PAX ROMANA

It has been so long a time that i have not posted a blog, it has been like time immemorial since i last blogged.  Busy, busy, busy...the word that had beset me the past weeks.  I had been preoccupied with so much activities in school, especially the Human Rights Caravan.  It is an activity which highlights the Declaration of Universal Human Rights by the United Nations on December 10, 1948.  So much for that, then there was the Preliminary Examinations.  I was obliged to study even if i was not in the mood during exam week, i don't know, I'm somewhat erratic sometimes.  Nevertheless, the examination was the watershed of my "back-to-student" life.  It will determine my status whether i still got "it" or not.  But i did my best, my very best.  Of course i love History and that is why i took the course.


Pax Romana, a time of peace during the Ancient Roman Empire which lasted almost 20 years.  Yesterday was the last of my prelim exam, so i consider today leading up to January of 2011 A.D. as Pax Romana.  a time of peace -- of mind!!!  Freedom from studying (but of course it doesn't mean i will stop studying!!!) and school requirements...Christmas Day is near, a perfect time to celebrate humanity.  As Christians, it is the day our Lord and Savior was born, a victory for humankind.  Is Santa Claus coming to town?  Maybe, maybe not!!! 

Enjoy the holidays and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all

What a week....

First there was that North Korea and South Korea tension then the WikiLeaks revelation of USA's secrets during the Iraq and Afghanistan war, you can search for it in google.

Last tuesday November 23, 2010 the world was shocked with the exchange of artiller fire between long time fierce rivals North and South Korea. Ironically, i was watching a South Korean movie last month entitled "71: Into the Fire" with English subtitle of course and it was a good historical war movie. I dont want to spoil it you just watch that good movie though. However it reminds me again of the Korean war which happened in 1953. It was one of the deadliest wars the world has produced. With the latest incident, war is inevitable, hope i am wrong though. I dont want a Korean War part 2. Scores of lives will be at stake and more homeless people. This is for me a ghastly image and i dont want History to repeat itself and i hope people have learned so much from it. I dont want History books to be rewritten again...

As i was watching CNN yesterday, i came across this news episode about WikiLeaks. What is so interesting about it? Their website claims to be a whistleblower regarding the war atrocities of the United States of America. It could make or break diplomatic ties of the US to other countries. I am updating myself for the latest developments so i am keenly awaiting for the new "leaks"....

My second week as a social science major....

It has been two weeks and everything went smooth and fine. I am still adjusting thought as a student, the last time i was a regular student was 2004 when i was a nursing student.

I am beginning to gain back my lost touches with history as a subject, hehehe. My teachers again are good at what they are doing, educate. I am happy that the social science major is beginning to get back at the mainstream. I am proud to be part of the only school in Bacolod City that offers this course.

There is the hype about the upcoming sportsfest in january 2011 and i noticed everyone was busy posting auditions and try outs. I signed up for the basketball team and hoping i could be included in the team. Schedule of tryout will be on November 25 so i am looking forward to it.

The second week was i think the formal start of classes. Assignments came in bunches and i had my first quiz on the Presidents of the Philippines. I had one mistake though, not because i did not know the answer but i lost my focus on one item. i dont know why, fantasizing i think?hehe. Well, its okay at least i did not fail.

So far so good...

AUNG SAN SUU KYI RELEASED: MYANMAR'S DEMOCRATIC ICON

Yes, that is the headline in every major news channel.  Aung san suu kyi is released from house arrest. 15 years of her imprisonment out of the 21 years has been house arrest.  Who is Aung san suu kyi anyways?

