustrates this forcefully, quoted here from the Cross of Christ by John Stott, pg. 336,7:

    "At the end of time, billions of people were scattered on a great plain before God's throne. Most shrank back from the brilliant light before them. But some groups near the front talked heatedly -- not with cringing shame, but with belligerence. 'Can God judge us? How can he know about suffering?' snapped a pert young brunette. She ripped open a sleeve to reveal a tattooed number from a Nazi concentration camp. 'We endured terror ... beatings ... torture ... death!' In another group a Negro boy lowered his collar. 'What about this?' he demanded, showing an ugly rope burn. 'Lynched ... for no crime but being black!' In another crowd, a pregnant schoolgirl with sullen eyes. 'Why should I suffer' she murmured, 'It wasn't my fault.'

    Far out across the plain there were hundreds of such groups. Each had a complaint against God for the evil and suffering he permitted in his world. How lucky God was to live in heaven where all was sweetness and light, where there was no weeping or fear, no hunger or hatred. What did God know of all that man had been forced to endure in this world? For God leads a pretty sheltered life, they said.

    So each of these groups sent forth their leader, chosen because he had suffered the most. A Jew, a Negro, a person from Hiroshima, a horribly deformed arthritic, a thalidomide child. In the centre of the plain they consulted with each other. At last they were ready to present their case. It was rather clever. Before God could be qualified to be their judge, he must endure what they had endured. Their decision was that God should be sentenced to live on earth -- as a man!

    'Let him be born a Jew. Let the legitimacy of his birth be doubted. Give him a work so difficult that even his family will think him out of his mind when he tried to do it. Let him be betrayed by his closest friends. Let him face false charges, be tried by a prejudiced jury and convicted by a cowardly judge. Let him be tortured. At the last, let him see what it means to be terribly alone. Then let him die. Let him die so that there can be no doubt that he died. Let there be a great host of witnesses to verify it.'

    As each leader announced his portion of the sentence, loud murmurs of approval went up from the throng of people assembled. And when the last had finished pronouncing sentence, there was a long silence. No-one uttered another word. No one moved. For suddenly all knew that God had already served his sentence."

Truly, no single person who has ever lived or will ever live has more right to speak to and salve our suffering than our Jesus Christ who died on the cross for us. This is why we sing:

    O sacred Head, now wounded, With grief and shame weighed down,
    Now scornfully surrounded, With thorns, thine only crown;
    How pale thou art with anguish, with sore abuse and scorn!
    How does that visage languish Which once was bright as morn!

    What thou, my Lord, has suffered Was all for sinners' gain:
    Mine, mine was the transgression, But thine the deadly pain;
    Lo, here I fall, my Savior! 'Tis I deserve thy place;
    Look on me with thy favor, Vouchsafe to me thy grace.

    What language shall I borrow To thank thee, dearest Friend,
    For this thy dying sorrow, Thy pity without end?
    O make me thine forever, And should I fainting be,
    Lord, let me never, never Outlive my love to thee.

Not only does the cross face us with our sin and God's solution to our sin, and not only is the cross God's deep answer to the problem of pain and suffering, but the cross has a way of silencing the self-righteous boasting of humanity. Just after highlighting the cross as the heart of the gospel of God in Rom. 3:21-26, Paul speaks to the silencing power of the cross in Rom. 3:27: "Where then is boasting? It is silenced ..." In other words, any and all excuses we offer up for our behavior before God, any attempt at self-justification we might offer, are all silenced at the foot of the cross. What good could you or I ever accomplish that would come within a thousand light years of the great good Jesus accomplished on that cross for us?

Even the fiery and bombastic genius of Beethoven was greatly subdued by the cross of Christ. In his religious masterpiece, the Missa Solemnis, which many consider to be the greatest mass ever written, Beethoven does something very compelling in the third section, the Credo, in which the creed is expressed. When he comes to the subject of the cross, this mass which took vocal volumes and singing ranges to new heights comes to a respectful moment when the cross is introduced: the strings play in tremolo, the music halts totally, a silence hangs in the air, and then the soloists reverently sing the Latin words Crucifixus etiam pro nobis, meaning, "was crucified also for us." At the height of Beethoven's creative genius and romantic power, even his heart trembled and was quieted in awe-inspired respect and reverence for our crucified Lord. This is why we sing:

    When I survey the wondrous cross, On which the Prince of glory died,
    My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride.
    Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, Save in the death of Christ my God;
    All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to his blood.

But in saving us from our sin, and salving our suffering, and in silencing our self-righteous boastings, the cross offers us a real righteousness available nowhere else. The great glory of Rom. 3:22 is that by faith in our Christ of the cross the righteousness of Christ is infused INTO us. This is where God's righteousness becomes my righteousness by faith: "Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ into all those who believe ..."

Christ's Cross is the Pivot Point of Human History

Most of us today are products of an educational system that presents human history as evolutionary. Whether this is passed off as the scientific explanation for the history of human life on this planet as Darwin stated it, or whether it is passed off as a theory of history as Hegel stated it, human life is seen as evolving in a linear fashion: from single-celled creatures to apes to man, or from thesis to antithesis to synthesis, the history of humanity is seen as evolving forward, from worse to better ... and better ... and better. The lie inherent in this linear perspective is that the unseen distant end of human life and history is NOT better if we view life this way: the end of that line is hell without God, an isolated darkness.

But God's perspective of human history is not linear, but circular, revolving around an axis that is its defining event. As the globe of this world revolves each day one full revolution around its axis, God has designed human history to revolve around the defining moment of all history: when Jesus Christ died on the cross and was raised again, a three-day passion that broke the tyrannical reign of sin and death and instituted the eternal reign of Christ's grace and life. Paul tells us this in Rom. 5:19, 21, concluding his description of God's view of human history: "For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. ... that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Human history is not like the timeline we read in history books, nor is it evolutionary and constantly moving toward the better place, but rather history is constantly revolving around the central axis of the cross of Christ, just as the natural globe of this world revolves around its axis one revolution each calendar day.

So, not only is the cross of Christ the central axis of the Bible, it is the pivot point of human history. Now all of this is interesting. But the greatest reality is that the cross of Christ is the central and only solution to the human problem. Living in this world is difficult. It is problematic. Our problems overwhelm us. But to each of our problems God articulates the wisdom and power of Jesus Christ crucified.

Christ's Cross is the Axis of the Bible

When Paul presents God's great news for man's great problem of sin, he begins by outlining the Biblical foundations of the cross. He writes in Rom. 3:21, "But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets." The righteousness of God was demonstrated through the cross of Christ, and the cross was witnessed by the Law and the Prophets. In fact, the cross of Christ is what the entire Hebrew Bible points toward. Without the cross of Christ, the Hebrew Scriptures is a book of empty promises. With the cross of Christ, the Hebrew Scriptures is a book of one great promise well fulfilled, in history, on the day the God-Man died at Calvary.

