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By Conrado Ching
Tribune

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) deported recently seven Chinese who were arrested last month at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) for attempting to leave the country with spurious travel documents.

BI officer-in-charge Ronaldo Ledesma said the aliens were deported last Sept. 22 via a China Southern Airlines flight to Xiamen.

The deportees were identified as Lu Chuanhan, Fu Gongyong, Lin Xingqing, He Shufang, He Shutai, Ke Xingfa and Li Bao.

Ledesma said the aliens were expelled pursuant to a deportation order issued by the BI board of commissioners last Sept. 16.

The board also banned them from re-entering the Philippines and placed them on the immigration blacklist.

The foreigners were intercepted at the NAIA 3 departure area last Sept. 4 as they were about to board a Cebu Pacific flight to Shanghai.

They were off-loaded after immigration officers found their passports bore fake immigration departure stamps.

Lawyer Arvin Santos, BI airport operations division chief, said the passengers later admitted upon questioning that they had been overstaying in the country.

By Pat C. Santos, Tribune

Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim yesterday expressed doubt the P4.5- billion dredging of the 20-kilometer stretch of Pasig River was completed two months ahead of schedule.

Lim’s doubt was revealed during a press conference held inside his office after he created a team composed of engineers to investigate the claim made by Baggewerken Decloedtan ZA (BDC), a Belgian contractor of the project, to verify if the project were truly finished ahead of schedule.

Lim tasked City Administrator Jesus Mari Marzan to compose the team of engineers headed by assistant city engineer Melvin Balagot to locate where the claimed 2.8 metric tons of dredged materials composed mainly of domestic waste materials and silts were disposed of or dumped considering that the city has not received any report of dumping or disposal.

Lim said initial plans to dump the recovered silts were in Baseco reclamation area but it was met with stiff opposition from its residents because of the stench it emitted.

Lim added since the dredging and dumping took place in Manila, the city’s permit should have been obtained.

Earlier, engineer Allan Polintan, deputy executive director of the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission (PRRC), had said the dredging project had been completed by the Belgian contractor last Sept. 25 and that the dredging equipment were turned over to the PRRC for it to maintain the dredging of the river.

This reporter was one of those invited during a visitation tour made by Regina Lopez, an ABS-CBN executive and chairman of the PRRC, and what he witnessed during the tour was a dredging operation with a crane loaded on the boat where those recovered silts were placed in a rented small vessel and, after it was full, the vessel traveled toward the edge of the Pasig River and presented to media the dumping site which is about 500 meters away from the edge of the river.

By Gerry Baldo
Tribune

Over 100 lawmakers crossed party-lines and signed a manifesto calling for an increase in the subsidy for the state universities and colleges (SUC), San Juan Rep. Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito said yesterday.

Ejercito, who initiated the move, also urged President Aquino to re-evaluate the government’s policy on the SUC which, lawmakers said, has been drastically reduced.

Citing the 1987 Constitution’s provision that the State shall assign the highest budgetary priority to education, the lawmakers said in the manifesto that “… education is a fundamental right of every citizen and recognize the vital role of the youth in nation building.”

They added “it is disturbing that the proposed National Government Budget for FY 2011 has little care to public higher education and that the government is seemingly abandoning its duty for a quality and accessible education to the Filipino youth.”

“We therefore manifest our strong objection to the budgetary cuts imposed on the 112 state universities and colleges nationwide as they constitute a paramount betrayal to every poor man’s dream to tertiary education,” the manifesto stated.

Ejercito, the principal proponent of the joint manifesto, called on Malacañang to follow the Unesco recommendation of allotting six percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) to the education sector.

“Right now, we only allotted 2.3 percent of GDP to education. If we cannot give the 6 percent of GDP now, at the very least we must exert effort to give 3 percent,” Ejercito said.

The 100 representatives finally said “the State shall protect and promote the right of all citizens to quality education at all levels and shall take appropriate steps to make such education accessible to all.”

Among the signatories to the manifesto are Representatives Monique Lagdameo (1st District, Makati); Jesus Crispin Remulla (7th District, Cavite); Fatima Aliah Dimapore (2nd District, Lanao del Norte); Abigail Faye Ferriol (party-list Kalinga); Pryde Hebry Teves (3rd District, Negros Oriental); Rafael Mariano (PL- Anakpawis); Diosdado M. Arroyo (2nd District , Cam. Sur); Carlos M. Padilla (Nueva Viscaya); Ben Evardone (Eastern Samar); Susana Yap (2nd District, Tarlac); Kimi Cojuangco (5th District, Pangasinan); Tomas Apacible (1st District, Batangas); Bernadette Herrera (PL-Bagong Henerasyon); Angelo Palmones (PL-Agham); Dan Fernandez (1st District, Laguna); Arnel Ty (PL-LPGMA); Rodolfo Farinas ( 1st District, Ilocos Norte); Romero Quimbo (2nd Dist. Marikina); Mar-Len Abigail Binay (2nd Dist. Makati); Rufus Rodriguez ( 2nd Dist. Cagayan de Oro); Tobias Tiangco (Lone Dist. Navotas); Maximo B. Rodriguez (PL-Abante Mindanao); Emmanuel D. Pacquiao (Lone Dist. Sarangani); Fernando Gonzales (3rd District, Albay), and Edwin Olivarez (1st District, Parañaque).

Peter Lim, a Singapore billionaire, is offering £320m in cash for Liverpool football club and its liabilities.

The offer trumps the £300m offered by New England Sports Ventures (NESV) which was accepted last week by Liverpool's chairman, Martin Broughton.

BBC business editor Robert Peston says Mr Lim is also offering to provide £40m in cash to buy players.

He adds Liverpool's board will find it difficult to ignore the offer, raising more uncertainty about the club's fate.

Mr Lim said in a statement: "I respect and admire Liverpool Football Club which is steeped in tradition and history. I am committed to rebuild the club so that it can soon regain its position at the pinnacle of English and European football, where it truly belongs.

"This is why I have stepped forward with this offer," he said.

Mo-amen pa ba gihapon ka sa imong parents?

Can we have more funny tagalog quotes from BNC?

The great secret of success in life is for a man to be ready when his opportunity comes. - Benjamin Disraeli

The information and communications technology (ICT) industry must adopt energy- efficient technologies to continue contributing to the global economy, a new study showed.

The study was conducted by the Institute for Sustainable and Applied Infodynamics (ISAID) in Singapore and Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy, local daily The Business Times reported on Tuesday.

The findings showed that the industry is headed for a brick wall if limits are placed on CO2 emissions.

Calculations showed that global carbon emissions related to PCs and laptops, which accounted for 48.5 percent of all global ICT emissions in 2009, will nearly quadruple by 2020. Data center- related emissions will more than triple, together with game consoles and mobile phones.

However, the study concluded that there are viable technological options in view and the industry has a strong track record of embracing new technologies. (PNA/Xinhua)

The Congressional Commission on Science, Technology and Engineering (COMSTE) is set to send a delegation composed of experts from government, academe and industry to Taiwan to set the groundwork for RP-Taiwan solar energy collaboration.

The contingent, which is set to leave on October 26, is headed by COMSTE Executive Director Dr. Gregory Tangonan. The group will be composed also of professors from De La Salle and Ateneo and representatives from leading solar and electronics companies.

COMSTE chair senator Edgardo Angara said the delegation is a Public Private Partnership (PPP) which he says is the beginning of the proposed Renewable Energy Research and Development Institute (RERDI), which is set to expand the Renewable Energy industry of the country.

Angara has pointed out that P100 million has been allocated from the 2009 budget of the Department of Science and Technology for the creation of RERDI.

The Philippine delegation will visit with the heads of more than 15 solar companies in the hopes of being able to entice them to send their solar cells for testing at a new solar testing facility which is set to open within the month in Batangas. The facility is a partnership between COMSTE and First Philec and can test panels for optimal output in tropical conditions.

Angara said that this project and collaboration with the Taiwanese marks the beginning of the RE industry in the country.

"Developing innovative Renewable Energy Systems can aid in achieving the long term goal of energy independence. With RERDI, we can fully utilize Public Private Partnerships and our ties with neighboring countries to stimulate growth in the RE power sector," said Angara.

Other projects selected by COMSTE for the RERDI are solar cooling assessment, development and demonstration program by the Philippine Green Building Council (PHILGBC)/Institute of Industrial Electrical Engineers/De La Salle University and the study of algae as a biofuel. A team composed of members from Ateneo University, Alson Aquaculture Inc., and two other photo bio-reactor companies aims to study optimal conditions that will promote the growth of algae and the cleaning of coal fired plants by placing nearby aquaculture ponds.

A Panama-flagged ship with 20 crew members, all Filipinos, have been hijacked by Somali pirates, the European Union anti-piracy force confirmed on Monday.

The EU Naval Force spokesman Lt. Col Per Klingvall said owners of the MV Izumi reported on Sunday that they had received an automatically released distress signal indicating that the vessel was likely to be under pirate attack.

Klingvall said the Danish warship HDMS Esbern Snare of the NATO counter-piracy force was dispatched to intercept and investigate.

"In the early hours of October 11 the captain of the vessel made contact with the Danish warship, stating that pirates were in charge of the MV Izumi," he said. (PNA/Xinhua)

A new study found that fat stored in the abdomen (the”apple” shape) increases the risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

The study also found that fat stored in the hips, thighs and buttock (the “pear” shape) may actually protect against these diseases.

The new undertaking was published in the weekend reports of a large-scale genetic study that identified 13 new genes associated with body fat distribution, seven of which appear to have stronger effects in women than in men.

The study appeared in the Oct. 10, 2010 online issue Nature Genetics.

Dr. Cecilia Lindgren, of the Wellcome Trust Center for Human Genetics at Oxford University in the United Kingdom (UK) and her co-authors are members of an international consortium comprising 400 scientists from 280 research institutions worldwide.

Dr. Lindgren said the waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), a measure of body fat distribution, is now well-established as a risk factor in these diseases, independently of body mass index (BMI), a measure of obesity that compares weight to height.

But while there is evidence that WHR can run in families, little was known about the genes involved, she said.

Lindgren and colleagues said that in their investigation, they conducted a meta-analysis of large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to find gene variants that might be strongly linked to WHR.

A meta-analysis is a way of pooling results from several studies and treating them statistically as if they came from one large study.) p>She said they pooled data on 77,000 participants from 32 studies and checked their results against data from another 29 studies covering over 113,500 participants.

The data showed 14 gene regions were linked to waist-to-hip ratio, confirming one that had already been discovered, but revealing 13 that had not been linked to this measure of body fat distribution before. - PNA

PNA: The Philippines' ranking in a survey that measures the gap between men and women remained the highest country from Asia, according to a World Economic Forum (WEF) report released Tuesday.

The Philippines ranked ninth with a score of 0.7654 in the Switzerland-based group’s Global Gender Gap Index, which measures economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, political empowerment, health and survival of women in 134 countries.

Last year, the country's ranking fell to 9th place from its 6th position for the years 2008, 2007 and 2006

The Index is designed to measure gender-based gaps in access to resources and opportunities in individual countries rather than the actual levels of the available resources and opportunities in those countries.

The Philippines remains the highest ranking country from Asia in the survey. The Philippines ranks 1st on both education and health and is also a very strong performer on economic participation (13th) and political empowerment (17th).

"The Philippines is the only country in Asia this year to have closed the gender gap on both education and health, and is among only eight countries in the world to have done so," WEF said.

WEF said New Zealand, ranking fifth and the Philippines lead the way in the region and are the only two countries from the region to hold places in the top 10 of the global rankings.

Other countries in Southeast Asia like Singapore ranked 56th; Thailand, 57th; Vietnam, 72nd; Indonesia, 87th and Malaysia, 98th.

Nordic countries Iceland ranked first followed by Norway, Finland and Sweden.

WEF said no country in the world has achieved gender equality.

The four highest-ranking countries -â€" Iceland, Norway, Finland and Sweden -â€" have closed a little over 80 percent of their gender gaps.

Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of WEF, said low gender gaps are directly correlated with high economic competitiveness.

"Women and girls must be treated equally if a country is to grow and prosper. We still need a true gender equality revolution, not only to mobilize a major pool of talent both in terms of volume and quality, but also to create a more compassionate value system within all our institutions,” Schwab said.

The Global Gender Gap Index was developed in 2006 partially to address the need for a consistent and comprehensive measure for gender equality that can track a country’s progress over time.

The fifth edition of The Global Gender Gap Report reveals the trends observed in the data over the past five years and seeks to call attention to the need for more rapid progress in closing gender gaps.

Freedom of the press and the legitimate right of practicing journalists to act as watchdogs will always be respected by the state as stipulated in the Constitution.

This, Presidential Chief Legal Counsel Atty. Ed de Mesa emphasized Tuesday as he assured members of media that there is no reason to be alarmed over the involvement of two of their colleagues in the probe report of the Aug. 23 hostage tragedy.

“We respect the right of media and we highly value press freedom, and so, that is why we are very careful in coming with recommendations against members of the media.” De Mesa said.

De Mesa suggested that members of the media should police their respective ranks in sensitive police operations similar to the Quirino Grandstand bus hijacking and hostage taking incident which killed eight innocent civilians.

De Mesa pointed out that the reason why they left the decision to the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkasters ng Pilipinas (KBP) to issue possible sanctions against broadcasters Erwin Tulfo and Michael Rogas is because the KBP has the jurisdiction over them. Tulfo and Rogas are both active members of the KBP. (PNA)

President Benigno S. Aquino III said on Tuesday the continued strong showing of the Philippine peso is an indication that the economy is definitely improving.

The President made the statement after unveiling the Enhanced Business Name Registration System (eBNRS) of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in Mandaluyong City.

The peso was pegged at P43.60 against the US dollar at the closing of the Philippine Dealing System on Monday.

Last Oct. 3, the peso was also up 21 centavos, closing at P43.67 against the US dollar as other major Asian currencies also appreciated.

“Undoubtedly, it is also a sign that the economy definitely is improving,” the President said.

As the peso continued its strong showing, the President said the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), is doing the necessary steps to allay the fears of exporters and overseas Filipino workers on its uncertain impact on remittances and sending Philippine products abroad.

As it is, the President said inflation is quite manageable and there is no overheating of the economy.

In line with the Aquino administration’s thrust to create a business-friendly environment to attract more investments, President Benigno S. Aquino III unveiled on Tuesday a faster Business Name Registration System (eBNRS) at the Department of Trade and Industry â€"National Capital Region Area 3 office at Highway 54 in Mandaluyong City.

The online registration, one of the government’s commitments to the public by giving businessmen less hassle in doing business, also makes government transactions transparent and prevents corruption in the workplace.

“Our aim in automation is to lessen people handling the process and allow technology to hasten transaction,” Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo said.

It takes only 15 minutes and P300 for an applicant to get a business name. The President witnessed how the new system works and he was pleased with it.

