Divorce in the Philippines Essay

Everyday, we hear stories from the news about women being abused by their husbands up to the point of causing death to the abused. It is also never new to hear a spouse having extramarital affairs and those other stories of infidelity and violence. We may sometimes first-handedly witness it in our own community, neighbors and friends, and even in our own homes. Come to think of it, why stay on this kind of unhappy relationships? According to the Philippine Commission on Women website, â€Å"physical injuries and/or wife battering remains to be the most prevalent case across the twelve-year period, from 1997–2009, accounting nearly half (45.5 percent) of all reported violence against women (VAW) cases nationwide.† Yes, we already have annulment and legal separation in the Philippines but these systems are nothing but flawed—allowing only separation for such grounds that makes marriage void, in the first place. Meaning, this only considers those cases of psychological incapacity, impotence, marriages between collateral blood relatives, incestuous marriages, mistaken identity, and minority. However, spousal abuse and infidelity are not grounds for the annulment of marriage. This does not answer the rampantly occurring cases of violence and infidelity that leaves women rather helpless. Philippines is among the last two countries in the world that do not yet legalize divorce. Gabriela Rep. Liza Maza first filed a divorce bill in Congress in 2005. The bill, known as House Bill 1799, or An Act Introducing Divorce in the Philippines, was re-filed in August 2010 by Gabriela Women’s party-list. It should be no wonder now why it is the women who are fighting for the passage of this bill because they are the object of infidelity and violence. Lawmakers have identified several grounds for divorce: when the married couple has been separated for five years de facto and reconciliation is highly improbable; the couple has been separated for two years before filing for divorce; when the grounds for legal separation (infidelity, psychological incapacity and irreconcilable differences) are present resulting to an irreparable marriage. According to a Social Weather Station survey conducted in March 2011, â€Å"50 percent of adult Filipinos agree and 33 percent disagree with the statement: ‘Married couples who have already separated and cannot reconcile anymore should be allowed to divorce so that they can get legally married again.’† In 2005, a similar survey was conducted which showed that 43 percent of adult Filipinos were in favor of divorce and 44 percent were not. From the statistics, we can conclude that Filipinos are starting to become open-minded with this issue and now accepts divorce as an option for failed marriages. According to Luzviminda Ilagan and Emerciana De Jesus, representatives of Gabriela Women’s Party List, â€Å"The sanctity of marriage is not based on the number of marriages existing but on the quality of marital relationships; when a marriage is no longer viable, divorce should be an option.† Indeed, why stay in a marital relationship where it no longer foster love between husbands and wives? It is now time to accept the rampantly occurring fact that some marriages work and some unfortunately don’t. In cases where a union is more harmful than beneficial, a divorce can be a benevolent and less hurtful way of severing ties.

