MikeLigalig.com

]dailymail.co.uk/

The artist studied at UP Diliman College of Fine Arts, in Manilla, and his statement shoes were seen in the Spring/Summer 2012 collection of French-born designer Florian Jayet, an intern for the late Alexander McQueen.

He favours shoes that seem to hover without a supporting heel, with designs such as a black latex platform that appears to be melting and a towering design studded with sharp metal spikes.



dailymail.co.uk/

But the imaginative piece may not be the weirdest or wackiest of Tesoro's shoes yet.

The designer famously won the attention of Lady Gaga with his famous skull-heel shoes - a towering block of arched wood with a suede upper, resting on a heel made of a skull with a spike of bone emerging from its lower jaw.

By MARTHA CLIFF FOR MAILONLINE

1 July 2015

Lady Gaga may love Kermit Tersoro's mind-boggling creations but even she may struggle with her favourite shoe designer's latest offering.

The Philippines-born artist, 27, has invented a platform shoe which is supported by thick curved tentacles, complete with white suckers, rather than a wedge sole or heel.

But without any buckles or straps, the Polypodis poses a challenge for even the most intrepid heel wearer who must trust that two strategically-placed tentacles will hold the foot in place.


Filipino shoe designer Kermit Tesoro has released extravagant new footwear the Polypodis (pictured)

dailymail.co.uk/

Optical Illusion Dance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44mw37d8LQw

i know what i saw.  bata gyod bisag unsaon, from the size to the gait to the grooming, grade 7 or 8 pa tong mga bataa.

at last.  i've met an emma who is kind.  great!

i witnessed a heartrending scene while sitting alone in a restaurant at ayala cebu.

at another table outside the restaurant (because ayala cebu's restaurants have tables at the corridors) 2 middle-aged white men were engrossed in serious talks. 

then 5 early teeners, clean, well-dressed, decent-looking girls, below 15 years of age in my estimation, approached those 2 men, smiling, and said something i couldn't make out.  but it looked like they were asking to be invited.  and were shooed away with dispatch like they were nothing but irritants.

i was embarrassed for them.  how did such very young girls ever learn to go out on such adventures?  what if those 2 men called their challenge, and they happen to be pedophiles?

and that's the reason why, to the consternation of our 13-year-old, my rule is never to let her go out with her friends without a hovering adult for a chaperon.

left to themselves, we'll never know what these menor de edad girls can do.

   

puro katingalahan.  kay ngano man tawon nga nanguyog man sad ang mga menor de edad.  naa na gyod silay buot kay ngano mang nakalakaw ra man ug ila nga way adult supervision.

abi nakog philippine political campaign rallies ra ang naay hakot crowd.

Quote from: TUBAGBOHOL.com on June 30, 2015, 10:24:12 PM
1.      3.   Unconscionable promises to MILF â€" the proposed BBL is unbelievable for the sheer extravagance of the concessions government makes to the MILF.  It confers on the Bangsamoro entity its own security force, Commission on Audit, Commission on Elections, Civil Service, fiscal and monetary policymakers and trial courts. It also allows in many instances the Bangsamoro Parliament to amend and even repudiate laws passed by Congress. As drafted by the MILF and seconded by our peace negotiators, these powers that are normally reserved for the national government would give the Bangsamoro the features of a state.


1.      4.   Parliamentary political structure â€" the political structure of the Bangsamoro entity is parliamentary in form. It is described as asymmetric with that of the national government. However, its ministerial features are symmetrical to those of the states of the Malaysian Federation.

This betrays a level of carelessness and superficiality that threatens the Bangsamoro project with rejection.

these, indeed, are strange.

move over, chewbacca.  shabani comes!

get on, bongbong.  help all you can.  mindanao was peaceful before the jabidah massacre, which happened when your father was president.

wow!  i'd be the luckiest at owner if i had a cat with that talent.

i hope it's not one of those cute cat photos with harrowing strings attached to their bodies to make their poses cute.

fyi, usa ra nang ihap.  number one.  tops.  best.

aw, unsa may naa ana... way daotan kun ang kwarta hinagoan ug katkat ug kakahuyan.

make it 50 more years, mr webmaster!  giango-ango na gyod pod si hubag ug bugsay anang panahona.  siyaro. .

ang unbeatable contestant ani alimango.  huso god akong kuko sa una tungod kay nakig-wrestling kog alimango, abot sa sunod lungsod akong siyagit.

