World's longest tunnel breaks down Swiss Alpine barrier

SEDRUN, Switzerland (AFP) - – A giant drilling machine punched its way through a final section of Alpine rock on Friday to complete the world's longest tunnel, after 15 years of sometimes lethal construction work.
In a stage-managed breakthrough, attended by some 200 dignitaries, 30 kilometres (20 miles) inside the tunnel and broadcast live on Swiss television, engineers from both sides shook hands after the bore had pummeled through the final 1.5 metres (five feet) of rock.

"Here, in the heart of the Swiss Alps, one of the biggest environmental projects on the continent has become reality," said Swiss Transport Minister Moritz Leuenberger.

Tunnel workers paid tribute to their colleagues who had died on the construction site with a minute's silence as the names of the eight victims were read out during an emotional ceremony for the breakthrough.
"Workers, thank you, thank you, thank you. We have not only built a tunnel, we have written history," said Luzi Gruber of the construction company Implenia.

The 57-kilometre (35.4-mile) high-speed rail link, which will open in 2017, will form the lynchpin of a new rail network between northern and southeastern Europe and help ease congestion and pollution in the Swiss Alps.
It is the third tunnel to be built through the snowbound St. Gotthard area but it is much the longest and three kilometres longer than a rail link between two Japanese islands, the current record holder at 53.8 kilometres.
"The myth of the Gotthard has been broken for a third time. Our forefathers struggled from the Middle Ages onwards to make this mountain passable," Peter Fueglistaler, director of the Federal Transport office, told journalists gathered for the final breakthrough.

Passengers will ultimately be able to speed from the Italian city of Milan to Zurich in less than three hours and further north into Germany, cutting the journey time by an hour.

Once completed, around 300 trains should be able to speed through the Gotthard's twin tubes every day, at up to 250 kilometres per hour (155 mph) for passenger trains.

The 9.8-billion Swiss franc (7.0-billion euro, 9.8-billion dollar) tunnel, which is 9.5 metres in diameter, is also the fruit of strong popular environmental concern about pollution in the Swiss Alps.

Switzerland nonetheless struggled to convince sceptical European neighbours to support the ambitious and costly transalpine rail plans. But Swiss voters helped force the issue in 1994 by supporting a ban on heavy trucks driving across the Alps -- including the expanding flow of transiting EU goods traffic.

 A nationwide poll published on Wednesday suggested that sentiment is undimmed, with two thirds supporting a ban on truck traffic through the Gotthard road tunnel and moving it on to rail.

But a senior Swiss official warned the full benefit of the rail tunnel can only be realised if Germany and Italy complete complementary infrastructure.

"For a noticeable amount of freight to be shifted from road to rail, our neighbouring countries Germany and Italy will have to fulfill their contractual obligation to extend access routes," said Peter Fueglistaler, director of the government's Federal Transport Office.

In recent years, Austria, France and Italy have set in motion two similar rail tunnel projects through the eastern and western Alps, which are both planned to exceed 50 kilometres in length in the 2020s.

Apart from the economic and environmental implications, the spotlight was on more than 2,000 tunnel workers, especially following the rescue of Chile's trapped miners.

The builders, who have blasted and bored through 13 million cubic metres (460 million cubic feet) of rock, were feted at a celebration just above the breakthrough point in the mist-bound village of Sedrun.

As the two tunnels became one, tunnelers unfurled a Swiss flag to a thunder of applause.
One of the first to make it through, Hubert Baer, told the crowd: "It's a wonderful feeling, it's an honour to have participated in the construction of the longest rail tunnel in the world."

Scene: Santa Barbara stands watch over world's longest tunnel

source: http://ph.news.yahoo.com/afp/20101016/tts-switzerland-transport-tunnel-rail-en-c1b2fc3.html

PAX MANIFESTO ON CARLOS CELDRAN

We, the officers and members of the Philippine Alliance of X-Seminarians (PAX), a nationwide umbrella organization representing various federations of Catholic ex seminarians and Catholic seminary alumni organizations in the Philippines, do hereby declare:

1. That freedom of expression as enshrined in the Philippine Constitution is a democratic right of every citizen of the Republic, inviolable when exercised within the ambits of existing laws;

2. That religious freedom, the right of every citizen of the Republic to freely practice one's religious beliefs is likewise guaranteed in the provisions of our Constitution;

3.That all places of worship, churches, mosques and temples shall be revered as sacrosanct, holy and sacred houses of prayer and therefore should not be defiled or disturbed by any authority or individual;

4. That any disruption or disturbance during the celebration of the Holy Mass, regardless wherever it is celebrated, is a direct attack to the central faith of the Catholic Church and in violation of the religious freedoms of all its faithful;

5. That no citizen is endowed with such right to disrupt religious rites and ceremonies of any faith or creed, within their religious confines or in public places, whenever and wherever these rights and ceremonies are not prohibited by law;

6.That the actions of Mr. Carlos Celdran to disrupt the celebration of the Holy Mass at the Manila Cathedral, is an abject abuse of his right to freedom of expression, an affront to universally accepted social norms and decorum, and, most gravely, a desecration of the most sacred sacrament of the Catholic Faith ;

7. That while his right to freedom of expression is enshrined in Section 4, Article III of the 1987 Philippine Constitution, his condemnable action also violates Section 5, Article V of the very same Constitution;

Therefore, in the strongest possible terms, we condemn the actions of Mr. Carlos Celdran for desecrating a place of worship, the Manila Cathedral, and for disrupting a religious worship thereat, the celebration of the Most Holy Eucharist on September 30, 2010. Such actions are devoid of good manners and social civility, disrespectful to an ongoing religious service, illegal, malicious and evil acts directed to a Faith, in total disregard to the hierarchy and church leaders present, and in violation of the rights of everyone participating therein to freely exercise their religious beliefs and creed.