The Lenape Indians

Running head: THE LENAPE INDIANS The Lenape Indians Pennsylvania and Local History The Lenape Indians The Delaware River, named after Sir Thomas West, Lord de la Warr the governor of the Jamestown colony, flows from the Catskill Mountains in New York to the Delaware Bay along the borders of New Jersey and Delaware. The Delaware River meanders along and forms the boundary of present-day Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The first known inhabitants living along the banks of the Delaware River were the Eastern Woodland natives known as the Lenape Indians – sometimes called the Lenni Lenape or the Delaware Indians. Lenape stands for common or ordinary people and they called their land along the Delaware River Lenapehoking meaning Land of the Lenape (Kraft, 2005). At one time, the area known as Lenapehoking covered the southeastern portion of New York (including Staten Island and the western portion of Long Island), the southwestern portion of Connecticut, Eastern Pennsylvania, all of New Jersey, and the northeastern portion of Delaware along the Delaware Bay (Kraft, 2005). Evidence of the Lenape Indian’s presence in this geographic region dates back 3,000 years. The Lenapes first encountered the Europeans during the 16th Century. The discovered artifacts, the writings of the European settlers, and the stories passed down through the generations of Lenapes give us the story of the life and customs of the Lenape Indians as it was back during that time period. Two distinctly large groups of Lenape Indians, separated by geographic regions, made up what was known as Lenapehoking. The group of Lenape living north of what is today the Delaware Water Gap spoke a Munsee dialect and the group to the south spoke a Unami dialect (Lenape Lifeways, Inc, 2002). These two groups of Lenape Indians were organized into many bands which the Europeans called tribes. These small groups lived along the streams and rivers at the edge of the thick forests. In the northern Munsee group, the bands included the Raritan, Hackensack, Tappan, and Minisink Indians. The Unami group to the south consisted of the bands known as the Siconese, Mantaes, Remkokes, and Sankhikan Indians (Kraft, 2005). Each band of Lenapes had three separate clans also known as phratry – the turtle clan, the wolf clan, and the turkey clan. All Lenapes belonged to one of these three clans (Kraft, 2005). The extended families within each band were related through their mother. Clan membership was always passed down through the mother’s lineage. Each family group consisted of the mother and all her children and their children, the grandmother, and the mother’s brothers and sisters and their children. The Lenape married in their teens and were required to marry someone from a different clan. The new husband left his clan and moved in with his wife’s family. Their children and grandchildren always stayed with their mother’s clan (Grumet, 1989). The Lenape spent much of their time working out-of doors. This accounted for their tanned skin coloring and their muscular physique. The males spent their days hunting, trapping, and fishing. The men did the heavy work such as clearing the forests for their homes and gardens, building their shelters, and making tools out of stone and animal bones which were necessary for them to hunt, sew, and garden. All pieces of the animals they hunted were used for some practical tool, pieces of clothing or blankets, or decoration. The woman kept busy caring for the children, cooking, gardening, sewing, scavenging for food, herbs and firewood in the forests, and preparing food for storage. Their clothing was minimal in the warmer weather. When it got colder, both the males and females wore leggings, fur robes, and moccasins (Kraft, 2005) made from the hides of the animals they hunted. Their clothing was often decorated with seeds, shells, and paints. The Lenape were seasonal travelers and always returned to their homeland for the winter seasons. During the warmer weather they traveled to trade with the other bands in their region or with other Indian tribes in different territories as far away as the Carolinas and the Mississippi Valley (Grumet, 1989). They mostly traveled on foot following animal trails or streambeds. The Lenape traveled by water when the streams and lakes were not frozen. On water they traveled by dugouts which were a primitive type of the canoe. These dugouts were made from large trunks of trees. The Lenape would start a fire at a base of a tree to fell the tree, start a fire in the center of the tree trunk to soften it, and then use their handmade tools to dig out the ash from the center until it was hollowed out enough to float. In 1955, an 18 foot long chestnut dugout believed to be from the Lenape Indians circa 600-1700’s washed up from Lake Wallenpaupack in northeastern Pennsylvania during the flooding that occurred during Hurricane Diane. It is now on display at the PP&L Education Center in the Pocono Mountains. The Lenape Indians appointed a village leader they called the sachem who helped make decisions for the group. This was always a male who was deemed wise and skilled who received advice from the other village elders. He was knowledgeable about their religion and led the group