Undescribable joy

There are times when we look at our lives and say that we haven't accomplished anything or anything worthwhile. I guess a part that makes it heavier on us is when we compare ourselves to famous people or people whose accomplishments are seen on TV or read in newspapers and magazines.

For me my accomplishments are nothing that big. I don't think mine would even get into any of the tabloid papers. I even can't remember an accomplishment worth mentioning.

Just a few days ago while in the net I've met past friends, students and classmates. I was so overjoyed particularly of people who have been part of my life as a teacher. There was an undescribable feeling of joy when I got to view a music video of two of my students who to me are AWESOME. This joy I won't trade for anything else. I hold them, my former students, as my own treasures, because I believe I did give something to them no matter how small it may have been. I believe I have contributed a little to what they are now and what they are accomplishing. I think it is the joy of seeing people you have tried to touch becoming who they are and enjoying life. I am proud of my students. Here's two of them watch.

I am really proud of you Lia and Chris!

You can view some other music videos these two have in youtube....click this ------------> asiulcastillo.

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What is a pinoy?

Here is something I got from the internet which wonderfully answer the question, What is a Pinoy?..You can enlarge the document by clicking the down icon or view it in big page too.

What is a Pinoy

Get your own at Scribd or explore others:

Thoughts on Global recession

The world is in recession. Slowly economic and financial institutions are collapsing. The industry giants are now like beggars asking for financial aid just to stay alive like the auto industry. Smaller companies are closing one by one around the world. And the world is holding its breath, crossing its fingers and ready to panic.

What does this mean to the common people? It means more difficulties, more suffering. Unemployment will be prevalent and people will have nowhere to look to earn a living. It may not be too difficult for a time for people living in richer countries where social welfare system is quite good, but with people in the third world like the Philippines and countries in Africa, it would just be like waiting for the last breath to come soon. Criminal activities will become widespread, more daring and aggressive like the Somalian pirates, as people will do whatever means just to survive. What a grim scenario and yet just inches away from happening.

What will we do to survive? HOw are we going to fare? How long is it going to be? Where will we be in a few months? When Will we be able to stand on our feet again? Who will have to suffer most? Who will die? Who will survive? Are we still going to come back up? Is there hope? Will there be a celebration soon?

For where your treasures are, there will your heart also be. The things mentioned above are nothing and even a means to accomplish a greater purpose to one whose hope, whose security, whose life and whose future are anchored firmly beyond what is seen.
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Thank you Pinoys

clipped from www.gmanews.tv

MANILA, Philippines - Remittances from Filipinos living and working abroad remain robust, with the central bank on Monday reporting year on year growth of 16.9% in September even as global economic conditions worsened.

This compared to 10.36% growth recorded a month earlier, and pushed the 2008 tally to $12.27 billion so far, up 17.1% compared to the same period last year.

Monthly remittance flows have remained above the $1-billion mark for the past 29 months, with September’s result at $1.33 billion.

Remittances still healthy despite global downturn

"Robust remittance flows have been shored up by strong overseas demand for Filipino skills, and the greater availability of expanded money transfer services to overseas Filipinos and their beneficiaries," BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco, Jr. said in a statement.

On the global recession

The world is in recession. We are all in it. In fact a lot of us already are doing some anticipatory actions to face the worst to come. Some are cutting back on unnecessary expenditures, instead of two, one will do. Some are cutting back on the use of the car. Some are even planning to cut back in buying expensive gifts on Christmas. Forex,open forex account,gold coins,Buy gold bullions,Trade gold online, Forex Trading
Forex trading, open forex account numbers, gold coins, buy gold bullions ads, trade gold online activities are all in a decline. Asia, Europe, the Americas and all continents' financial standing are all into a downward direction in just few months. Everybosy is saying that the cause of this recession is plain greed. We just want to have it all. We just are spending beyond our needs and means.

What does this mean? For me this shows human (our) folly. We think and believe that material things, our own greed, and money can satisfy us. For centuries these three which includes, small businesses, forex trading, buying gold, credit cards, investments in stock and so on has made the world move to incredible heights, but at the moment it has totally slowed down almost at their knees. This just shows also human pride, our pride can only satisfy and be at a certain point. Human intelligence, ingenuity, wisdom, strength and so on are good, but they cannot totally be trusted or relied on and can not substantially satisfy.

So what then can we rely on and can satisfy? I believe this is something each of us need to answer because each of us has a part in this global financial recession. Seek and you shall find, ask and it will given you.
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Philippines still Going forward

There is hope for the Philippines and for the Filipinos. This news may be minute and irrelevant to some but for me it shows that the Philippines is still Standing up to the Challenge.

This is taken from: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/132489/RP-bags-silver-in-World-Robot-Olympiad

RP bags silver in World Robot Olympiad
11/10/2008 | 12:28 PM

MANILA, Philippines - Three elementary pupils from the Philippines won the silver medal in the Open Category of the World Robot Olympiad last week at Yokohama, Japan.

Bagging the silver medal together with a certificate and a trophy were Joseph Aldrin Chua, Edrich Hans Chua and Dominique Hannah Sy, all from Grace Christian Elementary School.

It was the first time that the Philippines got a medal for the Open Category in the Elementary Level. hope for the Philippines, Filipinos, Filipino

Titled “Green Whiz Community and the G-Tech Robot Engineering a Better World," the children's entry featured 12 robots doing various tasks to help save the environment.
hope for the Philippines, Filipinos, Filipino
Tizon said they used several robots to show the urgency to save the environment and that technology could be used to stop the destruction of the world.

