mom.

Quietly celebrated Mother's day Today.  I am not a woman who notes every special event --I should, but I am currently struggling with my children's birthdates that I do not have the time and patience to add "special days" that is mostly dictated by tradition and enhanced by commercialism.  

I have nothing against tradition, in fact, despite our gadgets and techie toys, most of our perspective are still traditional, shaped by prejudices, sharpened by old lessons and hardened by our mother's nagging.  

I, for example, am battling the chain of domestic chores that our patriarchal society tie on women.  I've struggled to become an independent modern woman, with a career to toy with and a clean sink to go home to.  I was successful in avoiding the dishes, but I still find myself washing plates of different kinds.  It's like leaving my simple little kitchen to prove that I can, only to find myself doing THE task I'm avoiding -- but this time, in a more complicated and bigger food station. 

My mother, in all her strictness and monologues, was not wrong when she said that I will someday be like her.  In all my daring attempts to test my boundaries, I find myself creating a pen around my children's.  In my careless wanderings, I find myself holding back my kid's attempt to explore outside the line I set for them.  In all my modern perspective, I still cannot help myself from raising my kids the way my mother raised me, not as tight -- but close nonetheless.

I stil don't understand the concept of nagging, but I think it has to do with the flood of information that you want to share and the rush of emotions and the limitations of language. 

 The experience of wanting to protect the people you care about is so intense that words are not enough to cater your flowing affection.  My mother, was scared to lose me as she watched me struggle as I try to break the cocoon she made for me... She felt a sense of urgency as she watched me peel off layer after layer of the sheltered life she gave me that each verbal reminder is thrusted with a forceful blow hitting the mark harder than usual.

She unknowingly bruised my memory, wounded my soul, and hurt my pride.We always hurt the people we love the most.  But it's been years since I've stopped licking my wounds. It's a love and hate relationship -- the best of its kind.

I am a mother now.  Or trying to be a good one. But I will always be a little girl in my mom's eyes. 

*smiles I find nothing wrong with that.

Happy Mothers Day...

Mothers in developing nations are often last to eat, despite producing most of the food! This Mother's Day let's help a mom feed her child.

Instead of giving a traditional Hallmark card, it would be great if they could add an ecard to the Wall Against Hunger: wall.wfp.org

This time, after we give flowers and treat our mothers, let's extend our hand to starving mothers who are faceless to the many of us but is real as the one we have.  A little help and a little time will not hurt us nor but will definitely be something for the women who has nothing but their children - literally.

Mothers and Hunger

The Facts  
by Wall.wfp.org

 Key points:

• More than 60 percent of chronically hungry people in the world – around 580 million people – are women. (Source: FAO)
  
•  In 2008, 82% of WFP’s beneficiaries were women and children.
  
•  Educated mothers have healthier families. Their children are better nourished, less likely to die in infancy and more likely to attend school. (Source: FAO)
  
•  Increasing opportunities for mothers has a particularly strong impact on hunger because women devote much more of their income directly to feeding their families than men do. One study found that increasing women's primary schooling could boost agricultural output by 24%. (Source: World Bank)
  
•  As women have unequal access to resources, a food crisis - such as 2008’s high food and fuel prices crisis and the present financial crisis – only worsens the situation.
  
•  Continuing high food prices have forced families to reduce their food intake while increasing the workload of women in order to earn more income to purchase food.
  
•  Breaking the cycle of hunger and poverty at its roots begins with women. Hunger breeds insecurity and often exacerbates circumstances that lead to conflict and crisis, and creates situations where women and girls are often the victims of abuse, rape and violence.
  

 Other points:

•  A quarter of all hungry people are children. All too often, child hunger is inherited: up to 17 million children are born underweight annually, the result of inadequate nutrition before and during pregnancy. (Source: Unicef) 
  
• Around 50% of pregnant women in developing countries are anaemic. Lack of iron increases the risk of death of the mother at delivery, accounting for at least 20% of maternal mortality. (Source: Kraemer, K. and Zimmermann, M.B. Nutritional Anaemia, Sight and Life, 2007)
  
•  Children born to iodine-deficient mothers have been shown to have an average 13.5 point lower IQ than children born to iodine-replete mothers. (Source: Bleichrodt, N. and Born, M.P. A Meta-analysis of Research on Iodine and its Rrelationship to Cognitive Development. The Damaged Brain of Iodine Deficiency, New York, Cognitizant Communication, 1994)
  
•  As a result, women, and in particular expectant and nursing mothers, often need special or increased intake of food.
  
•  The prevention of maternal and child undernutrition is a long-term investment that will benefit the present as well as the future generation.
  
•  Women are the world’s primary food producers, yet cultural traditions and social structures often mean women are much more affected by hunger and poverty than men.
  
