Saturday, August 29, 2009

OPRAH'S BIGGEST MISTAKE


The brain is so powerful that it can move mountains if you just know how to use it. It can heal your illness if you just make use of all its potential to the fullest. According to experts, we are just using 5%-10% of our brains all the time, so therefore just imagine if you can use 1005 of it, then you can be like Jesus who can walk on water!

This is probably where Oprah got her latest new age religion. They claim to have created god in mans image and likeness instead of the other way around. She claims that you are a god yourself! many God believing people will find this abhorring but that is what Oprah is preaching now. It is quite disturbing that someone like Oprah who had Baptist background will have a twisted view of God and pronounces her gospel through her media for all the world to hear.

We are really in a dangerous age. Climate is changing. Wars are imminent everywhere. Chaos and famine all over, sicknesses and diseases come in different names and forms everyday. People are dying from various causes unexplainable. Preachers of different religions and faiths are coming up and making claims of authentic beliefs and powers. These are the scenarios very well described in our present time and age, so befitting of the last days description of the Bible.

A lot of people are having difficulty believing the authenticity of the bible, it may not be the core of my blog today but for me everything that has been prophesied in the bible have already come to pass except those in revelation. This argument is so extensive that it requires a lifetime to explain and prove its reality which if I am to discuss its details right now might require me a lot of blog pages to accomplish. I would rather not focus on it at this moment. Just leave the issue to Billy Graham.

I want to bring you back to Oprah. It is really dangerous sometime to be drowned by overwhelming success. Michael Jackson died because he couldn't find the answer to why he couldn't sleep - and he took dipivan. He was so successful that he couldn't couldn't afford to buy himslf a sleep. Oprah may have some questions in her mind which nobody dared answer so therefore she took god for herself. She is likened to have died in faith and the culprit is her bitter success pill.

I say drowned because it is obvious that she has almost everything, success , power and authority, except for one thing - God. she grew up a Baptist so I would assume that she was taught the doctrine of salvation. Remembering from the parable of the sower, in Oprah's case, the weeds of success has overshadowed the wheat of Christian belief.

You will always have questions unanswered but going against God is a taboo. It will cause you enormous pain and misery. The joy which is so precious will be gone. You can laugh, you can pretend you have happiness, or you may be happy but this will all be superficial without the joy of God. I remember Darwin, the author of evolution, he recanted from his evolution theory when he was on his death bed. He knew for sure that he ws wrong and was accountable for his mistakes before God's thrown. Surely Oprah when her time comes to meet her end, that would probably be the time she will realize that the damaged she has brought to her patrons will remain a disaster while she is counting the days for her demise.

There are a lot of questions in life that we really cannot answer in our lifetime. That is why God uses the lowly to shame the wise because that is really how it is. It is like comparing yourself to someone who is using 100% of his brains against us using only 10% of our brains. We cannot even comprehend what is going on in our nature and all the more the nature of god. That is the reason why there is faith because it ultimately the only answer to all your questions. Faith is the substance and evidence of things unseen and longed for.

Oprah may be correct in the notion that man can be gods themselves. We are created in god's image and likeness which means we have the capacity to make use of the power of our mind to 100% full, but this is not going to happen in this life. This will happen when God has already accomplished his purpose in us to perfection - and that is when we meet him as a faithful and obedient children. My piece of advice - don't rush up things.

Friday, August 21, 2009

12 most annoying Facebook users:



The Let-Me-Tell-You-Every-Detail-of-My-Day Bore. "I'm waking up." "I had Wheaties for breakfast." "I'm bored at work." "I'm stuck in traffic." You're kidding! How fascinating! No moment is too mundane for some people to broadcast unsolicited to the world. Just because you have 432 Facebook friends doesn't mean we all want to know when you're waiting for the bus.

The Self-Promoter. OK, so we've probably all posted at least once about some achievement. And sure, maybe your friends really do want to read the fascinating article you wrote about beet farming. But when almost EVERY update is a link to your blog, your poetry reading, your 10k results or your art show, you sound like a bragger or a self-centered careerist.

The Friend-Padder. The average Facebook user has 120 friends on the site. Schmoozers and social butterflies -- you know, the ones who make lifelong pals on the subway -- might reasonably have 300 or 400. But 1,000 "friends?" Unless you're George Clooney or just won the lottery, no one has that many. That's just showing off.

