tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21960491Tue, 07 Oct 2014 01:28:27 +0000Mandanas BillHB 5028RHANConscientious Objection<p> By Carolina S. Ruiz Austria</p> <p>The word <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/">"Heresy"</a></p>was used by Irenaeus in Contra Haereses to discredit his opponents in the early Christian Church. It has no purely objective meaning without an authoritative system of dogma.http://carolinaruizaustria.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Carolina S. Ruiz Austria)Blogger70125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21960491.post-1959410877139728210Mon, 19 Nov 2012 00:42:00 +00002012-11-19T08:45:52.858+08:00 <!--StartFragment--> By Carolina Ruiz Austria Make no mistake. A handful of men are the reason why Filipino women are not about to get access to reproductive health care services anytime soon. As former Congresswoman, Risa Baraquel Hontiveros pointed out earlier this year; the proponents of the RH Bill have more than the sufficient numbers to pass the bill. RH advocates in the current http://carolinaruizaustria.blogspot.com/2012/11/misogynists-in-our-midst-wishing-for.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Carolina S. Ruiz Austria)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21960491.post-8755117852842891932Fri, 11 Nov 2011 17:16:00 +00002011-11-12T09:50:49.241+08:00"Matter has weight and occupies space." This curious fragment of memory that comes to mind right now (a tidbit left behind no doubt from third-grade science lessons learned by rote) seems to me, to be a fitting way to think about emerging "Occupy" movements around the world. Political acts of "occupation" (along with more fleeting forms like lie ins or die ins, camp outs and strike-blockades etc.http://carolinaruizaustria.blogspot.com/2011/11/making-things-and-bodies-matter-occupy.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Carolina S. Ruiz Austria)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21960491.post-1526262256727772335Thu, 16 Dec 2010 08:36:00 +00002010-12-16T16:45:56.924+08:00<!--StartFragment--> By Carolina S. Ruiz Austria* “ A pure and simple faith is as distinct from fanaticism as the flame from smoke or music from discords: only the fools and the deaf confuse them. Between ourselves we can say that the idea of purgatory is good, holy, and rational. It perpetuates the union of those who were and those who are, leading thus to greater purity of life. The evilhttp://carolinaruizaustria.blogspot.com/2010/12/reforming-reformers-sexists-spinners.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Carolina S. Ruiz Austria)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21960491.post-2049187191624002975Thu, 24 Jun 2010 17:55:00 +00002010-06-25T04:05:04.446+08:00It is an exaggeration of course. Being transferred from one campus to another to spend four nights at a very new student residence in the first world does not quite cut it as far as most people's conventional idea of what an evacuation (or being an evacuee) is like. I should know. I'm from a third world country. The only other time I remeber having to leave home was because of a huge flood in http://carolinaruizaustria.blogspot.com/2010/06/my-life-and-times-as-evacuee-or-how-i.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Carolina S. Ruiz Austria)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21960491.post-3114185759132621520Sat, 01 Aug 2009 03:37:00 +00002009-08-01T21:48:52.951+08:00"The greatest paradox of our existence consists in this: that, in order to understand, we must first encumber ourselves with all the intellectual and emotional baggage which is an impediment to understanding." Aldous Huxley, 1956 On Thursday this week, while a brilliant colleague of mine (a law professor) spoke about the Constitution, I was struck about what he said about (in essence) coming fromhttp://carolinaruizaustria.blogspot.com/2009/08/mourning-corys-passing-confessions-of.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Carolina S. Ruiz Austria)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21960491.post-5025884712925453612Thu, 26 Mar 2009 14:55:00 +00002009-03-27T02:32:25.742+08:00An unlikely conversation on gender through an annoying pop songI don't have anything against Beyonce Knowles and happen to think she is both very beautiful and talented but the first time I heard her song "Single Ladies," I thought it sucked. How do I explain my almost visceral reaction to having endured the song being played by the hour in almost all public spaces (e.g. public transport, malls, http://carolinaruizaustria.blogspot.com/2009/03/listen-up-single-ladies.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Carolina S. Ruiz Austria)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21960491.post-2590526604313618910Fri, 06 Mar 2009 05:02:00 +00002009-03-10T20:56:18.401+08:00I spoke before a group of health practitioners today. While many of them were nurses and midwives, many more were doctors of obstetrics and gynecology. The topic I was assigned was the reproductive health bill but since the main sponsor of the bill was also an invited speaker, I decided to talk about only one thing in the bill: "conscientious objection." But before I could even begin my short http://carolinaruizaustria.blogspot.com/2009/03/doctors-and-lawyers.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Carolina S. Ruiz Austria)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21960491.post-5128664728530126493Tue, 27 Jan 2009 09:47:00 +00002009-01-27T22:24:45.212+08:00“Corruption denies the poor their fair share, and reinforces the gender and social gaps, because corrupt payments are made in exchange for breaking rules of fairness in employment, justice, and procurement." Renaud Meyer, Country Director United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Last week I listened to a series of lectures about Budget Reform Advocacy. On the surface, and just from its title http://carolinaruizaustria.blogspot.com/2009/01/corruption-as-issue-of-welfare-and.