By Rolo B. Cena
The Gulf Files
Dumaguete Star Informer
21 August 2011
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - With Ramadan closing with the celebration of the Eid holidays from 25 August to 02 September 2011, everybody is just as expectant as all Muslims in the world. Ramadan, the Islamic month dedicated for fasting, happens to be celebrated in the month of August, which the world celebrates as the anti-Terrorism month.
As enunciated by their faith, Ramadan month teaches the values of patience, spirituality, humility and submissiveness to God. Ramadan is the Islamic month of fasting where participating Muslims refrain from eating, drinking and intimacy with their partners during daylight hours.
To my view, irrespective of faith or religion, submissiveness to God is a continuous commitment where an individual is supposed to actively profess that he is born in the image and likeness of God, the God of peace and freedom. Additionally, fasting should not only happen during this period but although the years as well, and this includes fasting from waging indifferences, or more appropriately, war. I strongly believe that war is not an option.
Ten years ago, the entire world was shocked when Al-Qaeda, Jihadist group of Osama Bin Laden grounded the World Trade Center in New York. Instantly, it claimed lives. To date, it still claims lives as anger and depression still linger in the heart and minds of the victims and those who condemn war.
The notorious effect and consequence of this attack still manifests in the economy of the world’s superpower. Lately the credit rating of the USA declined from AAA to AA+ after seventy years of good standing. While this is America, the decline in the rating adversely affects other countries and kingdoms with whom the “land of milk and honey” deals with.
Unemployment rose in the US mainland; and it creates ripple effect to countries or kingdoms where its economy controls. In the Middle East, several nations or kingdoms forced to implement their own austerity measures to address the status quo. Consequently, unemployment soared.
The 9/11 attack and Al-Qaeda’s subsequent terrorism activities generate newer and bitter approaches to conservative Islamic disposition and faith; these foster factionalism and indifferences. As a result, these create uncontrollable political unrests in the Arab world, more peculiarly in the Middle East and its neighboring nations: Tunisia started the protests that paved the way for its president to flee to Saudi Arabia; the Freedom Square in Cairo paved the way for the re-birth of a new Egypt and thus placed Hosni Mubarak, its president behind bars; Libya’s version of civil defiance still heightens the alert level with Muamar Khadafi defying international laws and attacks; Sudan follows the same suit; Syria’s episode grows worse.
Al-Qaeda’s figure head has been liquidated in an attack in Pakistan. However, as United Nations say, it’s too early to claim victory. While this incident places the group in a weaker stance, Bin Laden’s successor is once again taking control and gaining grounds. The US government and the United Nations anti-Terrorism group are confident that the Muslim extremists group will soon be terminated following these indications.
Recently, riots and unrests were seen in the United Kingdom, another country believed to have a very strong and stable economy and political climate. In Spain, riots, which were triggered by economic depression, are staged.
Consequently, changes in economic and political reforms in these kingdoms and nations usher a new threat to the Filipino workers abroad. For instance, when Bahrain followed the same suit from Egypt, thousands of Filipinos were ferried home and thus landed jobless. Filipino workers in Egypt and Libya were displaced involuntarily. The 17,000 Filipinos in Syria this month were advised to leave the country, which means another story of unemployment.
Conversely, any political unrest, protest, or riot that may take place in countries where expatriates are, particularly Filipinos, will surely bring about personal economic unrest to an individual, regardless of breed or creed.
In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, an abrupt and massive change in employment benefits for its constituents was immediately instituted. The move is aimed at curtailing future political unrests and violence that are similar to its neighboring nations and kingdoms. One major change is the implementation of its re-designed and re-enforced Saudization Law that can effectively bar non-compliant employers from renewing the Iqama of the expatriates, or from hiring expatriates if the required rate of complying with the Law is not met. Incidentally, most employers are not meeting the requirements of the Law, and thus, give millions of OFWs in Saudi Arabia a stern warning.
Arguably though, similar phenomenon will surely come into as the world fights against terrorism and depression. As the month of Ramadan suggests, submissiveness to God brings about newer and better lives. How I wish their world practice what they preach!
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Thursday, August 11, 2011
The Wives of the OFWs
By Rolo B. Cena
The Gulf Files
Dumaguete Star Informer
14 August 2011
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – Undoubtedly, if they can only be nominated for life-time achievement awards, they can be winners by unanimous choice. Surely, no amount of major, major achievement can outbest their performance in life.
