The Wutz Up in the Philippines!

Mound after tiny mound of red clay earth dots the cemetery on the outskirts of this impoverished Nigerian village where grieving parents come to pray.

Children began falling ill months ago here and in a half-dozen other villages in this remote northern region on the cusp of the Sahara Desert. Some could not stand, some went blind or deaf.

Then they began dying.

Doctors suspected malaria. But they were wrong — after 160 died and hundreds more were ailing, blood tests revealed the real killer: Lead unearthed by villagers digging for gold.

In a tragedy described by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as “unprecedented” in its work with lead poisoning worldwide, most victims are children.

Many had played in homes or village common areas contaminated by lead. The level of exposure was so high that most blood samples were off the scale on lead screening machines.

The existence of gold deposits in this area along the Niger border had been long known. But it wasn’t until gold prices soared in recent years that villagers began heading into the bush to search for it.

Soon the poor herdsmen in rural Zamfara state could sell gold for more than $23 a gram — a huge sum in a country where most people live on less than $1 a day.

“There is no other business one can do to make that much money,” said Haruna Musa, a 70-year-old elder in Yargalma.

The process of extracting gold from the ore is simple and dates back a millennia. Villagers bash the rocks with hammers, then grind the smaller pieces into a powder, these days with the help of a generator-powered machine. The powder is added to a slurry mixture of water and mercury — itself a dangerous substance — to draw the gold particles together.

However, this time the ore brought back to the villages in Zamfara contained extremely high levels of lead. Fathers carried the precious rocks home to store inside their mud-walled compounds, sometimes leaving them on sleeping mats.

The work of breaking the rocks often fell to their wives. The women of the Muslim villages would chisel the rocks into smaller pieces as their young children played nearby. Dust and flakes accumulated in the villages’ communal areas, which children run through.

An international team of doctors and hazardous waste experts arrived in Zamfara in mid-May and is racing to treat victims and remove the poison from villages, pastureland and creek beds.

Manila Philippines - What do you think are the pros and cons of having an automated election? There are several issues and benefits regarding this automation of election. The question is, are you in favor of this automated election, are you satisfied in what you have paid in a billion pesos? Would you rather consider the short line for manual voting rather than than of long lines because it became a clustered precinct? As of May 11 We have partial results came from the PCOS machine and being announced by chairman melo of COMELEC, or would you choose the manual voting that the output might result in less than a week?

There are things that needs adjustments at first just like the PCOS machine, because things that are first tested are not guaranteed a 100% full accuracy sometimes it has bugs and other errors which are very usual to machines, but the thing is that the Smartmatic should put IT professionals or Technician who knows well of the PCOS machine and the Smartmatic should test the machine first before they distribute and if lack of time is the reason for this bugs in the PCOS machine, the thing that the Smartmatic should do is to hire more people in their company even for a month only just ti verify that the smartmatic is working great and reliable in counting of votes. The more people that works on the smartmatic the more productive or the more reliable the PCOS machine will be. The smartmatic should also foresee some of the risk that might happen when using the machine so that the technician will know what are the things that he needs to do to be able to fix it as soon as the election starts. Well In the manual voting there are several watchers and teachers that are need to be present just to be able to count the votes that sometimes none of them seem to do their task. The advantage of the PCOS machine is that it makes the counting easily, is makes less people involve in election counting, less effort and many more compared to manual voting that requires opposite of the automated election. A little advice is that before releasing of the machine be sure that it is working and complete in everything that is needed in the election and there should always be a person or technician or IT professionals who knows how to troubleshoot and Be sure to know what are the error and later on fix or enchance the PCOS machine for the next election.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is sending Vice President Noli De Castro to Kuwait to appeal for the life of a Filipina domestic worker whose death sentence was recently affirmed by the country’s highest court, the Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement Sunday.

De Castro will carry a letter from the President addressed to the Emir of Kuwait interceding for the life of Jakatia Pawa, who was convicted for stabbing to death Dala Al-Naqi, the 22-year old daughter of her Kuwaiti employer, on May 14, 2007.

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The US Embassy in the Manila is reminding Filipino World War II (WWII) veterans that applications to avail themselves of the one-time benefit from the 2009 Filipino Veterans Equity Compensation provision of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 should be submitted by February 16.

In a statement, the US Embassy said that the applications should be received by the US Department of Veterans Affairs (USDVA) by February 16, 2010.

The one-time payments to Filipino veterans of WWII were made available after US President Barack Obama signed ARRA last February 2009 to recognize the services of the qualified Filipino veterans.

Since it was signed, claims from eligible Filipino veterans for the one-time payment of $9,000 for non-US citizens and $15,000 for Filipino veterans who are now US citizens, have been processed by US authorities.

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MANILA, Philippines—A Filipino teacher in Maryland has received the Teacher of the Month award from the Prince George’s County Public Schools, it was learned Sunday.

Lito Sayasa, who has been teaching for 19 years, has taught in the county for four years, according to the Prince George’s Country website.

Asked why he loves his work, he said: “I was inspired by an old Chinese proverb that states, ‘The most satisfying thing in life is to see a child confidently walk down the road on his own after you have shown him the way to go.’”

The principal at the Robert R. Gray Elementary School also praised Sayasa for being a “master teacher” who spends “countless hours” planning and preparing his teaching day.

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The body of a third member of the 10th Philippine peacekeeping contingent to Haiti has been recovered, bringing to four the confirmed Filipino fatalities from the powerful earthquake that rocked the Caribbean nation last week, the Armed Forces announced Thursday.