in their rituals and ceremonies. When the Europeans arrived and met the Indians, they called these leaders the Indian Chiefs. This Chief was different from the war chiefs who were the tribe’s skilled hunters. Another leader in the Lenape village was the Medicine Man or Woman. This leader was knowledgeable in the various teas, herbs, and poultices that were used to heal the sick and wounded. In addition to the herbs, the Lenape searched the forest for wild fruits and berries. They cleared areas of the forests around their homes to be used for gardens. The main agricultural crops that they planted and harvested, known as the three sisters, were beans, squash, and corn or maize (Lenape Lifeways, Inc, 2002). Their shelters were either smaller wigwams or teepees which held two to three families or the much larger longhouses which were up to 60 feet long and held up to 25 people. The men built these shelters from many rows of saplings they bent to meet in the center to form a domed roof and then covered them with overlaying pieces of bark from chestnut or elm trees. There were no windows in these shelters; only a door at each end of the longhouse which was covered with animal skins to keep the cold weather out. Open fires were built inside the shelters for warmth and cooking; therefore openings were left in the domed roofs to allow the smoke to escape (Kraft, 2005). This is what the first Europeans were greeted with along the Delaware River valley when they arrived in the early 16th Century. The first outsider to see the Lenape Indians was the Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano in the early 1500’s when he entered the Hudson Bay. His writings told of what the Lenape Indians looked like and how gentile they were (Grumet, 1989). The next group of Europeans to encounter the Lenape Indians was the Dutch settlers in early 1600’s. The Dutch traded furs with the Lenape for their more refined metal tools. As the trading expanded, the Europeans and the native Lenape soon engaged in hostilities. The Europeans were interested in the furs, mostly favored was the beaver fur, and the acquisition of the rich land that the Lenape inhabited (Lenape Lifeways, Inc, 2002). Other than trading, the Europeans introduced many diseases that the Lenape had no immunities to. These diseases consisted of smallpox, measles, mumps, and scarlet fever and they proceeded to devastate the native’s population. Warfare and the introduction of alcohol from the colonists further contributed to the decline of the Lenape population. Where once there were over 24,000 Indians residing in Lenapehoking; after the arrival of the Europeans, the population dwindled to less than 3,000 by the beginning of the 1700’s (Grumet, 1989, p. 34). The Lenapes’ other prized possession was the beads they created from the shells littering the coastal shores of Lenapehoking. The natives called these purple and white beads wampum and the Europeans used these as currency with the Indians (Grumet, 1989). As the Lenape depleted their crops and animals with their hunting and trading, they expanded their communities to the Ohio region in the 1600’s. Many of the Lenape Indians moved away from Lenapehoking across the Allegheny Mountains to the Susquehanna River valley to just distance themselves from the Europeans and because of the various land acquisitions and treaties that were signed. This westward migration of the Lenapes caused conflicts with other Indian tribes and continued conflicts with the Dutch settlers led to ravaged Indian and European communities (Grumet, 1989). These treaties and early sales agreements were signed by the Lenapes for the sale of their lands. One such infamous treaty was the 1737 Walking Purchase. William Penn’s sons, Thomas and James, wishing to increase their income through land sales, found an old treaty from 1686 that was never used. This treaty would grant to the proprietors of Pennsylvania as much Lenape land north along the Delaware River as far as a man could walk in a day and a half. In 1737, the Penn brothers convinced the then four Lenape Indian Chiefs to agree to hold to their end of this agreement that their forefathers had signed (Miller & Pencak, 2002). William Penn, a Quaker and founder of Pennsylvania, dealt fairly with the Indian natives, but his sons who took over after he returned to England began to accumulate more and more land and took advantage of the trust the Lenapes had formed toward the colonists when their father was there. Land was extremely important to the Lenape Indians, but the four Lenape Indian Chiefs thinking the treaty was a genuine treaty signed by heir ancestors, and figuring a man could only walk a short distance over that wilderness in a day and a half, agreed to honor the treaty. What ensued was that Penn’s heirs, hired the three fastest runners in the colony and had them run for the purchase on a well planned trail. The three runners started in what is today Wrightstown, New Jersey and the pace was so intense that only on e of the runners actually made it as far as what is today known as Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. This distance was about 70 miles and allowed the Penns to acquire roughly 1,200,000 acres of land in what was Lenapehoking. The area of land that was