The fact is, the cross is the central axis of the entire Bible. From the promise of Gen. 3:15 that "... I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head and you shall bruise him on the heel," when the cross and resurrection were first foreshadowed in the Hebrew Scriptures, to Rev. 5 when the angels sing "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing," it is the axis of the Scriptures. From the pathos of God's instructions to Abraham in Gen. 22 to "Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah; and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you ..." to the reality in Romans 8:31, 32: "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?," we find the cross to be the axis of the Bible. From the bronze serpent lifted up by Moses in the wilderness to save the people from their lethal snake bites in Numbers 21 to Jesus' teaching of Nicodemus that He was to be lifted up in John 3:14-16: "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whoever believes may in Him have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life," it is again the axis of God's Word.

The narrative of the cross is the story at the center of the Bible. It fulfills the great stories of the Hebrew Scriptures: He was the seed looked for in every generation; He was the true ram in the thicket provided on Moriah; He was the final Passover lamb; He was the final atoning sacrifice to end the annual agony of Yom Kippur; He was the Man who became sin for us when he was lifted up like the bronze serpent; He was the kinsman-redeemer prefigured in the love story of Boaz and Ruth; He was the suffering King of Psalm 22; the Suffering Servant of Isaiah; the Jonah cast into the sea to save the ship of humanity. Without Him those stories just trail off into a "..." with no end, rather than a happy ending with an "!" signifying complete resolution.

But is the cross the central point of the NT? Absolutely!! It is described four times as the climax of the four Gospel accounts. Like the fourfold Hallelujahs of Rev. 19, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in the Gospels is the fourfold Hallelujah in the middle of our Bibles. It is the event upon which every one of Paul's epistles reflect. To read the New Testament is to read about the cross. Dr. Leon Morris, one of the great scholars of this century, has sought to erect the cross at the center of modern evangelical thought. Both he, and John Stott quoting and endorsing him, affirm that "the cross dominates the New Testament."

Fulfilling the OT promises, dominating the New Testament, and standing at the centerpiece of the greatest statement of the gospel of God in Romans 1-8. The cross is indeed the central axis of the entire Scriptures. It is the centerpiece of God's revelation, where He revealed Himself most humbly and openly, His bleeding heart of love pumping itself to a terrible death on a machine of torture.

And our own Christian thinking and preaching must reflect this if we are to have an adequate answer to the angst of this era. Let me share with you the following story about the turning point in the life of one of my personal heroes, Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Here is what he discovered about the primacy of the cross of Christ, from John Stott's The Cross of Christ. "According to Dr. Douglas Johnson, the first General Secretary of the IVF, this discovery [between the objective and subjective understanding of the atonement] was the turning-point in the ministry of Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones, who occupied an unrivalled position of evangelical leadership in the decades following the Second World War. He confided in several friends that 'a fundamental change took place in his outlook and preaching in the year 1929.' He had, of course, emphasized from the beginning of his ministry the indispensable necessity of the new birth. But, after preaching one night in Bridgend, South Wales, the minister challenged him that 'the cross and the work of Christ' appeared to have little place in his preaching. He went 'at once to his favourite secondhand bookshop and asked the proprietor for the two standard books on the Atonement. The bookseller ... produced R.W. Dale's The Atonement (1875) and James Denney's The Death of Christ (1903). On his return home he gave himself to study, declining both lunch and tea, and causing his wife such anxiety that she telephoned her brother to see whether a doctor should be called. But when he later emerged, he claimed to have found 'the real heart of the gospel and the key to the inner meaning of the Christian faith.' So the content of his preaching changed, and with this its impact. As he himself put it, the basic question was not Anselm's 'why did God become man?' but 'why did Christ die?'"

The cross is the axis of the Scriptures, and it ought to be the heart and soul of Christian preaching, especially now at the end of the 20th century when men and women only want their ears tickled with "how to" formulae, and the word "sin" is decidedly out of vogue. But sin is still our problem, and the cross is still God's solution to that problem. This is why we must continue to see the cross not only as the center of the Scriptures, but as the pivotal event of human history.

GOD'S GREAT NEWS for MAN'S GREAT PROBLEM - Romans 1-8

GOD'S GREAT NEWS - The Centrality of the Cross (Romans 3:21-5:21)

by Dorman Followwill
How Important is the Cross?

If you are like me, you often think of the cross of Christ as one variable in the overall equation of Christianity. I remember sitting in church as a kid, growing up attending youth groups and Christian camps, where I heard various and sundry things about the Christian faith: God is love ... Jesus wants to be your friend ... Invite Jesus Christ into your heart ... How amazing that God became man ... Jesus died for your sins, so you won't have to go to hell ... You really need to read your Bible. All these words are true. But in studying Romans and the rest of the Bible, I have come to view the cross differently. Just how important is the cross of Christ?

Over the last few weeks, we have been reflecting on the cross of Christ as the heart of the gospel, the heart of God's great news in Romans 1-8. The cross was God's great answer to the human problem in Rom. 3:21-26, and the cross is the pivot point of human history in Rom. 5:12-21. As we have studied this, I have been reading a book entitled On a Hill Too Far Away, and its thesis is that the cross of Christ needs to be erected in the center of our churches, not relegated to the margins. The man who wrote this book, John Fischer, has very astutely identified the chief problem of comfortable Christianity in the late 20th century: our cross is too polished, and it is far too distant from both our evangelistic proclamation and our worship. Over and against this modern malaise, Fischer finds an old church in New England that seems to have been built to avoid this problem. Here are his descriptions of the Presbyterian Church of Old Greenwich, Connecticut, found on pg. 15, 16, 26:

"In Old Greenwich, Connecticut, stands a church with a cross in it. Unlike most churches, whose crosses adorn the front wall behind the preacher, this one is bolted down into the concrete floor in front of the platform, not more than three feet from where the preacher stands. Its positioning defies reason and art and convention. No architect in his right mind would have designed such a placement. It is an obstruction. The preacher's words have to pass through it; the congregation's eyes always have it somewhere in view, so that even when they look away, it is still there, impressed on the back wall of the retina. It is a sturdy wooden cross, ten feet tall. The cross bar is set high on the vertical beam, so high that is seems out of proportion compared to other more proportionate crosses that decorate other more proportionate churches. Nothing about this cross is pretty. It is made of raw, untreated wood, and when you see it up close, you think of splinters, of something hard ... immovable. It is set deep in the concrete floor as well as bolted to it ...

"The Old Greenwich cross has to be reckoned with. It is in the middle of everything -- weddings, funerals, concerts, baptisms, dedications, prayer meetings, Sunday morning services. Where do you put the casket? Are the bride and groom going to stand on either side of it? What if the bride's dress gets caught in a splinter? Where do you put the horn section? Where do you stand? Every event that takes place in this church has to accomodate this cross in some way. It cannot be moved easily like the pulpit, or the platform chairs, or the communion table, or the planters of ivy that line the platform's edge. It's almost as if the church was built around this cross -- as if it were the first thing down before the walls went up and the roof went on. Something tells me that's the way it should be."

So, how important is the cross of Christ? The cross of Christ is not simply one of the variables of the Christian faith: it is the single and only focal point. It is the hub of the wheel of Christian doctrine, around which all other doctrines revolve.

Even our own use of language appeals to the essential nature of the cross. When we are making an argument or stating a point, we often say something like, "The crux of his argument was ..." or "the crux of the issue is ..." But in Latin, the word "crux" means "cross." In Christian faith, the cross is indeed the crux of the issue!!

