chxsannell

[chxsannell]

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WE ARE ALL ENTITLED TO LIVE FREE AND EQUAL

For many years, Gender discrimination has been a universal problem. Over a century and a half of fighting for gender equality and we have yet to say that we have achieved this. I am writing this because I want discrimination in genders to stop. In fact, these years have amounted to nothing with we cannot stop the horrors occurring in the world around us that you probably don’t even know.

In Saudi Arabia, women are not allowed to drive, despite numerous protests. They have to rely to their fathers or partners to get them from place to place. In countries like Egypt and Bahrain, husbands have the right to stop their wives to travel to a different country. Other countries requires a permission from the husband to leave the country. In most of the middle east, gender inequality is pervasive as men are typically viewed as superior. In most cases like divorce, men can file it with ease and can even just announce orally. While women on the other hand, suffer through many challenges before filing one. In Lebanon, abused women are not allowed to file for a divorce unless a witness is willing to testify. Thus, I am writing to promote gender equality.

First of all, what do we mean by gender equality? It is by definition a belief that all of us are equally the same despite our genders. These are human rights. Not of men, but of men and women together. All humans are born with equal rights and dignity. When a girl crying is considered normal while a guy crying is considered too weak and unmanly, when a guy who is effeminate is considered “gay”, when women are believed to supposedly be “in the kitchen” and men are the ones who need to work, when wages are higher to men than to women. This kind of mentality has to stop, in Christ’s teachings, he teaches us to love one another equally as we are all brothers and sisters. We are all brothers and sisters because we are all made by one creator and he created us out of his own image. Therefore, why do we depict discrimination? Why shouldn’t we all just be equal in all forms? We can change this, men should be able to express their emotions without being called “weak and unmanly”, women should be able to work feely without someone telling them that they should be the one taking care of house chores, men can be effeminate without them being gay. When a social experiment was conducted at London to see how the public would react to the issue about domestic violence. It showed that violence towards women was met with outrage and threats on calling the police while, violence towards men was met with public humiliation and amusement. It is sad to see that the world revolves like this.

It is time that we make a change, it is time that we, the next generation stand up to gender equality. As Hilary Clinton said “it is time that we move from good words to good works, from sound bites to sound solutions” we are all equal, neither of us is superior nor inferior. We need to make a solution. Because we are the next generation, we are the future and we are the change.

[chxsannell]

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Madam and Eve, Adam and Steve: Same-sex Relationships in the Philippines

The Philippines ranks as the most gay-friendly country in Asia, and the 10th among 39 countries covered by a global survey. However, despite high numbers, the country still frowns upon same-sex relationships, more so, same-sex marriage. Despite the protests, the country stands firm on its grounds and there might be little to no hope that same-sex marriage will be legalized in the Philippines due to its religious background. As a Catholic, the mainstream answer would be to support the church. I, however, hope that the country would change its views and support the LGBT community. 

The Roman Catholic religion is not the only religion in the world. There are roughly 4,200 religions out there. The idea that homosexuality is a sin is only believed upon by the number of those religions. We are taught as a child to respect the beliefs of other people. For example, Iglesia ni Cristo believers are not allowed to eat dinuguan and we never judged them for that. Muslims don’t eat pork, and we even cater to their needs. So why can’t we accept the fact that some religions allow homosexual relationships without frowning upon them?

Majority of our countrymen might be Catholic, but that does not mean that everyone in the country is, added to that, not every Catholic believes that same-sex marriage should not be legalized. This is why there is a law about the separation of church and state. The 1987 Constitution of the Philippines states: The separation of Church and State shall be inviolable. (Article II, Section 6). Furthermore, no law shall be made respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. So why is the government not allowing same-sex marriage?

Our God is a God filled with love, mercy and compassion. Our God promotes love. When did loving someone become such a bad thing? If their happiness does not step on yours, why step on theirs? All they ever did was to love each other, and here we are, mere humans, destroying the love that they have. If our God knows how to forgive and accept sinners, why can’t we? Let God be the judge of their love. Even Pope Francis supports the community. Pope Francis said that he is aware that many cultures and religions find expressions of homosexuality “offensive,” but having a “different mentality” should not be a justification for harm or ill will toward the LGBT community. “I repeat what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says: that they must not be discriminated against, that they must be respected and accompanied pastorally,” he added. The observations echoed a now-famous remark he made while returning from a week-long trip to Brazil in 2013, when he said “Who am I to judge?” in relation to homosexuals. “If a person is gay and seeks to God and has good will, who am I to judge?” he said, after his first foreign trip as pontiff. Many have hailed the religious leader’s statements as “a groundbreaking moment” for LGBT people. If the head of the church supports it, shouldn’t the followers do so as well?

