Year 2008 has come neither with a whimper nor a big bang but nevertheless with a bang.

        Authorities announced with pride that there are less victims of fireworks this year than the previous year. Yes indeed, and it could be because few could afford to buy the fireworks that could really deliver the big bang.

        Anyway, whether or not we welcome year 2008 with a big bang is not really material. What really matters most is that we look forward to this year with high hopes for a better life than last year.

        Let’s all hitch our wagons to the stars.

                                                ***

        Many have prognosticated that year 2008 would be a boom year for Naga City. With the SM mall soon to rise in CBD II, and other Manila and foreign investors eyeing Naga City for investment portfolio, the economic progress and development of this city is a matter of time.

        It is my hope however, that human development should likewise go along with the physical and economic development of the city.

        It is with sad note however, that I noticed the proliferation of child mendicancy in the city streets of this fast developing city.

        Everytime one parks along the downtown area, or along fast food chains, mendicant children ranging from about age 6 to 10 would swarm like bees alongside the car begging for money or something to eat.

        While my heart aches for this very sad sight, yet giving in to their pleading is actually encouraging mendicancy.

        Are these the youth which our foremost hero Dr. Jose P. Rizal proudly proclaims as the hope of the fatherland? Has the government become so wanting of facilities for the human development of this young child mendicants and instill in their young minds that mendicancy should not be a way of life and means of earning a living?

        I believe that the Department of Social Welfare and Human Development should take a lead role in the eradication of this child mendicancy problem.

        The Anti-Mendicancy Law punishes both the begger and the giver. But the law has been in the dustbin for quite sometime and is more honored in its non-implementation.

QUOTATION OF THE WEEK:
        “THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF EDUCATION:
        ONE SHOULD TEACH US HOW TO MAKE
        A LIVING, AND THE OTHER HOW TO LIVE.”

- JOHN ADAMS

FOR OUR WORD OF LIFE:
        “BE CONTENT WITH SUCH THINGS AS
        YE HAVE FOR HE HAS SAID, I WILL
        NEVER LEAVE THEE, NOR FORSAKE THEE”

- HEBREW 13:5