The Spearman

Rogelio G. Balo Ph.D.    Unconditional Love Every mother and father will unequivocally agree that the most important thing parents can give their children is love. However, another vital matter should be appropriately considered. Does this mean unconditional love? That is, just giving everything a child wants without any restraint or set of parameters to learn and follow? Oftentimes, parents ask themselves this question. Do we need to discipline the children whom we dearly love? For most if not all of us, children are precious gifts from God. When a child is born to a family, this “ bundle of joy ” becomes the focus of attention of both parents and the entire family. More importantly however, parents have to realize and assume a new extremely critical role, an immense responsibility to bring up their child as a respectable and responsible individual and member of society. We have learned how many fathers and mothers have accepted with remorse their failure as good parents ...

 Rogelio G. Balo Ph.D.  Introduction Every palace, mansion and monument have an exciting history behind them, yet some of these are tragic ones. While historical buildings often remind us about the history of some important events, it becomes much more exciting and memorable when it comes to edifices related to the story of unconditional love. Without doubt, love is the feeling which helps us to live and sometimes even survive.   Besides, love is a force that makes us accomplish extraordinary feats. Oftentimes tragedy in life gave impetus to these living structures showing the purest form of unconditional love. *The Talisay Mansion Ruins *The Talisay Ruins is what remains of the ancestral home mansion of the family of wealthy sugar baron Don Mariano Ledesma Lacson and Maria Braga Lacson.   The Mariano Ledesma Lacson Mansion Ruins in Talisay, Negros Occidental ...

Rogelio G. Balo Ph.D. The Decline of the Boxing Icon  In the Pacquiao-Rios match, there was no doubt that Pacquiao will win against his opponent, t rue to most boxing aficionados' forecasts. Every boxing fan would agree with me that Rios is notches down below the level of Pacquiao. Rios cannot be considered within the shades of Eric Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera, Juan Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito, Timothy Bradley, Ricky Hatton and Juan Manuel Marquez, fighters whom Pacquiao made “mincemeat” in his more than a decade of conquests of the world’s top ranked boxers.   I have watched the Pacquiao - Rios fight on TV which I have recorded several times. Surely it was a dominating performance by Manny Pacquiao, winning almost every round of the whole bout. It was an overly unmatched fight with Rios desperately looking for a “lucky” punch in the later rounds. But Rios never made nor even a single threat to win over Pacquiao. Out of curiosity, I reviewed the earlier recorded fi...

Rogelio G. Balo Ph.D. Introduction                                   An essential part of our lives is making decisions. We make decisions on a daily occurrence; from the food we choose to eat, the dress that we buy, the friends that we keep and many other daily activities that we do. In many of these cases, decision making is something that we do without much thought, without hesitation, without concern. However, in important issues we tend to think twice assessing the situation giving us moments of hesitation, doubts and fears on the outcome of a bad decision. Choosing a career, life partner and business ventures are classic example of crucial concerns that necessitate careful study and assessment before making decisions. Matters that will significantly affect our lives and our families are subjects that are included in this type.   Every decision that we make is basically our own choice a...

Rogelio G. Balo Ph.D. Synopsis Watching the movie “ Da Vinci Code ” had given me the impetus to do some research on the mystery of the Holy Grail. I likewise watched several YouTube documentaries on the mysterious subject.  Conspiracy theorists have even woven the legend of the Holy Grail into their webs of secret and unknowable history, presenting a story that Dan Brown infamously adopted in “The Da Vinci Code.”  This version claims that the Holy Grail was really the womb o f Mary Magdalene, from her marriage with Jesus, who had not really died on the cross, nor risen from the dead — and who, according to Brown and his sources, is not really the Incarnate God, the Second Person of the Trinity, who came to earth to redeem us and establish His Church. Likewise, a host of movies ranging from Monty Python and the Holy Grail to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade , not to mention literature spanning from medieval epic romances to The Once and Future King , the Holy Grail is p...

 Rogelio G. Balo Ph.D. World’s Boxing Icon Undoubtedly, the name of Emmanuel "Manny" Dapidran Pacquia o will remain in the world’s sports history as one of the most revered and exciting prizefighters in the field of boxing.   Before the surge of Manny Pacquiao in the world of pugilists, boxing history books has recorded 2 other prominent Filipino prizefighters who stamped their niches in the international boxing scene. The Golden Eras of Philippine Boxing * The First Golden Era "F rancisco Guilledo a native of Ilog, South Negros Occidental and more commonly known in boxing circle as Pancho Villa was the first Filipino who carved the Philippines name in the international boxing map.   After winning local boxing fights, Pancho Villa   was invited to fight in the United States and captured the 1922 American Flyweight championship by an 11 th round knockout over incumbent champion Johnny Buff. Villa would later win the World Flyweight Champion on June 1923...

  Rogelio G. Balo Ph.D. Prologue *Research studies have concluded ‘that approximately 1 in 3 people between the ages of 65 and 74 has hearing loss and nearly half of those older than 75 has difficulty hearing. In the US alone close to 35 million Americans, about 1.1 million of them are school-age children* Hearing loss is a common problem caused by noise, aging, disease, and heredity.  Some of the signs of hearing loss, which many people don’t realize include having trouble hearing over the telephone , asking often other people to repeat what they are saying’, the need to turn up the TV volume so loud for others, and thinking that others seem to mumble. " Audiology experts concluded that hearing loss comes in many forms. It can range from a mild loss, in which a person misses certain high-pitched sounds, such as the voices of women and children, to a total loss of hearing." Age-related hearing loss comes on gradually as a person gets older. It seems to run in familie...