An applicant used to fill up eight pages of the application form but under the new system, only one page has to be filled up.

Domingo said the government is constantly improving its services and breaking down business barriers to ensure that there will be unhampered flow of services to the public notably the entrepreneurs in the country.

He cited the ongoing work at the Philippine Business Registry which aims to consolidate the business registration into one system, including the mayor’s permit, Security and Exchange Commission, Department of Trade and Industry and other government permits and licenses.

According to Domingo, the National Economic Research and Business Assistance Center places under one roof all government agencies giving permit and licenses. (PNA)

The Iloilo City Anti-Smoking Task Force (ICAST) here said that most of the college students they have apprehended for the violation of the city smoking ordinance belong to the medical profession.

ICAST chairman, city councilor Joshua Alim said that the college students were taking up nursing, medicine and other related courses in some of the prestigious universities in the city.

He said that most of the students were caught smoking near their schools and even wearing their nursing or medicine uniform.

He said that ICAST has apprehended some of these students smoking and drinking alcoholic beverages as early as 2 p.m. Most of them were also female students taking medical-related courses, he said.

Alim said that this was very alarming since the students did not seem to understand the repercussion of their actions, adding that they should be reminded that as future medical professionals, they should know the effects of smoking to their health and their jobs.

Alim said that ICAST has informed the college deans where these students are studying. ICAST is set to have a dialogue with universities and colleges to discuss the city’s anti-smoking ordinance, he said.

He also lamented that about 30 percent of the violators of the city smoking ordinance were students.

Meanwhile, he noted that students caught violating the smoking ordinance were the first to pay their citation tickets at the city treasurer’s office.

By Allen V. Estabillo

Health officials here warned anew residents against the dangers posed by the dreaded Human Immunodeficiency Virus, or HIV infection, after two more local residents were recently tested positive of the disease.

Dr. Mely Lastimoso, coordinator of the City Integrated Health Services Office’s Social Hygiene Clinic, said two male patients from the city have been confirmed positive during the past several months of the HIV and the deadly Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) , bringing the total number of patients from the area to at least 23.

She said that the new HIV/AIDS cases involved a “professional” and a “driver.”

Of the 23 confirmed HIV/AIDS cases from the city, Lastimoso said 18 were males while only five were females.

“Our data shows that most of the confirmed HIV/AIDS cases in the city involved men who have had (sexual) contact with other men,” she said in an interview over a local television station.

Cris Lopera, executive director of advocacy group Shine Foundation, said that most of the confirmed HIV/AIDS cases were found among men that have had sexual contact with other men as they comprise the bulk of the suspected patients who have so far sought help and submitted themselves for testing.

“They were basically targeted for testing based on their behavior,” he said.

Lopera said the best remedy for the problem so far is through massive education among residents regarding the risks posed by the disease.

Lastimoso said the confirmation of the two new HIV/AIDS cases was considered alarming as they were only recorded during the last eight months.

The Social Hygiene Clinic, which exclusively handles confirmed and suspected HIV/AIDS cases in the area, issued its latest update regarding the matter only last February.

“This should serve as a warning to everybody. The risk of acquiring the disease is quite high right now, especially among those with risky sexual behavior,” she said.

Lastimoso advised suspected HIV/AIDS patients to immediately seek help from their office for proper confirmation and handling of the disease.

“The tests are rendered free and all these are done in highly confidential manner,” she said.(PNA)

Globe Telecom on Monday said it has strengthened its roaming network to more international destinations.

In a statement, the Ayala-led telco said it offers roaming service to more than 200 destinations around the world, even in International Air Space and International Waters.

Given this, Globe subscribers can make calls and send text messages while on board a plane or ship.

Globe has currently established partnerships with more than 600 roaming partners from all over the world.

It provides strong network signal abroad and worldwidest network coverage to enterprise customers both on postpaid and prepaid mobile.

Jesus C. Romero, head of enterprise segments at Globe Business, said strong telco alliances allow Globe to deliver enhanced international connections and roaming services to subscribers.

Thus, Globe Business is able to provide full mobility to its customers anywhere they go, even in destinations like Comoros Islands, Uzbekistan, Equatorial Guinea and many more.

“Complementing our worldwidest roaming coverage is our network resiliency that ensures our customers of continuous connections and availability of mobile services anywhere outside of the Philippines. In Globe Business, providing superior customer experience is on top of everything we do. The continuous build up of our roaming network is part of our aim to deliver unparalleled service to customers, as we remain responsive to their mobility needs,” Romero said.

At end-June, Globe had a total of 23.71 million subscribers.

Owned by Ayala Corp. and Singapore Telecommunications Ltd., Globe recorded a net income of P5.1 billion in the first six months of the year, down by 29 percent compared with last year’s P7.2 billion.

In the second quarter alone, Globe’s net income amounted to P2.39 billion, down from P3.25 billion in the same period last year.

The company’s consolidated service revenues for the first six months stood at P30.7 billion, down 3 percent from P31.7 billion last year. (PNA)

The Philippines’ domestic economy has shown proofs of continued improvement and one of these proofs is the 67.1 percent year-on-year drop in the availment on central bank’s peso rediscount facility as of end-September 2010.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Monday reported that availments on its peso rediscounting facility totaled to nearly P46.28 million.

This is far lower than the P140.54 million availed in the same period last year when path of the global economy is still in question.

Rate of the peso rediscounting is now at four percent, in effect since February 1, 2010 and is higher than the 3.5 percent during the recent global financial turmoil.

BSP’s peso rediscount facility is back to P20 billion after it was raised up to P60 million last year to ensure that liquidity needs of banks, particularly commercial, thrift, and rural banks would be addressed.

Bulk of the loans or 54.5 percent of it went to commercial credits; 40.3 percent to other credits specifically Other Services at 26.7 percent, capital expenditures, 8.5 percent; permanent working capital, 3.2 percent; housing, 1.9 percent; and microfinance at less than 0.1 percent; and 5.2 percent to agricultural and industrial credits.

The BSP said the total loan availments as of last month does not include the P9 billion extended to micro, small and medium enterprises (mSMEs) that was taken from the P5 billion allocated by the central bank for the sector after the country was hit by the twin-storm “Ondoy” and “Pepeng” in late September and early October 2009.

On the other hand, availment of seven commercial banks on central bank’s Exporters Dollar and Yen Rediscount Facility (EDYRF) totaled to US$ 59.1 million in the first nine months this year, 37.4 percent higher than year-ago’s US$ 43 million.

The BSP said these loans were tapped by 25 exporters.

“There was no Yen-denominated availment under the EDYRF for the period January to September 2010,” it pointed out. (PNA)

By Danny O. Calleja

VIRAC, Catanduanes, Oct. 12 (PNA)-â€" She is among the lowly daily wagers at the provincial Capitol here receiving compensation meager enough to live a wholesome lifestyle but 35-year old Ruth Vargas-Tenerife is special for showing to the whole world last week the genetic honesty of islanders called Catandunganons.

Tenerife, a mother of three and wife to a construction firm driver works as a contractual employee under the office of Vice-Gov. Jose Teves Jr.

Except for the daily salary within the minimum wage level she earns, she receives no other remuneration from her work that has no security of tenure.

The vice-governor however, upon learning of her act of honesty when she returned to its owner a purse containing P50,000 cash, some US dollar bills and other valuables she found at the Capitol ground here, however, assured her of continuous employment “as long Teves is at the Capitol”.

Her appointment could be elevated to permanent status for a bigger salary and secure employment according to Teves but Tenerife won’t qualify as she is not a civil service eligible.

Anyway, the vice-governor said, Tenerife would no longer be bothered queuing in competition with hundreds other job seekers to renew her appointment as contractual or “job order” employee every three months from this time on and she is assured of employment continuity at least until June 2013, co-terminus with him.

Tenerife’s tale of honesty unfolded one morning last week, when she stumbled upon an elegant-looking purse on the ground at the parking lot of the provincial Capitol as she was reporting to work, a report of the Catanduanes Tribune said.

She picked up the purse, opened it and discovered the money and other valuables inside. She also found a piece of paper bearing a mobile phone number which she presumed to belong to the owner of her find.

In an interview with the Tribune, Tenerife narrated that the first thing she had in mind on discovering the huge amount of money inside the purse was to find its owner and return it.

“Anything lost and found should be returned to its owner. That is the belief I had with me since I was a child,” Tenerife was quoted by the Tribune as saying.

She dialed the number listed on the piece of paper found inside the purse and it was answered by a woman who turned out to be Annie Lopez, a California, USA-based balikbayan who was just around the corner looking for the purse when she received Tenerife’s call.

In a little while, the two met and the purse was back to its owner. Lopez, the Tribune said offered Tenerife cash as reward for her honesty but it was turned down.

On the same day, Lopez tried to find ways to reciprocate to Tenerife’s honesty until she ended at the vice-governor’s office in front of Teves expressing her gratitude for the return of her lost purse.

"You are a blessed man, Mr. vice-governor. You are a very good leader because you have honest staff," Lopez said, adding that she and her family would visit him and Tenerife when they come back from the US.

She told the vice-governor that the P50,000 inside the purse was intended for her nephew’s college schooling in the coming opening of the second semester.

“The return to me of my purse courtesy of Mrs Tenerife saved me a lot of troubles. My passport, money and all other important personal documents were there and surely, my return to the US scheduled two days before my inspiring experience here will be affected,” Lopez said.

“I shall herald this good news about my province mates in Catanduanes that in this far away island at the middle of the Philippine Sea lives a herd of an honest race,” she declared. (PNA)
LOR/LQ/DOC/cbd

Senator Antonio "Sonny" Trillanes IV was elated on Tuesday over the grant of amnesty by President Benigno Simeon "Noynoy" C. Aquino III to all active and former personnel of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) who committed acts of war against the State.

Lawyer Rey Robles, legal counsel of Trillanes, on Tuesday said that the senator was happy about the amnesty granted him by the President.

Robles said that Trillanes considered such amnesty as a good step on the part of the new administration.

Robles added that the amnesty will provide Trillanes the opportunity to perform his duties and functions as a senator of the Republic.

President Aquino issued a proclamation granting amnesty to Trillanes and soldiers linked to the Oakwood Mutiny on July 27, 2003, the marine standoff last February 2006 and the Manila Peninsula siege on Nov. 29, 2007.

Under the amnesty, enlisted personnel are entitled to reintegration, however, officers are no longer entitled to reinstatement in the service.

The Department of National Defense (DND) will process the application for the amnesty. (PNA)

New Novel of John Grisham: The Confession

An innocent man is about to be executed.

Only a guilty man can save him.

For every innocent man sent to prison, there is a guilty one left on the outside. He doesn’t understand how the police and prosecutors got the wrong man, and he certainly doesn’t care. He just can’t believe his good luck. Time passes and he realizes that the mistake will not be corrected: the authorities believe in their case and are determined to get a conviction. He may even watch the trial of the person wrongly accused of his crime. He is relieved when the verdict is guilty. He laughs when the police and prosecutors congratulate themselves. He is content to allow an innocent person to go to prison, to serve hard time, even to be executed.

Travis Boyette is such a man. In 1998, in the small East Texas city of Sloan, he abducted, raped, and strangled a popular high school cheerleader. He buried her body so that it would never be found, then watched in amazement as police and prosecutors arrested and convicted Donté Drumm, a local football star, and marched him off to death row.

Now nine years have passed. Travis has just been paroled in Kansas for a different crime; Donté is four days away from his execution. Travis suffers from an inoperable brain tumor. For the first time in his miserable life, he decides to do what’s right and confess.

But how can a guilty man convince lawyers, judges, and politicians that they’re about to execute an innocent man? - click here to buy this book at Amazon

USA ka ulitawo nadala sa ospital human nabanggaan sa usa ka depasaherong bus didto sa National Highway, Sityo Gabanan, Barangay Baylo, lungsod sa Monkayo, Compostela Valley (Comval) province, Sabado sa gabii.

Nailhan ang biktima nga mao si Kent Bantog, 20, ug molupyo sa Barangay San Jose, lungsod sa Monkayo.

Sa report gikan sa Comval Province Police Provincial Office nasayran nga pasado alas 9:00 sa gabii mitabok sa dalan ang biktima, nabanggaan siya sa naghaguros nga Bachelor Bus nga nagbatun sa plaka numero LWU-559 ug gidrayban sa usa ka Renante Tac-an, ug molupyo sa Barangay Bliss, lungsod sa Monkayo.

Ang bus nagdagan gikan sa siyudad sa Davao padulong sa siyudad sa Butuan.

Pag-abot sa maong dapit aksidente niining nabanggaan ang biktima nga mitabok sa dalan.

Nahiagum og mga pangos ug bun-og sa kalawasan ang biktima ug daling gidala sa Comval District Hospital sa lungsod sa Montevista. - source: Sun Star News

PATAY ang 54 anyos nga yaya uban sa 4 anyos nga bata human naligsan niadtong Martes mga alas 12:30 sa udto sa Poblacion, lungsod sa Alubijid, Misamis Oriental.

Giila ang namatay nga yaya nga mao si Lilian Jayson, minyo, taga Casinglot, lungsod sa Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental, samtang ang bata giila nga mao si Dennis Jean Ramos, usa ka kindergarten student.

Si Police Senior Inspector Virgilio Cabugsa sa Alubijid Police Station nga nahinabi sa Sun.Star SuperBalita niingon nga gisundo sa yaya ang bata human sa klase ug anaa sa pikas dalan ang mga biktima niadtong tungora.

Dihang mi-overtake ang usa ka Rural Transit Mindanao Inc. bus nga gimaneho ni Arthur Jamis, 48, minyo, taga lungsod sa Initao, Misamis Oriental, nasapon ang mga biktima ug nabanggaan.

Nagrabehan si Jayson human nalatayan ang lawas niini sa ligid sa bus.

Deretsong gidala sa Northern Mindanao Medical Center ning siyudad sa Cagayan de Oro ang mga biktima apan ang yaya gideklarar sa mga doctor nga dead on arrival, samtang ang bata naabtan pa og pipila ka oras usa nakabsan sa kinabuhi.

Matud ni Cabugsa nga deretso sab nga mitahan sa ilang buhatan ang driver sa bus ug andam sa pagdawat sa kasong ipasaka batok kaniya. - Sun Star News

Sun Star News

NAPRISO ang usa ka lalaki human giingon nanglugos sa 14 anyos nga dalagita niadtong Huwebes mga alas 10:30 sa gabii sa Barangay Sihayon, lungsod sa Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental.

Ang biktima taguon lamang sa ngalan nga Lynet, 14, tinun-an sa high school sa pribadong tunghaan sa lungsod.

Si PO1 Angelita Bangot sa Tagoloan Police Station nibutyag ug niklaro nga hapit lamang gilugos ang biktima dihang kuyog kini sa bag-o lamang naila nga suspetsadong si Joel Taca-taca, 25, ulitawo, sa susamang dapit.