Quote from: hubag bohol on June 29, 2015, 11:06:25 PM
A spell, charm or hex is a set of words, spoken or unspoken, which are considered by its user to invoke some magical effect. Historical attestations exist for the use of some variety of incantations in many cultures around the world. Binding a person with a spell by the use of spoken word formulas is known as an incantation, and involves the use of evocation. --Wiki

curious as ever thus-

incantation

An incantation or enchantment is a charm or spell created using words. An incantation may take place during a ritual, either a hymn or prayer, and may invoke or praise a deity. (wikipedia)

evocation

Evocation is the act of calling upon or summoning a spirit, demon, god or other supernatural agent, in the Western mystery tradition. Comparable practices exist in many religions and magical traditions and may employ the use of pharmakeia with and without uttered word formulas. (wikipedia)

hahaha!  himoon diay nga ice candy ang enemy ha?  i know pa lamang... namaligya ko ana sa una sa tag-50 centavos pa.  karon tag-5 pesos na kuno.

bitaw, maayo pa nang himoong ice candy ang enemy kay sa pabukalan ug himoong humba.

head stand, and get ahead!

cannot absorb this theory.  it makes me imagine my creator had cut a paper doll to make a me.  that's how simple my mind is.

Quote from: islander on June 30, 2015, 05:04:56 PM
As 50 nations signed the bank’s articles of incorporation at a ceremony in the cavernous Great Hall of the People Monday, the island nation stayed on the sidelines as did Denmark, Kuwait, Malaysia, Poland, South Africa and Thailand.

for whatever reason... we're not alone.

Quote from: islander on June 30, 2015, 05:03:55 PM
Most of the seven countries that held off joining the China-led bank on Monday cited bureaucratic difficulties, but in one case politics appears to have intruded: The Philippines is adopting a wait-and-see approach amid a dispute with Beijing over territory in the South China Sea.

dapat lang.  ma-hostage unya tag kwartahan nga singkit.

The new bank aims to spur infrastructure spending, improve connectivity and fight poverty in the Asia-Pacific region, Chinese officials said Monday. The Asia-Pacific region needs $8 trillion in infrastructure investment between 2010 and 2020, according to Asian Development Bank figures.

As the largest shareholder, China will hold 26.06% of the votes, giving it an effective veto over major decisions, followed by India with 7.5% and Russia with 5.92%, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

â€"Mark Magnier and Cris Larano, with contributions from Jason Ng

http://blogs.wsj.com/

Malaysia’s government-run Bernama news agency cited internal procedures as the reason for not signing, while South African National Treasury official Andile Kuzwayo said pressing domestic commitments got in the way, although the country is committed to meeting the year-end deadline, he added.

Will China and the stragglers hold their own slimmed down ceremony if and when they’re fully on board? “That would be nice,” said Poland’s Mr. Jakobiec. “But given other countries’ legal systems, I assume that might be very difficult getting everyone there at the same moment,” he said.

Most of the other prospective infrastructure bank members who didn’t sign up Monday blamed temporary procedural constraints at home and said they expected to sign within the next few months.

The relatively short time between the end of AIIB negotiations in Singapore in May and Monday’s signing ceremony left insufficient time for Polish ministries and government lawyers to consult over the new bank, said Wojciech Jakobiec, the Polish Embassy’s Beijing spokesman. “It’s simply a question of timing,” he added.

Denmark recently wrapped up an election and needs to let the new government settle in and formally decide on joining, said an official at the Danish Embassy in Beijing.

Tensions between the two ramped up further Monday when the Chinese Foreign Ministry accused the Philippines of spreading misinformation after Manila aired two parts of a three-part television documentary defending its position.

“The Philippines is attempting to mislead and deceive, gain sympathy by cheating and create the illusion of the ‘victim,’” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a statement on the ministry’s website. A Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs official said the government-funded documentary was part of an information and education campaign “to increase the level of public awareness and understanding” of the territorial issue.

