New home

Wow. It's been a really long time since I last posted in this blog. I think it was in February. Wow.

I really love this blog, because I really love Dumaguete (No words can express how I feel). This blog holds within its pages memories of my time in Dumaguete that I will always cherish.

Now I have a new home. Now I'm back in Cebu, with a new life (that doesn't feel new at all, but old), and in a totally different world.

I can't really say I love or am enjoying my present life. I'm tired of Cebu, but I have no choice but to live and study here. If I'd have my way, I'd go back to Dumaguete or Davao, or any place that is beautiful and new, because it would mean a fresh new start at living.

*Sigh*

But I'm doing okay right now. Things are fine.

Che

Why the new historic high for Che almost 40 years after his death? Allow me to venture an outsider's explanation. The Che revival, or at least the biographical revival of a dreamy Che, shows a romantic turn in our political life. After all, only Che is quoted speaking of such things as "love": "At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. .... Our vanguard revolutionaries must idealize this love of the people, the most sacred cause, and make it one and indivisible."

By Raul Pangalangan, Mao, John Lennon and Che, inq7.net, Feb. 18, 2005

Or is not simply because of, to paraphrase Noam Chomsky, "mindless rebellion" or idol-worship? Try asking a kid wearing a Che t-shirt if he knows the Che the man, his works, and his place in history, and I bet he wouldn't know anything.

The whale shark

I wish I was there to see it!

News of beached whale shark rouses Dumaguete


Posted 04:48am (Mla time) Jan 29, 2005
By Alex V. Pal
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A17 of the January 29, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


DUMAGUETE CITY-"Finally, I had a chance to touch a shark!" yelled student Joseph Solitario to a friend, after touching a beached whale shark that he mistook for a shark off the shores of Dumaguete City.

The sight of the enormous fish lying dead off the shore of Barangay Piapi greeted Dumagueteños who were up as early as 4 a.m.

The 9.3-meter female whale shark, estimated to weigh over 9 tons, was believed to have been dead for several days before it drifted into shallow waters yesterday, as it was already starting to emit a foul odor.

News of its discovery spread through the morning radio newscasts which sent thousands of people wading in the knee-deep water, just to catch a glimpse of this unusual sea creature.

"My, it's really big," gushed Emmanuel Tiongson, who rushed to the scene after hearing the news. "It's like a submarine!"

SPO4 Enriquieto Zendon, assistant station chief of the Dumaguete-based 702nd Maritime Police Station, said that in his 18 years in the Navy and 13 years with the maritime police, it was his first time to see a sea creature that big. He said he was not surprised that thousands of Dumagueteños turned out to see the whale shark. "We expected a huge crowd because many are amazed at this creature."

Lawton Alcala, a biologist of the Negros Oriental Environment and Natural Resources Division, said they still do not know what caused the whale shark's death.

Search for clues

"It would be interesting to see the whale shark's back because we might be able to get clues as to whether it was wounded or something," he said, but that was still not possible because the water was too shallow. The whale shark was lying on its back.

As of noon yesterday, authorities were still deciding what to do with the shark, although the Silliman University Marine Laboratory had expressed its intention to collect its bones for study.

Moonyeen Alava, deputy executive director of the Cebu-based Coastal Conservation and Education Foundation Inc., who is also the Philippine member of the shark specialist group of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), said whale sharks are migratory and have been known to pass through Philippine waters, especially in the Bohol Sea and in Sorsogon, which are plankton-rich feeding areas.

Whale sharks, considered to be the biggest fish in the world, could reach a length of 18 meters, weigh up to 15 tons and live for over 100 years.

It has a huge mouth that can be as long as 4 feet wide.

The whale shark has distinctive light yellow markings (random stripes and dots) on its very thick, dark gray skin. Its skin can be up to 4 inches thick.

Poaching

"It's very rare that a whale shark, or any shark for that matter, will beach itself. It's possible that there might have been poaching activities in the area," Alava said.

She said sharks and other cartilaginous fishes are the longest-living creatures in the world, whose form and function has withstood evolution for millions of years.

Alava said that the presence of whale sharks is a strong indicator of the health of our seas. "When they are around, it means our oceans and waters are in good health."

Whale sharks have been traditionally hunted in the Philippines but have been nationally protected by Fisheries Administrative Order No. 193 passed in March 1998.

Efforts to protect the whale shark have also received a boost with the passage of Republic Act 8550, or the New Fisheries Code, also in 1998, which prohibits the international trade of whale sharks and other species listed in the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) list.

Vulnerable

The IUCN Red List includes the whale shark as a vulnerable species, but Alava said that Philippine data on the exploitation rate of the whale shark suggests that it would qualify as a critically endangered species in the Philippines.

