View allAll Photos Tagged selfless
Not after someone cut it off.
N.B. The point of this branch was a mere 6'5" above the trail (1840mm).
The Oblation is the monument and main symbol of the University of the
Philippines. It depicts a man with arms stretched wide and face turned upward,
symbolizing selfless offering of one's self for one's country.
The Oblation is the masterpiece of first National Artist for Sculpture Guillermo Tolentino. In 1935, Guillermo was commissioned by then University President Rafael Palma to craft a monument that would express in visual form the second stanza of Jose Rizal 's "Mi Ultimo Adios " ("Last Farewell"). The concrete statue painted in bronze stands 3.5 meters high (to represent the 350 years of Spanish colonization of the Philippines ) on a pile of rocks symbolizing the islands of the Philippines. Funding for the statue was raised through a two-month fund campaign that garnered P2,000.
The model for the statue has been widely rumored to be Fernando Poe, Sr.,though there are sources that claim that the real model was Tolentino's student apprentice Caedo.
The original Oblation was unveiled in 1939 in Ermita , Manilaby Gregoria de Jesus de Nakpil, widow of hero Andres Bonifacio. On the occasion of the university's 40th anniversary, the Oblation was moved from UP Manila to UP Diliman along with the administrative offices.
The Oblation located at the end of University Avenue in the UP Diliman campus is merely a replica of the original one located at the 3rd floor of the UP Diliman Main Library. Several replicas of the Oblation have been made for the different campuses of the University
This is my best friend Lauren. She is probably the most giving, selfless people I know.
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Taken at the secret world wildlife rescue center in somerset. Wonderful work the center does, hopefully baby Panini will go on to live the life of a happy wild badger, once rehabilitated by the volunteers who do such selfless work for British wildlife.
I volunteer with Community Care Durham. I help their mission in supporting people with needs related to age, physical and/or mental health, as well as strengthening community.
This is Roger. He has survived cancer and a stroke...now speaks with a catheter and gets around with a left arm that is paralyzed. Yet he still finds a way to get through life's shit the best he can.
as we celebrate our victory day on december 16, may we always remember the selfless sacrifice of millions.
bijoy dibosh er shuvechcha
As part of their belief in selfless public service, Sikhs offer free meals 365 days a year to anyone who shows up at their temple. The temple in Delhi serves 10,000 meals each day. The temple in Amritsar, Punjab, serves 100,000 each day. All of the food is donated. The meals are cooked and served by volunteers.
©2017 Timothy Linn
All Rights Reserved
Authorities confirmed at a mid-morning news conference that only two bombs went off Monday. Contradicting reports from the chaotic early hours after the blasts, they said that no unexploded devices were found.
Law enforcement officials also told NBC News that the bombs, which detonated seconds apart, were packed with ball bearings and BBs, apparently intended to increase the casualties. The blasts turned the finish line of the marathon into a hellish scene of panicked spectators, shattered glass and blood-spattered sidewalks.
Obama cited runners who had kept going after the race to get to hospitals, and people who tore off clothes to make tourniquets.
“If you want to know who we are, what America is, how we respond to evil, that’s it,” he said. “Selflessly, compassionately, unafraid.”
Great calm, generous detachment, selfless love, disinterested effort: these are what make for success in life. If you can find peace in yourself and can spread comfort around you, you will be happier than an empress.
— Rabindranath Tagore
“We should all be healers, healing the inner scars, emotional damages, broken hearts, and souls selflessly.”
― Aiyaz Uddin
Bold, liberal and thoughtful, Araun takes his duty with much honour and selflessness. He wields two mighty blizzard-swords, and wears a powerful mask of shielding. Araun does not have a fixed idea of what the relic might be, but believes that whatever it is must be protected at all costs, and kept out of the wrong hands… But could his defensive nature lead him to hoard the relic for his own?
"Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations.
I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty,
believe in them, and try to follow where they lead."
Created for Brenda's Bounty - Challenge #6
Texture by Brenda-Starr
Texture by Brenda-Starr
Tribute to Sabah quake victims.