Nasayran gikan kang Bangot nga nikuyog ang biktima sa suspetsado dapit sa dike apan kalit lang kining gidala didto sa usa ka slaughterhouse.

Gipugos sa suspetsado sa pagpahubo ang biktima, apan gisipa siya niini hinungdan nga siya nidagan ug nipaingon sa usa ka videoke bar. Naalarma ang mga tawo sa sulod ug gitabangan nila ang dalagita.

Diha diha sab dayon nga miresponde ang kapolisan ug gidala sa prisuhan ang suspetsado.

Gihimakak usab sa suspetsado ang alegasyong pagpanglugos.

NASAPON sa inahan ang gihimong pagpanglugos sa usa ka amahan ngadto sa iyang 10 anyos nga anak niadtong Huwebes mga alas 7:30 sa gabii sa Tipolohon, Camaman-an, ning siyudad sa Cagayan de Oro.

Ang biktima nga si Loren (tinuod nga pangalan gitago) ang giingong gipuli- pulihan sa amahan ug sa igsuon niining nag-edad og 20 anyos.

Si Senior Police Officer 3 Apolinario Ubillas sa Police Station 2 (PS2) sa Cogon nga nahinabi sa Sun.Star Superbalita niingon nga mismong ang inahan sa biktima ang nagpatabang sa ilang presintuhan aron ipasikop ang iyang bana.

Gibutyag sa inahan nga kanunay niya nga namatikdan ang dili maayong pagtagad niini sa iyang anak nga 10 anyos.

Nakurat pag-ayo ang inahan dihang nasapon mismo sulod sa ilang puloy-anan ang iyang kapuyo nga si Generio (bansagon gitago), 48, nga mipatong sa iyang anak.

Tungod sa kalagot giaway niini ang iyang kapuyo ug hilom siya nga nagpatabang sa kapolisan sa PS2. Miresponde usab ang kapolisan sa PS2 ug nasikop ang amahan nga nagtingkagol na karon sa prisuhan. Nasayran nga dili kini ang unang higayon nga gihimo ni Generio sa anak.

Gibutyag sa inahan nga niadtong nag-edad pa lang og 9 anyos ang iyang anak nakamatikod na siya og dili maayo sa iyang kapuyo.

"Duna nakoy namatikdan nga lain pero wala lang nako gitagad kay amahan baya," butyag sa inahan.

Dugang saysay sa inahan, kinsa usa ka katabang, nga panahon nga molakaw siya aron motrabaho, diha himuon sa suspetsado ang pagpangabuso sa iyang anak.

Nasayran nga usa ka construction worker ang suspetsado ug walay permanenti nga trabaho.

Matud ni Ubillas nga wala nila nasikop ang igsuon sa biktima nga usa usab sa giakusahan nga miapil paglugos niini. - Sun Star News

PATAY ang usa ka lalaki human kalit nga nagpatunga sa dalan ug nabanggaan niadtong Sabado mga alas 11:10 sa gabii sa Barangay Matangad, lungsod sa Gitagum, Misamis Oriental.

Nailhan lamang sa mga higala ang pangalan sa biktima nga Arnel, ulitawo, sa susamang dapit.

Nasayran nga kuyog sa biktima ang iyang mga higala nga sila si Rodrigo Acedo, Romel Malyao, Pascual Cagubcob ug Laurito Catalina nga nag-inom sa usa ka tindahan sa dapit.

Dihang nakadesisyon sa pagpanguli nagkauyog ra usab sila sa pagpanguli ug nag-uban pagbaklay sa kalsada.

Nakurat pag-ayo ang iyang mga higala dihang kalit lang mipatunga sa kalsada si Arnel hinungdan nga wala na nakamenor ang usa ka Pajero nga nagdala og plaka CMT-731 nga gimaneho ni Val Corne.

Sa iyang bahin, ang driver nakurat ug wala na nakahigayon sa pagmenor dihang mipatunga sa dalan ang biktima hinungdan sa pagkasapon niini. - Sun Star News

NILANDING sa balay tambalanan ang usa ka asawa human gipaso-pasoan sa iyang kapuyo niadtong Domingo mga alas 9:45 sa gabii sa Barangay Mambatangan, Manolo Fortich Bukidnon.

Giila ang biktima nga mao si Julieta Baricuatro, 45, taga P-4, sa susamang dapit.

Gitumbok nga suspetsado ang kapuyo nga giilang si Boyet Lanso, 48.

Gisaysay sa biktima nga nagkalalis sila sa iyang kapuyo niadtong gabhiona dihang kalit lang kini nga nasuko ug dihang nahuptan ang nagbaga nga kahoy gikuha niini gikan sa abuhan ug deretsong gidabdab sa liog ug suwang sa asawa.

Wala makalihok ang asawa tungod sa gibating kasakit ug pagkapaso. Wala pa nakuntento si Lanso, gisipa niini sa tuhod ang biktima.

Nagpatabang ang biktima sa mga silingan hinungdan nga gidala sa balay tambalanan sa dapit.

Apan ang biktima giduso sa Northern Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC) ning siyudad sa Cagayan de Oro tungod sa sobrang paso nga naangkon. - Sun Star Cagayan de Oro

PATAY ang usa ka barangay kapitan human girakrakan niadtong Domingo mga alas 4:30 sa hapon sa Barangay Tumaras lungsod sa Kibawe, Bukidnon.

Ang biktima mao si Barangay Tumaras kapitan Manuel Fajardo kinsa usa usab ka sakop sa Civilian Auxiliary Forces and Geographical Unit (Cafgu).

Sa pakighinabi sa Sun.Star Superbalita ngadto kang Major Noli P. Kanashiro kinsa tigpamaba sa 4th Infantry Division (4ID) sa Philippine Army ning siyudad sa Cagayan de Oro niingon nga nahitabo ang pagpangluthang mga alas 4:30 sa hapon atol sa gipahigayon nga pulong-pulong sa dapit nga gitambongan sa mayor sa Kibawe.

Sumala sa taho nga kalit lang miabot ang lima ka mga wala mailang mga lalaki ug nisinggit nga si Fajardo lamang ang ilang tuyo.

Gipusil ang biktima ug dihang nagbuy-od na girakrakan pag-usab aron pagsiguro nga makabsan gyud kini sa kinabuhi. Armado ang mga suspetsado og M16 rifle ug kalibre .45.

Yano lamang kaayong nanglakaw ang mga suspetsado ug nitabok pa sa tulay nga bahin sa dapit human sa hitabo. Samtang walay nisuway pagukod niini labina nga kini mga armado.

Gibutyag nga usa sa mga suspetsado nagpaila nga sakop sa New People's Army (NPA). - Sun Star Cagayan

Ni Guam P. Logroño
Sun Star Cebu

Nababha ang abaga sa usa ka mag-uuma human gitigbas sa kaugalingong asawa tungod lang sa ilang away sa gihimo niining takalanan o upahanan sa mga baka sa miaging udto sa Barangay Biga, dakbayan sa Toledo.

Si Juan Macaday 43, samdan sa iyang abaga human gitigbas sa sundang sa iyang asawa nga si Prima, 42, dihang nahitabo ang panaglalis sa magtiayon.

Si SPO4 Gil Lastimosa sa Toledo Police Station nga nahinabi sa Sun.Star Superbalita nagkanayon nga ang biktima nga si Juan nagpapukili sa paghimo sa takalanan sa mga baka dihang giapas sa asawa niini sa pagpauli na alang sa paniudto.

Apan giingong nasuko ang asawa ngadto sa iyang bana human giingnan niini nga maayo lang modawat og bayad sa ilang pagpatakal sa hayop.

Samtang didto na sa ilang panimalay, matud ni SPO4 Lastimosa, ang ang bana nanghagis, gipangguba ang ilang bungbong ug ubang mga butang.

Sa kapungot sa asawa, nikuha kini og sundang ug gitigbas ang iyang bana sa abaga.

Human sa insedenti, ang bana daling gidala sa tambalanan samtang ang asawa nitahan sa iyang kaugalingon ngadto sa kapulisan.

By Sun Star Cebu

GITUOHANG b***t gipusil kagahapon sa kaadlawon sa tulo ka mga lalake sa may Sityo Awayan, Barangay Poblacion 3, Carcar, Sugbo.

Nakadawat og tawag ang Carcar Police station mga ala 1:20 sa kaadlawn gikan sa usa ka concerned citizen nga may gipusil sa ilang barangay.

Nasuta ni SPO2 Jurame Tanodtanod nga ang biktima di taga didto kay wa gyuy bisan usa nga nakaila.

Ila pa kining naabtan nga naa sa kritikal nga kondisyon tungod sa samad niini sa ulo samtang nagbuy-od pa sa karsada.

Dali nila kining gidala Carcar District Hospital apan namatay gyud kini sa iyang samad.

Ang mga mamumuno wa mailhi sa mga tawo sa dapit nga nakakita sa krimen kay mangitngit ang nahitaboan.

“Tulo ka wala mailhing lalaki ang atong suspek nga nagsakay og motorsiklo. Amo pa ning giimbestigar karon kon nganong ilang gipusil ning bayota,” dugang ni Tanodtanod.

Nagduda sila u gang mga tawo sa dapit nga was a maayong pangisip ang biktima.

Ni Joseph Elvir C. Tubilan
Sun Star Cebu

NAG-ATUBANG og kasong kreminal ang usa ka molupyo sa Minglanilla, Sugbo nga giingong hubog human iyang giyab-ag usa ka baldeng tubig ang usa ka tuig nga bata samtang natug.

Giingong diriyot makabsi sa kinabuhi ang biktima kay ang tubig nisud sa iyang ilong ug baba apan nasalbar siya sa iyang inahan.

Si Alioser Orjaleza, 44, molupyo sa Sitio Kalubihan, Calajoan, Minglanilla, gipasakahan sa kasong slight physical injuries dihang giyab-an niyag tubig ang natug nga si Paul Kent Cartalaba, usa ka tuig ug duha ka buwan, niadtong Oktubre 4.

Nirekomendar ang Cebu Provincial Prosecutor’s Office nga mopiyansa si Orjaleza sa kantidad nga P2,000 alang sa iyang temporaryong kagawasan samtang husayon ning iyang kaso sa korte.

Matod ni Mary Anne Cartalaba, inahan sa bata, niadtong hapon sa Oktubre 4 gidala niya ang iyang anak sa estambayan nga ginama sa kawayan nga duol ra sa ilang balay aron mopahuway.

Dihang diha na sila sa estambayan nakatug ang bata unya naabot ang ilan silingan nga si Orjaleza nga nakainom ug nimando kanila nga mobiya sa dapit apan wa niya panumbalinga.

Kay wa niya tagda ang suspek nasuko kini ug giingnan siya nga mokuhag siyag usa ka baldeng tubig unya bubuan sila niini.

Nitumaw ang taho nga adunay pagahimuong massive walkout ang mga doktor sa Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC).

Ang hungihong nagagumikan sa daghan nga mga problema nga wa maatiman sa management sa tambalanan.

Gialegar usab nga ang mga department head sa maong tambalanan nipirma og manifesto aron sa pagtagad sa ilang mga problema.

Pipila sa mga rason nga gipaabot sa mga doctor nga duha nila ka mga kauban wa makadawat sa ilang suhulan.

Wa sab sila hatagi og hazard pay, problema kabahin sa Philhealth check ug wa sab silay share sa affiliation fee sa mga student nurse nga mag-practice diha sa CCMC.

Si Dr. Myrna Go, hepe sa CCMC, nipasabot nga wala masuhuli ang doctor gikan sa Enero sanglit nagkasabot man sila nga i-accredit lang ang iyang pagtrabaho sa iyang experience.

Gisaysay ni Go nga ang laing doctor naapil sa election ban hinungdan nga wa makadawat sa iyang sweldo sulod sa tulo ka mga buwan gikan sa Abril ngadto sa Hunyo.

Gidugang sa hepe sa CCMC nga daghan gyud ang mga doctor sa CCMC, apil na siya, nga wa makadawat og hazard pay sanglit ang mga doctor raman gikan sa laboratory ug X-ray department ang gihatagan sa benepisyo. (PAC) - Sun Star Cebu

NAPIKAS ug nabuwag ang ulo gikan sa lawas sa usa ka inahan.

Di pa gyud igo, gidauban pa siya sa iyang anak nga may deperensya sa pangisip human siya giatsa sa pagpatay kagahapon sa kaadlawon sa Sitio San Roque, Brgy. Don Pedro, dakbayan sa Bogo.

Ang lawas ni Victoria Moraca, 55, mag-uuma, napaig na nga naabtan sa kapulisan ug mga bombero sa dakbayan sa Bogo kay gidauban sulod sa gamay nga balay.

Sa wa pa siya daubi, gibugha pa ang iyang ulo ug ubang parte sa iyang lawas sa iyang anak nga si Rolando Moraca, 26, ginamit ang atsa.

Si Rolando giingong nalisoan sa pangisip sud na sa duha ka mga tuig.

Si SPO3 Allan Dosdos, chief investigator sa kapulisan sa dakbayan sa Bogo nga nahinabi
sa Sun. Star.Superbalita, nagkanayon nga sa wa pa mahitabo ang krimin niadtong Dominggo sa gabii,si Rolando nagsige og baid sa sundang nga nagpangita sa iyang amahan nga si Clemente, 55, mag-uuma, kay iyang patyon.

Matod pa ni Dosdos nga si Clemente nitug-an kaniya nga niandar na usab ang sakit sa iyang anak niadtong Domingo sa gabii. - Sun Star Cebu

By Sun Star Cebu

CEBU City Mayor Michael Rama believes setting up a coal-fired power plant in the heart of the South Road Properties (SRP) will not affect its marketability.

Like Rep. Tomas Osmeña (Cebu City, south district), Rama welcomed the proposal of investors to set up a coal-fired power plant at the 290-hectare property, in order to address power supply problems in Metro Cebu.

The mayor, however, has yet to receive an official communication from the investors.

Rama said there are technologies that can help ease the effects of the plant, such as the coal ash, which environmentalists have warned is harmful to the environment.

“I don’t think it is going to affect (the marketability of SRP.) There are many gadgets now, many technologies that are available that can address such worries and concerns (on the environment),” the mayor said in a news conference.

This is proven, Rama said, by coal-fired power plants in other countries like Taiwan,
which are nestled in manufacturing and commercial centers.

“The trend now is for power plants that can be put anywhere for as long as all requirements in terms of safety, security, health, etc. are being strictly handled,” he said.

At the Provincial Board (PB), two members said the solution to power supply gaps is to invite more power generating companies to Cebu.

BASAK Barangay Captain Vicente Dayanan called on Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes to rehabilitate the drainage system along the Mandaue North Road, following the heavy flood that struck one of his sitios early Saturday morning.

The flood that affected about 150 families in Sitio Riles was triggered by the rush of water from five neighboring barangays during a heavy downpour, Dayanan told Sun.Star Cebu yesterday.

