Children: The First Casualties of War

And you thought I was joking?

Imagine this screaming and dying child as your only son? What would you do if that happenned? Would you run after and kill the soldiers who impaled your dying son, or would you beg them to help you bring him to a hospital? In this unnerving moment, would you still have the luxury of choosing a side in the war or would you rather start throwing down your weapons to help save your son's life?

The answer is obvious. What can you do?

The pain in this man's eyes is worse than the pain killing his son. The father is confused, angry, powerless. He knows that his son is dying and that he can't do anything about it. Regardless, he panicks and then begs for help. Someone nearby should help them and yet while the seconds turn into hours, no one listens!

A wise man once said that the first casualty of war is truth, and yet he is wrong for the first casualties of war are children.

The great nations of our world today, have systematically slaughtered, abused and even enlisted children in their countless wars for gold, glory, and gods. They have put their selfish interests and above human life, and in the process have fueled hatred in the hearts and minds of their enemies. Then they predictably label their enemies as terrorists, catch them and then imprison them without trial. The media claims that the casualties of bombings in the wars destroying the middle east alone, consist mostly of women and children. This is common sense because the men in their families leave their homes to fight the jet planes that bomb their country. Gone are the days of the Liberation where soldiers gave clothes, chocolates and cans of SPAM to children. Today, they make chocolate and SPAM out of children!

Yet, there are a chosen few who still stand up for the rights of children and lay down weapons to protect them. They suffer greatly and even die in the process, while their own families mock them in their graves for the crimes committed by their leaders. Bless them Oh God for their compassion! The Earth would be a lifeless place without them.

We supposedly live in a modern world composed of civilized people and yet we allow our leaders to force us to wage war against the weak for the sake of petty things like beautiful faces, pride, and oil.

Shouldn't civilized people see the stupidity of war? There are more wars raging in the earth now than the total number of wars that were waged by our primitive forefathers in history.

You know what?

To hell with the oil!

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Sports Cars vs. Street Children

The Filipino painter Joey Velasco has given us his solution to this existing problem. He got a canvass and painted pictures of real street children sharing the last supper with a Carpenter from Nazareth, Someone we all know and love.

If you look at their faces closely, you will notice that they are real people, children who's lives have been torn apart not by fate but by our arrogance and greed. Arrogance, because we believe that their plight is not our problem, and that we are not responsible for them. Greed, because we put our selfish wants above the basic needs of these children.

Please view this link http://www.metacafe.com/w/yt-bzYgSJCPEtY .

Mr. Velasco, through his masterpiece, makes us realize how far we have fallen away from God's love because we have abandoned the least of our brethren. For to remain in His love, we should follow His commandments.

Yes. The plight of our street children is our problem. It is a manifestation of a an evil so perverse that the sin of Lucifer himself pales in comparison to it!

And yet we have ignored the fact that to protect their rights is a mission that we are obliged to accomplish not only as individual Christians but also as a Christian nation.

Purchasing a Ferrari worth millions of pesos, bragging about it to your friends in the internet, and then going to church and worshiping God while doing nothing about the plight of the street children in your neighborhood is utter hypocrisy. Waging war against our Moslem brothers and sisters in Mindanao without providing food and shelter for the street children of Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, and Metro Davao is not only self righteousness, but also incomptence and stupidity.

How can we even dare live lives of comfort and prosperity when we allow these boys and girls to suffer hunger and poverty each passing day? How can we dare say that we are a Christian nation when we harbor 1.4 million street children in our country? Ultimately, how can we dare say that we have faith in Christ if we do not put our faith into action?

On the other hand, the plight of our streetchildren should be the priority of not only the Philippine Government but also the priority of every Filipino.

" Article 15 Section 3: The State shall defend the right of children to assistance, including proper care and nutrition, and special protection from all forms of neglect, abuse, cruelty, exploitation and other conditions prejudicial to their development;" The 1987 Constitution of the repulic of the Philippines

If the primary law of our land recognizes and promises to defend the rights of children, shouldn't we first provide for the the basic needs of our streetchildren before we invest in costly roads, invest in costly government rest houses and costly government buildings, and spend fat pork barrels on costly state visits?