Today we are going to celebrate together the centrality of the cross of Christ, in three ways. First we will see the cross as the axis around which the whole Bible revolves. Then we will see the cross as the pivot point of human history. Then we will see the cross as the central and only solution to the human problem.

We Filipinos should be proud of these crews who have shown to the world the good things about us - our inner goodness.

by Jiji Press

Japan's Environment Ministry said Friday that it will stop accepting state financial relief applications on July 31 from victims of Minamata disease, which was caused by mercury pollution.

The ministry set the deadline to reflect the time needed to screen applications, officials said.
Under special legislation enacted in 2009, the government must determine the victims who are entitled to state redress within three years of the start of applications in May 2010.

by Jiji Press

An expert panel to the Japanese industry ministry mapped out draft proposals on setting power rates for households on Friday, suggesting that bills should reflect smaller shares of costs.

Under the proposals, power companies will be urged to reduce the size of payroll costs they include in power rate calculations.
They will also be banned from factoring in advertising costs, charitable donations or contributions to industry groups, which are currently allowed.

by Jiji Press

Highly radioactive water has leaked again from a liquid waste tank at the damaged Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station, operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Friday.

The salty water, which is generated in the process of decontaminating highly tainted water, seeped out of a steel connection of the tank to slightly drip onto its concrete foundation, said the utility, known as TEPCO.

TEPCO stopped the leakage by fastening bolts in the connection, while putting steel plates to contain a further outflow.

It is the second such instance after some 10 liters of such water, which contains high levels of radioactive strontium, leaked from another waste tank at the plant on Jan. 10.

by Jiji Press

The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo on Friday announced educational programs supported by Japanese and U.S. companies for students in disaster-hit areas in northeastern Japan.

One of the programs, which are part of the U.S. "Tomodachi," or friends, postdisaster relief, allows up to 300 high school students from disaster areas to study global leadership and community service at the University of California, Berkley for three weeks with the support from Softbank Corp.

In a different summer program, supported by Coca-Cola (Japan) Co., 180 high school students in disaster areas will be invited over the next three years to stay in the United States with local families, study English and visit various places across the country at the company's expense, including air fares.

by Jiji Press

The Japanese and U.S. governments are considering revising the current program for U.S. military realignment in Japan, it was learned Friday.

The focal point is whether to separate a plan to transfer U.S. Marines from the southernmost Japan prefecture of Okinawa to Guam and another to relocate the Marine Corps' Futenma air station within Okinawa.

Japan is holding discussions with the U.S. side in a calm and flexible manner, Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Genba said at a press conference.

by Jiji Press

The Japanese Defense Ministry decided Friday to keep a senior official at the center of a scandal in office for the time being in order to continue investigating his controversial acts.

Speaking to reporters, Defense Minister Naoki Tanaka admitted that Ro Manabe will stay as head of the Okinawa Defense Bureau for a while.
"We will continue to probe the case," Tanaka said.

Tanaka previously signaled his intention to oust Manabe before the official start on Sunday of campaigns for a mayoral election in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, southern Japan.

by Jiji Press

The Fukushima prefectural government lifted rice shipment curbs in part of the northern Japan prefecture Friday after its emergency survey to check radiation levels, officials said.

The prefectural government surveyed about 23,200 farmers, starting in November, after the discovery of rice contaminated with radioactive cesium exceeding a state safety limit of 500 becquerels per kilogram.

Of them, shipment curbs on 22,657 farmers in 86 areas were lifted as cesium levels were limited to 100 becquerels or less.

Switzerland's Competition Commission said Friday it has opened an investigation into 12 financial institutions, including three major Japanese banks, on suspicion of colluding to influence interbank rates.

The three Japanese banks are Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. <8306>, Mizuho Financial Group Inc. <8411> and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc.

The commission said in a statement that it "has received information regarding potential unlawful agreements among banks." - Jiji Press

by Jiji Press

Japan and Ukraine are expected to sign a bilateral agreement as early as April to cooperate in responding to nuclear plant accidents, an Ukrainian government official said Friday.

The pact is designed to promote exchanges of data and know-how between the two countries in the case of accidents at nuclear power plants.
The agreement is aimed at protecting humans and the environment, Ukraine's Emergencies Minister Viktor Baloha said after a meeting with Japanese Ambassador to Ukraine Toichi Sakata.

Amid the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant in northeastern Japan, Japan and Ukraine began talks on the pact on Jan. 26 in Kiev, south of Chernobyl, the site of one of the world's worst nuclear disasters in 1986.

by Jiji Press

The U.S. government said Friday it is in talks with Japan to review a plan to transfer Marines from Okinawa Prefecture to Guam as part of realignments of U.S. military bases in Japan.

"The two governments are now communicating closely and in a flexible manner regarding the way ahead on a number of related issues," based on a U.S. strategic review of its defense posture in Asia, the Defense Department said in a statement.

The department stressed the two nations' commitment to implementing another key item in the realignment, a plan to relocate the Marine Corps' Futenma air station in Ginowan, Okinawa, to Nago of the same prefecture in southern Japan.

Japanese and U.S. sources said the two nations are considering reducing the number of Marines who will be transferred to Guam from Okinawa to around 4,500 from the planned 8,000.

by Jiji Press

Japan's agriculture ministry plans to ease regulation to revitalize struggling regional horse racing, ministry officials said Saturday.

Operators will be allowed to decide more flexibly how much of betting ticket revenue is distributed as winnings, the officials said.

The ministry hopes to submit a bill to revise the horse racing law to the current Diet session ending in June.

The current law stipulates that horse racing operators distribute 75 pct of their ticket revenue as winnings.

by Jiji Press

Japan's agriculture ministry will promote the spread of micro hydroelectric power generators in rural areas as part of moves to increase the use of renewable energy sources, officials said.

Starting in fiscal 2012 that begins in April, the ministry will provide financial support to municipalities conducting feasibility surveys and companies developing low-cost micro hydro generators, the officials said.

Last year's accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant led then Prime Minister Naoto Kan to set a goal of boosting the share of electricity from renewable energy sources to the total amount of power generated in Japan to 20 pct in the early 2020s.

by Jiji Press

Fukushima Governor Yuhei Sato on Saturday approved an outline of a planned bill on central government support for the revitalization of the prefecture hit hard by a severe nuclear accident.

The outline was submitted by Tatsuo Hirano, minister in charge of reconstruction after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that happened last year.

The central government aims to adopt the bill at a cabinet meeting in early February after holding some more discussions with the Democratic Party of Japan-led ruling camp.

In the outline, the central government promises to take full responsibility for the recovery of Fukushima Prefecture from the impact of the accident at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s <9501> Fukushima No. 1 power plant.

by Jiji Press

The Japanese government faces increased pressure from Okinawa people now that the United States announced its intention to review plans to realign U.S. military bases in Japan.

Calls for scrapping a bilateral agreement to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma air station in Ginowan, Okinawa, to the Henoko coastal area of Nago, also Okinawa, are already increasing in the southern Japan prefecture.

