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Archives For earthquake
On shaky ground
Mennonite Central Committee survives 'major shift' in CIDA donation-matching program, only to suffer serious shortfall in long-term funding by same device
When the massive earthquake hit Haiti in 2010, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) was one of the fortunate non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to receive money for its relief work from the government fund set up to match donations from Canadians, but by then the ground beneath Canadian NGOs had already shifted.
MCC received $2.1 million for relief and development projects in Haiti, but now what fellow church aid organizations have called a "major shift" in the donation-matching program run by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) is also responsible for the denial of nearly $9 million in funding for MCC projects over the next three years that was announced in early February.
Read more: http://www.canadianmennonite.org/articles/shaky-ground
In Archive, Politics	Anglican Church, CIDA, earthquake, foreign aid, Haiti, international development, Mennonite Central Committee, PWRDF, Stephen Brown
Central Canada gets a lesson in seismology from Mother Nature herself
An earthquake in China, Haiti, or Chile, though tragic, seems far from home and difficult to imagine, even given the flood of multimedia that came from each of these disaster areas earlier this year. On June 24, it all became frighteningly clear for residents of Quebec and Ontario.
"I was in the kitchen. I was having a late breakfast," says Albin Dzurnak, resident of Ottawa who experienced his first-ever seismic event in June when a magnitude 5.0 earthquake hit the region, with an epicentre near the Ontario-Quebec border about 60 km north of Ottawa.
"It was kind of strange, things were shaking, so I figured, well, this is not normal so it must be an earthquake," says Dzurnak.
While media reports often focus on the magnitude figure of an earthquake to communicate its strength, the shaking is the first thing one feels. And this is also central for engineers. "From the engineering point of view, the magnitude of the earthquake is not the controlling parameter and becomes almost irrelevant information," says Carlos Ventura, professor of civil engineering at the University of British Columbia.
"What is important is how far from the epicentre or from the rupture zone a building is located and the severity of the shaking at that location," says Ventura. "For example, the level of shaking experienced by the [8.8 magnitude] earthquake in Santiago, Chile [this year] is very similar to that experienced [there] in 1985, which was 7.8-magnitude.
Earthquake magnitude is a measure of the energy released by the seismic event, but the amount of shaking this creates in a given location depends on many factors, says Professor John Clague, Canada Research Chair in Natural Hazards Research at Simon Fraser University.
The ShakeMap and location map for the June 24, 2010, 5.2-magnitude, central Canada earthquake (depth: 16 km)
The severity of shaking depends on the distance from the epicentre, its depth, and other factors. Around the recent earthquake, "The crust is not as highly faulted and broken up, it's less heterogeneous," says Clague. "You're right in the middle of a plate, the North America plate."
"You're not in an area where the crust is overly thickened, where it's [not] particularly hot, and that allows seismic waves to propagate with less attenuation, less loss of energy over larger distances," says Clague, which is why the central Canada quake was felt as far as New York City. "On the west coast, an earthquake like [that] would not be terribly remarkable."
Most people have heard of the Richter scale for measuring the size of an earthquake, but in fact, the popularized scale, which originally applied mainly to California's seismic landscape, has long been supplanted by the more accurate moment magnitude scale.
"If you're to think of a fault as being the slipping of two surfaces, one against the other, the moment magnitude is the product of the area of the whole fault, times how far it slips, times how strong the rock was that it broke," says professor and seismologist Olivia Jensen of McGill University. "The stronger the rock was that it broke, the stronger the earthquake."
"For big events the numbers would be pretty much the same as Richter numbers," says Jensen.
Summing up his feelings on his first earthquake experience with tongue slightly in cheek, Dzurnak says, "I was happy about the earthquake and I wish there were more of those so that people are reminded that, 'hey this is Mother Nature talking to you,' and you have to deal with it. You either deal with it or you die, that's how it works."
Sound: Listen to Professor John Clague to find out how a train can end up beside its track instead of on it and how man-made reservoirs and oil exploration can make earthquakes more likely:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1RP4YYoNo0]
In Montreal, Science	Carlos Ventura, Chile, earthquake, John Clague, moment magnitude, Olivia Jensen
Why can't we be compadres?
My grandpa says this is the best country in the world. In spite of the politics, the poverty and the seismic and volcanic disruptions, Chile's excellent climate, its natural beauty, its diverse landscapes and its bountiful food production make the country a wonderful place to live. He also says that it's the country of the compadres. In generations past, I'm told, the compadre was a good friend, perhaps a relative. A compadre was also something of a godfather figure who looked out for his own and could be counted on to help one get into a good position. Today, the compadre can be thought of as a well-placed buddy or a good connection. But in either case, what remains true is that compadres look out for compadres.
In practical terms what this means is that elites on the political scene are difficult to distinguish from elites in the economic world and that interests in both arenas often run parallel. Consequently, legislation at the political level that runs counter to the interests of the empresarios (entrepreneurs/business owners) is often a great challenge to push through. The other meaning is that if you're not a compadre or if you don't know one, it may be tough to make it. In fact, it's a general sentiment among average Chileans that this is far from the land of opportunity, and that unless you have a certain last name or a fortunate connection (which some call a pituto), you aren't likely to do very well.
The compadres of generations past (see if you can pick out my grandpa)
In a country of 16.6 million people spread over 4300 km from north to south, it's a small elite who hold the wealth of the nation, in addition to foreign companies that have been allowed access through trade agreements and large scale privatization. This distribution was made evident during the recent humanitarian effort to raise money for the victims of the massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake that battered much of central and southern Chile. A telethon was organized days after the disaster, which brought in incredible donations from certain companies and certain families. The donations were so large as to take the average Chilean aback and revealed in no uncertain way the true sources of wealth in the country.
But beyond the peso, in Chile trust is the currency highly valued and not easily come by. And this plays into the culture of the compadre, such that merit may simply not be enough to get you that sought-after job. What has many in the country frustrated is that at the same time, education continues to be a high priority and more and more are being prepared at the highest levels (and at very high personal cost), with an apparent void of opportunities, especially merit-based ones.
However, it is not merely merit-based opportunities that appear to be lacking, but also important information about the shortfalls in Chile's labour market to inform all those would-be universitarios in whose interest it might be to know what sectors of the economy are in need of qualified people (like this — Human Resources and Skills Development Canada's under-appreciated and perhaps little known labour market information bank). Let the market allocate people to where there is a need, some may say, and this seems to be the theory behind the excess of post-secondary institutions in Santiago, Chile's capital and bastion of progress. The institutions seem to say, the market will find a place for our graduates, so let's pump out as many as are willing to pay. And make no mistake, there is a market for higher education: enter Santiago's 40 universities, the majority of which are private, not to mention the professional institutes and training centres.
But what lies on the other side — a flood of graduates of varying quality in a given field and an unknown job market — is what provokes the disquiet which invariably comes up in conversation with people from the lower and middle classes in any part of the country I've visited. Without a compadre (and badly needed reforms), an education may not carry the expected value and so when speaking with an outsider-Chileno like me, I find that many people have uncles, nieces, cousins or children who have lost the chance to leave or have left Chile in search of greater education and the opportunities that may follow, much as my own parents did in 1981.
In Uncategorized	Chile, Chile Ayuda a Chile telethon, compadre, earthquake, education, HRSDC, labour market, market economy, university
Earthquake Redux
The sound of a seismic event is unmistakable. I realize the earthquake has been a recurring theme of this blog, but read on and you'll realize why.
On the scale of an individual human, the vibration is global, all encompassing. Everything one can feel, see, touch, and hear is at first vibrating, then shaking, then convulsing, and then ceasing, on a dime. The occurrence here has become incessantly intermittent, to the point of paranoia. It shakes often enough to make one think it is when it isn't (perhaps when a bus passes nearby), but with enough unpredictability to produce a schizophrenia that leaves an entire population with frayed nerves and on edge.
Case in point: on the night of April 4th, I was in Santiago staying at my tia Loreto's house. Sleeping arrangements had been made to accommodate me along with my three cousins, and just after 11 the lights were off and the eyelids gained weight. The first images of sleep had begun to appear when came the vibrations. At once, eyes open, adrenaline awakened. One expects it to pass, so staying in bed is the norm. It vibrates, then it begins to shake, sound emanates from everything. Soon we feel it begin to subside, we can exhale, but suddenly it gains strength and in an instant, BOOM, we feel the shock portion of the aftershock.
Some of the damages to the 19th century adobe brick Urbina family house in Santiago, Chile (not the one from my story)
The house seems to jump, perhaps like a house in a neighbourhood being bombed might, and we all equally jump out of bed and into the hall. As aftershocks go, it was minor (4.4 magnitude), but the proximity made it seem ominous, with an epicentre a mere 35 km away from Santiago. Catalina, the youngest of my cousins, complains that she was just falling asleep, while my aunt climbs the stairs to check on us and exclaim that it's enough already. The sentiment is popular. And it doesn't seem much to ask in a country that was hammered by an 8.8 magnitude earthquake and that has been suffering hundreds of aftershocks, including one in mid-March of magnitude 7.3 (0.3 degrees stronger than the quake that struck Haiti).
The feeling, and above all the sound, brings on fear, perhaps panic and a realization of helplessness before the cycles of the planet. These were my first days back from the north of Chile where, unfortunately, we can expect a large seismic event to hit in the comings months, if what we hear is right.
In Uncategorized	Chile, earthquake, psychological effects, sound
Quakin' all over
Since I arrived in Chile and especially since I got to Isla Negra on the central coast, I've been surrounded by sounds. I arrived in Chile on March 7th, one week later than scheduled. My flight had been postponed due to the movement of the Earth's crust, no less. In the early morning of February 27th, Chile suffered a massive earthquake which surged to 8.8 on the Richter scale, many times stronger than the seismic tragedy that struck the people of Haiti in January.
Reports, both personal and official, cite that the ground in central and southern Chile shook for about 2 minutes. When one considers this quickly, two minutes does not seem very long. Years ago, I might have been guilty of thinking a similar thought. When I last visited my family in Chile, no less than 3 tremors sent waves through this part of the planet. Two were very short, maybe 5 or 6 seconds. One, however, lasted longer and shook the ground in waves that moved my chair from side to side seemingly without end. In truth, the "sismo" probably lasted 10 or 15 seconds. But now I know what it is to feel that an earthquake is never-ending.
What I didn't remember from last time, but what my grandpa and my Uncle Ignacio made sure I knew about, was the sound, which brings out the true sense of what it means to live through an earthquake. The amount of noise was incredible, they explained, which is only natural when you consider that every last object, the building you sit in, and everything that surrounds you begins to vibrate with telluric force.
Television in Chile has been broadcasting videos from up and down the country, eye witnesses to the strength of the quake and the panic it incited. And within 4 days of arriving in Chile, we'd already felt 3 or 4 tremors, ripples of the original giant.
On March 11th, I heard the sound again: the slow and sinuous rumble that made people in the region think that a second earthquake was underway. A 7.2 on the Richter scale caused many to believe the aftershock was much more. I've thought, at times, about what exactly would be the most compromising position to be in when an earthquake hits. On the 11th I believe I was in it: on the toilet.
the worst place to be when an earthquake hits (where I was)
As I sat there and spoke to my dad through the door, I felt relieved, knowing at least that I was pretty well done my work and could pull up my pants and jump outside without major incident. Though the seismic event lasted maybe 20 seconds, I had no clear indication that it was not the beginning of the worst circumstance, but only the rumbling sound and the temporary movement of my throne room.
In Uncategorized	Chile, earthquake, Isla Negra, Richter scale, sound, travel