As 50 nations signed the bank’s articles of incorporation at a ceremony in the cavernous Great Hall of the People Monday, the island nation stayed on the sidelines as did Denmark, Kuwait, Malaysia, Poland, South Africa and Thailand.

Finance Minister Lou Jiwei called the new $100 billion bank a “win-win for Asia” and a “new type of multilateral bank for the 21st century.” Its rules give laggards through the end of the year to dig out their pens.

“We have until December to decide,” Philippines Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said Monday. This follows comments earlier this month in Japan by President Benigno Aquino III that his country wants to ensure that the AIIB’s economic aid won’t be subjected to “vagaries of politics between our countries.”

Jun 29, 2015

Seven Stragglers Leave AIIB Crowd at an Even 50


Delegates attend the signing ceremony for the Articles of Agreement of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

It was supposed to be 57 countries signing on to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank on Monday. It ended up being 50.

Most of the seven countries that held off joining the China-led bank on Monday cited bureaucratic difficulties, but in one case politics appears to have intruded: The Philippines is adopting a wait-and-see approach amid a dispute with Beijing over territory in the South China Sea.

sure ko nga ugok, di ko sure kun ulitawo.  di pod ko sure kun di ba transgender ang model.  mas babaye pa man niya tan-awon si caitlyn jenner man god.

ayder op da tow wil dow, sir.  basta buotan...

With the interests of the two giants clashing in a broader range of areas, they are going to great lengths to show their cooperation on climate change and other international issues. Beijing and Washington will be using the dialogue to try to block each other while confirming where they differ in order to limit the risk of friction and clashes.

http://asia.nikkei.com/

Beijing has shown it is willing to work on reforms to open up its financial system. It aims to have the yuan added this year to the basket of currencies used to determine the value of special drawing rights, a reserve asset created by the International Monetary Fund. To make the yuan more freely usable, China plans to relax regulations on cross-border capital transactions using the currency.

The tug of war over the Asian economic sphere is heating up. As negotiations founder over the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, which excludes China, Beijing has officially signed free trade agreements with nearby industrialized countries, including South Korea and Australia. And in international finance, once the sole domain of the U.S., China is coming closer to setting up the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

In his opening remarks, Lew expressed his hopes for progress on reforms aimed at encouraging stable growth. "We support China's economic reform agenda, including efforts to allow the market to play a more decisive role in the economy and rely more on consumption to drive China's economic growth," he said.

He also indicated his interest in speeding up negotiations on a trade agreement with China. "We will also discuss candidly -- and work to make progress on -- areas of concern such as ... barriers to open trade and investment, and exchange rate reform," he said.

Yang has responded that China strongly supports freedom of the seas, while Wang has said that both sides will pay a price if the two countries fight and that dialogue is a better option.

Friction between Beijing and Washington over territorial and other disputes has become unavoidable as China is growing more confident in its status as a global heavyweight. With President Xi Jinping slated to visit the U.S. in September, the two sides are searching for ways to cooperate in areas where they can both readily benefit, including the economy, trade and finance.

The U.S. has argued that China's island building in the disputed Spratly Islands is a destabilizing influence in the South China Sea and has called on Beijing to halt immediately. During his remarks at the start of the talks, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden asserted that open and protected sea lanes are more important than ever. China is expected to defend the project as within its sovereignty and push Washington to stop interfering.

Biden said the U.S. does not fear the rise of China but called on Beijing to show a sense of responsibility as a global power. Kerry said he hopes to discuss the need to ease tensions in the South China Sea and East China Sea.

June 24, 2015

Strategic dialogue

US, China exchange words over island building in South China Sea

MASAHIRO OKOSHI, Nikkei staff writer


China's land reclamation in the South China Sea has become a point of contention with the U.S. © AP

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. and China kicked off a two-day strategic and economic dialogue here Tuesday, where they are expected to hold heated exchanges on issues ranging from free trade to cyberattacks and security.

The U.S. is being represented by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. China's delegates are State Councillor Yang Jiechi and Vice Premier Wang Yang. The dialogue is split into separate tracks for economic and strategic matters. A joint statement will be issued Wednesday, covering results of the talks.

http://www.budgettravel.com/

aw. kun woman siya, no problem.

it's not really funny; it only needs grammar 101 review and minor corrections... please?

i checked where this rare specimen of a warning sign is.  india.

di gyod diay ko magpapustiso sa china kay tingalig ngipon ni mao tse tung diay ang recycled unya itaod sa akong bag-ang.

