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GUP Magazine selected my photography work for the 2019 edition of their New Dutch Photography Talent book! Every year, the magazine publishes a photo book annex catalogue that "celebrates the best emerging Dutch photography talents of the year". The hardcover publication will be launched later this year and is launched simultaneously with a big exhibition showcasing the work of all selected photographers.
The book, which will contain four of my pictures, has a print run of 3.000 copies and will be globally distributed to galleries, museums, commercial and photography agencies, media companies and institutions that work with imagery. The awe-inspiring collection of pictures is selected by a jury consisting of Roy Kahmann and Willemijn van der Zwaan of Kahmann Gallery, photographer Bastiaan Woudt and the GUP magazine team.
You can get your hands on the book later this year via the GUP magazine store, or check out the 2018 version via this link.


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Fear & Freedom
Over the last several years God has given me a conviction to be transparent with people. Some people think I share too much. I've been accused of worse, but the way I see it, there are too many folks walking around this planet with masks on acting like everything is fine when inside they are hurting.
The enemy of this world likes our masks because they isolate us. They keep people at a distance because we fear what others might see behind our mask. Perhaps they might find fear or anger, maybe they'll find weakness and shame; they might realize you don't have it all together; perhaps they'll find pride or arrogance, or they'll discover the hurt or bitterness that you've kept locked in your heart for years or decades.
As a Christian, as a follower of a God whose very essence is truth, I find it is my responsibility to take the mask off. To let people see what a real walk with God in this broken world is all about. And I've discovered the most extraordinary thing about taking off your mask: once you remove yours, people feel safe to do the same, and you find that you aren't alone. That's when healing can begin. When love can replace the shame, the hurt, the fear, the bitterness, the fill-in-the-blank emotion deep within us that locks us away. It's when community can be built – not only with others – but with the God of the universe. For without transparency there can be no trust because trust must be built on truth.
So, in the spirit of full transparency I want to confess that I've been struggling with fear. It's a suffocating fear. A fear that grips me in my soul and won't let go. Though the words may change, behind it is always the same question, "What if it turns out God isn't real?" The thought terrifies me.
I can hear the gasps now, "What did she say?" "Isn't this a site about learning how to have a real relationship with God?" Yes. It is. But questioning God's existence is part of the journey, isn't it? Struggling with the fear that maybe He isn't real is part of struggle through the murkiness of this world. As humans, we want to see things before we believe them, but faith with sight is not faith at all (2 Corinthians 5:7). We have to have faith despite our fears.
Obviously, I wouldn't have this site if I didn't think God was real. In my heart I know that I know that I know that He's real. And He is. But I wouldn't be honest if I didn't confess that there is still that darkness that lurks around the corner. The darkness of fear that threatens me. The darkness of "What if?"
So, what do I do with the what ifs? I give them back to God. I confess it – this fear that He isn't real. I know it's not from Him (Romans 8:15). I know it's from the enemy. This war isn't against my flesh. It's a war being fought in the heavenlies (Ephesians 6:12). It's a war being fought for my very soul, and it's a battle that has already been won (John 16:33).
I have a theory. (Well, I have lots of theories, but one in particular that goes along with the topic of fear.) I have a theory that if you fear something – that very thing – is the thing you should do. Now, I'm not talking about standing head-to-head with a grizzly bear and challenging him to a wrestling match or playing chicken in the middle of the road with an 18-wheeler. I'm talking about taking a risk. Looking back at my life, it's when I risked doing the very things that I was afraid to do that I found the most freedom because fear binds. Overcoming fear frees!
To free ourselves from fear requires action. It requires experiencing the very thing we fear. Which, by definition, is a scary place because bad things could happen. But good things can happen too.
What I want is so much more than to know that God is real. I want to experience a real God. There is a difference in knowing and experiencing. I can read something and have knowledge, but until I experience it – until I risk putting my faith into what I've learned – I can't really testify to it.
You see, I want to experience for myself who God is and that He is faithful. That He speaks through His Spirit and that He is good at His word. I've trusted Him with my eternity, and I want to testify that He's not just a God of me when I die, but that He's a God of me as I live this journey called life. I want to know that there is more to God that what's after this life.
I want to know that I can experience Him like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Have conversations with Him & see His glory like Moses.
Know His heart and see His promises fulfilled like David.
Hear His voice in my soul and see His deliverance like Daniel.
Walk with Him and experience His love for me like John.
And testify to his mighty works and His ability to redeem and transform me like Paul.
And eventually – yes, eventually – look in the mirror and slowing start to see Jesus' image and not my own.
So, I'll continue to believe in God despite my fear, because if I don't, I will never know what it is like to truly know Him and experience Him. I'll never know that He keeps His promises if I don't believe in them. That's a risk I'm willing to take.
So, what are you afraid of? Maybe it is time to take a risk. Go ahead. Do it.
Take the mask off.
Bid on the job that you are afraid you might not get.
Move somewhere God is leading you.
Talk to a someone you've never met.
Apologize to the person you think could never forgive you.
Tell that person you love them.
Trust that God is real and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him (Hebrews 11:6).
The only thing you have to lose is fear but what you can gain is freedom!
"The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." – Deuteronomy 31:8
7 thoughts on "Fear & Freedom"
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Thank you for your transparency and allowing me to be a part of the ride.
It has been quite a ride… full of turns… stop signs… wrong direction… lost… yield…. and
GO. Moving past the fear is one of the most difficult things we can do… kind of like doing it
afraid. But as you said, it is the only way to heal.
We heal in relationships. I'm so glad to be traveling on this road of life with you dear friend. I love you!
And, am so proud of you 🙂
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WOW…beautiful message of hope! Thank you for being real…..there are so many people that need to read this.
Love you!
Very inspiring!
Oh, dear friend. I'm overdue in commenting, but I'm glad I waited til this one! So, so thankful for your transparency, and for sharing your journey with regular folks like me! And three cheers for being REAL. Praise be to God who made us in His image, and wants us to act like the people He made us to be! Love, love, love you.
God bless you, such a fabulous article.
Thank you and Keep it up.

subset: commoncrawl


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A trustee's discretion is generally constrained by statute, by the terms of the trust, and by the trustee's fiduciary duty to act in the beneficiaries' interests. When a trustee, acting within the scope of that discretion, distributes trust property into a new trust, that distribution is called "decanting." In Morse v. Kraft, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) considered whether the broad discretion afforded to a trustee under the terms of an irrevocable trust included the power to decant. Holding that it did, the SJC nevertheless declined to adopt the Boston Bar Association's (BBA's) preferred position that such power is inherent in all trustees of irrevocable trusts
When the United States Congress passed the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in 1977, its chief concern was deterring off-the-books bribes of foreign officials by domestic corporations. The FCPA authorized the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to issue new rules, including Rule 13b2-2, which imposes civil liability on corporate officers who mislead accountants concerning the corporation's finances. In SEC v. Das, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals addressed the issue of whether civil liability is present in cases where the corporate officer did not knowingly mislead. Splitting from the Ninth Circuit—the only other circuit court that addressed this issue directly—the Eighth Circuit rejected the proposed "knowingly" requirement, holding that a reasonableness standard shall apply in such cases.
Das concerned infoUSA, Inc., a publicly traded, Nebraska-based corporation that sold databases to businesses and consumers. More specifically, the case concerned events involving three corporate officers: Vinod Gupta, who served as chief executive officer and chairman until 2008; Rajnish Das, chief financial officer from 2003 to 2006; and Stormy Dean, chief financial officer from 2000 to 2003 and then again from 2006 to 2008. The SEC claimed, in a 2010 civil enforcement action, that Dean violated provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The agency claimed, among other things, that both former chief financial officers, Das and Dean, deceived auditors concerning payments infoUSA had made to Aspen Leasing Services LLC and Annapurna Corporation—two companies owned by Gupta—to pay for Gupta's homes, yacht, and cars. The SEC's complaint further alleged that Dean and Das had signed the company's management letters to external auditors, falsely representing that all related-party transactions had been properly disclosed. At trial, the judge instructed the jury to find that Dean violated the law if he did not act "reasonably" regarding the false statements made to auditors.
The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits searches and seizures conducted without prior approval by a judge or magistrate, but this general rule is subject to several exceptions. One such exception allows a police officer to search a person in the course of a lawful arrest. . .


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Catherine Zeta-Jones • September/October 2009
Catherine Zeta-Jones • September/October 2009
In the October issue of Cigar Aficionado, we speak with Oscar-winning actress Catherine Zeta-Jones about growing up in a small Welsh town, transitioning from theater to television to Hollywood, being married to Michael Douglas, and why she isn't fazed about turning 40. Also, features on the next generation of cigar stars, six titans who are living icons of the sports world, an in-depth look at what lies ahead for Detroit's Big Three, the PGA's new hi-tech Shot Tracker system, the Top 10 watches of 2009 and an interview with fashion czar Roberto Cavalli.
Top 25 Cigars
It's one thing to make a good cigar. It's something else to make a great cigar. But it's something else entirely to make a great cigar over and over again. And that kind of consistency is precisely what is required to make Cigar Aficionado's list of Top 25 cigars.


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According to long time residents and natives in Santa Barbara County, Earth Day was inspired by the horrific 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill, that then, Senator Gaylord Nelson (D) from Wisconsin visited.
"On January 28, 1969, a well drilled by Union Oil Platform A off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, blew out. More than three million gallons of oil spewed, killing over 10,000 seabirds, dolphins, seals, and sea lions. As a reaction to this disaster, activists were mobilized to create environmental regulation, environmental education, and Earth Day."
We were so impressed and inspired by this video that Apple created to honor Earth Day that we had to share it with all of you. Here is part of the story as told by The Drum.
"Apple commissioned a skilled group of professional filmmakers from Camp4 Collective, best known for the winning Sundance Film Festival documentary Meru, to capture Mother Earth in all her glory on iPhone XS."
Each videographer had their own personal mission for our beautiful planet. You can also watch their stories, on the suggested list. They are quite moving! Please don't mess with Mother Earth!


text: January 2, 2014 Daniel Fishel A women and her family travels every year to the west coast of Canada to go surfing on Boxing Day (the day after Christmas if you didn't know.) She prefers to ride a boogie board. There are a lot of small details in the story but in a nut shell, she finds confidence and finds herself after riding the perfect wave on her boogie board. These illustrations I do for the Globe & Mail always turn out really nicely and I'm glad to do one almost every single month. Read the whole thing here… Art Director: Matthew French (Many Many Thanks!)


