When Maria Clara dates a Maria Clara

by: Lian Nami Buan

If you spend more time admiring your girl friends than admiring yourself in the mirror, something must be wrong.

Psychologists say that one does not have to engage in lesbian relationship to be a lesbian; abnormal sexuality can be determined on sexual preference or fantasy orientation. Girls like boys – if a girl starts to like a girl, she starts becoming a lesbian.

It’s unfortunate for Filipinas that the Philippines can be so male-centric. If women places only second to men, then that makes lesbians on the bottom of the hierarchy behind gay men.

In the Philippines, women are seen in relation to men. Once upon a time there was Maria Clara who took the seat of woman prowess through Crisostomo Ibarra, and filipinos expect to see the same thing happen to women today. Once a male is dissociated to a female, a conflict begins to appear. That is why lesbian acceptance is limited to individuality, it is their commitment to a lesbian relationship that resentment from the people grows more tense.

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She’s the man

by: Lian Nami Buan

She sits inside an air-conditioned floor decorated by uptight men in uniforms roaming around with a posture that almost scares civilians. Wearing a smile that is odd amidst her bearing, she exudes the confidence of a successful woman who still aims for a lot more to achieve. For Ensign Noemie Guirao, her story began when she joined the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) as an enlist in 2002. Bored by the stagnant work style in the call center, the then 22-year old and now PCG Flag Lieutenant decided to abandon the networking company to take on Coast Guard trainings, not threatened by the men who might be able to outlast and outsmart her.

“You might wonder how I ended up here,” Guirao teased after revealing that she is a Mass Communication graduate, “well I don’t know either.” His Grandfather, once a lighthouse keeper in PCG, have always wanted one of them to take his place. So when her mother started processing her papers for the Coast Guard, she hadn’t find the time to contemplate on what could and would be. “I just found myself entering trainings,” she said, “I consider it (entering coast guard) my gift to them.”

The three years of training tested both her wit and endurance. It was as rigid as it can get. She was based on the Coast Guard camp in San Narcisso Zambales, where they would swim 2 miles in open sea everyday. One of the most physically draining activities was the carrying of rubber boats that weighed as much as 80 Ibs. She had to do well in academics, too. “Exercises and academics both has 50% worth,” she said, “so I had to maintain good marks on both of them.” But the balance was good, as according to her, it helped her mold her mind-over-body skills.

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Life ain’t saved by killing another

by: Lian Nami Buan

Have sex, abort later? It’s the same as eat unhealthily now, get a liposuction tomorrow. In a night when two people seemed to have ignored all the responsibility that a relationship entails, saying “no” would’ve been a much easier decision to make than, “should I keep it?.”

St. Margaret of Castello was born blind and disfigured, but disabilities and abandoment from her parents wasn’t a hindrance to becoming a woman of God. In the modern times, defective fetuses can be detected by ultra sound examinations. By all means, a mother can give up a disabled child even before she can give the child a chance to live. Had her parents not let St. Margaret be born, the world would have never been able to witness her miracles.

This was among the words of Ms. Jeannine Delos Reyes towards the gift of life that she and Prolife Philippines have been trying to preserve for 30 years. Prolife Philippines is a non-profit organization that offers counseling help to women going through pregnancy problems.

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Keeping your feet firm on the ground

by: Lian Nami Buan

New shoes take a while to hug your feet comfortably, and they say, many things can happen in a while. Like leave nasty foot skin cuts, cause trips because of loose fit, slows down runs or walks because of weight and grip. But we can always go barefoot, although there are only a few who are brave enough to venture the world without shoes on.

Trinoma and Gateway Mall houses Rest-toe-run, a shoe salon which sells Terra Plana, and Sanuk shoes; two footwear brands that can give you the feeling of walking barefoot and stylish look that sets you apart from the mainstream others at the same time.

Not only does these lines, priced 2290, offer wide range of designs that best fits all-around women, they also fight fashion piracy because no way can small-time cribbers produce shoes and sandals that has the same effect on the feet.

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Blue Green Madness

by: Lian Nami Buan

 In Basketball, the fight begins behind the ticket booths.

A day after the Ateneo Blue Eagles and the De La Salle Green Archers earned their respective University Athletics Association of the Philippines (UAAP) finals slot, fans found themselves in a needle hole trying to get their hands on those elusive tickets.

Even before the buzzer sounded in the Ateneo-UE Semifinals game that Jay Bondoc was watching, she already had sent messages to friends from Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU) asking if they could get her an extra ticket for the Finals. “It’s easier for them to get tickets because the final schools, I think, are given the most tickets by UAAP.” She is a junior student at the Far Eastern University, but remained a Blue Eagle fan at heart. To her and to the other one big fighters, nothing beats experiencing a Blue Championship live.

But she was just a single soul among the thousands that were as desperate for tickets as she was. Ticketnet started selling 9 in the morning of Monday, last September 15, a day after the semifinals declared Ateneo and LaSalle the championship contenders. The slogan ‘Tough Road to Glory’ is probably what the fans had in mind as they jump through fire rings to score tickets. Araneta Coliseum personnels reported that as early as 4 am, there already was a queue for the sales, most of them camped overnight to secure their purchase.

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