Bush-Gloria against shoes, and the year of the Ox

Just within the week the shoe attack against outgoing US President, George Bush rattled the international media. We have heard of some leaders from merely getting slapped or worse even ambushed, but shoe attack? This is really historical, America never cease to amaze us!

With this scenario, I have some questions such as:
1) I'm just wondering why of all things could be thrown to Pres. Bush was a pair of shoes? Iraqi journalist, Muntazer al-Zaidi jumped up as Bush held a press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, shouted “It is the farewell kiss, you dog” and threw his footwear. He's a journalist, he could throw his microphone, videocam, notebook or even a cellphone. For him to take of his shoes??? Was his seatmates clueless at all to have someone next to you taking off his shoes, especially during a very important affair such as that one? I just remember the words that he called Bush a dog. Throwing footwear is usually associated in penalizing our misbehaved pets, although I'm not a psycologist but I this is the nearest I could get on why the attacker chose the shoe rather than his media paraphernalia. Also, soles of shoes are considered the ultimate insult in Arab culture. After Saddam Hussein’s statue was toppled in Baghdad in April 2003, many onlookers beat the statue’s face with their soles.
2) There were two shoes thrown to Bush consecutively and not at the same time. They say that the secret service or the President or his bodyguards are the wold's elite when it comes to security, but during that event they just acquired a flanked grade in defense. What if it was a knife, or a bomb, or just anything that is fatal? With Bush's aggresive fight in Iraq, haven't they thought that his enemies could really go more dangerous, especially when he'll be visiting that place?
3) So what will happen to Muntazer? I think he was held in custody by the security but what will be his penalty? I believe the attacker was even considered a hero just because of that by some of his native allies, so will he just simply be released? If not, what sanctions will be given to him?

Just last night as I watched my local news on TV, the jobless OFWs were doing the same thing to a picture of Pres. Gloria Arroyo because they wanted to express their remorse in her failure attempt to put them back to work. Considering the OFW remittances makes our Philippine economy stable, the support and attention are really scarce. It's obvious that they would rather talk about "Cha-cha" or 2010 elections rather than facing the real music - global economic crisis.

It was also expressed last night by some grocery store operators that there is a shortage of delivery in some holiday products, seemingly a product hording scheme in order to sell their products at a higher price. In a separate interview, it was assured by DTI that they will look in to this matter and impose sanctions on those businessmen practicing this scheme.

Things really seemed to go worse either in local or abroad, but I hope things will be better. For this I have googled some Chinese Astrology for next year. You may believe on this but actually this is a fun part, dealing with choices. I myself is fond of reading this items just to boost my confidence (the good part in the prediction); whereas for negatives, I just pray and be more cautious in dealing with my choices. So here it goes...

The year of Ox, the heavenly stem and earthly branch are both earth. The earthly branch consists of hidden elements water and gold. The global economy will begin to recover from the financial meltdown. 2009 is a year of opportunities with the emergence of many new global empires following the collapse of big names like Lehman Brothers. Under the new administration of Barack Obama (self element earth person), the Wall Street stock market will recover faster than expected as Barack Obama enters his peak luck cycle. We will see world major economies put aside their differences to overcome the financial crisis. The full impact of the unison can be seen in the second half of 2009.

The property market of United States will continue to recover as 2009 is the year of earth. Employment statistics will improve as United States’ job market bounce back from the financial meltdown. This will in turn lead to an improvement of the world’s stock market. However, many major corporations will also undergo restructuring or even a change in leadership. For further predictions on the luck cycle of key CEOs of key Wall Street corporations, please subscribe to our website updates.

Despite the recovery of stock market, some Asian economies will persist to slowdown. A major event will strike in a key Asia region in 2010. We will release further details concerning this event in the coming year.

• The Chinese year typically starts from February 4 and ends February 3 the next year (although it can vary by one day). That means if you were born in January 1960, you need to look at forecast for the birth year 1959.
• A Ba Zi forecast based solely on zodiac (year) is only 15% of the complete forecast incorporating a person's date and time of birth.

If you're curious about your astrology please refer to this link http://www.masterandygoh.com/content/2009-year-ox-chinese-astrology-ba-zi-forecast

As for the dogs, I will make your life easier since I also fall on this group, sorry guy's there's really special treatment

Dog

1934(76), 1946(64), 1958(52), 1970(40), 1982(28), 1994(16), 2006(4)

This is a year of ups and downs for those born in the year of dog, similar to those born in the year of ram. However, the impact is less as compared to the year of ram. On the positive side, this is one of the best ruling years for you to fulfill your dream. You will be given opportunities to expand your business or even excel in areas you have been planning for years. You will receive a sudden fortune of unexpected wealth. On a negative note, if your wealth is represented by the wood element, 2009 will be an unfortunate year for you. Misfortunate such as operations, break-ups, accidents will befall on you.