Six students, a teacher and an adventure guide from a school in Singapore lost their lives to a 6 magnitude earthquake in Sabah on 5th June 2015 morning.
They were trekking up Mt. Kinabalu, an overseas learning expedition during the June school holiday. The rare earthquake occurrence triggered a landslide that hurled big falling rocks and boulders at them. Students who have safely returned told the Media teachers used their bodies to shield them from getting hurt, some even went up again to look for missing students even though they were severely injured. Till date, a teacher and a student are still not accounted for.
My heart weeps for the lost ones, and heartfelt respect and admiration go to the mountain guides and those who risked their own lives to save others.
Love has nothing to take but everything to give
There is not just one world – there are millions upon millions of worlds – and within all these worlds the eternal spirit soul wanders through the various species of life. Sometimes he takes the form of a human, sometimes a tree, and sometimes a creeper or an animal. in the course of his wandering, if he is fortunate, he receives the association of pure devotees.
If you want to make your life successful, happy, and peaceful, then try to give all of your love and affection to God and, with God in the center, give your love and affection to all living beings. Don’t try to control others by your order or your thoughts. Try to give your whole being. Love has nothing to take but everything to give.
The first point is that if we want to show love to others, it is essential not to cause them any pain or suffering, or to burden them for our personal happiness or maintenance. Our first concern is for the happiness and satisfaction of others.
We want to be completely selfless in our dealings, and for this, we have the example of the tree, which gives its bark, roots, fruits, leaves, wood, and shade. The tree offers everything to others with no expectation of remuneration. Why can’t we human beings be so selfless?
You know what else is weird?
The term 'Duvet Cover.'
I only learned about 'Duvet's' when I got myself into a long term mutually beneficial semi-monagamous relationship that was both emotionally and sexually satisfying to me and the woman that was my life partner.
A couple of life partners ago.
None of my genius buddies have a clue as to what a 'duvet' is.
I Love women.
If I didn't I would never spend so much time trying to understand them and to so selflessly help them to understand that the quest for 'hot freaky' can bring them and their man rewards and pleasures that they've never considered.
Sharing 'hot freaky' can bring a man and a woman closer together than they'd ever thought.
Women are the most beautiful things on earth.
They're soft and they smell good too.
Personally I'm always amazed at how good that their hair smells.
They also have unique capabilities and they can create a spectacularly color coordinated home that actually feels like it's full of warmth and love and lots of throw pillows and organize it and run it as a dictatorship with a military like precision.
You can't even organize the garage.
In short...
women are everything that you are not.
And you could never be no matter how hard you tried.
That's one of the reasons that you love them and you're willing to risk the explosive and painful soul crushing ramifications of relating to them in an intimate way.
Because they are ultimately your partner in the quest for 'hot freaky' that has consumed most of your thoughts for your entire life, both sleeping and awake.
Why they put up with your shit is another story entirely.
She might never be your 'buddy' but you've still got a few of those left that she doesn't know about.
You can't do it without them man.
Women.
Not your buddies... they'll never get you anywhere near the promised land.
At best they're someone that you go to to drink beers with after your progress towards your lifelong goal of entering the gates of 'Shangri-freaky-la' has been derailed by some stupid shit thing you've said to your woman at the worst possible time.
Because you've got a big habit of doing that.
Women are absolutely essential in the quest that will be the journey to the promised land.
Unless you like hairy guy ass.
And that's entirely your call.
You know I love you and I'd support you even if that was your choice.
Or your genetics.
But after knowing you for as long as I have you're pretty much hetero.
I mean...
you think maybe being gay would be easier than actualy having to think about all of this shit... particularly after one of your legendary and spectacular blowups resulting from your gahdawful ability to say the most stupid shit you possibly can to a woman at the most critical time...
But you just can't decide all of the sudden that you're gay.
Or at least that's what conventional wisdom dictates.
And just because you've come to love and admire duvet covers doesn't mean you're gay.
Ask your therapist next time.