In 2002, whale sharks were listed in the CITES of Flora and Fauna. CITES is an international agreement between governments that aim to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.

The CITES web site reported that not one species protected by CITES has become extinct as a result of trade since the convention was enforced in 1975. CITES is also among the largest conservation agreements in existence with 167 participating countries.

PDI Visayas Bureau

Bye, Bye Dumaguete

I'll miss Dumaguete. I already am missing it. I've been here in Cebu for a few weeks now. A couple of times I went with P to the Negros city, and also in Siquijor and Tagbilaran in Bohol.

So, in total, I've been to Suquijor twice (in Siquijor town itself and in Larena), Bohol thrice (in Tagbilaran, Tubigon, and the towns in between), and Oriental Negros many times (Bayawan to Dumaguete to Mabinay to La Libertad, and the towns and cities between them). Not bad. I've been to so many places during the course of six months.

I'll be missing all these places because P's resignation from her company will be effective on the 17th of this month. Which means we will be working in Cebu na. Which means this weblog would no longer serve its intended purpose, which was to document a "new life" or a "new beginning" in a "new city" that was Dumaguete City.

I hope to do more serious blogging in the future (This was never a serious blog), possibly about the experiences in running a book club or a reading and discussion group.

I'll be visiting Dumaguete for the last time (Well, not exactly. We'll still be going there occasionally on special holidays to visit relatives in Bayawan, Basay and Sanke.) next week.

Lady of Fatima

The Pilgrim Lady of Fatima from the Heralds of the Gospel is staying in our house today. She arrived last night. Didn't get any sleep as we were keeping a vigil for Her.

We in our family, we are so honored to have the Blessed Lady of Fatima at our home. She will be staying with us until 4 or 5 in the afternoon, after which She will be in another household in Talisay.

Actually, the Lady of Fatima statue the Heralds of the Gospel have is a copy of the original image that Sister Lucia had made (read: she *had it made*, as in, from a sculptor) for the Blessed Virgin Mary that appeared to her and two other shepherd children, Jacinta (who, if I'm not mistaken, was her sister) and Franciso (or Francesco?) in Fatima, Portugal in 1917. Two of the children, Jacinta and Francisco, died shorty after the apparition, while Lucia is still alive. She's already 97 years old and is a cloistered nun.

For more about the Fatima apparition and the Lady of Fatima, go to www.fatima.org.

Untitled poem

I'd like to distill wisdom and knowledge
To gather around
A group of passionate folks
In a semi-dark room
Around a table with books

I'd like to discuss
Philosophy. History.
Literature. Art.
And music.
Even if I know absolutely nothing about
Philosophy. History.
Literature. Art.
And music.
But I'd like to learn

I'd like to read
And share what I read
Summarize the story,
the ideas, the themes,
and give my thoughts on the characters

I'd like to grow in wisdom
and knowledge

I'd like to highten my sensitivity
to the world around me,
to the things that truly matter in life

I want to decipher hidden meanings
in works of art
To delve into stories and novels
and poems
With my heart and mind and soul
And understand their true worth
And relevance in my life

Sad song

Sing me a sorrowful song
You see, I've been empty for a while
Let your music
Measure the sadness inside me

Let the waves of sound from your
Lonely guitar
Echo against the hollowness
Inside me

I never knew how empty I was
Till I heard your singing

Book club

I am so excited with the idea of joining or forming a book club. It would be so much fun, to read and discuss books. Even better is if the club will not limit itself to discussing books, but also include art, films, music, etc. In a word, a cultural group, wherein the aim is to develop one's culture and intellect. I am more interested in politics, current affairs, and social issues.

So basically, what I have in mind is a book club or a reading and discussion group that focuses on things that matter in life.

I wish to start one, hopefully soon. I can start by inviting a few friends and my Pangga.

My concern though is that not many people read books. Plus, books are expensive these days, so most people would rather buy food and clothes than books. But it would be great to develop the habit of reading among people. It improves the intellect and enhances our senses.

Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Today is the feast day of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. We got up early this morning and went to hear mass at our lungsud (town) church. Then we went to Tita Baby's house in San Agustin Heights in Labangon to visit the Pilgrim statue of Our Lady of Fatima, the original statue of our Lady of Fatima, which Mother Mary instructed Sister Lucia to sculpt for her. The statue arrived at their house last night and was supposed to be taken at 11 in the morning, but the Brothers from the Herald of the Gospels came in earlier at 9:30. We were able to catch up with them and the statue at the Department of Labor and Employment office beside Plaza Independencia.