When boys aren't men yet
By Katrina C. Guevarra
“How can a man be expected to make a woman happy, when he insists on treating her like a perfectly normal human being.” – Oscar Wilde
You’ve been preparing for this for hours, excruciatingly doing (and re-doing) your make up, styling your hair until finally it stays in the style you want it to be and of course, getting into the clothes you’ve prepared days before for the date. Just when you thought everything’s perfect, he doesn’t show up. Either that, or he shows up two hours late smelling like alcohol and gives the lame excuse of “Sorry, biglang nagkayayaan ang barkada eh.” Sounds familiar? Well, that’s one of the worst scenarios I have encountered in the relationships I’ve had in my 19 years of existence. Maybe because I am not used to being exchanged for booze – just for computer games.
Which brings us to another thing I don’t understand about guys, I know many girlfriends (and ex-girlfriends) out there will agree with me when I say that guys can be a slave to computer games and basketball games sometimes. I’ve seen countless girls, some even friends of mine, who would curse the game for taking up a huge chunk in their boyfriend’s lives. There are those with a different approach to this matter though. Like someone I know who tolerates her boyfriend’s obsession with online games by giving him a monthly supply of e-games card. Though there are guys like these who have girlfriends, there are those who don’t have one and choose to socialize in online fantasy worlds.
There are also other guys who likes bragging about their sexcapades with other girls, to the new one they have just met. As with any other girls, I believe that nothing screams “No sex life” more than someone bragging “how many girlfriends he has had, how many of those girlfriends he has devirginized or how big his penis size is.” Trust me, unless you are a hot matinee idol, no one wants to know. There are some guys who remain single because of this.
Other guys remain single because of another thing, being commitment-phobic. They treat would treat a certain girl as their girlfriends, exchange I-love-you’s, but don’t want to commit in a relationship. His reason for doing so could range from “I don’t want the title of boyfriend and girlfriend, it is just too overrated” to ones like “I’m just not ready to commit yet. I’m just enjoying the moment right now.” Those are reasons that could send a girl into a lot of lost sleep. If a girl’s moodswings drive a guy crazy, a guy’s phobia to commitment certainly is one the factors that drives us girls crazy. Why would you run away from love just when it is getting serious.
I guess that’s what differentiates a man from a woman. A woman tries so hard to find a serious relationship, while men run away from it.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Original review of Agamemnon's daughter
Feature Writing
A man’s greatest downfall
By: Katrina C. Guevarra
“We don't let them have ideas. Why would we let them have guns?”
--Joseph Stalin
Up until 1992, Stalin Communism was the way of life in Albania. There were rules and customs for everything. Everyone was to abide to every order of the state, every custom, every tradition– even if it meant being inhumane. It was a period where there was no room for one’s own opinion, own emotions and own preferences. Everyone was expected to make sacrifices when the circumstance asks for it, when the tradition asks for it –and above all because Stalin said so.
Agamemnon’s daughter is one of the more popular novels of the very first Man Booker International Prize winner, Ismail Kadare. The book contained three spellbinding collections of novellas. Its title story, Agamemnon’s daughter is a story of an unnamed journalist, who was taken away the love of his life at the height of his career. His lady love, Suzana, was told by her own father to break off the relationship with the journalist because he is engaged to someone else and rumors about their relationship might ruin the journalist’s career.
However, Suzana could have chosen a better timing than she did because she broke off her relationship with the journalist right before the biggest day of his career – his very first invitation to be with the high ranks of the Albania government at the grandstand for a very significant and high-brow event in Albania, the May 1st assembly.
The journalist compares Suzana’s sacrifice with that of Agamemnon’s daughter, Iphigenia, sacrifice during the Trojan war. As he go through checkpoints after checkpoints and walk closer to the grandstand, his memory wandered on the things he gave up to be able to have that privilege – the people he stepped on, the humanity that was lost. Then he started to doubt Suzana. After relating his present situation with the events of the Trojan war, he then came to a conclusion that Iphigenia was Agamemnon’s greatest downfall. And that he wouldn’t let Suzana be his Iphigenia. In the books, the Trojan war has ended. In the narrator’s mind, it has only just begun.
Also included in the novel are two other mini-novellas, “The Blinding Order” which tells of an old tradition of blinding people who they suspect to have an evil eye in any way (even just through the lightness or darkness of their irises and how many evil things they have witnessed). Another is “The Great Wall”, an exchange of philosophic views between a guardian of the Great Wall and one who was called to repair it.
Kadare’s work exposes readers to various social, political, philosophical issues inside a communist state. It also exposes the different desires men have, especially when it comes to power and love. To be able to get his work published, he had to smuggle manuscripts of his works from Albania to France in order to have his manuscripts published. He went through an ordeal of only bringing two to three pages of his work everytime and disguising it as a foreign material so he would not be accused of Exfiltration which is forbidden in Albanian Law.
A man’s greatest downfall
By: Katrina C. Guevarra
“We don't let them have ideas. Why would we let them have guns?”
--Joseph Stalin
Up until 1992, Stalin Communism was the way of life in Albania. There were rules and customs for everything. Everyone was to abide to every order of the state, every custom, every tradition– even if it meant being inhumane. It was a period where there was no room for one’s own opinion, own emotions and own preferences. Everyone was expected to make sacrifices when the circumstance asks for it, when the tradition asks for it –and above all because Stalin said so.
Agamemnon’s daughter is one of the more popular novels of the very first Man Booker International Prize winner, Ismail Kadare. The book contained three spellbinding collections of novellas. Its title story, Agamemnon’s daughter is a story of an unnamed journalist, who was taken away the love of his life at the height of his career. His lady love, Suzana, was told by her own father to break off the relationship with the journalist because he is engaged to someone else and rumors about their relationship might ruin the journalist’s career.