One can argue that the country loves gay people, but this is not how I see it. The way I see it, our country only tolerates the LGBT community. The statement “I’ll beat my son up if he comes out gay to turn him into a man.” still prevails among fathers in the country. When Charice Pempengco came out as Jake Zyrus, there were criticisms everywhere and people all over social networking sites began to mock him. Is this the same country that ranked first as the most gay-friendly country in Asia? 

There’s no hope that the church would accept same-sex marriage and I know that. What I’m asking is for the government to start being unbiased and legalize marriage. There are three kinds of marriages in the Philippines namely: Religious weddings, Civil weddings and Military weddings. If religions cannot grant these couples the right to marry each other, the government should allow them to marry under the law. They are human beings—people of this nation—and the government shouldn’t restrict them these rights just because of gender and religion. However, this doesn’t mean that I would tolerate immoral acts.

[chxsannell]

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Weapons for Toys

     The world is now at its lowest point because what valid reason is there to put kids in war? Child soldiery is the act of recruiting children below the age of 18 into the military. Over the past twelve years, there have been armed conflicts involving child soldiers in at least thirty-six countries around the world. One of the countries who used child soldiers is Germany. Due to a lot of casualties they recruited children from the ages 16-17 but eventually by the end of the war, they recruited children aged 12. It was once a norm in the society to draft child soldiers but now that the tides have changed, intellectual people have taken their stands on this issue, there is no longer a need for children to be put in that kind of position where they think that the only choice they have is between life or death, there is no longer a need for children to be put in the place of an adult when they should be happy living with their family where their needs are sufficient. Now that this issue has gained popularity, religious groups have given their stand on this issue summarized with this saying, “Every child has a basic right to live a healthy, happy, life along with every other human being,” as is outlined by the first Catholic social teaching. So no, there isn’t any reason to put a child in war. There will never be a valid reason for putting a child in a place of suffering and death, whether it be for patriotism or for any other purpose.

     Every life is special, and with that, any amount wouldn’t suffice for a life of a human. Children also have rights. There are laws made to ensure that they get their basic needs and that they live a peaceful life. Recruiting children into the battlefield is a way of taking away their rights as a child, forcing them, however, is taking away their rights as a human. Several laws have been made to ensure that the rights of these children are met. International laws are as such; United Nations’ “Children in armed conflict”, International Humanitarian Law “Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts”, International Labor Law “Worst Forms of Child Labour Recommendation”, and United Nations’ “War crimes”. We are all children of God, and as such we should respect our life and the lives of others because that’s what we deserve.

     Solidarity, harmony, a united group of people with a common interest, or a mutual support group, however you call it, it will still be the same. The world is still supposed to be a place of solidarity. Every one of us is a part of a family. We are all one big family, imagine having your son or daughter taken away and being sent to the military. What kind of injustice was brought to your family is what you’ll think and that’s true. This is why we shouldn’t let any child get conscribed. The Philippines has become one of the countries committed to ending the use of child soldiers. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front together with UNICEF have pledged to safeguard and protect the lives of the children by implementing an action plan dedicated to denying these children access to the military fronts and armed conflicts. They have thought of a better way of using these children, they put them in school, which is the actual purpose of a child, instead of letting them fight in combats. God made us all and he expected us to stick to the term “one”. We are all created as one and to stay as one means no one is left to choose a life wherein there is doubt if he is still alive especially giving that responsibility to a child.

     The family is the foundation of a society and is essential for a healthy psychological growth of a human being. The issue of child soldiery is due to the fact that children are being taken away from their families, which destroy the sacredness of the family environment. The emotional state of the child is damaged due to the trauma of being snatched from their family. There are certain conflict groups like the Sudan’s People Liberation Army, the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda, the Afghan Taliban leadership Quetta Shura, and the New People’s Army in the Philippines, whose goal is to completely eliminate the child’s past life in order to establish a new life wherein their mind is completely committed to war. One child who was interviewed by Peter W. Singer, an Australian moral philosopher, said “that sight of blood and crying of people in pain, triggered something inside me that I didn’t understand, but it made me past the point of compassion for other. I lost my sense of self.” This is how much these children of God have been forced to suffer.

     These children have been recruited from families due to the parent’s lack of decent work. These poor families just became poorer. Now, they aren’t just poor due to the lack of money but because their child has been taken from them. A way to solve this issue is to have an availability of decent work for those families living in extremely poor locations. Having a variety of work wherein the workers can receive the basic rights and would be acknowledged and respected would improve the society. God didn’t place these into this world to be slaves of conflict groups just because of poverty. Finding a solution to the amount of decent work would give a solution to the issue of child military enlistment.