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Inside Ubisoft
Start-up Programs
Working at Ubisoft
Interns & Graduates
How We Make Games
Positive Impacts of Gaming
Family & Gaming
More Than Games
Parks & Experiences
Live-Action Assassin's Creed Series Coming to Netflix
A brand-new, live-action Assassin's Creed series is coming to Netflix. The deal includes multiple different series, the first of which will be a genre-bending live-action epic, while the others will be animated and anime adaptations. The live action series is currently searching for a showrunner. Ubisoft Film & Television's Jason Altman and Danielle Kreinik will serve as executive producers. "For more than 10 years, millions of fans around the world have helped shape the Assassin's Creed brand into an iconic franchise," said Jason Altman, Head of Ubisoft Film & Television - Los Angeles. "We're thrilled to create an Assassin's Creed series with Netflix, and we look forward to developing the next saga in the Assassin's Creed universe."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Third Party and Independent Daily: How Not to Elect A President!
How Not to Elect A President!
I post selections from the perennial MN politician Eugene McCarthy's No Fault Politics that gives his informed perspective on how the Electoral College was not permitted to work in the way originally intended by the writers of the US Constitution. This is what helped to inspire my own ideas about how we could revamp the Electoral College to be the second stage of a two stage election.


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Centaurs Need Not Apply.
Us and Them: The Fatal Divisions of Exploitative C...
Everyone Owns The Water.
Blowback.
Nothing To Them: Tim Keating Hits Back at "Hit & R...
Not Being Venezuela: The Political Logic Of The La...
New Zealand's First "Revenge Raid" – Surafend, Pal...
This Is What Real Journalism Looks Like!
John Key's Legacy - A Protected Status Quo.
The Maori King's Over-Mighty Subject.
New Zealand's "Non-Negotiable" Mythology: Deconstr...
Divergent Generations.
Why is the Neoliberal Establishment so Pissed-Off ...
The Superannuation Crisis Nobody's Talking About.
A Gut Feeling.
Abandoning Key's Pledge: An Act Of Astonishing Pol...
Rebooting The Red Menace.
Fortune's Favourite: The Rise And Rise Of Jacinda ...
New Zealand's First "Revenge Raid" – Surafend, Palestine, 1918.
Troopers of the NZ Machine Gun Squadron, NZ Mounted Rifles Brigade, Palestine, 1918.
The shocking events described by Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson in Hit and Run: The New Zealand SAS in Afghanistan and the Meaning of Honour are not without precedent in the history of New Zealand's military engagements overseas. In the tiny Palestinian village of Surafend, in the final days of 1918, New Zealand troops participated in what was indisputably a serious war crime. The parallels with the SAS "Revenge Raid" of August 2010 are striking. The Surafend Massacre was also sparked by the killing of a New Zealand soldier. It, too, was a murderous "fiasco", the details of which were kept from the New Zealand public for many years. This, as best as I can determine, is what happened.
THE WAR WAS OVER. At the eleventh hour, on the eleventh day, of the eleventh month 1918, the fighting ceased. For the men of the New Zealand Machine Gun Squadron, and all the other troopers of the New Zealand Mounted Rifle Brigade encamped among the barren sandhills of central Palestine, that single fact was all that mattered.
But, as the weeks passed, the war's end, while obviously a source of immense relief, had also become the cause of intense frustration. Now that their job was done; now that the killing had stopped; now that they had survived; all these men wanted to do was go home.
WHEN Trooper Leslie Lowry pulled his kit-bag under his head on the night of 9 December 1918 it was to home that his thoughts inevitably wandered. Wrapped in his blanket to ward off the late autumn chill, he lay motionless beneath the low canvass ceiling of his tent thinking of New Zealand until, lulled by the companionable snorting of the tethered horses, he drifted off to sleep.
An hour later he awoke with a start to feel his kit-bag/pillow being unceremoniously yanked from under his head. He scrambled out of the tent, stumbling in the sand as he pulled on his trousers, and shouting at the top of his voice to the men on sentry duty:
"Stop him! Stop that little bastard – he's stolen my kit-bag!"
The thief was clearly visible in the moonlight, weaving in and out of the thorn bushes that dotted the sandhills.
Trooper Lowry had always been a good runner and he proved it now by sprinting after his quarry like a huntaway. Within seconds he'd caught up with the man who'd stolen his property.
"You give that back – you thieving little swine!"
For a moment the New Zealander and the Palestinian faced each other, breathing heavily. In the distance both of them could hear the shouts of the alerted sentries and the alarmed whinnying of the horses.
"Come on mate," said Lowry, speaking in what he hoped was a more reasonable tone, "you're not going anywhere. Hand it over."
The Palestinian said nothing. Instead, he reached into the folds of his caftan and pulled out a heavy Webly revolver, retrieved six months earlier from the corpse of a British officer. Pointing it at the New Zealander's chest – he fired.
Lowry sank slowly to his knees, hands fluttering uselessly as blood spouted from the neat little hole in his chest, pouring out through his fingers and down over his bare stomach. Without a word he toppled over onto his side, an awkward, quivering bundle in the cold sand.
The Palestinian turned and ran off into the darkness.
THE news of trooper Lowry's death spread rapidly – and its effect was devastating. For a man to have come through everything the NZ Mounted Rifles had endured, only to be murdered by an Arab thief just weeks before sailing for home, was almost too much for his comrades to bear.
"He was unarmed for Christ's sake! The thief must have seen that. What kind of man calmly shoots an unarmed man, at point-blank range, for the sake of a bloody kit-bag?"
"We're not going to take this lying down – I don't care what the Heads say. This is too bloody much. Come on you blokes, it should be easy enough to track the bastard through all this sand. Look! – there are his footprints!
"You three, go back and round up the rest of the Squadron – and see if you can get some of the Aussies from the Light Horse to join us. We're going to track this murdering bastard back to the hole he came from and cork it up tight. Make sure he's still there in the morning when the Red-Caps arrive."
The thief's footprints led the New Zealanders and their Australian allies across the sand to the nearby Palestinian village of Surafend. Within the hour they had set up a tight military cordon around the cluster of stone houses: no one was permitted to enter or leave.
THE morning light came slanting down into the village of Surafend and illuminated the faces of the New Zealand and Australian troopers encircling it. But the rising sun brought no Military Police. Indeed, having being informed of the murder of Trooper Lowry and the situation at Surafend by the Australian and New Zealand Divisional Commander, Major-General Edward Chaytor, General Headquarters had peremptorily ordered the cordon lifted. There would be no official investigation, no Red Caps, no arrests. By the afternoon of 10 December all the troopers who had surrounded Surafend were back behind their tent-lines, allowing a steady stream of Palestinian men to make their way out of the village without hindrance.
Trooper Lowry's comrades were furious.
"I don't believe this – I simply don't believe this! How can the bloody British just sit there, knowing that a soldier of the Empire has been murdered, and do nothing about it?"
"You know the Heads. There'll be some behind-the-scenes skulduggery between the British and that Arab king Lawrence has been squiring around. The last thing they want is any 'unpleasantness' – nothing to upset the 'delicate diplomacy' between His Majesty's Government and the leaders of the Arab tribes. What's one Kiwi digger's life compared to 'the future of the Middle East?'"
"It's just like that bloody fiasco at Ain Es Sir – remember? When our lot were sent back to help the Circassians and the ungrateful little bastards ambushed us. Nobody did anything about the men they killed there either."
"Well that's not going to happen this time. I've been talking to the men. They're ready to do something on their own. And there's a swag of blokes in the Light Horse who'll join us. The Aussies are as sick of this turning a blind eye to theft and murder as we are. I hear there's even a few Brits willing to do their bit."
"Do what?"
"We're going to pay the village of Surafend a little visit. And if they refuse to hand over the bastard who shot Les, we'll administer some justice of our own – ANZAC-style."
THERE was fear in the eyes of the women, children and old men of Surafend as they were assembled in front of the village well. These strange men from distant lands said little, but their gestures were clear enough. Holding the pick-axe handles they were carrying with both hands, they pushed and prodded the little huddle in the direction they wanted them to travel – out of the village and up into the sandhills. One of the old men pleaded with his grim shepherds.
"We are friends," he cried in heavily accented English, "friends of the British."
"You may be friends of the British," hissed one of the troopers, pushing the old man back into the huddle, "but you're no friends of ours."
"Keep them well back!" Someone shouted. "Well back."
From the crest of the big sandhill overlooking Surafend, the little huddle watched as around 200 troopers closed in on their homes. In addition to pick-axe handles, the New Zealanders and Australians were armed with the heavy, canvass-sheathed chains used to haul supply wagons and field guns. They were eerily silent, and the expressions their faces wore were hard – very hard.
"We want the man who shot Trooper Leslie Lowry." The leader of the troopers was speaking slowly and very clearly to the village headman. "We tracked him to this village. If he's not here, we want to know where we can find him. Lead us to him, now, and nothing will happen to you and your people. Refuse, and …." The trooper cast a meaningful glance at the mute formation drawn up behind him."
The Palestinian looked into the eyes of the New Zealander standing before him. Neither man moved a muscle. Then, drawing himself up to his full height, the headman leaned forward to within a few inches of the New Zealander's face, and speaking in a clear voice so all the men of his village could hear, he said:
"Get your infidel dogs out of my village!"
And spat in the trooper's face.
A roar, deep and guttural, leapt from the throats of all the men present, and both sides lunged towards the other. The troopers swung their pick-axe handles high and brought them down with deadly force. The heavy chains hissed and whistled. The air was filled with the sickening sound of wood and metal connecting with human bone and tissue. Men screamed, fell, and lay still, but still the Palestinians continued to hurl themselves upon the troopers.
"Allahu Akbar! They cried. "God is Great!"
"Get them! Get the bastards!" Shouted the troopers.
From a distance it was all-too-clear how the fight would end. The villagers were outnumbered and the troopers superior training and discipline easily overcame their furious resistance. Slowly, methodically, the New Zealanders and the Australians beat and beat and beat. The pick-axe handles rising and falling like some vast threshing machine.
Soon the village was ablaze. The contents of the stone-walled houses burned fiercely, bathing the whole scene in a lurid glow. As their men fell, the women up on the sandhill began a high keening. The children, seeing the fathers and brothers being beaten to death, sobbed uncontrollably.
By the time the troopers tired of their grim sport, thirty Palestinian men lay dead or wounded on the bloody sand. As the rising wind swirled the smoke and cinders into the night sky, the New Zealanders and Australians formed up in ranks and, without a backward glance, marched out into the darkness of the sandhills.
The village of Surafend had ceased to exist.
NO New Zealand or Australian soldier was ever charged as a result of the Surafend Massacre. The British High Command was furious at what could only be considered a diplomatic disaster in terms of the British Empire's relations with the Arab peoples.
The borders of the Middle East were in the process of being redrawn, and the gentlemen at the Foreign and Colonial Office in London were determined that this process should not rebound to the Empire's disadvantage.
There can be little doubt that the military authorities would very much have liked to punish the ringleaders, but the troopers and the junior officers of the NZ Mounted Rifles and the Australian Light Horse closed ranks against all investigation.
In the end it was left to the British Commander-in-Chief, Major-General Edmund Allenby, to state the views of His Majesty's Egyptian Expeditionary Force. Forming the ANZAC's into a hollow square he unleashed a tongue-lashing the like of which no British or Empire troops had heard for many, many years:
"I was proud of you as brave soldiers but now I am ashamed of you as cold-blooded murderers."
This outburst aroused such mutinous resentment among the New Zealand and Australian troops that Allenby was soon forced to retract his words.
It was a necessary concession because with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the US President, Woodrow Wilson's, promise of "self-determination" for the world's subject peoples, the British soon had their hands full keeping the Arab population of the region from breaking out into full scale rebellion. In this task the brutal reputation of the Australian and New Zealand troopers rode before them, striking fear into the hearts of the Arab population wherever they appeared.
UNFORTUNATELY, there was no Nicky Hager, no Jon Stephenson, to write an exhaustive account of the Surafend tragedy for the New Zealand public of 1918. Bill Massey's deeply authoritarian government, having expended the blood of thousands of young New Zealanders in the cause of Britain's empire, was not about to sanction a full and independent investigation into a war crime perpetrated by his own troops. As far as Massey's stridently imperialistic government was concerned, the "boys" of the New Zealand Mounted Rifle Brigade were heroes – blameless heroes.
The closest "official" New Zealand ever came to acknowledging the Surafend Massacre was in the bare summary of the event written by, Lieutenant-Colonel C. Guy Powles, author of The New Zealanders in Sinai and Palestine, the third volume of the Official History of New Zealand's Effort in the Great War, published by the New Zealand Government in 1922.
Of the bloody evening of 10 December 1918, Powles writes:
"While the brigade was camped in the vicinity of Richon le Zion a disturbance occurred in the divisional area following the murder of a New Zealander, during which a village and an Arab camp were burned and some 30 Arabs killed and injured ….. It appears that the murdered man's comrades, feeling aggrieved that the murderer was not immediately brought to book, went to the village and demanded his surrender. They were met by an insolent answer from the head man of the village so they determined to find him and the searching of the houses led to a collision with the natives which resulted in a riot."
Powles also notes, drily: "[A]t the [subsequent] inquiry it was found impossible to get any evidence as to who took part in the disturbance."
Then, as now, the New Zealand military authorities preferred to bury their mistakes beneath a crushing mountain of official silence.
This essay was originally posted on The Daily Blog of Wednesday, 22 March 2017.
Labels: Hit and Run: The New Zealand SAS in Afghanistan and the meaning of honour, Jon Stephenson, New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade, Nicky Hager, Palestine, Surafend Massacre, Trooper Leslie Lowry, World War I
Glenn Webster said...
Tell me Sir,
What reaction would you recommend to the murder of a man?
What a spurious question, and truncated:
The point is Mr webster - how does a soldier and the controllers of such fighting force conduct a hostile campaign against a person or persons with intent to restrain, commit violence against them personally, and damage their possessions and land, and maim them and their helpers and the equipment and buildings that enable them to live, or kill them outright or hurt them and leave them to die - after consideration of those behaviours from which most people of goodwill and ethics recoil, do the attacked people respond?
Do they not recoil also, then feel anger and if one of them kills one of the invading force intent upon destroying and damaging, are the invaders not man enough to accept there will be casualties on their side, no retaliation of some sort? Do the invaders not accept that they are behaving in an ungentlemanly way, as denoted in the best books of etiquett.
Galeandra said...
Where's Wayne?
I have seen somewhere that the soldiers were already fed up with continual thieving from the villagers when the murder happened. They had very happy relationships with the Jewish settlers in Richon Le Zion.
I believe that Australians in wars are very good at thieving from the people in whose country they are fighting. Of course NZs would never yield to that temptation even if they were hungry and stressed./sarc
I wonder why Palestinians would go against the proper rules of war and occupation and do such underhand things as stealing, pilfering, thieving etc? What lunatic responses are arising Chris to your detailed tale of another war story carried out for spurious reasons against people largely helpless against aggression.
The problem is that we are no more able to help ourselves than the Palestinians if it suits some large conglomerate to occupy us for gain of resources or location. Oh hell, we are experiencing that already without the costly damaging effects of armaments and skirmishes. Never mind we will keep on looking and honouring 1915 and WW1 and the noble sacrifices of ordinary men and women holding the invaders at bay and never notice how they have adopted guerilla tactics and tunnelled under our simple defences in NZ with the help of our own Vichy government.
"I have seen somewhere that the soldiers were already fed up with continual thieving from the villagers when the murder happened."
Oh – that makes it all right then.
My father, and several of my friends' fathers served in the Middle East in World War II. They seem to have to some extent mitigated their response to theft a little, because they realised that the people were dirt poor. Although they sometimes seem to have played quite nasty tricks on the thieves they tended to handle it with humour rather than violence. Not a huge statistical sample I will admit though. One story my dad used to tell was of shoeshine kids in Egypt, who if you refused to let them shine your shoes Would flick a dollop of liquid black polish all over your dress whites. So they used to carry around a pocket full of loose change in small denominations, which they would throw in one direction and run in the other to escape. Which by the standards of the day was probably quite enlightened. It's quite possible that violence was done, but not at all on this scale.