However, Suzana could have chosen a better timing than she did because she broke off her relationship with the journalist right before the biggest day of his career – his very first invitation to be with the high ranks of the Albania government at the grandstand for a very significant and high-brow event in Albania, the May 1st assembly.
The journalist compares Suzana’s sacrifice with that of Agamemnon’s daughter, Iphigenia, sacrifice during the Trojan war. As he go through checkpoints after checkpoints and walk closer to the grandstand, his memory wandered on the things he gave up to be able to have that privilege – the people he stepped on, the humanity that was lost. Then he started to doubt Suzana. After relating his present situation with the events of the Trojan war, he then came to a conclusion that Iphigenia was Agamemnon’s greatest downfall. And that he wouldn’t let Suzana be his Iphigenia. In the books, the Trojan war has ended. In the narrator’s mind, it has only just begun.
Also included in the novel are two other mini-novellas, “The Blinding Order” which tells of an old tradition of blinding people who they suspect to have an evil eye in any way (even just through the lightness or darkness of their irises and how many evil things they have witnessed). Another is “The Great Wall”, an exchange of philosophic views between a guardian of the Great Wall and one who was called to repair it.
Kadare’s work exposes readers to various social, political, philosophical issues inside a communist state. It also exposes the different desires men have, especially when it comes to power and love. To be able to get his work published, he had to smuggle manuscripts of his works from Albania to France in order to have his manuscripts published. He went through an ordeal of only bringing two to three pages of his work everytime and disguising it as a foreign material so he would not be accused of Exfiltration which is forbidden in Albanian Law.
When Safe Sex isn't enough: Cervical cancer article
When safe sex isn’t enough
By Katrina C. Guevarra
Something is terribly wrong.
“I’ve been doing it well-protected ever since I was young, I couldn’t possibly get it,” you reason out to yourself during a painstaking wait for the doctor’s result. But no amount of rationalizing can get you through the moment you find out that the Big C has stricken you. Cervical cancer strikes any woman.
But what causes cervical cancer? According to the C-Network, a Cancer Research and Support Network in the Philippines it is caused by the Human Papilloma Virus. It is classified into three different cell types. One there is the Squamous cells, which are think and flat normally found at the surface of the cervix. When this cell spreads to the whole cervix and to the bones, it is called the metastatic cervical cancer.
Dr.Shiela Jane Labrador Illescas, an OB- Gyne and owner of the In My Womb, 4D Ultra Sound Center, recommends most of her patients who is unsure of how many women their respective partners have contact with to get the HPV Vaccine. The HPV Vaccine is the one way women can be safe from getting the HPV which may lead to cervical cancer.
So how do you know if you have cervical cancer? Symptoms manifest in the following ways : abnormal bleeding which may occur after sexual intercourse , douching or pelvic exam. A woman may also want to check if she is bleeding longer and heavier than usual or have increased vaginal discharge, C-Network suggests.
Since these symptoms do not cause pain, it is only detected through a Pap smear and Pelvic Exam. Better go to your trusted OB-gyne upon seeing these changes occur in your body. As C-network emphasizes, “Only a doctor can tell for sure”.
People at risk of cervical cancer are as follows, those who have low immune system because of kidney transplants, therapy for other form of cancers or HIV. Those who have history of genital warts and herpes simplex virus infection are also at risk. Then there are those who are cigarette smokers, have multiple partners and multiple pregnancies. Lastly, those who have had their first intercourse at an early age are at great risk of Cervical cancer.
Cervical cancer targets any woman. There are many great risks worth taking, but I’m not sure this is one of them. An HPV Vaccine is well-worth the money before you start any “party”. After all, one cannot rely on contraceptives alone anymore.
By Katrina C. Guevarra
Something is terribly wrong.
“I’ve been doing it well-protected ever since I was young, I couldn’t possibly get it,” you reason out to yourself during a painstaking wait for the doctor’s result. But no amount of rationalizing can get you through the moment you find out that the Big C has stricken you. Cervical cancer strikes any woman.
But what causes cervical cancer? According to the C-Network, a Cancer Research and Support Network in the Philippines it is caused by the Human Papilloma Virus. It is classified into three different cell types. One there is the Squamous cells, which are think and flat normally found at the surface of the cervix. When this cell spreads to the whole cervix and to the bones, it is called the metastatic cervical cancer.
Dr.Shiela Jane Labrador Illescas, an OB- Gyne and owner of the In My Womb, 4D Ultra Sound Center, recommends most of her patients who is unsure of how many women their respective partners have contact with to get the HPV Vaccine. The HPV Vaccine is the one way women can be safe from getting the HPV which may lead to cervical cancer.
So how do you know if you have cervical cancer? Symptoms manifest in the following ways : abnormal bleeding which may occur after sexual intercourse , douching or pelvic exam. A woman may also want to check if she is bleeding longer and heavier than usual or have increased vaginal discharge, C-Network suggests.
Since these symptoms do not cause pain, it is only detected through a Pap smear and Pelvic Exam. Better go to your trusted OB-gyne upon seeing these changes occur in your body. As C-network emphasizes, “Only a doctor can tell for sure”.
People at risk of cervical cancer are as follows, those who have low immune system because of kidney transplants, therapy for other form of cancers or HIV. Those who have history of genital warts and herpes simplex virus infection are also at risk. Then there are those who are cigarette smokers, have multiple partners and multiple pregnancies. Lastly, those who have had their first intercourse at an early age are at great risk of Cervical cancer.
Cervical cancer targets any woman. There are many great risks worth taking, but I’m not sure this is one of them. An HPV Vaccine is well-worth the money before you start any “party”. After all, one cannot rely on contraceptives alone anymore.
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