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Rock and roll fans of all ages will enjoy this year's lineup of bands performing at Edgefest 2016 on Saturday, April 30 at Toyota Stadium in Frisco.
Dallas-based radio station KDGE 102.1 FM The Edge's annual double-staged day-long concert event will feature an all-star lineup highlighted by Kentucky rock band Cage the Elephant and 1990's band Good Charlotte.
Also performing at Edgefest 2016 will be Houston band Blue October, The 1975, Bastille, XAmbassadors, Silverspun Pickups, Chvrches, Nothing But Thieves, Foals, The Struts, The Strumbellas, and The Joy Formidable.
The doors at Toyota Stadium will open at noon and all performances will continue regardless of the weather. Tickets will range from $10.21 to $75.00.
Edgefest , which has a rich history among local music fans, began in 1992 with headliners of the day such as Pearl Jam, The Sugarcubes and Charlatans UK.
When this popular event was moved to (then) Pizza Hut Park in 2005, Frisco residents quickly embraced Edgefest as the perfect way to listen to their favorite bands, discover new musical acts, and enjoy the benefits of sophisticated tailgating in the company of friends and family.
For more information about living in Frisco, please feel free to drop me a note at email@example.com or call me at (214) 597-2985. For information on Frisco, Texas visit www.judiwright.com. Blog by Top Realtor Judi Wright with Ebby Halliday – The Judi Wright Team.


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Revising estimates of aquatic gross oxygen production by the triple oxygen isotope method to incorporate the local isotopic composition of water
Manning, Cara C.
Concept link
Howard, Evan M.
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Nicholson, David P.
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Ji, Brenda Y.
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Sandwith, Zoe O.
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Stanley, Rachel H. R.
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MetadataShow full item record
Citable URIhttps://hdl.handle.net/1912/9334
As publishedhttps://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL074375
Measurement of the triple oxygen isotope (TOI) composition of O2 is an established method for quantifying gross oxygen production (GOP) in natural waters. A standard assumption to this method is that the isotopic composition of H2O, the substrate for photosynthetic O2, is equivalent to Vienna standard mean ocean water (VSMOW). We present and validate a method for estimating the TOI composition of H2O based on mixing of local meteoric water and seawater H2O end-members, and incorporating the TOI composition of H2O into GOP estimates. In the ocean, GOP estimates based on assuming the H2O is equivalent to VSMOW can have systematic errors of up to 48% and in low-salinity systems, errors can be a factor of 2 or greater. In future TOI-based GOP studies, TOI measurements of O2 and H2O should be paired when the H2O isotopic composition is expected to differ from VSMOW.
Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2017. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Research Letters 44 (2017): 10511-10519, doi:10.1002/2017GL074375.
Suggested CitationGeophysical Research Letters 44 (2017): 10511-10519
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Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
Evaluating triple oxygen isotope estimates of gross primary production at the Hawaii Ocean Time-series and Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study sites Nicholson, David P.; Stanley, Rachel H. R.; Barkan, Eugeni; Karl, David M.; Luz, Boaz; Quay, Paul D.; Doney, Scott C. (American Geophysical Union, 2012-05-08)The triple oxygen isotopic composition of dissolved oxygen (17Δ) is a promising tracer of gross oxygen productivity (P) in the ocean. Recent studies have inferred a high and variable ratio of P to 14C net primary productivity ...
Comment on: "Technical note: Consistent calculation of aquatic gross production from oxygen triple isotope measurements" by Kaiser (2011) Nicholson, David P. (Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union, 2011-10-27)Kaiser (2011) has introduced an improved method for calculating gross productivity from the triple isotopic composition of dissolved oxygen in aquatic systems. His equation avoids approximations of previous methodologies, ...
The triple oxygen isotope tracer of primary productivity in a dynamic ocean model Nicholson, David P.; Stanley, Rachel H. R.; Doney, Scott C. (John Wiley & Sons, 2014-05-23)The triple oxygen isotopic composition of dissolved oxygen (17Δdis) was added to the ocean ecosystem and biogeochemistry component of the Community Earth System Model, version 1.1.1. Model simulations were used to investigate ...


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Why Does An Automatic Transmission Wear Out?
Simple! The same thing that makes your brakes wear out - friction.
In an automatic transmission, the wearing parts include clutch plates, bands, bushings, bearings, sealing rings, thrust washers and other metal parts.....all wearing as a direct result of friction. The most crucial of those parts are the clutch plates. An automatic transmission does not use gears to propel the vehicle, it uses clutch plates. Each gear in an automatic transmission is comprised of three to six friction plates sandwiched between smooth steel reaction plates. When you move the gear selector to drive or reverse, a valve opens and extreme hydraulic pressure moves a piston, compressing clutch plates together, resulting in vehicle movement. Each time the transmission shifts, the computer opens another valve selecting the next gear and so on.
Each time the clutch plates are squeezed together (applied) they wear against the adjoining reaction plates. The more they are applied, the faster they wear. The more a vehicle is used for stop and go driving, the more frequent the clutch plates are applied....the faster they wear. The more weight a vehicle sets in motion, the harder the clutch plates have to work......the faster they wear. Conversely, the more highway type driving and lighter the vehicle.....the longer the clutches last.
The symptoms you will feel as your transmission ages depends on which part, or parts, wear out first. Since clutch plates are the parts that actually work the hardest and actually make your vehicle move, it is common to feel slipping between gears more frequently than other symptoms. A slip occurs when you feel your car or truck is not gaining the speed it should, based on how far you have depressed the gas pedal. Also, you will hear the engine grow louder and your RPM needle will go higher than normal while your speed is slower than normal. This symptom is the result of the friction lining on a set of clutches simply abrading off over the years and miles losing the ability to overcome the weight of the vehicle. This usually takes place between 120,000 and 170,000 miles. Highway driving usually helps your transmission live longer. As a matter of interest, 30 years ago transmissions usually wore out between 70,000 and 90,000 miles.


text: It is a rough way to get there but it deserves the efforth, this little beach is located in Zihuatanejo walking down La Noria hill. Is about 90 meters stony bay of tranquil tide. You have to carry your own food and beverages but remember to take back all the trash.


text: Hasti Abbasi was awarded a Doctorate of Philosophy from Griffith University in 2017. Her submission consisted of a comparative literary study of dislocation, writing and identity in Persian and Australian contemporary fiction, and a creative novella. She has been gaining recognition through actively publishing material for a number of years in literary journals including Southerly, Mascara Literary Review, Verity La, Bareknuckle Journal of Letters and Bareknuckle Anthology. Her dissertation has been well received in publications and delivery at conferences. Most recently it has been included in Antipodes, Text, and Hecate, and AAWP.