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Make Social Media Work for Your Salon
Salon owners share their how-tos for navigating the ins and outs of Facebook, Twitter, Yelp and more.
When it comes to social media, if your salon is still not in, your business is missing out. That's the overwhelming message of salon owners who have jumped on board in the last several years. "Social media is a must for any business. It's about being able to connect to clients and potential clients," says Beth Lugtu, owner of Textura Salon in Vancouver. "People want instant. A business on social media can fulfill that want. An example would be a person tweeting out, looking for a new salon. We tweet back, 'We'd love to wow you, call us.' An hour later, a new client walks in the door. That is instant gratification; she found a new salon, we gained a client."
Pros: "A video of your business adds personality. It gives clients a peek at who you are and what you do," says Lugtu. "It can be like a video newsletter, informing clients what you're doing and where you're going."
Pitfalls: Making videos can be a lengthy process. For the salon, filming video takes about four hours and editing takes between two and four hours, depending on the amount of footage.
Top Tip: "Social media is another tool for businesses to get their brand message and their name out there. And it is instant," says Lugtu. "With millions of people on social media platforms, it just made sense for our business to be on there as well." After launching a website and joining Facebook, Twitter, Yelp and Google Plus, YouTube has become the next stop for the salon. "Referrals are the lifeblood of our industry," says Lugtu." So when a client tells someone to check out Textura Salon and that person can not only read about us on the website, see pictures on Facebook, follow our tweets, but can also see a video of us in action, that has a larger impact than just reading a review.
Pros: Flexibility on what you can post. A more personal connection with clients.
Pitfalls: "So many people end up spamming fans with deals," says Eric Ducoff, vice-president of Strategies, a salon business consulting company. "They're not sharing any of their culture—pictures of the fun stuff you do, behind the scenes at the salon, stories of worst hair nightmares."
Top Tip: "Don't spread yourself too thin," says Ducoff. "It can become a full-time job. Facebook and Twitter reign supreme by amount of activity. Pinterest is fantastic because it's so visual. For any of these, if you get into it, make sure you can maintain it. If you don't stay involved and social, people lose interest."
Kezia Morrone has been with Mosaic Hair Salon in Toronto for eight years. Now the front-line manager, she is also the social media manager. "It's fun and rewarding to see how clients respond," says Morrone. She spends three hours a week on Facebook and Twitter, usually on Mondays when the salon is closed, planning out posts for the week. Then, for a half hour at the end of each day, she checks the accounts and responds to comments. "It gives us the opportunity to listen to what clients need and what works for them," she says. "It extends your market reach and lets you establish and maintain relationships with your clients." They've done that by creating a weekly schedule that offers promotions on Mondays, tips and tricks on Tuesdays, hair facts on Wednesdays, trends on Thursdays and product knowledge on Fridays, often with special deals. "It creates a unique experience, and you can promote your brand differently," she says.
Pros: It's a great way for clients to find your salon and be enticed to make an appointment after reading reviews from your current clients.
Pitfalls: Negative reviews may be left as well, leaving you to delicately handle a tricky situation.
Top Tip: "Yelp can be double-edged sword," says Ducoff. "The best thing to do is apologize and offer to do what you can to make it better. Post it publicly and ask them to contact you directly to discuss a solution. You should do that across any of the platforms. Respond with a cool head and as evenly as you can to make it right. It's only going to help your reputation."
Every six months social media doubles in influence, according to Robert Barbosa of Salon Escape in Toronto. This is why it's become essential for his business, which has a presence across multiple platforms. Yelp, however, has become one of the salon's biggest drivers. He estimates 45 per cent of new clientele can be attributed to online efforts—of that, 70 per cent come to them through Yelp. That's followed by Google optimization, Facebook and Twitter. The role Yelp plays cannot be overstated, especially as traditional referral programs falter and new client retention falls. "New client retention is at 25 per cent, when not long ago it was 60 per cent," he says. "Loyalty is almost obsolete, and clients go wherever they want to and wait till the last minute to book."
Pros: Fast and easy; 140 characters or less. Good way to show off photos, too.
Pitfalls: Short tweets limit the amount of information you can relay to clients. A fast-moving timeline means your tweets might get buried quickly.
Top Tip: "Stay involved in it. Don't start something and disappear. If you're going to post once or twice a week, do it," says Leeanne Colley, owner of Tips Nail Bar in Toronto. "If you're not posting information that's interesting, they'll stop following you."
Colley leapt into Twitter two years ago and hasn't looked back. "It created a really big buzz for us," she says. "It increased our business and traffic 15 to 20 per cent. I wish I hadn't waited so long." Colley has since started Facebook and Instagram accounts, plus, all nail techs have their own accounts. Facebook hasn't been as successful for them as Twitter, though. "Facebook can be a little personal. Twitter is so quick; it's an easy way to connect," says Colley. Her advice is to jump in, but start with one platform. "The easiest way is to watch what other people are doing," says Colley. "I asked people questions about what to tweet and how to attract a larger audience. It takes the edge off when you connect through social media. You almost feel like you know the person already."
While the four platforms in this story are leading the way for salon businesses in social media, there are plenty of others you can use to connect as well. For the salon industry, the focus on visuals with Instagram and Pinterest seems like a natural fit. But you're also limited in the amount of information you can put out. For now, those might be better used in combination with a Facebook or Twitter account to help promote your business. If you go the Instagram or Pinterest route, get your entire staff on board and make sure they're posting their work, too. Staying active and providing your followers with fresh content is the name of the game.
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In addition to improving your appearance, slimming excess fat from your waist can also improve your health. Having too much fat around your middle increases your risk of sleep apnea, metabolic syndrome, heart disease, hypertension and various other medical conditions and diseases. Leading a healthy lifestyle that includes minimal stress, regular exercise and a healthy diet can help slim your waistline.
Increased stress levels might be to blame for excess abdominal fat, according to a November 2000 Yale University study led by Elissa S. Epel, Ph.D. Excess stress triggers an increased activity of cortisol in the body. This stress hormone distributes fat around the organs in the abdomen. Manage stress by getting enough sleep and practicing relaxation methods, such as yoga or meditation. Avoid smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol and don't take on more than you can handle.
Your waist is likely to expand if you eat more calories than you burn. There are 3,500 calories in 1 pound of fat. A daily deficit of 500 calories can make you lose this in one week. This might sound like a lot, but making healthier food choices and eating smaller portions can have a big impact. For instance, drink skim milk instead of whole milk, have fruit instead of ice cream for dessert, drink water instead of soda and eat from smaller plates.
Cardiovascular exercise can contribute to your caloric deficit. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest engaging in 30 minutes to one hour of cardio five days of the week. If it's more convenient, divide your workout into three 10- or 20-minute sessions over the day. Cardio can be anything from riding a bike and jogging to water aerobics or a game of doubles tennis. Exercise at an intensity that makes you sweat and breathe faster, but still allows you to converse.
Solely doing situps in the hopes of slimming your waist isn't effective, because spot reduction isn't possible. It'll strengthen your abdominal muscles, but won't touch that layer of fat that's covering them. Instead, take on a full body strength training routine on at least two days of the week, as recommended by the CDC. Focus on working your legs, arms, shoulders, back, chest and hips, in addition to your abs. Muscle mass burn more calories than fat and as you lose fat from your entire body, your belly fat will also reduce.