Opposition against the Futenma relocation plan is likely to intensify further in the lead-up to the Ginowan mayoral election on Feb. 12 and the Okinawa prefectural assembly poll in June.

Japan and the United States will hold a high-level meeting in Washington Monday to review their base realignment plans that includes the transfer of Marines from Okinawa to Guam.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said Saturday that the country may raise the consumption tax further while pursuing public pension and other social security reforms.

The comments, made in a speech at Keio University in Tokyo, signaled that Japan will face funding shortfalls in the future even if the 5 pct consumption tax is raised to 10 pct by October 2015 as proposed.

The comments may prompt opposition parties to increase pressure on the Noda government to present estimates for funding necessary to implement pension reform, people familiar with the situation said.

An estimate drawn up by the ruling Democratic Party of Japan last year shows that the country will have to raise the consumption tax by an additional 7.1 percentage points by fiscal 2075 when pension reforms are completed.

Japan's Madoka Sugai won the top prize Saturday at the Prix de Lausanne, a prestigious international ballet competition for young dancers aged 15 to 18.

Sugai, a 17-year-old high school student in Tokyo, also won the prize for contemporary dance.

"I can't believe that I won," Sugai told reporters after an award ceremony. "I feel as if I am still in a dream of dance."

Sugai will be awarded a scholarship to cover her tuition at the ballet academy of her choice for a year. Sugai said she wants to go to Birmingham Royal Ballet in Britain.

Common scenario when a military or police officer dies.

You can now listen and watch the broadcast activity of Bohol DYTR at: http://www.livestream.com/dytrbohol1116khz

Red Roses for Valentines Day

Hank Aaron
Hank Aaron, born in 1934, American baseball player, nicknamed Hammerin’ Hank, whose 755 home runs broke the all-time record previously held by Babe Ruth. Aaron was noted for his remarkable consistency. Although he led the league in home runs only four times, he hit 30 or more four-baggers in a season 15 times. During his 23-year career the right-handed slugger set more than ten major league records, including most home runs, runs batted in (RBIs), extra-base hits, and total bases.

Henry Louis Aaron was born in Mobile, Alabama. As a youngster he honed his skills in a recreational softball league, and at age 15 he was the starting shortstop for the Mobile Black Bears, a semiprofessional baseball team. During a 1951 game against the Indianapolis Clowns, a professional Negro League team, Aaron hit two singles and a double, drawing the attention of the Clowns owner, Syd Pollock. Pollock wanted to sign Aaron to a contract immediately, but Aaron’s mother wanted the young ballplayer to attend college instead. A deal was struck when Aaron agreed to graduate from Josephine Allen Institute, a private high school in Mobile, before joining the team. Aaron played only briefly for the Clowns. Scouts from several major league teams quickly took interest in the young player, and he signed with the Milwaukee Braves in 1952. (The Braves moved to Atlanta, Georgia, in 1966.)

The Braves sent Aaron to play in the minor leagues. He spent a year in the Class C Northern League before he was promoted to the Class A South Atlantic League for the 1953 season. Aaron and two other African Americans were the first black players admitted to the league. In 1953 Aaron, still playing shortstop, led the league with a .362 batting average, 125 RBIs, 115 runs scored, and 208 hits while earning the league’s most valuable player (MVP) award. He then spent the winter in the Puerto Rican league, where he fine-tuned his batting skills and learned to play in the outfield.

Aaron made his major league debut on opening day in 1954. Playing in the outfield and batting .280, the 20-year-old made immediate contributions to the Braves. Late in the season, however, Aaron broke his ankle while sliding into third base. He recovered by the following season, and his average jumped to .314. His batting skills improved over the next few seasons. In 1956 Aaron won the National League (NL) batting title with a .328 average and led the league in hits (200) and doubles (34). The Braves’ pennant hopes, however, were dashed on the last day of the season, as the Dodgers won the NL flag by one game. The next year Aaron earned the NL's MVP award after batting .322, leading the league with 44 home runs, and helping to power the Braves to a World Series title.

Over the next 16 seasons Aaron quietly neared Ruth’s record. He posted 40 or more home runs seven more times, and he batted .300 or higher 11 more times, reaching a league-leading .355 in 1959. Aaron’s slugging often overshadowed his graceful play in right field, for which he received three Gold Glove Awards (1958, 1959, 1960).

Aaron hit home run number 713 late in 1973, leaving him to wait out the off-season one short of Ruth’s mark. The winter was difficult. Death threats and hate mail that Aaron had begun receiving in 1972 intensified, especially from bigots who resented the fact that an African American was about to claim one of baseball’s premier records. By the start of the 1974 season, Aaron’s family, including his children in college, were placed under police protection. Aaron quickly responded when the season began. He hit home run number 714 on April 4thâ€"on his first swing of the season. Four days later, on April 8, 1974, Hammerin’ Hank hit his 715th home run over the left field wall in Atlanta’s Fulton County Stadium, taking sole possession of the career home run record.

Aaron returned to Milwaukee after the 1974 season, when the Braves traded him to the Brewers, an American League team. He was happy to return to the city of his major league debut, and he received a warm welcome. In 1975 he broke Ruth’s career RBI record. When Aaron retired after the 1976 season, he held many career records, including most home runs (755), runs batted in (2,297), total bases (6,856), extra-base hits (1,477), and times at bat (12,364). After retiring, Aaron worked as an executive with the Atlanta Braves and was involved in a number of charitable organizations. His many honors and awards include 24 All-Star Game appearances and election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982.

In 1999â€"the 25th anniversary of Aaron breaking Ruth’s recordâ€"Major League Baseball announced the Hank Aaron Award, given annually to the best overall hitter in each league. In 2002 Aaron received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

“Galunggong,” or round scad, once considered the poor man’s fish, is now among the marine products the Philippines is importing.

Part of the country’s galunggong supply now comes from either China or Taiwan, according to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR).
Fish accounts for 80 percent of the animal protein intake of Filipinos, who each eat 28 kilos of fish annually.

BFAR Director Asis Perez said the agency and the Department of Agriculture were compelled to open the domestic market to imported fish because of the declining fish catch.

source: Inquirer.net

President Benigno Aquino has appointed actor-director Cesar Montano as a member of the Optical Media Board, replacing violinist John Philip Lesaca.

Montano, who unsuccessfully ran for the Senate in the May 2007 under the coalition Team Unity, was appointed as a private sector representative from an industry relying on intellectual property protection.

Montano was appointed to a term expiring on March 5, 2013.
Aquino also appointed former National Commission for the Culture and Arts commissioner Elmar Ingles to the OMB, replacing Maria Trinidad Villareal.

source: Inquirer.net

by Tonette Orejas

Kapampangan pride received either a boost or a beating depending on who you ask among the cabalen of Senator Manuel “Lito” Lapid concerning his first-ever “performance” at the Senate impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona.

For a few minutes, the action star-turned-lawmaker, not exactly known for eloquence but more for his membership in the so-called committee on silence, rose confidently on Day 10 of the trial to throw questions in Filipino at a prosecution witness from the Security and Exchange Commission.
Lapid took to the floor on Wednesday at the time when he was in the media spotlight albeit for an entirely different case closer to home: His wife Marissa was charged with dollar smuggling in the United States last week.