The featured robots include Next Gen Car, a lightweight hydrogen powered car for the next generation which consumes lesser energy; H2O Treatment Robot which is designed to filter waste water from a factory for safe disposal; E-Sorter, a robot that sorts biodegradable and non-biodegradable garbage using color coding of container; Paper Recycling Area, a factory robot that recycles used paper into something usable; Iced Sub-Zero Robot, a robot that makes melted ice in the polar region back into ice form; and Forest Surveillance Robot, a robot with a built in camera that guards forests and waterfalls from illegal loggers and hunters.hope for the Philippines, Filipinos, Filipino

This is from: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/132489/RP-bags-silver-in-World-Robot-Olympiad

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Philippines is going HUNGRY

Here is something I got from net that Filipinos around the world need to know. The Philippines is going hungry. We need to pray and help the Philippines in any way we can because our families are there still and we need to give them a better future.

clipped from beta.philstar.com World hunger survey: RP 5th Updated November 05, 2008 12:00 AM The Philippines is fifth on the top 10 list of countries whose poor said they went hungry in the past year, an abs-cbnNEWS.com report said yesterday. The report said that based on the results of the World Food Day survey by Gallup International-Voice of the People 2008, four of every 10 Filipinos reported having little or no food at all on their tables in the last 12 months. This placed the Philippines in the league of African, Latin American, Asian and European countries whose citizens said that they “often or sometimes” lacked food in the past year. The survey also said that the hunger rate was highest in Metro Manila, where at least 500,000 families lacked food. The Philippines was in the league of African and Asian nations whose poor said they went hungry in the past year.

The Philippines

The Philippines belonging to the third world is always pictured negatively. Here are some things I got from the net that hopefully would make us see that there is something positive about the Philippines.

=== In the Philippines, Filipinos were introduced to the English language in 1762 by British invaders, not Americans. Philippines is the world's 3rd largest English-speaking nation, next to the USA and the UK.

=== The Philippine Basketball Association is Asia's premier and the world's second oldest professional league.

=== Philippine Airlines took to the skies on March 15, 1941, using a Beech Model 18 aircraft amid the specter of a global war. It became Asia's first airline.

=== The world's second deepest spot underwater is in the Philippines. This spot, about 34,440 feet (10,497 meters) below the sea level, is known as the Philippine Deep or the Mindanao Trench. The Philippine Deep is in the floor of the Philippine Sea. The German ship Emden first plumbed the trench in 1927. The world's deepest part of the ocean is the Marianas Trench, which is over 11,000 meters below the seal level.

=== Of the 500 known coral species in the world, 488 are found in the Philippines.

=== The Philippines is home to some of the world's most exotic birds. One of the most endangered species is the exotic Kalangay or the Philippine cockatoo (Cacatua haematuropygia), which belongs to Psittacidae or the family of parrots. Some cockatoos can live up to 50 years. They are known for mimicking human voices. Most of them measure 33 centimeters in length and weigh 0.29 kilogram.

=== Coconuts - the Philippines is considered to be the largest producer of coconuts

=== Boondocks and Boonies, words that have come to mean “in middle of nowhere” in the English language, are derived from the Tagalog word bundock, which means “mountain”. An educated guess would be that American soldiers fighting in the Philippines a century ago adopted the word. As an example, “Our units going into the boondocks to search for insurgents.” After the war, soldiers brought the term home with them, and the rest is history.

=== Though the Republic of the Philippines is roughly the same size as Arizona in total area, it has 36,289 km of coastline. The United States, in comparison, has a “mere” 19,924 km of coastline. How is that possible? The Philippines is composed of around 7,000 islands (some are quite tiny), each of which has its own coastline. All those coastlines combined add up!

=== The world's largest pearl was discovered by a Filipino diver in a giant Tridacna (mollusk) under the Palawan Sea in 1934. Known as the "Pearl of Lao-Tzu", the gem weighs 14 pounds and measures 9 1/2 inches long and 5 1/2 inches in diameter. As of May 1984, it was valued at US$42 million. It is believed to be 600 years old.

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Personal view of Filipinos in Canada

I still work and serve with Filipinos here in Canada and I find it difficult. This is not to offend or to look down on our culture or anything or anybody. Each culture has its strengths, weaknesses and uniqueness. I thought that when I started working with Filipinos here in Canada that they have at least gotten rid of the not so good part of our culture, but they haven't and I think this has caused rather a confusion and some conflicts because we are now in a different culture and environment. Filipinos are adaptable when surrounded by other cultures, but when surrounded by fellow Filipinos in a foreign environment is quite a different story. This is by the way my opinion and experience, not a general view.

Filipinos come together because they miss home which is the Philippines. Discrimination and the need to belong and culture shock within a foreign land are also factors that make Filipinos gather. These are all good. But what makes it difficult for me working and living with Filipinos here in Canada is the fact that Filipinos retain some traits that does not fit the Canadian culture. One is the sense of time. Filipinos here are still late all the time, except when it comes to work. But is family time or church and a friend's or guests' time not that important?

Another is crab mentality. Filipinos tend to dislike it when they see others progress in life. Still happening here and it is no good at all. Another is in terms of upbringing of kids. I love Caucasian kids because I can talk to them straight and they seem to know respect more and more behaved. Filipino kids here are over active, disorderly and lack that Filipino sense of respect "galang" and being helpful "matulungin". I believe this is the result of being influenced by the individualism of Canadian culture that conflicts with our close knit, event oriented culture, but still a big part is how parents brought their children up at home. These are just some of the things I am trying to live with now.

I serve and work with Filipinos and its great, but I find it really difficult. My desire is that each Filipino here will come to realize the bad side of our culture and so refine it or redefine it. These things make it difficult for us to improve as Filipinos, here in Canada, in the Philippines and anywhere.

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