1942:	September 6. Marriage of Aung San, commander of the Burma Independence Army, and Ma Khin Kyi (becoming Daw Khin Kyi), senior nurse of Rangoon General Hospital, where he had recovered from the rigours of the march into Burma.
1945:	June 19. Aung San Suu Kyi born in Rangoon, third child in family. "Aung San" for father, "Kyi" for mother, "Suu" for grandmother, also day of week of birth. Favourite brother is to drown tragically at an early age. The older brother, will settle in San Diego, California, becoming United States citizen.
1947:	July 19. General Aung San assassinated. Suu Kyi is two years old. Daw Khin Kyi becomes a prominent public figure, heading social planning and social policy bodies.
1948:	January 4. The Independent Union of Burma is established.
1960:	Daw Khin Kyi appointed Burma's ambassador to India. Suu Kyi accompanies mother to New Delhi.
1960-64:	Suu Kyi at high school and Lady Shri Ram College in New Delhi.
1964-67:	Oxford University, B.A. in philosophy, politics and economics at St. Hugh's College (elected Honorary Fellow, 1990). British "parents" are Lord Gore-Booth, former British ambassador to Burma and High Commissioner in India, and his wife, at whose home Suu Kyi meets Michael Aris, student of Tibetan civilisation.
1969-71:	She goes to New York for graduate study, staying with family friend Ma Than E, staff member at the United Nations, where U. Thant of Burma is Secretary-General. Postponing studies, Suu Kyi joins U.N. secretariat as Assistant Secretary, Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions. Evenings and weekends volunteers at hospital, helping indigent patients in programs of reading and companionship.
1972:	January 1. Marries Michael Aris, joins him in Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, where he tutors royal family and heads Translation Department. She becomes Research Officer in the Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
1973:	They return to England for birth of Alexander in London.
1974:	Michael assumes appointment in Tibetan and Himalayan studies at Oxford University.
1977:	Birth of second son, Kim at Oxford. While raising her children, Suu Kyi begins writing, researches for biography of father, and assists Michael in Himalayan studies.
1984:	Publishes Aung San in Leaders of Asia series of University of Queensland Press. (See Freedom from Fear, pp. 3-38.)
1985:	For juvenile readers publishes Let's Visit Burma (see Freedom from Fear, pp. 39-81), also books on Nepal and Bhutan in same series for Burke Publishing Company, London.
1985-86:	Visiting Scholar, Center of Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, researching father's time in Japan. Kim with her, Alexander with Michael, who has fellowship at Indian Institute of Advanced Studies at Simla in northern India.
1986:	On annual visit to grandmother in Rangoon, Alexander and Kim take part in traditional Buddhist ceremony of initiation into monkhood.
1987:	With fellowship at Indian Institute Suu Kyi, with Kim, joins Michael and Alexander in Simla. Travels to London when mother is there for cataract surgery. Publishes "Socio-Political Currents in Burmese Literature, 1910-1940" in journal of Tokyo University. (See Freedom from Fear, pp. 140-164.) September. Family returns to Oxford. Suu Kyi enrolls at London School of Oriental and African Studies to work on advanced degree.
1988:	March 31. Informed by telephone of mother's severe stroke, she takes plane next day to Rangoon to help care for Daw Khin Kyi at hospital, then moves her to family home on University Avenue next to Inya Lake in Rangoon. July 23. Resignation of General Ne Win, since 1962 military dictator of Burma. Popular demonstrations of protest continuing. August 8. Mass uprising throughout country. Violent suppression by military kills thousands. August 15. Suu Kyi, in first political action, sends open letter to government, asking for formation of independent consultative committee to prepare multi-party elections. August 26. In first public speech, she addresses several hundred thousand people outside Shwedagon Pagoda, calling for democratic government. Michael and her two sons are there. September 18. Military establishes State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). Political gatherings of more than four persons banned. Arrests and sentencing without trial reaffirmed. Parliamentary elections to be held, but in expectation that multiplicity of parties will prevent clear result. September 24. National League for Democracy (NLD) formed, with Suu Kyi general-secretary. Policy of non-violence and civil disobedience. October-December. Defying ban, Suu Kyi makes speech-making tour throughout country to large audiences. December 27. Daw Khin Kyi dies at age of seventy-six.
1989:	January 2. Funeral of Daw Khin Kyi. Huge funeral procession. Suu Kyi vows that as her father and mother had served the people of Burma, so too would she, even unto death. January-July. Suu Kyi continues campaign despite harassment, arrests and killings by soldiers. February 17. Suu Kyi prohibited from standing for election. April 5. Incident in Irawaddy Delta when Suu Kyi courageously walks toward rifles soldiers are aiming at her. July 20. Suu Kyi placed under house arrest, without charge or trial. Sons already with her. Michael flies to Rangoon, finds her on third day of hunger strike, asking to be sent to prison to join students arrested at her home. Ends strike when good treatment of students is promised.
1990:	May 27. Despite detention of Suu Kyi, NLD wins election with 82% of parliamentary seats. SLORC refuses to recognise results. October 12. Suu Kyi granted 1990 Rafto Human Rights Prize.
1991:	July 10. European Parliament awards Suu Kyi Sakharov human rights prize. October 14. Norwegian Nobel Committee announces Suu Kyi is winner of 1991 Peace Prize.
1991:	December. Freedom from Fear published by Penguin in New York, England, Canada, Australia, New Zealand. Also in Norwegian, French, Spanish translations. December 10. Alexander and Kim accept prize for mother in Oslo ceremony. Suu Kyi remains in detention, having rejected offer to free her if she will leave Burma and withdraw from politics. Worldwide appeal growing for her release.
1992:	Suu Kyi announces that she will use $1.3 million prize money to establish health and education trust for Burmese people.
1993:	Group of Nobel Peace Laureates, denied entry to Burma, visit Burmese refugees on Thailand border, call for Suu Kyi's release, Their appeal later repeated at UN Commission for Human Rights in Geneva.
1994:	February. First non-family visitors to Suu Kyi: UN representative, U.S. congressman, New York Times reporter. September-October. SLORC leaders meet with Suu Kyi, who still asks for a public dialogue.
1995:	July 10. SLORC releases Suu Kyi from house arrest after six years of detention.

