Carnage
The recent blood-curdling slaughter of more than 60 innocent people, almost half of them members of the media, by barbaric killers in Maguindanao is unprecedented in Philippine history. It has shamed the country in the eyes of the world, threatening to cast a shadow on the honors that boxing icon Manny Pacquiao and CNN hero of the year Efren Penaflorida have earned.
The prime suspect behind the carnage is now in government custody, with calls for the arrest of more civilian, police and military officials in the province who may have had something to do with the mass murder.
We join the world’s outrage against this heinous crime and fervently hope and pray that swift justice can be meted on the perpetrators.
E-waste
A growing, albeit unobtrusive, problem Davao communities are facing is e-waste pollution. The alarm has been raised by no less than the Davao City Chamber of Commerce, Inc. through its ICT (information and communication technology) consultant Andrei Fournier during last week’s Club 888 forum atThe Marco Polo Davao.
Earth 911, an advocacy group, reported that the world’s yearly volume of e-waste is about 40 million metric tons. This type of waste includes personal computers, iPods, digital cameras and mobile phones.
In Davao, there is an urgent need to dispose of the old Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) monitors. Aside from being no longer fashionable, CRTs are bulky and energy guzzlers. These highly toxic old monitors emit harmful radiation, causing eyestrain, fatigue and other debilitating effects on the human body.
Knowing that a problem exists is solving it by 50 percent. We expect our community leaders in business and government to step up the campaign against this kind of pollution in the days ahead.
