6666666666

Someone sent this: "The estimated population of the world will pass 6,666,666,666 today. No doubt an interesting number for people everywhere. 5,555,555,555 was passed about 14 years ago. You may not realize that only 80 years ago, the population of the Earth was only around 2 billion. This shows how the population of the world has increased at an alarming rate in recent times, although the growth rate is almost half what it was at its peak in 1963, when it was 2.2%. Unrelated but also an interesting coincidence -- the estimated number of available IPv4 addresses is getting very close to 666,666,666. It should cross over today as well."
In a related useless matter, the Pope praised the medieval anti-birth control policy of theirs. And true to form, Inquirer's Antonio Montalvan or something immediately licked his ass.

Vintage Supots

Pregnancy for Idiots

Some of those who got pregnant but more from the impregnators. Anyways, here's the guide:

To PGMA, a Foetus

Dear President Arroyo,

Because of your stand on population management (Pray to the Lord that you will not get pregnant), this is what happens:

A janitor found a dead fetus in a restroom at the Philippine presidential palace on Thursday and police were looking for the mother, officials said. Brigadier General Romeo Prestoza, head of the Presidential Security Group, said authorities were trying to track down a woman seen leaving the restroom at dawn. Access to the presidential palace is highly restricted, but hundreds of people work there.

Photos from the Condom Party at Rumours

I would like to thank DKT International (maker of Frenzy, Premiere and Classic condoms), Baguio Writers Group, the media, the Rumours people and of course, the PNGOC for these tasteful and very educational contests. Sonny Tikwala won a toaster over for "Putting On The Condom Orally," Sol for "PUTCondom Manually" (winning a sandwich maker) and Vhong Dominguez for the Condom Blowing Contest (a blender). A member of the DKT taught the jampacked audience how to do it properly and the poets taught them how not to have sex. Thanks Zaldy C for the photos. Marami pa if you want to sumbong me to the CC.

The World AIDS Poetry Reading

The Safe Sex Poetry Reading went well. People warned me about the audience, that they won't appreciate it but they did. The DKT people did not bring as many condoms as we thought but our prizes for our contests (putting on the condom using the hand and mouth and condom blowing) were a toaster oven, sandwich maker and blender. The contestants were really game. I can't wait for the photos. I would like to thank Andy and Dennis of Rumours, BCBC for the sound system, the media and my friends for being there, the Ubbog and the Baguio Writers Group for being such a fun group. I'm now in Ilocos.

The Condom Man

This was sent by Grace via Del T. So I guess Mr. Delfic Olympics is the culprit. Very nice!!! THis shoudl be our cover for the book!!

3rd PopDev Awards

3rd Annual Population Development Awards

PRINT CATEGORY

Best in News Reportage Writing Winner: Linette C. Ramos, Sun.Star Cebu (score: 68.56): “LGUs told: Invest more in schools” and other stories 2^nd Place: Jujemay G. Awit, Sun.Star Cebu (score: 64.75): “Popcom urges parents to go back to school” and other stories. 3^rd Place: Ira P. Pedrasa, BusinessWorld (score: 63.63): “Migration affecting quality of voting population-economists” and other stories.

Best in Investigative Reporting Winner: Mayette Q. Tabada, Rene H. Martel, Rianne C. Tecson, Jujemay G. Awit, Cherry Ann T. Lim, Sun.Star Cebu (score: 80.38): “Surviving Aging” 2^nd Place: Mayette Q. Tabada, Rianne C. Tecson, Jujemay G. Awit, Cherry Ann T. Lim, Sun.Star Cebu (score: 77.83): “Hidden Scourge” 3^rd Place: Liberty A. Pinili, Jeanette P. Malinao, Linette C. Ramos, Cherry Ann T. Lim, Rianne C. Tecson, Mayette Q. Tabada, Sun.Star Cebu (score: 76.19): “Is the well running dry?”

Best in Opinion Writing Winner: Rene Ezpeleta Bartolo, The Mindanao Times (score: 66.25): “A little less of everything” 2^nd Place: Julia Careeon-Lagoc, The News Today, Iloilo City (score: 55.75): “A brighter day for little Jane” 3^rd Rene Ezpeleta Bartolo, The Mindanao Times (score: 55.25): “What do we want, really?”

B. ONLINE CATEGORY

Best in News Reportage Writing Winner: GMANews.TV (score: 39.5): “Campaign Day 31: Birth control issue killing bets' chances and other stories; 2^nd Place: GMANews.TV (score: 33.15): “Bird flu alert up and other stories 3^rd Place: GMANews.TV (score: 22.50): “Campaign Day 39: Poverty, hunger as poll issues” and other stories.

Best in Investigative Reporting Winner: Frank Cimatu, Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (score: 75.5): “Sex, Laws and Video Nights” 2^nd Place: Red Batario, Girlie Alvarez, PCIJ (score: 63.25): “Postcards from the Road Back” 3^rd Place: Lala Ordonez-Cascolan, PCIJ (score: 56.25): “A Mother’s Breastfeeding Story”

Best in Opinion Writing Winner: Samira Gutoc, PCIJ (score: 71.5): “Confronting Peace, Battling Stereotypes” 2^nd Place: Maytet Diokno-Pascual, Clarence Pascual, PCIJ (score: 57.75): “Walking on a Knife’s Edge” 3^rd Place: Alecks Pabico, PCIJ (score: 54.75): “The Philippines, Now a ‘Second World’ Country?”