In the last four years her movements have still been restricted. While she has had some opportunities to telephone her family in England, she is regularly denounced in the government-controlled media, and there is concern for her personal safety. Efforts to revive any NLD party activities have been balked, and its members have been jailed and physically attacked. In the first months after detention was ended, she was able to speak to large gatherings of supporters outside her home, but this was stopped. Yet her popularity in the country has not diminished.
Internationally her voice has been heard not infrequently. Reporters with cameras and videotape have been able to interview her in person, and telephone interviews with the media outside Burma have also been published. Using video cassettes she has sent out statements, including the keynote address to the NGO Forum at the U.N. International Women's Conference in Beijing in August 1995.
There have been a number of visitors from abroad, including a member of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, whom she told that Norway will be the first country she will visit when free to travel. SLORC has changed its name to the State Peace and Development Council, but its repressive policies and violation of human rights continue unabated.
Suu Kyi discourages tourists from visiting Burma and businessmen from investing in the country until it is free. She finds hearing for such pleas among western nations, and the United States has applied economic sanctions against Burma, but Burma's neighbours follow their policy of not intervening in the internal affairs of other sovereign states, and Burma has been admitted into the Association of South Eastern Asian Nations.
On March 27, 1999, Michael Aris died of prostate cancer in London. He had petitioned the Burmese authorities to allow him to visit Suu Kyi one last time, but they had rejected his request. He had not seen her since a Christmas visit in 1995. The government always urged her to join her family abroad, but she knew that she would not be allowed to return. This separation she regarded as one of the sacrifices she had had to make in order to work for a free Burma.

With this breaking news i pray that democracy will be restored to Myanmar.

My first week as a social science major...

November 9 was the first, formal opening of classes at University of Saint La Salle-Bacolod.  It is the school where i am currently enrolled as a new student taking up Bachelor in Secondary Education major in Social Studies.  Actually it is my fourth course, to some "WHAT?". hehehe.  Well, you read it right, its my fourth course.  The first course i took up was Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering, then Bachelor of Science in Nursing, and Master of Arts in Nursing.  You may ask me why?  Simply put, teaching is my passion and history is my wife. Cool ey?  Don't worry i am not a geeky or nerd person.  Honestly, i am amiable and approachable.


Well, lets get back to the essence of this write-up.  The first week of my new endeavor seems pretty cool.  New people, and new environment.  This time i am a full time student.  Isn't it ironic? For the past 3 years i have been teaching nursing students on the subjects Psychiatric Nursing, Ethics, Medical-Surgical Nursing, Fundamentals of Nursing, Nursing Informatics, Human Sexuality, and the likes.  Now, i am a student. But i am cool with that.  Learning is a process.  I do have a curios mind. 

The teachers are A-okay especially my friend Sir Ricver, Mam Uy, Mam Dy, Sir Gelangre and Mam Cruz, did i miss anyone?  They are accommodating and professional, and i can sense that, been there before. hehehe.  I find the subjects interesting and fits to my interest.  My classmates are friendly, even though a big disparity in age i am comfortable with them, i am flexible, and nurses are taught to be flexible whatever the situation.  I thank all of them for welcoming me.  It is a nice feeling.

Until here, i will write again next week about another experience, hoping it will still be enriching and interesting.

American military men encounter multiple UFOs near an air force base in Bentwaters, England

American military men encounter multiple UFOs near an air force base in Bentwaters, England.