These barangays are Cubacub, Pagsabungan, Canduman, Tabuc and Casili.

Dayanan said the water from these barangays spilled over to the sitio because the drainage along the Mandaue North Road could no longer take it in.

The water-soaked sitio is a low-lying area, said Dayanan, who rushed to the area early Saturday morning to check on the situation of the affected residents.

An open canal, Dayanan said, is presently being constructed, in a joint effort among Barangays Basak, Pagsabungan and Tabuc. - source: Sun Star

by PNA

The Philippine National Police has arrested ten persons and recovered different firearms in separate checkpoints across Central Visayas since the start of the Commission on Elections gun ban, records at the Negros Oriental provincial police office show.

Those arrested were identified as Brando de la Vina, Ereneo Tejedor, Romdy Ursula, Randy Chong Binag, a certain “Canete”, Henry Acedemia, Gordon Alexander Cameron, Agustine Tabanao, Cresenciano Manso, Jr. and Antonio Alson.

Six cases have been filed while the others are still under investigation.

The recovered firearms include four homemade caliber .38 revolvers, one gun replica, one .357 caliber revolver, one improvised shotgun, one .22 caliber revolver, one M30 Carbine rifle, and a shotgun.

Meanwhile, the PNP Region 7 office has deployed personnel to conduct inspection in the provinces of Central Visayas to determine whether police personnel are following proper procedures in the conduct of checkpoints.

Sr. Supt. Josephus Angan, chief of staff of PRO-7, was in Negros Oriental Monday for an inspection of the different police stations starting from Canlaon City in the north, said provincial police director Sr. Supt. Rey Lyndon Lawas. (PNA)

Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan

click here to buy it at Amazon

The Last Battle has started. The seals on the Dark One’s prison are crumbling. The Pattern itself is unraveling, and the armies of the Shadow have begun to boil out of the Blight.

The sun has begun to set upon the Third Age.

Perrin Aybara is now hunted by specters from his past: Whitecloaks, a slayer of wolves, and the responsibilities of leadership. All the while, an unseen foe is slowly pulling a noose tight around his neck. To prevail, he must seek answers in Tel’aran’rhiod and find a way--at long last--to master the wolf within him or lose himself to it forever.

Meanwhile, Matrim Cauthon prepares for the most difficult challenge of his life. The creatures beyond the stone gateways--the Aelfinn and the Eelfinn--have confused him, taunted him, and left him hanged, his memory stuffed with bits and pieces of other men’s lives. He had hoped that his last confrontation with them would be the end of it, but the Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills. The time is coming when he will again have to dance with the Snakes and the Foxes, playing a game that cannot be won. The Tower of Ghenjei awaits, and its secrets will reveal the fate of a friend long lost.

This penultimate novel of Robert Jordan’s #1 New York Times bestselling series--the second of three based on materials he left behind when he died in 2007--brings dramatic and compelling developments to many threads in the Pattern. The end draws near.

Dumaguete City Mayor Manuel Sagarbarria has expressed his concerns on the frequent rotating power brownouts besetting Dumaguete City and the whole Negros Oriental province.

He said the business sector is losing a lot of money because of the power outages, which he said, is very detrimental to a developing city like Dumaguete.

Sagarbarria said members of the business sector have expressed their concerns as it might greatly affect their business if the rotating brownouts will continue longer.

He said that majority of the business establishments in Dumaguete now have generator sets ready in times of power interruptions but it would cost at least P15 per kilowatt hour usage of a generator set.

Even the city government of Dumaguete was forced to recently purchase a generator set for city hall.

Sagarbarria said the frequent brownouts during office hours had greatly affected the operations and transactions at the city hall.

Sagarbarria is appealing to the Negros Oriental Electric Cooperative 2 to fast track negotiations where they can get sustainable power supply for the province.

He believes that consumers would not mind paying higher power rates as long as there is a sustainable and reliable power supply.

During the recent power summit conducted by the Negros Oriental Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NOCCI), the business sector expressed a unified stand for a sustainable power supply. (PNA)

Fall of Giants by Ken Follet

Review: Welcome to the 20th century as you've never seen it. At over 1,000 pages, Fall of Giants delivers all the elements that fans of Ken Follett  have come to treasure: historical accuracy, richly developed characters, and a sweeping yet intimate portrait of a past world that you'll fully inhabit before the first chapter is through. The story follows five families across the globe as their fates intertwine with the extraordinary events of World War I, the political struggles within their own countries, and the rise of the feminist movement. Intriguing stories of love and loyalty abound, from a forbidden romance between a German spy and a British aristocrat to a Russian soldier and his scandal-ridden brother in love with the same woman. Action-packed with blood on the battlefield and conspiracies behind closed doors, Fall of Giants  brings the nuances of each character to life and shifts easily from dirty coal mines to sparkling palaces. There is so much to love here, and the good news is the end is just the beginning: Fall of Giants is the first in a planned trilogy. --Miriam Landis - click here to buy it at Amazon.com

By Lilia M. Micua

The City Elections Office welcomed the inclusion of Dagupan under the election watch list during the synchronized Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections on October 25.

Lawyer Remarque Ravanzo, city elections officer, said he has nothing against the inclusion of Dagupan in the watch list because this could mean a police augmentation force will come to the city to watch the polls.

He believes that the reason why Dagupan was placed on the watch list was because of its past experience in the last election when two groups of candidates figured in a near clash in Barangay Bolosan, Dagupan.

Ravanzo said Dagupan's case is akin to that of Sta. Maria town, which was also included in the watch list mainly because the assistant election officer in that town was ambushed in the last election.

He said being placed in the watch list is an advantage because an augmentation force will be made available by the Philippine National Police to really prevent the occurrence of violence.

More policemen would be needed in the Bonuan area, being thickly populated and in the island barangays, being far from the city proper in the Dagupan mainland.

"But I still believe that even if Dagupan was included in the watchlist, the election in the city would be most peaceful and orderly," Ravanzo said.

At the same time, Ravanzo has announced that his office, in coordination with barangay pastoral councils, is set to initiate the signing of peace covenants for all candidates per barangay when the campaign period shall have already started on October 14.

He said it is possible that the PNP may also initiate a similar peace covenant among the candidates to really make sure that there will be zero violence in Dagupan in this election.

At the same time, Superintendent Romeo Caramat, chief of police of Dagupan, confirmed that there is really intense political rivalry in some barangays of Dagupan, that was why the city was placed in the watch list in this election.

Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos has called for an end to the culture of political violence in the face of a number of high-profile political killings registered in the province.

The governor made the call following yet another killing recently when Adams councilor Elpedio Sy was shot dead by still unidentified armed men.

“I need your help. Together, we must put an end to this culture of political violence,” Marcos told her constituents.

The governor admitted that the killings prodded her to strengthen the peace and order campaign in the province with the setting up of checkpoints and mobile searches even before the Commission on Elections imposed a gun ban in connection with the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections on Oct. 25.

Marcos is hopeful that the checkpoints would result in the reduction of the number of loose firearms in the hands of civilians.

“If there are no guns, then no one would be gunned down,” she said.

She said the Philippine National Police has also increased its police visibility while security teams have been mobilized to guard key infrastructures such as the Laoag International Airport, the Currimao seaport, the provincial capitol and areas that are known to be crime-prone areas and ambush zones.

On the other hand, police visibility has been improved with the support of barangay patrols and tanods.

Marcos recalled that in the past, board member Robert Castro and barangay chairman Geoffrey Saguid were ambushed that resulted in the killing of Joen Cañete, a village chairman in Dingras town.

Months later, radio commentator Jovelito Agustin, of dzJC-Aksyon Radio, was shot dead, which was immediately followed by yet another slay attempt on newly-installed Pagudpud Mayor Maja Sales. - PNA

Thousands of farmers in some rain-fed areas in the country are expected to troop to the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) here starting Tuesday to participate in the two-day farmers’ field day and forum.

As part of 25th celebration of PhilRice anniversary, the farmers’ field day and forum banners the theme “Rice Science for Development” and serves as venue for farmers to consult experts on rice production.

“This is the first time that we have this big number of farmers from rain-fed areas learning about our technologies. Most of the farmers frequenting our institutional field days are from the irrigated lowland,” Leah R. Abaoag, Technology Management and Services Division head, said.

Abaoag said most of the farmers who will be toured around the institute’s experimental fields and briefed on the PhilRice-generated researches and technologies such as Palayaman, PalayCheck, and nutrient diagnostic tools, are participants of the project’s increasing rice yield and productivity through the promotion of small scale irrigation and integrated management systems in rainfed areas.

Funded by the European Commission and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the project aims to help increase the productivity in rain-fed areas by providing water pumps.

Farmers in Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, Pangasinan and Pampanga have been benefited from this project.

Meanwhile, Edilberto M. de Luna, assistant secretary for field operations and Antonio A. Fleta, undersecretary for administration and finance, both of the Department of Agriculture, will serve as speakers of the two-day event.

Before acting as assistant secretary for field operations, de Luna was former field extentionist, senior agriculturist, provincial manager and regional manager of the Philippine Coconut Authority.

With a bachelor degree in Agriculture and master’s degree in Business Administration at Luzonian University, he is currently a graduate student of Public Policy and Program Administration at the Open University of the University of the Philippines.

On the other hand, Fleta presently holds concurrent positions such as finance director of Mount Carmel Diocesan Hospital in Lucena City; independent director of Rural Bank of Pagbilao, Quezon; and director of Quezon Coconut Producers Bank, and Quezon Imaging Corporation.

He was also the treasurer and consultant of the commercial banking division of the Equitable Savings Bank; undersecretary/executive director of the coordinating council for private sector participation under the Office of the Republic of the Philippines; and president of Far East Savings Bank. (PNA)

Sixty selected policemen on Tuesday started their 49-day of rigid training on guerrilla warfare and special operations as part of the PNP modified Special Counter-Insurgency Unit Training II (PNP-SCOUT II).

Armed to the teeth and wearing camouflage uniforms, the 60 policemen will undergo immediate action drills and field training exercises on different kinds of terrain for 49 days, according to Bulacan police director Senior Supt. Fernando Villanueva.

Villanueva said the special training course was made possible through the support of the provincial government of Bulacan headed by Gov. Wilhelmino Sy Alvarado and the Police Regional Office 3 under police regional director Chief Supt. Allan Purisima.

Alvarado, who was the guest of honor and speaker on the opening day of PNP modified SCOUT II, urged the trainees to train hard and dedicate themselves in serving and protecting the people not only of Bulacan but the whole country as well.

The governor also reminded the police trainees that the preservation and the protection of the rights of man are the twin tasks to which they must always strive and be committed not only for the duration of their stay in service but for the rest of their lives as protectors of the Filipino people.

“Your training, difficult and nerve wracking as it may seem, does not you the right not the privilege to trample upon the rights of the individual,” he said.

Sr. Supt. Melchor Reyes, chief of the RPHRDD of PRO 3, said these selected PNP “warriors” will be trained to ensure that peace and order is maintained throughout their assigned territories and as a well-trained protector of the people. (PNA)
LDV/zst/EGG/MB/ps

A man has been convicted of murdering his brother, two nephews and three others at a home in Memphis, in the US state of Tennessee.

The jury concluded Jessie Dotson had shot and killed his brother, Cecil, before going after potential witnesses in the house with a gun and a knife.

Three other children, including a 10-month-old baby, were stabbed but survived, the court heard.

Dotson, 35, could face the death penalty for the 2008 attack.

Dotson displayed no emotion as the jury, which had deliberated for less than two hours, announced its verdict. - BBC News

click here to learn more

By Abigail Kwok
INQUIRER.net

Major oil player Chevron Phils. Inc. and independent player Phoenix Petroleum increased oil prices effective Tuesday morning, both firms said in separate advisories.

Phoenix said it raised gasoline prices by P1.25 per liter and diesel prices by P1 per liter effective 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Chevron communications manager Toby Nebrida said a P1.25 per liter increase was implemented at 6 a.m. on their regular, premium, e10 gasoline, and kerosene products, while there was a P1 per liter increase on their diesel products.

By Bayani San Diego Jr.
Philippine Daily Inquirer

The report flew swiftly and furiously in the news biz: Journalist Maria Ressa has reportedly left the Kapamilya network.

Ressa, senior vice president of News and Current Affairs and managing director of ANC (ABS-CBN News Channel), has decided not to renew her contract, according to sources.

One source said that Ressa’s decision was also prompted by a spat with a news executive whom she had demoted.

Ressa’s departure was the main topic at a general assembly of the news team Monday night.

In an earlier text message to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Ressa denied she had resigned.

Later, through Bong Osorio, head of the ABS-CBN Corporate Communications, the Inquirer received a copy of Ressa’s statement.

“There is a time and place for everything in our lives. My time and place as head of ABS-CBN News & Current Affairs is nearing its end. My contract ends on Jan. 3, 2011, and I will not be renewing. I have nearly six months of accumulated leaves so I will go on terminal leave beginning Nov. 15,” the statement said.

“It’s time for me to move on, but it’s important we transition properly and prepare our organizationâ€"and its new leaderâ€"for the challenges ahead.”

A replacement has already been selected to take over Ressa’s post.

List all the Virtudazo individuals you know in Bohol.

A thread for all Zamoras originating from Bohol

Please connect all the Zapatos family names in this thread.

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Armless Pianist in China's Got Talent 2010-08-08

A piano player who has no arms and plays the instrument with his toes has won the nationally televised China's Got Talent competition.

Liu Wei, who lost his arms in an accident at the age of 10, won the contest with his performance of You're Beautiful, originally by James Blunt.

He told the judges: "At least I have a pair of perfect legs."

The 23-year-old Beijing-born musician has been invited to perform with Taiwanese pop star Jolin Tsai.

He also has the chance to perform in Las Vegas for three months and a possible recording contract, Chinese media reported.

Second place in the competition went to seven-year-old stand-up comedian Zhang Fengxi, and third to 23-year-old singer Cai Xiuqing.

Mr Liu's arms were amputated after he received an electric shock while playing hide-and-seek as a child. He taught himself to play the piano at the age of 18. - BBC, source

The Aklan Provincial Tourism Council is not threatened with the emergence of new tourism destinations in the countryside as this resort island has already cemented its popularity as the premier tourism destination.

Vicky Ramos-Antonino, who also heads the regional tourism council, said that they appreciate the emergence of tourism destinations in the country although some of them are apparently wanting to compete in this resort island.

"I could say that Boracay is not threatened with other emerging tourism destinations in the country because the resort island has been widely known for too many years. Tourists may still want to visit this resort island despite the other alternative tourism destinations," said Ramos-Antonino.

Residents here said that this resort island too has been visited by Hollywood stars in the previous years. Among the Hollywood personalities who had discreetly visited this resort island were Michael Jackson, Madonna, and recently Michael Madsen, among others.

Unconfirmed reports also indicated that Hollywood couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie might have also visited this resort island years ago.