•  In most developing countries women produce between 60 and 80% of food, but own less than 2% of the world’s titled land. (Source: Rural Development Institute)
  
•  A mother will often be the last to eat – instead saving food for her children and other family members.
  
•  There is a danger that mothers will engage in negative coping mechanisms, such as prostitution, in order to provide for their families in times of hardship.

 What WFP Does to Help Mothers and Other Women

• As the world’s largest humanitarian organisation, WFP feeds the world’s hungriest and most vulnerable people – the overwhelming majority of whom are women and children.
  
•  WFP’s policy on gender issues has been in place and guiding our work since the mid 80s.
  
•  WFP uses a range of activities to empower mothers and their daughters, providing vital skills and income-earning opportunities through Food for Training and Food for Work programmes.
  
•  WFP supports children and mothers by providing them with nutritious foods during the critical stages of their lives, including childhood and pregnancy. Our focus is not to just give any food, but to give quality, fortified foods to ensure that we contribute to the nutrient needs of newborns, pregnant and nursing women.
  
• WFP works with national governments, the African Union, FAO, IFAD and others to encourage increased sustainable food production and a ‘green revolution’ in Africa. Women smallholder farmers are key to unlocking this potential.
  
•  WFP supports women smallholder farmers through our local purchasing of food. Half of WFP’s budget comes in the form of cash and we use 80% of that cash to purchase food from farmers in the developing world.
  
•  WFP gives extra take-home food rations to girls in our school feeding programmes. This virtually guarantees that girls will attend school, even in cultures where women have had no access to education.
  
•  In crisis and conflict situations WFP works closely with our female partners in implementing our projects, including food distributions. In 2008, 574,000 women were in leadership positions on food management committees, an increase of 140% over the previous year.
  
•  In camps for refugees and IDPs we allocate family food vouchers to women, thus helping to protect them against abductions and violence. Also, the nutritional support we provide to formerly abducted children, especially girls, has facilitated their social reintegration and reduced their vulnerability to sexual exploitation and abuse.

FLU updates

As of May 05, the World Health Organization (WHO)  have officially reported 985 cases of the A (H1N1) infection... 

But this flu is in humans not in swine. So certain precautions have been done to protect our piggies from infected human beings.  The flu outbreak first reported in Mexico are in human and not in swine, although after the pigs become infected, they can infect humans also.  So precautions to keep infected people away from pigs are being done and necessary quarantines are being ordered to help the spread of this threat.  Around 6,000 pigs were killed and cremated becuase of they've acquired an infection and and certain hog farmers are being quarantined.

For the Past decades, we blame the animals for our diseases.Roles have been reversed this time. 

well, except for Canada where they found  A (H1N1) virus in pigs.

As an extra precaution, it is recommended to wash our hands longer. Senator Loren Legarda recommends that we wash our hands as we Sing the Happy Birthday song twice (the song only lasts 30sec).  

message from oblivion by no one

Have you ever felt the walls are closing in on you?

 and that the air has become thicker with the all their thoughts of you that you feel like throwing up? 

That's what I felt these past few weeks... 

I'm just tired. Plain tired of having to pay with my everything just becuase they've decided to hand everything to me in a silver platter...something I am grateful and ungrateful for... 

so when an opportunity to run presented itself, I ran..and ran away so fast I was dizzy for a moment. 

Now I'm in a strange place with few familiar faces to call on to...but I will let go of that too -- then I'll start anew.

where nobody knows me. 

nobody knows about who I am. 

Nobody knows what I can do. --where I am but a face in the crowd and a stranger on the street. Where nobody can disturb my peace amidst the noisy crowded places I've sulked myself in. Where I can sigh in peace and where nobody is breathing on my neck.

I have lived a full life, yes.  They have made sure of that...

but this time... regardless of the mud and muck, the darkness and uncertainty --I'm gonna live my life-- not becuase they said so -- but becuase I chose to.  

In my own space. Own time. Own pace.

Note to myself -- you have less than five days to linger in oblivion---come back before the 10th -- you have a scheduled shoot to do.

Pacquiao wins by TKO!

another victory for manny pacquiao

London bridge's fallin down...fallin down... 

fallin down...

fallin down...

fallin down...

Yep,it did -- in MGM Grand in front of 16,000 people --and it did so with the left hook of the "the best pound for pound fighter, Manny Pacquio. 

"Pacman" first shook "the Hitman" with two knockdowns in the first round --making us all jump up and down for joy -- and finally pounded the bridge down to the ground on the second round at exactly 2 minutes and 59  seconds with his left hook, landing perfectly on Hatton's right jaw -- resulting to a TKO.