In search of the classic greener pasture, husbands cross the borders to share with colleagues the adversities in uncharted kingdoms: high seas of immeasurable depth, hectares of badlands and infinite sand dunes, and miles of jungles and undefined territories. Back home, high prices of commodities, soaring unemployment rates, unfavorable political climate and disturbed economy pushed them to the edge.
Let alone risks come to pass, lest, the tough should get going.
When husbands leave their homesteads, several values at the same time slip off the domicile: fatherhood, control, and affection. Presumably, the ordeal begins.
Unquestionably, wives take over the roles husbands vacated. While they cannot forgo their motherhood, by default they should take on fatherhood. Although it’s psychologically manageable, this vacuum grossly becomes a scare to most of them: authority over kids may not be as effective as the way fathers execute. In our culture, fatherhood dictates authority; more so, authority is always associated with masculinity – an orientation most women dispute or argue with. And to some extent, I agree!
Wives have to earnestly perform blue-collar jobs most of the time: cook, driver, janitor, plumber, electro-mechanic, messenger, tea boy, and guard. While these menial jobs husbands execute become irritating and taxing, the requirement to do takes precedence over ire. Quipped one wife close to me: “Superman has no room in this modern-day environment anymore; wives are!”
Wives have to dutifully execute white-collar jobs most of the time: tutor, counselor, entertainer, priest, and king. While these job roles are shared by husbands and wives, most of the time husbands maintain stronger dominance over these roles.
Although there are wives who are more domineering than husbands, this authority figure or control mechanism over family is more associated with the husbands. Literally and figuratively, fathers do have peculiar and innate quality that make them effective controller. Hercules takes superiority over Aphrodite, in this regard.
Over financial matters, wives are better controller than husbands, although to some extent wives can sometimes be imprudent. The obsessive-compulsive behavior of majority of the wives becomes disparaging as this point. While there are husbands who are themselves imprudent by nature, our culture associate this thing with women.
Quite sensibly, wives are emotionally battered. The temporary alienation from husbands is by itself the cause; it is deterrent to psychological composure that is required in achieving and maintaining self-esteem. This alienation obviously becomes a hindrance to emotional stability. It has become a psychological war wives have to seriously deal with in achieving familial and domestic objectives.
This is why, most marriages fail. Nope, this is not absolute; this is a general statement that should be qualified. Venus is more fragile and more prone to temptations; Mars is tougher than thou, though. But the fragility of Venus cannot be taken single-handedly as the reason why most Gardens withered; Eve leaves home to look for a new Adam. Conversely, husbands who are as tough as Hercules and as hot as Mars are also fragile and prone to temptations. This nature husbands cannot deny or preclude.
Seriously, what is more pressing is when evening falls, no Cupid can provide comforting hugs to usher emotional and psychological security. When nights turn cold, no Romeo can accord gentle caress and body contacts to make one sundown calmly relaxing. When the urge comes, no Adam can share with to release warmth and experience the gist of sensuality and sexuality the beautiful Garden of Eden reserves for them. Conversely, the nights are as maddening as when Cupid escapes form Psyche, or Romeo from Juliet, or Adam from Eve.
However, as one OFW noted, when husbands leave, wives become more substantial, more powerful, and more esteemed.
Yes, they become women of substance: Assumption of fatherhood propelled them to release the energy that’s within them in battling pro-actively the concerns ahead. The vacuum that they occupied accorded them the opportunity to work like “one of the guys” sans the masculinity apparent to these roles. Wives taking on the “suit of husbands” elaborate them with the alter-ego.
Yes, they become women of power: Alienation induces them to exude the power anytime of the day, working hard and double time to relieve husbands from these roles. The energy popping out of status quo exemplifies the conviction that by default wives have to do it with gusto. They are the sentinels and rulers equipped with the most sophisticated of arms and dignified with all the majestic powers.
Yes, they become women of esteem: Emptiness and alienation pushed them to maintain the same self-esteem they used to have. They are the beauty icons enthroned to a superlative degree; honoraries professing faithfully the values of life. They are Aphrodite dressed with the gentlest fabric of human kindness and wrapped with lacy values of life called motherhood.
