Tuesday, February 9, 2010
A good friend of mine died today. She was trapped in the comfort room of a burning health center in Nueva Ecija along with her three other classmates. She was on special assignment for a Community Medicine immersion. I met her when she applied to be a member of the UP Manila Debate Circle. We went to many training days together and even experienced a couple of national tournaments with the Circle. Her passing was such a shock to all of us. She was a very intelligent and passionate debater as well as a kind, bubbly, optimistic, thoughtful and uplifting friend and colleague.
I never had the chance to reconnect with her after she left the Circle to pursue medicine elsewhere but now I regret not doing so.
We love you Jessa. We miss you already. 
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Tuesday, February 2, 2010
To commemorate exactly one year of Filipino Freethinkers’ existence as a free thought advocates’ collective and to further show the world that the organization loves using words that start with the letter “F”, the Filipino Freethinkers will be hosting the First Filipino Freethinkers Film Festival on February 27. This promises to be one of the largest gatherings of freethinkers with hundreds of participants expected to attend.
The First Filipino Freethinkers Forum back in February 28 jump started the organization and there have been countless meetups, provincial gatherings, symposiums, parties and other social events since then. If you’re a freethinker, join us and enjoy films on secularism, rationalism and other freethinker favorites.
The venue is quite big so bring all your freethinking friends and family along. Just RSVP via the event’s official Facebook page and we’ll reserve a seat for you. See you there!
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Thursday, January 7, 2010
Sorry for the lull, but we’re back on!
De Lasalle University beat the odds and won the right to host the 2012 World Universities Debate Championship during the voting held at Koc University in Turkey just days in 2010. Despite catty remarks from DLSU’s main rival Hart House/ University of Toronto regarding the unsafe environment that Manila poses, DLSU won convincingly with a final tally of 72 to 28. The founding members have four votes each while each other participating country has one.
The Worlds are usually held days after Christmas until well into the first week of the following year. The DLSU Worlds will start on late December 2011. Congratulations to the De Lasalle debaters who made this happen! Special kudos to Dino and Victor who really worked hard for the bid.
DLSU Official Bid Website
The DLSU Worlds is set to be the 32nd annual WUDC. It is the second time that the tournament is coming to the Philippines. Ateneo de Manila University hosted it back in 1999.
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Thursday, December 3, 2009
I opened a new blog at BenjEspina.com. I hope you could check it out. Add it to your blog rolls! The content would be mostly about travel, food, music and sports – pretty much all the non-political, atheist, debater-y (i.e. serious) things that used to be posted here at Atheista.
Cheers!
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