Kapampangan musician Irwin Nucum was hardly impressed by what he saw. He dismissed as “insignificant,” for example, Lapid’s question on the difference between a “cash advance” and a “loan.”

The issue then was about the P11-million loan taken by Corona and wife Cristina from a supposedly inactive company owned by her family in 2003.

by PNA

An outbreak of salmonella in Britain has claimed the life of one person and infected over 30 others, and a potential link to contaminated watermelon has been identified, said two health agencies on Tuesday.

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) said in a statement that the outbreak was caused by the bacteria Salmonella Newport, one of various strains of Salmonella. It has infected more than 30 people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland since the beginning of December 2011, and one person has died.

Cases of the illness caused by the same strain have been confirmed in Scotland, Ireland and Germany.

Dr. Bob Adak, head of the gastrointestinal diseases department at the HPA said: "Although it's too soon to say with certainty what the likely cause of infection is, early indications suggest that a number of people became unwell after eating watermelon." "This has also been noted in the cases in Scotland and Germany although further investigation is ongoing."

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) said in a statement that it has been notified by HPA about the outbreak and possible source of food contamination.

Alison Gleadle, Director of Food Safety at the FSA, said: "We are monitoring the situation and working closely with the European Commission, other countries, local authorities and the food industry, to investigate further."

by PNA

An international team of scientists has discovered a potentially habitable super-Earth orbiting a nearby star, according to a study published Thursday in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

With an orbital period of about 28 days and a minimum mass 4.5 times that of the Earth, the planet orbits within the star's " habitable zone," where temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist on the planet's surface. The researchers found evidence of at least one and possibly two or three additional planets orbiting the star, which is about 22 light-years from Earth.

The team includes University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) astronomers Steven Vogt and Eugenio Rivera and was led by Guillem Anglada-Escud and Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution for Science.

The host star is a member of a triple-star system and has a different makeup than our Sun, with a much lower abundance of elements heavier than helium, such as iron, carbon, and silicon. This discovery indicates that potentially habitable planets can occur in a greater variety of environment than previously believed.

The host star, called GJ 667C, is an M-class dwarf star. The other two stars in the triple-star system (GJ 667AB) are a pair of orange K dwarfs, with a concentration of heavy elements only 25 percent that of our Sun's. Such elements are the building blocks of terrestrial planets, so it was thought to be less likely for metal-depleted star systems to have an abundance of low-mass planets.

According to a study released by the Harvard Institute of Socio-Political Progression (HIS-PP), the Philippines ranks first among the world’s most gullible races.

The study involved content analyses of over 500,000 historical documents from 300 different societies. The documents were then evaluated according to a quantitative metric called the Gump Index.

“Each instance of gullibility in a people’s ancient and historical records has corresponding points in the Gump Index. These points are co-related with the lifespan of the society and its average educational attainment,” said Dr. Samuel Sean Dawson of HIS-PP.

Filipinos scored 1,344,399 points, placing it first, ahead of the Trojans of 12th Century BC, who scored 1,086. “The gross Trojan Gump Index was higher than Filipinos’, but it was offset by the fact that the Trojans are a dead civilization,” said Dawson.

According to the report, examples of Filipino gullibility include:

    “Sandugo” or the blood compacts betweer Miguel Lopez de Legaspi and Datu Sikatuna, and Ferdinand Magellan and Raja Humabon â€" ploys which led to the brutal Spanish colonization of the Philippines, but are still celebrated by Filipinos as a sign of friendship;
    The continuing belief that circumcision is common practice in Christianity;
    The Mock Battle of Manila Bay;
    Popular belief that Agapito Flores invented the fluorescent bulb;
    Popular belief that Eduardo San Juan invented the moon buggy;
    Popular belief that an ophidian humanoid resides in a Manila shopping mall.

“What’s curious about the Filipino condition is that despite a respectable literacy rate, many of its people still believe that condoms cause cancer â€" or that Appolo Quilboloy, CEO of Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name, Inc. is the son of God,” said Dawson.

According to the study, the causes of this gullibility include the inability to question information and an over-reliance on interpersonal sources. “For Filipinos, a tsunami warning from the government does less than a mother’s directive to avoid the sea because of syokoys (mermen),” it notes.

HIS-PP is also looking into genetic and biological factors. The organization is currently experimenting with the live brains of volunteer patients, and will release their findings next year.

“539 of our subjects are Filipino. It was very easy to get them. All we had to do is post a listing at POEA that said ‘Teachers Wanted’,” said Dr. Dawson. Mosquito Press

Mali Besieged by Fighters Fleeing Libya
By Scott Stewart | February 2, 2012

Mali has experienced perhaps the most significant external repercussions from the downfall of the regime of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. Stratfor has discussed the impact of the conflict in Libya on the wider region since international intervention began in March 2011. Instability in Libya due to that country's deep internal fault lines meant that re-establishing a government would prove difficult. As we pointed out, that instability could spread to neighboring countries as weapons and combatants flowed outward from Libya.

Reports now indicate that thousands of armed Tuareg tribesmen who previously served in Gadhafi's military have returned home to Mali. The influx of this large number of well-armed and well-trained fighters, led by a former Libyan army colonel, has re-energized the long-simmering Tuareg insurgency against the Malian government. These Tuareg insurgents have formed a new group, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA). In mid-January, they began a military campaign to free three northern Mali regions from Bamako's control.

The government of Mali has claimed that the MNLA is aligned with al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). MNLA, however, has strongly denied any link to the group and said it will serve as a bulwark against AQIM. Given the U.S. and European interest in preventing the strengthening of AQIM, both sides have considerable incentive to take their respective positions. These developments make it an opportune time to examine the MNLA, their current offensive and the potential implications for Mali and the region.

Very cute. A baby Donald Duck.

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Dili diay ta mag-kompyansa aning pa-picture-picture kay basin asa pa magamit atong picture.

by AFP

An Oklahoma lawmaker has proposed legislation to ban any use of fetuses in food in one of the more bizarre twists in the emotive US battle over abortion.

The bill comes after wild rumors began circulating online and among anti-abortion groups that soft drink giant, Pepsi, was using aborted fetuses in its products. The company has denounced the urban legend as completely false.

''PepsiCo does not conduct or fund research that utilizes any human tissue or cell lines derived from embryos,'' spokesman Peter Land told AFP Wednesday.

The rumors were originally triggered by a patent application by a Pepsi supplier which cited the use of the HEK293 cell line in developing processes for an artificial taste-tester.

Originally derived from the kidneys of an aborted fetus in the 1970s, HEK293 is an easy-to-clone line of cells widely used in biotech research.

Oklahoma state senator Ralph Shortey said he has been researching the issue for about a year and is concerned there are no rules preventing the use of embryonic stem cells or fetal tissue in food and other products.

by PNA

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) regional consular office 6 has warned of a recruitment scam that entices Filipinos to work in China.

DFA 6 officer-in-charge Florentino Granada recently received a communication from the Philippine Consulate General in Macau together with a clipping of a news article which warned Filipinos “to (be) beware of falling prey to unscrupulous parties who offer them jobs as household service workers, teachers or musicians in China.”

