HEALTH CORNER

This writer joins the Catholic Faithful in the celebration of the Year of the Faith and in commemoration of the solemnity of Corpus Christi (The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ). Birthday greetings to one of my most helpful friends, Mr. Marlon Tumimbang.

Most people including doctors advice their patients/friends to drink moderately but what is moderate drinking? Some men say drinking ten bottles of beer is moderate. Frankly speaking, moderate drinking means no more than 2 drinks for women and no more than 3 drinks for men per occasion. One drink consists of 12 oz. of regular beer, 5 oz of wine or 1 ½ oz of distilled spirit (80% proof). Binge drinking on the other hand means an intake of 5 or more drinks in succession. I hope this is clear to my ardent readers.

Most people know only that excessive alcoholic drinking will lead to liver cirrhosis but little do they know that liver cirrhosis can lead to liver cancer. Liver cirrhosis is the destruction of normal liver tissue that leaves nonfunctioning scar tissue surrounding areas of functioning liver tissue. The liver cirrhosis caused by alcohol is labeled as Alcoholic Liver Cirrhosis (ALC) in contrast to those who developed cirrhosis not due to alcohol which is called Non-Alcoholic Liver Cirrhosis (N-ALC). Alcoholic cirrhosis is the most common bad effect of alcohol. Another effect of alcohol is what we call Chronic Alcoholism which can cause “Chronic Alcohol Brain syndrome” which causes memory and recall problems, emotional instability and difficulty in maintaining balance with the behavior being erratic. The victim of Chronic Alcoholism can develop high blood pressure and Coronary Heart Disease that may lead to heart attack.

However, in my subsequent issues on this topic, I’ll mention that some experts say that alcohol can lower the risk of heart disease.
Excessive alcohol drinking can lead to numerous accidents, vehicular or otherwise, injuries such as falls, sexual molestation, crimes, mental and physical problems and office and school performances are affected. During my college days, I learned from our class in Legal Medicine that one of the defenses of an accused in sexual assaults who was under the influence of liquor would claim that he did not know what he was doing being drunk at that time the crime was committed. I wish to rebuke this claim in that even a drunken person perfectly knows what he is doing but the only thing lost in him is inhibition, meaning, he loses his control of himself so the defense that “hindi ko alam ang aking ginagawa ” is without basis.

What about red wine or the so-called “Ladies’Drink”? Even red wine have different strengths of alcohol. Some have 4.5 vol. %, some have 11 vol. %, and some even reach 18 vol. %. Even the priest wine, “Mompo” has 18 vol.%. So, excessive drinking of these wines can also lead to drunkenness. At this point in time, I wish to share my personal experience when I ate a lot of imported seedless grapes in one of the Christmas parties I attended. After consuming about a plateful of grapes, I felt groggy and drunk although I have never experienced being drunk since I am not an alcohol drinker and truthfully, there is no single drop of alcohol in my blood. This goes to show that even raw grapes when digested in our gastrointestinal tract can become alcohol in our blood, hence, it can make you feel drunk.

To be continued to Part 4 for more bad effects of alcohol.
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MATH AND SCIENCE 6-8-13

Carmen, North Cotabato, is in fear of possible eruption of Mt. Apo due to the frequent jarring of the earth with intensity 5 more or less.

Carmen is at the foot of Mt. Apo, known as the highest volcano in the Philippines. It is possible they remember Mt. Pinatubo in Central Luzon. According to new reports, then, after sleeping for 600 years, Mt. Pinatubo in 1991 suddenly opened up and blasted the provinces of Pampanga, Talac up to Pangasinan, and with hot lahar and mud buried thousands of people, buildings and all within the circumference of hundreds of kilometers away. Its cloud of dust reached Manila and even darkened the sky around the word.

Here are some signs when a volcano is about to erupt. It is based on what I remember about Taal Volcano in Batangas.

I was studying in Manila then. People heard rumbling sound of the earth. Animals and birds were restless; dogs howling day and night. Fishermen had scarce catch.

According to reports, the one in Carmen is tectonic. Here is a simple explanation. There are several plates or big chunks near the surface of the earth. Each chunk is called a plate. These plates are separated by fault line. When two or more plates bump each other the impact causes a vibration. By law of Physics, the bigger the plates colliding each other, the stronger is the vibration and the higher is its intensity. Therefore it is possible that the one in Carmen is called tectonic in origin.