     The issue on poverty causes so much more problems than the government can deal with and one of these is that most of the child soldiers come from the poorest and most vulnerable families. Conflict groups take these children from poor families because they think that it is a sign of weakness which makes it easier for them to kidnap and utilize the children for combat purposes. One of the victims of child recruitment is Tarik, not his real name, he, together with his five brothers were recruited into the military at an early age on their own terms but placed into the position due to the fact that they live in Aleppo, Syria where there is no steady access to water and electricity and is one of the most war-ravaged cities in Syria. He had this to say, “I used to be a very loving person, but the war changed my feelings,” he said. “I thought that only with fighting could I get back what I lost.”

     We are called by God to help take care of the environment and the recruitment of child soldiers isn’t helping. Just the topic of war isn’t helping the environment. As children, we are taught to take care of the beauty of the ecosystem which God designed specifically for us. The child soldiers aren’t given the kind of education we’ve received about taking care of the environment. It’s sad to think that just the act of taking care of their surroundings wasn’t taught to them because they didn’t receive the proper basic education that everyone should receive once in their life. Other than that, the families of the child soldiers are most likely relying on agriculture to sustain themselves, the conflict groups choose to target these kinds of families to cause chaos and fear. This is an act of wasting what God has given us, it is a discourteous act wherein they expect to achieve an easy route onto the manipulation of the kids.

     The human rights of these children are taken away by the act of snatching them from their families because of the lack of decent work in a place of poverty and lack of solitude. They are forced into a place of war wherein they destroy all of God’s creations. Our world will be able to rise eventually but that won’t be because of war. Don’t children have better purposes and that is to be the future of our world? There are more a lot more ways to solve an issue and yet this world still chooses to use war as a solution, and not only that but by using children as soldiers, why don’t we stop recruiting these children into the army and start looking for better options? 

[chxsannell]

Preach

Discrimination

               Have you ever been made fun of because of your skin color? Or because you were certain clothes that people in other religions don’t wear?  Have people avoided you just because of what you look like? This is discrimination. According to Google Dictionary,” discrimination is the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex”.  Discrimination also includes religious discrimination.  I myself have witnessed discrimination in my community, and I think it needs to be stopped.

               According to GoodTherapy.org, ” People who are discriminated against can suffer significant negative consequences. General well-being, self-esteem, self-worth, and social relations can be severely impacted as a result of discrimination.” This could affect their well-being as a person. Discrimination makes people sad.  Some students who are discriminated may even stop studying due to severe depression.

              But you might be thinking, why do I want discrimination to stop? I myself have experienced discrimination in my life. I’ve been made fun of and laughed at for being unable to speak Filipino in school. I wasn’t all that familiar with the language because I grew up in a country where English was the main language of communication. Luckily,  I wasn’t discouraged and started to learn how to speak in Filipino. I’m one of the lucky ones. Other people go through worse than me. I know what It feels like to be discriminated.

               No one should live in the fear of being the laughingstock for others. Discrimination needs to stop. Everyone should be free to do and speak what they want. No one should make fun of others just because they’re different. It’s okay to be different. It’s not okay to make fun of that difference. You too can help stop discrimination by just being okay with others, no matter what their difference is..

[chxsannell]

I am no one’s property

Do you even have any sense of humanity in you? There are many social issues being discussed right now and yet here we are being ignorant of the real and bigger problem. Human Trafficking, is a modern-day slavery and every year millions of men, women and children all around the world becomes a victim of human trafficking.  I’ve seen news all over social media about how people are being forced to slavery and I stand against it because it goes against every moral values and beliefs I know as a Catholic.  

 It was stated in Deuteronomy 24:7, ““If a man is found stealing one of his brothers of the people of Israel, and if he treats him as a slave or sells him, then that thief shall die. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.” The victims of Human Trafficking have often been accused of prostitution or underage sex, in the first place did they ask to be taken away from their families and become sex slaves? No they did not ask such a horrible experience to happen in their lives, they simply we’re forced and threatened so why accuse them of something that they didn’t even want to happen to their selves? They already have been through enough. I read a story about how a woman was walking back to her house after shopping at a mall and how two men took her and sold her as a prostitute wherein she was in the business for 9 years all because the men who kidnapped her thought she would make a perfect prostitute because she showed a little skin. Woman are being depict at wanting “it” when we show a little skin which is raises another problem because of some people’s ill opinions about how a woman should not dress that way. We should never judge someone just because of the clothes they wear.

We have no right to own or forced a human being into something they do not want. God gave us all free will and said that we are all equal, one is not less than the other and one is not greater than the other we are all equal. That’s why human trafficking is something that goes against God. No one should think to that they are above others, that’s plain idiotic. No one can take away your freedom which is why we should all be aware of the dangers of human trafficking and help each other prevent this horrendous crime from blighting our world even further.

Nobody owns you and you don’t own anybody, people in power often think that just because they have the power they think the people below them are now their property. Let me tell you this, there isn’t anyone in this world powerful enough to own someone except God for we are his children. As God’s children we are equal and one is never above the other.

