OPINION
Monday, 22 July 2013
From lego to reality
MANY children come to me and talk very fondly about their lego toys. I must say that I had to do a little research on lego, since in my kidhood years, there were no such toys. Thus, I discovered why they like lego so much. It’s a child’s plastic construction set to make mechanical models. It stirs their imagination and creativity, and stimulates their liking for building things and making believe. It challenges their ability to put into concrete form what they have in their mind. They can choose either to be very faithful to the models they want to copy, or they can introduce innovations and even combinations. But still, lego is just a toy. It’s more for fun and making fantasies or science fictions. It’s not supposed to be taken seriously. Nowadays, though, lego has acquired another meaning, a figurative reference to a make-believe world that we seem to be making in many aspects of our life. Thus, we can hear people talking about
the lego world in the global economy that is supposed to be a far cry from what is really happening in that area of the world’s life. It seems that what was not supposed to be taken seriously is now taken seriously. Fiction is now made true-to-life. Fantasy is now considered real. Which brings us to a much deeper issue. And that is how do we correctly define reality? What is reality, in the first place? Would things in one’s imagination and dreams not qualify as part of reality? Would reality be simply defined as anything that has physical and material existence, anything that can be measured, seen, weighed, smelled, felt, etc.? How about ideas, judgments, reasonings, values, and other abstract or non-tangible things? Would they not be considered real? We need to tackle these questions to resolve the issue of what reality is. We are supposed to live in reality, we are supposed to be realistic, we are supposed to be and to act real, but what is reality?
The SONA
To d a y, P r e s i d e n t Aquino will deliver his 4th State of the Nation (SONA) address and we will hear outstanding accomplishments that past Pr3esidents have not been able to deliver. First is the upgrade in investment status by 2 major credit institutions, Fitch Ratings and Stanford and Poor ’s. There is a strong GDP
reports, improved tax collections and the better fiscal condition of government and optimism among foreign investors to put their money in the Phillipines. The Legislative body also contributed a significant share by passing measures such as the sin tax law, and yet there is so much work to do.
With the distinction between objective and subjective, we can wonder whether one of them is real and the other not. But it would seem unfair that what is subjective would be considered wholesale as not real, just because it is subjective. For sure, reality has infinite aspects and possibilities, because it simply does not only include material and tangible things. It also covers non-tangible things that can lend themselves to an infinity of levels, aspects, possibilities, etc. If we just consider our ideas and what consequences, implications and possibilities they can spawn, then we would somehow be convinced that reality is indeed a very complicated thing. I imagine that to simplify the need to effectively grapple with reality, we need to go to the very author of reality, which in the end is definitely not us, nor somebody or something else that is merely sensible or even intelligible, but a supreme, eternal being whom we consider to be God. He is the creator and therefore is the very author of the whole of creation. In short, he is the very author of reality in all its levels, aspects and possibilities. In short, if we have to effectively deal with reality, then we need to engage ourselves with the Creator,
Poverty and job generation continue to be the major problems of the government. A reason why the gap between the rich and the poor continue to widen. There is no new local industries and opportunities for livelihood that are opening up and our population continue to rise. Health care delivery needs to be improved to keep the people healthy rather than curing ailments. The tourism sector needs a comprehensive program to encourage more tourists as well as investors. Agriculture continues to flounder. Why do we have to import rice when we can plant and harvest it at lower cost. The same is true with vegetables, fruits, chicken, pork and beef.
who is God. This would require some faith, which again should be part of reality, since this God as the creator of all things simply cannot be fully grasped by us, and yet he is real. In fact, he is the very foundation of reality, and all reality must revolve around him. But he is beyond the world of the sensible and the intelligible. Not that he is not in the sensible and the intelligible. He is right there as he is everywhere, but he also transcends them. That’s why, we can somehow sense and understand him, but we cannot fully comprehend him. In other words, to effectively grapple with reality involves developing in us a certain piety, a certain intimacy in our relation with God the Creator. It cannot be any other way, since ignoring him can only at best let us touch reality by mere coincidence. Ignoring God the Creator would lead us to the great danger of having a shallow, narrow, rigid if not distorted and even wrong grasp of reality. Though these latter situations would still be part of reality, they are that part that is not supposed to be. Vitally engaging with God our Creator, through prayer and study of his doctrine, brings us to the dynamism of reality that God himself maintains and directs both in time and eternity.
Electricity rates continue to be one of the highest in the world and it still persists. Sadly, many parts of the country are now threatened by insufficient p o w e r s u p p l y. T h e government must look for alternative sources of energy. There is so much more to do, the government must reduce corruption to the barest minimum, and a need for better delivery of services from our public servants. We want to hear our President tell the Filipino people where we should go and have to reach that destination. During the last 3 years, the 94 million Filipinos have been waiting what solutions are being considered to reach our destination - a progressive Philippines.
Leyte Samar Daily Express Inutile?...
from page 5
well-exposed P728 m fertilizer scam and yet she has still the gall to go into this “mother of all scam.” Could it be the reason why she boldly, albeit unashamedly declare “we control government’ because the arms of the law is short that it can’t
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reach her? A solidten year syndicate allegedly involving lawmakers, and no one in government was able to discover. It took disgruntled insiders of the Janet Lim-Napoles Enterprises involved in whole sale corruption to expose it. Where was government in all those years? Indeed inutile!!
July 22, 2013 – Monday of the 16th Week in Ordinary Time St. Mary Magdalene Sg 3:1-4 [or 2 Cor 5:14-17]; Ps 63; Jn 20:1-2, 11-18
ENCOUNTER WITH THE RISEN JESUS On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.” but Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had been. And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there, but did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” She thought it was the gardener and said to him, “Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” she turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,” which means Teacher. Jesus said to her, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary of Magdala went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and what he told her.
MARY MAGDALENE Mary Magdalene had been one off Jesus’ closest friends. Rescued by him from the many troubles of her own life – seven demons were cast out of her – she accompanied the Lord on his round of preaching, and when all was lost, and all had run away, she remained steadfast by the cross with Mary, Jesus’ mother. The Easter garden in Jerusalem was a very sad and somber place when Mary Magdalene came to visit the tomb of her Lord. She brought with her spices to anoint his body, bringing to a fitting end the chapter of Calvary’s cruelty. But on entering the tomb she found the tomb empty. This was a double blow. Sorrow broke her heart. Now alone in the garden, she cried out her questions to anyone who would hear. And someone did. The voice was the Lord’s. Thus she became the first witness to his Resurrection. Why not Peter or John? Perhaps it had something to do with the heart that perseveres, long after the head has given up hope. Like Mary Magdalene, may we, also be faithful to the bitter end and beyond the bitter end, for beyond it is the beginning of new life. (His Word is Life by Vima Dasan, S.J., published by Paulines. Visit us at www.paulines.ph or at Paulines Media Center, Real St., Tacloban City, Tel. #321-31-95) Sower’s Seeds: “The most holy bodies of the King and Queen of Heaven are the delight and the love of the angels and saints. We shall see with our own eyes and shall love with our own heart; our whole spirit and body will go into ecstasy.” -Blessed James Alberione, Founder of the Pauline Family