How it happened- ehem

Manny Pacquiao displayed great control and discipline in throwing out his punches as he sweetly took his time waiting for the right timing even after the first two knockdowns in the first round. Had it been me, I'd be impatiently gritting my teeth to punch him again to put his light out..

Pacquiao used a right-left-right combo and a follow up uppercut to the jaw combination for the first knockdown and an overhand left for the second one.

Hatton fell into the trap of avoiding the left only to be surprised by Manny's powerful right paw hook making him bleed in the nose before finally greeting the parrallel world after Manny gave him a left hook, so powerful it rendered Britain's boxing pride flat and unconscious on his back for a few minutes--  No, the 3 knockdown rule is not applicable in this bout -- but it doesn't really matter now, does it?

After checking the unmoving Hatton -- The referee, Kenny Bayless then announced Manny Pacquio the winner by TKO.

woohoooo!!!!

In this fight, Ricky Hatton lost his IBO Light Welterweight Title and Ring Magazine Junior Welterweight Title -- ending his four-year reign as a Champion in this division. This is Hatton's second major loss after Mayweather Jr. and a great win for own People's Champ.  

I was expecting a longer interesting fight, Hatton is after all a very good fighter, undefeated in the Light Welterweight Division and has been a champion 15 times in various categories and division.  In fact, in the scorecards, Hatton gave out 18 blows compared to Manny's 8. -- but what the scorecard cannot display is the force of each blow and the power of the punches rendered. Sometimes, the one that bears the higher number in the card doesnt come out the champion...

I was actually nervous, thinking Hatton might be a tougher opponent...Before I say anything else -- let me be clear -- Im still expecting Pacquiao to win(haller! =P) but I'm expecting a bloddy wittle show to entertain me -- you know a little cut on the brows, a mugged face, and maybe swelling ankles?  I mean, the write ups and background on this Hatton is quite impressive, I don't think he was called "The Hitman for nothing -- duh... 

And when Hatton first came out, he projected an image on the screen to be someone so tough, you'd be running home to your daddy after you hear him growl (no he didn't growl but his music to his VTR before his introduction was kinda impressive except that it ended with this old song I hear my uncles would sing in videoke-- I know it -- arrghhh - forgot the title...grrr).  

Anyway, let's leave the song behind -- Hatton was all serious and displaying his prowess with the way he stand and walk and pose...compared to the goofy shy look of Manny who came out smiling as if he's attending a graduation!

I was shaking my head and everybody in the theater was laughing when we first saw him -- he had this kiddie expression on his face especially after he found the camera and shyly smiled as if it's his first time to be on tv - damn! almost expected him to even wave!-- good thing he did not. Hahaha. And to think Times Magazine named him in their 100 Most Influential People around the World!  sheesh.

 -- so what's next for manny? Vacation he answered hahahha! but there are talks of Mayweather coming back from his retirement to box against Morales...Oh yes, the same Morales who gave Manny the hardest time in the ring many months ago...  Talks of rematch are being buzzed but this time with Mayweather Jr. in the scene.  Manny has been bouncing from one division to another, always leaving a victorious mark --- and it seems as if he's defeated one champion after another -- and Mayweather may pose to be another challenge to conquer... could it be? think he might be the next to fight against Pacman after his Morales bout? well that is if he wins against Morales... If Morales wins--- hmmm wow...Either way - that is something worth hoping for.

Can anyone tell that I am smiling widely right ow as I am writing this post? yep I am - ----awwwoooooo! one great hoot for a great fight and for the greatest fighter there is!  

--- oh -- BTW before I forget -- 

anyone saw the fight of Soto? his bout was the last one before Pacquiao and Hatton's bout.

It was great. He is a new favorite.  Young, only in his 20s and hungry for life.  I'm gonna be waiting for this kid's moment in the limelight--- and his first name is Jesus -- yep... Jesus Soto Karass -- that should tell you there is something in this kid ^.^

--photos after the fight--

Can you tell we all went out of the theater happy?! ^.^

child photography

i love taking photos of children and women. this is my favorite so far for this month. hope u all like it ^.^

wtf?! who is that?!

hooookay - anybody got any invites or pms from an account name leah_valle2002?

well -- i did -- wtf?!
i don't need me to invite myself to be my friend
-- twisted as it sounds --and twisted I may be--

see, I got a friend request -- and i was puzzled to see my name on it.  thought it is just a coincidence... I have a facebook friend who has the same name and family name-- different face though, different sets of friends -- meaning, she is a legit person who just happened to have the same name and family name. With that in mind -- I added this leah_valle2002 nick in my messanger.  

