Such a Sensless Act...

Late yesterday afternoon, Management had given instruction to quietly notify employees to go home. No announcement was made over the speakers. The instruction came just minutes after pictures of the afternoon bombing at a big and busy mall started spreading in the e-mails.

Apparently, someone had received an anonymous call of a bomb in our building. Since we already had bomb sniffing dogs regularly making the rounds in the premises, they were much busier that afternoon. I left the building over an hour later. There was no news whether a bomb was indeed found or not.

Eight people died in the bombing at the mall and over a hundred were wounded including a one-year old baby. I can never rationalize this senseless and terroristic act of bombing establishments and killing innocent people. And so much more that such act can actually get support from others...and for what??? The only reason I can think of aside from that these people who planned the bombing are lunatics, is that they want to destabilize the economy so others can gain control over the present administration.

It's sad but real and really scary. But it's something we all have to live with and try to be more conscious about to protect ourselves. And these establisments will just have to be stricter and more diligent in the security measures they implement to protect the public. Security always slackens after a while and that should never be the case. After all, they have an obligation to protect their customers while inside the premises.

And now I have to go shopping to prepare for my trip...

Parenting...a little fern reminded me...

I cried while driving on my way to work Monday morning. I felt bad for raising my voice on my eldest son. He asked a few days ago that he needed a fern plant for school. I assumed it was just a leaf for a science experiment and that his father would ask his friends who had gardens.

Monday morning as we were leaving, my son mentioned the fern again. It was due that day. I ended up speeding angrily away when I reminded my son's father about the fern and it was obvious that he didn't remember it either.

I scolded my son in the car for not reminding us earlier and not clearly explaining what he wanted the fern for. He quietly said he did and didn't say anymore. I saw his nose slightly turn red and I knew he was fighting back his tears. He pretended cleaning his glasses and I felt so bad then but didn't say anything. Maybe I should have said sorry but I was fighting back my tears too.

After dropping him off at school, I cried all the way to work. Well, there were other reasons, too and I hope one day I stop crying for those other reasons.

When I got to the office parking lot, I sent a text message to his father to buy the fern and that we've often been neglecting our son's needs. When I got to my office, I got a call from his father saying he would buy the fern and bring it to school. Idon't know what my son's reaction was when his father brought the fern to school but I'm sure he must have been happy. He was already asleep when I got home in the evening. I bet if I ask him in the morning, he'd say he was supposed to plant it and not buy it complete with a flower pot :)

Sometimes I could really be so self-centered and not realize I'm neglecting others around me. Though I often feel that I work more than I should for everyone else and not myself, it doesn't give me an excuse for not doing my duty as a parent or assume their father would do it.

I should remind myself that it isn't all just about earning money and providing my family with material things. It's so much more about being there when the children need their parents.

So now I'm alone here at the living room and cying so much again, hardly able to see the keys as I type. Well, I can be emotional at times.... but that's me.

The Jubillee Act H.R. 2634

I decided to do some reading on the Jubilee Act after receiving Josh Peck's e-mail. The summary he gave made me recall the video I posted months back on Fair Trade and the plight of many poor nations struggling to meet the basic necessities in life such as food, clothing, shelter and water.

Many areas in my own country suffer as much and I have seen tv documentaries of people illegally selling their vital organs to hospitals and patients needing transplants just to feed their families.

It's quite ironic and so pathetic that while so many of the poorest nations struggle for the basic necessities in life, much of their countries' money goes to paying their external debts to rich nations and international financial institutions. I have for years heard many economists here say that our unborn grandchildren's grandchildren will continue to pay our external debts. This is what the Jubilee Act focuses on...providing debt relief to the poorest nations and ensuring that the money is used in worthwhile projects that address poverty.

In summary, the Jubilee Act, which was sponsored by Rep. Maxine Waters with other Co-sponsors, provides for greater responsibility in lending and expanded cancellation of debts owed to the United States and other international financial institutions by the poorest countries. It basically qualifies 67 of the poorest nations in the world for debt cancellation and ensures that the debt cancellation funds go to poverty reduction projects.

A Frequently Asked Questions article on the Jubilee Act is available. It gives information on what countries qualify for debt cancellation, how the Act will ensure that debt cancellation funds go to poverty reduction projects such as education, school infrastructure and other anti-poverty projects, including ways on how these poor countries will be protected from illegitimate debts, among others.

The Meme Book

Oooookkk...The book Meme

Since I have such a bad memory for names and titles and don't really collect things, including books, this one will be less than half as interesting as Matt's...but here it goes:

Total number of books: I've never counted them. I keep them where there's space to keep then once I've read them, give them away when I can (usually after a few years). Since my mom was an English Literature Professor, I read lots of books from her library.

Last book read: The Little Prince ( must be the third time I read it)...still reading Bourne Supremacy by Robert Ludlum.

Last Book I bought: Harry Potter ( book 5?? can't remember:P)

Meaningful books: (ohhhh great....my memory)

1) Breach Of Faith: by Theodore White
2) Noli Me Tangere: by Jose Rizal
3) Ann Frank's Diary
4) From Under the Rubble: by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
5) Roots: by Alex Hailey