Chakkei’s Blog

yes yes yes………….just paid my deposit and if everything goes well according to plan… i will be flying to Jerusalem on July 26th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

my goodness.. i was literally jumping in the air yesterday when Eleanor told me there were still 2 spots left in the Israel pilgrimage plan!  I immediately signed up !

it has been exactly 10 years since my first plan to visit Jerusalem failed …or being postponed ! 

How much i wish to pray at the Wailing Wall and to walk the Way of the Cross  !

A saline solution was injected into Gianna’s mother’s womb, which doctors thought would kill the foetus within hours.

This time, most unusually, the procedure failed and Gianna was born alive, thanks in part to a shocked nurse.

She was so taken aback by Gianna’s live delivery that she summoned an ambulance to whisk her from the abortion clinic to the hospital.

She weighed only two pounds at birth and needed to stay in hospital for nearly three months.

In an ironic twist of fate the abortionist had to sign her birth certificate.

Now American-born Gianna, aged 28, is in London to give her message against abortion.

Unusual case

Pro-choice groups say that while hers is a distressing story it is unusual and that guidelines are in place in the UK to stop live births after abortions.

The legal limit for abortion in the UK is 24 weeks. The only exceptions to this is where a woman’s life is in danger or if there is a real risk that the child, if born, would have a severe physical or mental disability.

In those cases, there is no legal time limit.

Gianna, a committed Christian, is opposed to abortion.

She has cerebral palsy as a direct result of the procedure carried out on her in the womb.

"The saline solution injected into the mother is to burn the baby, which gulps it in the womb," she said.

"But after being literally burned alive for 18 hours I was delivered live.

"It says on my records that I was born after a saline abortion.

"I was not expected to be delivered live but fortunately for me the abortionist was not in the clinic when I arrived alive instead of dead.

"I was born about 6am and my ‘birth’ was not expected until about 9am, when he would be arriving for his office hours.

"There were many witnesses to my entry into this world.

"My biological mother and other young girls at the clinic, who also awaited the death of their babies, were the first to greet me and I am told this was a hysterical moment."

Bleak outlook

Initially the prognosis for Gianna, who comes from Tennessee, was poor.

Because of her cerebral palsy her foster mother was told that she was unlikely to ever crawl or walk.

She, however, was determined and eventually learned to sit, crawl and then stand.

She started to walk with leg braces and by the age of four was walking with the aid of a walker - now she walks without any assistance.

She refuses to let her cerebral palsy blight her life and is currently training for the London marathon.

But she says her determination can cause her problems

"I am often misunderstood, which is often the most painful.

"My determination not to give up is often misunderstood as being over confident.

"But it is not that. I am just determined not to give up. I am just not a quitter.

"Being almost murdered in the womb and then having to struggle from the moment I was delivered means I have a love of life and a joy of life."

Forgiveness

Gianna has never met her biological mother, but her adopted mother has and passed on Gianna’s forgiveness.

Her biological parents were both just 17 when Gianna was born.

She is in London this week to lend her voice to the anti-abortion group ‘Alive and Kicking,’ who are campaigning to encourage reform of the Abortion Act aimed at reducing the annual number of abortions.

This week Gianna will speak at a parliamentary meeting at the House of Commons to tell her remarkable story.

And she hopes hearing her story will persuade others to consider the rights of the unborn child.

"What happened to me was all being done in the name of women’s rights, but the only one who cared about my rights was the nurse in the clinic, who got me the heck out of there.

"My mother was making a decision that was ‘only hers to make’, but I bear the scars of that.

Citra Abbott Spokesperson for Alive and Kicking said: "Gianna is bearing witness to the humanity of the unborn child and to the right to life of every human being.

"She is also a powerful witness to the rights of the disabled. "

Rare cases

Ann Furedi, chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, said it was important to remember that late abortions, like that of Gianna’s mother, are uncommon.

"These stories are extremely distressing. But the point we would always make is that these very late abortion at times when there is a potential for life are very few and far between.

"And there is very clear guidance to make sure this sort of thing does not happen."

She added that cases like Gianna’s were now less likely to happen because of advancing technology and tightened regulations, and that when a woman opted for a late abortion it was usually because the babies had a foetal abnormality.

"If women have a wanted pregnancy and go into labour prematurely they need to know that everything will be done to their babies, but if they need to have an abortion at this late stage then the intention will be that there is not live birth and the procedure should avoid a live birth."

some of my few thoughts after reading this article…

i could think of a few reasons why there are sooo many women thought it’s a "good thing" to stay single OR to consider getting married later…

1)  it shows that girls today are not going to “settle” for anything less than what they deserve ! Unlike the past, many  modern women, who are more educated and hence have more earning power , are thinking /discerning more about  WHO really could bond with them emotionally.  They no longer only look at whether this man could provide them with a big bank account, could take care of them..etc..