We further condemn his cohorts for utterly condoning and supporting such acts, in brazen violation of the Philippine Constitution and existing laws.

Finally, we demand that Mr. Carlos Celdran and his cohorts apologize for their acts and make amends for their evil deeds, and resolve that they refrain from any such transgressions in the future.

-Philippine Aliance of X-Seminarians (PAX)

The Filipino Today

(received through email):

The Filipino today

By Alex Lacson

 
After the August 23 hostage drama, there is just too much negativity about and against the Filipino.
 
“It is difficult to be a Filipino these days”, says a friend who works in Hongkong. “Nakakahiya tayo”, “Only in the Philippines ” were some of the comments lawyer Trixie Cruz-Angeles received in her Facebook. There is this email supposedly written by a Dutch married to a Filipina, with 2 kids, making a litany of the supposed stupidity or idiocy of Filipinos in general.  There was also this statement by Fermi Wong, founder of Unison HongKong, where she said – “Filipino maids have a very low status in our city”. Then there is this article from a certain Daniel Wagner of Huffington Post, wherein he said he sees nothing good in our country’s future.
 
Clearly, the hostage crisis has spawned another crisis – a crisis of faith in the Filipino, one that exists in the minds of a significant number of Filipinos and some quarters in the world.
 
It is important for us Filipinos to take stock of ourselves as a people – of who we truly are as a people. It is important that we remind ourselves who the Filipino really is, before our young children believe all this negativity that they hear and read about the Filipino.
 
We have to protect and defend the Filipino in each one of us.
 
The August 23 hostage fiasco is now part of us as Filipinos, it being part now of our country’s and world’s history. But that is not all that there is to the Filipino. Yes, we accept it as a failure on our part, a disappointment to HongKong , China and to the whole world.
 
But there is so much more about the Filipino.
 
In 1945, at the end of World War II, Hitler and his Nazi had killed more than 6 million Jews in Europe . But in 1939, when the Jews and their families were fleeing Europe at a time when several countries refused to open their doors to them, our Philippines did the highly risky and the unlikely –thru President Manuel L Quezon, we opened our country’s doors and our nation’s heart to the fleeing and persecuted Jews. Eventually, some 1,200 Jews and their families made it to Manila . Last 21 June 2010, or 70 years later, the first ever monument honoring Quezon and the Filipino nation for this “open door policy” was inaugurated on Israeli soil, at the 65-hectare Holocaust Memorial Park in Rishon LeZion, Israel.
 
The Filipino heart is one of history’s biggest, one of the world’s rare jewels, and one of humanity’s greatest treasures.
 
In 2007, Baldomero M. Olivera, a Filipino, was chosen and awarded as the Scientist for the Year 2007 by Harvard University Foundation, for his work in neurotoxins which is produced by venomous cone snails commonly found in the tropical waters of Philippines . Olivera is a distinguished professor of biology at University of Utah , USA . The Scientist for the Year 2007 award was given to him in recognition to his outstanding contribution to science, particularly to molecular biology and groundbreaking work with conotoxins. The research conducted by Olivera’s group became the basis for the production of commercial drug called Prialt (generic name – Ziconotide), which is considered more effective than morphine and does not result in addiction.
The Filipino mind is one of the world’s best, one of humanity’s great assets.
 
The Filipino is capable of greatness, of making great sacrifices for the greater good of the least of our people. Josette Biyo is an example of this. Biyo has masteral and doctoral degress from one of the top universities in the Philippines – the De La Salle University (Taft, Manila ) – where she used to teach rich college students and was paid well for it. But Dr Biyo left all that and all the glamour of Manila , and chose to teach in a far-away public school in a rural area in the province, receiving the salary of less than US$ 300 a month. When asked why she did that, she replied “but who will teach our children?” In recognition of the rarity of her kind, the world-famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States honoured Dr Biyo a very rare honor – by naming a small and new-discovered planet in our galaxy as “Biyo”.
 
The Filipino is one of humanity’s best examples on the greatness of human spirit!
 
Efren Penaflorida was born to a father who worked as a tricycle driver and a mother who worked as laundrywoman. Through sheer determination and the help of other people, Penaflorida finished college. In 1997, Penaflorida and his friends formed a group that made pushcarts (kariton) and loaded them with books, pens, crayons, blackboard, clothes, jugs of water, and a Philippine flag. Then he and his group would go to the public cemetery, market and garbage dump sites in Cavite City – to teach street children with reading, math, basic literacy skills and values, to save them from illegal drugs and prevent them from joining gangs. Penaflorida and his group have been doing this for more than a decade. Last year, Penaflorida was chosen and awarded as CNN Hero for 2009.
 