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(CHF) CHF
Version: 2 Revision Date: 10.25.2016
APC anti-mouse CD172a (SIRPα) Antibody
P84 (See other available formats)
SHPS-1, BIT, P84, PTPNS1, CD172 antigen-like family member A
C57BL/6 mouse bone marrow cells were stained with CD11b FITC and CD172a (clone P84) APC (top) or rat IgG1, κ APC isotype control (bottom). Data shown was gated on the myeloid cell population.
Compare all formats See APC spectral data
144013 25 µg 125,00 CHF
144014 100 µg 285,00 CHF
CD172a, also known as SIRPα, is a type I transmembrane protein with one V-set Ig-like and two C-set Ig-like domains in the extracellular portion, and two ITIM motifs and a proline-rich region in the cytoplasmic tail. CD172a is expressed by monocytes, macrophages, myeloid cells, and neuronal tissue. The phosphorylation of SIRPα ITIMs induces the recruitment and activation of the tyrosine phosphatases PTPN6 and PTPN11, resulting in the negative regulation of several biological processes. The ligands of CD172a are CD47, SP-A, and SP-D.
Mouse brain membrane protein
The antibody was purified by affinity chromatography and conjugated with APC under optimal conditions.
Additional reported applications (for the relevant formats) include: blocking SIRPa interaction with CD474, in vivo blocking of dendritic cell migration3, enhancing of macrophage phagocytosis2,4, immunohistochemical staining of cerebellum frozen sections1, and immunoprecipitation2,4.
Comu S, et al. 1997. J. Neurosci. 17:8702. (IHC)
Gresham HD, et al. 2000. J. Exp. Med. 191:515. (IP)
Fukunaga A, et al. 2004. J. Immunol. 172:4091. (Block)
Oldenborg PA, et al. 2000. Science 288:2051. (Block, IP)
Kim S, et al. 2020. Immunity. 53(4):759-774.e9. PubMed
Type I transmembrane protein
Monocytes, macrophages, myeloid cells, neuronal tissue
Negative regulation of several biological processes
PTPN6, PTPN11
CD47, SP-A, SP-D
Dendritic cells, Macrophages, Monocytes, Neutrophils
Cell Adhesion, Cell Biology, Immunology, Signal Transduction
Adhesion Molecules, CD Molecules, Protein Kinases/Phosphatase
1. Zhao XW, et al. 2011. P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 108:18342.
2. Verjan-Garcia N, et al. 2011. J. Immunol. 187:2268.
3. Sato-Hashimoto M, et al. 2011. J. Immunol. 187:291.
4. Raymond M, et al. 2010. Eur. J. Immunol. 40:3510.
View information about CD172a on UniProt.org
PE anti-mouse Siglec H
PerCP/Cyanine5.5 anti-mouse I-A/I-E
Clone: M5/114.15.2
PE/Cyanine7 anti-mouse CD24
Clone: M1/69
Alexa Fluor® 700 anti-mouse I-A/I-E
Go To Top Version: 2 Revision Date: 10.25.2016


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Obituaries » E. Chris Wrightsman
E. Chris Wrightsman
E. Chris Wrightsman, 88 of Lima, went home to be with her Lord and Savior on November 19, 2020, at Mercy Health – St. Rita's Medical Center.
Chris was born February 17, 1932 in Nashville, TN, to Thomas and Minnie (Dye) Sinor, who preceded her in death. On August 28, 1953, she married Roland Wrightsman, who preceded her in death on October 28, 2012.
Chris worked as a cashier at Shawnee Schools until her retirement in 1983; she then worked at K Mart until she retired in 1998. Chris loved to read and quilt. Later in life, she excelled in oil painting; all of her grandchildren have one of her paintings. Chris was a people person, especially when it came to her family. She was a wonderful mother and she adored her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Chris is survived by her daughters, Christine J. (Dana) Mathewson, Vicki L. (John) Malloy and Patti L. Camper; grandchildren, Nicole Timberman, Ashley Buckingham, Kayla Simms, Ryan Mathewson, Josh Camper, Ryan Malloy, Ron Malloy, Raymond Malloy and Karmi Holzaepfel and 20 great-grandchildren.
In addition to her parents and husband, she is preceded in death by her siblings, Earl P. Sinor, Robert M. Sinor, Samuel H. Sinor, Howard Sinor, George Sinor, Carl Sinor, Roland Sinor, Arthur Sinor, Joseph Sinor, William Sinor, Jr., Noble D. Sinor and Annie Myrtle Campbell.
The family would like to extend a special thank you to the staff at the Springs of Lima.
At the family's request, services will be private on December 5, 2020. Burial will be in Woodlawn Cemetery following the service.
In memory of her husband, memorial contributions may be made to the Alzheimer's Association.