When children top the class or win competitions, mothers are behind them; when husbands are promoted abroad, wives are behind them. When the government hails overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) as modern-day heroes, wives are with them.
After all, behind every man’s achievement is a woman. Let’s not talk about failure!
The Gulf Files
Dumaguete Star Informer
14 August 2011
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – Undoubtedly, if they can only be nominated for life-time achievement awards, they can be winners by unanimous choice. Surely, no amount of major, major achievement can outbest their performance in life.
In search of the classic greener pasture, husbands cross the borders to share with colleagues the adversities in uncharted kingdoms: high seas of immeasurable depth, hectares of badlands and infinite sand dunes, and miles of jungles and undefined territories. Back home, high prices of commodities, soaring unemployment rates, unfavorable political climate and disturbed economy pushed them to the edge.
Let alone risks come to pass, lest, the tough should get going.
When husbands leave their homesteads, several values at the same time slip off the domicile: fatherhood, control, and affection. Presumably, the ordeal begins.
Unquestionably, wives take over the roles husbands vacated. While they cannot forgo their motherhood, by default they should take on fatherhood. Although it’s psychologically manageable, this vacuum grossly becomes a scare to most of them: authority over kids may not be as effective as the way fathers execute. In our culture, fatherhood dictates authority; more so, authority is always associated with masculinity – an orientation most women dispute or argue with. And to some extent, I agree!
Wives have to earnestly perform blue-collar jobs most of the time: cook, driver, janitor, plumber, electro-mechanic, messenger, tea boy, and guard. While these menial jobs husbands execute become irritating and taxing, the requirement to do takes precedence over ire. Quipped one wife close to me: “Superman has no room in this modern-day environment anymore; wives are!”
Wives have to dutifully execute white-collar jobs most of the time: tutor, counselor, entertainer, priest, and king. While these job roles are shared by husbands and wives, most of the time husbands maintain stronger dominance over these roles.
Although there are wives who are more domineering than husbands, this authority figure or control mechanism over family is more associated with the husbands. Literally and figuratively, fathers do have peculiar and innate quality that make them effective controller. Hercules takes superiority over Aphrodite, in this regard.
Over financial matters, wives are better controller than husbands, although to some extent wives can sometimes be imprudent. The obsessive-compulsive behavior of majority of the wives becomes disparaging as this point. While there are husbands who are themselves imprudent by nature, our culture associate this thing with women.
Quite sensibly, wives are emotionally battered. The temporary alienation from husbands is by itself the cause; it is deterrent to psychological composure that is required in achieving and maintaining self-esteem. This alienation obviously becomes a hindrance to emotional stability. It has become a psychological war wives have to seriously deal with in achieving familial and domestic objectives.
This is why, most marriages fail. Nope, this is not absolute; this is a general statement that should be qualified. Venus is more fragile and more prone to temptations; Mars is tougher than thou, though. But the fragility of Venus cannot be taken single-handedly as the reason why most Gardens withered; Eve leaves home to look for a new Adam. Conversely, husbands who are as tough as Hercules and as hot as Mars are also fragile and prone to temptations. This nature husbands cannot deny or preclude.
Seriously, what is more pressing is when evening falls, no Cupid can provide comforting hugs to usher emotional and psychological security. When nights turn cold, no Romeo can accord gentle caress and body contacts to make one sundown calmly relaxing. When the urge comes, no Adam can share with to release warmth and experience the gist of sensuality and sexuality the beautiful Garden of Eden reserves for them. Conversely, the nights are as maddening as when Cupid escapes form Psyche, or Romeo from Juliet, or Adam from Eve.
However, as one OFW noted, when husbands leave, wives become more substantial, more powerful, and more esteemed.
Yes, they become women of substance: Assumption of fatherhood propelled them to release the energy that’s within them in battling pro-actively the concerns ahead. The vacuum that they occupied accorded them the opportunity to work like “one of the guys” sans the masculinity apparent to these roles. Wives taking on the “suit of husbands” elaborate them with the alter-ego.
Yes, they become women of power: Alienation induces them to exude the power anytime of the day, working hard and double time to relieve husbands from these roles. The energy popping out of status quo exemplifies the conviction that by default wives have to do it with gusto. They are the sentinels and rulers equipped with the most sophisticated of arms and dignified with all the majestic powers.