Tama Museum

Seafood, vegetables, fruit are specialties of Wakayama and there is a lot of Muslim friendly food on offer. You can also enjoy juice and gelato made from local fruits at Kishi station. To get there, it’s easiest to take the Kansai Airport Limousine Bus from Kansai International Airport to JR Wakayama Station. If you ride the Wakayama Electric Railway, Kishigawa Line from JR Wakayama Station all the way to the final stop, Kishi, you can meet Tama. Tama works from Tuesday to Friday, while the station is staffed by Nitama, a different stationmaster, on weekends and Monday public holidays. The station is not staffed on regular Mondays.

http://www.halalmedia.jp/archives/222/tama-station-master-saved-train-line-abandoned/

Tourists flocked to the station as Tama became a hot topic, unique trains such as a Tama train, toy train, and strawberry train were put into service, and character goods also became very popular. In Japan cats are considered an auspicious animal, with a beckoning cat believed to bring luck and happiness, and Tama proved this.

http://www.halalmedia.jp/archives/222/tama-station-master-saved-train-line-abandoned/

In 2006, when Tama became the Kishi stationmaster, the number of passengers on the Wakayama Electric Railway, Kishigawa Line had decreased and authorities were considering abandoning the line. A private company commissioned with reviving the line came across Tama, a cat that was kept in a train station kiosk. Tama was already a popular figure locally and, as the station was going to be unmanned, the decision was made to appoint Tama as the stationmaster. Naturally, it was the first time in Japan railway history a cat assumed such a position.

http://www.halalmedia.jp/archives/222/tama-station-master-saved-train-line-abandoned/

Tama will be succeeded by another calico cat, Nitama, now an apprentice stationmaster.

-(excerpt from http://news.yahoo.com/japan-mourns-passing-tama-cat-stationmaster-072137565.html#)


Tama is at the left.  Nitama is at the right.

Tama is a popular name for cats in Japan, where they are considered spiritual animals. The word could translate as treasure, ball or spirit.

The cat had climbed the corporate ladder from stationmaster to "ultra-stationmaster" and vice president of the company before receiving the additional title Sunday of "honorable eternal stationmaster."

-(excerpt from http://news.yahoo.com/japan-mourns-passing-tama-cat-stationmaster-072137565.html#)

Kojima said that when he visited Tama at an animal hospital the day before she died, the cat woke up and reached out to him with her paws, as if asking for a hug, and looked straight into his eyes. He said he told Tama to get well so they can celebrate the cat's upcoming 10th anniversary as a stationmaster, and said the cat responded with a "meow."

-(excerpt from http://news.yahoo.com/japan-mourns-passing-tama-cat-stationmaster-072137565.html#)

During her tenure, Tama had contributed an estimated 1.1 billion yen ($8.9 million) to the local economy, Kojima said.

-(excerpt from http://news.yahoo.com/japan-mourns-passing-tama-cat-stationmaster-072137565.html#)

Before Tama's arrival, the local Kishigawa Line was near-bankrupt; and the station was unmanned as it had lost its last staff.

Kojima said appointing Tama as stationmaster was initially an excuse to keep the cat at the station.

"But she was really doing her job," he said. The rest was a miracle, and his company's success story also gave hope for dozens of other struggling tiny local train lines, he said.

"Tama-chan really emerged like a savior, a goddess. It was truly my honor to have been able to work with her," Kojima said in his speech.

-(excerpt from http://news.yahoo.com/japan-mourns-passing-tama-cat-stationmaster-072137565.html#)

tama died june 22 of a heart failure

di uy.  'the skull monkey of alcoy's woman' is more like it.

di na unta kinahanglan ang paramedics kun iya na lang giluwaan.  di pa usik ang kape.

eeeekkkk!

Male, the capital of the Maldives

http://all-that-is-interesting.com/

Quote from: islander on June 28, 2015, 01:19:39 AM
Clothing sewn in Bangladesh; footwear made in India and the Philippines

ouch.