part of the Walking Purchase covers what is the size of the state of Rhode Island consisting of what is most of the present day counties of Pike, Monroe, Carbon, Schuylkill, Northampton, Lehigh, and Bucks. The four Lenape leaders felt that they had been swindled by the colonists but honored it because of the treaty they had signed (Walking Purchase, 2009). This forced the Lenape natives into the other areas of Lenapehoking causing over-crowding which also led to their migration further west. Today most of the Lenape Indians reside in Oklahoma and Canada but some still reside in their ancestral lands in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Nora Thompson Dean was believed to be one of the last known full-blooded Lenape Indians along with her brother Edward Leonard Thompson. Her Indian name was Touching Leaves and she lived her adult years in Oklahoma. Touching Leaves died in 1984 and her brother died in 2002. They belonged to the southern territory of Lenapehoking and were one of the few who could still speak the Unami dialect of the Lenape Indians (Rem, 1984). Today you can still find evidence of the life of the Lenape Indians through the artifacts discovered along the valleys and coasts of the Hudson and Delaware Rivers. The archaeological sites in the Delaware Valley have yielded many artifacts such as spearheads, arrowheads, knives, and remains of clay cooking pots that tell us of the culture of the Lenape Indians. Many streets, towns, parks and waterways bear the Lenape names in the Delaware River regions of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. Some of these are Manhattan, Hackensack, Allegheny, Catasauqua, Cocalico, Conshohocken, Catawissa, to name a few (Lenape Lifeways, Inc, 2002). The Lenape tribe was considered to be one of the most advanced and civilized of all Indian tribes in Eastern United States. The Pocono Indian Museum in Bushkill, Pennsylvania is the home to many of these artifacts. Today there are Delaware Indian Reservations in Indian Territory in Oklahoma and two in Ontario, Canada. Only on these reservations does the government recognized the tribal governments. The Lenape elders continue to pass down their traditions and old ways to the newer generations. The Delaware Indians today continue to struggle to preserve their traditions and identities. There are over 13,000 Delaware Indians registered today and recognized by the United States and Canadian governments and many thousands more claim Delaware ancestry. Very few are able to speak their ancestors language (Grumet, 1989). The children on the reservations attend classes rich in the teachings of the arts and traditions of the Lenape ways. References Grumet, R. S. (1989). The Lenapes. (F. W. Porter, III, Ed. ). New York and Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers. Kraft, H. C. (2005). The Lenape or Delaware Indians (8th ed. ). Stanhope, NJ: Lenape Lifeways, Inc. Lenape Lifeways, Inc (2002). About The Lenapes. Retrieved November 29, 2009, from http://lenapelifeways. org/lenape1. htm Miller, R. M. , & Pencak, W. (Eds. ). (2002). Pennsylvania: A history of the Commonwealth. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press. Rem, J. (1984, December 1). Obit of Dean, Nora T. Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise. Retrieved November 29, 2009, from http://files. usgwarchives. org/ok/washington/obits/d5000085. txt Walking Purchase. (2009). Retrieved December 4, 2009, from : http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Walking_Purchase

The Inner Person Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Inner Person - Essay Example It is also made up of the display of a number of characteristics including perseverance and resistance. Courage helps me in facing my strengths, which means that it gives me the will power to believe in my ability to deliver more what the good things I have undertaken before. Most commonly when a person undertakes a certain outstanding achievement, he is tempted to believe that it happened by chance and that it is not possible for such a feat to happen again. But a courageous person would believe in his abilities and try to be a better person than he had been before (Twumasi, 2010) and this is what I have always done. With courage, I have devised the saying that the sky cannot even be my limit because there is enough space beyond the skies. Courage has also helped me in facing my weaknesses. Basically, my weaknesses are those kinds of things that happen to me that are not pleasant and welcoming. For a non-courageous person, when such weaknesses arise, chances are that he would be drawn back and never make a move to rise again. But as a courageous person and as a person having courage as a value, I have always told myself that the downfall of a person is not the end of his life and so even if I fall 1000 times, I shall arise 1000 times. Due to this, I have always given a second chance to myself in trying that very thing in which I failed previously. It is worth emphasizing that my value of courage has transformed my life tremendously. With courage, I was able to land on my very first job, which fetched me so much capital to set myself up in life. It happened that I was confronted by an entrepreneur after he had seen one of my school results and asked me if I could take up a top job in his organization. Even though I was only a student at the time and had no prior experience, I was courageous enough to say yes and that was how my whole economic fortunes changed. Courage has indeed made me and will make