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"Worker-Bees" of the world, unite? Part-III
Minor Prologue:
Continuing with the multi-part series of my objections to modern trade as being practised here and now. As I tried explaining in the comments, throughout the series, I am trying to a) to hold a mirror from a slightly different perspective on the (evolution, leading to currently being practised) form of trade today and its benefits and b) to chronicle history from this context. And I would like to reassure you for the nth time, these are not the writings of someone yearning for socialism/communism! I particularly like this definition of Socialism and Communism by Davis:
Reducing the infinite permutation of human society and consciousness to a simple opposition of owners and workers, capitalist and proletariat, Marxism, formulated by german philosopher in the Reading room of the British library, was in a sense the perfect triumph of the mechanistic view of existence inspired by Descartes. Society itself was a machine that could be engineered for the betterment of all.
Unfortunately, all it ended doing was causing, among several // other // casualties, death of 3 million Cambodians and 40 million Chinese.
I am more in concurrence with these tenets: a) Be the change you want to see in the World, and, b) anyone who thinks they alone can change this world is both wrong and dangerous. Indeed what drives this series of posts is a culmination of thoughts and my concurrence with the following philosophy:
"The myriad of cultures of the world are not failed attempts at modernity, let alone failed attempts to be the West". They are unique expressions of the Human imagination and heart, unique answers to the fundamental question: What does it mean to be Human and alive?
There's a tendency for those of us in the dominant Western culture (Surio adds: and its more militant recent converts/clones) to view traditional people—even when we're sympathetic to their plight—as quaint and colourful, but reduced to the sidelines of history, while the real world, which of course is our world, continues moving forward. We see these societies as failed attempts at modernity, as if they're destined to fade away by some natural law, as if they can't cope with change. That's simply not true. Change is the one constant in history. All societies in all times and in all places constantly adapt to new possibilities for life. It's not change per se that threatens the integrity of the ethnosphere, nor is it technology. The Sioux Indian did not stop being a Sioux when he gave up a bow and arrow, any more than an American farmer stopped being an American when he gave up the horse and buggy. It's neither change nor technology that threatens the integrity of the ethnosphere. It is power—the crude face of domination (*).
(*) Ermine/HSpencer, once again I've nodded to the point you both raise, but I hasten to add, it is not the only issue here.
OK, in my previous posts, I had tackled the points mentioned below:
- Trade is a great thing. You can get the best product at the best price from the most efficient producers (Part-I) in the world.
- Billions of people in developing countries have been lifted out of poverty by trade (Part-II)
Moving on, I like to address that other "myth" associated with trade (OK, OK, very heavily qualified)
Trade between nations is very good. It is vital to the interests and progress of the entire world
Reading into World histories and into the chronicles of (for lack of a different word) indigeneous societies, I have discovered to my startlement that: This point is neither cast in stone, nor is it a must, but this sentence above has entered our collective conscious very strongly. Essays such as "I, Pencil" have fostered this thought strongly and provided a lot of traction to this line of thought. Indeed assayists of this school of thought have threadbare cupboards from USSR/North Korea to wave as the immediate and only alternative universe to that above remark. Sigh!. Therefore, at the onset, I am aware that this is a very loaded and contentious statement with some truth in it, if viewed at face value. Especially in the context of the very same "Historical facts", such as spread of cultural thoughts, religion, etc., etc.
But I am going to point out that in the last few 100 years, this statement has become hollow and has been flipped over its head. I submit that modern trade is the same old wolf in new sheep's clothing that was carried over from the age of Imperialism/Manifest Destiny! While this thought was previously dismissed as the usual "anti-colonial rant" (and the ranters sometimes had themselves to blame!), this thought is gaining more traction within mainstream thinkers as well (see nber.org for some samples).
In fact, lately the word trade has become so generic and commonly used, it can mean anything from "trading favours" to "multi-lateral trade"! Therefore, before we go forward, I want to introduce a few definitions used in connection with trade for comprehension:
- Subsistence economy based societies: In such economies, money played a minor role, and is typically used, but primarily for luxuries —- jewellery, silver, and gold. Basic needs such as food, clothing, and shelter were provided for without money. More critically, in such societies, the labour one needed was free of charge, and was part of an intricate web of human relationships
- Money economy societies: Typically, this begins as an "apparent improvement" over the above, i.e., Since money traditionally had been a good thing by bringing luxuries from far away, more of it seems to be an unconditional improvement! Subsistence economy is typically practises in villages, and people tend to be conscious of the limits of resources and of their personal responsibilities. Mostly, if not always, money economy is practised in the cities where paradoxically, you cannot see the water and soil on which your life depends. It is just a question of how much money you have. More money will buy more food. And it can grow much faster than wheat or barley, which are dependent on nature with her own laws, rhythms, and limits. Also, in such economies, the birth rate is no longer significant.
- Resource Frontier: A region containing renewable and non-renewable natural resources in high demand by domestic and/or world market. Resources extracted here are usually exported outside of the region and sold in the intl. marketplace.
- Regional exogenous integration: The incorporation of a region within the World economic system. This process is accelerated in resource frontier regions.
- Peripheral Capitalism: The economic process in states which participate in the World economic system but have little control over the dynamics of that system. These economies are characterised by a spatial concentration of economic activities, and economic dominance by merchant capitalists (*) and a decline in reciprical and redistributive economies.
- These are just a few, and are relevant for this post. Reader's interest should unearth more terms and definitions.
(*) "World-Mart" (TM) anyone?
All those definitions may have been a mouthful, so let's all lighten the mood a little bit! 😉 Been a while since Calvin and Hobbes made an entry in my blog, so here's a humourous strip about how money based societies typically tend to operate:
Rhetorical question: Isn't trade all about goodwill, freewill, choices, and all other revolting happy-happy sounding phrases that everyone wants us to believe? Indeed, is this "trade", "so very important to the interests and progress" that it needs to involve gunboat diplomacy? Confused? Let me lay it out in a littl more detail for you. As Kunstler puts it in his inimitable style " History doesn't care if we fail as a civilization" (but faithfully records it!) 😉
- China, a nation that was quite self-sufficient in all its wants and needs, was forced into "trade" through "Opium Wars"
- Korea was forced into "trade" by the famous "fake" General Sherman boat incident
- The Americans forced Japan to open up with gunships.
- The Indian colonisation is also well known, whereas India was one of a key players on the Silk route not so long ago (see Part-II of my post for graphs)
OK, OK…. by now, I hear all your collective "Whoa, hold your horses there, things are so different now" at this point! To which I am wont to say: Whoa! Not so fast to the defence there.
Side-Note: While my writing keeps alluding to concentration of power, I want you to helpfully remind yourselves that all things said and done, trade is what corporations do at the end of the day, and they'll do anything, all, and more to keep it that way. Caveat Emptor!
I submit, (somewhat controvertially, I agree) that most of the World's trade activity has reduced most if not all the "players" to the roles of either a) Resource Frontier, or b) Peripheral Capitalism! I am now going to take up two case studies to point out these. If where you live doesn't fall into these categories, thank your lucky stars. It is highly likely the place will fall in one of those categories (and chances are slim they won't), click on any one of the links on my blogroll/Links for ideas and escape strategies! I will highlight two case studies (one for each) to easily wrap around the idea. You may find parallels within your own system.
- Resource Frontier: Balikpapan/Samarinda (in connection with Samboja Lestari)
- Peripheral Capitalism: Ladakh post-1970s
Resource Frontier, ruined: Balikpapan, (Samboja Lestari)
I suspect, most of you who's seen Dr. Willie Smit's talk in TED may have heard of the place. Here's the fast introduction:
Prior to the oil boom of the early 1900s, Balikpapan was an isolated Bugis fishing village. In 1897, a small refinery company began the first oil drilling. Construction of roads, wharves, warehouses, offices, barracks, and bungalows started when a Dutch oil company arrived in the area. Then Balikpapan became a war theatre between the Japanese army and the Allied Forces, resulting in heavy damage to the oil refinery and other facilities. Then, the Royal Dutch Shell company continued operating in the area until Indonesian state-owned Pertamina took it over in 1965. Lacking technology, skilled manpower, and capital to explore the petroleum region, Pertamina sublet petroleum concession contracts to multinational companies in the 1970s. Although the policy was heavily criticized for uncontrolled environmental damage and corrupt bureaucrats and politicians, it significantly boosted urban development in resource-rich cities. In the 1970s, Balikpapan experienced 7% population growth annually, while exports of timber and petroleum increased dramatically. Today, it is the second-largest city in East Kalimantan, after the capital Samarinda.
Samboja (Lestari)
The small town of Samboja near Balikpapan, was founded about a century ago in what was then rainforest when oil was discovered in the area. Dutch oil workers moved into the area to work for a company that was later taken over by Shell and later still by Pertamina. The oil company began cutting wood in the 1950s and as people came flooding into the booming oil town of Balikpapan they cleared the surrounding forest.
With the pronounced El Niño of 1982 and 1983 the worst firestorms then known in a tropical forest ravaged the area, destroying what small pockets of forest that remained. Following the pattern of deforestation in Borneo as a whole, the area was now vulnerable to the dry years that followed. In 1997 and 1998 the fires enveloped the region in smoke. The thick choking smog darkened the sky and caused respiratory problems throughout the region and beyond.
Samboja in 2002 (note: before Willie's reforestation efforts) was the poorest district of East Kalimantan, with 50% of the population unemployed and a high crime rate. There had been climate change, with severe droughts resulting in crop failures, along with almost total extinction of plant and animal life. Flooding occurred five or six times a year and there were annual fires. Almost a quarter of average income went on buying drinking water. The land no longer sustained any agricultural productivity and was covered with alang-alang grass (Imperata cylindrica) which produces hydrocyanic acid that prevents the germination of tree seeds. There were many nutrition and hygiene related health problems and life expectancy was low, with high infant and maternal mortality.
In 1985, William Bruce Wood investigated for his PhD thesis the subject of "Intermediate Cities in the Resource Frontier: A case study of Samarinda and Balikpapan". The thesis focussed on the functions and roles of those two cities above within an international economic system, and analysed the urban changes catalysed by the arrival of multi-national timber and petroleum corporations. Primary concern was to study how the interaction between the world economy and resource exploitation affects the regional and urban development process. The above summary of the two cities leave no doubt about what changes did the companies wrought, but I will quote a few observations from the thesis:
Resource-frontier cities are characterised by rapidly growing populations, inflated economies, infrastructural shortages, and little control over their futures. Why?
Because, growth of a resource-rich frontier city is dependent on the World market demand for those resources, rather than on existing regional and national linkages. (and the type of resource being exploited plays a key role too)
Since Historic times, East Kalimantan was never economically isolated. For 100s of years it had produced commodities held in high value by other cultures (rattan, damar, reptile skins, birds' nests, and many other exotic products bringing a high price from distant lands). Chinese traders roamed the coast and traded with the dayaks in exchange for forest products (porcelain, opium, tools, salt, slaves, weapon, cloth). The trading network was extensive but there was almost no industrial activity – apart from the Anglo-Dutch petroleum industry.
Even by 1964 census, less than 5000 were involved in manufacturing, and only food, wood or leather industries employed over 50 persons.
When Indonesia went into petroleum business themselves in the 60s, it was so engineered that they were forced to contract out drilling activities to large foreign oil companies because they lacked the necessary capital and technology (deliberately not shared?). In the 70s (OPEC crises onset?) production sharing contracts with foreign companies were renegotiated to encourage drilling of further offshore fields. Two major importers of oil: USA and Japan.
Until 1960s, all timber taken from East Kalimantan was consumed locally. However, due to inadequate reserves in their own lands, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea escalated demand for tropical hardwood. Through production sharing agreements, the Japanese provided the capital required to carry out the widespread logging within the "concession areas" and rafting them to ports. To ensure this, the central government restricted the provinces to granting concessions to no more than 100 ha., thereby eliminating them (local govts.) from the decision process. This move transformed the timber industry from low-tech, small-scale into very large scale, high-tech and capital intensive. Local firms were outlawed and foreign timber firms were encouraged to bid for large concessions.
There is considerable discussion about how expectations of continuous subsidies, growth coupled with curbs introduced on wholesale "raw exports" of timber forcibly crippled the timber industry (in Samarinda). Additionally, the forest fires of 82-83 and its socio-economic impact is also discussed. Ironically, Indonesia was importing logs from Sabah, Malaysia (which is also a tragic story in its own right) to prop its local plywood industry :-o! This is an ironic twist for the local economy because it removes the main justification of locating factories in Samarinda to provide local employment!
Chapter 4 is a brilliant expose of how property bubbles operate in resource frontiers. I replaced Samarinda with Bangalore (Chennai, Gurgaon at the appropriate places) and saw absolutely no difference in stories between Samamrinda's timber boom with Bangalore's/Chennai's IT boom with subsequent disenfranchisement of all parties concerned (except the expats whose over-inflated tabs were picked up by the heavily subsidised foreign corporations)! This Chapter is recommended reading if you're Indian "middle class" living in the so called boomtowns and wondering WHT is your mortgage bleeding you dry month-after-month! 😦
In Chapter 5, by juxtaposing Balikpapan's oil exploitation history with Mexico of the 80s, the thesis goes to show how the oil economy went on to polarise the local economy between those employed by the oil industry and those not — other problems include shortages of food, housing and infrastructure due to rapid in-migration of job seekers and very inflationary prices! 😮 Again, if I replaced Balikpapan with Bangalore (or Hyderabad) and oil with IT, the Chapter was a reading into contemparary events! 😐 As it it was not enough, then there was speculative property prices bubble sub-plot that read eeerily like the US property price expectations of 2008! Eeeerie! :-o!!
The sub-plot on water scarcity documented in 1985, made for scary reading in the thesis. Things have gone from bad to worse since: "Almost a quarter of average income in Balikpapan went on buying drinking water."
Even more ironically, despite all the petroleum industry in Balikpapan, only 46% had electricity, and nearly 35% used firewood for cooking. All the oil company owned/leased houses however had electricity, either from the city or from their own generators! (Anyone with a passing knowledge of Bangalore will identify parallels in this story!)
The work goes on to highlight much more issues that such lop-sided trade/development activity brought to the region – basically the activity damaged more than it developed. Returning to today, to counter the damage caused by timber and petroleum, part of the Balikpapan area was reforested into an Orangutan reserve, no thanks to those "trade enabling corporates", but wholly due to the conservation efforts of Dr. Willie Smits at great risk to his life and limb! Enjoy the talk. Inspiring is a mild word.
Peripheral Capitalism, lays havoc: Ladakh
About the Book:
A gripping portrait of the western Himalayan land sometimes known as "Little Tibet," Ancient Futures opens with author Helena Norberg-Hodge's first visit in 1975 to idyllic, preindustrial Ladakh. She then tracks the profound changes that occurred as the region was opened to foreign tourists and Western goods and technologies, and offers a firsthand account of how relentless pressure for economic growth precipitated generational and religious conflict, unemployment, inflation, and environmental damage, threatening to unravel Ladakh's traditional way of life.
Energized by the fate of a people who had captured her heart, Norberg-Hodge helped establish the Ladakh Project (later renamed the International Society for Ecology and Culture) to seek sustainable solutions that preserve cultural integrity and environmental health while addressing the hunger for modernization. Since then, other Ladakh-based projects have proliferated, supporting renewable energy systems, local agricultural methods, and the spiritual foundations of Ladakhi culture.
In this book, Helena Norberg-Hodge documents with detail and clarity, what trade can be, what trade tends to be and what havoc it can create to the innocent bystander! Unfortunately, the blame for the trouble and havoc that Ladakh went through has to be laid squarely at the feet of the Indian Government. India threw open Ladakh for tourism, mainly to send a message to its neighbours (Pakistan and China) that Ladakh was its backyard and its own territory! Just goes to show, stupidity isn't the privilege of a select few! 😦 Hoo boy!
OK, back to the book, Helena points out:
I came to realize that my passivity in the face of destructive change was, at least in part, due to the fact that I had confused culture with nature. I had not realized that many of the negative trends I saw were the result of my own industrial culture, rather than of some natural, evolutionary force beyond our control. Without really thinking about it, I also assumed that human beings were essentially selfish, struggling to compete and survive, and that more cooperative societies were nothing more than Utopian dreams.
It was not strange that I thought the way I did. Even though I had lived in many different countries, they had all been industrial cultures. My travels in less "developed" parts of the world, though fairly extensive, had not been enough to afford me an inside view. Some intellectual travels, like reading Aldous Huxley and Erich Fromm, had opened a few doors, but I was essentially a product of industrial society, educated with the sort of blinders that every culture employs in order to perpetuate itself. My values, my understanding of history, my thought patterns all reflected the world view of homo industrialis.
Mainstream Western thinkers from Adam Smith to Freud and today's academics tend to universalize what is in fact Western or industrial experience. Explicitly or implicitly, they assume that the traits they describe are a manifestation of human nature, rather than a product of industrial culture. This tendency to generalize from Western experience becomes almost inevitable as Western culture teaches out from Europe and North America to influence all the earth's people.
Every society tends to place itself at the center of the universe and to view other cultures through its own coloured lenses. What distinguishes Western culture is that it has grown so widespread and so powerful that it has lost a perspective on itself; there is no "other" with which to compare itself. It is assumed that everyone either is like us or wants to be.
As everywhere else in the world, development in Ladakh means Western-style development. This process has consisted primarily of building up the so-called "infrastructure"—especially roads and the production of energy. Power represents the largest expense in the government's budget. Western-style medicine and education form the other basic cornerstones.
The book clearly points out how the peripheral economy is at every stage not in control of its economy, its monetary system or its own policies:
"Now, suddenly, as part of the international money economy, Ladakhis find themselves ever more dependent—even for vital needs—on a system that is controlled by faraway forces. They are vulnerable to decisions made by people who do not even know that Ladakh exists. If the value of the dollar changes, it will ultimately have an effect on the Indian rupee. This means that Ladakhis who need money to survive are now under the
control of the managers of international finance. Living off the land, they had been their own masters."
Development policies for Ladakh are formulated in the state government of Kashmir and the central government in Delhi. Ladakh sends one M.P. to Delhi and one representative to the state government. In Ladakh itself, government programs are administered by officials who generally are not Ladakhi and do not speak the language. The head of the administration, or Development Commissioner, is an officer in the Indian administrative service and spends an average of just two to three years in his job.
The money economy is stimulated at every level, and the government subsidizes an increasing number of imports. From 1985 to 1986, 6,000 tons of wheat and rice were brought into Leh district alone, while 900,000 pounds of hard coke and 50,000 cubic feet of firewood are imported annually. Most of this is subsidized.
In one day a tourist would spend the same amount that a Ladakhi family might in a year. Ladakhis did not realize that money played a completely different role for the foreigners; that back home they needed it to survive; that food, clothing, and shelter all cost money— a lot of money. Compared to these strangers, they suddenly felt poor. During my first years in Ladakh, young children I had never seen before used to run up to me and press apricots into my hands. Now-little figures, looking shabbily Dickensian in threadbare Western clothing, greet foreigners with an empty outstretched hand. Besides giving the illusion that all Westerners are multimillionaires, the tourist also helps perpetuate another faulty image of modern life—that we never work. It looks as though our technologies do the work for us. In industrial society today, we actually spend more hours working than people in rural, agrarian economies. But that is not how it looks to the Ladakhis. For them, work is physical work, walking, and carrying things. A person sitting behind the wheel of a car or pushing buttons on a typewriter doesn't appear to be working.
Every day I saw people from two cultures, a world apart, looking at each other and seeing superficial, one-dimensional images. Tourists see people carrying loads on their backs and walking long distances over high mountain passes and say, "How terrible; what a life of drudgery." They forget that they have travelled thousands of miles and spent thousands of dollars for the pleasure of walking through the same mountains with heavy backpacks. During working hours they get no exercise, so they spend their free time trying to make up for it. Some will even drive to a health club——across a polluted city in rush hour—to sit in a basement, pedalling a bicycle that does not go anywhere. And they actually pay for the privilege.
Development has brought not only tourism, but also Western and Indian films and, more recently, television. Together they provide overwhelming images of luxury and power. There are countless tools and magical gadgets. And there are machines—machines to take pictures, machines to tell the time, machines to make fire, to travel from one place to another, to talk with someone far away. Machines can do everything for you;
it is no wonder the tourists look so clean and have such soft, white hands. For the young Ladakhis, the picture they present is irresistible. By contrast, their own lives seem primitive', silly, and inefficient. The one-dimensional view of modern life becomes a slap in the face. They feel stupid and ashamed. They are asked by their parents to choose a way of life that involves working in the fields and getting their hands dirty for very little or no money. Their own culture seems absurd compared with the world of the tourists and film heroes.
But it didn't mean the Ladakhis lived in isolation. They had a dynamic balance between the urban and the rural, the one complementing the other. While some people made a living from trade with the outside world, most economic activity was based on local resources. Here's how trade/development ended up tearing Ladakhi framework:
In Leh these days, for instance, building with mud is becoming prohibitively expensive, whereas the relative cost of cement is falling. This is a good example of how Western-style development operates to undermine local systems. It seems impossible that a heavy and processed material that has to be transported over the Himalayan Mountains can compete with mud, free and abundant, there for the taking. And yet that is exactly what is happening.
What is more, as mentioned earlier, the majority of "educated" people have not learned how to build a house, and the engineers work with cement and steel. As a consequence, the skills required to build with mud become ever more scarce, and thus more expensive. There is a psychological dimension as well: people are afraid of seeming backward—and everything traditional is beginning to be seen that way. They want to live in a modern house. A mud house is bad for the image.
Two more observations from the book before I close this reeeeally long post!
As mutual aid is replaced by a dependence on faraway forces, people begin to feel powerless to make decisions over their own lives. At all levels, passivity, even apathy, is setting in; people are abdicating personal responsibility. In the traditional village, repairing irrigation canals was a task shared by the whole community. As soon as a channel developed a leak, groups of people would start working away with shovels patching it up. Now, people see it as the government's responsibility, and will let a channel go on leaking until the job is done for them. The more the government does for the villagers, the less they feel inclined to help themselves. I remember talking to a government official about a hydroelectric plant that had been installed in the village of Nurrla. "I just can't understand it," he said. "They always looked after their old water wheels so well, but this thing they don't seem to care about. Earlier this summer, some rocks got into the turbine, but no one bothered to do anything about it—and now they don't have lighting."
Most of the skills Ladakhi children learn in school will never be of real use to them. They receive a poor version of an education appropriate for a New Yorker. They learn out of books written by people who have never set foot in Ladakh, who know nothing about growing barley at 12,000 feet or about making houses out of sun-dried bricks. In every corner of the world today, the process called "education" is based on the same assumptions and the same Eurocentric model. The focus is on faraway facts and figures, a universal knowledge. The books propagate information that is meant to be appropriate for the entire planet. But since only a kind of knowledge that is far removed from specific ecosystems and cultures can be universally applicable, what children learn is essentially synthetic, divorced from the living context. If they go on to higher education, they may learn about building houses, but these houses will be of concrete and steel, the universal box. So too, if they study agriculture, they will learn about industrial fanning: chemical fertilizers and pesticides, large machinery and hybrid seeds. The Western educational system is making us all poorer by teaching people around the world to use the same resources, ignoring those of their own environment. In this way education is creating artificial scarcity and inducing competition.
The book repeatedly takes an apologetic tone that one shouldn't romanticise traditional societies. I beg to differ; there's nothing romantic but everything practical about how traditional societies operate and exist. All societies primarily evolve and find ways to survive, and traditional societies have repeatedly shown to us, that key aspect we now burn jet fuel to Copenhagen for — SUSTAINABILE LIVING!
But before we disperse for the day, I like to finish with another TED talk.
Anupam Mishra travels across water-challenged India studying rainwater harvesting methods and learning from the people behind them. He presents his findings to NGOs, development agencies and environmental groups, pulling from centuries of indigenous wisdom that has found water for drinking and irrigation even in extremely arid landscapes through wells, filter ponds and other catchment systems.
A founding member of the Gandhi Peace Foundation, Mishra is working to bridge the gap between modern water management technology and India's heritage of water harvesting, so that every community is self-sustainable and efficiently safekeeping an increasingly scarce and precious resource.
While I was composing this, I was reminded of an old cartoon from the small society cartoon strip.
If we all become customers like this, we will stop creating more Balikpapans in this world… … … we hope!
Read Part IV here.
7 Responses
Another excellent report on this topic. As I understand the topic, we are talking in part 3 about:
The effects of trade through the years on third world countries.
The conquests of resource rich areas of the world at any means necessary.
Colonization of these countries and the influence of the Western world way of life on them. (*)
*(or) "How ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm, after they've seen Pariee?".
Since a some of your part three is about oil, I will comment there. Oil being one of the most desired commodities currently in view, it has center stage. The recent rebellions in the mid eastern countries, ie: Libya, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, are indicators of the soon to come "break-point" of supply to the West. These disturbances will create havoc with the expected need by the USA of 27 million barrels a day by the year 2020*. (*Source "Charting the World's Oil, a PBS documentary, 2009). Other Western countries are in similar dire straits on needs, both currently and projected. In a sense, the Middle East will be able to totally blackmail the West over oil, alone. The Western world will not have the sufficient will or time to invent and put into distribution, alternative energy means. Your post reflects the Dutch Shell Oil operations in Balikpapan and Sambojia . The oil companies will certainly inject themselves where exploration has mapped resources. Oil will virtually be squeezed out of rocks if necessary in the future. I would submit that the American consumer of oil or oil products will not enter these countries with guns to obtain the oil. Instead, they will demand of their politically elected leaders to "have" the gasoline available in the pumps, and at prices they can afford. The American consumer will not give up their lifestyles of swimming in oil even if it means their government must create regime change all over the Middle East. The point is, the American will not advocate personally that guns be used to get it. That's up to their government.
The oil companies are well aware that the fields of pumping will be protected by the US military, and it's "coalition of the willing". The oil rich countries of the Mediterranean Sea and their problems are "Point One" in US foreign policy today. Future wars will be over three objective points:
Radical Islamic Advancement-
Oil Supply and Demand-
Israel's Security-
These three objectives are requiring the West to have a paramount mission to control the trade routes of the most important area of the world, the Mediterranean. Many scholars are agreed that this situation will set the stage for a Nuclear WWIII between the European Union, with Germany at the lead, and the Middle Eastern Islamic countries. That remains on the horizon to be seen.
I see no need for shock or spooking on this. One need only look back to August, 1990, when "So Damned Insane" and his rag tag Iraqi army invaded Kuwait. On 15 Aug 90, I was aboard a C-5 Starliner enroute from Fort Riley, KS, to the Port of Ad Damman, Saudi Arabia. The mission was to set up a presence on the Saudi border, and defend north, through the Wadi Al Batin, in the event of an attempted crossing. This was, of course, the "shield" part of Desert Shield/Desert Storm. I was not too happy about it at the time, but that was immaterial in the broad sense of the play. The "shield" was directed towards the Saudi oil fields and plants. Later, we retracted to the Port of Ad Damman, to await the arrival of our 1st Armored Division, and while there, we observed the unloading of enough combat power to launch WWIII. Much of that combat power was unloaded and stored for contingency—later, in the event of any further "disruptions" of oil flow in the region. Much of it was still there during the Operation Iraqi Freedom, circa March 2003. As is probably no secret to anyone, there are now large US military bases in the area. The error "So Damned Insane" made, was the underestimating of the US resolve to prevent the interruption of supplies of mid east oil to the USA.
As for Saudi Arabia, they had no choice but to allow the US presence, even though they considered us infidels and the Great Satan. They were between a rock and a hard place. But not to worry, GB#1 would have it no other way! The disruption of oil flow to the USA was an "automatic no-no". It continues to be.
[…] opinions in the World regarding "Modern" Trade. Here's Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of the series, addressing the other common myths on "trade's […]
[…] Part III […]