The Heath Hen (Tympanuchus cupido cupido) was a distinctive subspecies of the Greater Prairie Chicken, Tympanuchus cupido, a large North American bird in the grouse family, or possibly a distinct species.
Heath Hens lived in the scrubby heathland barrens of coastal New England, from southernmost New Hampshire to northern Virginia in historical times, but possibly south to Florida prehistorically. The prairie chickens, on the other hand, inhabited prairies from Texas north to Indiana and the Dakotas, and in earlier times in mid-southern Canada.
Heath Hens were extremely common in their habitat during Colonial times, but being a gallinaceous bird, they were hunted by settlers extensively for food. In fact, many have speculated that the Pilgrims' first Thanksgiving dinner featured Heath Hens and not wild turkey. By the late 18th century, the heath hen had a reputation as poor man's food for being so cheap and plentiful; Thomas L. Winthrop related that they could be found on the Boston Common and that servants would sometimes bargain with a new employer for not being given Heath Hen for food more often than 2 or 3 days a week.
Very similar to the Greater Prairie Chicken of the Plains, but slightly smaller (Pearson, 1917). Length of the bird was approximately 17 inches (43 cm) and weight was about two pounds (900 gm). A specimen weighing three pounds was claimed by Alexander Wilson but that figure was not verified by later ornithologists (Pearson, 1917, Forbush, 1927).
Owing to intense hunting pressure, the population declined rapidly. Perhaps as early as the 1840s, at any rate by 1870, all Heath Hens were extirpated on the mainland. There were about 300 left on the island of Martha's Vineyard, off Massachusetts, but by 1890 this number had declined to 120-200 birds, mainly due to predation by feral cats and poaching. By the late 1800s, there were about 70 left.
These were protected by a hunting ban and the 1908 establishment of the "Heath Hen Reserve" (today the Manuel F. Correllus State Forest) and the population rapidly grew to almost 2000; by the mid-1910s, observing the birds on their lekking grounds had become something of a tourist attraction. However, a destructive fire during the 1916 nesting season, severe winters, inbreeding, an excess number of male individuals and apparently an epidemic of blackhead disease which might have been transmitted by poultry brought the numbers down quickly; after a last recovery to 600 in 1920, the population began its final decline.
In 1927, only about a dozen were left - a mere two being females - despite being afforded the best protection according to contemporary science, and that number had declined to a handful, all males, by the end of the year. After December 8, 1928, apparently only one male survived (Gross, 1931), lovingly nicknamed "Booming Ben". He was last seen on his traditional lekking ground between West Tisbury and today's Martha's Vineyard Airport on March 11, 1932 - early in the breeding season -, and thus presumably died, about 8 years old, days or only hours afterwards from unknown causes.
Heath Hens were one of the first bird species that U.S. Americans tried to save from extinction. As early as 1791, a bill "for the preservation of heath-hen and other game" was introduced in the New York legislature. Although the effort to save the Heath Hen from extinction was ultimately unsuccessful, it paved the way for conservation of other species. Ironically, the establishment of the reserve on the open shrubland of what was then called the Great Plain may have accelerated the Heath Hen's extinction. Fires were a normal part of the environment, but with the attempt to suppress fires instead of enforcing ecological succession with controlled burns, habitat quality decreased and undergrowth accumulated until a normally limited fire would have disastrous consequences as it did in 1916.
Realizing the degradation that has affected the State Forest (and although it does hold remarkable biodiversity, prevents it from being utilized to its full potential), reestablishment of the original shrubland/heath/woods mosaic and eventual reintroduction of Greater Prairie Chickens as an "umbrella species" that serves as an indicator of good habitat quality is being discussed since the late 1990s.
This discussion has spawned several research projects to find out more about the Heath Hen and its habitat. A first mtDNA D-loop haplotype comparison between Heath Hen specimens and prairie chickens (Palkovacs et al., 2004) brought the unexpected result that all heath hens tested formed a group very distinct from mainland birds, being most similar genetically to Great Prairie Chickens from Wisconsin. A more recent study (Johnson and Dunn, 2006) of the same parameter verified these results, but disagreed in the placement of the Heath Hen respective to its relatives, suggesting a closer relation ship with the Lesser Prairie Chicken instead.
However, Johnson and Dunn caution against reading too much into these results: while the Lesser Prairie Chicken is considered a distinct species and the genetically apparently equally distinct Heath Hen would thus likewise deserve species status, mtDNA haplotypes in small populations that have undergone bottlenecks are likely to show higher divergence than they would judging from taxonomic status alone (Johnson et al., 2003; see also genetic drift). Thus, given the fact that all Heath Hen specimens from known localities studied by Johnson and Dunn are Martha's Vineyard birds - where the population may never have exceeded several thousand due to the limited space and genetic exchange with the mainland was limited -, it is possible that the low genetic diversity and apparent distinctness of the Heath Hen are an artifact of the small number of useful specimens, all from the same, closely-knit population.
Prairie chickens were indiscriminately introduced to the Eastern Seaboard after the Heath Hen was gone from the mainland, but failed to thrive. There exists a considerable number of supposed Heath Hen specimens in public collections today, but many - all mainland specimens and those with insufficient locality information - cannot be unequivocally assumed to be Heath Hens. For example, a mere 7 unequivocal Heath Hen eggs - equivalent to a very small clutch (Luther, 1996) - are known to be held in public collections today. That the genus Tympanuchus apparently evolved rapidly and therefore has high morphological but low genetic distinctness between taxa further complicates research.
The apparent distinctness and the failure of the early introductions raises the question of whether the Heath Hen was uniquely (by comparison with its relatives) adapted to the more oceanic climate of its former area of occurrence, and in consequence, whether a future attempt to establish a population of the western birds on Martha's Vineyard could be bound to fail, possibly even by competing for funding and other resources jeopardizing the extant but much declined populations of the prairie chickens. Clearly, more research is necessary, for example by analyzing mainland specimens to determine whether they can be assigned to a taxon from molecular and morphological characters.


BRRRRRRRRRRRRR it's cold out there!! Your poor car has been sitting there overnight, in the cold your battery is far less effective, the oil is real thick. If your engine is cranking slowly, have your battery checked, especially if it is more than 3 years old. If you've been a long time customer here at Ricks Auto Service in Mishawaka, we have the history of your vehicles in our computer and can tell you that information. What happens if your battery is over 3 year old as it may have lost some of it's original reserve capacity, if you aren't sure we can test your battery. When you are getting the battery checked it's not a bad idea to have your alternator and charging system looked at too. Make sure your battery terminals are clean and corroded and the cable look good too. Making sure your battery and charging system are both in optimum condition. Making sure you are using the right engine oil, using a low-viscosity oil such as SW-20 this oil flows better in cold weather. Although some prefer the 10W30, it's not optimum for this type of weather because it's thicker and puts a toil on the starter motor and battery. If you are like us and use your garage for other things instead of your car, keeping your vehicle in the best possible shape will pretty much guarantee your car starting when you need it to.
Having proper coolant , a mix of antfreeze and water (50/50).
Make sure the heater & defroster are in proper working order.
A little thing, but one I really appreciate is wiper fluid that won't freeze. I like having a clean windshield.
Don't forget the importance of having emergency gear in your car, gloves, boots, blankets, flashlight, and high-energy snacks. You can get at any auto parts store flares and a small shovel.
REMEMBER: starting your car every day, even if you aren't driving it that day in this type of weather is important.


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Born: August 18, 1959 (age 61)
Career: Executive director, Honor the Earth, 1993-present
Executive director, White Earth Land Recovery Project, 1989-2014
High school principal
Education: B.A., Harvard University
M.A., Antioch University
Winona LaDuke, a Native American activist, environmentalist, economist, politician and writer, is the executive director of Honor the Earth, an organization she co-founded in 1993, and was the founder and executive director of the White Earth Land Recovery Project until 2014. In 1996 and 2000, she ran for vice president of the United States as the nominee of the Green Party with Ralph Nader.
LaDuke was born on August 18, 1959, in Los Angeles, California. Her father, an activist and actor, was an Ojibwe from White Earth Reservation in Minnesota. LaDuke was enrolled as a member of the Mississippi Band of the Anishinaabeg but was raised by her mother, who was of Russian Jewish descent, in Los Angeles and Oregon. After graduating from Harvard University in 1982 with a degree in rural economic development, LaDuke moved to White Earth and worked as principal of the high school while doing research for her master's thesis. She completed a Master of Arts in community economic development at Antioch University.
During this time, LaDuke also became involved in an lawsuit to recover lands promised to the Anishinaabeg people by an 1867 federal treaty. In 1985, after the lawsuit was dismissed, LaDuke founded the Indigenous Women's Network. In 1989, she founded the White Earth Land Recovery Project, whose goal is to buy back land within the reservation that had been bought by non-Natives and to create enterprises that provide work to Anishinaabe.
In 1996 and 2000, LaDuke ran as the vice-presidential candidate with Ralph Nader on the Green Party ticket.
LaDuke has written six books and co-written several others. She appeared in the 1997 documentary film "Anthem," directed by Shainee Gabel and Kristin Hahn. She also appeared in the 2002 TV documentary "The Main Stream."
National Women's Hall of Fame (n.d.). Winona LaDuke. Retrieved on Feb. 24, 2020, from https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/winona-laduke/.
The Heroine's Collective (n.d.). Biography: Winona LaDuke – Environmentalist, economist. Retrieved on Feb. 24, 2020, from http://www.theheroinecollective.com/winona-laduke/.
Acceptance Speech - July 22, 2000


There are currently a finite number of high volume shippers and carriers in the market, and they are eager to secure long-term service contracts to preserve the status quo. With the current lack of economic growth and recession, cost reduction is on everyone's mind. It is tempting for some merchants to immediately reach for the perceived lowest price for carrier service before considering the actual services provided.
In the face of today's challenges, now is the best time for merchants to consider their shipping needs and challenge their carrier contracts. After all, a carrier should be committed to doing everything it can to work with its client(s) in meeting their long-term savings and revenue objectives.
Being the least expensive service doesn't mean it is the most cost effective for a company's bottom line. Rather, the total benefits will far outweigh small differences in rates, particularly in a healthy competitive environment among carriers. Merchants must be willing to push their carrier to provide better service. They must also see that there may be value in choosing a carrier with a reputation for premium service even though it may come with marginally higher prices.
Annual rate increases are an unfortunate reality in the shipping business, and it is understandable why merchants hate them. Rate increases force retailers to pass some, if not all, of the price hikes on to their customers. Shippers must pass along rate increases because of the escalating costs required to maintain overall operations while remaining profitable. Merchants are fortunate because a healthy competitive environment means carriers should be reasonable in what they are able to pass along as part of their annual adjustment. Failing to adjust prices and maintain a high level of service could have potentially disastrous consequences to the shipper trying to remain a viable entity and would eventually result in higher rates for the merchant.
An uncompetitive carrier environment puts more pressure on merchants. As an example, look at "value-added service•bCrLf fees such as residential delivery surcharges and address correction fees levied by some carriers. Consider the fact that from 2008 to 2009 some of these fees jumped by almost 25 percent, and the consequences of a market in which little competition exists. Without a system of checks and balances, costs would spiral out of control.
Consumers' needs, distribution models, and supply chains have become more complex, and so have the demands placed upon carriers. A single service provider cannot do everything for everyone. However, this is not to say that a single carrier cannot address all of a particular merchant's needs.
Bad news for one carrier is often great news for its competitors. This is also the sort of break that may actually be healthy and drive innovative thinking throughout the industry. While customers hate uncertainty in suppliers and service providers, they have much to gain by meeting other carriers or even demanding more from their current ones. Think of it as counterparty risk management. That is why carriers need to be held accountable. Companies committed to being leaders will flourish while those that are satisfied to simply follow will struggle.
The industry can meet the challenges of price and cost increases by continually focusing on customers and their needs. As a part of the carrier evaluation process, merchants should define value for their organizations by listening to the needs of their customers and make their selections accordingly.
There are competitive carriers with the ability to provide excellent service, competitive rates and innovative solutions to meet today's challenges. For shippers to succeed, they will need to go beyond individual company interests and look beyond current capabilities. Only then will they be able to provide the services demanded by today's market place while preparing to address the challenges of tomorrow. For merchants, they need to dismiss the status quo and take a risk in looking at other carriers. The competition demands it.


