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Sunday, December 31, 2006

Have a blissful NEW YEAR!


Remember the past without regret.....
Handle the present with great confidence.....
Prepare for the future without fear.

May the Year 2007 bless us not only with opportunities
but also challenges that will make each of our lives more meaningful
and worth living.

To you dear Media Partners and Friends,

A Blessed and Blissful NEW YEAR!!!

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

The PDS Advocacy Team



Watch the MTV we did, using the Pinoy Dream Academy (PDA) theme as music...

The PDS (Population Development Strategies) Advocacy Cluster namely, POPCOM-PMO, PNGOC, PLCPD, ECOP and FORUM presented this MTV during the UNFPA party last Decemeber 15, 2006 held at J.V. Del Rosario Ballroom, 4th Floor, AIM Conference Center, Legaspi Village, Makati City...


Guided by its lyrics, Paolo and I chose pictures to match the song...

This was the way we sang the song... (we changed some of it to suit our advocacy: read below)

Watch the MTV and sing with it... =)

and to Paolo, special thanks for the effects and the logo of "PDS Academy" in the MTV...


PDS THEME

Ang bawa't tao'y magkakaiba
Iyong makikita

Iba't Ibang istorya... Iba't Ibang paniniwala

Ngunit... Nagsisikap
Para sa Pangarap
Magsakripisyo
pawis binubuno

Nagbabago... Ganyan ang tao...
Itanim sa puso dahil.....

CHORUS:

Nais nating marating
"PAGPASA ng RH BILLS"
Di kami titigil
papatunayan sa buong mundo
Kayang kaya natin to...
Di kami susuko...

---------------

Nag-iisang damdamin
ang ating aawitin
ihahayag ating mithiin

Itatayong Bandila, ng "adbokasiya"
Pilipino taas ang kamay, umawit ka at...

Ika'y magsikap...
Para sa pangarap...

Magsakripisyo...
Pawis Ibuno...

Ika'y matuto
Ganyan ang tao...

Itanim sa puso dahil....

CHORUS:

Nais nating marating
PAGPASA ng RH BILLS
Di kami titigil
Sisigaw sa buong mundo
Kayang kaya natin to...
Di kami susuko...

BRIDGE:

Nakikinig ka ba?

Imulat mo ang inyong mga mata
"Dinggin ang sigaw ng aming damdamin..."
"Ito ang aming hangarin…."

Repeat CHORUS

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Lybrel: the pill that eliminates the menstrual cycle...

From livescience.com.

A new year-round contraceptive pill called Lybrel, which eliminates menstrual cycles altogether, appears to be safe and effective, researchers report.
Lybrel is not yet approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but a decision is expected next year. Currently, there are contraceptives available that reduce the number of menstrual periods to four a year, but this is the first study that shows it is safe to eliminate menstrual periods. The report is published in the December issue of Contraception.


"One advantage to using this pill is that you take one pill regularly with the expectation that you are not going to have a regular menstrual bleeding period," said lead researcher Dr. David F. Archer, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Eastern Virginia Medical School.
The downside is that some women who use this pill will have some bleeding or spotting, Archer said. "You get rid of the anticipated menstrual period, but you replace it with some erratic, unpredictable bleeding or spotting," he said. "So, this is a group of women who are going to be willing to put up with that type of nuisance bleeding."


This unpredictable bleeding and/or spotting affects about 20 percent of the women taking the pill after a year, and it can last up to six days, Archer said. "It's impossible to predict which women will have bleeding and spotting," he added. However, it is the main reason that 18.5 percent of the women of the 8 percent who quit the study quit, he noted.

Another benefit to this pill is the elimination of menstrual cycle-related symptoms, such as mood changes, menstrual cramps and headaches, Archer said. In the study, which was conducted at 92 sites in North America, Archer's group used a birth-control pill consisting of 20 micrograms of ethinyl estradiol and 90 micrograms of levonorgestrel. The pill was developed by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals.