Some of the luxurious hotels here also reported of having frequent guests who are royalties from Muslim countries around the world. Their visit, however, were deemed confidential as part of the tourism packages.

Boracay Island has been considered as one of the world's top ten best beaches in 2007 and in 1997.(PNA)

Where can we buy the best bibingka in Bohol?

Have you climbed Mount Apo, the highest mountain in the Philippines? How was the experience?

Have you been to Pagudpud Beach? How was it?

How do you find Alona Beach?
Please post your favorite pictures of Alona Beach if there are any.

How was your experience when you first visited Boracay Beach?

How To Make Eggs Over Easy
Tips How to Cook Your Eggs Perfectly

How To Reel in a Big Fish
Tips How to Catch Big Fish

How to Eat Pasta and Still Lose Weight
Tips How to Eat Pasta and Don't Gain Weight

How to Keep Your Face Looking Great
Tips How to Make Your Face Look Fresh

How To Get Someone's Phone Number
How to get a girl's phone number

How To Make Yourself Irresistible To Girls
Unsaon Ang Dili Gwapo Makauyab ug Gwapa?

Why men dont talk to women

Why Women Stay Single
why some women stay single

Shy to Kiss?

Much of Bunyan's time was spent in controversy. He wrote sharply against the Quakers, whom he seems always to have held in utter abhorrence. It is, however, a remarkable fact that he adopted one of their peculiar fashions: his practice was to write, not November or December, but eleventh month and twelfth month.

He wrote against the liturgy of the Church of England. No two things, according to him, had less affinity than the form of prayer and the spirit of prayer. Those, he said with much point, who have most of the spirit of prayer are all to be found in gaol; and those who have most zeal for the form of prayer are all to be found at the alehouse. The doctrinal articles, on the other hand, he warmly praised, and defended against some Arminian clergymen who had signed them. The most acrimonious of all his works is his answer to Edward Fowler, afterwards bishop of Gloucester, an excellent man, but not free from the taint of Pelagianism.

Bunyan had also a dispute with some of the chiefs of the sect to which he belonged. He doubtless held with perfect sincerity the distinguishing tenet of that sect, but he did not consider that tenet as one of high importance, and willingly joined in communion with pious Presbyterians and Independents. The sterner Baptists, therefore, loudly pronounced him a false brother. A controversy arose which long survived the original combatants. In our own time the cause which Bunyan had defended with rude logic and rhetoric against Kiffin and Danvers was pleaded by Robert Hall with an ingenuity and eloquence such as no polemical writer has ever surpassed.

During the years which immediately followed the Restoration, Bunyan's confinement seems to have been strict. But as the passions of 1660 cooled, as the hatred with which the Puritans had been regarded while their reign was recent gave place to pity, he was less and less harshly treated. The distress of his family, and his own patience, courage, and piety, softened the hearts of his persecutors. Like his own Christian in the cage, he found protectors even among the crowd of Vanity Fair. The Bishop of the diocese, Dr Barlow, is said to have interceded for him. At length the prisoner was suffered to pass most of his time beyond the walls of the gaol, on condition, as it should seem, that he remained within the town of Bedford.

He owed his complete liberation to one of the worst acts of one of the worst governments that England has ever seen. In 1671 the Cabal was in power. Charles II had concluded the treaty by which he bound himself to set up the Roman Catholic religion in England. The first step which he took towards that end was to annul, by an unconstitutional exercise of his prerogative, all the penal statutes against the Roman Catholics; and, in order to disguise his real design, he annulled at the same time the penal statutes against Protestant nonconformists. Bunyan was consequently set at large. In the first warmth of his gratitude he published a tract in which he compared Charles to that humane and generous Persian king who, though not himself blessed with the light of the true religion, favoured the chosen people, and permitted them, after years of captivity, to rebuild their beloved temple. To candid men, who consider how much Bunyan had suffered, and how little he could guess the secret designs of the court, the unsuspicious thankfulness with which he accepted the precious boon of freedom will not appear to require any apology.

Before he left his prison he had begun the book which has made his name immortal. The history of that book is remarkable. The author was, as he tells us, writing a treatise, in which he had occasion to speak of the stages of the Christian progress. He compared that progress, as many others had compared it, to a pilgrimage. Soon his quick wit discovered innumerable points of similarity which had escaped his predecessors. Images came crowding on his mind faster than he could put them into words, quagmires and pits, steep hills, dark and horrible glens, soft vales, sunny pastures, a gloomy castle of which the courtyard was strewn with the skulls and bones of murdered prisoners, a town all bustle and splendour, like London on the Lord Mayor's Day, and the narrow path, straight as a rule could make it, running on up hill and down hill, through city and through wilderness, to the Black River and the Shining Gate. He had found out, as most people would have said, by accident, as he would doubtless have said, by the guidance of Providence, where his powers lay. He had no suspicion, indeed, that he was producing a masterpiece. He could not guess what place his allegory would occupy in English literature; for of English literature he knew nothing. Those who suppose him to have studied the Fairy Queen might easily be confuted, if this were the proper place for a detailed examination of the passages in which the two allegories have been thought to resemble each other. The only work of fiction, in all probability, with which he could compare his Pilgrim, was his old favourite, the legend of Sir Bevis of Southampton. He would have thought it a sin to borrow any time from the serious business of his life, from his expositions, his controversies, and his lace tags, for the purpose of amusing himself with what he considered merely as a trifle. It was only, he assures us, at spare moments that he returned to the House Beautiful, the Delectable Mountains, and the Enchanted Ground. He had no assistance. Nobody but himself saw a line till the whole was complete. He then consulted his pious friends. Some were pleased. Others were much scandalized. It was a vain story, a mere romance, about giants, and lions, and goblins, and warriors, sometimes fighting with monsters, and sometimes regaled by fair ladies in stately palaces. The loose atheistical wits at Will's might write such stuff to divert the painted Jezebels of the court: but did it become a minister of the gospel to copy the evil fashions of the world? There had been a time when the cant of such fools would have made Bunyan miserable. But that time was passed; and his mind was now in a firm and healthy state. He saw that, in employing fiction to make truth clear and goodness attractive, he was only following the example which every Christian ought to propose to himself; and he determined to print.

The Pilgrim's Progress stole silently into the world. Not a single copy of the first edition is known to be in existence. The year of publication has not been ascertained. It is probable that, during some months, the little volume circulated only among poor and obscure sectaries. But soon the irresistible charm of a book which gratified the imagination of the reader with all the action and scenery of a fairy tale, which exercised his ingenuity by setting him to discover a multitude of curious analogies, which interested his feelings for human beings, frail like himself, and struggling with temptations from within and from without, which every moment drew a smile from him by some stroke of quaint yet simple pleasantry, and nevertheless left on his mind a sentiment of reverence for God and of sympathy for man, began to produce its effect. In puritanical circles, from which plays and novels were strictly excluded, that effect was such as no work of genius, though it were superior to the Iliad, to Don Quixote, or to Othello, can ever produce on a mind accustomed to indulge in literary luxury. In 1678 came forth a second edition with additions; and then the demand became immense. In the four following years the book was reprinted six times. The eighth edition, which contains the last improvements made by the author, was published in 1682, the ninth in 1684, the tenth in 1685. The help of the engraver had early been called in; and tens of thousands of children looked with terror and delight on execrable copperplates, which represented Christian thrusting his sword into Apollyon, or writhing in the grasp of Giant Despair. In Scotland, and in some of the colonies, the Pilgrim was even more popular than in his native country. Bunyan has told us, with very pardonable vanity, that in New England his dream was the daily subject of the conversation of thousands, and was thought worthy to appear in the most superb binding. He had numerous admirers in Holland, and among the Huguenots of France. With the pleasures, however, he experienced some of the pains of eminence. Knavish booksellers put forth volumes of trash under his name, and envious scribblers maintained it to be impossible that the poor ignorant tinker should really be the author of the book which was called his.

He took the best way to confound both those who counterfeited him and those who slandered him. He continued to work the Gold-field which he had discovered, and to draw from it new treasures, not indeed with quite such ease and in quite such abundance as when the precious soil was still virgin, but yet with success which left all competition far behind. In 1684 appeared the second part of the Pilgrim's Progress. It was soon followed by the Holy War, which, if the Pilgrim's Progress did not exist, would be the best allegory that ever was written.

Bunyan's place in society was now very different from what it had been. There had been a time when many Dissenting ministers, who could talk Latin and read Greek, had affected to treat him with scorn. But his fame and influence now far exceeded theirs. He had so great an authority among the Baptists that he was popularly called Bishop Bunyan. His episcopal visitations were annual. From Bedford he rode every year to London, and preached there to large and attentive congregations. From London he went his circuit through the country, animating the zeal of his brethren, collecting and distributing alms, and making up quarrels. The magistrates seem in general to have given him little trouble. But there is reason to believe that, in the year 1685, he was in some danger of again occupying his old quarters in Bedford gaol. In that year the rash and wicked enterprise of Monmouth gave the government a pretext for prosecuting the nonconformists; and scarcely one eminent divine of the Presbyterian, Independent, or Baptist persuasion remained unmolested. Baxter was in prison: Howe was driven into exile: Henry was arrested. Two eminent Baptists, with whom Bunyan had been engaged in controversy, were in great peril and distress. Danvers was in danger of being hanged; and Kiffin's grandsons were actually hanged. The tradition is that, during those evil days, Bunyan was forced to disguise himself as a waggoner, and that he preached to his congregation at Bedford in a smock-frock, with a cart-whip in his hand. But soon a great change took place. James the Second was at open war with the church, and found it necessary to court the Dissenters. Some of the creatures of the government tried to secure the aid of Bunyan. They probably knew that he had written in praise of the indulgence of 1672, and therefore hoped that he might be equally pleased with the indulgence of 1687. But fifteen years of thought, observation, and commerce with the world had made him wiser. Nor were the cases exactly parallel. Charles was a professed Protestant: James was a professed Papist. The object of Charles's indulgence was disguised: the object of James's indulgence was patent. Bunyan was not deceived. He exhorted his hearers to prepare themselves by fasting and prayer for the danger which menaced their civil and religious liberties, and refused even to speak to the courtier who came down to remodel the corporation of Bedford, and who, as was supposed, had it in charge to offer some municipal dignity to the Bishop of the Baptists.

Bunyan did not live to see the Revolution. In the summer of 1688 he undertook to plead the cause of a son with an angry father, and at length prevailed on the old man not to disinherit the young one. This good work cost the benevolent intercessor his life. He had to ride through heavy rain. He came drenched to his lodgings on Snow Hill, was seized with a violent fever, and died in a few days. He was buried in Bunhill Fields; and the spot where he lies is still regarded by the nonconformists with a feeling which seems scarcely in harmony with the stern spirit of their theology. Many puritans to whom the respect paid by Roman Catholics to the reliques and tombs of saints seemed childish or sinful, are said to have begged with their dying breath that their coffins might be placed as near as possible to the coffin of the author of the Pilgrim's Progress.

The fame of Bunyan during his life, and during the century which followed his death, was indeed great, but was almost entirely confined to religious families of the middle and lower classes. Very seldom was he during that time mentioned with respect by any writer of great literary eminence. Young coupled his prose with the poetry of the wretched D'Urfey. In the Spiritual Quixote, the adventures of Christian are ranked with those of Jack the Giant-Killer and John Hickathrift. Cowper ventured to praise the great allegorist, but did not venture to name him. It is a significant circumstance that, till a recent period, all the numerous editions of the Pilgrim's Progress were evidently meant for the cottage and the servant's hall. The paper, the printing, the plates, were all of the meanest description. In general, when the educated minority and the common people differ about the merit of a book, the opinion of the educated minority finally prevails. The Pilgrim's Progress is perhaps the only book about which, after the lapse of a hundred years, the educated minority has come over to the opinion of the common people.

The attempts which have been made to improve and to imitate this book are not to be numbered. It has been done into verse: it has been done into modern English. The Pilgrimage of Tender Conscience, the Pilgrimage of Good Intent, the Pilgrimage of Seek Truth, the Pilgrimage of Theophilus, the Infant Pilgrim, the Hindoo Pilgrim, are among the many feeble copies of the great original. But the peculiar glory of Bunyan is that those who most hated his doctrines have tried to borrow the help of his genius. A Catholic version of his parable may be seen with the head of the Virgin in the title page. On the other hand, those Antinomians for whom his Calvinism is not strong enough, may study the pilgrimage of Hephzibah, in which nothing will be found which can be construed into an admission of free agency and universal redemption. But the most extraordinary of all the acts of Vandalism by which a fine work of art was ever defaced was committed so late as the year 1853. It was determined to transform the Pilgrim's Progress into a Tractarian book. The task was not easy: for it was necessary to make the two sacraments the most prominent objects in the allegory; and of all Christian theologians, avowed Quakers excepted, Bunyan was the one in whose system the sacraments held the least prominent place. However, the Wicket Gate became a type of baptism, and the House Beautiful of the Eucharist. The effect of this change is such as assuredly the ingenious person who made it never contemplated. For, as not a single pilgrim passes through the Wicket Gate in infancy, and as Faithful hurries past the House Beautiful without stopping, the lesson which the fable in its altered shape teaches, is that none but adults ought to be baptized, and that the Eucharist may safely be neglected. Nobody would have discovered from the original Pilgrim's Progress that the author was not a Pædobaptist. To turn his book into a book against Pædobaptism was an achievement reserved for an Anglo-Catholic divine. Such blunders must necessarily be committed by every man who mutilates parts of a great work, without taking a comprehensive view of the whole.

(T. B. M.)
source: Brittanica   

John Bunyan by Thomas Babington Macaulay

Macaulay apparently bore no ill will against Britannica from the days of his dispute with James and John Stuart Mill over the former's writings for the Supplement. For the Eighth Edition (1852-60) he wrote a number of biographies, each a work of high literary merit.

BUNYAN, John, the most popular religious writer in the English language, was born at Elstow, about a mile from Bedford, in the year 1628. He may be said to have been born a tinker. The tinkers then formed a hereditary caste, which was held in no high estimation. They were generally vagrants and pilferers, and were often confounded with the gipsies, whom in truth they nearly resembled. Bunyan's father was more respectable than most of the tribe. He had a fixed residence, and was able to send his son to a village school where reading and writing were taught.