2) Unlike the past, educated women today would

no longer settle for someone who may not be exactly compatible. "30", to many,  is no longer the "death-knell" to finding Mr Right.  in fact, i find women in their 30s are the MOST beautiful women –they are more self assured, financially more independent, and they KNOW what they want .

3) less women are willing to commit? well, i personally think that MEN should also hold responsible to that ! Men should start thinking about WHY this is the phenomenon! Are men, in their selfishness,  being threatened by educated and independent women? Also,  in the past, too many guys don’t work too hard on a relationship. many of them, husbands /boyfriends, were not willing to sacrifice for their wives/gfs, or love them or respect them. Now, they better work harder in making a relationship work.

In human history female were suppressed too much. Years ago, Too many women were treated as subjects/subordinates/objects in marriage, and in some cultures, parents always decided who they should marry… people in those days didn’t understand what Authentic MARRIAGE and true love in marriage meant!     NO WONDER today… the issue on sex and love has SWUNG all the way to the other extreme! that people do not trust marriage!

If people in those days (as well as today)  had only known what marriage is supposed to mean in  God’s eyes - that husband and wife  are supposed to love and repect one another and sacrifice for one another…   Marriage is supposed to be a total loving experience, a sacrement, a sacred mission, an authentic love.  if only people (men and women) had uphold these ideals…guess more people would choose to get/stay married rather than to stay single.

January 23, 2007

All right, ladies, the gig is up. It’s time for all of us to get married, including you.

I refer to the recent New York Times report on women living without husbands. After sorting through US census data, the Times determined that for the first time in American history the majority of womem — 51 percent — are living without a husband.

The story tore through the media like a lightning bolt. A slew of "I am woman, hear me roar" stories hit the airwaves. The storyline was clear: women are finally free and independent now, and the last thing they need is some sloppy spouse who leaves his socks lying all over the house.

Well, nuts to that. Look, ladies, deciding not to marry for your own well-being is one thing, but it is us you’re not marrying in the process. Your decision is killing us single men — literally.

Single men partake in more risky behavior than married men. We eat badly, smoke more, and avoid doctors’ offices. We die younger. We’re far more likely to wake up in a pile of crumpled newspapers still clutching the tequila bottle we began sipping from two days before.

The reason why is not complicated. We are social animals. Men and women are very different creatures, but we were made for each other. The Catholics call it complementarity — a man and woman, in union and harmony, round each other out.

Men need to be rounded out, too. Take dust. Because our brains take in less sensory detail than a woman’s, we don’t notice dust. Thus, married men tend to live in orderly, dust-free homes, whereas single men, says P. J. O’Rourke, clean up their place about once every girlfriend.

Though it’s not like single women are faring much better.

The Times article quoted independent women raving about their freedom and flexibility. A 32-year-old woman had already lived with two boyfriends and said that if she ever did marry, she might opt to keep her own place. Another said she likes being able to sleep on either side of the bed.

Oh, just admit it, ladies. You need us, too. Sleeping next to a burping, snoring lug of a husband may not be the stuff dreams are made of, but it sure beats sleeping alone. When you hear a prowler rattling the door knob in the middle of the night, who will you send to investigate? Your cat?

I know the Times is eager for a more "progressive" society to take hold — one in which the stodgy traditional marriage is kicked to the wayside — but the fact is that marriage, imperfect though it is, is good for us.

Married people are happier, says the Pew Research Center. They enjoy life more; they enjoy sex more, too. Children raised by married couples fare better. Society fares better. Successful civilizations are built on the stability that traditional marriage brings.

But despite these simple and obvious truths, we keep trying to reinvent our nature. We keep trying to prove there are better ways to fulfill our simple needs; keep trying to leave every option open, so that we can be "free" and "independent" forever.

And we end up alone.

I can’t imagine what old folks homes will be like 40 years from now. There will be an unprecedented number of elderly single people living alone. No children or grandchildren will visit them; no spouse will care for them. I wonder if the Times will do a front-page piece on that trend, too.

All I know is that my life would certainly be better if I woke every morning in a full home in which my children are laughing and my wife is smiling, rather than the way I often wake now: with a throbbing noggin’ because my single friends and I over-enjoyed our freedom and independence at the pub the night before.

Like I said, it’s time for all of us to get married.

Funny, touching with a powerful message. Everyone, i mean EVERYONE, has got to watch this!

How could this be possible!!  AAAHHHH…

Could Potter’s scar be one of the Horcruxes???

EXCITING!

Millions pledged to revive Marxism
Capitalism has brought prosperity to China, but also an ideological void
From SCMP by CARY HUANG in Beijing

After more than two decades of capitalist market reforms, Communist Party leaders have pledged "unlimited" funds for reviving Marxism on the mainland.

Sources say the programme will also involve turning the country into the global centre for studying the ideology.