The advisory was issued to “warn all prospective Filipino overseas workers coming to Macau to be cautious not to be victimized by illegal recruiters,” Granada said.

He underscored that mainland China has a policy that prohibits foreign workers from working in its domestic-service sector even as he cited that this makes them vulnerable because they have no government protection.

Granada said that there have been reports of Filipinos working in China.

The Philippine embassy and the consulate general according to the news article that appeared in Macau Times have “observed an increasing number of cases of illegal recruitment of Filipinos.”

by Manila Bulletin

Taxation is a very technical field, one that needs much studying, planning and forethought. As such, it would not be amiss for anybody to seek the advice of a well-respected accountant or tax lawyerâ€"be it on a personal capacity or as the financial arm of a multinational companyâ€"particularly if the potential risk involved is substantial.

Atty. Benedicta Du-Baladad, managing partner of BDB Lawâ€"a law firm that combines the expertise of tax lawyers with certified accountants in one firmâ€"asserts that there are certain things people need to remember in minimizing one’s exposure to taxes and fully maximizing one’s tax savings.

“There are actually two ways of minimizing one’s taxes: one is tax avoidance, which is lawful; while the other is tax evasion, which is unlawful. There is a clear but very thin dividing line between the two. When tax avoidance crosses the line of tax evasion, it becomes unlawful and criminal. Tax planners should be very careful not to cross this line,” explains Du-Baladad.

She said that with tax avoidance, taxpayers can advance the consummation of a transaction if a tax imposed on the transaction is applicable after a specified date in the futureâ€"this is lawful. Willfully under-declaring the sales or overstating one’s deductible expenses, however, is considered tax evasion and is highly illegal.

By REGINA ABUYUAN
Manila Bulletin

Do what you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life,” said Confucius.

Several centuries down the line, and only a lucky few have the means and luck to follow the ancient sage’s words.

Included in that exclusive set of people actually bounding up every morning, raring and excited to “get to work” are pretty pair Jen Gerodias-Diaz, 35, and Gen Enriquez-Gerodias, 39, the brains and beauties behind Snoe beauty products.

Here’s what they do on a regular work day: read fashion magazines, beauty books, scour the Internet, test beauty products, and determine what formulations and ingredients work best.

Gerodias, ballerina-thin with a resemblance to Kim Kardashian, who’s in charge of marketing and streamlining operations, says: “We derive pleasure when we discover products that work, and we share it with friends and familyâ€"from cheap to middle-of-the-road to expensive, it doesn’t matterâ€"we love trying out products.”

Diaz, her sister-in-law, just as slender, fairer, and endowed with the moxie of a shrewd businesswoman, adds: “Our forte is conceptualizingâ€"” from a never-before-seen product to its formulation to its name, she says this is the most fun part of their job. “For example, our lip balm not only moisturizes your lips, it protects your lips from the sun, it plumps the lips, and also freshens your breath. We put something in there that’s an ingredient of mouthwash. And we came up with a name that will match the product; we called it Beso Balm.”

By EVANGELINE NAVARRO
Manila Bulletin

MANILA, Philippines â€" Cataclysmic typhoons. Crashing markets. Slowing economies. Droughts and nil harvests. Pockets of violence riddling the world. You’d think with the cumulative erosion of bad news on our psyche, we’d be reduced to cowering paralysis or depression. Or both. Instead, local news is doing shimmery prose on the brighter economic prospects ahead.

The Asian Development Bank projects the Philippine economy to grow by 4.8 percent in 2012 compared to the estimated 2011 rate of less than four percent last year due to expected government spending in infrastructure and a sustained, if not better, level of remittances that will support local consumption.

Local bank deposits rose to R5 trillion in the third quarter of 2011â€"with more than half of these plunked down by individualsâ€"and this is expected to boost lending activities and, subsequently, fuel efforts in bumping consumption and investments. Industry players are in consensus that banks will see more lending this year with BPI forecasting a double-digit expansion of its credit business for the first quarter of the year. If there is any credit squeeze coming from dour global economic prospects, it’s not happening in this neighborhood.

The Clark free port reports an export performance last year that is already ahead by three years in terms of target. The country’s sugar industry expects bumper yield from Luzon and Mindanao brought on by warm weather. In other sectors, despite efforts by American policymakers to discourage the flight of work to other countries, the BPO industry is expected to grow up to as much 20 percent this year, representing a 4.8 percent share of GDP. In 2016, the industry is expected to be at par with the level of OFW remittances and is expected to corner 10 percent of the world BPO market.

by Manila Bulletin

Philippine Seven Corp. (PSC), the exclusive local licensee of the globally-successful 7-Eleven convenience store chain, paid tribute to growing partnerships and top performing franchisees in the recent 7th Franchise Appreciation Day held at the World Trade Center.

The entire 7-Eleven franchise community turned out in droves at the event held to celebrate mutual partnerships and express gratitude for the loyal support accorded them over the years. With the theme, “Ready, Get Set, Grow,” PSC Business Development Manager Francis Medina said that the company is deeply thankful to all its franchisees as they took the chance to grow successfully with 7-Eleven.

PSC President Jose Victor Paterno, in his speech, shared the company’s growth leap platforms for the remaining quarter, as well as the onset of an exciting 2012 for 7-Eleven. Apart from continued expansion, PSC has initiated the first phase of the planned new look of all 7-Eleven stores in the country. According to Paterno, the store renovation will include the use of energy-efficient LED lighting and air-conditioning inverters, “at no extra cost for franchisees.”

By ANDREW JAMES MASIGAN
Manila Bulletin

MANILA, Philippines â€" Early this month, HSBC’s global research unit came out with a report predicting the rise and fall of world economies in the next 40 years. To the great delight of most Filipinos, the Philippines was singled out to be the world’s most dynamic economy and seen to jump 27 places from its current position to become the planet’s 16th largest economy by the year 2050.

HSBC considered five key benchmarks in the conduct of its studyâ€"population size, population growth rate, level of education, commitment to free trade, and track record of fiscal discipline. It was on these parameters that the Philippines was given its optimistic prognosis.

The report asserts that our high literacy rate, coupled with our developed educational system (in both specialized and vocational skills), puts us in the position to possess one of the largest and most productive working populations in the world by the year 2050. Technology transfer brought about by the OFW phenomenon is a contributing factor as well. HSBC believes that the sheer size and inherent talents of our population is what will drive the economy in years to come.

Real photographs without the magic of Adobe Photoshop. Congrats to the winners!

By EM P. GUEVARA
Manila Bulletin

MANILA, Philippines â€" The indefatigable Manny Osmeña has many reasons to celebrate, but foremost in his mind when he invited the media to a wine pairing dinner in his newly rebranded Mövenpick Hotel & Resort recently was to offer thanksgiving for the 49 awards from seven countries that his Manny O Wines have garnered in only three years. “For someone born not making wine, I’m very, very happy to get so many awards,” he says.