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CARNIVAL OF SOULS - Original Soundtrack by Gene Moore
BSX Records, in association with Citadel Records, presents the original soundtrack to CARNIVAL OF SOULS featuring dialogue from the film along with music composed by Gene Moore. The film follows Mary Henry, a young woman whose life is disturbed after a car accident. She relocates to a new city, where she finds herself unable to assimilate with the locals, and becomes drawn to the pavilion of an abandoned carnival. Director Herk Harvey also appears in the film as a ghoulish stranger who stalks her throughout.
1. Dialogue: "Want to drag?"(0:31)
2. MAIN TITLE (1:46)
3. Dialogue: Mary Henry on the bridge / Organ Factory (4:08)
4. Dialogue: "Put your soul into it." (1:57)
5. VISITATION: THE MAN IN THE WINDOW (1:47)
6. Dialogue: "Could you tell me what that big structure is?" (0:39)
7. Dialogue: "Our pride and joy" (1:03)
8. WE HAVE AN ORGANIST CAPABLE OF STIRRING THE SOUL (1:58)
9. Dialogue: "What do you see?" (0:24)
10. Dialogue: "I ain't one to make no fuss." (0:50)
11. Dialogue: "I'm your new neighbor." (0:19)
12. THE ROOMING HOUSE: ANOTHER VISITATION (1:07)
13. Dialogue: "Who's the man in the hall?" (1:03)
14. Dialogue: "A church is just a place of business." (1:17)
15. WHY DON'T THEY ANSWER ME? (2:22)
16. Dialogue: "As though I had no place in the world." (3:43)
17. HAUNTED: PAVILION IN DAYLIGHT (0:59)
18. CAST OUT DEVILS (3:08)
19. Dialogue: "Profane! Sacrilege!" (0:34)
20. I WANT TO BE LEFT ALONE (1:53)
21. ISOLATION: WHY CAN'T THEY SEE ME? (4:54)
22. Dialogue: "I don't belong in the world." (1:07)
23. THE CARNIVAL OF SOULS (5:07)
24. Dialogue: "Footprints…then nothing." (0:28)
25. PEACE AT LAST (1:28)
26. SUITE: MUSICAL SCORE (30:17)