Child labor can be found in nearly every industry

Agriculture

An estimated 60% of child labor occurs in agriculture, fishing, hunting, and forestry. Children have been found harvesting:

bananas in Ecuador
cotton in Egypt and Benin
cut flowers in Colombia
oranges in Brazil
cocoa in the Ivory Coast
tea in Argentina and Bangladesh
fruits and vegetables in the U.S.

Children in commercial agriculture can face long hours in extreme temperatures, health risks from pesticides, little or no pay, and inadequate food, water, and sanitation.

Manufacturing


Electroplate Worker
Photo: David Parker

About 14 million children are estimated to be directly involved in manufacturing goods, including:

Carpets from India, Pakistan, Egypt
Clothing sewn in Bangladesh; footwear made in India and the Philippines
Soccer balls sewn in Pakistan
Glass and bricks made in India
Fireworks made in China, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, India, and Peru
Surgical instruments made in Pakistan

Mining and Quarrying


Photo: David Parker

Child laborers suffer extremely high illness and injury rates in underground mines, opencast mines, and quarries. Children as young as 6 or 7 years old break up rocks, and wash, sieve, and carry ore. Nine-year-olds work underground setting explosives and carrying loads. Children work in a range of mining operations, including:

Gold in Colombia
Charcoal in Brazil and El Salvador
Chrome in Zimbabwe
Diamonds in Cote d’Ivoire
Emeralds in Colombia
Coal in Mongolia

Domestic Service

Many children, especially girls, work in domestic service, sometimes starting as young as 5 or 6. This type of child labor is linked to child trafficking. Domestic child laborers can be victims of physical, emotional, and sometimes sexual abuse.

Hotels, Restaurants, and Retail


Photo: David Parker

Some of the work of young people in this sector is considered legitimate, but there are indications of considerable abuse. Low pay is the norm, and in some tourist areas, children’s work in hotels and restaurants is linked to prostitution. In at least one example, child hotel workers received such low pay that they had to take out loans from their employers; the terms of the interest and repayment often led to debt bondage.

“Unconditional Worst Forms” of Child Labor

Millions of children are involved in work that, under any circumstance, is considered unacceptable for children, including the sale and trafficking of children into debt bondage, serfdom, and forced labor. It includes the forced recruitment of children for armed conflict, commercial sexual exploitation, and illicit activities, such as producing and trafficking drugs. In 2005, an estimated 5.7 million children were in forced and bonded labor.

__________________________

Educational materials containing introductory information on Child Labor, including Workshop Materialsâ€"Core Workshop on Child Labor and K-12 Teachers’ Materials, are available through this website, https://www.continuetolearn.uiowa.edu/laborctr/child_labor/about/what_is_child_labor.html. These materials include Power Point presentations, instructors’ manuals, activities, and handouts. You may adapt these materials to your group’s needs.

Where does most child labor occur?

Of an estimated 215 million child laborers around the globe: approximately 114 million (53%) are in Asia and the Pacific; 14 million (7%) live in Latin America; and 65 million (30%) live in sub-Saharan Africa.

Child labor involves at least one of the following characteristics:

-Violates a nation’s minimum age laws

-Threatens children’s physical, mental, or emotional well-being

-Involves intolerable abuse, such as child slavery, child trafficking, debt bondage, forced labor, or illicit activities

-Prevents children from going to school

Uses children to undermine labor standards

What is Child Labor?

Child labor is work that harms children or keeps them from attending school. Around the world and in the U. S., growing gaps between rich and poor in recent decades have forced millions of young children out of school and into work. The International Labor Organization estimates that 215 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 currently work under conditions that are considered illegal, hazardous, or extremely exploitative. Underage children work at all sorts of jobs around the world, usually because they and their families are extremely poor. Large numbers of children work in commercial agriculture, fishing, manufacturing, mining, and domestic service. Some children work in illicit activities like the drug trade and prostitution or other traumatic activities such as serving as soldiers.

Given the gravity of challenges faced by the Philippines, it is the perfect moment for national unity, building on the vast talents of the Filipino people of all ethnicities. And it is also time for the Philippines to stand on its own, developing its own capabilities to deter aggression and revanchism.