The researchers gave the pill to 2,134 sexually active women, aged 18 to 49. The women took a pill daily without any breaks.\nDuring the 18 months of the study, the number of days of bleeding decreased progressively. After one year, 79 percent of the women reported an absence of bleeding. Moreover, 58.7 percent of the women reported having no menstrual cycles. In addition, only about one woman out of a hundred will become pregnant while taking the pill, Archer said. One expert says that because of the incidences of bleeding, this pill isn't for every woman. "The main advantage is that this continuous pill provides a lower dose than other continuous oral contraceptive pills like, Seasonale," said Dr. Philip D. Darney, chief of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at San Francisco General Hospital and the University of California, San Francisco. "Women who want to avoid menses and take a pill continuously, which for some women may provide greater efficacy and fewer side effects, will be able to use an 'ultra low-dose' pill, which may have some advantages for rare adverse effects of oral contraceptives, like thrombosis," Archer said. "Still, the main reason for stopping this pill was bleeding disruptions, so, it won't suit all pill users."Another expert is concerned with the high number of women who continued to experience bleeding while taking the pill."I think continuous contraception is a great idea," said Dr. Camelia Davtyan, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. "Nevertheless, the rate of uterine bleeding-related complications is quite high."Davtyan thinks that to really test its efficacy, this new pill should be tested against the standard birth-control pill in a clinical trial. In addition, she said she is concerned that nothing is known about any side effects from the long-term use of this pill.

The researchers gave the pill to 2,134 sexually active women, aged 18 to 49. The women took a pill daily without any breaks.


During the 18 months of the study, the number of days of bleeding decreased progressively. After one year, 79 percent of the women reported an absence of bleeding. Moreover, 58.7 percent of the women reported having no menstrual cycles.
In addition, only about one woman out of a hundred will become pregnant while taking the pill, Archer said.


One expert says that because of the incidences of bleeding, this pill isn't for every woman.
"The main advantage is that this continuous pill provides a lower dose than other continuous oral contraceptive pills like, Seasonale," said Dr. Philip D. Darney, chief of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at San Francisco General Hospital and the University of California, San Francisco.


"Women who want to avoid menses and take a pill continuously, which for some women may provide greater efficacy and fewer side effects, will be able to use an 'ultra low-dose' pill, which may have some advantages for rare adverse effects of oral contraceptives, like thrombosis," Archer said. "Still, the main reason for stopping this pill was bleeding disruptions, so, it won't suit all pill users."

Another expert is concerned with the high number of women who continued to experience bleeding while taking the pill. "I think continuous contraception is a great idea," said Dr. Camelia Davtyan, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. "Nevertheless, the rate of uterine bleeding-related complications is quite high."

Davtyan thinks that to really test its efficacy, this new pill should be tested against the standard birth-control pill in a clinical trial. In addition, she said she is concerned that nothing is known about any side effects from the long-term use of this pill.

LGBT organisations recognized by UN-ECOSOC

Historic recognition of LGBT organisations at the United Nations: one of ILGA’s regions and two of its members granted consultative status.

Yesterday, 11 December 2006, the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) granted consultative status to three gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender organisations: to ILGA-Europe, the European Region of the International Lesbian and Gay Association, to the Danish and German national lesbian and gay association, LBL and LSVD. Consultative status granted by the ECOSOC allows NGOs to enter the United Nations, participate in its work and speak in their own name. No other LGBT group till this day enjoyed this right, apart from COAL, the Coalition of Activist Lesbians, a group based in Australia.

“State homophobia has been hit and will not remain unchallenged anymore,” says Rosanna Flamer Caldera, Co-Secretary General of the International Lesbian and Gay Association. “It is a very special moment for the LGBT movement: this historic decision follows the statement made by Norway at the UN Human Rights Council on behalf of 54 countries, pushing that forum to address sexual orientation and gender identity.

ILGA, a federation of 550 LGBT groups around the world, has been working for a number of years to have sexual orientation and gender identity come out at the United Nations. The first speech at the UN on LGBT rights was given in its name in 1992. In 2006, ILGA held its world conference in Geneva, European headquarters of the United Nations and organised four panels on LGBT issues at the second session of the Human Rights Council. ILGA also initiated a campaign to have an increasing number of LGBT groups apply for ECOSOC status. In a clear demonstration of uneasiness and an attempt to avoid any debate on the topics of sexual orientation and gender identity, countries sitting at the ECOSOC postponed the debate, using procedural manoeuvres from one meeting to another.