UFO as described by American airmen

Airmen said they saw a glowing red object


CASE DETAILS



Eyewitnesses reported mysterious lights
Rendlesham Forest, England, is home to America’s Woodridge Air Force base. On December 26, 1980, at around 2 AM, Airman First Class John Burroughs, and his partner, were on routine patrol along the base perimeter. The base was nearly empty. But, according to Sgt. Burroughs, something bright was lighting up the nearby woods:

“There was definitely something out in the woods. It seemed to me like a massive light show. I was nervous, he was nervous. We didn’t know what to expect, and we decided at that point that we better get back and let somebody know what’s going on in case something did happen.”

Burroughs quickly notified his immediate superior. In minutes, another security patrol arrived. They had also seen the strange lights. Burroughs and the second security team went off base to investigate. Sgt. Burroughs said they were ordered to leave their weapons behind because they were moving out of American jurisdiction:

“We didn’t know what we were getting into. We started in on foot towards the lights. At the same time, we could hear the animals. They were very upset because you could hear a lot of ruckus. At that point we had a radio transmission. They’d just gotten contact from Heathrow tower in London that an object had been seen over our base and that it had disappeared on radar. All of a sudden, in the clearing, there was an object. It had a bank of blue lights on it. And it was sitting there strobing. It was unbelievable. We all hit the ground and it went up into the trees. When it was happening, everything seemed to go slower. We seemed to be in, like, I wouldn’t say a time warp, but like everything was happening slower to us and everything felt different. But when it disappeared, it was like everything was normal again, the perception of the ground, the air, the sky, the stars, the whole nine yards, were different.”

For more than two hours, Sgt. Burroughs said he and the two other men played a game of cat and mouse with the mysterious craft:

“It was off the ground and near the horizon above the trees. And it always stayed out in the distance at the horizon, and sometimes it appeared to get close, as if we were going to get close to it again, and then we never did.”


Col. Charles Halt, USAF (Ret.)
When Sgt. Burroughs and his men filed their report, they assumed no one would believe their account. Yet the events of that night resulted in one of the most well-documented sightings of a UFO in history. The next morning, Sgt. Burroughs nervously reported the sighting to his shift commander:

“He basically said, ‘Gentlemen, you saw something. Heathrow tower confirms that you saw something. And now, let’s go out into the area and see if we can find any physical proof of what happened.’ I was hoping when I got out there that basically I would see nothing. There would be no telltale evidence that possibly something happened. That would make it easier for me because, if there’s nothing proving that something happened to me, you can just kind of check it off. But when you get out there and you find damage to the trees, depressions in the ground and stuff, that makes it even more unexplainable.”

Later that same day, Burroughs and a British police officer explored the site where Burroughs saw the strange object. According to Burroughs, there were circular impressions in the earth directly below the spot where the craft appeared to hover:

“It was more of a mystery because when I first saw it, I didn’t perceive it as something sitting on the ground with a tripod type thing. Now, all of a sudden, there’s physical proof showing that something sat down in that area.”


Halt’s report, released through FOIA
The British police officer dismissed the circles as the marks of animals that had been digging there. But he did order his men to measure the distance between the circles.
They were exactly the same distance apart and formed a perfect equilateral triangle.

Rumors of the UFO sighting had spread like wildfire. Later that morning, Col. Charles Halt, deputy base commander, arrived at Woodbridge security headquarters:

“I was very skeptical. I found what had allegedly taken place hard to believe and I was really going to debunk it, quite frankly. And as events unfolded, I became more and more concerned that there may be something to this. I kept telling myself that there had to be some type of an explanation for it. But I certainly couldn’t find one and even to this day I, I can’t explain what happened.”

That evening, unusual lights were once again spotted in the forest. This time, the base commander ordered large floodlights, devices commonly known as light-alls, to be set up in the woods. At 9:30 PM, Col. Halt received word the lights had mysteriously stopped working. Base security was immediately ordered to set up more floodlights. Col. Halt put together a special investigative team:

“I called the on-duty, or stand-by, man of disaster preparedness and had him get his camera -- he was a professional photographer -- and calibrate several radiac instruments to take along. We were going to go debunk this.”

When Col. Halt arrived at the site, he said the second set of light-alls had also stopped working. And that’s not all:

“Some of the vehicles weren’t working properly and radio transmissions were limited at best.”

