The Creation Story from Luzon

When the world first began there was no land, but only the sea and the sky, and between them was a kite (a bird something like a hawk). One day the bird which had nowhere to light grew tired of flying about, so she stirred up the sea until it threw its waters against the sky. The sky, in order to restrain the sea, showered upon it many islands until it could no longer rise, but ran back and forth. Then the sky ordered the kite to light on one of the islands to build her nest, and to leave the sea and the sky in peace.

Now at this time the land breeze and the sea breeze were married, and they had a child which was a bamboo. One day when this bamboo was floating about on the water, it struck the feet of the kite which was on the beach. The bird, angry that anything should strike it, pecked at the bamboo, and out of one section came a man and from the other a woman.

Then the earthquake called on all the birds and fish to see what should be done with these two, and it was decided that they should marry. Many children were born to the couple, and from them came all the different races of people.

After a while the parents grew very tired of having so many idle and useless children around, and they wished to be rid of them, but they knew of no place to send them to. Time went on and the children became so numerous that the parents enjoyed no peace. One day, in desperation, the father seized a stick and began beating them on all sides.

This so frightened the children that they fled in different directions, seeking hidden rooms in the house -- some concealed themselves in the walls, some ran outside, while others hid in the fireplace, and several fled to the sea.

Now it happened that those who went into the hidden rooms of the house later became the chiefs of the islands; and those who concealed themselves in the walls became slaves. Those who ran outside were free men; and those who hid in the fireplace became Negroes; while those who fled to the sea were gone many years, and when their children came back they were the white people.

In a nutshell...

The Ifugao tribes of northern Luzon believed that the world was created by the Sun God during a cosmic war between the sky world and the underworld.

There are 6 bills pertaining to reproductive health and/or population management that have been filed for deliberation in both the House of Representatives and the Senate for the 15th Congress.

The most controversial of these bills is House Bill No. 96 authored by Rep. Edcel Lagman. House Bill No. 96, also known as the proposed "Reproductive Health and Population and Development Act of 2010," will cover the following areas:

• midwives of skilled attendance
• emergency obstetric care
• access to family planning
• maternal death review
• family planning supplies as essential medicines
• benefits for serious and life-threatening reproductive health conditions
• mobile health care service
• mandatory age-appropriate reproductive health and sexuality education
• responsibility of local family planning office and certificate of compliance
• capability building of barangay health workers
• ideal family size
• employers' responsibilities
• multi-media campaign
• implementing mechanisms
• reporting requirements
• prohibited acts
• penalties

The bill is controversial, as it is being opposed by concerned citizens, especially the pro-life, pro-family and pro-God groups, regardless of creed or religion. The Roman Catholic Church expresses its opposition against the bill on many counts, most especially the procurement and distribution of family planning supplies for the whole country, when the available evidence from peer reviewed medical journals supports the hypothesis that when ovulation and fertilization occur in women taking oral contraceptives (OCs) or using intrauterine devices (IUD), post-fertilization effects are operative on occasion to prevent clinically recognized pregnancy. Hormonal contraceptives and/or IUDs directly affect the endometrium. These effects have been presumed to render the endometrium relatively inhospitable to implantation or to the maintenance of the preembryo or embryo prior to clinically recognized pregnancy. These make pills and IUDS abortifacient.

Pro-life groups, and many professionals in the medical and nursing fields, believe that physicians and policy makers should understand and respect the beliefs of patients who consider human life to be present and valuable from the moment of fertilization. Patients should be made fully aware of this information so that they can consent to or refuse the use of artificial contraceptives.

However, the position of the Catholic Church and the pro-life groups does not mean that they espouse the attitude of "natalism" at all costs, as if the "number" of children, in itself, were the unmistakable sign of authentic christian matrimonial life.

The sexual act, properly exercised within marriage only, is ordained primarily to the propagation of life. If there are reasonable motives for spacing births, such as serious medical conditions in the mother, or extreme poverty, then the Catholic Church teaches that married couples may take advantage of the natural cycles of the reproductive system and use their marriage precisely those times that are infertile (natural family planning).

Other aspects of the bill being contested by concerned citizens include the classification of family planning supplies as essential medicines when their safety/toxicity profile and legal permissibility are questionable. At the same time, more importance should be given to the prevalent diseases, the top ten leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the Philippines, namely, infections such as pneumonia and tuberculosis. Financial resources allotted by foreign donors to assist the Philippine government programs could actually be better spent towards pursuing health programs targeting communicable diseases than purchasing artificial contraceptives.

Very pertinent to the debate about reproduction rights is the right to life. The Philippine Constitution says that the State "shall equally protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from conception. If artificial contraceptives are medically proven to induce abortion as one of their mechanisms of action, then procurement and distribution of such family planning supplies are unconstitutional and illegal.

3 percent more or less Birth rate:

25.31 births / 1,000 population (2005 est.)

Actually I declaimed this piece when I was in Grade 2 and fortunately I won. So here it goes...

(I dont know who's the author but I'm pretty sure it's not my sister who taught me this piece.)Bad Girl

Hey! Everybody seems to be staring at me..You! You! All of you!How dare you to stare at me?Why? Is it because I'm a bad girl?A bad girl I am, A good for nothing teen ager, a problem child?That's what you call me!I smoke. I drink. I gamble at my young tender age.I lie. I cheat, and I could even kill, If I have too.Yes, I'm a bad girl, but where are my parents?You! You! You are my good parents?My good elder brother and sister in this society where I live?Look...look at me...What have you done to me?You have pampered and spoiled me, neglected me when I needed you most!Entrusted me to a yaya, whose intelligence was much lower than mine!While you go about your parties, your meetings and gambling session...Thus... I drifted away from you!Longing for a father's love, yearning for a mother's care!As I grew up, everything changed!You too have changed!You spent more time in your poker, majong tables, bars and night clubs.You even landed on the headlines of the newspaper as crooks, pedlars and racketeers.Now, you call me names, accuse me of everything I do to myself?Tell me! How good are you?If you really wish to ensure my future...Then hurry....hurry back home! Where I await you, because I need you...Protect me from all evil influences that will threathen at my very own understanding...But if I am bad, really bad...then, you've got to help me!Help me! Oh please...Help me!

one can not do a thing if he/she has no energy.

Where do we get our energy?

It's from the food we eat right?

There's this saying that goes..."You are what you eat"

If one eats healthy food, then he/she will be healthy.

But if he/she eats junk food, then he/she is considered to be junk..

Now the problem lies very much on the food they take in..

Marami sa kabataan ngayon ang kumakain ng Hindi malusog na pagkain. Kaya walang pumapasok sa brains nila...

Here's to make it simpler...

It is important for the kabataan to eat healthy and good food because it helps them very much in thinking, playing, working, running, walking and even just sitting down...

More energy means healthier...

occurring in the course of labor, delivery

and puerperium

2. Hypertension complicating pregnancy,

childbirth and puerperium

3. Postpartum hemorrhage

4. Pregnancy with abortive outcome

5. Hemorrhage related to pregnancy

The biomedical causes of maternal mortality are well recognised Three quarters of maternal mortalities result from the direct obstetric complications of haemorrhage, infection, obstructed labour, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, and septic abortion. The remainder are due to other 'direct' obstetric causes such as pulmonary embolism or ectopic pregnancy, or 'indirect' causes that are aggravated by pregnancy, such as malaria, hepatitis, diabetes mellitus and heart disease. Worldwide the most common cause of maternal mortality is haemorrhage, but the proportion due to each cause varies between regions.

Sorry I don't have 1-10...but I am guessing you can find them out through the information I just gave you.