What is United Nations?

The United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945 after the Second World War by 51 countries committed to maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations and promoting social progress, better living standards and human rights.

The work of the United Nations reaches every corner of the globe. Although best known for peacekeeping, peacebuilding, conflict prevention and humanitarian assistance, there are many other ways the United Nations and its System (specialized agencies, funds and programmes) affect our lives and make the world a better place. The Organization works on a broad range of fundamental issues, from sustainable development, environment and refugees protection, disaster relief, counter terrorism, disarmament and non-proliferation, to promoting democracy, human rights, gender equality and the advancement of women, governance, economic and social development and international health, clearing landmines, expanding food production, and more, in order to achieve its goals and coordinate efforts for a safer world for this and future generations.

Due to its unique international character, and the powers vested in its founding Charter, the Organization can take action on a wide range of issues, and provide a forum for its 193 Member States to express their views, through the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council and other bodies and committees.

The UN has 4 main purposes

• To keep peace throughout the world;
• To develop friendly relations among nations;
• To help nations work together to improve the lives of poor people, to conquer hunger, disease and illiteracy, and to encourage respect for each other’s rights and freedoms;
• To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations to achieve these goals.

History

The League of Nations failed to prevent World War II (1939–1945). Because of the widespread recognition that humankind could not afford a third world war, the United Nations was established to replace the flawed League of Nations in 1945 in order to maintain international peace and promote cooperation in solving international economic, social and humanitarian problems. The earliest concrete plan for a new world organization was begun under the aegis of the U.S. State Department in 1939. Franklin D. Roosevelt first coined the term 'United Nations' as a term to describe the Allied countries. The term was first officially used on 1 January 1942, when 26 governments signed the Atlantic Charter, pledging to continue the war effort. On 25 April 1945, the UN Conference on International Organization began in San Francisco, attended by 50 governments and a number of non-governmental organizations involved in drafting the United Nations Charter. The UN officially came into existence on 24 October 1945 upon ratification of the Charter by the five permanent members of the Security Council—France, the Republic of China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States—and by a majority of the other 46 signatories. The first meetings of the General Assembly, with 51 nations represented, and the Security Council, took place in Westminster Central Hall in London in January 1946.

The organization was based at the Sperry Gyroscope Corporation's facility in Lake Success, New York, from 1946–1952, before moving to the United Nations Headquarters building in Manhattan upon its completion.

Since its creation, there has been controversy and criticism of the United Nations. In the United States, an early opponent of the UN was the John Birch Society, which began a "get US out of the UN" campaign in 1959, charging that the UN's aim was to establish a "One World Government." After the Second World War, the French Committee of National Liberation was late to be recognized by the US as the government of France, and so the country was initially excluded from the conferences that aimed at creating the new organization. Charles de Gaulle criticized the UN, famously calling it le machin ("the thing"), and was not convinced that a global security alliance would help maintain world peace, preferring direct defence treaties between countries.

UN is an international organization that really strives to achieve peace and unity among nations. UN, through their agencies, helps countries in times of crises and natural disasters just like the earthquake in Haiti, earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan and even during the typhoons "Ondoy" "Pepeng" and "Pedring" in the Philippines. UN has been consulted ever since when it comes to country issues like the separation and independence of South Sudan from Sudan, separation of Palestine from Israel (wherein Palestine wants to be an independent country and it hasn't been decided yet) and also the issue of Spratly Islands (wherein it is regarded as a territory of the Philippines but is being claimed by China and various Southeast Asian neighbors). UN strives to achieve peace and democracy in all countries that's why they supported Egypt and Libya in their desire for freedom and peace.Peace and Democracy is also the theme of the UN's International Day of Peace: "Peace and Democracy: make your voice heard". It is celebrated every September 21st to promote and celebrate Peace and is to be observed by UN member countries.

Many Filipinos have been part of UN just like Carlos P. Romulo, who became President of the UN General assembly during 1949-1950 (he was also an inspiring Filipino because of his achievements and his love for his country, he made the Philippines well-known while he's in office in UN) ,KC Concepcion as Ambassador of Goodwill against Hunger of the UN's World Food Program, Lea Salonga as Ambassador of Goodwill of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the recently Kris Aquino, Ambassador of Goodwill of United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNCHR).

Recently, UN marked October 31 as a day to mark and celebrate the arrival of the world's 7 billionth baby. Although there other babies around the world born on that day, Danica May Camacho of the Philippines is the one who received the title of World's 7 Billionth baby. The parents and the baby were met by top United Nations officials in the Philippines, who presented the child with a small cake marked with "7B Philippines. The baby also had a gift certificate for free shoes.

Dr. Eric Tayag of the Philippines' Department of Health says that 7 Billion is a number we should think deeply, he claims that it's a time to think if the needs of every child could be supplied, if not, well it's time for the people to help lessen the population. Health secretary Enrique Ona says that the arrival of the world's 7 billion baby as a time to assess population related issues.

According to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) State of the World Population Report, the Philippines is the 12th most populous country in the world with 94.9 million people.

China continues to have the biggest share of the population at 1.35 billion, followed by India at 1.24 billion.