Is is sad that most Filipino solons would rather donate Basketball courts to well to do subdivisions than provide shelters for thousands of street children that roam the streets of our country. These politicians would rather spend fortunes suing one another and killing one another than helping these children improve their lives.

What a waste!

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Why Were We Given Fathers?

Why would a Father love his children so willingly and so unconditionally? Why would He go out of his way to conquer everything just to show his children that He cares so much for them?
There are no words to best describe His love just as there are no words that can define the origin of the universe. It is simply beyond human comprehension, a matter of faith for every man, woman and child. Arrogance is the word for people who would even dare to define it!
Nevertheless, the most we could do to describe His love is to witness its results in our lives.
From the first day we born, our Father defied the world to provide us food on the table, and sometimes even went to the extent of giving his share of bread to us during rough times. When we were young, He taught us how to walk, and more importantly He taught us how to play. Time and again, He would help us solve our homework and help prepare breakfast for us even if He was busy. He would walk us to school and help us carry our school bags everyday until we grew strong enough to walk to school alone and carry our school bags ourselves. He would give us sound advice in almost everything we encountered, especially in our darkest hours. Sometimes, He would march out to protect us from our enemies and often bail us out from the mess we would inflict upon others and ourselves. Ultimately, He helped us achieve the impossible.

Where then would we be without His love? Nowhere. What would we be without His love? Nothing.
No one else but our Father guided us in our life's journey. Even a bicycle can bring you to places, especially when our Father rides beside us. The journey, after all, is more important than the destination.
Here and there, we often ignore the result of His love in our lives. The fact that we breathe is proof enough of how much He loves us. Because of this love, we were given the chance to make a difference in our dying world.
Shouldn't we share this unconditional love with our children, so that they, too, can make a difference in their life's journey?
Think about it.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64A_AJjj8M4

Filipinos and Hannibal Barca

In 249 B.C., Hannibal Barca, the greatest enemy of Rome, grew up in a military camp commanded by his father, the famous Hamilcar Barca, who led Carthage in the first Punic War. Hamilcar would bring his son to battle whenever he could, so that the boy would become a great warrior and leader one day. Thus, young Hannibal learned how to use weapons of war and how to command men even before he had learned how to read and write. Historians even say that Hamilcar taught his son to hate the Rome at a very early age so that Hannibal dedicated his entire life to wage war against the eternal city. According to the Roman historian Livy, before embarking to Spain, Hannibal swore an oath at the behest of his father: "I swear so good as age will permit... I will use fire and steel to arrest the destiny of Rome."

Carthage, Rome's greatest rival city, held a few colonies in Spain, but because of general Hamilcar's ambitions and desire for vengeance against Rome, Carthage conquered the majority of the Iberian Peninsula. He conquered the area in order strengthen his family's political power and influence in Carthage, and consequently reaffirm Carthage as the greatest naval and military power in Europe. Carthage had lost of Sicily to Rome in the First Punic War and this greatly tarnished his city's prestige and reputation in the entire mediterranean.

Thus, in 236 B.C., Hamilcar, with his son Hannibal, set out for Spain. There he spent several years conquering the Spanish tribes and states in the area, and there, Hannibal was versed in the ways of the Spanish sword. In 228 B.C., his father fell in battle, and Hannibal became the leader of a powerful army composed of soldiers, mercenaries, and criminals.

He then used this army to cross the Alps and kill thousands of Celtic tribes in the process. His goal was to invade the Italian peninsula and pillage Rome herself. After crossing these mountains, he challenged Rome's best legions, destroyed them, and then sacked Italy. In the pivotal Battle of Cannae alone, Hannibal and his men annihilated 70 thousand Romans in a single day. There Hannibal cut off the fingers of hundreds of dead Roman nobles and offered their fingers and rings to his patron God Baal as thanksgiving!

Even after Scipio Africanus had defeated him in the Battle of Zama, Hannibal served the Seleucid King Antiochus III and led the Seleucid navy against the Romans at the battle of Eurymedon.

Defeated there, Hannibal the Great died poisoning himself near the sea of Marmora, before being captured by Roman agents.

This man hated Rome so much that he killed hundreds of thousands of people, marched hundreds of miles with a band of murderers, and then travelled to the most inhospitable places the world had to offer. He wasted his entire life hating a nation that could have been a loyal ally and friend to his family and his country. Because of hate, he destroyed the not only the lives of his enemies, but also the lives of his loved ones.

