Grieving families

By Alex P. Vidal

“Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.”― Rumi

WHILE most people in the Christian world are enjoying the Christmas holiday, some local friends and families that lost their loved ones in most recent tragedies and in various heinous crimes are grieving.

For these unhappy families, Christmas is meaningless.

Some of them were families and friends of those who perished in the recent conflagration that killed three people in Brgy. Zone 3 Habog-Habog Salvacion, Molo, Iloilo City and the tragedy in Hamtic, Antique when a Ceres Liner bus fell into an 18-meter-deep ravine that killed 19 passengers, bus driver, and three bus workers.

Some of this year’s victims of heinous crimes were suspects in illegal drugs trade in Iloilo and Negros decapitated and murdered like animals. Some of them have remained missing, and the matter of their disappearance had the signature of summary execution.

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Attitudes about same-sex marriage vary widely around the world, according to several Pew Research Center surveys fielded in 32 places in the last two years.

Among the surveyed publics, support for legal same-sex marriage is highest in Sweden, where 92 percent of adults favor it, and lowest in Nigeria, where only 2 percent back it, according to Sneha Gubbala, Jacob Poushter and Christine Huang of Pew Research Center.

In the United States, where the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationally in 2015, 63 percent of adults support it and 34 percent oppose it. But views are highly fractured along political and demographic lines.

For example, Democrats and independents who lean toward the Democratic Party are nearly twice as likely as Republicans and Republican leaners to support same-sex marriage rights (82 percent vs. 44 percent).

Similarly, nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of Americans under the age of 40 say they favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally – 16 percentage points higher than the share of Americans 40 and older who agree (57 percent).

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SEVEN STEPS TO FORGIVENESS: 1. Allow ourselves to feel anger 2. Let’s talk about it with a trusted friend 3. Let’s calm ourselves when we start feeling upset 4. Let’s empathize with the person who hurt us 5. Remind ourselves that forgiveness is a gift to ourselves. 6. Let’s commit to forgiveness 7. Let’s relish the release.  (Source: Ginny Graves)

NOT GUILTY. That’s the verdict on fertility drugs and the possibility that they increase woman’s chances of developing ovarian cancer. Doctors had long worried that there might be such a link. But now Danish researchers have analyzed records of 54,362 women and found, over an average 16-year follow up, that those who took fertility drugs faced no greater risk of cancer.

HER NOSE AND HIS NOSE: Men may hope their cologne will mask underarm odor, but women aren’t fooled, research from the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia found. While 6 of 32 scents tested disguised the smell of male BO from other men, none of the fragrances worked for women. To the showers, guys! (And don’t forget the deodorant.)

LET’S EAT FISH: In a recent Swedish study of nearly 5,000 boys ages 15 to 18, those who ate fish frequently scored higher on intelligence tests. How much higher? Eating fish once a week was enough to boost scores by an average of 6 percent. Eating fish more than that resulted in nearly an 11 percent increase. Dr. Maria Aberg recommends fatty fish, like salmon, 2 to 3 times weekly.

HOW TO FIGHT TOO MUCH TEXTING: 1. Establish text-free zone. Kids often open up at the dinner table and in the car, so be sure to protect those precious places. Agree that texting is not allowed during mealtime or on drives to and from school and activities. 2. Let phones rest at night. 3. Be a role model.

LET’S BE THE SOLUTION TO STORMWATER POLLUTION. Let’s remember always that only rain in the storm drain and pollutants can include yard waste, trash, pet waste and hazardous waste.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)