Armed with a Geiger counter, a starlight scope to enhance night vision, and a tape recorder to record his first impressions, Col. Halt led his team into the woods. Suddenly, a strange, glowing object appeared. As the object began to move away, Col. Halt said he and his men followed:

“As we were pursuing this glowing object through the woods, we noticed a farmhouse directly in front of us.”

The farmhouse appeared to be glowing very brightly, as though it was on fire. Then, according to Col. Halt:

“The object broke into five white objects and disappeared. And it was a very strange feeling in the air. It made your hair bristle, sort of like static electricity, you just had a very unusual feeling. And I don’t think it was all psychological. I think there was something physiological about it. I think there was some type of guiding force behind these objects. Whether it was trying to communicate with us, whether it was trying to warn us, or whether it was trying to do something to us, I don’t know.”

One of the members of Col. Halt’s team was Sgt. Robert Ball:

“To me, it looked like a grid search, like they were boxing off an area and looking for something. And that was the thought that hit me right away, and it stayed with me over the years. It looked like a search pattern.”

Col. Halt said as the object moved about, it emitted laser-like beams of light:

“We could very clearly see it. It sort of danced about in the sky and it sent down beams of light. I noticed other beams of light coming down from the same object, following different places on the base. My boss was standing in his front yard at Woodbridge and he could see the beams of light falling down. And the people in that weapons storage area and several other places on the base also reported the lights.”

Staff Sgt. John Burroughs wasn’t on patrol the second night:

“I woke up about 3:30, 4 in the morning and for whatever reason, I felt like maybe something had happened again. I don’t know why. I just woke up and felt like something had came back, don’t ask me why, it just was a gut feeling. So I went ahead and got up and went up to the base. All of a sudden, a couple of blue transparent type lights appeared in the sky. They were all of a sudden on the horizon and one of them broke towards us. The only time the light-alls were working as far as coming on and off when I saw them, were when the blue light passed by. And I have no idea what caused the light-alls to come on and off, other than the fact that the blue light as it passed, the light-alls came on .”

At about the same time, just 300 yards away, Col. Halt and his team also had a remarkable close encounter:

“The object was coming at us at a very high rate of speed. One of these beams of light fell very, very close to us, sort of a pencil beam of light.”

Once the object took off, it never returned. The next day, Col. Halt drafted a memo about the incident. It was submitted to British military authorities, who never acted on it. The United States Air Force would not acknowledge the episode either. Then, in 1983, a private citizen used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain Halt’s memo. But not everybody was convinced by what it reported. James McGaha is a noted UFO skeptic and director of two private observatories:

“The burden of proof for any event that is extraordinary is upon those making the claim, not upon those who look at it from a skeptical perspective. Where is the evidence? Show me the evidence? And that’s what science is all about. On the first night, at about 3 o’clock that morning, a bright fireball, which is a very bright meteor came into the earth’s atmosphere. And this is unquestionably what John Burroughs saw that night.”

Sgt. Burroughs says, not so:

“I’ve seen meteor showers come down before. It wasn’t a meteor falling out of the sky. And it went up, not down. Meteors fall from the sky. They don’t go back up into the sky.”

Col. Halt said what he saw was not a meteor:

“Meteor’s not going to go up, go back and forth and maintain position in the sky for a long period of time. A meteor’s not going to send beams of light down.”

James McGaha believes both men were mistaken:

“I think both of them are being honest as to what their perceptions are. But human perception is very, very easily fooled. And I think when they went out there to the woods, everybody was out there expecting to see a UFO. With a pre-conceived notion, the way you view things can be greatly influenced.”

McGaha believes that the glowing red light Col. Halt saw that night was simply a reflection from the revolving beam of a nearby lighthouse. Col. Halt doesn’t think so:

“There are too many unrelated things. If it were just a reflection, how does one explain two different sightings in two different places in the sky? How does one explain the object moving through the forest? How does one explain the sighting in the forest by the three airmen? There were just too many things. I have a lot of unresolved questions I’m not sure I’ll ever have answered. I’ve had people suggest all sorts of things, everything from, I’ve seen the second coming of Christ, to the devil’s after us. I can’t explain it, I really can’t. I know it was beyond the realm of anything that we experience in ordinary life.”

Around the same time, two other unconfirmed sightings were reported in the vicinity of Woodbridge Air Base. At least 15 men, all of them US Air Force personnel, witnessed the strange lights and objects first-hand. The Air Force continues to have no official comment on the entire series of events.