Richard Javad Heydarian
Academic, policy adviser, and author of "Asia's New Battlefield: US, China, and the Struggle for Western Pacific"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

In his deeply moving column for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, legal scholar Oscar Franklin Tan points out how the mindset of the Filipino-Chinese community, especially liberal-minded members like him, and the Beijing government are "worlds apart". He laments how he "cannot celebrate [Philippine] independence when I can be so casually told in public that I am less of a Filipino or a person solely because my grandparents were immigrants".

There is a reason why the Chinese diaspora in the Philippines has managed to so easily integrate: Being Filipino is not necessarily defined by ethnicity, but rather by shared values -- opposition to dictatorship, instinctive embrace of liberalism, and celebration of multiculturalism. The Philippines' own very founding fathers -- no less than Jose Rizal, who has a monument in his ancestral home in Qiongque Village, Luoshan Town in Jinjiang City -- were from (Filipino-Chinese) Mestizo stock. The Philippines' incumbent president, and his late mother who was also a president, has Chinese lineage.

Over generations, the Filipino-Chinese community has evolved into an authentic, integral component of the Filipino society. Filipino-Chinese businessmen consistently rank among the wealthiest in the country, overseeing large conglomerates, which have been the drivers of growth in recent years. Obviously, given their expanding business interests in China, many Filipino-Chinese tycoons have tried to foster a semblance of stability in Philippine-China relations, often supporting diplomatic efforts to diffuse territorial tensions.

On National Unity

One of the things the Philippines should be proud about is how it has never, at least in modern times, experienced the kind of inter-ethnic strife -- particularly against minority Chinese communities -- that have afflicted other Southeast Asian countries in the 20th century. Compared to some of its counterparts in Southeast Asia, the Chinese community in the Philippines is highly integrated and doesn't suffer from systematic exclusion.

As for China's People's Liberation Army (PLA), it is more interested in and preparing for winning limited wars -- small skirmishes with chilling strategic effect -- than waging an invasion of a neighboring country. China's military strategy is driven by the doctrine of "active defense". Not to mention, the PLA, which still relies on some Soviet-era technology, is yet to be fully-modernized, putting into question its ability to effectively project power beyond its immediate shores.

This is one of the reasons behind China's massive investment in the infrastructure of neighboring countries, a phenomenon that will be buttressed by the establishment of the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the Maritime Silk Road Initiative in Southeast Asia. China channels its ambitions through calibrated assertiveness -- just look at China's salami-slicing strategy in the South China Sea -- rather than mindless expansionism. Of course, there is a risk that things will get out of hand as China expands its presence in contested waters -- marking a gradual sleep walk into confrontation, similar to what happened prior to World War I.

But what China is seeking is a "zone of deference" rather than European-style colonization of its neighbors. China is developing the kind of military technology and economic hegemony, which will allow it to win strategic battles without waging full-scale war. As prominent Chinese scholar Yan Xuetong bluntly puts it: "The policy now is to allow these smaller [neighboring] countries to benefit economically from their relationships with China. For China, we need good relationships more urgently than we need economic development. We let them benefit economically, and in return we get good political relationships. We should 'purchase' the relationships."

Chinese Threat in Perspective

To begin with, the prospect of a full-scale Chinese invasion of its neighboring countries is highly unlikely. Such paranoid language is more of an outcome of sensationalist commentaries by warmongering journalists and self-serving defense wonks than sober assessment of realities on the ground. Without a question, China is rapidly developing an anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) capability, which down the road may give it the ability to dominate adjacent waters and push the United States out of East Asia.

In some ways, the ongoing disputes with China in the South China Sea represent a critical juncture, testing the competence of Philippine state institutions and the patriotism of its citizenry. The festering territorial spats should serve as a wake up call, instilling into the fabric of Filipino society a robust sense of national unity like never before.

Yes, we are in the 21st century, but the Darwinian nature of international politics has not dramatically changed in recent times, as exemplified by Russia's unabashed annexation of Crimea and China's sweeping territorial push across the Western Pacific. As much as we would want our world to be strictly governed by international law, power politics, however, continues to shape our globalized world (See John Mearsheimer's Tragedy of Great Power Politics), with more powerful countries still pressing ahead with their interests even under immense international pressure.