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Questioner: How can we rectify the people of innovation?
Dr Sharof: You should teach them. Condemnation won't rectify their affairs. All the people that the Prophet met in his residence were disbelievers. He wasn't condemning them. He was patiently teaching them. When they accepted Islaam, they became the companions of the Prophet. Most of the people who condemn others today are not free from evil acts, yet they condemn others.
Most people today want to quickly disparage others without striving to rectify them. That is the problem we are facing now (in the present world). Many people excessively condemn others; is condemnation regarded as knowledge? Many of these people who condemn others are ignoramuses yet they rise up to the occasion to condemn others. That is why it is said that the more you become knowledgeable, the more you become elegant. The more you become ignorant, the more you become extreme. That is why there are people who are bold to say statements like, 'why haven't you condemned them to hell?' and the likes. The more you become ignorant, the more you become extreme, but the more you become knowledgeable, the more you become elegant and (the more you) recognize the effects of your past actions. When you become knowledgeable you will discover that you have passed erroneous verdicts and (hasten to) quickly correct them. It is not self-effacing to make people know that you had formerly misled them. That is why there is need to be calm (when treading the path of knowledge).
The Prophet said, 'Calmness does not get into anything except that it beautifies it and it is not removed from anything except that the thing becomes destroyed.' The Jews came to meet the Prophet saying, 'As-saamu 'alaykum' (Death to you), the Prophet responded with, ''Alaykum' (And to you). 'Aa'ishah said, 'And to you, May Allaah's anger and curse meet you'. She said angrily, 'Didn't you hear what they said?' The Prophet replied, 'Yes, and I answered them.'
There are some of the students learning western education who haughtily greet themselves saying, 'Saamu 'alaykum'. What does that mean? The correct greeting is, 'Assalaamu 'alaykum'. 'Saamu 'alaykum' is a curse. Therefore, calmness does not get into anything except that it beautifies it and it is not removed from anything except that the thing becomes destroyed. As such, we have a lot to learn from the Prophet (sollaLloohu 'alayhi wa sallam). People will undoubtedly make mistakes, but we have to talk to them with calmness. In the end, they will agree.
There is a companion known as An-Nu'maan bn Basheer. As for the story regarding how his father Basheer who was a disbeliever accepted Islaam; the Prophet asked him about the number of gods he worships. He said the gods are seven, but six of them exist in the world while the remaining one is in the heavens. The Prophet asked him to mention the one he calls from his gods if he encounters difficulty in his affairs. He replied that he would call the one in heaven. The Prophet placed his hands on Basheer's chest and convinced him that he should discredit his gods in this world since they can't take him out of difficulties. This man did not know when he said, 'I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah and I testify that Muhammad is His Messenger'. If the Prophet had condemned him directly to hell with people like Fir'aun and the likes, will he accept Islaam? Of course, he wouldn't have accepted Islaam! For this reason, it is upon us to learn Da'awah methodology. It (Da'awah methodology) should not be on the basis of how you wish so that you do not be the means by which people detest Islaam.
A non Muslim came to meet the Prophet (sollaLloohu 'alayhi wa sallam) that he would accept Islaam if the Prophet gives him all the sheep in his custody. The Prophet asked him to take them. He went with all the sheep and accepted Islaam. When he got to his people with the sheep, he said, 'Accept Islaam because Muhammad gives alms extensively'. Allaah is great! This is from the reasons why many people accept Islaam.
There is a person who came to meet the Prophet that he would accept anything Islaam brings but he won't leave Zinaa. If the Prophet condemned him immediately, he wouldn't think of accepting Islaam. When he turned back, the Prophet asked him if he would be pleased seeing his daughter engaging in Zinaa. He said, 'No'. The Prophet asked him if he would be pleased seeing his mother engaging in Zinaa. He said, 'No'. The Prophet asked regarding his sisters and aunts. His response was 'No'. Then the Prophet told him that his partners in Zinaa are some other people's daughters, mothers, sisters and aunts. He (the person) then declared that he how detests Zinaa. Whatever we fail to achieve with serenity cannot be achieved with violence. For this reason, we have to learn how we can be the means to spreading the message of Islaam. That is it. But this cannot be achieved without knowledge. If you are the type who only knows about violence, you can't help to achieve tranquility. Annihilation does not require knowledge, but conciliation requires knowledge. It is easy for people to utter nonsensical statements because it requires no research. However, rational discussion requires research so that you do not mislead others.
[SOURCE: "QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION DURING THE EXPLANATION OF MA'AARIJUL QABUUL"; VENUE: "IBADAN"; TIME: "36 minutes 27 seconds to 43 minutes 09 seconds"]
Translated by Aboo Aaishah Al Odeomeey