People argue that the victims of human trafficking were careless and therefore deserve what happened to them as they were not careful enough which is why they were taken and forced into a life they did not want. Human trafficking or any crime for the matter can happen unexpectedly one minute you’re just having fun with friends the next you’re being taken away from your family possibly never seeing them ever again. We should all realize no one deserves this kind of crime to happen to them. No one deserves to be miserable and forced into slavery this is not the medieval age, it is estimated that human traffickers earn 100 billion profit and here is the other cause of human trafficking which is greed.. Stop human trafficking, stop modern-day slavery, stop child labour, stop prostitution. We all deserve to be free.

 Human Trafficking is still alive and continues today in every country in the world. Women forced into prostitution. Girls married off to older men. Children being taken away from their families and are being forced into labor.  Modern day slavery should be stopped because there is more to it than some people may think, human trafficking is connected to rape, abuse and gender inequality. There are organizations that help stop and prevent human trafficking from being more destructive than it already is, let’s all help and join in the cause of helping and stopping human trafficking. Don’t do it for yourself, do it for the future of our generations.

[chxsannell]

Yas! <3 Love this so much 

We are different and we can make a change.

WE ARE NOT THE SAME. I am not obligated to wear makeup just because I am a woman. I am not obligated to wear dresses just because I am a girl. I am not obligated to like pink just because I am feminine. Just because I like to hang out with boys, it does not mean I am flirty. Don’t assume that you know who we are. I hate the way people think that I should act like this and that based on my gender, personality, and race. This is stereotyping. It is what people do when they give the concept of who we are just because of what we appear to them. Stereotyping is wrong and it is alive and well. I don’t want our future children to undergo the wrath of being stereotyped in society, I don’t want them to be labelled just because some kids don’t know who they are. I want to be part of the change. I want us to prevent and avoid stereotyping, together.

Stereotyping traps many individuals in their shells afraid of what the society will label them. These labels dictate how a person should live according to their gender, religion, personality and race. Stereotyping is when men think you should not lift heavy things because women are weak and feminine. Stereotyping is calling people weird if they do not have the same songs saved in their playlist. Stereotyping puts on a mask on our identity weakening the person we were born to become.

As a part of the generation today, we are well aware of what consequences and effects it brings us as an individual. We don’t personally like being stereotyped, but why are we doing it? In an article “Awareness of racial stereotypes happens at an early age has consequences.” Published in berkeley.edu. Carol Hyman show us how stereotypes could start in early ages. When I was a child, my parents taught me that God made and loved us equally giving us different personalities and abilities to add color to the world. That even if we were born with different colors and races we should love and protect each other as God did to us. Sadly, in that span of time, people in my school stereotype me as one of the shy people in the crowd, afraid to say anything, a weirdo. It creates the confusion in our minds that we have to fit in the society to survive. That is why the person we are right now is from the experiences were experienced when we were younger. It creates the domino effect making me ask, “What happened?”

Eyes opened, we have to be open-minded and accept each other regardless of how different we are. In Colossians 4:6, “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone”. Words are more powerful than we think. We do not know how much one word affects others. These labels are hurting the whole being of a person. We don’t like to hear other people talking about us, right? This is one of the many negative effects stereotyping has. It lasts for who knows how long. Who are we to judge?

According to a study in University of Toronto “Stereotyping has lasting negative impact”  led by Professor Michael Inzlict of Psychology, “Past studies have shown that people perform poorly in situations where they feel they are being stereotyped,”  We are still afraid to speak up because they we might be stereotyped too. It affects our decision-making in life. We chose not to talk because of the fear that holds us isolated in the small box of stereotypes. Best people in the world don’t undergo the same norm as we all are making them really successful despite of all the hardships along the way. It doesn’t only have that negative impact on the person receiving it but also to the person saying it. Some studies found that positively judging others effects how enthusiastic, happy, kind-hearted, courteous, emotionally stable we are and vice versa. If you only make an effort to stop judging others negatively, your own well-being and happiness will improve greatly.

Why stereotypes are bad even when they’re good?” a new study by Aaron Kay stated, “people exposed to the positive stereotype rated that possibility as higher than did those exposed to a negative one.” Making other problems in society today such as racism, sexism and even discrimination.

 In short, Stereotyping does not benefit either. The growth of our self-confidence starts when we’re young and if we are being stereotyped, we begin to cage ourselves away from the harmful thoughts of society. But that is how society works, it’s an endless cycle. It’s scary enough that stereotyping causes bigger problems such as discrimination. We can’t put a stop to this but we can change by letting people know to value others for who they are. Especially the kids today, we should teach them to respect each other’s religions, cultures, personalities, and race because they are the future of our society. This change helps our society grow better. Remove the labels and free ourselves can you and I be the change?