The Town Crier. "Michael Jackson is dead!!!" You heard it from me first! Me, and the 213,000 other people who all saw it on TMZ. These Matt Drudge wannabes are the reason many of us learn of breaking news not from TV or news sites but from online social networks. In their rush to trumpet the news, these people also spread rumors, half-truths and innuendo. No, Jeff Goldblum did not plunge to his death from a New Zealand cliff.

The TMIer. "Brad is heading to Walgreens to buy something for these pesky hemorrhoids." Boundaries of privacy and decorum don't seem to exist for these too-much-information updaters, who unabashedly offer up details about their sex lives, marital troubles and bodily functions. Thanks for sharing.

The Bad Grammarian. "So sad about Fara Fauset but Im so gladd its friday yippe". Yes, I know the punctuation rules are different in the digital world. And, no, no one likes a spelling-Nazi schoolmarm. But you sound like a moron.

The Sympathy-Baiter. "Barbara is feeling sad today." "Man, am I glad that's over." "Jim could really use some good news about now." Like anglers hunting for fish, these sad sacks cast out their hooks -- baited with vague tales of woe -- in the hopes of landing concerned responses. Genuine bad news is one thing, but these manipulative posts are just pleas for attention.

The Lurker. The Peeping Toms of Facebook, these voyeurs are too cautious, or maybe too lazy, to update their status or write on your wall. But once in a while, you'll be talking to them and they'll mention something you posted, so you know they're on your page, hiding in the shadows. It's just a little creepy.

The Crank. These curmudgeons, like the trolls who spew hate in blog comments, never met something they couldn't complain about. "Carl isn't really that impressed with idiots who don't realize how idiotic they are." [Actual status update.] Keep spreading the love.

The Paparazzo. Ever visit your Facebook page and discover that someone's posted a photo of you from last weekend's party -- a photo you didn't authorize and haven't even seen? You'd really rather not have to explain to your mom why you were leering like a drunken hyena and French-kissing a bottle of Jagermeister.

The Maddening Obscurist. "If not now then when?" "You'll see..." "Grist for the mill." "John is, small world." "Dave thought he was immune, but no. No, he is not." [Actual status updates, all.] Sorry, but you're not being mysterious -- just nonsensical.

The Chronic Inviter. "Support my cause. Sign my petition. Play Mafia Wars with me. Which 'Star Trek' character are you? Here are the 'Top 5 cars I have personally owned.' Here are '25 Things About Me.' Here's a drink. What drink are you? We're related! I took the 'What President Are You?' quiz and found out I'm Millard Fillmore! What president are you?"

You probably mean well, but stop. Just stop. I don't care what president I am -- can't we simply be friends? Now excuse me while I go post the link to this story on my Facebook page.

CRIME DOES PAY


Victims' family members and advocates are grieving anew as the only man convicted in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland -- which killed 270 people -- was released Thursday from a British prison. Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, 57, sick with advanced prostate cancer, was released on compassionate grounds and sent home to Libya to die.

Just before Christmas in 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up over Scotland, killing the 259 passengers and crew members on their way from London to New York and 11 people on the ground. The United States and Scotland issued indictments against two Libyan intelligence officers for the bombing, but Libya refused to surrender the suspects, leading the United Nations Security Council to impose sanctions against the country in 1992.

After years of negotiations and sanctions, Libya agreed to extradite the two suspects, on condition that they be tried in a third country. So a Scottish court convened in the Netherlands, and the suspects were extradited more than 10 years after the Boeing 747 was bombed.Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence official, was convicted in 2001. He was the only person found guilty in the case.

The decision caused a lot of dissatisfaction among the victims families. They find injustice to release the convicted bomber who have been incarcerated for more than 20 years and now he is dying with prostate cancer. some people fears that he may still be capable of wreaking havoc to any nation and so goes the risk of releasing him as a freeman. The premise of his release was on compassionate grounds which is very ironic because these people at the time when they were committing this crime was not aware compassion ever existed.

Cancer has taken its toll on the terrorist. If there is some consolation for the victims' family that is to consider the pain that a cancer victim may have that he had to be release to die with his family. You may consider this as sweet revenge from nature, a karma for being a criminal. We just move around the circle of life where we reap what we sow. We sow terror then we get death.

Ali Mohmed al Megrahi is said to have 3 more months to live and he was sent home to die in his home.

The effects of our doing may not be imminent and may some time tarry but certainly it will happen. It will come in varying degrees depending how one would take it. some can take small headache as so heavy that suffering with is like death while others may just take cancer lightly like unto a headache. One thing is definite, once it is payback time, it will really be as devastating. The degree of pain you gave will be the same degree of pain that you will receive in the future. No one is excused. Even Osama Bin Ladin in all his terrorist splendor will still receive the same toll when his time comes. .