Board of Judges for the Print and Online Categories

Rep. Edcel Lagman (Board Secretary, PLCPD), Mr. Jose Pavia (Phil. Press Institute), Prof. Luis Teodoro (UP College of Mass Communication, Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility) and Ms. Rina Jimenez-David (Columnist, Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Even Donald Hall Knows Safe Sex

When I came out with the idea of a Safe Sex Poetry Night, I got emails asking me "Why?" and "What's safe sex?" Why not? Sex is a sexy topic and putting on a condom is not? The Catholic Church is winning the battle of words in this aspect. They call withdrawal, calendar and putting a thermometer in the sex organ of the woman to determine if she's not fertile natural family planning. What's natural with these? Then PGMA should mandate that Victoria's Secret and Anito should put a thermometer, pocket calendar and beads (for the bead method) alongside the Gideon's Bible. Hey, the natural family planning method got 90 percent of the FP budget!
Anyway, here's a poem from the former U.S. Poet Laureate Donald Hall (from White Apples and the Taste of Stone. Copyright 2006 by D.H.)

Safe Sex

If he and she do not know each other, and feel confident they will not meet again; if he avoids affectionate words; if she has grown insensible skin under skin; if they desire only the tribute of another's cry; if they employ each other as revenge on old lovers or families of entitlement and steel— then there will be no betrayals, no letters returned unread, no frenzy, no hurled words of permanent humiliation, no trembling days, no vomit at midnight, no repeated apparition of a body floating face-down at the pond's edge

Safe Sex Poetry Reading for World AIDS Day

The Baguio Writers Group and the Ubbog (a group of younger Baguio writers) will be holding a poetry reading on safe sex on December 1 at Rumours Bar in celebration of the International AIDS Day. Entitled: RIBBED, DOTTED OR STRAWBERRY, the reading will have the poets celebrating sex and romance without the life-changing results like pregnancy and STD. Virtual sex, condoms, the ineffectiveness of rhythm as a contraceptive method and bondage are among the subjects of the poems to be read. Ten of the poets would be reading and an open-mike follows. The poems would be the seed of a book on safe sex literature (definitely will not be considered for the Catholic Mass Media Awards) expected to come out next year. Sponsors of the reading are Rumours, Philippine NGO Council on Health, Population and Welfare and DKT Philippines. For more details contact: brutallyfrank@gmail.com

This is Enmity for You, Andy Z

Petition Against Manila Mayor's Pontifical Stupidity

TRUE STORY- Lourdes Esplana-Osil has seven children, all born within a space of 12 years. Warned by her doctor of complications from repeated pregnancies, she started using injectable contraceptives provided free at a local government health centre.But in 1998, the centre stopped providing contraceptives. Since she could not afford to buy them--her husband, a pedicab (a bicycle rickshaw) driver, earns very little--and because natural family planning methods failed, she had several unwanted pregnancies before she found a non-government organisation (NGO) that gave her free contraceptives.

Osil is just one of the many women residents of Manila who were deprived of access to artificial contraceptive methods when Joselito Atienza became city mayor in 1998. In line with his Roman Catholic beliefs, Atienza issued an executive order promoting "responsible parenthood" and upholding natural family planning methods, while discouraging artificial contraceptive methods like condoms, pills, intrauterine devices and surgical sterilisation.

Atienza was mayor for nine consecutive years until he reached his term limit last June. His executive order, signed in 2000, is still in effect. According to a study, Atienza's order, which was adopted by all health centres and hospitals run by the city government, contributed to high rates of unplanned pregnancies, with their attendant socio-economic and health consequences. Its vague wording also led some health facilities and providers to withhold information on where women could get artificial contraceptives.

Some NGOs and private providers of family planning services "felt the chilling effects" of the policy and were even harassed, said the study "Imposing Misery: The Impact of Manila's Contraception Ban on Women and Families", released by the voluntary agencies Likhaan, ReproCen and the Centre for Reproductive Rights.

Dr. Junice Melgar of Likhaan (Linangan ng Kababaihan Inc or Centre for Women's Development) said a group of at least 10 women like Osil is contemplating filing a civil case against Atienza for emotional and health damages inflicted on them through the executive order. Melgar said there is also a plan to challenge the legality of the order. She explained that efforts to file a legal case started as early as 2004, but the complainants were hesitant to come forward because they were "awfully scared" of the consequences. She said the women were afraid Atienza might take away their housing.

She said the incumbent mayor, Alfredo Lim, has indicated his willingness to make available artificial family planning methods in city-run health centres and hospitals. She said that in a dialogue last August reproductive health advocates also asked Lim to revoke Atienza's executive order. The problem, however, is that while Lim is more open-minded to artificial contraceptive methods, it will take some time before the city can actually provide the services. Melgar said there are no contraceptives in health centres in the city because no budget had been provided for them when Atienza was mayor. There is also a need to train health workers again who have not practiced family planning counselling and advocacy for nine years.