The years of John's boyhood were those during which the puritan spirit was in the highest vigour all over England; and nowhere had that spirit more influence than in Bedfordshire. It is not wonderful, therefore, that a lad to whom nature had given a powerful imagination and sensibility which amounted to a disease, should have been early haunted by religious terrors. Before he was ten, his sports were interrupted by fits of remorse and despair; and his sleep was disturbed by dreams of fiends trying to fly away with him. As he grew older, his mental conflicts became still more violent. The strong language in which he described them has strangely misled all his biographers except Mr Southey. It has long been an ordinary practice with pious writers to cite Bunyan as an instance of the supernatural power of divine grace to rescue the human soul from the lowest depths of wickedness. He is called in one book the most notorious of profligates; in another, the brand plucked from the burning. He is designated in Mr Ivimey's History of the Baptists as the depraved Bunyan, the wicked tinker of Elstow. Mr Ryland, a man once of great note among the Dissenters, breaks out into the following rhapsody:--"No man of common sense and common integrity can deny that Bunyan was a practical atheist, a worthless contemptible infidel, a vile rebel to God and goodness, a common profligate, a soul-despising, a soul-murdering, a soul-damning, thoughtless wretch as could exist on the face of the earth. Now be astonished, O heavens, to eternity! and wonder, O earth and hell! while time endures. Behold this very man become a miracle of mercy, a mirror of wisdom, goodness, holiness, truth, and love." But whoever takes the trouble to examine the evidence will find that the good men who wrote this had been deceived by a phraseology which, as they had been hearing it and using it all their lives, they ought to have understood better. There cannot be a greater mistake than to infer from the strong expressions in which a devout man bemoans his exceeding sinfulness, that he has led a worse life than his neighbours. Many excellent persons, whose moral character from boyhood to old age has been free from any stain discernible to their fellow creatures, have, in their autobiographies and diaries, applied to themselves, and doubtless with sincerity, epithets as severe as could be applied to Titus Oates or Mrs Brownrigg. It is quite certain that Bunyan was, at eighteen, what, in any but the most austerely puritanical circles, would have been considered as a young man of singular gravity and innocence. Indeed, it may be remarked that he, like many other penitents who, in general terms, acknowledge themselves to have been the worst of mankind, fired up, and stood vigorously on his defence, whenever any particular charge was brought against him by others. He declares, it is true, that he had let loose the reins on the neck of his lusts, that he had delighted in all transgressions against the divine law, and that he had been the ringleader of the youth of Elstow in all manner of vice. But when those who wished him ill accused him of licentious amours, he called on God and the angels to attest his purity. No woman, he said, in heaven, earth, or hell, could charge him with having ever made any improper advances to her. Not only had he been strictly faithful to his wife; but he had, even before his marriage, been perfectly spotless. It does not appear from his own confessions, or from the railings of his enemies, that he ever was drunk in his life. One bad habit he contracted, that of using profane language; but he tells us that a single reproof cured him so effectually that he never offended again. The worst that can be laid to the charge of this poor youth, whom it has been the fashion to represent as the most desperate of reprobates, as a village Rochester, is that he had a great liking for some diversions, quite harmless in themselves, but condemned by the rigid precisians among whom he lived, and for whose opinion he had a great respect. The four chief sins of which he was guilty were dancing, ringing the bells of the parish church, playing at tipcat, and reading the History of Sir Bevis of Southampton. A Rector of the school of Laud would have held such a young man up to the whole parish as a model. But Bunyan's notions of good and evil had been learned in a very different school; and he was made miserable by the conflict between his tastes and his scruples.

When he was about seventeen, the ordinary course of his life was interrupted by an event which gave a lasting colour to his thoughts. He enlisted in the parliamentary army, and served during the decisive campaign of 1645. All that we know of his military career is that, at the siege of Leicester, one of his comrades, who had taken his post, was killed by a shot from the town. Bunyan ever after considered himself as having been saved from death by the special interference of Providence. It may be observed, that his imagination was strongly impressed by the glimpse which he had caught of the pomp of war. To the last he loved to draw his illustrations of sacred things from camps and fortresses, from guns, drums, trumpets, flags of truce, and regiments arrayed, each under its own banner. His Greatheart, his Captain Boanerges, and his Captain Credence, are evidently portraits, of which the originals were among those martial saints who fought and expounded in Fairfax's army.

In a few months Bunyan returned home, and married. His wife had some pious relations, and brought him as her only portion some pious books. And now his mind, excitable by nature, very imperfectly disciplined by education, and exposed, without any protection, to the infectious virulence of the enthusiasm which was then epidemic in England, began to be fearfully disordered. In outward things he soon became a strict Pharisee. He was constant in attendance at prayers and sermons. His favourite amusements were, one after another, relinquished, though not without many painful struggles. In the middle of a game at tipcat he paused, and stood staring wildly upwards with his stick in his hand. He had heard a voice asking him whether he would leave his sins and go to heaven, or keep his sins and go to hell; and he had seen an awful countenance frowning on him from the sky. The odious vice of bell-ringing he renounced; but he still for a time ventured to go to the church tower and look on while others pulled the ropes. But soon the thought struck him that, if he persisted in such wickedness, the steeple would fall on his head; and he fled in terror from the accursed place. To give up dancing on the village green was still harder; and some months elapsed before he had the fortitude to part with this darling sin. When this last sacrifice had been made, he was, even when tried by the maxims of that austere time, faultless. All Elstow talked of him as an eminently pious youth. But his own mind was more unquiet than ever. Having nothing more to do in the way of visible reformation, yet finding in religion no pleasures to supply the place of the juvenile amusements which he had relinquished, he began to apprehend that he lay under some special malediction; and he was tormented by a succession of fantasies which seemed likely to drive him to suicide or to Bedlam.

At one time he took it into his head that all persons of Israelite blood would be saved, and tried to make out that he partook of that blood; but his hopes were speedily destroyed by his father, who seems to have had no ambition to be regarded as a Jew.

At another time Bunyan was disturbed by a strange dilemma: "If I have not faith, I am lost; if I have faith, I can work miracles." He was tempted to cry to the puddles between Elstow and Bedford, "Be ye dry," and to stake his eternal hopes on the event.

Then he took up a notion that the day of grace for Bedford and the neighbouring villages was passed; that all who were to be saved in that part of England were already converted; and that he had begun to pray and strive some months too late.

Then he was harassed by doubts whether the Turks were not in the right, and the Christians in the wrong. Then he was troubled by a maniacal impulse which prompted him to pray to the trees, to a broomstick, to the parish bull. As yet, however, he was only entering the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Soon the darkness grew thicker. Hideous forms floated before him. Sounds of cursing and wailing were in his ears. His way ran through stench and fire, close to the mouth of the bottomless pit. He began to be haunted by a strange curiosity about the unpardonable sin, and by a morbid longing to commit it. But the most frightful of all the forms which his disease took was a propensity to utter blasphemy, and especially to renounce his share in the benefits of the redemption. Night and day, in bed, at table, at work, evil spirits, as he imagined, were repeating close to his ear the words, "Sell him, sell him." He struck at the hobgoblins; he pushed them from him; but still they were ever at his side. He cried out in answer to them, hour after hour, "Never, never; not for thousands of worlds; not for thousands." At length, worn out by this long agony, he suffered the fatal words to escape him, "Let him go, if he will." Then his misery became more fearful than ever. He had done what could not be forgiven. He had forfeited his part of the great sacrifice. Like Esau, he had sold his birth-right; and there was no longer any place for repentance. "None," he afterwards wrote, "knows the terrors of those days but myself." He has described his sufferings with singular energy, simplicity, and pathos. He envied the brutes; he envied the very stones in the street, and the tiles on the houses. The sun seemed to withhold its light and warmth from him. His body, though cast in a sturdy mould, and though still in the highest vigour of youth, trembled whole days together with the fear of death and judgment. He fancied that this trembling was the sign set on the worst reprobates, the sign which God had put on Cain. The unhappy man's emotion destroyed his power of digestion. He had such pains that he expected to burst asunder like Judas, whom he regarded as his prototype.

Neither the books which Bunyan read, nor the advisers whom he consulted, were likely to do much good in a case like his. His small library had received a most unseasonable addition, the account of the lamentable end of Francis Spira. One ancient man of high repute for piety, whom the sufferer consulted, gave an opinion which might well have produced fatal consequences. "I am afraid," said Bunyan, "that I have committed the sin against the Holy Ghost." "Indeed," said the old fanatic, "I am afraid that you have."

At length the clouds broke; the light became clearer and clearer; and the enthusiast, who had imagined that he was branded with the mark of the first murderer, and destined to the end of the arch traitor, enjoyed peace and a cheerful confidence in the mercy of God. Years elapsed, however, before his nerves, which had been so perilously overstrained, recovered their tone. When he had joined a Baptist society at Bedford, and was for the first time admitted to partake of the Eucharist, it was with difficulty that he could refrain from imprecating destruction on his brethren while the cup was passing from hand to hand. After he had been some time a member of the congregation, he began to preach; and his sermons produced a powerful effect. He was indeed illiterate; but he spoke to illiterate men. The severe training through which he had passed had given him such an experimental knowledge of all the modes of religious melancholy as he could never have gathered from books; and his vigorous genius, animated by a fervent spirit of devotion, enabled him not only to exercise a great influence over the vulgar, but even to extort the half contemptuous admiration of scholars. Yet it was long before he ceased to be tormented by an impulse which urged him to utter words of horrible impiety in the pulpit.

Counter-irritants are of as great use in moral as in physical diseases. It should seem that Bunyan was finally relieved from the internal sufferings which had embittered his life by sharp persecution from without. He had been five years a preacher, when the Restoration put it in the power of the Cavalier gentlemen and clergymen all over the country to oppress the Dissenters; and, of all the Dissenters whose history is known to us, he was perhaps the most hardly treated. In November 1660, he was flung into Bedford gaol; and there he remained, with some intervals of partial and precarious liberty, during twelve years. His persecutors tried to extort from him a promise that he would abstain from preaching; but he was convinced that he was divinely set apart and commissioned to be a teacher of righteousness, and he was fully determined to obey God rather than man. He was brought before several tribunals, laughed at, caressed, reviled, menaced, but in vain. He was facetiously told that he was quite right in thinking that he ought not to hide his gift; but that his real gift was skill in repairing old kettles. He was compared to Alexander the coppersmith. He was told that, if he would give up preaching, he should be instantly liberated. He was warned that, if he persisted in disobeying the law, he would be liable to banishment, and that, if he were found in England after a certain time, his neck would be stretched. His answer was, "If you let me out to-day, I will preach again to-morrow." Year after year he lay patiently in a dungeon, compared with which the worst prison now to be found in the island is a palace. His fortitude is the more extraordinary, because his domestic feelings were unusually strong. Indeed, he was considered by his stern brethren as somewhat too fond and indulgent a parent. He had several small children, and among them a daughter who was blind, and whom he loved with peculiar tenderness. He could not, he said, bear even to let the wind blow on her; and now she must suffer cold and hunger; she must beg; she must be beaten; "yet," he added, "I must, I must do it." While he lay in prison he could do nothing in the way of his old trade for the support of his family. He determined, therefore to take up a new trade. He learned to make long tagged thread laces; and many thousands of these articles were furnished by him to the hawkers. While his hands were thus busied, he had other employment for his mind and his lips. He gave religious instruction to his fellow-captives, and formed from among them a little flock, of which he was himself the pastor. He studied indefatigably the few books which he possessed. His two chief companions were the Bible and Fox's Book of Martyrs. His knowledge of the Bible was such that he might have been called a living concordance; and on the margin of his copy of the Book of Martyrs are still legible the ill spelt lines of doggrel in which he expressed his reverence for the brave sufferers, and his implacable enmity to the mystical Babylon.

At length he began to write, and, though it was some time before he discovered where his strength lay, his writings were not unsuccessful. They were coarse, indeed, but they showed a keen mother wit, a great command of the homely mother tongue, an intimate knowledge of the English Bible, and a vast and dearly bought spiritual experience. They therefore, when the corrector of the press had improved the syntax and the spelling, were well received by the humbler class of Dissenters.

Béranger, Pierre Jean de by Robert Louis Stevenson

source: Britannica:
Stevenson was still quite a young writer, the works that were to ensure his lasting fame still well in the future, when he was commissioned by the editor of the Ninth Edition (1875-89) to write a biography of his countryman and fellow poet Robert Burns. The editor rejected Stevenson's submission, and Stevenson later conceded the point: "To say truth, I had, I fancy, an exaggerated idea of the gravity of an encyclopedia and wished to give mere bones, and to make no statement that should seem even warm." He obviously learned his lesson, and provided far more than mere bones in his second effort, a biography of yet another poet.

BÉRANGER, PIERRE JEAN DE, the national song-writer of France, was born at Paris on the 19th August 1780. The aristocratic particle before the name was a piece of groundless vanity on the part of his father, which the poet found useful as a distinction. He was descended, in truth, from a country innkeeper on the one side, and, on the other, from a tailor in the Rue Montorgueil. Of education, in the narrower sense, he had but little. From the roof of his first school he beheld the capture of the Bastille, and this stirring memory was all that he acquired. Later on he passed some time in a school at Péronne, founded by one Bellenglise on the principles of Rousseau, where the boys were formed into clubs and regiments, and taught to play solemnly at politics and war. Béranger was president of the club, made speeches before such members of Convention as passed through Péronne, and drew up addresses to Tallien or Robespierre at Paris. In the meanwhile he learned neither Greek nor Latin--not even French, it would appear; for it was after he left school, from the printer Laisney, that he acquired the elements of grammar. His true education was of another sort. In his childhood, shy, sickly, and skilful with his hands, as he sat at home alone to carve cherry stones, he was already forming for himself those habits of retirement and patient elaboration which influenced the whole tenor of his life and the character of all that he wrote. At Péronne he learned of his good aunt to be a stout republican; and from the doorstep of her inn, on quiet evenings, he would listen to the thunder of the guns before Valenciennes, and fortify himself in his passionate love of France and distaste for all things foreign. Although he could never read Horace save in a translation, he had been educated on Telemaque, Racine, and the dramas of Voltaire, and taught, from a child, in the tradition of all that is highest and most correct in French.

After serving his aunt for some time in the capacity of waiter, and passing some time also in the printing office of one Laisney, he was taken to Paris by his father. Here he saw much low speculation and many low royalist intrigues. In 1802, in consequence of a distressing quarrel, he left his father and began life for himself in the garret of his ever memorable song. For two years he did literary hackwork, when he could get it, and wrote pastorals, epics, and all manner of ambitious failures. At the end of that period (1804) he wrote to Lucien Bonaparte, enclosing some of these attempts. He was then in bad health, and in the last stage of misery. His watch was pledged. His wardrobe consisted of one pair of boots, one greatcoat, one pair of trousers with a hole in the knee, and "three bad shirts which a friendly hand wearied itself in endeavouring to mend." The friendly hand was that of Judith Frère, with whom he had been already more or less acquainted since 1796, and who continued to be his faithful companion until her death, three months before his own, in 1857. She must not be confounded with the Lisette of the songs; the pieces addressed to her (La Bonne Vieille, Maudit Printemps, &c.) are in a very different vein. Lucien Bonaparte interested himself in the young poet, transferred to him his own pension of 1000 francs from the Institute, and set him to work on a Death of Nero. Five years later, through the same patronage, although indirectly, Béranger became a clerk in the university at a salary of another thousand.