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[ G.R. NO. 168943, October 27, 2006 ]
IGLESIA NI CRISTO, PETITIONER, VS. HON. THELMA A. PONFERRADA, IN HER CAPACITY AS PRESIDING JUDGE, REGIONAL TRIAL COURT, BR. 104, QUEZON CITY, AND HEIRS OF ENRIQUE G. SANTOS, RESPONDENTS.
CALLEJO, SR., J.:
This is a Petition for Review on Certiorari of the Decision[1] of the Court of Appeals (CA) in CA-G.R. SP No. 72686 and its Resolution[2] denying the motion for reconsideration of the said decision.
On October 24, 2001, Alicia, Alfredo, Roberto, Enrique and Susan, all surnamed Santos, and Sonia Santos-Wallin, represented by Enrique G. Santos, filed a complaint[3] for Quieting of Title and/or Accion Reinvindicatoria before the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Quezon City against the Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC), defendant therein.
Plaintiffs alleged therein that, during his lifetime, Enrique Santos was the owner of a 936-square-meter parcel of land located in Tandang Sora, Quezon City covered by Transfer Certificate of Title (TCT) No. 57272 issued by the Register of Deeds on July 27, 1961 which cancelled TCT No. 57193-289. He had been in possession of the owner's duplicate of said title and had been in continuous, open, adverse and peaceful possession of the property. He died on February 9, 1970 and was survived by his wife, Alicia Santos, and other plaintiffs, who were their children. Thereafter, plaintiffs took peaceful and adverse possession of the property, and of the owner's duplicate of said title. When the Office of the Register of Deeds of Quezon City was burned on June 11, 1988, the original copy of said title was burned as well. The Register of Deeds had the title reconstituted as TCT No. RT-110323, based on the owner's duplicate of TCT No. 57272. Sometime in February 1996, plaintiffs learned that defendant was claiming ownership over the property based on TCT No. 321744 issued on September 18, 1984 which, on its face, cancelled TCT No. 320898, under the name of the Philippine National Bank, which allegedly cancelled TCT No. 252070 in the names of the spouses Marcos and Romana dela Cruz. They insisted that TCT Nos. 321744, 320898 and 252070 were not among the titles issued by the Register of Deeds of Quezon City and even if the Register of Deeds issued said titles, it was contrary to law. Enrique Santos, during his lifetime, and his heirs, after his death, never encumbered or disposed the property. In 1996, plaintiffs had the property fenced but defendant deprived them of the final use and enjoyment of their property.
Plaintiffs prayed that, after due proceedings, judgment be rendered in their favor, thus:
WHEREFORE, it is respectfully prayed that, after due hearing, judgment be rendered quieting the title of plaintiffs over and/or recover possession of their said property in the name of deceased Enrique Santos, covered by said TCT No. RT-110323(57272) of the Register of Deeds at Quezon City and that:
The title of defendant, TCT No. 321744 be ordered cancelled by the Register of Deeds of Quezon City;
The defendant be ordered to pay plaintiffs' claims for actual damages in the sum of P100,000.00;
The defendant be ordered to pay plaintiffs' claims for compensatory damages in the sum of at least P1,000,000.00;
The defendant be ordered to pay plaintiffs' claims for reimbursement of the lawyer's professional fees consisting of the aforesaid P50,000.00 acceptance fee and reimbursement of the said success fee in par. 10 above; and lawyer's expenses of P2,000.00 for each hearing in this case;
The defendant be ordered to pay expenses and costs of litigation in the sum of at least P200,000.00.
Other reliefs that are just and equitable in the premises are, likewise, prayed for.[4]
As gleaned from the caption of the complaint, plaintiffs appear to be the heirs of Enrique Santos, represented by Enrique G. Santos. The latter signed the Verification and Certificate of Non-Forum Shopping which reads:
I, ENRIQUE G. SANTOS, of legal age, under oath, state that I am one of the children of the late Enrique Santos and I represent the heirs of said Enrique Santos who are my co-plaintiffs in the above-captioned case and that I directed the preparation of the instant complaint, the contents of which are true and correct to the best of my knowledge and the attachments are faithful reproductions of the official copies in my possession.
I hereby certify that I have not commenced any other action or proceeding involving the same issues in the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, or different Divisions thereof, or any other tribunal or agency, and to the best of my knowledge, no such action or proceeding is pending in the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, or different Divisions thereof, or any other tribunal or agency, and that I shall notify this Commission within three days from notice that a similar action or proceeding has been filed or is pending thereat.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I hereby affix my signature this 23rd day of October 2001 at Pasig City, Metro Manila.
ENRIQUE G. SANTOS
SUBSCRIBED AND SWORN to before me this 23rd day of October 2001 at Pasig City, affiant exhibiting to me his CTC No. 07303074 issued at Sta. Cruz, Laguna on April 16, 2001.
PETER FRANCIS G. ZAGALA
Until December 31, 2002
PTR No. 0287069
Issued on 1-10-01
At Pasig City[5]
Defendant moved to dismiss plaintiffs' complaint on the following grounds: (1) plaintiffs failed to faithfully comply with the procedural requirements set forth in Section 5, Rule 7 of the 1997 Rules of Civil Procedure; (2) the action (either Quieting of Title or Accion Reinvindicatoria) had prescribed, the same having been filed only on October 24, 2001 beyond the statutory ten-year period therefor; and (3) that the complaint is defective in many respects.[6]
Defendant asserted that the case involved more than one plaintiff but the verification and certification against forum shopping incorporated in the complaint was signed only by Enrique Santos. Although the complaint alleges that plaintiffs are represented by Enrique Santos, there is no showing that he was, indeed, authorized to so represent the other plaintiffs to file the complaint and to sign the verification and certification of non-forum shopping.[7] Thus, plaintiffs failed to comply with Section 5, Rule 7 of the Rules of Court. Defendant cited the ruling of this Court in Loquias v. Office of the Ombudsman.[8]
Defendant maintained that the complaint is defective in that, although there is an allegation that Enrique Santos represents the other heirs, there is nothing in the pleading to show the latter's authority to that effect; the complaint fails to aver with particularity the facts showing the capacity of defendant corporation to sue and be sued; and the pleading does not state the address of plaintiffs. Defendant likewise averred that the complaint should be dismissed on the ground of prescription. It argued that plaintiffs anchor their claim on quieting of title and considering that they are not in possession of the land in question, their cause of action prescribed after ten years. On the other hand, if the supposed right of plaintiffs is based on accion reinvindicatoria, prescription would set in after 10 years from dispossession. In both cases, defendant asserts, the reckoning point is 1984 when defendant acquired TCT No. 321744 and possession of the land in question.
In their Comment[9] on the motion, plaintiffs averred that the relationship of a co-owner to the other co-owners is fiduciary in character; thus, anyone of them could effectively act for another for the benefit of the property without need for an authorization. Consequently, Enrique Santos had the authority to represent the other heirs as plaintiffs and to sign the verification and certification against forum shopping.[10] On the issue of prescription, plaintiffs argued that the prescriptive period for the actions should be reckoned from 1996, when defendant claimed ownership over the property and barred plaintiffs from fencing their property, not in 1984 when TCT No. 321744 was issued by the Register of Deeds in the name of defendant as owner.
In its reply, defendant averred that absent any authority from his co-heirs, Enrique Santos must implead them as plaintiffs as they are indispensable parties. In response, plaintiffs aver that a co-owner of a property can execute an action for quieting of title without impleading the other co-owners.
The trial court issued an Order[11] denying defendant's motion to dismiss. It declared that since Enrique Santos was one of the heirs, his signature in the verification and certification constitutes substantial compliance with the Rules. The court cited the ruling of this Court in Dar v. Alonzo-Legasto.[12] The court, likewise, held that prescription had not set in and that failure to state the address of plaintiffs in the complaint does not warrant the dismissal of the complaint.
Defendant filed a motion for reconsideration, which the court likewise denied in an Order[13] dated July 10, 2002.
Unsatisfied, defendant, as petitioner, filed a Petition for Certiorari and Prohibition with Prayer for the Issuance of a Temporary Restraining Order and/or Preliminary Injunction[14] before the CA, raising the following issues:
WHETHER OR NOT RESPONDENT JUDGE GRAVELY ERRED AND ABUSED HER DISCRETION WHEN SHE HELD THAT THE CERTIFICATION OF NON-FORUM SHOPPING SIGNED BY ENRIQUE G. SANTOS ALONE IS A SUBSTANTIAL COMPLIANCE WITH SECTION 5, RULE 7 OF THE 1997 RULES OF CIVIL PROCEDURE, IN CLEAR CONTRAVENTION OF THE RULES OF COURT, AND THE RULING IN LOQUIAS V. OFFICE OF THE OMBUDSMAN, G.R. NO. 1399396 (SIC), AUGUST 16, 2000, 338 SCRA 62, AND ORTIZ V. COURT OF APPEALS, G.R. NO. 127393, 299 SCRA 708 (DECEMBER 4, 1998).
WHETHER OR NOT RESPONDENT JUDGE GRAVELY ERRED AND ABUSED HER DISCRETION IN APPLYING THE RULING IN DAR, ET. AL. V. HON. ROSE MARIE ALONZO-LEGASTO, ET. AL., G.R. NO. 143016, AUGUST 30, 2000 TO THE INSTANT CASE.
WHETHER OR NOT RESPONDENT JUDGE GRAVELY ERRED AND ABUSED HER DISCRETION WHEN SHE HELD THAT THE AUTHORITY OF ENRIQUE G. SANTOS TO REPRESENT HIS CO-HEIRS IN THE FILING OF THE COMPLAINT AGAINST THE "INC" IS A MATTER OF EVIDENCE.
WHETHER OR NOT RESPONDENT JUDGE GRAVELY ERRED AND ABUSED HER DISCRETION WHEN SHE HELD THAT THE ACTION FOR QUIETING OF TITLE AND/OR ACCION REINVINDICATORIA (CIVIL CASE NO. Q-01-45415) HAS NOT YET PRESCRIBED.[15]
Petitioner averred that, of the plaintiffs below, only plaintiff Enrique Santos signed the verification and certification of non-forum shopping. Under Section 5, Rule 7 of the 1997 Rules of Civil Procedure, all the plaintiffs must sign, unless one of them is authorized by a special power of attorney to sign for and in behalf of the others. Petitioner argues that the bare claim of Enrique Santos that he signed the verification and certification in his behalf and of the other plaintiffs who are his co-heirs/co-owners of the property does not even constitute substantial compliance of the rule. Contrary to the ruling of the trial court, the absence or existence of an authority of Enrique Santos to sign the verification and certification for and in behalf of his co-plaintiffs is not a matter of evidence. The defect is fatal to the complaint of respondents and cannot be cured by an amendment of the complaint. The trial court erred in applying the ruling of this Court in Dar v. Alonzo-Legasto.[16]
Petitioner maintained that the action of respondents, whether it be one for quieting of title or an accion reinvindicatoria, had prescribed when the complaint was filed on October 24, 2001. Petitioner asserts that this is because when respondents filed their complaint, they were not in actual or physical possession of the property, as it (petitioner) has been in actual possession of the property since 1984 when TCT No. 321744 was issued to it by the Register of Deeds. This is evident from the nature of a reinvindicatory action itself - which is an action whereby plaintiff alleges ownership over the subject parcel of land and seeks recovery of its full possession. By their action, respondents thereby admitted that petitioner was in actual possession of the property, and as such, respondents' action for quieting of title or accion reinvindicatoria may prescribe in ten (10) years from 1984 or in 1994, it appearing that it acted in good faith when it acquired the property from the registered owner, conformably with Article 555(4) of the New Civil Code.
On April 7, 2005, the CA rendered the assailed decision[17] dismissing the petition, holding that the RTC did not commit grave abuse of its discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction in denying petitioner's motion to dismiss. As the Court held in DAR v. Alonzo-Legasto[18] and in Gudoy v. Guadalquiver,[19] the certification signed by one with respect to a property over which he shares a common interest with the rest of the plaintiffs (respondents herein) substantially complied with the Rules. As to the issue of prescription, the appellate court held that the prescriptive period should be reckoned from 1996, when petitioner claimed ownership and barred respondents from fencing the property.
Petitioner is now before this Court on petition for review on certiorari, raising the following issues:
WHETHER OR NOT THE COURT OF APPEALS ERRED IN RULING THAT THE CERTIFICATION OF NON-FORUM SHOPPING SIGNED BY RESPONDENT ENRIQUE G. SANTOS ALONE IS A SUBSTANTIAL COMPLIANCE WITH SECTION 5, RULE 7 OF THE 1997 RULES OF CIVIL PROCEDURE AND IN APPLYING THE CASE OF GUDOY V. GUADALQUIVER, 429 SCRA 723, WITHOUT REGARD TO MORE RECENT JURISPRUDENCE.
WHETHER OR NOT THE COURT OF APPEALS ERRED WHEN IT HELD THAT THE AUTHORITY OF RESPONDENT ENRIQUE G. SANTOS TO REPRESENT HIS CO-HEIRS IN THE FILING OF THE COMPLAINT AGAINST THE PETITIONER IS A MATTER OF EVIDENCE.
WHETHER OR NOT THE COURT OF APPEALS ERRED IN HOLDING THAT THE ACTION FOR QUIETING OF TITLE AND/OR ACCION REINVINDICATORIA (CIVIL CASE NO. Q-01-45415) HAS NOT YET PRESCRIBED.[20]
Petitioner reiterated its arguments in support of its petition in the CA as its arguments in support of its petition in the present case.
Sections 4 and 5, Rule 7 of the Revised Rules of Court on verification and certification against forum shopping read:
Sec. 4. Verification. - Except when otherwise specifically required by law or rule, pleadings need not be under oath, verified or accompanied by affidavit.
A pleading is verified by an affidavit that the affiant has read the pleading and that the allegations therein are true and correct of his personal knowledge or based on authentic records.
A pleading required to be verified which contains a verification based on "information and belief" or upon "knowledge, information and belief," or lacks a proper verification, shall be treated as an unsigned pleading.
Sec. 5. Certification against forum shopping. - The plaintiff or principal party shall certify under oath in the complaint or other initiatory pleading asserting a claim for relief, or in a sworn certification annexed thereto and simultaneously filed therewith: (a) that he has not theretofore commenced any action or filed any claim involving the same issues in any court, tribunal or quasi-judicial agency and, to the best of his knowledge, no such other action or claim is pending therein; (b) if there is such other pending action or claim, a complete statement of the present status thereof; and (c) if he should thereafter learn that the same or similar action or claim has been filed or is pending, he shall report that fact within five (5) days therefrom to the court wherein his aforesaid complaint or initiatory pleading has been filed.