Efren Penaflorida is one of the great human beings alive today. And he is a Filipino!
 
Nestor Suplico is yet another example of the Filipino’s nobility of spirit. Suplico was a taxi driver In New York. On 17 July 2004, Suplico drove 43 miles from New York City to Connecticut , USA to return the US$80,000 worth of jewelry (rare black pearls) to his passenger who forgot it at the back seat of his taxi. When his passenger offered to give him a reward, Suplico even refused the reward. He just asked to be reimbursed for his taxi fuel for his travel to Connecticut . At the time, Suplico was just earning $80 a day as a taxi driver. What do you call that? That’s honesty in its purest sense. That is decency most sublime. And it occurred in New York , the Big Apple City , where all kinds of snakes and sinners abound, and a place where – according to American novelist Sydney Sheldon – angels no longer descend. No wonder all New York newspapers called him “ New York ’s Most Honest Taxi Driver”. The New York City Government also held a ceremony to officially acknowledge his noble deed. The Philippine Senate passed a Resolution for giving honors to the Filipino people and our country.
 
In Singapore , Filipina Marites Perez-Galam, 33, a mother of four, found a wallet in a public toilet near the restaurant where she works as the head waitress found a wallet containing 16,000 Singaporean dollars (US $11,000). Maritess immediately handed the wallet to the restaurant manager of Imperial Herbal restaurant where she worked located in Vivo City Mall. The manager in turn reported the lost money to the mall’s management. It took the Indonesian woman less than two hours to claim her lost wallet intended for her son’s ear surgery that she and her husband saved for the medical treatment. Maritess refused the reward offered by the grateful owner and said it was the right thing to do.
 
The Filipina, in features and physical beauty, is one of the world’s most beautiful creatures! Look at this list – Gemma Cruz became the first Filipina to win Miss International in 1964; Gloria Diaz won as Miss Universe in 1969; Aurora Pijuan won Miss International in 1970; Margie Moran won Miss Universe in 1973; Evangeline Pascual was 1^st runner up in Miss World 1974; Melanie Marquez was Miss International in 1979; Ruffa Gutierrez was 2^nd runner up in Miss World 1993; Charlene Gonzalez was Miss Universe finalist in 1994; Mirriam Quiambao was Miss Universe 1^st runner up in 1999; and last week, Venus Raj was 4^th runner up in Miss Universe pageant.
 
I can cite more great Filipinos like Ramon Magsaysay, Ninoy Aquino, Leah Salonga, Manny Pacquaio, Paeng Nepomuceno, Tony Meloto, Joey Velasco, Juan Luna and Jose Rizal. For truly, there are many more great Filipinos who define who we are as a people and as a nation – each one of them is part of each one of us, for they are Filipinos like us, for they are part of our history as a people.
 
What we see and hear of the Filipino today is not all that there is about the Filipino. I believe that the Filipino is higher and greater than all these that we see and hear about the Filipino. God has beautiful story for us as a people. And the story that we see today is but a fleeting portion of that beautiful story that is yet to fully unfold before the eyes of our world.
 
So let’s rise as one people. Let’s pick up the pieces. Let’s ask for understanding and forgiveness for our failure. Let us also ask for space and time to correct our mistakes, so we can improve our system.
 
To all of you my fellow Filipinos, let’s keep on building the Filipino great and respectable in the eyes of our world – one story, two stories, three stories at a time – by your story, by my story, by your child’s story, by your story of excellence at work, by another Filipino’s honesty in dealing with others, by another Pinoy’s example of extreme sacrifice, by the faith in God we Filipinos are known for.
 
Every Filipino, wherever he or she maybe in the world today, is part of the solution. Each one of us is part of the answer. Every one of us is part of the hope we seek for our country. The Filipino will not become a world-class citizen unless we are able to build a world-class homeland in our Philippines .
 
We are a beautiful people. Let no one in the world take that beauty away from you. Let no one in the world take away that beauty away from any of your children! We just have to learn – very soon – to build a beautiful country for ourselves, with an honest and competent government in our midst.
 
Mga kababayan, after reading this, I ask you to do two things.
 
First, defend and protect the Filipino whenever you can, especially among your children. Fight all this negativity about the Filipino that is circulating in many parts of the world. Let us not allow this single incident define who the Filipino is, and who we are as a people. And second, demand for good leadership and good government from our leaders. Question both their actions and inaction; expose the follies of their policies and decisions. The only way we can perfect our system is by engaging it. The only way we can solve our problem, is by facing it, head on.
 
We are all builders of the beauty and greatness of the Filipino. We are the architects of our nation’s success.
 
To all the people of HK and China , especially the relatives of the victims, my family and I deeply mourn with the loss of your loved ones. Every life is precious. My family and I humbly ask for your understanding and forgiveness.
 
END