Meanwhile he had written many songs for convivial occasions, and "to console himself under all misfortunes;" some, according to M. Boiteau, had been already published by his father; but he set no great store on them himself; and it was only in 1812, while watching by the sick-bed of a friend, that it occurred to him to write down the best he could remember. Next year he was elected to the Caveau Moderne, and his reputation as a song-writer began to spread. Manuscript copies of Les Gueux, Le Sénateur, above all of Le Roi d'Yvetot, a satire against Napoleon, whom he was to magnify so much in the sequel, passed from hand to hand with acclamation. It was thus that all his best works went abroad; one man sang them to another over all the land of France. He was the only poet of modern times who could altogether have dispensed with printing.

His first collection escaped censure. "We must pardon many things to the author of the Roi d'Yvetot," said Louis XVIII. The second (1821) was more daring. The apathy of the Liberal camp, he says, had convinced him of the need for some bugle call of awakening. This publication lost him his situation in the university, and subjected him to a trial, a fine of 500 francs, and an imprisonment of three months. Imprisonment was a small affair for Béranger. At Sainte Pélagie he occupied a room (it had just been quitted by Paul Louis Courier), warm, well-furnished, and preferable in every way to his own poor lodging, where the water froze on winter nights. He adds, on the occasion of his second imprisonment, that he found a certain charm in this quiet, claustral existence, with its regular hours and long evenings alone over the fire. This second imprisonment of nine months, together with a fine and expenses amounting to 1100 francs, followed on the appearance of his fourth collection. The Government proposed through Laffitte that, if he would submit to judgment without appearing or making defences, he should only be condemned in the smallest penalty. But his public spirit made him refuse the proposal; and he would not even ask permission to pass his term of imprisonment in a Maison de Santé, although his health was more than usually feeble at the time. "When you have taken your stand in a contest with Government, it seems to me," he wrote, "ridiculous to complain of the blows it inflicts on you, and impolitic to furnish it with any occasion of generosity." His first thought in La Force was to alleviate the condition of the other prisoners.

In the revolution of July he took no inconsiderable part. Copies of his song, Le Vieux Drapeau, were served out to the insurgent crowd. He had been for long the intimate friend and adviser of the leading men; and during the decisive week his counsels went a good way towards shaping the ultimate result. "As for the republic, that dream of my whole life," he wrote in 1831, "I did not wish it should be given to us a second time unripe." Louis Philippe, hearing how much the song-writer had done towards his elevation, expressed a wish to see and speak with him; but Béranger refused to present himself at court, and used his favour only to ask a place for a friend, and a pension for Rouget de l'Isle, author of the famous Marseillaise, who was now old and poor, and whom he had been already succouring for five years.

In 1848, in spite of every possible expression of his reluctance, he was elected to the assembly, and that by so large a number of votes (4471) that he felt himself obliged to accept the office. Not long afterwards, and with great difficulty, he obtained leave to resign. This was the last public event of Béranger's life. He continued to polish his songs in retirement, visited by nearly all the famous men of France. He numbered among his friends Chateaubriand, Thiers, Laffitte, Michelet, Lamennais, Mignet. Nothing could exceed the amiability of his private character; so poor a man has rarely been so rich in good actions; he was always ready to receive help from his friends when he was in need, and always forward to help others. His correspondence is full of wisdom and kindness, with a smack of Montaigne, and now and then a vein of pleasantry that will remind the English reader of Charles Lamb. He occupied some of his leisure in preparing his own memoirs, and a certain treatise on Social and Political Morality, intended for the people, a work he had much at heart, but judged at last to be beyond his strength. He died on the 16th July 1857. It was feared that his funeral would be the signal for some political disturbance; but the Government took immediate measures, and all went quietly. The streets of Paris were lined with soldiers and full of townsfolk, silent and uncovered. From time to time cries arose:--"Honneur, Honneur à Béranger !"

The songs of Béranger would scarcely be called songs in England. They are elaborate, written in a clear and sparkling style, full of wit and incision. It is not so much for any lyrical flow as for the happy turn of the phrase that they claim superiority. Whether the subject be gay or serious, light or passionate, the medium remains untroubled. The special merits of the songs are merits to be looked for rather in English prose than in English verse. He worked deliberately, never wrote more than fifteen songs a year and often less, and was so fastidious that he has not preserved a quarter of what he finished. "I am a good little bit of a poet," he says himself, "clever in the craft, and a conscientious worker, to whom old airs and a modest choice of subjects (le coin ou je me suis confiné), have brought some success." Nevertheless, he makes a figure of importance in literary history. When he first began to cultivate the chanson, this minor form lay under some contempt, and was restricted to slight subjects and a humorous guise of treatment. Gradually he filled these little chiseled toys of verbal perfection with ever more and more of sentiment. From a date comparatively early he had determined to sing for the people. It was for this reason that he fled, as far as possible, the houses of his influential friends, and came back gladly to the garret and the street corner. Thus it was, also, that he came to acknowledge obligations to Emile Debraux, who had often stood between him and the masses as interpreter, and given him the key-note of the popular humour. Now, he had observed in the songs of sailors, and all who labour, a prevailing tone of sadness; and so, as he grew more masterful in this sort of expression, he sought more and more after what is deep, serious, and constant in the thoughts of common men. The evolution was slow; and we can see in his own works examples of every stage, from that of witty indifference in fifty pieces of the first collection, to that of grave and even tragic feeling in Les Souvenirs du Peuple or Le Vieux Vagabond. And this innovation involved another, which was as a sort of prelude to the great romantic movement. For the chanson, as he says himself, opened up to him a path in which his genius could develop itself at ease; he escaped, by this literary postern, from strict academical requirements, and had at his disposal the whole dictionary, four-fifths of which, according to La Harpe, were forbidden to the use of more regular and pretentious poetry. If he still kept some of the old vocabulary, some of the old imagery, he was yet accustoming people to hear moving subjects treated in a manner more free and simple than heretofore; so that his was a sort of conservative reform, preceding the violent revolution of Victor Hugo and his army of uncompromising romantics. He seems himself to have had glimmerings of some such idea; but he withheld his full approval from the new movement on two grounds:--first, because the romantic school misused somewhat brutally the delicate organism of the French language; and second, as he wrote to Sainte-Beuve in 1832, because they adopted the motto of "Art for art," and set no object of public usefulness before them as they wrote. For himself (and this is the third point of importance) he had a strong sense of political responsibility. Public interest took a far higher place in his estimation than any private passion or favour. He had little toleration for those erotic poets who sing their own loves and not the common sorrows of mankind, "who forget," to quote his own words, "forget beside their mistress those who labour before the Lord." Hence it is that so many of his pieces are political, and so many, in the later times at least, inspired with a socialistic spirit of indignation and revolt. It is by this socialism that he becomes truly modern, and touches hands with Burns.

The following books may be consulted:--Ma Biographie (his own memoirs); Vie de Béranger, by Paul Boiteau, 1861; Correspondence de Béranger, edited by Paul Boiteau, 4 vols. 1860; Béranger et Lamennais (by Napoléon Peyrat), 1857; Quarante-Cinq lettres de Béranger publiées par Madame Louise Colet (almost worthless), 1857; Béranger, ses amis, ses ennemis, et ses critiques, by A. Arnould, 2 vols., 1864; J. Janin, Béranger et son Temps, 2 vols., 1866; also Sainte-Beuve's Portraits Contemporains, vol. i.

(R. L. S.)

Americanism by H.L. Mencken

The reputation of the journalist and essayist H.L. Mencken has seen its ups and downs over the years since his death in 1956. His importance as an early and influential student of the variety of the English language peculiar to America is not seriously questioned, however. His book The American Language was published in 1919 and was in its third edition when he was commissioned to write on the subject for the Thirteenth Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1926).

Americanism, a term first used by John Witherspoon, president of Princeton University, in 1781, designates (a) any word or combination of words which taken into the English language in the United States, has not gained acceptance in England, or, if accepted, has retained its sense of foreignness; and (b) any word or combination of words which, becoming archaic in England, has continued in good usage in the United States. The first class is the larger and has the longer history. The earliest settlers in Virginia and New England, confronted by plants and animals that were unfamiliar to them, either borrowed the Indian names or invented names of their own.

Examples are afforded by raccoon (1608), chinkapin (1608), opossum (1610) and squash (1642) among Indian words and by bull-frog, canvas-back, cat-bird and live-oak among inventions. The former tended to take anglicised forms. Thus the Indian isquontersquash (at least, that is how the early chroniclers recorded it) became squantersquash and was then reduced to squash, and otchock became woodchuck. Many other words came in as the pioneers gained familiarity with the Indian life. Such words as hominy, moccasin, pone, tapioca and succotash remain everyday Americanisms.

The archaisms, of course, showed themselves more slowly. They had to go out of use in England before their survival in America was noticeable. But by the beginning of the 18th century there was already a considerable body of them, and all through that century they increased. The English language in Great Britain, chiefly under the influence of pedantry in the age of Anne, was changing rapidly, but in America it was holding to its old forms. There was very little fresh emigration to the colonies, and their own people seldom visited England. Thus by the end of the century "I guess" was already an Americanism, though it had been in almost universal use in England in Shakespeare's day. So, too, with many other verbs: to wilt, to whittle, to fellowship and to approbate. And with not a few adjectives: burly, catty-cornered, likely and clever (in the sense of amiable). And with multitudes of nouns: cesspool, greenhorn, cordwood, jeans, flap-jack, bay-window, swingle-tree, muss (in the sense of a row), stock (for cattle) and fall (for autumn).

Meanwhile, American English had begun to borrow words, chiefly nouns, from the non-English settlers, and to develop many new words of its own. To the former class the Dutch contributed cruller, cold-slaw, cockey, scow, boss, smearcase and Santa Claus, and the French contributed gopher, prairie, chowder, carry-all and bureau (a chest of drawers). Other contributions came from the Germans of Pennsylvania, the Spaniards of the southwest, and negro slaves. The native coinages were large in number, and full of boldness and novelty. To this period belong, for example, backwoods, hoe-cake, pop-corn, land-slide, shell-road, half-breed, hired-girl, spelling-bee, moss-back, crazy-quilt, stamping-ground and cat-boat. These words were all made of the common materials of English, but there was something in them that was redolent of a pioneer people and a new world. In their coinage the elegances were disdained; the thing aimed at was simply vividness. At the same time, verbs were made out of nouns, nouns out of verbs and adjectives out of both.

In 1789 Benjamin Franklin, who had lived in England, denounced to advocate, to progress and to oppose as barbarisms, but all of them are good American to-day, and even good English. Noah Webster, the lexicographer, gave his imprimatur to to appreciate (in value); to eventuate was popularised by Gouverneur Morris; and no less a hero than Washington is said to have launched to derange. Many inventions of that daring era have succumbed to pedagogical criticism, e.g., to happify, to compromit and to homologise. But others equally harsh have gradually gained acceptance, e.g., to placate and to deputise. And with them have come in a vast number of characteristic American nouns, e.g., breadstuffs, mileage, balance (in the sense of remainder) and elevator (a place for storing grain).

Divergent Meanings of Words. It was during the same period that a number of important words, in daily use, began to show different meanings in England and America. Some familiar examples are store, rock, lumber and corn. What Englishmen call a shop was called a store by Americans as early as 1770, and long before that time corn, in American, had come to signify, not grains in general, but only maize. The use of rock to designate any stone, however small, goes back still further, and so does the use of lumber for timber. Many of these differences were produced by changes in English usage. Thus cracker, in England, once meant precisely what it now means in the United States. When the English abandoned it for biscuit the Americans stuck to cracker, and used biscuit to designate something else. How shoe came to be substituted in America for the English boot has yet to be determined. There is indeed much that remains obscure in the early history of such Americanisms. Until very lately, American philologians kept aloof from the subject, which they apparently regarded as low. Until George P. Krapp, of Columbia University, took it up, there was not even any serious investigation of the history of American pronunciation.

Thus the American dialect of English was firmly established by the time the Republic was well started, and in the half-century following it departed more and more from standard English. The settlement of the West, by taking large numbers of young men beyond the pale of urbane society, made for grotesque looseness in speech. Neologisms of the most extravagant sorts arose by the thousand, and many of them worked their way back to the East. During the two decades before the Civil War everyday American became almost unintelligible to an Englishman; every English visitor marked and denounced its vagaries. It was bold and lawless in its vocabulary, careless of grammatical niceties, and further disfigured by a drawling manner of speech. The congressional debates of the time were full of its phrases; soon they were to show themselves in the national literature.

Policing the Language. After the Civil War there was an increase of national self-consciousness, and efforts were made to police the language. Free schools multiplied in the land, and the schoolmarm revealed all her immemorial preciosity. A clan of professional grammarians arose, led by Richard Grant White; it got help from certain of the literati, including Lowell. The campaign went to great lengths. "It is me" was banned as barbarous, though it is perfectly sound historically; eye-ther was substituted in polite usage for ee-ther, though the latter is correct and the former is on the part of an American an absurd affectation.

But the spirit of the language, and of the American people no less, was against such reforms. They were attacked on philological grounds by such iconoclasts as Thomas R. Lounsbury; they were reduced to vanity by the unconquerable speech habits of the folk. Under the very noses of the purists a new and vigorous American slang came into being, and simultaneously the common speech began to run amok. That common speech is to-day almost lawless. As Ring Lardner reports it--and he reports it very accurately--it seems destined in a few generations to dispose altogether of the few inflections that remain in English. "Me and her woulda went" will never, perhaps, force its way into the grammar-books, but it is used daily, or something like it, by a large part of the people of the United States, and the rest know precisely what it means.

On higher levels the language of the Americans is more decorous, but even there it is a genuinely living speech, taking in loan-words with vast hospitality and incessantly manufacturing neologisms of its own. The argot of sport enriches it almost daily. It runs to brilliantly vivid tropes. It is disdainful of grammatical pruderies. In the face of a new situation the American shows a far greater linguistic resourcefulness and daring than the Englishman. Movie is obviously better than cinema, just as cow-catcher is better than plough and job-holder is better than public-servant. The English seldom devise anything as pungent as rubber-neck, ticket-scalper, lame-duck, pork-barrel, boot-legger or steam-roller (in its political sense). Such exhilarating novelties are produced in the United States every day, and large numbers of them come into universal use, and gradually take on literary dignity. They are opposed violently, but they prevail. The visiting Englishman finds them very difficult. They puzzle him even more than do American peculiarities of pronunciation.

Of late the increase of travel and other inter-communication between England and America has tended to halt the differentiation of the two dialects. It was more marked, perhaps, before the World War than since. But if it ever vanishes altogether the fact will mark a victory for American. The American cinema floods England (and the rest of the English-speaking world) with American neologisms, but there is very little movement in the other direction. Thus the tail begins to wag the dog. How far the change has gone may be observed in Australia. There a cockneyfied pronunciation holds out, but the American vocabulary is increasingly triumphant. In Canada it long ago overcame the last vestiges of opposition.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. There is no satisfactory dictionary of Americanisms. The best is Richard H. Thornton's American Glossary (1912), but it is based wholly on written records and is thus incomplete. George Philip Krapp's The English Language in America (1925) is valuable to the student of American pronunciation, and contains much miscellaneous matter of interest, but there are gaps in it, and the author opposes his own evidence by arguing that English and American show few important differences. An extensive bibliography is in H. L. Mencken's The American Language, 3rd ed. (1923). In 1925 Dr. Louise Pound, of the University of Nebraska, began the publication of a monthly, American Speech (Baltimore).