The sexy one that you sit there and tell all about your obsession with 'hot freaky' and you secretly wonder if one day she'll just crack, give in and take you up on your repeated subtle offers.
You would have never discovered duvet covers if a woman didn't bring them into your life.
Until she showed you, you had no idea that you could actually buy a cover to shove your old dirty ink stained comforter in to and that it would look like it's brand new.
I just don't understand whay people call them 'duvet covers.'
I mean... a 'duvet' is a cover for your ugly ass comforter right?
So what's a 'duvet cover?'
Either it's a redundant term...
or it's a cover for a cover.
Maybe I'm missing something here.
That's some brilliance right there... duvets... a product that had to be invented by a man... simply because it hides your dirty nasty old thing and makes it look new... but better than the most skillful application of duct tape ever could... at the same time given a french name and embraced by women as their own because they go for things with french names... and forgotten about by men because it was given that same french name.
'My girl's coming over tonight and my comforter looks like crap... I need a duvet cover quick.'
If you only had a clue as to where you could buy one.
I gotta admit that at first I thought when Snuggle Bums said that she needed to go and pick up a 'duvet' that it was some kind of mysterious feminine hygene product that I had no business knowing anything about.
I started to get a little nervous and wonder why in the world she would possibly be telling me this.
I remember fearing that her next move was going to be asking me to go to the store and pick one up for her.
It sounded suspiciously 'french.'
So I was relieved when I found out what it really was.
Women think of some pretty cool stuff sometimes.
Because they're not thinking of 'hot freaky' all of the time.
One of these days I'm gonna come up with a list of the top ten inventions by women that would make single guy's lives more worth living.
But since I'm a guy I'm gonna put it off until a woman who loves me asks me over and over again to do it.
And when she gives me an ultimatum I will make it a goal.
Then I'm gonna write that list on duct tape that I've fashioned into a piece of paper because I can't find the paper... but I knew that the duct tape was right in the garage where I left it last time I decided to try and fix something a couple of years ago.
Bedskirts would be on that list if I ever wrote it.
Right on top.
Has any single guy ever gone out and purchased a bedskirt?
What an amazing invention those are!
It's like a device that conceals all of the shit that you either throw under your bed or that just ends up there.
Like all of those socks you've been missing forever.
The kind of shit you usually only find after your lease expires.
Like that stuff under your dresser when you move it.
Women just do that kind of thing when they're bored.
Looking under furniture.
It must be the female equivalent of fishing.
'I think I'll pull some furniture out of its place and see what's underneath it today' they must think 'I don't have anything else to do... and the paint store is closed on Sundays.'
That's how women get their super powers of knowing where everything is.
That and the fact that they actually put it away.
But it's not just because men are slobs... even though we obviously are... it's easy for women to put stuff away because they're the ones who know where to put it.
Because they unilaterally determine where stuff should go in the female dominated houshold.
Which is any household where a woman lives.
Even if a guy's put something away you know he's not outta the water.
He's gotta put it in 'the right place' too.
You know she's just trying to provoke you when she says 'Honey... did you put the adjustable wrench in the china cabinet?'
You remember the first time you took your chick to your crib?
You thought she was checkin' out your CD collection and admiring your fantastic taste in little known independently produced music?
While you were workin' out the details of your carefully choreographed plan to show her your duvet cover...
She was really looking at all of your prized personal possessions and hoping that one day the two of you would have a fairy tale wedding and a garage big enough for all of that shit to fit into.
Guys just hide shit.
Especially from women.
It's in our genetic programming.
It's so that we can cope with women.
The problem is that we hide it and we forget where we hid it and then we need to ask our girl... who then tells us that we'd know where it was if we actually put it away in the right place.
The place she determined that it should go.
Without telling us.
Or more likely with us not remembering that she told us.
