Sometime ago, my son Tyler matter-of-fact told me that his hair is missing! And I have to find it. This, after seeing his cousins with heads full of hair,
Yeah .. like you can reason with a 2 year old that hairs don’t go missing. Luckily, he was distracted by something else and we dropped the subject.
Unluckily, he has not entirely forgotten about his hair issues.
After giving him his shower the other day, he again told me his hair is missing. I tried explaining to him that hairs don’t go missing, just that sometimes, some kids have more hair than others . Hair comes in different colors and sizes and he will just have to wait to grow his. He still insisted his hair is missing and didn’t want to sleep. So I told him he better take his nap so his hair can grow some then soon enough he will have a lot more hair on his head.
Great. Like that’s something you should tell a two-year old kid.
He woke up and promptly cried. His hair is still missing! But now, he was very frustrated, pulling his hair and screaming at me to grow his hair!
LOL indeed!
Seriously.
I couldn’t help but laugh so hard falling on the bed beside him. In no time, my dear, crazy funny son, was also laughing. I don’t think he understood why we were laughing but it was fun anyway =)
So no more trips to the barber shop until his hair grows out.
You can now check your respective COMELEC voting precint numbers online at http://www.comelec.gov.ph/precinctfinder/precinctfinder.aspx. This makes it easier and shortens the amount of time you need to find your voting precint on May 10, 2010 (Philippine) election day.
To search for your precint number,
- Fill in all NAME fields completely as you indicated in your Application Form for registration.
- Do not type just your MIDDLE INITIAL if you indicated your complete MIDDLE NAME during registration.
- In case encoding errors may have been committed by your local COMELEC office:
- If your name contains a JR, SR, II, III, IV, etc., try several variations of typing your name, as follows:
- in the FIRST NAME field after your first name, such as JUAN JR.
- in the LAST NAME field after your last name, such as DELA CRUZ JR.
- with a period, such as JR.
- without a period, such as JR
- with a comma and period, Such as JUAN, JR. or JUAN JR.,
- with two (or three) spaces in between, such as JUAN JR. or JUAN JR.
- a combination of the above-mentioned variations.
- If your name contains MA. or MARIA, try both variations in the FIRST NAME field.
- If your name contains a JR, SR, II, III, IV, etc., try several variations of typing your name, as follows:
I was so looking forward to voting this (Philippine) election year. I always try to exercise my right to vote. No matter how much widespread election rigging becomes, or the sheer amount of misinformation and popularity campaigns each candidate run.
In that one day, pen in hand and a “privacy” folder shielding my voter’s form, I choose candidates according to my beliefs without anybody looking over my shoulder and censuring me for my decisions. Nobody knows for sure what one wrote in that piece of paper. Not before, not after. In those minutes when you are alone, you know that you count.
Well, that’s the idealistic scenario. Realistically, for every person who feels that way, there’s another one who votes according to how much a candidate has given him or will give him (in cash and in kind), who’s the highest bidder for his vote or who has the better jingle.
It is a shock then that when I tried looking up my precint number ahead of time I found that my registration details has been deactivated presumably because I didn’t vote in the last election (I was out of the country in 2004). When I came home, the first thing my mom and I talked about was checking my registration information at the local COMELEC office. Mom went there to inquire and somebody confirmed that I am still in the list.
Yeah .. that was then. So now, imagine my dismay at not being able to vote. One vote less may not count that much in the whole scheme of things but if you multiply that by how many others are like me, looking forward to going out to vote early only to find that we are barred from voting this election simply because we failed to show up the last time.
Exactly one week before election day, I switch from an active and excited voter to a spectator cheering on the sidelines checking everyone’s registration detail and looking up their precint numbers online.
Picture this:
A “white” woman walks the streets of Hyannis this morning with an expired seasonal working visa valid only to do work one season after which she had a couple more months’ grace to get her things in order and return to where she came from. It’s 5 years later and she’s decided to stay anyway instead of reapplying for another worker’s permit which may or may not be approved depending on quota requirements.
Now, there’s another woman, a brown-skinned international student from overseas, walking along Main Street in Hyannis too, on her way to town hall to get some documents stamped. She has all her papers in order, going through all the legal process that INS required. She hasn’t attempted to find work until her approval goes through though most likely there will be a Cape Cod business who’d be willing to hire her without asking for her papers.
It’s a sunny day in Hyannis today, and both women went about their way with the “brown” woman getting some mild discrimination from a town hall clerk while the blonde merely garnered a nod. No biggie. It happens.
Now, place both women on the streets of Arizona, more so, in Maricopa County. Who do you think will be stopped? Or at the very least receive scathing remarks from Arizona’s SB1070 (state immigration law) supporters? What if the law is in effect this morning and the student with the legal papers happen to be walking to a convenience store a block down her apartment to quickly purchase a bottle of shampoo without bothering to bring her pocketbook? What would have been a civil infraction, which merits a citation for not bringing her papers with her, she could now face jail time and big fines. Meanwhile, somebody white and illegal gets off the hook, for being white.
It happens.
So while the governor signs an amendment stating that racial profiling is not and will not be accepted in Arizona, what really constitutes “reasonable suspicion” that somebody is in the country illegally?
the above scenario is fictitious and meant to illustrate how discriminative the new Arizona immigration law can be
Gulf Coast Oil Spill
Just when right whales and pods of dolphins swim through the bay in Cape Cod, basking in the sun and rich feeding ground, giving spectacular nature “shows” in the afternoons to visitors flocking the beaches of Provincetown, mink, otter, bird life and commercial fishing on the gulf coast states of Florida and Louisiana face major problems after the Deepwater Horizon’s offshore oil rig explosion last week (April 20th).
Stopping this latest major oil spill could take weeks and the slick is slowly but steadily approaching the shores of Louisiana and Florida, the EPA is preparing for the worst, the navy are starting controlled burn offshore to lessen slick which will surely end up onshore. Meanwhile, this is really really bad timing for capitol hill as they prepare to open up the Atlantic for more oil exploration and drilling.
So how is it that all these corporations fund major equipment, research and development of state of the art rigs, security measures and drilling equipments designed to plum unchartered waters, and not one really significant equipment or an totally sound environmental plan to address oil spills has been developed in all these years? So you have mechanical equipment to herd all this precious oil floating over the water, you put more chemical to burn it, contain it and clean it up once it gets to shore. And then what?
I guess it’s a question of which priorities weigh more that people lose sight of the fact that it takes years and years for a heavily damaged ecosystem to develop if they ever bounce back after major environmental events such as a large and far reaching oil spill. And too, there’s the whole “circle of life” thing which has latent affects on life in parts of the world far away from the scene of the disaster.
Unfortunately, birds and other marine life can’t go to the polls or pay taxes.
More info on the latest Gulf (of Mexico) Oil Spill:
Size of Spill in Gulf of Mexico Is Larger Than Thought
Stopping Gulf Coast oil leak could take weeks
Gulf Coast birds in danger
Oil spill could be disaster for animals, experts say
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