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

BAYANIHAN IN BUSINESS


It is very common today that a lot of people are engaging into business. The government is so focused in attempting to provide assistance to these people who would jump in to the entrepreneurial wagon. There are really a lot of opportunities in the Philippines to embark on to have an enterprise of their own. If only one would just search for it in many government agencies, then definitely they will be able to find a place for themselves, in business. The biggest source for business information in the Philippines is the Department of Trade and Industry.

Jumping into business takes a lot of risk. One will be losing his regular monthly income, will be losing his employee benefit and bonuses come Christmas day. The risk of losing everything you have worked for a lifetime may also be possible in venturing into your business. Very risky indeed! Business on the other hand may also quadruple your annual income from employment which is what is likely to happen if a well planned business is executed.

Business as we know involves capital, skills, land/building and People. Capital is the money you put to start your own venture. If you venture into a restaurant business, then your expertise in cooking will be your skill. Land of course is the venue where you put up your restaurant business and people are the hired employees who would be helping you run the business. Without these 4 pillars, it will be difficult for you to start any venture at all, and obviously these are things that most of the employed class lack. Let me add one more trait for a business adventurer - guts.

The Philippine government is supporting anyone who is desirous to venture into business. They will provide you with loan assistance to start your own venture and we get a lot of successful testimonies of those people who have benefited from these assistance. There are a lot of business ventures also which everyone can pick, these are the food cart business and many other small medium enterprise one can think off. You will just have to be careful that your are talking to legitimate providers as not to be enticed to spend more than what is required, or worse be swindled.

It is really noble for the government to have the initiative to provide assistance to would be entrepreneurs. The only problem I noticed with this set up is that with little managerial experience from these people, the money that they loan from the government, instead of it being a lifesaver, may sometime turn out to be a debt nightmare for them. They will be indebted to the government to the point of losing all because the business they started failed.

We can help these people best if the government has the right facility to gather these peoples resources and pool them together to start a community of entrepreneurs working together as one unit. Similar to how cooperatives work where we pull together the resources to work on one objective. A cooperative (also co-operative or cooperative; often referred to as a co-op or coop) is defined by the International Co-operative Alliance's Statement on the Co-operative Identity as an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise. It is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit. A cooperative may also be defined as a business owned and controlled equally by the people who use its services or who work at it. Cooperative enterprises are the focus of study in the field of cooperative economics.

Until we don't realize that working together is the only solution to make this country great again, we always be at the mercy of foreign companies and foreign countries to provide us with job opportunities.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

INFORMERCIAL PHILIPPINES



It will be election time in 2010 in the Philippines. The filing of candidacy will be on the end of November 2009 and politicking already in the air. Politicians are already actively involved with a lot of things, political aspirants are busy campaigning already for themselves. I have made a blog some few months ago saying that politicians begin their campaigns for the next election as soon as they are elected for their present post. this blog is talking of similar story on different vantage point.

The issue of the day is all political advertising. Political advertising this early is now known to be infomercial. Infomercial means to inform based on a commercial ad. This is what political aspirants use to promote themselves in a form of advocacies prior to the official launching of political campaign period for the next election. It illegal in the Philippines to campaign before the official filing of candidacy; but it is alright to advertise if you are not yet a candidate. This makes really sense, because no one can really stop you from advertising whatever product or service that you want to promote. This is a normal marketing practice.

What makes this abnormal is their early campaigning shown on TV radio and newspaper, tri-media, in the guise of informing the public about the accomplishments and plans and programs of the department where the belong to. The culprits are mostly cabinet secretaries of the present administration who have the ambition to pursue their careers to the next level. In doing these advertisements, the government is spending hundred of millions just to place their ads. This is what makes it worse, they are using public funds! These are examples of expenses that are not necessary in times of crisis.

This is impropriety to the highest level. These people are expecting that the Filipinos will give them their trust and confidence come election time when in fact by themselves prior to holding their aspired political posts they already have the tendency to abuse. It is the flaw in the commission on elections that helped this police scalawags to circumvent the law.

They know for a fact that it is not proper to use public funds just to inform the public that they are in service. the messages that they deliver in these advertisements are basic information about what their offices are doing, and the Philippines know that. Should they get elected, they will be the same people who will always be able to find ways to cook the books in their respective political offices and cover up their abuses. If they are able to make abuses in the open, how much more if they are elected when they can already do it in secret.

Do you know how much the informercial costs P298 million (that is $6.2 million)! For large corporation to spend this much, they should be expecting triple for return on investment. But with the informercial's return....none at all.