Yes, they become women of esteem: Emptiness and alienation pushed them to maintain the same self-esteem they used to have. They are the beauty icons enthroned to a superlative degree; honoraries professing faithfully the values of life. They are Aphrodite dressed with the gentlest fabric of human kindness and wrapped with lacy values of life called motherhood.
When children top the class or win competitions, mothers are behind them; when husbands are promoted abroad, wives are behind them. When the government hails overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) as modern-day heroes, wives are with them.
After all, behind every man’s achievement is a woman. Let’s not talk about failure!
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Tenebrae
By Rolo b. Cena
The Gulf Files
07 August 2011
Riyadh , Saudi Arabia – Shortly before the Ramadan started, seven members of the elite Philippine Marines were killed in fierce fighting with the Abu Sayyaf in the jungles of Sulu; five of them were beheaded. As far as I can recall, in 2007, ten Marines were also beheaded by the same Muslim factionalists.
Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar which lasts for 29 or 30 days. It is the month of fasting in which participating Muslims are expected to refrain from eating, drinking and engaging intimacy with their partners during daylight hours. This month is also intended to teach Muslims about the following virtues: patience, spirituality, humility, forgiveness and submissiveness to God.
For the Islam, beheading is the punishment for committing serious crimes against Qur’an and against the Arabic government. Incidentally though, those Marines were not criminals; they were protectors of the country where they, these bandits, are living and are offered a better life after scavenging for an ideology only they can succumb.
Shortly before Ramadan, five noble Filipinos were beheaded in defense of their country, of their allegiance to the Philippine flag, of their commitment to their family and loved ones. On that very same day, a new breed of hatred and vengeance, frustration and despair, separation and disunity were born.
Along with those five Philippine Marines died the virtue of patience these breed purport to behold during the month of fasting. It is the same patience those heroes profess to exemplify in the depths of the treacherous jungles of Sulu and Basilan; the same virtue their brothers claim in the badlands of Iraq.
Along with those five Philippine Marines died the virtue of spirituality these breed claim to practice during the month of fasting. It is the same spirituality those Christians walk that became the living foundation of their service to the Country. It is the same spirituality manifested by Cardinal Sin in calling all the faithful to march to EDSA in the hope of toppling a tyrant without shedding any blood.
It is the same spirituality that brought an Irish priest in the hands of these bandits; the same spirituality that brought American couple missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham to the country and being kidnapped by the same group in 2001; the same spirituality that killed the former and saved the latter.
Along with those five Philippine Marines died the virtue of humility these factionalists claim in utter disregard. It is the same humility those humble Marines project whose preponderance makes them distinct and elite from all other forces armed to protect the Country. It is the same humility that makes these Muslim factionalists distinct and peculiar from their race; the same humility that their Qur’an and the Holy Bible preach.
It is the same humility that catapulted then former Pres. Corazon Aquino to power; the same virtue that raised her name to be the icon of democracy; the same humility Mahatma Gandhi professed in the height of protests against the aristocratic United Kingdom.
Along with those five Philippine Marines died the virtue of forgiveness these perpetrators believe they can manifest by way of beheading Christians. It is the same virtue of forgiveness Prophet Mohammad and Jesus Christ walked along the deserts of the chosen lands; the same forgiveness that Christ epitomized before His Roman and Jewish captors.
Along with those five Philippine Marines died the virtue of submissiveness to God these attackers exude to their fellow Islam that could lead to total world peace. It is the same virtue that has been guiding those heroes despite the order to kill the enemies of the state.
It is the same submissiveness to God that led all Christians in Iraq to a bizarre situation: being hunted or pushed out of their own homestead. It is the same submissiveness to God that puts the Islam in Israel to be discriminated by Christians.
Those Marines couldn’t do more than killing them in pursuit of national peace and unity for the country; those factionalists couldn’t do more than beheading them in defense of their ideology. Each party is trapped: a circumstance that sprung out of an ideological conflict, the same ideological conflict that rocked the Americas via 911, the same conflict that manifests in the badlands of Iraq and Afghanistan.
It is the same ideological conflict that gave rise to the first and the second global war. Can we ever stop this?