Aside from the update on his thriving wine business, Business Agenda sat the dynamo down to talk about how his hotel business is doing, and his latest acquisitions in the airline services industry. Effusive and generous with information as always, he remarks, “I have no trade secrets…because the stamina and ‘diskarte’ (techniques) are mine, and you can’t steal my tongue and my nose.” Here are the latest from the country’s own and self-fashioned “Johnny Walker of wine,” Manny Osmeña.

By MYRNA M. VELASCO

MANILA, Philippines â€" As the restructured power industry ups the ante for a competitive environment, power utility giant Manila Electric Company (Meralco) continues with its capital projects on network expansion and improvements.

“These projects, which are all part of our approved capital expenditure program, will reinforce our electric distribution system and further improve electric service to our customers,” Meralco executive vice president and networks head Ricardo V. Buencamino has noted.

Toward the closing months of 2011, the company bared that it completed additional seven electric capital projects which reinforced the load capacity of its distribution network.

By CHINO S. LEYCO
Manila Bulletin

MANILA, Philippines â€" The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said Monday that some government releases will be withheld from agencies if they fail to submit their budgetary reports for fiscal year 2012.

In a statement, Budget and Management Secretary Florencio B. Abad said that this plan aims to strengthen the Aquino administration’s drive for transparency and accountability.

“The DBM is very firm in enforcing the ‘no report, no release’ rule for the submission of Budget Accountability Reports (BARs). Agencies and departments that do not comply with this will not receive their releases from the Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund (MPBF),” Abad said.

By BERNIE CAHILES-MAGKILAT
MANILA Bulletin

Philippines â€" The electronics industry considered 2012 as its rebound year where growth is expected at 20 percent to regain last year’s loss and get back to the 2010 level with more new investments coming in including the P20 billion printer manufacturing facilities of Canon, another printer project of Brother of Japan and the P350 million project of Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd.

Ernesto Santiago, president of the Semiconductor and Electronics Industry of the Philippines Inc. (SEIPI), told reporters at the sidelines of the “DTI-BOI 2012 Strategic Industry Development Forum: Partnership for Inclusive Growth,” that the industry is going to recover this year to its 2010 level.

“We were down 20 percent in 2011. This year 2012 is a snap back year,” Santiago said.

Looks like Happy Feet movie scene.

By MYRNA M. VELASCO
Manila Bulletin

MANILA, Philippines â€" State-run Philippine National Oil Company-Exploration Corporation (PNOC-EC) has indicated that it is already finalizing its appointment of a financial advisor that will undertake valuation of its shares to be listed at the Philippine Stock Exchange.

“PNOC-EC is in the final stage of identifying its financial advisor. It will take four months to go thru the valuation and book building process,” company compliance officer Silvestre R. Punsalan III has noted.

The firm has not specified though if it will conduct new bidding for its financial advisor or if it will just choose from the roster of its previously-shortlisted banks.

“The actual timing and actual selling of the PNOC EC shares will be determined by the Department of Finance,” the PNOC-EC official has reiterated.

Punsalan similarly sounded off the national government’s position that the follow-on listing of the PNOC-EC shares “will only push thru if the valuation of the shares will be advantageous to the government.”

There are limited seats at the Senate Hall. Poor people are unlikely to get an entry pass. Some law students have been able to attend the hearing, though.

By JAMES A. LOYOLA
Manila Bulletin

Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) posted a 13.4 percent hike in unaudited net income to P12.8 billion in 2011 from the P11.3 billion reported in the previous year.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the bank said this result translated to a Return on Equity of 15.2 percent and a Return on Assets of 1.6 percent.

BPI president and CEO Aurelio R. Montinola III commented, “2011 was both challenging and exciting. Despite Eurozone troubles, below 2010 Philippine GDP growth, and low interest rates, BPI performed creditably.”

By MYRNA M. VELASCO
Manila Bulletin

MANILA, Philippines â€" The country’s coal-fired plants still logged considerable jump in fuel importation last year given that domestic production cannot support the industry’s demand yet.

It can be gleaned from Department of Energy (DoE) documents that the power sector remains the biggest end-user of coal on its needs for electricity generation.

Despite the reported increase in the production of the Semirara Mining Corporation, it was gathered from energy officials that domestic supply is still very much in a ‘catch-up mode’ vis-à-vis demand.

The total volume of run-of-mine coal importation hovered at 10.96 million metric tons. Roughly 10.89 million MT were sourced from Indonesia; while 68,169MT were from Vietnam.

By EMMIE V. ABADILLA
Manila Bulletin

MANILA, Philippines â€" Globe Telecom Inc. signed a ten-year, US$90-million floating rate term loan facility with China Banking Corporation to finance its 2012 capital expenditures under it's US$790-million five-year massive network modernization and IT transformation program.

The telco is boosting its voice and data capacity to meet the growing demand for broadband and mobile data use and expects US$640-million will be spent this year and in 2013.

With the rapid penetration of social media and availability of more affordable smartphones among Filipino mobile phone owners, Globe looks at its broadband and data businesses as key focus areas that will sustain its growth

The Philippine Tobacco Institute (PTI), an association of cigarette manufacturers and importers, has expressed dismay at the pronouncement by Malacañang on the government’s avowed policy of “no compromise” on tax matters.

PTI President Rodolfo Salanga was reacting to a statement made by Palace spokesman Edwin Lacierda, who said that there would be no compromise on the bill of the Department of Finance that seeks to restructure the existing excise tax system on cigarettes and alcohol products, which will push up the tax rate on cigarettes by as much as 1,000 percent.

Lacierda claimed that this “rationalization” of the tax scheme will result in the collection of an additional R60 billion in revenues.

Salanga expressed apprehension at this claim, saying “rationalization” is a euphemism used when people are about to lose their jobs.

“Be warned when a bureaucrat starts mouthing words like ‘rationalize’ or ‘right-size.’ What usually happens is a number of people will find themselves jobless,” Salanga said in a statement. - source: Manila Bulletin

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souce: Archive of Microsoft Encarta

1957: Singapore
Autonomy.

The most important event in Singapore's history in 1957 was the successful negotiation of home-rule agreement with the British Crown. Although Britain retains responsibility for external affairs and defense (and a role in internal security), in 1958 Singapore will become an autonomous member of the Commonwealth.

The first conversations leading to Britain's relinquishment failed in mid-1956, and David Marshall, Chief Minister of Singapore, resigned. He was replaced by Lim Yew Hock, who received a confidence vote from the Legislative Assembly (25 to 4) and arrived in London on Dec. 10, 1956, to organize an agenda for renewed negotiations. He and Colonial Secretary Alan Lennox-Boyd agreed on the agenda and set the talks for Mar. 10, 1957. On March 5, in view of the fact that earlier efforts had failed when no agreement was reached on measures for internal security, Lim Yew Hock proposed as a compromise that any issue of internal security on which the Singapore government and British defense officials could not agree should be referred to a seven-man security council composed of three from Britain, three from Singapore, and one from the Federation of Malaya, with the latter representative as chairman. At the same time he suggested that the Governor-General be a Malayan. The conference in London opened on March 11 and announced agreement on April 9. The agreement almost foundered, however, when the Colonial Office added a last-minute reservation to the effect that persons known to have engaged in subversive activity be barred from election to Singapore's first legislative assembly. Lim Yew Hock believed that this clause, which affected about ten persons, would unnecessarily give such persons the status of martyrs. Apart from this reservation, the Constitution was greeted in Singapore with great satisfaction. Many of Lim Yew Hock's suggestions were incorporated, but a British representative was given the chair of the security council. Although a Malayan Federation representative would be Governor-General, it was agreed that a British representative of equal rank and with the right to take over the government in emergencies, or if Singapore violated its constitution, would also be appointed. The size of the Legislative Assembly was set at 51, safeguards were included for minority groups, citizenship requirements were established, and a procedure was set up to 'Malayanize' the judiciary and civil service. Although some opposition appeared in Singapore over the ban on known subversives, the draft was accepted on April 30 by the Singapore Legislative Assembly by a vote of 23 to 2. David Marshall and an independent voted against it, and Marshall resigned.