Friday, August 14, 2009

BEST BUY 52 in HDTV FOR $9.99



Early Wednesday morning, august 12, 2009, BestBuy.com listed a 52-inch Samsung HDTV for $9.99 -- a savings of more than $1600. Surely all the customers who knew about the offer jumped into the web and ordered lots of 52 inch TV. It was an offer of a lifetime and they can even make money out of it if they ordered a lots of it. Unfortunately, to their disappointment, this deal of a lifetime was a mistake. Bestbuy took back the offer and promised to refund the buyers whose cards were already accepted by the checkout counter saying that the offer was a mistake.

It is quite unlikely that such a huge company like bestbuy would commit such a terrible mistake. Bestbuy is one of America's highest employer and yet despite all the these number of employees, mistakes like this is still committed. They can always allude to human mistakes and the capacity of human to commit mistakes, and there is no question about that, but this remains to be a lame excuse. The bigger question lies in there commitment to deliver what has been promised. Business is a commitment to deliver satisfaction to your customers. And if by delivering their commitment from this painful and expensive mistake will save them more money by retaining the trust of their patrons, they rather should.

I recall in the past, Pepsi Cola Philippines promoted the 349 raffle promotion for their softdrink. The winning number combination if found in the cap of the softdrink you purchase will entitle you to 1 million peso prize. Pepsi sales obviously shot up because of the promotion. Unfortunately for Pepsi, for whatever glitch they may have had during that time, there were hundred of bottles containing the winning combination of 349. There was a big court battle about this issue and Pepsi fought with all their might. Now, I dont know, but Pepsi in the Philippines is already a thing of the past.

Similarly, if you are familiar with internet service providers were you are enticed to purchase a 20 meg internet download speed and which upon browsing you discover that the speed that you are getting is just 14 meg way below the actual rate that you are suppose to be getting, this is also unacceptable. Then you call the technical support located somewhere in the far flung world, all you just get is an apology and a promised fix.

During the olden times when people just simply to there neighborhood variety store and get whatever they like and whatever is available and pay in cash. These were the days when transacting business is not so complicated compared to how businesses are transacted now. Computerization has made business process so impersonal that you can just be refused upon at a click of a finger. When you complain to these stores, you get to speak to the owner right away and get the resolution immediately. The level of frustration can easily be comforted because of the immediate response from the vendor. All these large companies do is to easily point at the system error when problems arise.

In the case of Bestbuy.com, the prices you post on the website is similar to the price tag you clip on the product you display on your store racks. When you pick up that item, there goes with it the company's commitment to deliver it to you to your utmost satisfaction. It is the same as to clicking on the item and adding it into your online shopping cart from their website ecommerce and pay it with your credit card on the online checkout counter, the level of commitment of the store should still be going along with it. But no, that is not the case! A very impersonal apology is what you get. Yes, a very impersonal apology, similar to the robot you speak with when the internet service provider is having an outage in your area or informing you that your account is already activated.

But it appears there is little else they can do. A spokeswoman for the Federal Trade Commission that investigates consumer complaints told CNN "The FTC act bars unfair and deceptive commercial practices." Those would be cases of phony offers or sweepstakes, rather than a mistake, she said. But how do we know if it was really a mistake or just simply a deceptive move to gain traffic to their site...?

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

JIHAD FOR KIDS?


Martyrdom is the suffering of death on account of adherence to a cause and especially to one's religious faith. This is the driving force that propels Islamic warriors to pursue Jihad, religious war, against the infidel. The infidels are those people who don't have faith in Islam from Islam point of view. Looking from the eye of an Islamic martyr, it would look like that he is looking at a non Muslim to be an evil enemy.

I have made a little browsing on the real meaning of the word infidel from the context of Islam and it doesn't really show that they are really referring to the non Muslims per se to be infidels. Here is what I found, Kafir, an Arabic word often translated as Infidel (literally, one who "covers", in the sense of hiding), refers to those who do not believe in the one god, which includes atheists and polytheists but not Christians and Jews, who are known instead as "People of the Book (Ahl-e-kitab)".In common English usage, however, the term is also applied to Christians, especially in English fiction and poetry.

"Kafir" has also come to be regarded as offensive, thus Muslim scholars discourage its use due to the Quran's command to use kind words. It is even a punishable offense to use this term against a Jew or a Christian, under Islamic law. Some Muslim extremists today however use the term in reference to all non-Muslims.