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Archive for January 4th, 2010
Shop Now Or Shop Later?
So there's a bit of snow in my redneck of the woods. This coincides with the day I usually go grocery shopping. Do I dare brave the dumb(m)asses at the grocery store in their quest to buy up all the milk, break and toilet paper in sight in preparation for the first great blizzard of 2010?
Yeah, might as well. I don't want to run the risk of the store being even more packed Tuesday.
Surprisingly, it wasn't that bad a crowd. However, I had to laugh upon seeing that the bread and milk shelves resembled those in Communist Russia. The toilet paper was still in abundance, though.
A Real Wiz With Guns
Guess they should have been called the Washington Bullets after all.
What apparently began as a practical joke would have turned out a lot funnier if only Gilbert Arenas brought a squirt gun to work instead of the real thing.
Now there's no laughing it off.
The Wizards star is scheduled to meet Monday with law-enforcement authorities to present his side of the story about a locker-room dispute with teammate Javaris Crittenton nearly two weeks ago. Not only does Washington, D.C., have some of the strictest handgun laws in the nation, but federal authorities are investigating as well.
Yet even if Arenas's legal headaches end there, he still could face a lengthy suspension from NBA commissioner David Stern and tempt the Wizards to invoke a morals clause in the standard NBA player contract and seek to void the remainder of a six-year, US$111-million deal signed in 2008.