So imagine my surprise when I opened to see its details and saw certain creepy personal details that I don't think anybody really knows except for my old friends -- like what?like my dad's old home number, that's what! it's been disconnected years ago already and I don't live in my dad's house anymore, and my dad's been dead for years too! I don't think he has messanger on the grave! wifi is just not available in the underworld. wifi is one of the perks of the living and the undead ones roaming the urban zone.

anyway, any pms from the mentioned nick above is --
let me be clear about this -- is not from me.

 

My account is just my name - plain and simple -

 it is many years old and i don't use year crap ever!

the Poser's nick - leah_valle2002 -  was just created March2009. 

Let me say this again-- THAT NICK is NOT MINE and if you receive invites and msgs from that account, THAT IS NOT ME!

of course you can add -- it is your perogative -- all i want is that you do not associate me with this nick.  this is not mine, im not using it, and I can't use it even if I wanted to.  So don't picture me out giggling behind, typing crazy stuff if the person behind this makes you laugh =P and if you don't speak to me again, I'd assume you didn't read this post and the poser pissed you off -- uh-oh =C 

so whoever you are who is using my nick - preferably maybe to spy on me or worse, get information about me by posing -- please stop it.

Didn't your mom give you your own name? use it.

ask me.

Rain is heavy and is making me more reflective than usual. 

Heavy rains do that.  I like the pitter patter rythm it creates as I silently hum it inside my head.  and yes, as usual, I stare at my wall to the point of almost burning a hole into it.  

I am twenty-five and as I look back in my life, I've pretty much accomplished what I wanted to accomplish.  In fact, I always get what I want, despite the complicated chains of relationships and choices that I tie myself with.

So what else do I want? 

 What is there to do? 

What am I to do with my life?

I could easily answer those -with a quick, superficial, and thoughtless reaction in verbal translations.  It is so easy to get carried away and in the course of answering those questions -- it is, as always, so easy to forget the reason of asking them in the first place.

but --- what is the REAL question?

am I asking myself the right ones?   

Am i concerning myself with the issues that must be prioritize? 

is it worth it?

Four years of Philosophy  -- and still, critical thinking on my part requires effort.  

The convenience of common understanding and stock social definitions are so conveniently within reach that I have to disengage myself - and disengage so in a very frustrating way to be effective even in my personal reflections.  

My prejudice of things and the past knowledge that I have - both voluntarily and involuntarily - acquired is just making it hard for me to see things in its naked truth.

And so with my life as I question it, I cannot help but look back and define me with my past experiences and choices --- but is that all there is to me and my life? 

Am I to be defined by my past and is hopelessly bound to be molded through and through by my future? 

Will I always be an unfinished present project of the universe-- wrecking havoc and change as I grow and consume life the way I am doing so right now? -- or am I, really?

In college, I've dreamt of social change and I've worked for it through my arts.  I've learned to bend my body to adjust to the social curriculum of my community.  I've learned to flick my fingers at the beating of the drum as I find my rythm and balance in this social dance I was born into.  And as I listen to the music, as I watch the people gaping and in awe with my movements, as I felt the hot lights burning my skin... I noticed that they cannot see beyond the stage.  

They loved my dance but they do not care to understand what it is for. 

They follow my steps but stays only with the groove they are familiar with.  

Anything new, anything strange -- anything they do not know -- they see as dangerous.

And as the beat became faster, the steps harder, and the actions more complicated -- they didn't care to follow.  They stayed in their comfort zone, smiling and clapping -- but nonetheless disengaged at the experience, not caring to join -- not bothering to step in, promising support -- but always at a distance -- feigning sympathy, pretending to know with their textbooks in hand, with memorized theories... with complicated research citations...

How can you understand the rythm of hunger if you haven't experienced starvation? How can you say you know how it feels to be poor when you have an abundant life?

How can you say you care -- when in your eyes -- all you see are strangers doing even stranger things.

Yes, some changes happened -- some social shake here and there that rocked the arrogant struture and composition of certain institutions.  but then again -- it was but a little pebble that created a series of ripples in the pool of tears... 

My performance has come to an end -- and as the lights died down...as I took my bow, as I see them leave -- I found my dance to be shallow -- and I found myself asking -- "did I do the right thing?"

All these doubts -- all these concerns--- all these questions, for a certain, cannot be answered on my own.  Like the rain, it needs the earth to catch it. The water needs to kiss the soil, to flow within the roots of every tree, to be savored by every being, to round the grounds back and forth till it evaporates itself to become it once was...a dripping liquid phase of life.

one's questions  must then be like rain. 

fluid and ever flowing...

because -- Baseless questions can hurt the soul.

Unanswered queries can burn the mind. 

the Wrong type of asking  can only bury one in doubt... 

Redundant ones hardens the heart...

So what do I want? Where do I begin? What to do? 

**Looking -- waiting -- so far -- no answers are in sight.

*Sigh.