Domestic Problems.

Singapore faces two major domestic problems. The first concerns Communist subversion. As a result of riots in October 1956, a total of 1,619 people were arrested, 216 placed under detention, and 31 banished. In August 1957, another Communist plot was revealed and 35 were arrested, most of them from the Peoples Action Party, the local front, including the chairman, Tan Chong Kim, and four members of the executive committee. The government announced it intended to maintain its drive and on October 12 banished Dr. Chuang Chu-lin of the Cheng Cheng Middle School.

The other problem of Singapore is its economic future. Residents fear that Malaya will raise tariff barriers and develop its own ports. The danger of this when added to a declining trade ratio with Indonesia is obvious. However, Britain has announced its intent to maintain its main naval base at Singapore and it is hoped that in time the Malayan fear of the Chinese majority in Singapore can be allayed and Singapore can then become a member of the Federation.

FACTS AND FIGURES

Area and Population.

Area, 224.5 sq. mi. City of Singapore, 31.5 sq. mi. Pop. (1956 est.), 1,261,677: Chinese, 965,274; Malaysians, 153,962; Indians and Pakistanis, 98,258; Europeans, 19,416; Eurasians, 11,994; others, 12,773.

Government.

Crown Colony. Governor, Sir Robert Black; Chief Minister, Lim Yew Hock. Council of Ministers: 3 ex officio members and 6 ministers drawn from the legislature. Legislative Assembly: 3 ex officio members, 4 nominated non-officials, and 25 elected members.

Finance.

Unit of currency: Straits dollar, tied to sterling at 2s. 4d. Budget (1955): Revenue (75 per cent from taxation), $M208,833,000; expenditure $M197,912,000.

Trade.

Main exports: rubber, tin, petroleum products, pepper, textiles. Main imports: rubber, petroleum products, rice, spices, and a wide range of manufactured consumer and capital goods for local consumption and re-export.

Industries.

Processing of tin, rubber, pineapples and coconut oil, shipbuilding, sawmilling, steel-rolling, motor assembly, printing, and light industries mainly for the home market.

Education and Religion.

Schools (1955): government and private, 659; student enrollment, 211,804. University of Malaya (in Singapore), 1,220 students. Religions: Buddhist, Moslem, and Christian.

Armed Forces.

Singapore is headquarters of the United Kingdom Armed Forces in the Far East and a base for other Commonwealth forces. The total numbers involved not known.

War is business. That is how America views war.

Singapore Airlines Skyjacking in 1991.
In March four Pakistani dissidents seized a Singapore Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore and ordered the pilot to fly to Australia. The plane landed at Singapore Airport, ostensibly to refuel, and local authorities thereupon began negotiations. After an 8-hour standoff, commandos stormed the plane and killed all four hijackers. None of the 118 passengers aboard the aircraft was injured.

source: Collier Year Book

Press Release

Since most native trees grow from seeds, a non-government organization called on the
public to collect seeds and propagate them to contribute to the creation of native tree forests.

Rowena Bandola-Alensonorin, executive director of the Integrated Development unit of
the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI) pointed out the urgent need to replace trees cut down
for construction purposes after some parts of the country experienced the tragic effects of
flashfloods and landslides.

“The primary importance of trees in the ecosystem is to reduce carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere, and prevent soil erosion. For many people, they see trees as beneficial for building
houses, furniture, tools, and for firewood; hence, these demands have significantly reduced the
number of trees in the forests,” she noted.

One way to address this is to collect and propagate seeds, which are considered “the
next generation of forests.”

Alensonorin said that it is equally important for the people to know not only the names of
the native trees but also how to collect the seeds and germinate them.

“The scarcity of this knowledge might have led to the proliferation of exotic tree species,
such as mahogany, gmelina, and ipil-ipil that are now growing in our forests. If this will continue,
we will not only lose these animals, but also our highly valued trees such as narra, lauan,
and mangkono that have been valued here and abroad for their toughness and strength. Our
forests should be mainly composed of indigenous trees to provide food and habitat to our native
animals,” she explained.

Producing quality trees starts from the quality of seeds germinated. These seeds
must only come from healthy mother trees or those trees that bear fruits and produce seeds.
Germinated seeds should be nurtured in a well-managed tree nursery that provides a suitable
area for these seeds to grow into plantable seedlings for use in reforestation initiatives.

The RAFI Native Trees Nursery collects seeds and wildlings (seeds that germinated
underneath or near the mother tree) all over the Visayas region. The nursery is also willing to
receive seeds and seedlings from people who would like to donate. The nursery has an existing
150,000 seedlings of 212 native tree species and is located in Barangay Busay, Cebu City.

The RAFI Native Trees Nursery is a mechanism of the GREENIN Philippines Program of
RAFI to create forests composed of native trees.

by AFP

More than a hundred countries now support a French proposal to create a "World Environment Organisation" at the upcoming 20th anniversary conference of the Rio Summit, France's ecology minister said on Tuesday.

"More than 100 countries have now associated themselves with the proposal," Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet said at a conference in Paris aimed at stimulating ideas for June 20-22 global gathering.

The idea is to beef up the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), which critics say lacks muscle for dealing with the world's worsening environmental crisis.

But rather than be just a branch of the UN, the proposed agency would help implement international environmental standards and include grassroots groups and business, according to the proposal.

Speaking afterwards to reporters, Kosciusko-Morizet said the United States "has yet to back" to the proposal, citing questions of sovereignty.

Audience at the Renato Corona Impeachment

Photo of the Renato Corona Impeachment

Lawyers Arriving at Renato Corona Impeachment Trial

Hotels.com ofrece escapadas a la Florida y California con su rebaja Sunny Escapes Sale


Source: Hotels.com ofrece escapadas a la Florida y California con su rebaja Sunny Escapes Sale

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Source: Lockheed Martin Hosts Industry Collaboration Forum in Saudi Arabia

Civil Unrest, Middle East/North Africa Pose Greatest Risks to International Business Travelers This Year, According to Industry Survey


Source: Civil Unrest, Middle East/North Africa Pose Greatest Risks to International Business Travelers This Year, According to Industry Survey

Atlas Travel International Is Rewriting the Way Companies Think About Travel with Two Key New Hires


Source: Atlas Travel International Is Rewriting the Way Companies Think About Travel with Two Key New Hires