"TRUE ESSENCE OF CHRISTMAS"

Everyone wants Christmas to be meaningful. Christmas is definitely the season for gifts and shopping. During Christmas, a lot of people go to malls to buy various gifts to be given to their friends and loved ones. People just need to spend more during Christmas season. The effect? – traffic jam, growing credit card debts, lots of to-do lists, etc. But what is Christmas without Christ ? How can we celebrate Christmas without Christ, the birthday celebrant, at the center of all the festivities and pomp?

Year in and year out I know Christmas is celebrated in most of the countries the world. Even countries which are not Christian celebrate Christmas with festive decorations of “hi-tech” lights and sounds, Christmas trees and Santa Claus. But most often in business establishments and commercial centers, you would hardly find the Nativity Scene. Christmas has become so commercialized that it lost its true meaning. To put up Christmas decorations without the Nativity Scene somehow inculcates to us and to our children today a life of ease and comfort, a life without suffering and pain. But this is far from our reality as human beings, the poor and the rich have their own share of suffering and pain. Our materialistic world makes us suffer all the more by shunning the reality of suffering in our life, we can never escape suffering! Whether we like it or not pain and suffering are part of our life, our consolation in this life is the message the Nativity Scene wants to impart to us that is, Christ came to live with us and among us. By His own suffering, He taught us how to suffer. By His own life He taught us how to live. He does not take away suffering from but He suffers with us! Each Christmas then should remind us of the fact that we can never escape from suffering but Christ gives meaning and value to our suffering and to our life. He took our suffering upon Himself. He was born into this world to save us by dying on the Cross so that we may live. The part we have to play is to carry the little crosses of our everyday life. Now, we know that after all, the yoke is easy and the burden light because Christ has already carried it for us!

Christmas then is not at all in the things we do to celebrate Christmas- parties, decorations nor glittering lights. The essence of Christmas is Christ himself, it is because of Him that we celebrate Christmas. In a way, in celebrating Christmas we celebrate our lives too, because Christmas gives us hope. Yes, life can be difficult and trying but Christ is with us in our suffering. Christ took our very own humanity unto himself to save us from our sins and to show us how to be like Him, In Christ we have found our Way back to the Father.

"Equal rights, Equal Opportunities"

         Every human being has its own rights and privileges that life offers. Every opportunities that come along his way is his very right whether or not, to achieve it.

          Gender-based discrimination is irrevocably connected to negative health outcomes for women and girls. Its associated poor health outcomes are often compounded by other forms of inequality related to socioeconomic status, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religious affiliation or geographical location. In order to build a great democratic, just, fair and humane society, it is of utmost importance to arouse the broad masses of our people to join the struggle that will ensure "equal rights, equal opportunities and progress for all”. Genuine equality between women and men, girls and boys can only be realized in the process of a just, fair and humane transformation of our society as a whole. There's need for us to unite and enable women to take their rightful place in production and political activity to improve their  economic  and political status. There is need to educate ourselves and others to take a more correct view of women and to actively redress the injustices done to women in all our institutions - the Church, state and family. Gender characterizes the differing roles, responsibilities, constraints, opportunities and needs of females and males in all areas and in any given social context. Hence, one can safely say that gender roles are learned behaviors in a given society, community or other social groups. These roles condition which activities, tasks and responsibilities are perceived as appropriate for males and females respectively. This perception of roles and responsibilities has serious implications on power relations between females and males of all ages which in turn determine who has access to and control over tangible and intangible resources.

       We must therefore move from the delay and sterile tactics of always questioning the ability of women, by embracing the realization that we are equal partners in the development processes of our nations. Fellow men, I understand that we have held positions of power for a long time now, and it may be uncomfortable to share this power with our countrywomen. We must realize that women as citizens have just the same rights that we do in holding positions of power, participating in their national development process and most of all, to be treated with dignity and respect just as we expect to be.

"PROTECTING CLIMATE CHANGE THROUGH ZERO WASTE"

Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average. The earth's climate is dynamic and always changing through a natural cycle. What the world is more worried about is that the changes that are occurring today have been speeded up because of man's activities.

All of us in our daily lives contribute a bit to this change in the climate. Give these points a good serious thought: All our gadgets run on electricity generated mainly from thermal power plants. Who are responsible for the emission of huge amounts of greenhouse and other pollutants. We generated large quantities of waste in the form of  plastics that remain in the environment for many years and cause damage. Have we ever thought about the number of trees that we use in a day because of papers that we use in school and offices? Timber is used in large quantities  for construction of houses, which means that large areas of forest have to be cut down. A growing population has meant more and more months to feed. Because the land area available for agriculture is limited. Pollution also result from the run-off of fertilizers into water bodies. Did we notice all those human activities affects a lot of the climate change. Climate change is a real problem, but it also has a real solution. Some of its effects are already inevitable and it is necessary that work in building the adaptive capacity of vulnerable communities start immediately. Dealing with climate change however requires deeper international co-operation in many areas notably in promoting adaptation particularly  for developing countries, spurring technology research, development and deployment and enhancing the carbon market. To avoid the worse affect, science tells us that we will need to establish greenhouse gas emissions. It is a major challenge that will require unprecedented  cooperation and participation across  the globe, yet the tool exists to begin addressing the challenge now. Around the country and throughout the world, many political, business and community leaders are working to prevent consequences of global warming because they understand that if we do not address climate change, we will perish.

Reducing, reusing, and recycling municipal waste to me of the exist and most effective means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It also provides gainful employment to millions of people in developing world, mostly in the informal sector.