Dr. Jonathan Flavier of the Cooperative Movement for Encouraging NSV (no-scalpel vasectomy) estimated that it would cost the city about one million pesos (22,000 US dollars) per quarter to restore the supply of contraceptives and to train service providers. He said the funds could be sourced from NGOs in the meantime while the city government sorts out the necessary changes in its budget. Flavier did a comparative study of live births and maternal deaths in Manila and Quezon City to see the effects of Atienza's ban on artificial contraception. The two cities are quite similar economically, but both artificial and natural family planning methods are allowed in Quezon City.

Flavier compared data from 1996 to 2006 and found that there was an increase in maternal deaths in Manila. This backs the observation in the "Imposing Misery" study that women in Manila are at an increased risk of maternal mortality because they have limited access to affordable reproductive health services, and thus have unintended pregnancies and are also susceptible to induced illegal and unsafe abortions. Flavier also looked at admissions at local government-run hospitals in Manila and Quezon City and, based on anecdotal reports, found that there seemed to be an increase in abortion cases in Manila.

The Philippine population -- 84 million, according to government figures -- is one of the fastest growing in the world. About 70 percent of the people rely on the government for family planning services, but some public officials like President Gloria Arroyo and Atienza have made it clear that their priority is the promotion of natural family planning methods acceptable to the Roman Catholic Church.

For the women of Manila, many of whom live in poverty, going to a private family planning service provider or buying their own contraceptives to fill the gap is out of the question. "The financial burden would just be too much," said Melgar of the women who were affected by Atienza's policy. "It's like asking them to sacrifice the rice their family has to eat for the contraceptives they have to buy."

One woman who was interviewed for the Imposing Misery study said she could barely afford to fork out 35 pesos (77 cents) for her monthly pack of contraceptive pills. "I try to save whenever I have extra money. Sometimes when I don?t have extra money, I would go around and borrow 10 pesos from each neighbour until I come up with the amount needed to buy the pills," she said.

Dr. Alberto Romualdez, a former health secretary, finds the situation unacceptable. "This is something that should not happen again," he said, pointing out that it was the women who suffered the most. "Withholding (family planning) services is not only neglect, it is criminal," said Romualdez. "The failure to give (family planning) advice and service is a form of coercion."


END THE MISERY. END THE COERCION. GIVE BACK TO THE COUPLES OF MANILA THE RIGHT AND THE MEANS TO DECIDE THE NUMBER OF CHILDREN THROUGH INFORMED CHOICES.

Sign the PETITION TO REPEAL MANILA EXECUTIVE ORDER 003. Log on to
www.powerfulpilipino.com and click 'Guestbook.' Sign NOW and SPREAD THE WORD.

Charminar

This is supposed to be Hyderabad's Eiffel Tower. That is how one brochure described it. That's Dr. Johndee Flavier, who heads C-men (basta, they go around vasectomizing husbands) and population commissioner Thom Osias. We are planning to put giant condoms on the minarets when we come back here.

The Indian Condom Song, Just so you know how exciting my life is here

Suneeta

A few moments from now I would be a few meters away from Suneeta Rao. She will be promoting her music television segment about the "lost" daughters of India. Because of sex selection, they say that 50 million "girls' were either aborted or killed because of the culture's preference for boys. Figures in China, Vietnam and Nepal would bring the figure to 100 million. So who is Suneeta? She is Tollywood's most popular actress and certainly one of the most beautiful women in the world.

Hyderabad Joke

Sen. Pong Biazon told me this encounter he had with a priest in Naga. The priest told this sexy (sexually-sensitive) senator, "God grants us that sex is only for procreation."
"So I told the priest, if a couple knew about the menstruation of his wife and they still do it, they're committing a sin? If they are menopausal, they are also sinning. The priest left," he said, after another spicy Indian lunch.
So much for dogma and dogshit.

Divorce

One thing I learned in this conference is that Philippines and Malta are the only countries that do not permit divorce. Hooray for La Filipinas! The country with the most number of happy marriages! No? Well, take it on the other side. At least President Arroyo and Mike Arroyo are together till they die. What a faithful pair!! No?

Chaka

Chaka is one of the foundations of our gayspeak. Beauty may be skin deep but chaka lives on forevah! Our common etymology is that chaka came from Menchu Menchaca, a 70s model but then Menchu is beautiful naman while chaka is pangit, ugly. So I thought it came from Chaka Khan, the singer who may not be beautiful but the voice is still beautiful. Until i joined this conference and found out that chakkah (with an h) means eunuch in Pakistan. Anyway, some social scientists interviewed about 300 of them in Lahore and found out that almost all are sex workers and 80 percent have sex daily. Now you know what eunuch is. No? They are unique (another of the pronounciation). I am surprised that eight percent have vaginal sex. Hmmm. It was a poster presentation and I kept on going back to see who is the social scientist and to help me see if chakkahs are chaka indeed. He never showed up.

Dumbledore Tshirt

Already 7,000 sold the last time I checked. The guy below would need this.

Lolcat Reaction to Rowling's Outing