We just got back from a short trip to Singapore to visit family and friends and take advantage of the city-state’s gastronomic delights. We also got a few gizmos and gadgets, as much as our limited budget would allow, and books, of course.

Any Filipino who has ever visited Singapore as a tourist will surely have one question foremost in mind: Why can’t we do what Singapore has done ? That is, make a culturally diverse, multi-racial society, with little or no natural resources, work and prosper as a nation. Read the rest of this entry »

The United States Supreme Court may yet decide to hear a case with would have far-reaching implications on the right of Americans to own firearms. America’s love affair with guns is deeply rooted in its history and enshrined in the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which states:

“A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

The Second Amendment is said to be derived from the English common law concept of the right to keep and bear arms for self-defense and, when necessary, for the defense of the state. Hence, the reference to “a well-regulated militia”. Read the rest of this entry »

Death takes us by surprise
And stays our hurrying feet;
The great design unfinished lies,
Our lives are incomplete.

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

4:00 a.m. on All Souls’ Day, November 2, a day for remembering and honoring the loved ones we lost, as prescribed by the Catholic church. There are other days and reasons for doing this, as any day can be one of remembrance, but today has been officially designated for prayers for those referred to as our “faithful departed” and for offering Masses.

In a sane and logical world, my son should be the one offering prayers for me. Instead its me who shall pray for him. No, that’s not right either. He doesn’t need our prayers as he died before reaching what is considered “the age of accountability” and therefore, by Catholic doctrine, died in a state of grace and went straight to heaven. He was just six years old, a few weeks short of his 7th birthday, and would have been a teenager by now. I will go to early Mass and then visit his grave with his mother and sisters. Prayers will be said, but more for our sake, those he left behind.

We miss him so much, and the years have not dulled the pain of loss. The grief becomes sharper on days like this. He was the center of our lives. On my side of the family, out of thirteen grandchildren (and more on the way), he was the only boy. And so I feel, like many a grieving parent, stripped of my past and robbed of my future. Read the rest of this entry »