JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

And that is exactly who we found.

Jake Letts,

Ned Stephenson, Rupert Zappia and Cleo Gomez of the national rugby team, taking the day off before reporting to training camp.

Some people look at income inequality and shrug their shoulders. So what if this person gains and that person loses? What matters, they argue, is not how the pie is divided but the size of the pie. That argument is fundamentally wrong. An economy in which most citizens are doing worse year after year—an economy like America’s—is not likely to do well over the long haul. There are several reasons for this.

First, growing inequality is the flip side of something else: shrinking opportunity. Whenever we diminish equality of opportunity, it means that we are not using some of our most valuable assets—our people—in the most productive way possible. Second, many of the distortions that lead to inequality—such as those associated with monopoly power and preferential tax treatment for special interests—undermine the efficiency of the economy. This new inequality goes on to create new distortions, undermining efficiency even further. To give just one example, far too many of our most talented young people, seeing the astronomical rewards, have gone into finance rather than into fields that would lead to a more productive and healthy economy.

Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1% by Joseph Stiglitz in Vanity Fair.

Kariyanan, an exhibition of new paintings by Elmer Borlongan, will be on view at Pinto Gallery in Antipolo from April 10 – 27, 2011. The exhibit opens on Sunday at 3pm.

Borlongan is known for his figurative expressionist works which document Manila’s urban sprawl. Eight years ago he moved to Casa San Miguel in idyllic rural Zambales, and the transition is visible in his current subjects, themes, and palettes.

The exhibition is open daily except Mondays. For more details contact the gallery at 6971015.

Click on the image to see the map to Pinto Gallery.

So Cher was like totally into Christian cause he was way hot and knew a lot about shoes.
________

Many women in literature are remembered for their tragic lives which end in suicide. Juliet, Ophelia, Madame Bovary to name a few. If I were to hand out an award for Most Tragic Woman in Literature, it would have to be Elaine of The Once and Future King by T.H. White. Elaine gave everything to Lancelot so that he would love her in return. She did not get a return on her investment.

Elaine declared her love for him and told him she was pregnant with his child. Lancelot said he would support the child but he would never love her, then he left. A year later, Elaine went to Arthur’s castle to present her beautiful son Galahad to Lancelot. With the aid of her nurse, Elaine managed to trick Lancelot and once again jumped him in the dark. Lancelot thought it was Guenever. When the controversy of who slept with whom was finally sorted out, Guenever flew into a jealous rage which drove Lancelot mad. For many years Lancelot wandered about the forests of England as a madman. It was Elaine who found him and brought him back to sanity. To make him stay with her, she gave him a castle with a moat, land, riches, servants and herself. But, Lancelot still left her for Guenever. In the end, Elaine threw herself into a river.
(more…)

A. Lin Neumann of the Jakarta Globe on the execution of three convicted Filipino drug couriers in China last week.

AFP photo in the Jakarta Globe

On a human level, it is certainly hard not to be moved by the words of Villanueva, who asked that someone look after her children and said she would become an “angel” for her family.

On a national level, the Philippines reinforced its weak image. That these three and countless others who ferry drugs across borders for a fee, wittingly or unwittingly, did something stupid is beyond question. It is also beyond question that more will follow.?

With nearly 10 percent of the Philippines population of 99 million working overseas, it is inevitable that some will get into desperate trouble. In particular, as menial jobs vanish in the global recession and opportunities fail to materialize at home, more and more Filipino women are resorting to smuggling drugs as mules.

When it happens, Filipinos seem to always react in astonishment. The first assumption is that the offender is innocent – and if not innocent, worthy of forgiveness.

Read the complete article here.

May we add: As long as we keep throwing ourselves upon the mercy of others–Maawa na po kayo sa amin, kami’y maliliit na tao lamang, hikbi–no one is going to take us seriously. We are all obedient little Catholic girls and boys, trained to believe that our weakness will be rewarded and we will be saved by some higher power. So we relinquish responsibility for ourselves and hope someone will take pity on us.

Every time a movie about poverty in the Philippines wins an award abroad, every time a foreign comic cracks a joke about us (or an email goes around reporting it, even if it never happened), every time a Filipino character in a Hollywood movie is seen to promote a “negative image” of the Philippines, we protest loudly. We are over-sensitive, we care too much what other people think. Ano na lang ang sasabihin nila tungkol sa atin? Pinagtatawanan nila tayo.

You can relax. They don’t talk about us, they don’t laugh at us. They don’t know that we’re a nation.

This is my ear. A cast taken of my ear–it was damaged (the cast, not my ear) so we had to redo it.

Leo Abaya is making casts of the body parts of different people for a mixed-media piece. Last year he made an installation that involved people’s butts.

He had the models sit on paint, then sit on white upholstery.

I did not have to sit on paint. If I did we would need a bigger chair. I only had to have something cold poured into my outer ear. My ear was plugged up with cotton so the stuff didn’t slosh into my brain.

What is my interest in this project? I get a pair of earrings out of it. Earrings in the shape of my own ears! So it’ll look like I have four ears.