Using this theory of Physics, the one in Cotabato City in 1976 that caused wide destructions and death of thousands of those living along the shore have been done by the colliding of two big plates along the fault line near the shore of Kusiong.

Why are these plates moving? According to Physics again, the center of the earth is very hot that even rocks melt. These melted rocks are called magma. Like boiling water, the body of magma is a current of different directions causing plates to move. Some plates bump each other and cause vibration or shaking of the earth. We call this earthquake. (Like what I see in the internet, I would like to ask my readers to help me explain more about this.)

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Attention: (1) Officers and Members of the Retirees Association are reminded of their monthly meeting this Saturday, June 8 at the Regional Office of Civil Service Commission, Cotabato City. It is more fun in the Retirees monthly meeting. Let us go.

(2) Knights of Columbus who are members and officers of Bishop McSorely Assembly will have their monthly Mass and fraternal meeting at the Cathedral and KC hall Cotabato City this Sunday, June 9.

In case you missed the issue last Saturday, we are publishing the puzzles again.

Let us stretch our mind on mathematics to do away the humdrum of election matters. Try solving the puzzle, find the triangles in the figure.

How many triangles are there in the figure?

Explain well your solution so that we can follow it with ease. Send your answer to this paper, the Mindanao Cross and get your prize of P100 if it is correct. If more than one gets the correct answer, we raffle their names to pick one to get the prize.

Penlight 6-8-13

A NEW study by the Pew Research Center in Washington D.C. finds that the “most adherents” (to Islam) of the world’s Muslims are “deeply committed to their faith and want its teachings to shape, not only their personal lives, but also their societies and politics.”
According to the study made available to US Press on April 30, 2013, majority of Muslims in 39 countries “say that Islam is the one true faith, leading to eternal life in heaven and that belief in God is necessary to be a moral person.”

“Many also think that their religious leaders should have at least some influence over political matters, and many express a desire for sharia (Muslim law) to be recognized as the official law of their country.” But the percentage of Muslims who say they want sharia to be “the official law of the land” varies widely, from eight percent to near unanimity in Afghanistan (99 percent).

At the same time, the survey finds that even in many countries where there is strong backing for sharia, most Muslims favor religious freedom for people of other faiths. In Pakistan, for example, three-fourths of Muslims say that non-Muslims are very free to practice their religion, and 96 percent of those who share this assessment say it is “a good thing.” But 84 percent of Pakistani Muslims favor sharia for an official law.

Pew Research explains that “these seemingly divergent views are possible partly because most supporters of sharia in Pakistan – as in many other countries – think Islamic law should apply only to Muslims. “Moreover, Muslims around the globe have held differing understandings of what sharia means in practice.”

The new survey report also provides some room for comparison with previous Pew Research Center surveys on Muslims in the United States. “Like most Muslims worldwide, U.S. Muslims generally express strong commitment to their faith and tend not to see an inherent conflict between being devout and living in a modern society.”

As a visiting journalist covering for the Foreign Press Center in Washington D.C., I attended the Pew Research Center’s presentation of its first study on the US Muslims in autumn of 2011. According to this study, “American Muslims are much more likely than Muslims in other countries to have close friends who do not share their faith, and they are much more open to the idea that many religions – not only Islam – can lead to eternal life in heaven.”

“At the same time, U.S. Muslims are less inclined than their co-religionists around the globe to believe in evolution; and on this subject, they are closer to U.S. Christians.”

The study titled, "The World’s Muslims: Religion," Politics and Society is based on individual interviews with 38,000 self-identified Muslims in 39 countries and territories, and had been conducted in more than 80 languages.

The survey was conducted in two phases. Fifteen sub-Saharan African countries with substantial Muslim populations were surveyed in 2008-2009, and some of those results were previously analyzed in the Pew Research Center’s 2010 report “Tolerance and Tension: Islam and Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa.” Twenty-four more countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Europe were surveyed in 2011-2012; results regarding religious beliefs and practices were first published in the Pew Research Center’s 2012 report “The World’s Muslims: Unity and Diversity.”