Duke Ellington Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Duke Ellington - Essay Example To write everything in just two pages would be impossible, so let's deal with the most important ones. To begin with we'd have to deal with Duke Ellington's origins. James Edward Ellington (Duke's father) who made blueprints for the navy and worked both as a carpenter and a White House butler, and Daisy (Kennedy) Ellington (Duke's mother) were strongly religious people belonging to the middle class black families in the USA. Both of them could play the piano well, and exposed their son to music at an early age (with "Miss Clinkscales"- his piano teacher, as he nicknamed her), hoping he would learn the piano and start playing the church organ later. However, E. K. "Duke" Ellington showed as more interested in drawing and painting at the time than in music. He created a poster and won a prize from the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) for it. He became interested in music in his teenage years (in high school) after all, because he realized girls liked p iano players, so he continued his piano lessons. At the age of fifteen he worked in a soda-shop after school. This experience led to his first composition, a jazz song titled as "Soda Fountain Rag". That was the time when he got his nickname Duke. Why and how he got it can only be speculated because there are so many stories about it (Duke Ellington Biography, http://www.musicguide/biographies/160800462/Duke-Ellington.html ). Duke dropped out of high school and started playing in jazz bands by night and painted signs as a freelancer during the day to make a living. Good looking, he married relatively young on July 2, 1918 to Edna Thompson. His only son from this marriage, Mercer, took leadership over the band after his death. What should be said about Duke's personality and appearances It could be seen the best from his personal quotes like "I'm a telephone freak, the greatest invention since peanut brittle" or when asked about how he got the scar on his face he replied " I have four stories about it, and it depends on which you like the best. One is a taxicab accident; another is that I slipped and fell on a broken bottle; then there is a jealous woman, and last is Old Heidelberg, where they used to stand toe to toe with a saber in each hand, and slash away. The first man to step back lost the contest, no matter how many times he's sliced the other. Take your pick." Also, in regards to his personality, we must add his own words and views on races and categories: "I don't believe in categories of any kind, and when you speak of problems between blacks and whites in the USA, you are referring to categories again" (Duke Ellington - Biography, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0254153/bio ). Duke Ellington spent most part of his life on the road. Speaking of successful touring and performing, one mustn't neglect and forget the fact about Duke's restless and ambitious character. Although Duke grew up surrounded by people from the middle class, he became a man of dignity and tended to reach for higher goals in his life. He visited New York in 1923 for the first time, but before settling in New York he played together with Sonny Greer (a drummer from New Jersey), Otto Hardwicke and Arthur Whetsol in Wisconsin and Atlantic City. He assembled several

Cold War and Today Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Cold War and Today - Essay Example In the current scenario, Italy’s parliamentary form of democractic control is dominated by the Christian Democrats in order to attain financial aid from the US because after the war it had urged the Italians not to support the Communist party. Today, Italy falls under the purview of American leadership as it also signed the NATO treaty at the time. Economic growth in Italy boosted as well after the government in Italy stabilized itself. During the war, women were bound to their homes, taking care of their families and the war work was left to the men folk. However with time, as more and more people began to get engaged in the army, women were required in factories in order to carry on the process of production. The aftermath of the war suggested that both genders take on various means of livelihoods in order to support the growing eocnomy of the country. Women began taking to fashion and the Italian country soon became the hub of clothing, garments and designing. Italy became the centre of food with more and more bistros and cafes catering to the needs of the people. Since the country was influenced a great deal by the US, it soon took to reaching out of its comfort zone and moving into a dveeloped form of living with more and more people leading a substantial lifestyle. Italian society has undergone major change as well due to the persuasion of the West and today, the social structure in the country is to lead a comfortable and lavish but simple lifestyle with a desire to engage oneself in entrepreneurial activities.