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What is Holy Communion?
Holy Communion is celebrated each Sunday at the Shepherdstown Lutheran Parish. In the Lutheran church Holy Communion is considered a Sacrament, that is, it is sacred act that is an outward and visible sign of an inward, spiritual grace. We have two sacraments: Baptism and Holy Communion. Both of these sacred acts we do because Jesus gave us a direct command to do so. Within them both we have the promise of forgiveness of sin and the presence of our Lord. We believe that God acts through the divine word and the earthly elements of water, bread and wine to bring about forgiveness of sin and reconciliation.
We have several names for our sacred meal. Holy Communion, because it is holy, or set apart and communion because it brings us together with God and as brothers and sisters. Eucharist is another name for the supper. Eucharist means "thanksgiving" and we call it that because we eat and drink in thanksgiving for the Easter promises, similar to the way we share our Thanksgiving feast with our families thankful for the many gifts given to us. The meal is also called the Lord's Supper because it was instituted by Christ and he is the host. By any name, Holy Communion is a visible sign of God's grace through Jesus.
Throughout worship we are preparing for Holy Communion. We begin worship with the brief order for confession and forgiveness. At this time we examine ourselves and put our sins before God and ask forgiveness. We ask that our hearts be made clean and open to God's Word of love. We gather our hearts and minds together with prayer and hymns of praise and then we listen to the word read and proclaimed. We confess our faith in the words of the creed and we bring our praise and concerns to God in prayer. We received God's peace and share it with one another and then we bring our offerings to God. And then we are ready for the Holy Meal. We hear the Words of Institution: On the night he was betrayed our Lord Jesus took bread, broke it and gave it to his disciples saying, "This is my body broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In like manner after supper, he took the cup, gave thanks and gave for all to drink saying , "this is the cup of the new covenant, poured out for you for the forgiveness of sins. Do this for the remembrance of me." And then we eat and we drink and we remember.
We believe that Christ is truly present in, with, and under the bread and the wine. Not that the bread and the wine transform in some magical way into literal flesh and blood, but rather that Christ is with us somehow, truly present, loving us and forgiving us and empowering us to be present for one another, loving and forgiving each other.
All are welcome to commune with us at St Peter's and St James. When you come forward, receive the bread and hear the words, "This is the body of Christ given for you." You may respond, "Amen!" You will then proceed to the cup. There are two cups from which to choose. The first is for intention, or dipping. You may dip you bread into the cup after hearing the words, "This is the blood of Christ, shed for you." You respond, "Amen!" and then eat the bread. The second cup is the common cup. If you choose the common cup, then you eat your bread when you receive it, and then go to the second cup and hear the words, "The blood of Christ, shed for you." You reply, "Amen" and then you take the cup and drink directly from the cup. Either way, you will have received Jesus and you can be certain that you are loved and forgiven.
Come to the table! Taste and see the goodness of God!


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Like Getz's cigarette collages, Amanda Nedham's drawings also indicate the addiction of smoking and its relation to time, linking the daily need for a nicotine-fix with the urge to draw. With works like They burn everything here, which depicts an open pack of cigarettes next to a lighter, Nedham's drawings sport frayed edges as if they were violently and suddenly ripped from a much-used private notebook. Through her paper's worn imperfections, Nedham relates smoking with the enduring compulsion for artistic creation.
- Emily Colucci


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Holy Motors (Leos Carax, 2012)
A nude man sporting a crooked erection is sung a lullaby by Eva Mendes, who had a chunk of her hair ripped out and consumed by the same man. The scene fades to black and Monsieur Oscar (Denis Lavant) prepares for another exercise for the long day. This is how a scene plays in Leos Carax' first feature film in over a decade. Surreal and trance-inducing, Holy Motors is less about subscribing to a clear-cut narrative structure and rather intends to toss its audience in its dreamscape universe. The best descriptor for the film comes from a character witnessing the carnage as he announces that it's all "Weird! Weird! Weird!"
Holy Motors certainly makes no effort to present a clear narrative structure – its opening sequence in fact acknowledges and prepares the audience for what to expect. Images of an incoming plane, a man with a key for a hand, a movie theater, and a Hulot-inspired submarine/home structure, all comprise Holy Motors' first five minutes. But if you're willing to let the film's whimsical dream logic overtake you, it all comes together to hypnotic effect. As Oscar takes on the role of a gypsy beggar to a motion-capture contortionist, there is no way or reason as to why he's embarking on so many personas. He's provided a folder outlining his next job and fulfills his duty as performer with dedication, even reassuming his fiendish monster persona from Carax's short film in Tokyo!
What most poignantly struck me about Holy Motors was its central concern of celebrating acting as an art. While tiresome for a performer, especially when viewed for its on-and-off quality, the audience may at times lose awareness of the artistic integrity that comes with being an actor. Carax obviously admires what they do and with Lavant finds the perfect proxy to acknowledge the debt he owes to his performers. While Carax may have had difficulty finding funding for his film, this delay and the subsequent casting of Lavant in the lead role comes at just the right time. Still nimble enough to perform the picture's many physical demands while convincingly weary-faced, Lavant is astounding in the lead role. He literally operates as man and monster, peasant and elite, male and female from one scene to another. Most of my reservations on Holy Motors upon watching it have really just been obscured in my memory as I focus on all of its audacious qualities. This wickedly original and surrealist picture succeeds for perhaps being the closest thing to a dream I could imagine and instilling a dreamlike quality in the way I recall it.
Rating: 8/10


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sydney showroom
Want to get to know us IRL? We don't blame you. Come and say hello in person at the Hemp Gallery Australia Showroom! This means you can see all the goodies you've been eyeing off online in the flesh and it's the perfect opportunity to get all touchy feely with our range of Hemp Fabrics. We'll have everything on display: prints, bed linen, kitchen and homewares and loads of other special treats to make your home, body and life awesome.
Trading hours
Monday - Friday, 9am - 5pm
*Live Chat, Email or Call to book an appointment.
Heres where you'll find us
Unit 11a, 16 Aquatic Drive
Frenchs Forest, NSW 2086
Entrance is 2nd driveway on right through Tilley Lane
Hemp Gallery Australia acknowledges the traditional custodians of the country throughout Australia and their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to them and their cultures and to the elders past and present.


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If you have a company site, then you need to plan its upkeep keeping in mind the future growth pattern of your small business.
Kajabi experts are hired to make the site on kajabi the latest platform to create a site. The development of your company will have a direct effect on your site since the faster or slower your company develops, that more traffic and customers will soon be seeing your site.
Image Source: Forbes
This implies, as the company develops, you're taking a look at keeping your site updated with applicable technologies and site development so the site care is hand in hand with your small business development.
Whenever we say site maintenance we're talking about integrating new web software to include more features like merchandise screen system or integration using social networking services or a new sort of forum or commenting system.
Make it simpler by incorporating interactive websites such as images, flash and video content. You might also desire to revamp your site to reflect changing times and changing the picture of your enterprise.
Website Development
Irrespective of what sort of website maintenance you're planning to perform, you need to have it done by an expert team of website programmers.
There are a whole lot of things that may fail. For example, the code which was used the site may lack a particular structure or some other conformance to established industry standards.
A poorly trained programmer out of sheer laziness or deadline pressures would wind up writing code that's hard for other people to follow.


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About Digital Media Training
Digital Media Training was originally established to provide professional certified Apple training in South Wales. Now delegates throughout the UK have the opportunity to receive our high quality media industry based training.
Our training centres in Cardiff, Manchester, Tewkesbury, London and Glasgow make sure that we are easily accessed anywhere in the UK.
Our handpicked trainers are of only the highest calibre, with both professional AND training experience. Get to know a little about them here.
Paul Hawke Williams, director and Apple Master trainer, is renowned thoughout the UK for his professional and engaging teaching style. With over 10 years as an independant editor and producer he teaches technique training as well as the Apple certified pro applications curicullum. Paul also provides a variety of video turorials as part of after course care.
Paul Owen, operations director of Gorilla Post and Digital Media Trainings Avid certified trainer, has more than 15 years experience working within the broadcast industry. Paul provides the Media Composer and Symphony training courses and is able to give delegates more than a run-of-the mill course outline. His industry experience is weaved throughout his training with the ability to identify and discuss real world challenges as well as deliver the Avid curriculum, making him a formidable trainer.
Alex Macleod, owner of AMac Films, independant film maker and Adobe Premiere Pro enthusiast teaches many of our Premiere training courses. His down to earth delivery and willingness to impart his knowledge provides delegates with an entertaining and comprehenisve training course.
Roland Drewell, an Adobe Certified Instructor who provides After Effects and Premiere training. Roland's knoweldge of a various applications such as Final Cut Pro provides delegates who are switching or multiskilling with vital additional information to assist their transition.


