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I’VE never been to Paris. I love to travel but money is required for that so… And Europe is especially special due to the high cost of touring any of its countries and cities. And of course there’s the application for a tourist visa if your intent is to be a tourist instead of an illegal alien. Wait, all you need is a tourist visa for both, so…

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Besides, with the tanim-bala still hounding Naia, who has the nerve to go through the stress of proving that your bala is for anting-anting purposes?

And there’s the Apec which has made walking a mandatory exercise in Metro Manila with some lanes closed to traffic and exclusively for the Apec delegates’ use only. The government has found a new justification for the tight security measures for the delegates and dignitaries–the terrorist attacks on Paris which some analysts say could trigger a World War III.

In this age of Facebook and its 1.55 billion active users, which is supposed to unite at least those FB people as a one big happy family, you have to wonder why terrorists still manage to ram their ideologies down our throat. But if you’ve been brainwashed since birth to be a suicide bomber, surely by the time you’re in your teens, your only knowledge of the world revolves around the belief that you are right and the rest of the world who don’t belong to your group are all wrong.

Same thing with some rabid Christians who believe heaven is an exclusive place for those saved by their religion like as if it’s some kind of a clubhouse membership.

There’s this constant reminder from spiritual gurus to invest on experiences rather than on material things. Travel is one of those experiences. And if you happened to be in Paris last Friday the 13th, what a learning experience that would have been.

The only constant in my vacations is my father’s hometown where I love to make muni-muni. A friend said I could have traveled to many foreign countries had I saved the money for local destinations and spent it on getting visas and visiting those countries. Well, someday…

For now, my father’s hometown will do, so I can have some bonding with Dad’s youngest sis and my cousins. And there’s the town’s specialty–chicharon! Which has been banned from my diet until I reach my ideal weight. But I gotta feeling by the time the ideal weight pops off the weighing scale, I would already find pork and beef yucky. Hmmm. Yucky daw o. Hehe.

I have friends who eat whatever they want because life is short and all that jazz. And after reading about Paris’ Friday the 13th attacks, the more they’re convinced that life is indeed short. You’re watching a concert one second, and the next second, there you are on the floor, pretending to be dead so the terrorists who have entered the concert venue won’t inject more bullets into your body. And that’s the bullet as ammunition and not as anting-anting.

How painful it is for families of the terrorists’ victims. They have no choice but to recall the pain each year as the whole world remembers the attack’s anniversary. 9/11, for one, has been commemorated since 2002, that’s 13 years so far of an annual anniversary, complete with live media coverage. Some of those who helped in the post-9/11 rescue and recovery operations have been dying of cancer and respiratory diseases due to their exposure to dust from the pulverized Twin Towers and the other buildings nearby. Thus, 9/11 was not only about the victims and their families but also the responders who stayed there for months to help, and the residents in the area.

Next year, there will be an 11/13 commemoration of the Paris attacks. It will be painful to recall that date, but sometimes it’s necessary to go through all the stages of grief–denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance–to enable us to move forward.

But haven’t you noticed? 9/11, 11/13–odd numbers. Good thing there are only 12 months in a year. Otherwise, if terrorists are bent on continuing the trend of their attack dates, 13/15, anyone? O my gas.

11/13/15, by the way, was the last Odd Day for this century.

Terrorists don’t plan their attacks overnight. If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes many years and many villages to raise a suicide bomber. There’s this cartoon where their god is telling recently dead suicide bombers to “Stop, stop. We have run out of virgins.” It’s funny but also scary.

To absolutely believe that you’ll be rewarded after killing innocent victims, that is the worst motivation ever. I don’t know though if that’s worse than promising a political candidate that he will get a share of the national treasury once he wins.

There are many ways for evil to prevail, and if we’re not careful, we can be unknowingly contributing to its triumph by… Wait, there’s a quotation on that, from philosopher Edmund Burke: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Burke is also the one who said, “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.”

Two great quotations from one man. But do we even listen? Tsk tsk.

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