Business Strategy 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Business Strategy 2 - Essay Example Mission Statement: Mission statement is a statement which is used to describe why the organization exists and to explain what the company does to achieve the vision. The mission of a company is the one which changes as the organization develops. An example of such a statement is that of Wipro, which reads, ‘Our mission is to be a RF System Solution Provider, through its innovative research and design works for a new world of broadband wireless communications’ (Wipro Techno, 2010). The statement of company highlights its working towards the vision that has been set down by the company. Vision: The vision of a company can be defined as the intended future that the company aims at reaching. This is a long term view and is the basis for all the planning of the organization. An excellent example of this is the vision of Wipro which reads, ‘Contribute for global e-society, where a wide range of information is being exchanged beyond time and space over global networks, which breaks down the boundaries among countries, regions and cultures, allowing individuals to take part in various social activities in an impartial, secure way. Continous effort to enhance people’s lifestyle and quality by means of developing new technology in wireless communication’ (Wipro Techno, 2010). Core Competencies: The core competencies of an organization are the basic knowledge, abilities and skills that a company possess. This helps in classifying the organizations and to learn what the organization is best at doing. For the example of Wipro, as explained by the President and COO for Wipro Infocrossing, Sameer Kishore, ‘IT infrastructure management is our core competency and we will bring a well-proven data center transition and managed services methodology to help CSG meet its goals’ (Wipro Corporate, 2010). Strategic Approach: The strategic approach used by Wipro is one which is goal

Impact of Technology Throughout Aviation Term Paper

Impact of Technology Throughout Aviation - Term Paper Example This paper will begin with the history of aviation methods, systems, and equipment that were used prior to the 21st century. The information provided will include laws and regulations, environmental issues, safety procedures, training, design, and management that have been incorporated to enhance aircraft operations across the various levels of an organization. By reviewing actual accident reports, this project will show how these unfortunate events have enabled us to learn from them and create new technologies to help prevent future accidents. Finally, I will discuss current ideas that are being tested and what they could do to further improve aviation. Program Outcomes Addressed Critical Thinking Several economical and management concepts are adopted in the aviation industry, like the utilization of the fuel types, the training of the staff and conducting tests mechanically and economically may improve the economics as well as the reputation of the aviation industry. The latest ide as involve the economical as well as environmental perspectives. Most of the time, the economic perspective dominated the environmental perspective. However, the modern technology like the utilization of bigger planes in the aviation is good economically as well as environmentally, as it reduces the amount of emissions per person regarding the aviation industry. ... Mostly, aviation planes utilize the turbofan jet engine, which comes in the category of gas turbine engines. However, in the modern era the maintenance of security is another bigger aim for the aviation industry. The aviation is not only influenced by the internal threats but also external threats, while terrorism is the biggest risk the aviation industry is facing today. The most probable solution is to limit the personal with some notably uniqueness or having some default personality or carrying some different kind of goods with him. After 9/11, the risk of terrorist attacks was increased due to lacking in each and every system that is utilized in the aviation. However, several tactics are employed to make the system better. The betterments not only help in improving the security but consequently attract more number of passengers each year, which benefits the aviation much economically. Quantitative Reasoning The project utilizes the quantitative methods of research and reasoning. In quantitative data conclusion are made by utilizing the information and the observations. However, the collection of information utilizes various steps in defining the concepts. The most important factor is the verification of the sources. Dedicated sources like the government publications and the companies’ publications can be considered as reliable sources. However, books are the most dominant and verified sources. In this project both primary as well as secondary data collection methods are utilized to enhance the data validity. However, much information is available on different sources on the topic. It is very difficult to choose the credible sources, thus it is important to collect the raw data from as many sources and extract