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A simple change in focus or a change in personality leads to ripple effects in many facets of our lives. People who don't believe it, throw a stone in the water, you will see the effect of it in all surrounding area.
The same can be achieved in real life and a small change in one behaviour leads to multiple changes in all walks of life.
There are several virtues which one needs to have discipline, humility, truthfulness or honesty and Punctuality. Except punctuality all others are relatively difficult to practice. Agree ?
One such sea change is "Punctuality" . I challenge all my readers to just focus on just this 1 change for a month. Make sure you are punctual to all meetings, all office timings, all functions for just a month.
Believe it or not, trust me, this simple change will:
Initially it may seem there seems to be some negative effects, but consciously make a note of those and just proceed, you will see it will vanish.


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Yvan Cournoyer : Free Celebrity AddressesClaim to Fame: Former Hockey Right Winger
Address 1:
Yvan Cournoyer
c/o Montreal Canadiens Alumni
1275 St. Antoine St. WestMontreal, Quebec
Address submitted by hockeytown 62, 80 on 11/14/2008
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What I Do
Investment Planning
We will work together to build a portfolio of appropriate investments that accommodate your risk profile and financial goals.
Tax Planning
We will work jointly to create tax efficiencies to help reduce your tax liability.
401k plans & rollovers and distributions
We help you choose the best option for your 401k, whether it's rolling it into a new employer's plan, into an IRA or a Roth IRA, or making a withdrawal.
Estate Planning
We will work together to determine the future of your estate, and plan for distribution according to your wishes.
College Planning
We will work together to formulate a plan to pay for college through savings, current earnings, scholarships and loans.


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A posh flat, a holiday cottage, a mansion staffed by six… welcome to the wonky world of Kirstie Allsnob
As Mrs Rent-an-Opinion rages against the washing machine, she not only has more money than sense, but also more rooms
WHERE do you keep yours? It's the burning question of the day.
In the kitchen? In the bathroom? In its own dedicated utility room? The east wing, perhaps?
I am, of course, talking about your washing machine.
But why? It's all thanks to Kirstie Allsopp, host of Channel 4 property series Location, Location, Location — who has single-handedly sent Britain into a spin cycle over where we wash our dirty laundry.
The uber-posh Kirstie has landed herself in hot soapy water after she expressed her horror at Brits keeping our washing machines in our kitchens.
In response to a tweet saying that Americans are "confused" by this uniquely British habit, she tweeted: "It is disgusting. My life's work is in part dedicated to getting washing machines out of the kitchen."
Not surprisingly, a lot of proud folk got into a lather over this oh-so-grand pronouncement.
As the daughter of the sixth Baron Hindlip, the Honourable Kirstie Allsopp, as she should correctly be titled, has since claimed her tweet was tongue-in-cheek.
But it proved that she, like many a privileged toff before her, doesn't just have more money than sense but more rooms than sense too.
Like pretty much everyone else in Britain I keep my washing machine where God intended — in the kitchen.
Why? Because, like pretty much everyone else in Britain, I don't have anywhere else to put it.
More pearls of wisdom from the Right Honourable Kirstie Allsopp
By Jen Pharo
ON EQUALITY AT HOME: "A ship needs a captain. Two captains and the ship goes in circles."
ON MARRIAGE: "It's the world's greatest tax dodge."
ON GIRLS AT UNI: "I'd say: 'Darling, don't go to university. Start work, stay home, get a flat, find a nice boyfriend and have a baby by the time you're 27'."
ON HER HOME: "Because there's so much space in the house, we could spend a lot of money buying pictures. If it's not too expensive, we get it."
ON NEGATIVITY: "There are people who can't say anything positive because they think it's more amusing to say negative things. That'll give them cancer."
ON HERSELF: "As I get older I'm more outspoken and pushy and opinionated. I worry that on this trajectory, by the time I'm 60 I'll be unbearable."
And anyway, what's so "disgusting" about washing your dirty clothes in the same room as you wash your dirty dishes?
It's not as if we are putting our socks in to soak with last night's lasagna dish. But that's just not good enough for Ms Allsopp. Oh no!
According to the knit-your-own-Christmas-tree homemaking guru herself, it's a "practical" idea to move your washer to its own utility room or "bathroom, hall cupboard, airing cupboard" to "free up space".
Clearly Ms Allsopp is as familiar with the size of the typical British bathroom as she is with our kitchens.
I suppose we could all move our washing machines into the library or the billiards room or maybe the stables, but then most of us weren't to the manor born.
Kirstie, whose father is a former chairman of auction house Christies, has grown up in a world of privilege.
Her definition of a small kitchen is one where you can't squeeze a dozen of your friends around the table.
She and her property developer partner Ben Andersen live in London's desirable Holland Park, where they have knocked two big flats into one home.
Her well-stocked larder is bigger than most of our kitchens, while her actual kitchen is bigger than most one-bedroom flats.
Ben also owns an estate in Devon which features a Grade 1-listed mansion with just the 18 bedrooms.
It is looked after by a staff of six.
The couple also have a holiday cottage in Devon, which featured in Kirstie's Channel 4 show Homemade Home.
The six-bedroom place cost her £300,000 in 2008 and now commands up to £3,500 a week in holiday lets.
Kirstie makes a six-figure salary with the aid of a small army, from personal assistants and nannies to cleaners and gardeners
Multi-millionaire Ben also owns a string of rental properties, one of which was in the news in October 2015 when it emerged a Malaysian woman was using the East London flat as a brothel.
Ms Allsopp may be out of touch but she is never short of opinions, whether it be girls going to university (don't bother, have babies instead), giving birth (it's too politicised) or school homework (ban it).
Her pearls of wisdom also include the claim that she finds ironing "immensely therapeutic" (yeah, right) and that she enjoys "those repetitive tasks that one does every day, organising one's home".
This from a woman who, family money aside, has made a fortune from her make-do and mend, I-sewed-it-all-myself life-style shows and books, selling a virtually impossible image of being the perfect mother, homemaker and wife.
She also just happens to make a six-figure salary with nothing but the aid of a small army of helpers, from personal assistants and nannies to cleaners and gardeners.
Ms Allsopp may indeed be very good at finding hidden treasures in skips, but she has lived a sheltered life in a posh bubble.
A shortage of rosemary and sea salt focaccia bread at her local Waitrose is the biggest problem in her life, rather than grappling with the day-to-day chores and demands that dominate everyone else's.
Who else has time to worry about which room their washing machine is in, let alone anyone else's?
Forget everyone else's dirty laundry, Kirstie, it's time you washed away your own ridiculous privilege.
Or, at the very least, ask your cleaner to pop to the utility room and do it for you.
— Julia is a presenter on talkRADIO.


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This depends on the font you're using and the styles you've set for it, but most often than not, you feel you need just a bit more space between both columns. The problem is if you shove a spacer in there, the gap looks more like an airport runway than anything else.Read More
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In a previous tutorial we saw how we can customize the Index Gallery slideshow in Squarespace to add fancy new arrows and subtly switching up the layout of the description portion. In today's tutorial, we're going to take a similar approach…Read More
If you're using blog pages on your client site for different purposes, you may want to be able to customize the content (posts) of just ONE of those blog pages and not the other. A very common situation is when you have a blog page as an actual blog, and another blog page as a portfolio to showcase previous work.Read More
Today we're going to break down a FANTASTIC way to wow your visitors and your clients by adding a "lifting" effect to the items in your Summary Block and Gallery Block.Read More
Up until recently, there was a way for us to bring up the "Read More" link in a Summary Block when displaying a Gallery Page (and not a blog page). However, due to recent updates in the platform that doesn't seem to be possible anymore… or is it?Read More
If you're running or working on a business website, you'll surely find today's customization pretty handy! Besides back to top buttons, an extra menu header, and a custom social icons header, there are other types of floating elements you can add to your…Read More
Adding a hover effect to image blocks can be a fun way to spice up your client's design without too much hassle. So today, we're going to be looking at how we can give a really cool grayscale to color + rotating + scaling effect to any images of your site on hover!Read More
It seems like there's not enough creativity in the world to come up with a unique way to set up your nav bar… especially in Squarespace, and particularly if you're using the Brine template. Which seems silly, since all of the templates from the Brine…Read More
If you're working with indexes in Squarespace, you may be wondering how the heck to make your blocks float between two of the sections. If that's you, stick around 'cause that's exactly what we'll be doing today!Read More
In today's tutorial, we'll be looking at how you can force the hamburger menu in your Brine template to always show up, and how to change the default icons to anything you want. Let's do this!Read More
You've probably come across those Pinterest inspirational websites that involve gorgeous split layouts where you have half of your screen with an image that bleeds all the way to the edge of your website, and the other half with a colored background and content…Read More
If you're using Squarespace forms on your site – instead of or along with other information collection methods like Dubsado – then today's tutorial is for you! Because if you're looking to make your site more on-brand or unique, customizing your Squarespace forms…Read More
Today we're going to be taking advantage of the grid layout of an Index Gallery to create big and bold category thumbnails that you can use to showcase your different service packages, blog categories, photo galleries, or pretty much anything else you want!Read More
Have you ever wished you could replace the 'Read More' link from your Summary Blocks for something else? Not just change its color and turn it into a button, but actually change what it says and… why not, change it for a custom image?!Read More
Have you ever wanted to add something "extra" to your navigation links or menu items in Squarespace? Something like icons to identify each of the different pages your navigation leads to? Well my friend, today you're going to learn precisely how to do that!Read More
Templates like Brine allow us to add big and bold imagery through its Index Gallery pages. Fortunately, Squarespace gives us a couple of different options to style them through the Style Editor however, and depending on the design you're after, this may not be enough.Read More
You know when you load your Squarespace site and you can see some of the blocks rearranging their content for a few seconds before everything snaps into place? (e.g the carousel block). Well, we're going to be adding a super simple fade in animation to make it load nicer!Read More
Let's give a gradient to a single word in your heading! The method is pretty simple, however we have to tackle some compatibility issues to make sure the word is readable in as many browsers as possible. So, why don't we get started?Read More
In today's tutorial, we'll be looking at how to add a background color to those Summary Blocks with summary excerpts you have hanging around your site… AND how to make sure the colored portions have THE SAME HEIGHT. Oooh, intriguing right?Read More


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Anyone thinking of switching to Nationwide might want to ask around to see if any of their friends/family can put in a recommendation to get £100 for them plus £100 for the person who is switching. It's pretty much free money for doing something you were going to do anyway!
According to their site, the recommender needs to enter a few details about themselves and the friend looking to switch before the end of July here: nationwide.co.uk/pro…end
The recommended person then needs to open an account (although this looks optional - so it can be an existing account) and complete a full account switch with a minimum of 2 Direct Debits by the end of August.
I've just recommended everyone and their dogs in the hope that at least 10 of them complete switches in time!