The body of Air Force Sgt. Janice Arocena was pulled out from the rubble of the Christopher Hotel in Port-au-Prince, which served as headquarters of the United Nations Stabilization Mission to Haiti (MINUSTAH), at around 1:40 p.m. on Wednesday.

Arocena, who was assigned as clerk at the office of the Chief of Staff, Central Registry of the MINUSTAH, is the fourth confirmed Filipino fatality in the Haiti earthquake. Two other Filipino women remained missing.

Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner, Jr., AFP spokesman, said the recovery of Arocena’s body was relayed by Lt. Col. Lope Dagoy, commander of the 10th Philippine peacekeeping contingent to Haiti.

On Monday, search and rescue workers recovered the body of Jerome Yap, executive assistant to the UN deputy head of mission in Haiti; and on Tuesday, the bodies of peacekeepers Data Processor 3rd Class Pearlie Panangui of the Navy and Army Sgt. Eustacio Bermudez, Jr. were also pulled out from the rubble.

The two Filipinos still missing, Grace Fabian and Geraldine Lalican, both worked at the Caribbean Supermarket which also collapsed.

In a press briefing in Camp Aguinaldo, Brawner said news about the recovery of Arocena’s body reached the AFP headquarters at about 8:45 p.m. Wednesday after Dagoy called to give an update.

“On behalf of the AFP Chief of Staff, Gen. Victor Ibrado and all the men and women of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, we wish to convey our deepest condolences and heartfelt sympathies to the bereaved families of the three soldiers who died with those who suffered the killer quake in Haiti.

“Let their passing instill upon us the sacrifices of the Filipino soldiers in the course of the performance of their duties whether here in the country or overseas.  They are real heroes who unfortunately made the ultimate sacrifice while sharing the commitment of the nation they represent to the internal and local peace and security,” said Brawner.

The bodies of the Panangui, Bermudez, and Arocena will be brought to the Dominican Republic International Airport by land on Thursday right after a memorial service at the UN Log Base in Port-au-Prince.

Dagoy, in coordination with UN representatives in Haiti, is coordinating the transport and repatriation of the remains of the three soldiers.

The AFP also assured the families of Fabian and Lalican that efforts are still being done to find them.

Meanwhile, Brawner said members of the 10PCH are no longer directly involved in rescue and retrieval operations at the collapsed Christopher Hotel building. It is now being undertaken by expert rescue teams from Spain, China, France, Iceland, the United States, Guatemala, Indonesia, and the Brazilian Engineer Company which are all equipped with the necessary tools and machinery for the mission.

The 10PCH is currently tasked to transport retrieved bodies from the Christopher Hotel to the Log Base and the Argentina Hospital.

“Also, our troops help secure UN vital installations such as the UNDP compound against looters. The headquarters of the 10PCH continues to serve as trauma clinic for rescued victims,” said Brawner.

The Philippines started sending troops to Haiti for the UN Stabilization Mission in April 2004. Last August 2009, the AFP sent 157 troops for the 10th PCH, half of the number it usually sends to Haiti. The 10th PCH is composed of 14 officers

MANILA, Philippines—The remains of a Filipino United Nations staff member have been recovered, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Tuesday.

The DFA identified the fatality as Jerome Yap, who was from Pampanga, served as executive Assistant to Luis Carlos da Costa, the deputy special representative of the UN Secretary General, who was also killed in the collapsed building. They both served with the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (Minustah).

The department expressed “regrets to inform the public that the Philippines lost one of its own in last week’s earthquake that struck Haiti with the recovery of the remains of Mr. Jerome Yap at 5:15 a.m. (Haiti time).”

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At least 100 Filipinos in Haiti’s Delmas district have been accounted for and were safe, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Sunday.

The DFA quoted Lt. Col. Lope Dagoy, 10th Philippine Contingent commander, as saying that an initial census of Filipinos in the Delmas district had been conducted to determine their locations and conditions.

Delmas is a district in the Ouest Department of Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, where a sizeable number of Filipinos reside. The list was drawn from three areas — Delmas 31, Delmas 41 and Delmas 56.

“Some 100 Filipinos were identified, accounted for, and found to be in safe physical condition. These include two religious nuns with the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sister of Haiti,” the department said in a statement posted on its Website.

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The mother of a Filipina peacekeeping officer trapped with two others in the United Nations building in earthquake-ravaged Haiti hopes her daughter and her comrades come home alive.

Manuela Panagui, widowed mother of Philippine Navy Data Processing-3 (DP3) officer Perlie Panagui, said she was shocked when she learned that her daughter was among the Filipino peacekeepers trapped in the Christopher Hotel, headquarters of the UN Stabilization Mission, in Port-au-Prince.

“When I got the shocking news, I didn’t know what to do. We prayed and hoped that my daughter and her companions are all alive… I love my daughter very much and I know they are alive,” she said.

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MANILA, Philippines—A Filipino soldier used his cell phone to lead searchers to his rescue in the basement of a collapsed hotel. But three of his comrades remained trapped in the UN building toppled by Tuesday’s powerful quake in Haiti, the military said Thursday.

In a phone call to the Philippines, the head of the Filipino contingent to Haiti, Lt. Col. Lope Dagoy, said Cpl. David Catacutan was rescued by his troops from the wreckage of Hotel Montana before noon Thursday.

Catacutan suffered bruises and was recuperating in the barracks of the Philippine contingent in the Italian House on Rue Theodule, according to Dagoy.

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