Filipinos should learn from Hannibal Barca. Simply put, we should learn from history.
Children in the war-torn areas of Mindanao are taught how to use automatic machine guns in a very early age. Worse, their parents teach them how to decapitate their captured and defenseless enemies. Remember what happened to an Italian priest in Mindanao years ago? This unnerving hate has been passed on from father to son, so that the cycle of violence in Mindanao has kept on repeating itself for decades. This, together with the problems of poverty and unemployment, create a hopeless situation for children living in these affected areas. Why wouldn't these children want a piece of the action? They can get paid handsomely if they work for separatist rebels, as they are offered wages way above the minimum wage and their families get cash benefits and protection as well. Kids their age are more heavily armed and better supported than government soldiers and can get to eat three times a day out there in the battlefield!
And if they ever get caught killing a dozen government soldiers, all they have to do to be set free is to start crying "Human Rights!".
Then come Human Rights lawyers from Manila ever-ready to defend them.
Being a soldier in Mindanao is clearly a better deal for these children than begging on the streets, selling drugs, and even becoming child prostitutes.
Solve this hate and you end the war.
Fuel this hate and our country will be burned to the ground like the great Carthage, by an angry mob of vengeful and desperate children!
It wouldn't be a good idea to breed an army of Hannibal Barca's, not in this day and age, since the Hannibal Barca's today carry machine guns!
So, take my advice and restart the Mindanao Peace Talks.
It's the Christian thing to do.
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LSGH Batch 94

Fifteen years ago, a group of children who knew nothing about life graduated from arguably the best High School in our country, La Salle Greenhills.
The LSGH dome, stood proud that drizzling March day, when 417 students marched up her catwalk fearlessly. They would be tried and tested in the days and years to come, and yet they walked on stubbornly. They dared the fates to break them. Because they knew that they could not be broken.
Were it not for their teachers, they would not have learned the colors of life.
Were it not for their friends, they would not have enjoyed the miseries of life.
Their Alma Matter taught them well.

Fifteen years later, I see them transformed into adults, preaching about destiny and social responsibility in the world wide web. Boy have they grown into dependable and responsible men, a far cry from the greenhorns they were during the good old days!
Then I look at myself in the mirror and notice my weathered face, mangled countless times by the uncertainties of life and the trials of our faith.
Time is upon me.
True friendship conquers time and everything in between a straight line, and very rarely does it transcend the limits of brotherhood. Lucky for me.
In this regard, children make the best of friends even when they grow old. In some cases, though, they sadly make the worst of enemies, and yet inspite of petty differences, they get together each year to celebrate their youth. Then they realize the grand design of things.
And finally notice that the fates are upon them.
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Poverty and Filipino Children

One plus One is equal to Two.
Unicef reports that more than 26,000 children below five years old die in our world each day due to preventable causes, and that most of them live in developing regions comprised of 60 countries.
In our country, there are about 250,000 street children living below the poverty line who are forced to work so that they can feed their families and contribute to the income of their families. Then again, these children are not registered in the National Statistics Office and lack legal birth documents, which means that they are denied basic health, educational, and protection services. Consequently, they become victims of abuse, violence, and exploitation, especially in Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, and Metro Davao. Girls below fifteen are forced to work as prostitutes in these large cities and often get gang raped in the streets. Time and again, we hear stories of G.I.'s and Solons brutally rape young Filipina prostitutes and get away with their crimes because of money and corruption. On the other hand, boys below fifteen join criminal gangs and often become runners for drug pushers. They soon get caught and get imprisoned for their crimes. The problem is that these children are not sent to juvenile detention centers. They are sent to city jails, where adults teach them how to become cold-hearted criminals through inimidation and violence.

To further worsen the problem, there are about 50,000 children-refugees affected by armed conflict in our country. The war in Mindanao and the war against Communist Insurgents have taken its toll on innocent Filipino children. After witnessing the horrors of war, these kids now prefer seeking revenge rather than reading books, and consequently, the circle of hatred and violence in Mindanao never ends. Everyone loses - especially our Muslim brothers and sisters who have all the right to live in Mindanao.
There's more: "More than half of the over 42,000 barangays in the country do not have provisions for a pre- school. Only 19% of children aged 4 to 6 years old are able to go to public and private pre-schools. More than 1/3 of the more than 42,000 barangays in the country could not offer the required six years of elementary education. -Sixty percent of the children drop out of school when they reach the second grade." - PDI, May 18, 1997 .

