"Boses upos"

I hope you’ll all watch this. I don’t want any of you dying from cigarette smoking. Nor from passive smoking.

“Boses upos

Airing on July 28, 2008 Monday late night after Saksi

Howie Severino and his I-Witness team immerse themselves in the world of people who talk like robots and have holes in their throats.

One of those is Emer Rojas, a former radio announcer who suffered his worst nightmare: he lost his voice when he contracted cancer of the vocal chords which had to be surgically removed. He and others like him now have to breathe through a hole in their throats.

But with the help of a small device, he regained his voice but now sounds like a robot. Like other cancer survivors, he lives on borrowed time. But Emer also becomes a man on a mission. He has organized those like him, former chain smokers who lost their vocal chords and talk like robots. Others have learned to use esophageal speech or talking by burping and ended up sounding like frogs.

Emer uses his voice to draw attention to his cause: anti-smoking. He speaks on campuses and even returns to radio booths to champion his cause.

Emer and his allies are advocating putting pictures of people with cancer on cigarette packs, which is done in other countries. But the opposition is as powerful as the tobacco industry. Howie and his team visit the biggest cigarette factory in the Philippines, which supplies one of the most smoking-addicted nations in the world.

source: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/108697/Boses-upos

"Boses Upos" an I-Witness feature due to air July 28, 2008

Emer Rojas is an engineer and former radio announcer who lost his voice due to smoking. He had his larynx removed due to laryngeal cancer.
We’re urging everyone to spread the word and watch the airing of this episode on I-Witness as reported by Howie Severino (July 28, 2008 at 10:30p.m. right after Saksi).

This ad material is supposed to come out in the newspapers include the Tribune and in some website news such as www.withnews.org for Monday.

from,

E. Ulysses Dorotheo, MD, FPAO
FCTC Program Manager, Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (seatca.org)
Regional Coordinator for ASEAN and the Western Pacific, Framework
Convention Alliance (fctc.org)
Senior Policy Adviser, FCTC Alliance Philippines (FCAP) (tobaccocontrol.ph)

and

Emer Rojas

Support 100% smokefree places!

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/108697/Boses-upos

The BreatheWell Initiative launch

Everyone’s welcome to join our launch this coming Friday, July 25, 2008, 10:00 AM at the UP College of Law Malcolm Hall.
Everyone = smokers, non-smokers, students, professionals, etc.

I’ll be there! Hope to meet you all there, too.

This is a separate event from our Smoking Awareness Campaign on the 31st of July.

Postponed to the 31st!

Over the past two weeks, I’ve sent so many people messages about our smoking awareness campaign. It was SUPPOSED TO be today, the 23rd of July. 

It was hard enough contacting all those many people the first time. In fact, I’ve lost tract of the exact list since it was too tedious to list them all down. The ones on my list were the ones who either gave a positive reaction or at least some reaction. I left out the ones who made no reaction.

Of course, I’d had to inform the celebrities and media I’ve been in contact with of the change. 

I’m blogging this now in the hopes that someone I missed on updating would read this before he or she heads out to our event venue later this morning. 

It’s official, guys! The BreatheWell Initiative’s smoking awareness campaign that was scheduled for today has been moved to JULY 31, 2008. It’s still at the same time and place. Only the date has changed to accommodate more people–more people meaning more celebrities, organizations, and media.

Please pray for the success of this noble endeavor. 

Thanks.

It Saves to Know the Truth

Often it is said that “the TRUTH hurts.” In this instance, it is the not knowing that does. In fact, not knowing the TRUTH will not only hurt, it will most likely kill you.

Discover the real TRUTH about smoking.

It does kill.And if you’re thinking you’re safe since you don’t smoke, think again!
The effects of PASSIVE SMOKING are far worse than doing the smoking yourself.

So please watch the video I’m linking this to. Knowing the  TRUTH will not only set you free, it will save your life, too!

Click THIS to watch the video. 

Video courtesy of Atty. Debby Sy and The BreatheWell Initiative.

You Don’t Always Die From Tobacco

I like this song!  

You don’t always die from tobacco

Sometimes you just lose a lung

You don’t always die from tobacco 

Sometimes they just snip out your tongue

And you won’t sing worth a heck

With a big hole in your neck

‘Cause you don’t always die from tobacco 

Click THIS to listen to the song andwatch the video.

Forgiveness = 100% Restoration?

In the Bible, Jesus says that we ought to forgive someone 70 times seven times. In essence, He’s saying we shouldn’t limit forgiveness to a number–that forgiveness, genuine and sincere forgiveness, equals 100% restoration of the broken relationship.

Wow. That’s a pretty tough order to follow. Even for “extraordinary” Christians. Obeying that command in the strictest sense of the word would mean completely emptying yourself of your own pride and seeing yourself as you truly are–just another sinner who God forgave and must therefore “pay it forward” and forgive another fellow sinner.

“To err is human; to forgive divine.” Quite true. Which is why we also need to ask to be filled with God’s Spirit. The only way we would ever beable to live up to what God requires of us is if we are moment by moment soaked in His own Spirit. “Superhuman” Christians may perhaps be able to forgive 69 times seven times or even 70 times seven times but, it is only a Spirit-filled Christian who will be able to forgive as God desires him/her to–beyond the numbers, beyond infinity.