Atheism, Debate, Medicine, Music and Sports
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Sorry if I haven’t been blogging lately. Most of my new articles are posted at the following sections of The Philippine Online Chronicles.
I’ve been writing on this web publication almost everyday for the past month. 
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In an article published by the Philippine Star today (February 12, 2010), Manny Galvez wrote a piece entitled “Med student survived fire by an act of God, says mom“. It talks in length about Miguel Ramos’ (the sole survivor of the pre-dawn fire that claimed the lives of three others – medical clerks Jen Murillo, Cecile Quintos and my good friend Jessa Perez) links about the Philippine Star’s pioneers as well as how Ramos “survived by an act of god”.
This article is an embarrassing piece of journalism that trivializes the suffering and the hardships that those who died went through. It is also arrogant in the sense that people seemed to highlight the dichotomy of those who survived and those who didn’t. This was further emphasized by the attempt to come up with a reason as to why Ramos (who is still in the intensive care unit as of this moment and still hooked to a mechanical ventilator) made it through the fire alive. Really, a scapular? Maybe this article could have been written with a lot more heart and consideration for those who died, their families and friends who have been totally shocked with what had just happened. To choose this as a human interest story and emphasize some idolatrous detail comes across as a cheap and forced attempt to find some good in the already grim situation.
I hope the Philippine Star would know better and rectifies this mistake soon.
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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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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.
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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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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I think it’s quite easy to find Chiz Escudero as one of the most grandstanding-prone politicians on television. While he may have a way with words, he does come across as someone who could easily smooth talk his way into spewing out ideas that are generally agreeable but not necessarily concrete or helpful – pretty much like Barack Obama. Of course that type of charm works for a certain type of person and to be fair to Chiz, that type of person is the absolute majority once the greater scheme of things is considered.
Chiz Escudero in the flesh was not in any way pompous, arrogant or disagreeable. While it was not clear why he wanted to see bloggers for that day (other than to have small talk and probably feed a few undernourshed bloggers such as myself), it was nice to sit across him and have him answer off-the-cuff and unscripted questions from his obvious supporters, critics and skeptics.
The Good
- If everything where to be taken at face value – pretty much the same way that the good in me would like to see things — Francis “Chiz” Escudero seems to have his heart and head in the right place. He comes across as someone who can sleep soundly at night. I know that this is a very subjective comment that could further contradict the other things that I would write as this entry progresses, but at the basic visceral level, he seems like a guy who would be hard to hate. Either that or I’m just a naturally nice guy.
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