Don't these underpriviledged children also have the right to education, as stated in the Philippine Constitution? I'm not a lawer but shouldn't our lawmakers make laws that can be implemented?
Bla. Bla. Bla.
You know, it is easy to blame our government and our leaders for everything we see on television. We blame them for abandoning our children to poverty and war even though many government units, led by a small number enlightened government leaders, have cooperated with non-government organizations to implement concrete projects for these children. How about the DSWD's and Don Bosco's Tuloy sa Don Bosco Streetchildren Village in Alabang, Muntinlupa City? (Visit http://www.tuloy.org/ for more information regarding this project.) How about the partnership of Caritas Manila and our Government on distributing NFA rice to the urban poor of Metro Manila?(Visit www.caritasmanila.org.ph for information regarding this project.)
I can name many more noble and inspiring projects like these to prove to everyone that our government and some of our leaders are doing something about the problem.
How about us? Are we doing something about the problem?
Can't we do more proactive things than blaming others for things that we ourselves have failed to do. Whenever faced with a problem, shouldn't we find solutions to the problem rather than blaming others for the problem and doing nothing about it?

One plus one is not equal to "It's Gloria's fault!" - it is equal to two.

Before we blame our government and our leaders for the miserable plight of our children, we should do something about the miserable plight of our children.
So, let's give our government and our leaders some slack and solve the problem oursleves.
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Manny Pacquiao - Your Hero

We all need heroes today, selfless men and women who bring out the best in us by showing us what we are capable of achieving. Without them life would devolve into an utter state of savagery since no one would willingly sacrifice anything for anyone at anytime and place.

Nations would not have been formed were it not for the daring seafarers who challenged the elements with their filmsy boats and landed on the unknown beaches. Countries would not have been founded were it not for the blood and guts of their leaders, patriots and martyrs. And were it not for a certain Jewish Carpenter who gave up carpentry to proclaim His Father's love for mankind, we would still be pagans today, children who would have had no idea that our Heavenly Father loves us!

Children, in particular, need heroes more than adults do. The very first heroes a baby girl learns to love, admire, and imitate are her parents, without which, she would not have been created in the first place. No one would have guided her and molded her into to be the best that she could be the way her parents would have.
Even the Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao, a child at heart, found heroes in the sparring partners, trainers, opponents, coaches and boxing greats that molded him into the champion he is now. Manny started out as a chunk of marble that was carefully chiselled and sculpted by masters into one of the greatest boxers in history. His skill level now is far greater than what it was ten years ago, thanks to Freddy Roach! People have admired and loved Manny so much that they leave their families, homes and jobs to travel to Las Vegas and support him everytime he fights! Manny Pacquiao WINS because of the millions of HEROES that have supported and loved him through the years!

That said, can the fifty Filipino Solons who had reportedly travelled to Las Vegas using their own money and time to watch the Hatton vs. Pacquiao fight be considered heroes? They spent millions in travel and lodging expenses so that they could "SUPPORT" and "NOT BET" on their hero Manny Pacquiao. Who in his right mind would go to Las Vegas, watch a great boxing match, and NOT BET?

Don't these lawmakers have more important things to do like legislating new laws to put a final end to corruption and to improve our impotent justice system? How about helping to the poor and sick? I have yet to see a member of the Lower House who would personally minister to the poor and sick at the Culion Leper Colony in Palawan. On the other hand, don't the children of the Payatas dumpsite barely eat once a day? Can't these leaders do anything about this severe problem with their FAT pork barrel funds?Pasong Tamo Avenue in Makati City floods terribly during the rainy season. Can't they do anything about this SIMPLE PROBLEM? I'm sure they could fix this if they really wanted to because even a private firm can fix this flood problem given a chance to do so.

Democracy is democray is democracy.

Are these leaders the kind of heroes we would want our children to admire, or better yet, are these the kind of leaders we would want to vote for and follow?

Okay then, let us all vote for them in the next election!

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