The final bout between the Alumni and Makati Basketball Teams

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Alas! The long wait was over as the basketball tournament had just been concluded last December 13, 2008 at the Taft Gymnasium. Two games were set: MBA-JD versus Manila and Alumni versus Makati. It was unfortunate that Manila was sanctioned with default giving the MBA-JD an immediate seat to the 2nd runner-up (the Manila team was not able to complete their line-up prior to the event); however, having witnessed their previous game it would have been a very interesting game to watch. Nevertheless, the championship between the Alumni Paladins and Makati Marksman was able to stir up the heat. It was somehow expected to have the Makati Marksman at the championship since they've won the same title last year but I guess things were more difficult this year. It was the first time to have an alumni team battling along with our students during a sportsfest, especially for basketball. Indeed they have not even failed bringing their audience to cheer them during the games, probably one of the reasons they have performed astonishingly with zero defeats throughout the entire Olympics. So watching them at the last game was indeed entertaining especially during the last quarter where Makati Marksman always managed to inch up its score to put the Alumni Paladins in such excruciating and heart-pounding situation.

Sweat to sweat, the game went really hard as each players from both separate teams exerted extreme efforts in making good scores just to assume a favorable lead and it was just a matter of few time left when the Alumni got the best opportunity to beat the previous hailed champion of GSB Olympics.

Definitely the hardwork of Alumni has been paid off who is now our Basketball Champion for GSB Olympics 2008! Kudos to the Alumni Paladins!

Here we are at last! GSB Olympics Championship

The long wait is over! Since the opening of the GSB Olympics last November 15 up to the Championship night this Saturday. Timing is great as we just come after the victory of Pacman over dela Hoya, the conclusion of the Philippine Survivor, and the series of bountiful Christmas festivities, so when will be the most exciting day than December 13, 2008?

Our apologies for those hassles caused by strict re-enforcement of ID policy from the security department and rest assured that it's for the better purpose so kindly be reminded to bring your IDs upon gracing the event.

Again, thank you to all players of all sport events: bowling, volleyball, badminton, billiards and basketball. We also would like to extend our utmost gratitude to the faculty members who have allowed us to do announcements during our registration campaign, the success of this activity is for all of us to cherish as we gear our students with sufficient opportunities.

Also to our alumni who continually keep in touch and still manage to join student activities and fund-raising projects such as this one.

Lastly, thank you to all members of the Student Council - Makati, Ortigas, Manila and MBA-JD. I know it's very hard for us to manage our schedules and still having a good rapport with you guys is indeed overwhelming. We still have another term to go and yes we can do more good stuff to our fellow students. Let's support the exciting GSB Night of the Manila Student Council, coming soon!

Revisited David and Goliath in Pacmam and de la Hoya Boxing match

It was really expected that last December 6, during the boxing fight between Pacquiao and de la Hoya, crime rate will be zero. The announcement of this match glued all spectators of both boxing legends and even have made numerous predictions of how the boxing match would turn out to be, most of them favoured the Mexican. Even Filipinos were separated on their views and thinking of this fight more of mismatch due to very distinct physical attributes such as height, weight and years of experience. On the other hand, Pacman never showed any qualms of pursuing this fight, perhaps his most ambitious attempt so far in his boxing career. Just like David and Goliath, the small but courageous Pacman, who was David in the ring, proved that it was a matter of passion that ceases all measurements!

Better days to come

Now I got a nice title to start and have you ever wondered that this seemed to be irrelevant? Indeed it is December and few days from now we'll be feasting on the date that we have been waiting for, Christmas! It was said to be every BER months wherein people would feel so christmasy: people are becoming nice, generous, thoughtful, and other beautiful and unexpected events that would make us anticipate the holidays season even more. It was indeed promising that we have witnessed the historic political triumph of the first African-American President of US, but just few days earlier than his confirmation of the election results, we already have experienced a prologue of mishaps such as the global economic crisis that aches almost all countries in the globe, the political drama local and abroad, and many more in which one or the other affects our current situation. Are we really getting near to Armageddon?

It has been 2 months now since I left my job for the purpose of dealing more with my passion and aiming for career development. It was indeed hard but I came to think that I need to be fair with my company because I no longer feel the excitement of reporting to the office, thus make me become unproductive (definitely not me). So I decided to leave and as days pass by, as I needed more time for soul-searching, series of events as stated earlier puts me into such a depressing mood. Though I even have my family's support but it seemed that fate and dreams are tougher to merge and be realized. It was really depressing that sometimes I would just wish to have a magical genie and asks for big fortunes. I also even think that the world is unfair because of the news and as how I observe those corrupt government officials, insane celebrities, and just any other apathetic homosapiens getting an extravaganza in their lives! Why does it seemed to be very hard to be successful for most of us who even seemed to deserve more than them? Why can't we be all lucky? Currently, I feel bad because I'm like a bum and I never intended to be for a long time. Just after knowing my plans, I'm back on track scouting for my dream job and this time I am even more enthusiastic. My country needs more working and inspiring men.

Yes this is perhaps one of ways to express myself and release further my tension. I know there are more people who might even be more in trouble, as empty-pocketed like me. I may not need to go to Quiapo just to pray for a miracle, but I believe perhaps God is even reading this blog right now. One thing I have learned during my seminary formation (yup read my profile), nothing would go wrong as long as you are with Him. I am praying that amidst the scary statements of the economists, we can still see hope afterall we have probably know this by now that we just have to open our eyes wider. So don't be depressed and smile, opportunities will always be there but we just have to work harder this time. Soon all things will be running smoothly, don't ever lose hope. "Better days to come, better days to come" recite this as we watch news and let this words strengthen our efforts in order to achieve our goals.