Economic reforms have seen the mainland grow richer by abandoning Karl Marx’s economic ideas, but President and party general secretary Hu Jintao told a Politburo meeting in November that Marxism was still applicable to the mainland.

Leaders are also keen to fill the ideological void that has emerged in a more prosperous China, and the Communist Party believes the answer lies in the ideology that gave birth to it.

During a recent meeting of the Politburo, members agreed to give sufficient financial support to a project to study and reinforce the foundations of Marxism.

Beijing will summon 3,000 top Marxist theorists and academics from across the country to the capital to compile 100 to 150 Marxism textbooks, with each work requiring contributions from at least 20 to 30 scholars.

Between 100 million and 200 million yuan has been earmarked for the programme, with more than 1 million yuan to be allocated to funding the compilation of each textbook. The project would also see a massive investment of human and financial resources go towards building more research institutes, training more theorists and producing more academic papers, the sources said.

Li Changchun , a member of the Politburo Standing Committee and the party’s chief official in charge of ideology, told a meeting of propaganda officials and theorists on Monday that the leadership saw the project as instrumental to solving various issues facing the country and had given it "unlimited" support.

Last year, the Marxism Theory Research and Construction Project was launched to modernise the communist ideology.

The sources said that support from the Politburo, the secretariat of the party’s Central Committee and its publicity department had ensured that hundreds of millions of yuan was earmarked for the Marxism revival campaign.

All university students are required to attend Marxism classes. Secondary school graduates are also required to sit a national examination on Marxism before university enrolment.

Another programme, also involving the allocation of millions of yuan, will see a group of leading scholars brought together to produce about 100 works of global influence and translate them into several foreign languages. There are also plans to produce new translations of foreign Marxist literature on the mainland.

To promote academic exchanges, the government has also approved funding for academic institutions to host several international seminars on Marxism.

The Academy of Marxism at Shanghai’s Finance and Economics University will host an international seminar in the city on April 1, and the newly established Academy of Marxism at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a top central government think-tank, will host another next year.

Thursday, January 19, 2006
Hometown prepares for funeral of Filipino-American soldier killed in Iraq
ASSOCIATED PRESS in Inabanga

Estelita Maravillosa was devastated when her daughter and only child, US Army Sergeant Myla Maravillosa, was killed in Iraq on Christmas Eve, eight years after she moved from the Philippines to the US in search of a better life.
“It’s very painful,” she said, ahead of her daughter’s burial in her native village on Thursday with full US military honours never before seen by the townsfolk of Inabanga in central Bohol province.

More than a dozen children in the remote village watched as US army honour guards from the 8th Army Korea, wearing civilian clothes, practiced the solemn marches and salutes.

Brigadier-General Gregory Schumacher, commander of the Military Intelligence Readiness Command at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, was scheduled to speak during the rites and hand over to Maravillosa’s mother her daughter’s US military medals, including the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart and the Meritorious Service Medal

The sacrifice Sergeant Maravillosa made on the battleground for freedom and democracy will not be forgotten,” the US Embassy said in a statement.

The grief-stricken mother, a widow of 19 years, said her agony was eased by the thought that Maravillosa “died for a cause” and that “it was worth it”.

“I can’t describe the pain, but it’s her job, a call of duty … you have to accept.”

Maravillosa moved to Hawaii when she was 16 to join her mother who migrated in 1986. She attended college in Wahiawa and enlisted in the US Army Reserves in 1999.

On Christmas Eve, Maravillosa’s Humvee was attacked by Iraqi insurgents firing rocket-propelled grenades, mortally wounding her, according to the US Defence Department.

Maravillosa, an interrogator assigned to the 301st Military Intelligence Battalion, had been in Iraq for only a little more then a month.

Friends and relatives described the 24-year-old petite woman as a reluctant warrior who had planned on studying foreign relations and becoming a US diplomat, although they said her real dream was to be a nun.

In an e-mail to Sister Margaret Michael in Boston — vocation director of the Daughters of St Paul, whom Maravillosa had planned to join — she said she “could envision herself more with a Bible in hand, than a rifle.”

Her cousin, Darlene Rodrigues, said everyone was surprised when she joined the army, but knew it was her ticket to college.

“She had a plan for entering a religious life,” Ms Rodrigues said.

She said Maravillosa was “very afraid to go” to Iraq, but went anyway. “She was a person of responsibility and integrity. She was very dutiful in that way.”

At the Holy Spirit School in Tagbilaran, capital of Bohol province, where she graduated from high school in 1997, Maravillosa is remembered as a demure, soft-spoken and pious student.

“We could not imagine a very young girl becoming a soldier when even boys and tough men do not join the army,” said Bernarda Villarojo, her fourth-year English teacher.

“I felt very heavy,” Mr Villarojo said, a clenched fist to her chest. “Why did it have to be her?”