Despite widespread international outcry, China has effectively concluded its construction activities on disputed features in the Spratly chain of islands, creating a sprawling network of civilian and military installations at the heart of one of the world's most important waterways. If and when China chooses to impose an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the area, it would be in a position to push its neighbors out of features under their control.

Critical Junctures

In their best-selling book, Why Nations Fail, economists James A. Robinson and Daron AcemoÄŸlu discuss the double-edged nature of what they call critical junctures: Seismic events, which shake up the foundations of the status quo. Sometimes, crises create the right kind of exogenous pressure to disrupt a dysfunctional equilibrium, forcing positive change and encouraging innovative adaptation by troubled societies.

In other cases, crises lead to further divisions and, ultimately, the collapse of an entire civilization. In Collapse, Evolutionary Biologist Jared Diamond dramatically chronicles the extinction of certain civilizations due to their inability to adapt to changes in their environment.

Recently, one of the Philippines' most celebrated writers elicited highly negative reactions among certain circles, particularly the Filipino-Chinese community, by implicitly questioning their loyalty to the Philippines, specifically in an event of war with China. The last thing the Philippines needs at this point is divisive talk and internal divisions. The Filipino-Chinese community serves as a backbone of the country's economy, with many among them rising to positions of great prominence -- whether in business or politics or entertainment -- in the Southeast Asian nation.

Chinese-Filipino Community's Dilemma: The Philippines, China, and the South China Sea Disputes

Richard Javad Heydarian
06/26/2015


The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln

At its very core, the Philippines is an idea, representing a pluralistic land with hospitable people, who have always welcomed persecuted people from around the world. It is an all-embracing society that has been open to peoples from around the world.

Nationalism and nationhood in post-colonial, cosmopolitan countries like the Philippines aren't about ethnicity, but, as eminent Sociologist Benedict Anderson suggest, they are instead anchored by an "imagined community" that is bound by shared dreams, sufferings, and experiences. Amid rising tensions in the South China Sea, pitting a powerful China against a beleaguered Philippines, the sizable and well-integrated Chinese community in the Philippines is feeling the heat.

what i didn't make clear... some humans are born athletes, some dogs are born olympians.

honorable, indeed.

so should some bohol mayors do away with politics of vengeance.  there's a municipal government there that does not give the least of services, like a fencing permit or a water reconnection, to residents identified as voters for her political foe.  and she's not getting out anytime soon.  she'll be the runningmate of her kagawad daughter who'll run in her place.  another dynasty!   

"The idea behind it was to humorously point to a problem that is not only relevant in Germany: Too few married couples take precautions for the case of a possible separation - for example with a marriage contract. The event of divorce then often ends in bitter fights under which not only cars and furniture suffer but especially the affected couples and their children." Apologizing to everyone who was "teased" in the name of highlighting divorce law, the association added: "Hopefully, at least, you felt well entertained."



The items on eBay do exist, though, and will be auctioned off, with proceeds donated to charity.

http://www.bbc.com/

But as it turns out, that was not the half of it (er, pun intended). In fact the whole stunt was the creation of Deutsche Anwaltauskunft, an information portal for the German Bar Association. The lawyers' group confessed on their website, saying both the husband and his story were fakes.

The internet and international media - from Mashable and Fox News in the US to RT in Russia and Press TV in Iran - lapped up the story of the perfect revenge which emerged from Germany. A video of the man using power tools to cut his mobile phone, furniture, television set and car in half has racked up more than 5 million views on YouTube. Simply titled "For Laura", the opening words translate as: "Thank you for 12 'beautiful' years Laura !!!!! You've really earned half, greetings to my successor." The man also appeared to put up 16 items for sale on eBay, including half of a bicycle and a slice of an iPhone:

The fake revenge stunt that fooled nearly everyone

BBC Trending
24 June 2015


Screenshot of YouTube video of a man sawing possessions in half.
This video described as a message to a former wife has been viewed more than five million times on YouTube

What seemed to be an extreme act of revenge by a husband against a cheating spouse turned out to be a marketing campaign by a German legal information company.

It was a parting statement - literally. A newly-divorced German man, "Martin", recorded himself sawing all his possessions in half, and then put them up for sale on eBay.

hahaha!  and it turned out that they were jealous of themselves?