Of course... if she said to us 'honey... I want to talk to you about your need for 'hot freaky' and those things that you've been asking me to try doing... I know that 'hot freaky' is something that you think about a lot and I want to be supportive towards you that way... and I would... I mean more... if you put your beard scissors away in the basket that I've purchased for all of your male grooming products that I've found the perfect place for in the bathroom... and since I can't relate to chopping that much hair off of my face every day I wish you'd also be sure to clean every last whisker off of the vanity after you're done shaving... she might see you start to fade when you ask yourself what a 'vanity' is because you shave at the sink... but she could snap you right back if she turns to 'hot freaky' and says... 'you know if you did that for me baby I might be more inclined to actually think about doing that twisted shit you're always trying to get me to do under the duvet cover.'
When I look back on the conversation I remember it something like this...
'Hot freaky'... put beard trimming scissors away... 'hot freaky'... cleaning up whiskers off sink will bring me closer to the promised land of 'hot freaky'... women want to want 'hot freaky' as much as men... just clean up after yourself and you are by default one step closer to 'hot freaky.'
Beard trimming scissors are a funny thing.
They are a 'relationship flashpoint.'
Beard trimming scissors are 'nitroglycerin.'
That's because she will never use them.
She plucks her faint almost invisible whiskers off of her face with tweezers.
And she always puts them back in the first aid kit so you never even know they were gone.
Because she doesn't want you to know that she has whiskers to pluck anyway.
And in the female mind the next logical thing to do after seeing the tweezers left out would be to ask 'what were you doing with the tweezers.'
She doesn't want you to ask her that.
That's why she puts them away.
SHE knows how to hide shit from you buddy.
Your male brain wants to leave the beard scissors right next to the faucet on the thing that she calls a 'vanity.'
Because that's where you'll use them next.
And you hate looking for shit.
Almost as much as asking her where it is.
NEVER ask your woman where your beard trimming scissors are.
Ask her where she got that amazing top... or where she picked up those jeans that looked like their creation was inspired by her ass and her ass alone... or those incredible shoes.
Just never ask her where your beard trimming scissors are.
You can get away scott free asking where a lot of other stuff is if you do it right and approach it with a lot of thought and incredible foresight...
especially if you use romance or your consideration of her in your quest to find your lost treasure...
'Honey Baby Sugar Sparkles... I was thinking that one day I would like to take you on a romantic camping trip and you know... I realized that I have no idea where I put the camping stove.'
But never ask her where your beard trimming scissors are because you were supposed to put them away you slob.
It's like telling her 'Honey... you're always cleaning up after me... I just don't know how I could live without you.'
You'd be about to get whatchoo deserve smart guy.
If you have some deep need to set the lobe off and be the beneficiary of a brutal smackdown... then you can ask where your beard trimming scissors are.
They're the one thing that you're always leaving out that she knows she will never ever be guilty of using.
If you've got kids... particularly daughters... this is where they can really mess things up for you.
I love my daughters more than anything in the world.
And I'll be the first to admit that they've taught me so much about women.
When they're giving their pink glittery plastic pony its daily bubble bath in the sink they'll sure as day spot those scissors.
And then they'll decide that pony needs a haircut.
Because pony just realized that pony's boyfriend doesn't take anything in life seriously he never puts shit away and pony's decided to dump that asshole because life would be so much better without him and pony needs a new haircut to symbolize this turning point in pony's life.
Knowing that cutting the hair of anything results in a long lecture by mom...
Princess'll take your beautiful stainless steel beard trimming scissors to a more secret location to give pony a radical new hairstyle.
Meanwhile, you're safely at work without a clue as to the fact that the fuse has been lit.
You have gotta deal with this situation rather delicately.
It's pretty much 'two against one now.'
And that four times as much feminine power as you've ever proven you can handle.
The only thing you've ever proven is that indeed a man can live for a week eating nothing but american cheese slices.
You need to get Princess Pony Hairstyles back on your side.
If your beard trimming scissors aren't where you left them or in the basket in the bathroom closet your woman purchased to organize your male grooming products...
you know the kid's got them somewhere else.
And when you ask the kid she's gonna visualize cutting 'My Little Ponies' hair and know that if she tells you where your beard trimming scissors are is like admitting that she's been cutting said pony's hair.