“This last meeting of the ECOSOC is the fourth this year where countries have had to discuss these applications from LGBT groups,” comments Rosanna Flamer-Caldera. “Some states argue or fear we may be asking for special rights and use this as an alibi to block us from entering the UN,” she continues. “This is not a question of special rights. It is a basic question of equality and universality of human rights. We demand the right not to be discriminated against on the grounds of who we are, as lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgender persons.

On the international level, this starts with the United Nations recognising the mere fact LGBT people exist, that they can organise as groups and, as such, participate in UN work and protest against the many human rights violations we still suffer from around the world”.

ILGA thanks the many NGOs which have supported this campaign - with special recognition to Arc International and ISHR, the International Service for Human Rights.

In 2007, applications from seven other LGBT groups will be considered by the ECOSOC. Patricia Curzi & Stephen Barris ILGA, International Lesbian and Gay Association

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Ifugao execs pass Reproductive Health Law... 2nd in the Philippines

Published on page A18 of the December 4, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

BAGUIO CITY -- Ifugaos are now guided by a law that protects their reproductive health rights.

The Ifugao Reproductive Health and Responsible Parenthood Ordinance of 2006 (Provincial Ordinance 2006-033) was highlighted as an important piece of local legislation during the World’s AIDS Day celebrations in Lagawe town on Dec. 1.

The ordinance is the second to be approved in the country after Aurora province.

Ifugao Gov. Glenn Prudenciano, who authored and pushed the measure through the provincial board as vice governor in August, said he based his draft measure on the same principles offered by the pending national reproductive health bill.

Prudenciano assumed the gubernatorial post in November after the death of Gov. Benjamin Cappleman.

He said Ifugao residents discovered that there was nothing to fear from reproductive health policies that some critics have labeled as the foundations for an abortion law.

Like the draft reproductive health bill still awaiting plenary discussions in Congress, the Ifugao ordinance makes it the government’s duty to make information, health care services and medicine available to Ifugao residents regardless of their cultural or religious affiliations.

The ordinance states that it is the Ifugao residents’ right “to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of [giving birth to] their children, [as well as] to make other decisions concerning reproduction free of discrimination, coercion and violence.”

The law grants residents full understanding of all birth control options available to them, Prudenciano said.

The law also obliges government teachers to provide classrooms and out-of-school youths all information necessary to explain to them what reproductive health and sexuality are all about.

Prudenciano said the local government has taken into account the impact of uncontrolled population growth on their economy.

He said Ifugao, until recently, was considered the fourth poorest province in the Philippines.

“Government decided we must graduate [from that rank] so it pumped investments into the province. But I realized that it was not enough because we have a large population who are leaving because they no longer have lands to till,” Prudenciano told the Inquirer.

Providing Ifugao residents proper information about population management and insights into their sexuality is “foresight,” he said, for the local government to sustain economic growth.

Cultural dimension

But there is also a cultural dimension that makes the law necessary, he said.

Ifugao tradition places a high value on family, so some men would replace wives who could not bear them children, he said.

Prudenciano said the law empowers women to deal with this male-centered bias, which still surfaces in some communities of Ifugao province “despite the fact that the general population is now younger and educated.”

“Highland Thoughts,” a compilation of essays, short stories and poems written by Ifugao youths, also showed how tradition could help Ifugaos plan their families.

An article written by Manuel Dulawan enumerates age-old Ifugao values that, he said, are still relevant to present-day family planning principles. Dulawan said Ifugao’s complicated courtship period, the ritualistic obligations once a betrothal is arranged and a “trial period” among couples could delay marriage. He also cited tribal inheritance customs that say “only the first [two] children of the couple are entitled to inherit their parents’ property.”

Article written by: Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon

Click this link to view article on the web:

http://newsinfo.inq7.net/inquirerheadlines/regions/view_article.php?article_id=36219

Monday, December 11, 2006

mga "patikim na pics" nung Project Review and Media Planning


When the media goes wild...

... pero this one tops it all... akalain mo, ganito pala si Ernie... still picture kasi... pero imagine this lad singing and dancing to the tune of " nakaka-aliw... nakakabaliw... "... or something like that guys...