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Carolina S. Ruiz Austria)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21960491.post-4914969249384766129Tue, 20 Jan 2009 16:12:00 +00002009-01-21T02:08:26.855+08:00Many have called it historic and everybody points out how the inauguration of America's first African American President is a landmark in US politics. I certainly don't discount the political significance and the culturally symbolic importance of Obama's rise to the US Presidency for the issues of race and ethnicity or even democracy. But Barack Obama has come to represent so much more because ofhttp://carolinaruizaustria.blogspot.com/2009/01/obama-makes-it-cool-to-care-again.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Carolina S. Ruiz Austria)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21960491.post-571641127194534631Thu, 27 Nov 2008 13:44:00 +00002008-11-27T21:57:12.316+08:00Many Catholic churches all over the Philippines currently display huge, towering banners with a dark and sinister, hooded figure carrying a child. The frightening image proclaims an even more frightening message: to oppose the bill on Reproductive Health (RH). While there are no new battle lines here (the church’s stand against contraception turned forty this year), it is the intensity of the http://carolinaruizaustria.blogspot.com/2008/11/resisting-religious-imposition-catholic.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Carolina S. Ruiz Austria)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21960491.post-8723434860758085860Sat, 27 Sep 2008 09:33:00 +00002008-09-29T20:59:13.471+08:00As I write this post, the Philippine Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) has not yet posted any results of its product tests on milk (and other food products) suspected of contaning melamine. But it has, however, withdrawn four milk brands from testing.Melamine, a synthetic polymer is primarily used as a flame retardant and resin for furniture, tiles, fabrics and plastics. It is highly toxic and evenhttp://carolinaruizaustria.blogspot.com/2008/09/milking-issue-market-wars.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Carolina S. Ruiz Austria)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21960491.post-1106978545800020117Sun, 17 Aug 2008 12:49:00 +00002008-08-17T22:15:17.048+08:00If yes, how much?I have to admit that when I found out that a forum on "Faith and the University" hosted by the University of the Philippines Christian Youth Movement was going to tackle the often thorny issues of church and state last Thursday (August 14, 2008), I was more than curious. I had selfish reasons of course. I am just about to hand in my final revisions on an LLM thesis in which I http://carolinaruizaustria.blogspot.com/2008/08/should-god-pay-rent.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Carolina S. Ruiz Austria)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21960491.post-8315328544882006930Fri, 20 Jun 2008 09:49:00 +00002008-06-20T18:43:45.369+08:00Don't look now but it looks like there is going to be a new Philippine law that penalizes "any portrayal or attitude of an individual or an object as sexually attractive or stimulating, and whose portrayal or attitude is aimed merely to excite the imagination, and has no relevance to the goods or services being promoted.” It didn't eaxctly make headline news because right now, both local and http://carolinaruizaustria.blogspot.com/2008/06/contested-meanings-of-womens-rights-new.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Carolina S. Ruiz Austria)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21960491.post-5961608460385610243Sun, 17 Feb 2008 19:09:00 +00002008-02-18T04:21:07.784+08:00If you're somebody looking for an excuse not to do the work that is piling up before your eyes (even as you look for new excuses to avoid it), chances are, you'll look to the internet for distraction. This was how a friend described his "wasted" afternoon on the now popular moymoypalaboy, a comedic brother pair on You Tube.Like a true denizen of the internet, my friend lost no time spreading the http://carolinaruizaustria.blogspot.com/2008/02/pinoys-unfailing-humor-moymoypalaboy.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Carolina S. Ruiz Austria)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21960491.post-8621888960690783844Thu, 24 Jan 2008 21:22:00 +00002008-01-25T06:36:23.002+08:00In terms of a potential to generate controversy and heated debates, euthenasia is probably right up there alongside abortion. Or is it? (This is after all a very Vatican-like way of categorizing these issues.) In over 9 countries in the European Union, Prof. Maurice Adams from the Tilburg University of the Netehrlands and the University of Antwerp in Belgium notes that there has been a common http://carolinaruizaustria.blogspot.com/2008/01/inescapable-ethical-dilemmas.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Carolina S. Ruiz Austria)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21960491.post-446918201480388782Mon, 21 Jan 2008 03:19:00 +00002008-01-21T12:23:49.923+08:00Now a word, googling is now familiar to Internet fandom as "looking up somebody's name in the Google search engine." On the other hand, if you google yourself, your'e supposedly egosurfing. The first time I was told by somebody that they "googled" me before meeting me, I kind of found it creepy but the feeling soon passed when I realized I had done the same with various authors, celebrities and http://carolinaruizaustria.blogspot.com/2008/01/art-of-googling-and-ego-surfing.