(H.L.M.)

kiss with a feeling


stolen kiss

"nganong sija ra man imong gihagkan?"


"tig-picture nalang ko"

wa bay labot ang gilimod?

By Marianne L. Saberon-Abalayan
Sun Star

"KILL the Filipino," came the chants of the crowd as Steve Grandeza climbed the ring, a grim reminder of the great odds he was facing in the biggest fight of his life.

They were cheering for his opponent and it was understandable. At the opposite corner of the ring stood Ghana's Al Hassan "Van Damme" Okine, a tall and muscular fighter who is very popular in Dubai because of his impressive fight record.

Grandeza, the Filipino champion, was never given a chance. He was small, they said, and would end up just being slaughtered by Okine.

They were all dead wrong as Grandeza went on to dominate Okine on the way to capturing the World Kickboxing Federation (WKBF) super welterweight crown and stunning the crowd at The Lodge in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

"Everyone was rooting for him (Okine). I even heard someone told Okine during the weigh-in, `You can beat him, he's so small," Grandeza told the Davao Sportswriters Association (DSA) Forum Thursday as he recalled the night he won the world title against the highly-rated fighter from Ghana.

"During fight night, I was the one called first and so when we entered, the fans were shouting, ‘Kill the Filipino,’" Grandeza added.

But Grandeza said his brother-trainer Bryan reminded him of their meditation training where he was submerged into the sea.

"Bryan said I had to focus on my opponent and not on the negative remarks being thrown at me by the crowd. I emptied my mind just like in our water training. It helped me shift my focus back on the fight at hand, otherwise, I would have been distracted," he said.

His best friend and coach Edgar Alan Paulino said the water training was a good thing and it helped Steve to focus on the fight and that the negative chants of the audience did not diminish his determination.

Grandeza said after the decision was announced he became emotional that he cried when the Philippine anthem was played during the championship belt presentation.

He, however, confessed that there were premonitions he would be bring home the belt.

"When I arrived in Dubai, I dreamt of bringing this one (gesturing at his belt) home. I believe it was really my faith that made it possible. I was very positive about the fight. It's funny that in my dream, I was giving Okine a roundhouse kick and it did happen," Grandeza said.

"I cried when the Philippine national anthem was being played during the awarding. I had always dreamt of becoming a world champion. I'm so happy it came true. This honor is for every Dabawenyo and every Filipino all over the world. I am proud to be a Dabawenyo. I am proud to be a Filipino," he added.

He also thanked Team Pilipinas Phoenix Moo Duk Kwan consultant Ben Sur and sponsors Phoenix Petroleum Philippines, PAGCOR, NIS Motors Corporation, Davao Bayan Construction & Hardware Supply, Inc., Rockspec Gears, Davao Mayor Inday Sara Duterte and Vice Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte for supporting his campaign.

Published in the Sun.Star Davao newspaper on October 08, 2010.

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Smear offensive

Rep. Edcel C. Lagman

THERE IS A CONTINUING campaign to discredit the reproductive health bill through misinformation. Straightforward answers to the negative propaganda will help educate and enlighten people on the measure.

The bill is not antilife. It is proquality life. It will ensure that children will be blessings for their parents since their births are planned and wanted. It will empower couples with the information and opportunity to plan and space their children. This will not only strengthen the family as a unit but also optimize care for children who will have more opportunities to be educated, healthy and productive.

The bill does not interfere with family life. In fact, it enhances family life. The family is more than a natural nucleus; it is a social institution whose protection and development are impressed with public interest. It is not untouchable by legislation. For this reason, the State has enacted the Civil Code on family relations, the Family Code, and the Child and Youth Welfare Code.

The bill does not legalize abortion. It expressly provides that “abortion remains a crime” and “prevention of abortion” is essential to fully implement the Reproductive Health Care Program. While “management of post-abortion complications” is provided, this is not to condone abortion but to promote the humane treatment of women in life-threatening situations.

It will not lead to the legalization of abortion. It is not true that all countries where contraceptive use is promoted eventually legalize abortion. Many Catholic countries criminalize abortion even as they vigorously promote contraceptive use like Mexico, Panama, Guatemala, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Paraguay and Ireland. The Muslim and Buddhist countries of Indonesia and Laos also promote contraceptive use yet proscribe abortion. According to studies, correct and regular use of contraceptives reduces abortion rates by as much as 85 percent and negates the need to legalize abortion.

Contraceptives do not have life-threatening side effects. Medical and scientific evidence shows that all the possible medical risks connected with contraceptives are infinitely lower than the risks of an actual pregnancy and everyday activities. The risk of dying within a year of riding a car is 1 in 5,900. The risk of dying within a year of using pills is 1 in 200,000. The risk of dying from a vasectomy is 1 in 1 million and the risk of dying from using an IUD is 1 in 10 million. The probability of dying from condom use is absolutely zero. But the risk of dying from a pregnancy is 1 in 10,000.

The bill will not promote contraceptive mentality. The bill does not prohibit pregnancy. Critics are mistaken in claiming that because contraceptives would be readily available, people would prefer to have no children at all. Couples will not stop wanting children simply because contraceptives are available. Contraceptives are used to prevent unwanted pregnancies but not to stop pregnancies altogether. Timed pregnancies are assured.

The bill does not impose a two-child policy. It does not promote a compulsory policy strictly limiting a family to two children and no punitive action shall be imposed on parents with more than two children. This number is not an imposition or is it arbitrary because results of the 2003 National Demographic and Health Survey show that the ideal of two children approximates the desired fertility of women.

Sexuality education will neither spawn “a generation of sex maniacs” nor breed a culture of promiscuity. Age-appropriate RH education promotes correct sexual values. It will not only instill consciousness of freedom of choice but also responsible exercise of one’s rights. The UN and countries which have youth sexuality education document its beneficial results: understanding of proper sexual values is promoted; early initiation into sexual relations is delayed; abstinence before marriage is encouraged; multiple-sex partners is avoided; and spread of sexually transmitted diseases is prevented.

It does not claim that family planning is the panacea for poverty. It simply recognizes the verifiable link between a huge population and poverty. Unbridled population growth stunts socioeconomic development and aggravates poverty. The connection between population and development is well-documented and empirically established.

UN Human Development Reports show that countries with higher population growth invariably score lower in human development. The Asian Development Bank in 2004 also listed a large population as one of the major causes of poverty in the country.

The National Statistics Office affirms that large families are prone to poverty with 57.3 percent of families with seven children mired in poverty while only 23.8 percent of families with two children are poor. Recent studies also show that large family size is a significant factor in keeping families poor across generations.

Family planning will not lead to a demographic winter. UP economics professors in their paper “Population and Poverty: The Real Score” declared that the threat of a so-called demographic winter in the Philippines is “greatly exaggerated, and using it as an argument against a sensible population policy is a plain and simple scare tactic.”

The National Statistical Coordinating Board projected that a replacement fertility of 2.1 children per couple could be reached only by 2040. Moreover, despite a reduced population growth rate, the effects of population momentum would continue for another 60 years by which time our total population would be 240 million.

Humanae Vitae is not an infallible doctrine. In 1963, Pope John XXIII created the Papal Commission on Birth Control to study questions on population and family planning. The Commission included ranking prelates and theologians.

Voting 69 to 10, it strongly recommended that the Church change its teaching on contraception as it concluded that “the regulation of conception appears necessary for many couples who wish to achieve a responsible, open and reasonable parenthood in today’s circumstances.”

However, it was the minority report that Pope Paul VI eventually supported and which became the basis of Humanae Vitae.

Even 40 years ago when the encyclical was issued, theologians did not generally think that it was infallible. Monsignor Fernando Lambruschini, spokesperson of the Vatican at the time of its release, said “attentive reading of the encyclical Humanae Vitae does not suggest the theological note of infallibility… It is not infallible.”

Five days after the issuance of the encyclical, a statement against it was signed by 87 Catholic theologians. It asserted that “Catholics may dissent from … noninfallible Church doctrine” and that “Catholic spouses could responsibly decide in some circumstances to use artificial contraception.”

(Rep. Edcel C. Lagman of Albay is the principal author of the proposed Reproductive Health and Population Development Act of 2008.)

By Rep. Edcel Lagman
Philippine Daily Inquirer

(Editor’s Note: Upon the request of readers, we are running the salient features of the proposed Reproductive Health and Population Development Act of 2008. We asked its principal author in the House of Representatives to present the main points of and misconceptions about the bill. We hope that this issue will help readers reach an informed opinion on the measure.)

THE BILL IS NATIONAL IN SCOPE, COMPREHENSIVE, rights-based and provides adequate funding to the population program. It is a departure from the present setup in which the provision for reproductive health services is devolved to local government units, and consequently, subjected to the varying strategies of local government executives and suffers from a dearth of funding.

The reproductive health (RH) bill promotes information on and access to both natural and modern family planning methods, which are medically safe and legally permissible. It assures an enabling environment where women and couples have the freedom of informed choice on the mode of family planning they want to adopt based on their needs, personal convictions and religious beliefs.

The bill does not have any bias for or against either natural or modern family planning. Both modes are contraceptive methods. Their common purpose is to prevent unwanted pregnancies.

The bill will promote sustainable human development. The UN stated in 2002 that “family planning and reproductive health are essential to reducing poverty.” The Unicef also asserts that “family planning could bring more benefits to more people at less cost than any other single technology now available to the human race.”

Coverage of RH. (1) Information and access to natural and modern family planning (2) Maternal, infant and child health and nutrition (3) Promotion of breast feeding (4) Prevention of abortion and management of post-abortion complications (5) Adolescent and youth health (6) Prevention and management of reproductive tract infections, HIV/AIDS and STDs (7) Elimination of violence against women ( Counseling on sexuality and sexual and reproductive health (9) Treatment of breast and reproductive tract cancers (10) Male involvement and participation in RH; (11) Prevention and treatment of infertility and (12) RH education for the youth.

Strengthening of Popcom. The existing Population Commission shall be reoriented to promote both natural and modern family planning methods. It shall serve as the central planning, coordinating, implementing and monitoring body for the comprehensive and integrated policy on reproductive health and population development.

Capability building of community-based volunteer workers. The workers shall undergo additional and updated training on the delivery of reproductive healthcare services and shall receive not less than 10-percent increase in honoraria upon successful completion of training.

Midwives for skilled birth attendance. Every city and municipality shall endeavor to employ an adequate number of midwives and other skilled attendants.

Emergency obstetrics care. Each province and city shall endeavor to ensure the establishment and operation of hospitals with adequate and qualified personnel that provide emergency obstetrics care.

Hospital-based family planning. Family planning methods requiring hospital services like ligation, vasectomy and IUD insertion shall be available in all national and local government hospitals.

Contraceptives as essential medicines. Reproductive health products shall be considered essential medicines and supplies and shall form part of the National Drug Formulary considering that family planning reduces the incidence of maternal and infant mortality.

Reproductive health education. RH education in an age-appropriate manner shall be taught by adequately trained teachers from Grade 5 to 4th year high school. As proposed in the bill, core subjects include responsible parenthood, natural and modern family planning, proscription and hazards of abortion, reproductive health and sexual rights, abstinence before marriage, and responsible sexuality.

Certificate of compliance. No marriage license shall be issued by the Local Civil Registrar unless the applicants present a Certificate of Compliance issued for free by the local Family Planning Office. The document should certify that they had duly received adequate instructions and information on family planning, responsible parenthood, breast feeding and infant nutrition.

Ideal family size. The State shall encourage two children as the ideal family size. This is neither mandatory nor compulsory and no punitive action may be imposed on couples having more than two children.

Employers’ responsibilities. Employers shall respect the reproductive health rights of all their workers. Women shall not be discriminated against in the matter of hiring, regularization of employment status or selection for retrenchment. Employers shall provide free reproductive health services and commodities to workers, whether unionized or unorganized.

Multimedia campaign. Popcom shall initiate and sustain an intensified nationwide multimedia campaign to raise the level of public awareness on the urgent need to protect and promote reproductive health and rights.

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Do You Know How to Play "Dama"?

By Armand Galang
Central Luzon Desk

NUEVA ECIJA, Philippinesâ€"Vice Mayor Luisito Caraang was shot and killed by two men as he was about to enter his house at Barangay San Casimiro in Licab town in this province on Saturday morning.

Senior Superintendent Roberto Aliggayu, Nueva Ecija police director, said Caraang, who was serving his first term as vice mayor, had just finished jogging when he was attacked at 5:10 a.m. The gunmen fled on a motorcycle.

Aliggayu said Caraang was taken to the Premiere General Hospital here but died while undergoing treatment.

By Doris Dumlao
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Budget carrier Cebu Pacific hopes to raise up to P26.83 billion ($620 million) in what may be the country’s largest initial public offering this year.

Cebu Air Inc., operator of the Gokongwei-led budget carrier, finalized Friday its public offer at a price of P125 a share.

Analysts said the final pricing was reasonable given the profitability of the airline, its growing market share and cost-efficient business model.

“It was ... fairly priced and cheap compared to regional low-cost carriers,” said Paul Joseph Garcia of ING Investment Management, referring to the share price. “Cebu Air is a direct play on the growth of domestic tourism.”

Based on a Philippine Stock Exchange memorandum containing final details of the offering, the operator of Cebu Pacific will sell as much as 214.63 million from the issuance of primary and secondary shares.

Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan are joint global lead managers for the share sale, and ATR KimEng Capital Partners is the local lead underwriter.

Cebu Air’s listing date on the PSE has also been moved to Oct. 26 as the original date, Oct. 25, has been declared by Malacañang to be a non-working holiday because of the barangay elections.

The company is the country’s largest budget carrier by fleet and sales. It is majority-owned by the local conglomerate JG Summit Holdings Inc.

Cebu Air’s IPO is expected to benefit from a rally at the Philippine stock market, which has gone up more than 38 percent this year.

Masuko imong girlfriend nimo Hubs for posting her picture here.

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after life

By Shinya Ajima

WASHINGTON, Oct. 9 (PNA/Kyodo) -- Japan on Friday explained its position on currency intervention to other Group of Seven economies and faced no serious criticism to the action, Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda said.

The G-7 finance ministers and central bank governors reconfirmed that excessive volatility in the currency market is unfavorable to the global economy and financial system while agreeing that they will cooperate in prodding emerging economies with trade surpluses to shift to a more flexible currency policy, Noda said.

"I explained our currency intervention," Noda told reporters after the G-7 held talks over dinner on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. (PNA/Kyodo)

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