The new report, focusing on Muslims’ social and political attitudes, incorporates findings from both phases of the survey.
A part of the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures project, the study is funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John Templeton Foundation to analyze religious change and its impact on societies around the world. Additional findings include:
• In most countries surveyed, majorities of Muslim women as well as men agree that a wife is always obliged to obey her husband. At the same time, majorities in many countries surveyed say a woman should be able to decide for herself whether to wear a veil.
• At least half of Muslims in most countries surveyed say they are concerned about religious extremist groups in their country, including around two-thirds or more of Muslims in Egypt (67 percent), Tunisia (67 percent), Iraq (68 percent) and Indonesia (78 percent). On balance, more are worried about Islamic extremists than about Christian extremists.

• Support to making sharia as the official law of the land tends to be higher in countries like Pakistan (84 percent) and Morocco (83 percent) where the constitution or basic laws favor Islam over other religions. The full report, including a link to the new Global Religious Futures website, is available at pewforum.org.

TRUE TO FORM 6-8-13

AN ARMY TRAINING officer to some 7,000 militia men in Central Mindanao cautioned local journalists in covering terror plots and explosives find, to ensure civilian safety and self-preservation. “As media practitioners you should be aware of the various types of bombs and their characteristics,” said Lt. Col. Bernie Langub, commander of the 38th Infantry Battalion, whose headquarters at Semba in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao hosted reporters to a crash-course on bomb classification, its destructive effect, and a marksmanship fun-shooting activity among peers. He urged media to alert police and military authorities of suspicious-looking left-behind belongings to ensure that these are properly disposed of; and that often times, responding anti-bomb squad uses K9 dogs for safe detection. Langub explained that in times of war the use of land mines are prohibited when its type and lethal-effect becomes indiscriminate, regardless of its target. The training lecture, was also meant to protect journalists against threats from would-be assassins of which they are vulnerable because of their critical reportage, said Col. Dickson Hermoso of the Fourth Estate, that has been acknowledged as peacekeeping partners of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Speaking for the Sixth Infantry division, Hermoso assured those present to provide media necessary security within its coverage area that includes, Maguindanao, part of Lanao del Sur, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and the cities therein. He said Division commander Maj. Gen. Romeo Gapuz’s directive for media protection came about following reports of practitioners being killed or under serious threat. “We don’t want a repeat of the 2009 Maguindanao massacre,” said Hermoso of the incident that killed 32 media workers blamed to a prominent political clan that reportedly utilized militia gunmen to carry out the carnage. Colonel Langub said the incident has served the military a lesson to reorient the training of paramilitary forces, like the Cafgu and CVOs, not to be used by unscrupulous politicians.

To strengthen AFP-media partnership in peace-building, the 6th Infantry Division formally organized the Kampilan Press Corps, Inc. by inducting its officers led by its president-elect Manila Bulletin correspondent Ali Macabalang. Army brigade commander and Inducting officer Brig. Gen. Ademar Tomaro who read the speech of Division commander Brig. Gen. Romeo Gapuz. He congratulated and enjoined media officers and members to continue with their role as fiscalizers, especially in pushing for the promotion peace and law and order. Macabalang, for his part, thanked the establishment for the common endeavor of working for development and public welfare. He assured the media organization would remain the `public eye’ against abuses and other unlawful acts.

In the same vein, ARMM caretaker and now governor-elect Mujiv Hataman thanked media, military and the police for the generally peaceful conduct of the May 13 polls. He was saddened, however, for the untimely demise of First Infantry Division commander Brig. Gen. Daniel Lucero, whose sudden earthly exit, at 53, is a great loss not only in the AFP, but to ARMM where he devoted most of his military career. Like Hataman, the Kampilan Press Corps also grieves the loss of the gentle and kind-hearted Army officer, said Macabalang. Hataman was candid to express his whole-hearted gratitude for the effective implementation of the administration’s reform agenda in the five-province ARMM, thus his election along with the other allies in the ruling Liberal Party. The fresh mandate will serve as inspiration to continue treading President Aquino’s `straight path’ in transforming ARMM into a peaceful, progressive, and eco-tourism haven, in time for the establishment of the Bangsamoro Political Entity by 2016. But like David, the prophet of old, anything good can only be attained through Him, as shown in his supplication: “Teach me Your way, O Lord, and lead me in the smooth path, because of my enemies. Do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries; for false witnesses have risen against me, and such as breathe out violence. I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (Psalm 27:11-13).