Even though she might only be five or six she's already so much smarter than that.
Remember...
You're still dealing with a woman... just a smaller version... who's just like a regular woman except she'll probably never fantacize about dousing you with gasoline while you sleep and burning you alive.
Because she's your 'Little Glitter Princess.'
And princess' don't do that.
Chicks who watch the Lifetime Network do.
But you gotta get those beard trimming scissors back.
You can't just say 'Princess... listen... my beard trimming scissors aren't on the sink... and they're not in the basket that mommy purchased so lovingly for me to oraganize all of my male grooming products in... and that generally means that you have them... because you've been cutting ponys hair with them... and if you don't fork them over... I'll be forced to ask your mom where they are... and then she'll blow her freakin' lobe and I ain't not only not gonna get a little of the 'hot freaky'... the pursuit of which led to the birth of my Beautiful Little Princess... but there's a chance that not finding those beard trimming scissors might result in my life becoming a living hell for two weeks or so and we don't want daddy to live a life of misery and hell for two weeks now do we Sweet Glitter Pony Princess?'
Besides she already knows that the 'sink' is that thing in the kitchen or the laundry room.
And that's not where she stole your beard trimming scissors from anyway.
She's already studying you dad.
Probing you with her superior feminine mind...
identifying the weakness' and the vulnerabilities of men.
She looks to you to leave your beard trimming scissors on the vanity so she can remember her deep almost instinctive need to cut stuff with them.
Like pony's hair.
Or construction paper.
To make you beautiful and touching greeting cards with.
You're not thinkin' here man.
Because you're pretty good at doing that.
Always ask yourself... everytime you're looking at a woman... even a mini version... ask yourself what it is that they 'want.'
It's the only thing that matters really.
To them.
And therefore to you... the 'modern sensitive man' who is actually trying to understand 'them' in order to coexist in peace and love and the quest for 'freaky hot.'
Because ultimately they are going to get what they want so you might as well just identify it as soon as possible and capitulate you dufus.
And Princess wants another pony... and some glitter... and some smelly markers.
That have glittery ink.
So she can draw ponies prancing around fairy tale castles overlooked by dominant all knowing unicorns who symbolize the superiority of womanhood.
Work with her man.
Work with her.
It is the only way.
She can teach you a lot about women.
Your little Princess wants to give daddy what he wants.
But daddy's gotta remember the genetics at work.
Because even at this point Princess' little genetic deck is all stacked up against daddy.
You gotta do the right thing Daddy.
'I'll tell you what sweet little Princess Glitter Rainbow... I'm going to go up to my room and lay in bed and stare wide eyed at the ceiling and think of the ramifications of asking mommy where my beard trimming scissors are... and when I do that I just want you to know that if you find my beard trimming scissors and return them to me without letting mommy know that they were ever out of my possession... I will not only not even ask you where they were when you found them... I will reward you for helping daddy out by buying you that purple plastic pony you've been really wanting... with the long hair... the one that comes with the brush.'
This is where your panicked ass just sold out the entire male race.
Yes... you'll get your beard trimming scissors back... probably within five minutes... but now you've just reinforced in that girl that knowing where shit is gives her power and dominion over the entire male species.
Because it gets her exactly what she wants.
That purple plastic pony with a hairbrush.
The one mom wouldn't get her.
Because you've already bought her thirty of them and she keeps cutting all of their hair off.
Not to mention your beard scissors will be kidnapped and held for ransom time and time again dude.
You should at least 'try' to find shit yourself sometimes and not just 'wonder' where it might be.
That's why when I'm missing something I always start my search in the garage.
I really enjoy tooling around in the garage looking for stuff.
Every box and plastic bin I open is like a time capsule of my life.
Sometimes it brings me to tears... the nostalgia I find in there.
The emotions I get when I realize... there he is... my 'Talking Billy Bass!'
I always loved that talking bass.
What a revolutionary invention.
He looked so real and happy when he sang that song.
'Don't Worry Be Happy' by Bobby McFerrin.
I'm so amazed that the battery is even still good after all these years.