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Sale ends soon!
Introduction Thank you for purchasing the LED Makeup Mirror producr that is designed to provide you with perfect touch-ups, detail, and make-up application. 7x magnifying function gives you better experience while doing your makeup or other facial touch-ups. Charging 1.When the led light is not bright as usual, which mean the mirror need to be charges. 2.To charge the mirror, connect the USB cable to computer or any other charging adapter with 5V output. 3.This mirror supports three levers of adjustable brightness, can work continuously for 4-5 hours at the highest brightness. The mirror will take 4-5 hours to be full charged. 4.Indicator light turns red when charging, and turns blue after fully charged. How to Use 1.With 360 degeree rotating desgin, use 1x mirror or 7x magnification freely. 2.This mirror suports touch switch, press the touch switch will turn on the LED light, 3.Press the touch switch again LED light will change to a higher brightness. 4.Press the touch switch for the third time, the LED light will provide the highest brightness. 5.Press the touch switch for the fourth time, the LED light will turn off. NOTE: When using a 7x magnifier plase stay 15cm / 6 in away for perfect reflection effect. Cleaning 1.Clean the mirror face with tissue or soft cloth after each use. 2.The mirror is not water resistant. Donât wash it with water. Cautions Keep the mirror face awy from any hard subject to avoid scratching. Keep out of reach of children, to avoid any danger. Donât dissemble the mirror if not being professionals.


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Pairings: Prosecco Spritzers, Chocolates & Caramels
Enjoy Fazio's artisan chocolates paired with Prosecco Spritzers and coupled with Cream City Caramels. This fun event will provide the opportunity to enjoy different Spritzers, chocolate and caramels while guided on an informative tasting tour!
After the pairings, you'll have the opportunity to purchase the Proseccos & candies that you liked best, as well as other flavors from Fazio's Chocolates and Cream City Caramels & Confections.
MUST PRE-REGISTER TO ATTEND. $30 per person. Stop by the store or give us a call to reserve your spot! (262) 923-7166
Fazio's Chocolate, 13425 W Watertown Plank Rd, Ste 7, Elm Grove, WI


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Mood: special
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone.
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Greetings and Messages from Alex of the Philippines
Tuesday, 6 December 2011
Holiday Season Greeting
Mood: special
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone.
Posted by alexmoises at 2:20 PM EST
Updated: Tuesday, 6 December 2011 2:23 PM EST
Wednesday, 18 May 2011
New Websites
Mood: a-ok
You can find me on Facebook by following this address: http://www.facebook.com/alexmoises77
I have another new website and it's at jimbo.com: http://philippines-atbp.jimdo.com. This website deals with my country the Philippines.
Posted by alexmoises at 2:39 PM EDT
Updated: Saturday, 21 May 2011 4:44 PM EDT
Friday, 22 April 2011
Rizal's 150th Birth Anniversary
Mood: happy
June 19, 1861 - June 19, 2011
150th BIRTH ANNIVERSARY OF DR. JOSE RIZAL
Medical Doctor, Social Reformer, Writer, Scientist and National Hero of the Philippines
Posted by alexmoises at 7:47 AM EDT
Philippine Independence Day
Mood: happy
June 12, 2011
Philippine Independence Day
Long Live The Philippines!
Posted by alexmoises at 7:38 AM EDT
Holy Week and Easter Sunday
Mood: happy
Happy Easter to everyone!
Posted by alexmoises at 7:31 AM EDT
Thursday, 14 October 2010
Greetings and Messages from 2008 to 2010
CHRISTMAS 2010 AND NEW YEAR'S MESSAGE FOR EVERYONE "We remember the birth of Jesus, the unwanted child who changed the course of history forever more than 2,000 years ago. Enjoy the holiday season and always hope for the best. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!" - (September 24, 2010)
PERSONAL MESSAGE ON BONIFACIO DAY (NOVEMBER 30) AND RIZAL DAY (DECEMBER 30) YEAR 2010 "Two great men; two great Filipino heroes." - (September 24, 2010)
PERSONAL MESSAGE FOR GABBY MOISES ON HER BIRTHDAY "The first 5 years of life is the most important period in human development. I'm fortunate to have been a part of Gabby's first 5 years. Happy Birthday!" - (September 24, 2010)
PERSONAL MESSAGE ON ALL SAINTS DAY AND ALL SOULS DAY, NOVEMBER 1 & 2 "In life, we celebrated with our loved ones; in death, we long to celebrate with them." - (September 24, 2010)
PERSONAL MESSAGES FOR MY OLDER AND YOUNGER SISTERS "Ate, get well soon; and Zit, take care and God bless." - (September 24, 2010)
PERSONAL PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENCE DAY MESSAGE YEAR 2010 "1890-1898: A period of soul-searching struggle when the Filipino people realized the true value of excellence. June 12: Happy Independence Day!" – (March 29, 2010)
PERSONAL MESSAGE FOR THE HOLY WEEK YEAR 2010 "Remembering the sufferings and glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ ... and thus, always, in the end, humanity is triumphant. Happy Easter to everyone!" – (March 29, 2010)
PERSONAL MESSAGE FOR GABBY MOISES, GRADUATION YEAR 2010 "Congratulations to 'my little girl, my little angel' on her senior nursery graduation and new beginning!" – (March 29, 2010)
PERSONAL MESSAGE FOR SPRING OR SUMMER YEAR 2010 "Enjoy the spring or summer season for life is the science of rebirth and the space for renewal in its most majestic form" – (February 24, 2010)
PERSONAL MESSAGE - VALENTINE'S DAY "For everyone: 'Enjoy the day, for life is beautiful.'" – (January 11, 2010)
FOR GABBY "Little Angel" MOISES "No dramatics, no fanfare, no feelings of moral superiority, no going around the bush, no nothing. Just an old fashion message for you: I love you!" – (January 11, 2010)
CHRISTMAS 2009 AND NEW YEAR'S MESSAGE FOR EVERYONE "Whatever was your situation for the past 11 months, CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS and the coming NEW YEAR according to tradition and personal beliefs and values in life." – (November 29, 2009)
CHRISTMAS MESSAGE FOR GABBY MOISES, YEAR 2009 "The essence of Christmas is for your kind. Merry Christmas and may God bless the rest of us." – (November 29, 2009)
PERSONAL MESSAGE ON BONIFACIO DAY (NOVEMBER 30) AND RIZAL DAY (DECEMBER 30) YEAR 2009 "Bonifacio and Rizal: Two men with different backgrounds, contrasting lifestyles, and opposing ideologies, yet the two shared the same vision of a free Philippines more than a century ago." – (November 29, 2009)
PERSONAL MESSAGE ON ALL SAINTS DAY AND ALL SOULS DAY, NOVEMBER 1 & 2 "Remembering my dad and dear departed ones... - (October, 2009)
PERSONAL MESSAGE FOR TYPHOON VICTIMS (Filipino Version) "Gusto kong ipahiwatig ang aking madamdaming pakikiramay sa mga pamilya, kamag-anak at kaibigan ng mga namatay dahil sa bagyong 'Ondoy' at 'Pepeng' na bumisita sa Pilipinas ngayong buwan." - (October, 2009)
PERSONAL MESSAGE FOR TYPHOON VICTIMS (English Version) "I would like to express my heartfelt condolences to the families, relatives and friends of those who died because of the typhoons 'Ondoy' and 'Pepeng' that visited the Philippines this month." - (October, 2009)
QUOTATION FROM ANDRES BONIFACIO FOR THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDING OF THE KATIPUNAN - JULY 7 (YEAR 2008 / Filipino Version) "Iukit sa inyong puso na ang tunay na sukatan ng karangalan at kaligayahan ay ang mag-alay ng buhay para sa kalayaan ng inyong bansa."
QUOTATION FROM ANDRES BONIFACIO FOR THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDING OF THE KATIPUNAN - JULY 7 (YEAR 2008 / English Version) "Engrave in your heart that the true measure of honor and happiness is to die for the freedom of your country."
PERSONAL MESSAGE ON THE FOUNDING OF THE KATIPUNAN YEAR 2008 (Filipino Version) "Tauspusong pasasalamat sa mga ginoo --- at mga ginang --- ng Katipunan na siyang tumulong para magka-isa ang iba't-ibang 'ethnic groups' at, dahil dito, naitatag ang bansang Pilipino." – (Hulyo 6, 2008)
QUOTATION FROM EMILIO JACINTO FOR PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENCE DAY - JUNE 12 (YEAR 2008) "Lahat tayo ay pantay-pantay, mapa-itim o mapa-puti man ang kulay ng inyong balat." ----- "All men are equal, be the color of your skin black or white."
PERSONAL INDEPENDENCE DAY MESSAGE YEAR 2008 "Pinoy at Maipagmamalaki!...Mabuhay ang Republika ng Pilipinas!" ----- "Filipino and Proud (of it)!...Long Live the Republic of the Philippines!" – (May 10, 2008)
Posted by alexmoises at 5:38 PM EDT
Updated: Thursday, 14 October 2010 5:46 PM EDT
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