Failure to comply with the foregoing requirements shall not be curable by mere amendment of the complaint or other initiatory pleading but shall be cause for the dismissal of the case without prejudice, unless otherwise provided, upon motion and after hearing. The submission of a false certification or non-compliance with any of the undertakings therein shall constitute indirect contempt of court, without prejudice to the corresponding administrative and criminal actions. If the acts of the party or his counsel clearly constitute willful and deliberate forum shopping, the same shall be ground for summary dismissal with prejudice and shall constitute direct contempt, as well as a cause for administrative sanctions.
The purpose of verification is simply to secure an assurance that the allegations of the petition (or complaint) have been made in good faith; or are true and correct, not merely speculative. This requirement is simply a condition affecting the form of pleadings, and noncompliance therewith does not necessarily render it fatally defective. Indeed, verification is only a formal, not a jurisdictional requirement.[21]
The issue in the present case is not the lack of verification but the sufficiency of one executed by only one of plaintiffs. This Court held in Ateneo de Naga University v. Manalo,[22] that the verification requirement is deemed substantially complied with when, as in the present case, only one of the heirs-plaintiffs, who has sufficient knowledge and belief to swear to the truth of the allegations in the petition (complaint), signed the verification attached to it. Such verification is deemed sufficient assurance that the matters alleged in the petition have been made in good faith or are true and correct, not merely speculative.
The same liberality should likewise be applied to the certification against forum shopping. The general rule is that the certification must be signed by all plaintiffs in a case and the signature of only one of them is insufficient. However, the Court has also stressed in a number of cases that the rules on forum shopping were designed to promote and facilitate the orderly administration of justice and thus should not be interpreted with such absolute literalness as to subvert its own ultimate and legitimate objective. The rule of substantial compliance may be availed of with respect to the contents of the certification. This is because the requirement of strict compliance with the provisions merely underscores its mandatory nature in that the certification cannot be altogether dispensed with or its requirements completely disregarded.[23]
The substantial compliance rule has been applied by this Court in a number of cases: Cavile v. Heirs of Cavile,[24] where the Court sustained the validity of the certification signed by only one of petitioners because he is a relative of the other petitioners and co-owner of the properties in dispute; Heirs of Agapito T. Olarte v. Office of the President of the Philippines,[25] where the Court allowed a certification signed by only two petitioners because the case involved a family home in which all the petitioners shared a common interest; Gudoy v. Guadalquiver,[26] where the Court considered as valid the certification signed by only four of the nine petitioners because all petitioners filed as co-owners pro indiviso a complaint against respondents for quieting of title and damages, as such, they all have joint interest in the undivided whole; and Dar v. Alonzo-Legasto,[27] where the Court sustained the certification signed by only one of the spouses as they were sued jointly involving a property in which they had a common interest.
It is noteworthy that in all of the above cases, the Court applied the rule on substantial compliance because of the commonality of interest of all the parties with respect to the subject of the controversy.
Applying the doctrines laid down in the above cases, we find and so hold that the CA did not err in affirming the application of the rule on substantial compliance. In the instant case, the property involved is a 936-square-meter real property. Both parties have their respective TCTs over the property. Respondents herein who are plaintiffs in the case below have a common interest over the property being the heirs of the late Enrique Santos, the alleged registered owner of the subject property as shown in one of the TCTs. As such heirs, they are considered co-owners pro indiviso of the whole property since no specific portion yet has been adjudicated to any of the heirs. Consequently, as one of the heirs and principal party, the lone signature of Enrique G. Santos in the verification and certification is sufficient for the RTC to take cognizance of the case. The commonality of their interest gave Enrique G. Santos the authority to inform the RTC on behalf of the other plaintiffs therein that they have not commenced any action or claim involving the same issues in another court or tribunal, and that there is no other pending action or claim in another court or tribunal involving the same issues. Hence, the RTC correctly denied the motion to dismiss filed by petitioner.
Considering that at stake in the present case is the ownership and possession over a prime property in Quezon City, the apparent merit of the substantive aspects of the case should be deemed as a special circumstance or compelling reason to allow the relaxation of the rule.
Time and again, this Court has held that rules of procedure are established to secure substantial justice. Being instruments for the speedy and efficient administration of justice, they may be used to achieve such end, not to derail it. In particular, when a strict and literal application of the rules on non-forum shopping and verification will result in a patent denial of substantial justice, these may be liberally construed.[28] The ends of justice are better served when cases are determined on the merits - after all parties are given full opportunity to ventilate their causes and defenses - rather than on technicality or some procedural imperfections.[29]
Indeed, this Court strictly applied the rules on verification and certification against forum shopping as in the cases of Loquias v. Office of the Ombudsman[30] and Tolentino v. Rivera.[31] However, in both cases, the commonality of interest between or among the parties is wanting. In Loquias, the co-parties were being sued in their individual capacities as mayor, vice mayor and members of the municipal board. In Tolentino, the lone signature of Tolentino was held insufficient because he had no authority to sign in behalf of the Francisco spouses. In such case, the Court concluded that Tolentino merely used the spouses' names for whatever mileage he thought he could gain. It is thus clear from these cases that the commonality of interest is material in the relaxation of the Rules.
Anent the issue of the authority of Enrique G. Santos to represent his co-heirs/co-plaintiffs, we find no necessity to show such authority. Respondents herein are co-owners of the subject property. As such co-owners, each of the heirs may properly bring an action for ejectment, forcible entry and detainer, or any kind of action for the recovery of possession of the subject properties. Thus, a co-owner may bring such an action, even without joining all the other co-owners as co-plaintiffs, because the suit is deemed to be instituted for the benefit of all.[32]
We uphold the validity of the complaint because of the following circumstances: (1) the caption of the instant case is Heirs of Enrique Santos v. Iglesia ni Cristo;[33] (2) the opening statement of the complaint states that plaintiffs are the heirs of Enrique Santos and likewise names the particular heirs of the latter who instituted the complaint below;[34] (3) the case involves a property owned by the predecessor-in-interest of plaintiffs therein;[35] and (4) the verification signed by Enrique G. Santos clearly states that he is one of the children of the late Enrique Santos and that he represents the heirs of said Enrique Santos.[36]
On the issue of prescription of action, petitioner avers that the action of respondents is one to quiet title and/or accion reinvindicatoria, and that respondents asserted ownership over the property and sought the recovery of possession of the subject parcel of land. It insists that the very nature of the action presupposes that respondents had not been in actual and material possession of the property, and that it was petitioner which had been in possession of the property since 1984 when it acquired title thereon. The action of respondent prescribed in ten years from 1984 when petitioner allegedly dispossessed respondents, in accordance with Article 555(4) of the New Civil Code.
The contention of petitioner has no merit. The nature of an action is determined by the material allegations of the complaint and the character of the relief sought by plaintiff, and the law in effect when the action was filed irrespective of whether he is entitled to all or only some of such relief.[37] As gleaned from the averments of the complaint, the action of respondents was one for quieting of title under Rule 64 of the Rules of Court, in relation to Article 476 of the New Civil Code. The latter provision reads:
Art. 476. Whenever there is a cloud on title to real property or any interest therein, by reason of any instrument, record, claim, encumbrance or proceeding which is apparently valid or effective but is, in truth and in fact, invalid, ineffective, voidable, or unenforceable, and may be prejudicial to said title, an action may be brought to remove such cloud or to quiet the title.
An action may also be brought to prevent a cloud from being cast upon title to real property or any interest therein.
A cloud is said to be a semblance of a title, either legal or equitable, or a cloud of an interest in land appearing in some legal form but which is, in fact, unfounded, or which it would be inequitable to enforce.[38] An action for quieting of title is imprescriptible until the claimant is ousted of his possession.[39]
The owner of a real property, as plaintiff, is entitled to the relief of quieting of title even if, at the time of the commencement of his action, he was not in actual possession of real property. After all, under Article 477 of the New Civil Code, the owner need not be in possession of the property. If on the face of TCT No. 321744 under the name of plaintiff, its invalidity does not appear but rests partly in pais, an action for quieting of title is proper.[40]
In the present case, respondents herein, as plaintiffs below, alleged in their complaint, that their father, Enrique Santos, was the owner of the property based on TCT No. 57272 issued on July 27, 1961; and that, after his death on February 9, 1970, they inherited the property; Enrique Santos, during his lifetime, and respondents, after the death of the former, had been in actual, continuous and peaceful possession of the property until 1994 when petitioner claimed ownership based on TCT No. 321744 issued on September 18, 1984 and barred respondents from fencing their property.
Petitioner's claim that it had been in actual or material possession of the property since 1984 when TCT No. 321744 was issued in its favor is belied by the allegations in the complaint that respondents had been in actual and material possession of the property since 1961 up to the time they filed their complaint on October 24, 2001.
Admittedly, respondents interposed the alternative reinvindicatory action against petitioner. An accion reinvindicatoria does not necessarily presuppose that the actual and material possession of the property is on defendant and that plaintiff seeks the recovery of such possession from defendant. It bears stressing that an accion reinvindicatoria is a remedy seeking the recovery of ownership and includes jus possidendi, jus utendi, and jus fruendi as well. It is an action whereby a party claims ownership over a parcel of land and seeks recovery of its full possession.[41] Thus, the owner of real property in actual and material possession thereof may file an accion reinvindicatoria against another seeking ownership over a parcel of land including jus vindicandi, or the right to exclude defendants from the possession thereof. In this case, respondents filed an alternative reinvindicatory action claiming ownership over the property and the cancellation of TCT No. 321744 under the name of petitioner. In fine, they sought to enforce their jus utendi and jus vindicandi when petitioner claimed ownership and prevented them from fencing the property.
Since respondents were in actual or physical possession of the property when they filed their complaint against petitioner on October 24, 2001, the prescriptive period for the reinvindicatory action had not even commenced to run, even if petitioner was able to secure TCT No. 321744 over the property in 1984. The reason for this is that
x x x one who is in actual possession of a piece of land claiming to be the owner thereof may wait until his possession is disturbed or his title is attacked before taking steps to vindicate his right, the reason for the rule being, that his undisturbed possession gives him a continuing right to seek the aid of a court of equity to ascertain and determine the nature of the adverse claim of a third party and its effect on his own title, which right can be claimed only by one who is in possession.[42]
IN LIGHT OF ALL THE FOREGOING, the petition is DENIED. The decision of the Court of Appeals in CA-G.R. SP No. 72686 is AFFIRMED. Costs against petitioner.
Panganiban, C.J., (Chairperson), Ynares-Santiago, Austria-Martinez, and Chico-Nazario, JJ., concur.
[1] Penned by Associate Justice Mario L. Guariña III, with Associate Justices Marina L. Buzon and Santiago Javier Ranada, concurring; rollo, pp. 21-28.
[2] Rollo, p. 39.
[3] Id. at 60-65.
[4] CA rollo, pp. 24-25.
[5] Id. at 26.
[8] 392 Phil. 596 (2000).
[10] Id. at 83-84.
[11] Penned by Judge Thelma A. Ponferrada; rollo, pp. 117-118.
[12] 393 Phil. 734, 738 (2000).
[13] Rollo, pp. 139-144.
[16] Supra note 12.
[17] Supra note 1.
[19] G.R. No. 151136, May 27, 2004, 429 SCRA 722, 726.
[20] Rollo, p. 7.
[21] Estares v. Court of Appeals, G.R. No. 144755, June 8, 2005, 459 SCRA 604, 616.
[22] G.R. No. 160455, May 9, 2005, 458 SCRA 325, 333-334, citing Torres v. Specialized Packaging Development Corporation, 433 SCRA 455, 463-464 (2000).
[23] Heirs of Agapito T. Olarte v. Office of the President of the Philippines, G.R. No. 165821, June 21, 2005, 460 SCRA 561; Cavile v. Heirs of Clarita Cavile, 448 Phil. 302, 311 (2003).
[24] Supra.
[28] Ateneo de Naga University v. Manalo, supra note 22, at 336.
[31] G.R. No. 149665, January 25, 2006, 480 SCRA 87.
[32] Celino v. Heirs of Alejo and Teresa Santiago, G.R. No. 161817, July 30, 2004, 435 SCRA 690, 694 citing Sering v. Plaza, 166 SCRA 85, 86 (1988); Tolentino, Civil Code (1983).
[33] Rollo, p. 60
[35] Id. at 61.
[37] Barangay Piapi v. Talip, G.R. No. 138248, September 7, 2005, 469 SCRA 409; Hilario v. Salvador, G.R. No. 160384, April 29, 2005, 457 SCRA 815; Serdoncillo v. Benolirao, 358 Phil. 83 (1998).
[38] Shults v. Shults, 42 NE 800 (1958).
[39] Sapto v. Fabiana, 103 Phil. 683 (1958); Ordoñez v. Court of Appeals, G.R. No. 84046, July 30, 1990, 188 SCRA 109.
[40] Gaves v. Ashburn, 215 US 331, 30 S.Ct. 168.
[41] Capacete v. Baroro, 453 Phil. 392, 402 (2003).
[42] Vda. de Cabrera v. Court of Appeals, 335 Phil. 19 (1997).


text:
hade 15 deltävlingar som kördes under perioden 13 mars-15 oktober. Förarmästerskapet vanns av brasilianen Nelson Piquet och konstruktörsmästerskapet av Ferrari.

Vinnare
 Förare:  Nelson Piquet, Brasilien, Brabham-BMW
 Konstruktör:  Ferrari, Italien

Grand Prix 1983

Grand Prix utanför VM 1983

Stall, nummer och förare 1983

Slutställning förare 1983

Slutställning konstruktörer 1983

Externa länkar

Säsonger

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