Saturday, May 30, 2009

Be a father

"Be a father" is a blog posted to salute the fathers. It is posted by Meta-Dad which I want to share with the rest of the bloggers. The topic of fatherhood has been all over the news recently with people buzzing about Obama’s recent fatherhood speech in Chicago where he stated, “What makes you a man is not the ability to have a child. It’s the courage to raise one.” These are strong words, to say the least.
Evidently, the Ad Council in conjunction with a number of government sponsored offices and organizations are using this buzz as an opportunity to raise awareness about the importance and the positive impact of active fathering.
An estimated 24 million children (34%) live absent their biological father.
Nearly 20 million children (27 percent) live in single-parent homes.
Children who live absent their biological fathers are, on average, at least two to three times more likely to be poor, to use drugs, to experience educational, health, emotional and behavioral problems, to be victims of child abuse, and to engage in criminal behavior than their peers who live with their married, biological (or adoptive) parents.
Children with involved, loving fathers are significantly more likely to do well in school, have healthy self-esteem, exhibit empathy and pro-social behavior, and avoid high-risk behaviors such as drug use, truancy, and criminal activity compared to children who have uninvolved fathers. [Source: Ad Council]
While I am not surprised at the statistics in the first two bullet points, I find the other two points a bit vague since it is implied that these children (without their biological fathers) don’t have an active male role-model in their life. There are enough cases where children are being fathered by an uncle, grandfather, or other family member or friend. Regardless, the point has been made that children benefit greatly from having a positive father figure in their life

Sunday, May 24, 2009

How well do we know ourselves?

On Ms. Vernon website I come across a question that sets me thinking: how far can a man go to search himself? Just how far, indeed? Do I know myself? From a distance where there are multitude of people can I identify myself? Physically maybe yes, still may be not especially when you have a blurred vision. We identify ourselves because of the tag, the labels we have, i.e. our names, birthdate, parents' name, name of spouse and so forth. These are our personal information. Without them, perhaps we do not know ourselves. Who are we? Just how far to we go, indeed to search ourselves. Everyday we set out to a journey. Every experience that we have tells us something about ourselves. When we are hurt- either we get angry and hurt back or do we cry? When are loved- we are happy, we love and we care as well. Every tear that we cry; every laughter that we share and every love that we care-perhaps tell something about us-I don't know if I am making sense- but I just thought that if we try to understand ourselves- we could perhaps understand other people more-- and who knows we could be a little more caring.
When we know ourselves- we know how it feels to be alone and unloved, we will not dare be indifferent to those who are alone, unloved. We will not discriminate, become prejudice to those who are colored, poor, those who do not share our belief, our faith... When we know ourselves we know how it feels to lose someone we love in war, in terrorist attack- perhaps then we will not make our world a warpath where men kill not only each other, but even children, women and the helpless old people. When we know ourselves we know how it is to feel hungry, to be homeless- then we will learn not to be greedy and indifferent. I don't know we really ought to know ourselves better to become better and caring persons. Just how far: do we need to experience pain and sorrow to understand the feelings of those who are suffering. If it should be ... perhaps it would be better...

Computer and bloggers

Computer- truly an amazing invention. Imagine being in touch with the rest of the world. In a day that you want to relax, one needs to sit down opens one computer and sign in and viola- you have the worldful of good and interesting people to know at one's fingertips. Learn a great deal about their country, their culture through their lifestyle and many things. I'm glad at my age, I could still enjoy being blogger, being in facebook and being followed and following in twitter. Indeed it's wonderful to be a life. Smile...

Monday, May 18, 2009

Feeling Good

Yesterday I stumbled upon a very interesting blog post. It was about stress management. Using a glass of water to illustrate his point the blogger effectively taught us how to handle our problems and burdens. There are at least five ways that the blogger mentioned on how we can effectively deal with stress. I might visit his blog to share these steps. However, if we should positively think that there is no problem bigger than God. And for every problem is a solution. Perhaps it would make us feel good if not better.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Climate change

Climate change. I did not care much about these words. Perhaps I have been too busy to notice that there is something wrong in our times. Seasons come and seasons go , until Melenio (one of the strongest typhoon that hit the Philippines in recent history) came uprooting everything including our roof. I could only watched in terror as strong gushed of winds threw everything on its path. That was three years ago. But until now the experience remains unnerving. And since then, I began to take interest in observing and noting the changes in the climate. Typhoons are getting stronger and really frightening and , just when everyone is thinking of going to resorts and vacation, rains and even storms begin filing in our atmosphere. We could no longer turn deaf ears on the warnings of the people who had been tagged as alarmists in the past. We have destroyed our environment and until we do our share in taking care of what's left nothing will be left to the next generation. We have harm our world to the extent that we can not do much today, except perhaps to make the world more livable for the next generation. Let us save what is left of our environment. Let us start caring...

Rainy Days are here again

It's raining. The wet season is finally here. The roads are wet and slippery. The drivers and commuters need to be more careful. The drivers should check their cars, jeeps and taxis before starting the day. It pays to be cautious like doing some checking on your brakes, oil and tires. Commuters should follow road rules just as drivers do. Ride on designated areas. Use the sidewalks and cross on pedestrians' lanes only. Remember, live and let live...