Taking into account information we get from the preceding paragraph, we can say that You and I who are mostly believers of one God is not after all an enemy of Islam. It is therefore a misinterpretation by many that the on going war on terrorist is all a war instigated by Jihad warrior. If, on the other hand, the contrary is true that indeed they are Jihadist and invoke the Islamic law to wage war on the non Muslim world, then there could probably Quran out of context.

In some instances where we see Muslim warriors training their children to the join the war against the infidels to become martyrs. Muslims will say that dying in the name of Allah is martyrdom and when you die for the sake of fighting for your faith and destroying the infidels who are against the faith is martyrdom as well. Makes really sense but don't you think that these children already have that broad understanding of what faith is all about?

The concept of martyrdom (shahada) in Islam can only be understood in the light of the Islamic concept of Holy Struggle (jihad) and the concept of jihad may only be appreciated if the concept of the doctrine of enjoining right and discovering wrong (al-amr bi'l-maruf) is properly appreciated, and good and bad, right and wrong, can only be understood if the independent divine source of righteousness, truth, and goodness (tawhid), and how the Message of the divine source of righteousness and truth has been honestly and properly conveyed to humanity through prophethood, are understood. Finally the divine message may not be fully appreciated unless the embodiment of this divine message, or the Model of Guidance, and the Supreme Paradigm (imama or uswa) is properly recognized. Obviously, taking into account the teaching you find in the preceding statements then you can say that no children will be eligible enough to understand clearly this doctrine.

The question we have right is on how to reconcile the truth from what is being taught. Obviously, the adults are indoctrinating these young children with the wrong concept of Islam which is suppose to mean peace and submission to Allah.

I am not certain though if Islam has 2 personalities, a timid side and a warrior side, but what concerns me is the paradigm they inculcate in these children's minds that they are training in the military for the sake of faith in it or might be involved in it just for their leaders political aspirations be achieved. It is utterly incongruous to say that they fight for religion and fight for freedom at the same time use children to meet these ends, which by doing so by the way deprived these kids of their rights and privileges.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

CORY AQUINO'S FUNERAL




The death of Cory Aquino had a tremendous effect among Filipinos, young and old. Those who have witnessed the EDSA revolution in 1986 may know very well that it was Cory Aquino who made it up for history to grab. The young children today may just be aware of Cory's whereabout from history books, or the stories told by their parents about what happened in 1986.

Cory Aquino is now known to be the icon of democracy in the Philippines. It was through her that the Marcos dictatorship was quashed. That was the EDSA revolution which was known all over the world to be the most peaceful revolution the world has ever had. The revolution was a classic example of the religious fight against the mighty military which the Marcos regime had almost employed to defend his administration. The military in the end succumbed to the religious which brought about the Cory presidency.

The Filipinos were all in high hopes after the EDSA revolution. Although not everyone was longing for an instant overhaul of the nation, specially the educated ones, but the rest of the population most specially the poor had really pegged their hopes on Cory. The shift was difficult for Cory specially that the entire nation was upon her shoulder. It was equally difficult for the Filipinos as well who had to undergo the transition from dictatorship rule to freedom. The only commitment Cory could make that time was just to lead a transition government and therefore couldn't really give much effort as to lead the nation into what the people wanted her to have. her administration went on and she has done what is best for all the people. It was a A commendable act for an ordinary housewife whose main task before was just to serve her family and drafts speeches for her senator husband to have lead a crumbling nation.

The Cory magic fizzled out at the time when she was calling for the current president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to resign because of many scandal that her administration have gone through. Cory's call for Gloria to resign was overtaken by the Gloria's overwhelming clutch over the government's core that made her typically untouchable.

Cory's magic may have fizzled out probably because the people are sick and tired of similar EDSA situation and didn't bring out the expected result. Gloria Arroyo is a by product of EDSA revolution 2. The Edsa 1 was when Cory became president while the EDSA 2 was when Gloria became president. There was EDSA 3 and it was a sham! You can just imagine the frustration that this country had after many EDSAs which brought about almost no changes to the poor Filipinos plight. But then we continued to hope for the better until Cory Aquino died!

Cory Aquino's death is a death to the many hopes that these country had since the 1986 revolution. The democracy she installed back has no particular use if the leaders in the supposed democratic land will not use it for the people. The massive outpouring of mourners in Cory's death was a display of disappointment that she brought with her the unfinished business of putting back democracy to the fullest operation. It meant to me that the people could not reconcile the purpose of EDSA and what is currently happening in their lives, thus, joining the flock following Cory to her burial site. All the people may ask "where do they go from here?"