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Philippines tightens net on African arrivals
2012-03-17 13:10

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Manila – Philippine airport immigration officials have tightened monitoring of arrivals from Africa after a spate of arrests of drug mules from the continent, a spokesperson said on Saturday.

The increased vigilance at all airports was imposed after two Ghanaians were caught on March 13, bringing to eight the number of Africans stopped at Philippine airports in three weeks while trying to smuggle in illegal drugs.

“This is not discrimination. They will not be treated poorly. We are just asking our immigration people to be a bit more vigilant,” said Bureau of Immigration spokesperson Maria Antonette Mangrobang.

If a new arrival cannot fully explain why he or she is coming to the Philippines, immigration personnel can bar them from entering, she said.

Mangrobang said she could not say why so many Africans, including nationals from Kenya, Uganda, Ghana and Guinea, had recently been caught trying to smuggle illegal drugs into the Philippines.

The drug enforcement agency said it has arrested 38 members of African drug syndicates since last year, and information obtained from them led to the capture of 14 accomplices abroad.

Most of these have been caught trying to smuggle the illegal drug methamphetamine hydrochloride, popularly known as “ice”, into the Philippines.

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by Ron Carlson

Christianity begins and ends with a spirit of intentionality. “In the beginning, God….” signals that an intelligent force acting on purpose sponsors all that we can see and know. Design, balance, and order witness to our logic that things hold together by a power greater than us.

Our inherent concept of beginnings testifies that our something didn’t come from nothing. Striving to gain the upper hand in an age of electronic disobedience persuades us that the One who keeps the stars in the air and our feet on the ground must know more about celestial engineering than the local scientists down the hall in research and design.

We know enough to know it’s a good thing that we are not in charge of the universe. We can thank more than our lucky stars that the Master Planner is not A.D.D., directionally challenged, or addicted to chocolate. Where would we be if The One who made it all forgot where He laid His keys or left the oven on? What if the sun forgot its morning appointment? What if the tides forgot to roll? What if the rains forgot to come? What if they forgot to go – again?

What if rhyme got crossways with reason? What if north met south without permission? What if the hummingbird couldn’t get a VISA and had to winter in Ontario? What if you were really lost in the cosmos and no One cared? What if your days weren’t numbered?

What if you had crawled from the slime pit without eyes to see, ears to hear, tongue to taste, nose to smell, and skin and hearts to feel? What would your world be like then? What if you were ill equipped to laugh, learn and love? What if you happened to happen before evolution got the bugs worked out? What if you were a bug, an ugly bug, with cockroaches as cousins and fire ants for neighbors? What if the universe decided to squish you?

What if you were anything but God’s kind intention?

From before the beginning until after the end, anything that is anything is solely dependent on God. There is but a single source. There is really no debate about the meaning of is, now is there? It is what it is and we are what we are because life is grounded in the Great I AM. God Is.

God is intentional, and since we are “made in His image,” we are the ultimate manifestation of His intention, and thus the objects of His intentional love. “God is love,” declares His Spirit, “and He first loved us!”

Love, by all accounts the universe’s premium expression, is intentional, and by design a verb. Love acts intentionally, without failure.
Perfect love became perfect intentionally when “God became flesh and dwelt among us.” He “acted on our behalf.”

Jesus is no accidental Savior. “Before the foundation of the world,” God purposed our salvation and completion in the missionary love of His eternal son. God didn’t make us for nothing.

Jesus willingly surrendered the power and glory of heaven and entered space and time as a space and time bound man on purpose and with purpose. Love demands God’s all and nothing less. Thank God that His loving will can’t be deterred!

We need the constant reminder that heaven and earth run on schedule and that life is anything and everything but random. God doesn’t make mistakes. He can’t err. Our Creator and Sustainer never bumbles, bungles, or blunders.

God is ultimately reasonable, though to us capricious characters, He is frequently misunderstood, misrepresented and misquoted. We often misdefine our own weaknesses and character faults as manufacturing defects, somehow trying to cover the tracks of our sin. We tumble deeper into denial with every round of the blame game. To realign ourselves with truth, we must first recognize and admit that we are the ones out of kilter. We offend God and His perfect creation with our rebellious unintentionality.

Words can only partially explain the attributes and ways of God. The best description that human tongues can produce regarding the nature of God is “perfect.” And since the human mind interprets reality in terms of comparison, our fallen understanding of “perfect” is warped. We simply can’ t grasp “God-perfect.”

When the opening lines of the Bible tell us that God surveyed His creation and pronounced it “good,” it is declaring all things “God-perfect.” And a major component of “God-perfect” is pure intentionality. God waited until the sixth day to forge His ultimate creation, and it was by divine design that humans are crafted in “the image of God.”
Make no mistake, we are no mistake. “Perfect” prevents miscues.

How you view your world and how you understand your origins dramatically affects the way you think and live. If you accept the false notion that you are without design and purpose, life is ultimately futile, and despair will surface as your only alternative. Conversely, if you embrace the great Biblical truth of creation, life finds meaning and you discover your true identity as a child of God constructed with eternity in mind.

The choice boils down to random selection or intelligent, intentional design. Which alternative best represents truth, reason and love?

Today, March 17, 2012 marked a solemn but spirit filled day  for the family of Ms. Ivy Williams as the service was said to be touching, inspiring, spirit filled and heart- warming at Swallowfield Chapel in Kingston Jamaica.  Members of the Jamaican entertainment fraternity in attendance were:- Twins of Twins,  Beenie-Man, members of the Downsound Force Harry Toddler, Joe Bagdanovich, Specialist, Toya, Skatta Burrell , Motion, GWarren,Tempricher, Lollylu Sharon Burke, Elephant man, Assassin, Shaggy, Baby Cham, Stacious, Aidonia, Foota Hype, Wee Pow, Troyton, D’Angel, Future Fambo, Mama Christie (mother of Shabba Ranks) , Ishawna, Babsy Grange,  Mavado was seemingly absent but scores of people showed up to support Bounty Killer and his family on this austere day.

One attendee described the service as impressive and filled with lots of love. Mama Ivy’s daughters and daughters filled the church with countless heartfelt stories of her strength and was notably a heroine to her family.

It was said that Mama Ivy was left in Kingston when her parents migrated to England and was left in charge of her siblings who also felt cared for and described her as the ultimate caregiver who gave to others before she gave to herself. She taught her eight children to be kind and generous to others and often had to turn a little into a lot in order to provide for them even after losing her youngest son who was sixteen at the time he died. It was better to pray than to slumber over worries was her motto, as she had to also play the role of both parents to some of her children.

Once an avid P.N.P activist, Mama Ivy was also employed by the party and would often give her check to the neighborhood as she became an advocate for the poor.

Bounty Killer was overcame with emotions and did was unable to join the family in their speeches but was told by the Pastor to fulfill his mother’s wishes and sing songs for God as he was his mother’s shining star who held up well throughout the ceremony. He was also one of the Pallbeares.

Whilst the wind hustled by the grave side, songs like Down by the River side filled the thick crowd who was side to have a nice vibe and in high spirits .