Justiis no more for Jen

Jennifer Aniston must be feeling vindicated, after Brangelina announced their divorce. Again, Brad is being linked to a co-star, just like with Angelina before, while still married to Jen. Karma sa kama.

That is why rebounds are just for basketball. In fact, some decisions on the nullity of marriages specify when a spouse can remarry, if at all.

Dami Accounts

Again, enter the Anti-Money Laundering agency in the Duterte-De Lima double-barrelling of the drug menace, on suspicion of Bilibid money going to the former Secretary of Justice and her "bagmen."

Bilibid or not! Audience, beware!!!

Who's laughing now?

An old song went, "Who's sorry now?" Could they be the millions who voted for Duterte or the hundreds who laughed at his antics thereafter?

Definitely, there's crying from the kin of killed drug suspects, and just now, Senator De Lima in frustrated but hopeful vindication after Duterte's apology on his drug matrix.

P. S.

They say "senior moment" is passe. "My (computer) disc is full" is now more geriatrically correct. In my case, the previous post should have read "decrease in the value of the dollar."

Thank the Holy Spirit, can still spot my error! Essential in mediation,  too.

What goes up.....

With the increasing violence in the country, there is a corresponding decrease in the value of the peso. The Central Bank, of course, related it to the US economy.

Mediation realizes that- actions do not happen in a vacuum, always have a domino efect. With the nervousness of the business sector, OFW families are happy with more pesos from their remittances, and the exporters with less cost to send out their goods. Economic balancing act.

Bridging the Spies

This will (carbon)-date me, but the Tom Hanks starrer on cable dealt with Gary Powers, who was in the news of my youth. He was an American pilot shot down by the Russians supposedly on espionage. Tom Hanks' character negotiated his release, in exchange for his client, the communist spy held in the US, Abel.

What a biblical situation! Powers for Abel- truly mediation balances power.

Mediation Mantra

George Sison says, "My receiving comes from all my giving, forgiving and thanksgiving."

Disputants better not dispute this!

WW Rent

That's for worldwide, which someone said should be service, for our being in this world.

Mediators are surely paying it forward.

Emotional Hygiene

That is proposed by the Dalai Lama, according to his follower Tessa Prieto- Valdes, to make moral values keep up with technological strides.

Mediation is included in that kit.

Na-Salise

Yet another judge, Salise, was shot.

Just yesterday, at our Refresher Course on Mediation in refreshing Tagaytay, one speaker ohserved, "They don't shoot mediators!" Being "peacemakers, they are called children of God," says the Gospel.

D Vs D

Duterte versus De Lima is getting into a long-playing disc that started during the vinyl record days of their mayoral and human rights past.

Will somebody backtrack and make some sense of this, peace?

Train or Bust

"Train to Busan" was derailed to Hogswart? This Korean movie started with a story of a torn family that was interesting enough till zombies turned up.

In real life, there are zombie-like creatures who zoom into relationships, too.

Sound of Silence

Not that meaningful song, but the equally meaningful absence of recrimination in forgiveness.

Today's Our Daily Bread says it all: "The voice of sin may be loud, but the voice of forgiveness is louder." Enough said.

Bakit Pa List

That was our reply upon being asked for one's bucket list for our golden jubilee book.
We might kick it before then. Nothing like doing the things we have to do while we still can.

As it says in the Gospel of Matthew, "Make friends quickly with your accuser, while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison; truly, I say to you, you will never get out till you have paid the last penny." That is the mediator's commission.

Sullied Reputation

For saving other 154 lives aboard his aircraft he safely landed on the Hudson River after a bird strike, Capt. Sullenberger was grilled by the Transport Board for possible human error. Could make anyone become like the first two syllables of his last name!

That Board would get crazy going over the inhuman errors of the PNP!

Les Miserables II

From  stealing bread, the hungry are now stabbing "tanods" preventing their sidewalk-hawking.

Once and for all, let's settle the conflicting interests of livelihood and road use.

Waya Waya

That is the name of a pest infecting crops at present.

There is another pest to relationships- away away, that we don't want. Ayaw ayaw!

