Oil drops nearly $1 on economic gloom - 2

Crude oil stocks in Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for US crude futures, rose 4.1 million barrels last week, reaching a record high of 32.2 million barrels.

Prices had gained some support earlier from violence in Gaza, widening natural gas supply disruptions due to a dispute between Russia and Ukraine, and mounting evidence of OPEC's compliance with production cuts.

Three rockets fired from Lebanon struck northern Israel, slightly wounding two people and prompting the Jewish state to respond with artillery fire, officials said.

While the conflict did not directly threaten any oil supplies, Middle East unrest can bolster prices because countries in the region pump about a third of the world's oil.

Russia and Ukraine failed to resolve a gas supply dispute at a meeting in Moscow, but will continue talks to end the confrontation, which has choked off supplies to Europe, a senior Ukrainian gas official said on Thursday.

The dispute has cut heating fuel supplies hundreds of thousands of people across the Balkans and hit supplies as far west as France and Germany as Europe faces freezing temperatures.

Signs that members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries are implementing the group's biggest-ever output cuts grew this week after Kuwait and Iran told customers of bigger January supply curbs.

Ref: dailyinquirer

Oil drops nearly $1 on economic gloom - 1

US crude for February delivery fell 93 cents to settle at $41.70 a barrel, while London Brent crude fell 97 cents to $44.89 a barrel.

Oil prices have dropped more than $100 a barrel since July as a global financial crisis has cut consumer and business energy demand, threatening to shrink total world oil usage for the first time in 25 years.

A US government report on Thursday showed the number of people remaining on jobless rolls last week rose to a 26-year high, even as new claims for unemployment benefits slipped.

Adding to the economic gloom, Wal-Mart Stores Inc, which accounts for a 10th of US retail spending, reported a disappointing sales performance in December and cut its earnings outlook.

Oil prices tumbled on Wednesday after the US Energy Information Administration's weekly report showed crude stocks rose last week by 6.7 million barrels, more than seven times the 900,000-barrel increase analysts had expected.

"Brent is done going under $40, but WTI (US crude) is a different animal altogether ... crude stocks in the Midwest are very high because Cushing is a landlocked base with pipes that only go in one direction," Christopher Bellew of Bache Financial said.

Ref: dailyinquire

I am Filipino – 5

I am Filipino. I am born of freedom, in a free country. As such, I dedicate my freedom to ensuring that my people and country shall always remain free. I shall use my freedom to help other people, in my country or in other parts of the world, gain their own freedom.

I am born of love, out of God’s immeasurable love, in a country and in a world that can only be made beautiful by love. Love is the reason why God made me. It is what He wants me to bring into this world, so love shall be who I am.

I am born as part of the whole, as part of the answer to the question, as part of the solution to the problem, as part of the hope to our people. I am born to help the Filipino become great not only in the eyes of the world but, more so, in the eyes of our Lord.

I am Filipino. I am a faithful child of God. I shall live my life to do God’s work on earth, to help build a beautiful country for my Filipino family, and a better world for all humanity. And soon the world shall see the full measure of the greatness of Filipino, for truly the world has yet to see what God can do to and through a child, like the Filipino, who is faithful to the Lord.

ref: dailyinquirer

I am Filipino - 4

You will know me by the word “po” in my sentences. You will know my children by their “mano po.” You will know me by the smile on my face and the warmth of my hospitality. Most important of all, you will know me by my loving and caring heart when you are in need of help, even if you are a stranger.

As a child of God, my Creator has a beautiful story for me and my people. And the story we see today is but a fleeting portion of that beautiful story that has yet to fully unfold before the eyes of the world.

I am Filipino. I am who I am today because of the role God wants me to play.

I am born to succeed. God has equipped me, within me and around me, with all the essentials I need to succeed in this world. God truly wants the highest, the best, and the most beautiful for me, because I am His child.

I am destined to be great. God planted seeds of beauty and greatness in me. He truly wants me to be great and beautiful, for God truly wants me to add more beauty and greatest to our world.

ref: dailyinquirer

I am Filipino - 3

The beauty and richness of my country lured many mighty powers of the world to invade our shores. So today, my blood is a mixture of the best and the finest of the West and the East. My mind is an heir to all the great thoughts of the West, and the great virtues of the East. My heart beats with the romanticism of the West and the passion of the East.

I am Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio, Juan Luna, Ninoy Aquino and all those who fought for our land to become a nation of free people. I am the grandeur of Banaue, the enchantment of Boracay, the serenity of Manila Bay, and the depth and breadth of Tubbataha Reef.

I am Filipino. My Creator’s plan is for me to live my life as a Filipino and therefore, in my heart and in my mind, I shall always be a Filipino wherever I may be in the world. God wants me to belong to the Filipino family and as such, I am a “kapatid” [brother] to anyone and everyone who is Filipino, wherever he or she may be on earth.

ref: dailyinquirer

I am Filipino - 2

Here it is:

I am Filipino. I am a child of the One God who is the Creator of all that is in our world and the universe. I am as perfect and as beautiful as my Creator planned me to be, for God created me in His image, out of His perfect love.

I am a beloved child of God, like everyone else in our world, no less than the stars above or anyone else below. As such, I have equal right and claim to all the beauty and bounty that God provided in my country and in the world.

I am an equal part of the family of humanity. I am therefore a sibling to all the men and women of our world, brethren to all Christians, to all Muslims, to all Jews, to all Buddhists, and all other peoples whose faiths lie somewhere else.

I am Filipino. My Creator planted me on a specific spot on earth, where the sun always shines, in an archipelago of 7,107 wonderful islands, which the whole world calls the “Pearl of the Orient.” Pilipinas is the country God gave to me and my people. It is the birthplace of my race. It is the home of the Filipino.

ref: dailyinquirer

I am Filipino - 1

Good morning everyone. When you are being called a Pilipino, you must be something. We Pilipinos are very friendly and hospitable. Sometimes that our attitudes were misunderstood by someone. But we know ourselves better more than anyone else. All I can say now is I’m proud to be a Pilipino.

One of the most important things we need today as a people is a beautiful way of looking at ourselves as Filipinos, a positive and healthy image of ourselves, a wonderful definition of ourselves as a people. Our children especially need to believe that there is greatness and beauty in us as a people and as a race.

So much beauty and greatness can spring from a beautiful mind and a faithful heart.

But loving ourselves as Filipinos is not only patriotism or nationalism. There is a reason higher than that. It is primarily about stewardship. It is loving what God has given us. God gave to each one of us the Filipino and the Philippines, for us to love and care for. But how is the Filipino in our hands today? How is the Philippines, the land God gave to us as a people, in our hands today?

It is for this reason that I wrote the poem below. I give this poem as my humble gift to all of you, my fellow Filipinos. You are the brothers and sisters, the family of people, God gave to me.

It is my hope that this poem will help develop in us and in our children a healthy sense of faith and love in the Filipino, in ourselves as a people. For truly, our Creator wants us to have faith in and love for the Filipino.

ref: dailyinquirer