For as long as kingdoms rise against kingdoms, nations against nations, race against race, scenarios like this will never cease. Coupled with the same greed that originated from the Garden of Iraq (Mesopotamia) and Persia (Iran), war will always play its uncanny role in controlling the world: the prey tightly squeezed by the claws of its troubled marauders.
War is more than just an expression of ideology; war is greed!
The Gulf Files
07 August 2011
Riyadh , Saudi Arabia – Shortly before the Ramadan started, seven members of the elite Philippine Marines were killed in fierce fighting with the Abu Sayyaf in the jungles of Sulu; five of them were beheaded. As far as I can recall, in 2007, ten Marines were also beheaded by the same Muslim factionalists.
Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar which lasts for 29 or 30 days. It is the month of fasting in which participating Muslims are expected to refrain from eating, drinking and engaging intimacy with their partners during daylight hours. This month is also intended to teach Muslims about the following virtues: patience, spirituality, humility, forgiveness and submissiveness to God.
For the Islam, beheading is the punishment for committing serious crimes against Qur’an and against the Arabic government. Incidentally though, those Marines were not criminals; they were protectors of the country where they, these bandits, are living and are offered a better life after scavenging for an ideology only they can succumb.
Shortly before Ramadan, five noble Filipinos were beheaded in defense of their country, of their allegiance to the Philippine flag, of their commitment to their family and loved ones. On that very same day, a new breed of hatred and vengeance, frustration and despair, separation and disunity were born.
Along with those five Philippine Marines died the virtue of patience these breed purport to behold during the month of fasting. It is the same patience those heroes profess to exemplify in the depths of the treacherous jungles of Sulu and Basilan; the same virtue their brothers claim in the badlands of Iraq.
Along with those five Philippine Marines died the virtue of spirituality these breed claim to practice during the month of fasting. It is the same spirituality those Christians walk that became the living foundation of their service to the Country. It is the same spirituality manifested by Cardinal Sin in calling all the faithful to march to EDSA in the hope of toppling a tyrant without shedding any blood.
It is the same spirituality that brought an Irish priest in the hands of these bandits; the same spirituality that brought American couple missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham to the country and being kidnapped by the same group in 2001; the same spirituality that killed the former and saved the latter.
Along with those five Philippine Marines died the virtue of humility these factionalists claim in utter disregard. It is the same humility those humble Marines project whose preponderance makes them distinct and elite from all other forces armed to protect the Country. It is the same humility that makes these Muslim factionalists distinct and peculiar from their race; the same humility that their Qur’an and the Holy Bible preach.
It is the same humility that catapulted then former Pres. Corazon Aquino to power; the same virtue that raised her name to be the icon of democracy; the same humility Mahatma Gandhi professed in the height of protests against the aristocratic United Kingdom.
Along with those five Philippine Marines died the virtue of forgiveness these perpetrators believe they can manifest by way of beheading Christians. It is the same virtue of forgiveness Prophet Mohammad and Jesus Christ walked along the deserts of the chosen lands; the same forgiveness that Christ epitomized before His Roman and Jewish captors.
Along with those five Philippine Marines died the virtue of submissiveness to God these attackers exude to their fellow Islam that could lead to total world peace. It is the same virtue that has been guiding those heroes despite the order to kill the enemies of the state.
It is the same submissiveness to God that led all Christians in Iraq to a bizarre situation: being hunted or pushed out of their own homestead. It is the same submissiveness to God that puts the Islam in Israel to be discriminated by Christians.
Those Marines couldn’t do more than killing them in pursuit of national peace and unity for the country; those factionalists couldn’t do more than beheading them in defense of their ideology. Each party is trapped: a circumstance that sprung out of an ideological conflict, the same ideological conflict that rocked the Americas via 911, the same conflict that manifests in the badlands of Iraq and Afghanistan.
It is the same ideological conflict that gave rise to the first and the second global war. Can we ever stop this?
For as long as kingdoms rise against kingdoms, nations against nations, race against race, scenarios like this will never cease. Coupled with the same greed that originated from the Garden of Iraq (Mesopotamia) and Persia (Iran), war will always play its uncanny role in controlling the world: the prey tightly squeezed by the claws of its troubled marauders.
War is more than just an expression of ideology; war is greed!
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