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Carolina S. Ruiz Austria)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21960491.post-168467077697182201Sat, 12 Jan 2008 01:42:00 +00002008-01-16T04:25:23.270+08:00Before watching Ang Lee's "Lust, Caution," I already read many reviews about the movie that weren't really "raving" about it the way critics had been over Brokeback Mountain. I watched it anyway and I liked it a lot. Its really difficult to compare it with "Brokeback Mountain" which is what a lot of critics and film reviewers were doing since it was Ang Lee's most recently well acclaimed work.I http://carolinaruizaustria.blogspot.com/2008/01/ang-lee-tackles-banality-of-evil.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Carolina S. Ruiz Austria)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21960491.post-4165003616118226314Tue, 01 Jan 2008 03:53:00 +00002008-01-07T07:29:58.026+08:00Children have the uncanny ability to connect without needing (or depending) on language. While this picture looks like any group of school aged children having fun, its actually a picture of a Filipino girl (my daughter) who doesn't speak or understand Japanese and two boys (sons of our friend Mako and Siloy), who don't speak or understand anything but Japanese. Wev'e seen it happen before of http://carolinaruizaustria.blogspot.com/2008/01/communication-as-childs-play.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Carolina S. Ruiz Austria)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21960491.post-5352418596042685290Fri, 21 Dec 2007 01:56:00 +00002007-12-25T09:52:30.878+08:00As the season drew near I seriously avoided listening to radio stations that were playing Christmas songs over the radio here in Toronto but after a while that meant less radio listening (or none). So as I dug into my graduate research papers over the last two weeks, I managed to tune out and just keep the songs in the background. It was news of the weather I was usually after and I started http://carolinaruizaustria.blogspot.com/2007/12/christmas-away-from-home.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Carolina S. Ruiz Austria)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21960491.post-3588373113353933256Fri, 07 Dec 2007 21:36:00 +00002007-12-08T06:18:28.996+08:00This is just after the first snow storm of the season. It is going to get worse of course. The temperature averages -9 (-12 the lowest so far, and -3 most parts of the day when its not too bad) So who am I to complain? My friends now living in the Netherlands and Finland of course consider this pretty normal. As pretty as snow is when it falls (and when it isn't "wet"), I have to say I like the "http://carolinaruizaustria.blogspot.com/2007/12/sense-of-community.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Carolina S. Ruiz Austria)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21960491.post-1435205934797656416Sun, 04 Nov 2007 05:55:00 +00002007-12-08T05:36:06.180+08:00I suppose it is part of being in a foreign country. The moment I came to Canada, I was acutely aware and conscious of my racial difference. But I guess here in Toronto, the heightened sense of “difference” can also be accounted for because of the sheer diversity of the mix. At the same time it made feel absolutely “welcome.” (Hey I’m not the only Asian!) In fact the campus of St. George is http://carolinaruizaustria.blogspot.com/2007/11/multiculturalism-and-sexual-politics.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Carolina S. Ruiz Austria)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21960491.post-3030459007015759588Sat, 20 Oct 2007 01:04:00 +00002007-10-20T10:04:26.825+08:00When the Knox residence manual warned us that the college residence and College of Theology and the Presbyterian church is quite a popular place for weekend weddings and where people actually go to film stuff, I didn't actually think much about it. Sure the architecture is certainly beautiful but what are the chances of that happening anyway?It turns out that Canada, and since 2002, Toronto http://carolinaruizaustria.blogspot.com/2007/10/hollywood-north.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Carolina S. Ruiz Austria)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21960491.post-6329733911423113502Fri, 05 Oct 2007 15:30:00 +00002007-10-06T00:39:59.048+08:00When I got the petition asking Filipinos all over the world to demand an apology from ABC over a supposed "racial slur" in a "Desperate Houswives" episode, I suspended my judgement util I could view the episode excerpt myself. This, despite receiving the petiton from what I would call in my case, trusted sources. They were colleagues and friends from the DFA whose moral judgements and ethical http://carolinaruizaustria.blogspot.com/2007/10/desperately-seeking-racists.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Carolina S. Ruiz Austria)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21960491.post-884237955177904984Thu, 27 Sep 2007 03:36:00 +00002007-09-27T11:41:53.682+08:00---TORONTOMy room at Knox Residence does have a great view of the courtyard. September is about to end but it isn’t quite “autumn” weather just yet and the contrast of brightly emerald green grass and summer flowers of violet and fuscia are still here, lingering a while longer and picture perfect.But to get this view (for this picture), I had to clear away assorted toiletries and remove clothes http://carolinaruizaustria.blogspot.com/2007/09/room-with-view.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Carolina S. Ruiz Austria)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21960491.post-7492498769126122395Sat, 08 Sep 2007 03:17:00 +00002007-09-08T11:47:05.145+08:00As a write this down, I note (with regret) how the past month has left me little choice but to neglect this blog. Apart from not having an entry in the entire month of August, I hesitated most of the time about writing on my daily obsession for the past month: higher education.Today is the day of reckoning of course, It has been a month since I submitted my student visa application to the http://carolinaruizaustria.blogspot.com/2007/09/my-philosophy-of-underwear.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Carolina S. Ruiz Austria)0