UN is of really great help to all nations and it believes that unity and peace is for everyone, here is the United Nation song which shows the message that UN wants to present:

Reference links:

http://www.un.org/en/aboutun/index.shtml -United Nations

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations -UNited Nations

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Day_of_Peace- International Day of Peace

http://news.yahoo.com/various-7-billionth-babies-celebrated-worldwide-064439018.html -World's 7 billionth baby

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2055667/World-population-Philippines-baby-Danica-7-billionth-human-born.html -World's 7 billionth baby

"Batang Mansisibak"/"Batang Kalabaw": Documentaries featuring Child Labor

Batang Mansisibak

When I watched the documentary "Batang Mansisibak" by Cesar Apolinario, I was filled w/ pity towards the children who earn their living by scavenging in the garbage of Manila bay, these children are called "mansisibak" or garbage collectors. I can't really imagine how they can swim in a pool of trash just to gather plastic or "sibak" that can be sold in the junk shop.

I really pity their situation because in such a young age, they are already exposed in to this dirty work, they are forced to do such a thing in order for them to help their parents. These children are willing to wake up early, dive into dirty water (and there's even instances that they accidentally drink the water) and collect junk that can be sold. They don't care if they need to go naked just to get the trash they need, they don't mind if people look at them. Although they get wounded because they don't have any protection against the sharp objects that hit their feet and their body, they have no choice because it's the only way for them to easily move in the water.

Because the children are exposed to different kind of waste, no wonder that the the doctor who checked them found a lot of complications in them. Because of their activity that their body weakens and their health gets poor. There is a saying: "May pera sa basura" but if health and life is at stake, money earned from garbage would be useless because it will just have to go to treatments and medications to treat the illnesses and diseases that they got from swimming in garbage.

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Batang Kalabaw

I felt the same piteous feeling in "Batang Kalabaw" by Jay Taruc. it also features children who do hard labor just to earn money. These children carry heavy loads of logs down the mountains of Agusan Del Sur, their job is the same as and as difficult as the job of a carabao, hence the title, Batang Kalabaw.

These children join illegal loggers go up a steep mountain and after getting the lumber, they have to carry the logs and go down the mountain. It's really not an easy task because they have to walk for hours just to go down the mountain, carrying heavy lumber on their back, shoulder or head. Plus, the mountain is very wet and slippery and there is a tendency for them to slip, fall and drop the logs (the cameraman even slipped while going down the mountain and nearly broke the camera).

It's really a pitiful situation they have there, I can't believe how these children do this kind of hard labor, even a 6-year old boy is already involved in this kind of work. It's really hard to carry logs down a slippery mountain without damaging or even scratching the logs because if any faults were found in the logs that they brought, it would be deducted from their wages. I really pity the 6-year boy Randy because as we all know, he is to young and he can't properly handle the wood because his body is not capable enough. It's not surprising that a fault would be found in the logs that he brought and it would be deducted to his pay.

I also pity the 14-year old Cherilyn, the eldest of the group who also acts as mother, father and breadwinner of their family. Her father was imprisoned and her mother suffers from a mental illness that's why she is left to take care of her 5 younger siblings. There's some people who want to help her or even adopt her but she refuses because she can't leave her siblings.

The contributions of the Byzantine empire

There are a alot of contributions that the Byzantine empire brought. Although it is not as great as the great Roman empire, it prove to be a worthy successor. First contribution, Emperor Justinian determined to re-establish the roman empire in the entire Mediterranean world. Under Belisarius, Justinian's army fought hard and long battles against the Ostrogoths. 2nd contribution, Justinian's most important contribution, the codification of roman law. " The body of Civil law" or "Corpus Juris Civilis" The backbone of the law consisted of Code, the digest and the institute. 3rd was the secret invention, greek fire, w/c helped during the battle w/ the Arabs. it sets enemy ships ablaze. Byzantine culture also brought a lot of contributions like in religion, The patriarch being the highest prelate of the Eastern church. in Art and architecture, Church of Santa Sophia w/ a dome to a building of square shape and the mosaics, design of pictures produced by fitting together small pieces of small glass or stone. In commerce, Jewish Muslims and Italian merchants enjoyed domination in overseas trading.

Triumph of Christianity

Isn't it amazing how Christianity changed the whole roman empire?

As you can see, Paganism has a lot of influence in the Roman world. It has influenced most of its culture. The new religion of Christianity gained a lot of followers w/ the problems w/in the Roman Empire. Christianity became the only hope of the Roman people.

The catholic crusades

Because of the invasion of the Muslims, the christians( or catholics) were threathened. The pope called for a crusade w/c means holy war and they waged war for the recovery of the holy land. They created a fighting force to fight the Muslim Arabs or Turks. The pope himself was the one to call for the first crusade and it showed how crusades showed the importance of papal leadership. As Sir Noel had said, " the end doesn't justify the means" it means that the results or the motives of the crusades are right( to recover the Holy land) but the means are not( waging war w/ the turks). What's wrong also is they did not consult the eastern orthodox church about making a decision w/ this that's why there is a lot of divisions among the churches.

My perspective about Oedipus Rex

My own perspective about Oedipus Rex is that many factors affect the outcome of something, one after another.It turns into a chain reaction, If something bad happens to you then you add another bad thing to it, it will worsen. His father, did something bad to someone and he is cursed and doomed to him. Now, he will escape the oncoming curse by killing his own son.

interference of gods and goddesses to the lives of mortals

Since gods and goddesses are capable of malevolence and benevolence, they tend to interfere w/ the personal life of people. They make the people fight battles against their enemies, They mingle w/ them and they even have offsprings w/ humans that turned out to be "Demi-gods", half-human, half-god. They can do anything to the humans whether they did something good or bad or they did none. No wonder that they can't establish better relationships w/ the humans because the gods will do whatever they want, whenever they want no matter what the matter is.