Tawad ng Tunggalian

To counter human rights accusations against him, Duterte brought up the US' massacre/overkill of Mindanao Moros in the early 1900s at Bud Dajo. Bad "dayo?"

Darwin Absari of UP's Institute for Islamic Studies chimed in and claimed that US has not asked forgiveness (pagpapatawad) for this. "Tawad" also refers to discount or minimize in Pilipino. Discount, in English could likewise mean disregard. Wonder in what context US will be asking for "tawad?"

Unfit Husband/ President

If PNoy was a non-husband, Digong was an unfit one, judging from the personality assessment during his annulment case, released during the campaign period. Then, he was diagnosed with "Anti-Social Narcissistic Personality Disorder with these characteristics: gross indifference, insensitivity, self-centeredness, grandiose sense of self-entitlement/ manipulative behavior, pervasive tendency to demean & humiliate others &,violate their rights & feelings, heightened by a lack of capacity for guilt and remorse. Traits are easily upset when needs & desires not met, destructive behavior, poor capacity for objective judgment, lack of self-discipline seen as challenging & exciting, fails to see things in light of facts, interprets actions solely from his view point, and rationalizes & justifies wrongdoing usually by blaming others."

Did we listen at all to this objective third party caveat? Voters, beware and wary!

Mediating Road Rage

Now comes Dash Cam Pro, a cctv for your car. It has audio, video and infra red facility for night vision.

An objective third party, like a mediator on the road!

It Takes Two

Aside from tango, to run the silk-making machine in the local cottage industry.

Just as to start a conflict, and end it, too.

Sow What?

This was the take of "Our Daily Bread" on the Parable of the Sower's seed falling on different soil conditions.

Mediation also deals with rocky relationships and thorny situations before gaining ground.

Self-Mediation

It all starts with loving yourself, so you are not in inner conflict. How? Someone set these guidelines: Revisit victories, Reward yourself and Run after your dreams.

That takes care of your past, present and future in 3Rs. Not in selfies endeavor, but honest-toward-goodness pursuit. Not trivial Rah, Rah, Rah!

Mediation Prayer

"Weep not for what you have lost
Fight for what you have.
Weep not for what is dead
Fight for what was born in you.
Weep not for the one who abandoned you
Fight for who is with you.
Weep not for those who hate you
Fight for those who want you.
Weep not for your past
Fight for your present struggle.
Weep not for your suffering
Fight for happiness.

With events and situations that are happening to us and around us, we begin to learn that no matter what we do, there are some things that are impossible to resolve. We just need to move forward and make things better for the future." (I cannot recall source of this reflection.)

Personal Peace Adviser of the President

The Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process is getting into his job description's tail end duty of "others as may be assigned from time to time." In Laos, Dureza is trying to offset what Duterte was supposed to have said of Obama. Hopefully, he would live up to his last name, which in Spanish means hardiness, if we're not mistaken. Let's see how durable Jess is.

Duterte could make Dureza's job less complicated than it already is by thinking before he clucks.

Camp Sawi Sawi Island

On an idyllic island location, the movie Camp Sawi has the broken-hearteds breaking plates and doing other coping mechanisms. After 10 days, they are ready to go back to their frustrating existence.

Most of them needed mediation, if not counseling.

Mediating social classes

Mother Teresa became a saint for her work among the lowliest, the untouchables of Calcutta. She touched their lives till their dying days.

Mediation is likewise reaching out- to the other side.

Keeping up with Time

My age now is the same as the year I graduated high school. To put it digitally, it's 'hs_@_!

Like mediation, we are updating.

Not a Hero Sandwich

Marcos can't even be in the Shakey's menu.

Does he even care? How to mediate with the dead?

Dead Men Tell No (Tall) Tales

Maybe just rigid as they are in rigor mortis, and uniformly so, not in clothing but in supposed action of resisting arrest.

So while alive, let us seek to say our piece or forever hold it in peace.

Con-troll

Come to spell it, too much control is not very flaterring. Even God discourages it over our own lives, and more so others' lives. Only He has full control really. Ours is just foolish.

Mediators also allow disputants to deal with their own conflict resolution their way, time frame and good will.