And from the contents of the box... the newspaper packing and stuff... I can tell that he's been buiried alive in there for almost seven years!
All my shit's seemed to migrate to the garage slowly over time.
I used to think a garage was a place for putting a car away.
But that's only for single guys.
Little did we know that 'garage' is french for 'a place to dump all of a guys shit.'
'Un lieu de jeter tout de merde d'un homme est dans le garage.'
You see that dipshit?
I got that right from google translate.
I typed in 'a place to put all of a man's shit is the garage.'
Then I hit 'translate' and 'to french.'
The word garage is in there.
Just like we say it.
Only the french say it differently.
With contempt.
Like they say everything.
While stomping out a cigarette on the floor.
In a cafe.
Before they demand more strong black coffee.
And another 'kwaaaaaaasant.'
In a black and white film.
That you only took your woman to see so you could impress her.
So she'd tell her friends all about it so you could secure their all important vote in the matter.
'He's amazing and sensitive and he loves french cinema!'
Now she knows damn well that the only thing 'french' you like are french fries.
Back to 'le garage' you idiot... if I can't find it in the garage, then and only then will I consider even going and asking her if she knows where 'it' is... and we both know full well that she knows exactly where it is... and therefor risk blowing the lobe when she gets all over my ass about it.
Because I've come to see this as the 'third oldest woman trap' that there is.
Asking your woman where something is.
She knows where that camping stove is.
She knew it from the day you left it on the counter in the kitchen hoping that she'd do the loving and supportive thing with some miracle product she purchased from gahd knows where and clean it for you.
She did.
She cleaned it for your sorry 'helpless in all things domestic' ass and she put it away in the garage where she has determined that it belongs.
And then she mentally photographed it sitting there on the counter in her otherwise dream kitchen.
Just to store it in the lobe for use against you one day.
When you say the stupid thing that you're destined to say that will set her off.
The reason you couldn't find it in the garage is because she put it in the bag that it's supposed to be stored in.
Three years later when you ask her if she knows where it is the day before you are supposed to go on a family camping trip and incidentally the day after you went out until three in the morning with your buddies when she assumed that your understanding and supportive self would be available to help her pack...
You ignorantly asked her 'baby... have you seen the camping stove?'
Depending on her volatility at the moment and her propensity to want to make your life miserable you might get away with it.
But odds are, since you'll be leaving tommorow you are in for it.
Especially if you add 'you know the one I left out on the counter for you to clean last time we went camping three years ago?'
You just did it again.
You should visualize that 'plunger box' with the big 'T' shaped handle that they use to set off dynamite with on cartoons.
You know the one.
It's in the garage.
Because your dumb guy brain just put both hands on that handle and pushed it down with everything you've got.
You've admitted to her that you have 'a memory.'
And that's gonna set her off a million ways to Sunday you watch.
Because you been tryin' to convince her that with all the pot you've smoked in college that she's right... you can't remember shit.'
She's always known you could remember SOME things... like the names of car parts or esoteric and rare, little known and used 'species secific' types of fishing gear... but not things that matter to her...
like anniversaries and stuff...
She's accepted your 'memory problems' at times and coped with it.
It's gotten you out of quite a few jambs in the past.
But now the gig is up dude.
If she actually lets the primitive lobe come to dominate her in this moment... and why wouldn't she... and she 'visualizes' that camping stove on the counter three years ago... after recalling her perfect mental photograph of it that's been quietly tucked away in the lobe for all this time just waiting for you to set it off like some kind of progressive slot machine in Las Vegas...
That's guaranteed to make her blow unless you took her to the 'Valley of Love' within' the last twenty four hours.
And I hope to gahd for your sake that you did.
A recent 'religious experience' in the Valley of Love is the only thing that'll save you right now.
Because havin' the lobe erupt before a long road trip is the fucking very worst time you can set it off Asshole.
You are gonna be sittin' in a car in tight proximity to her for hours, pointing out historical landmark plaques and their interest and significance while she says absolutely nothing and fiddles with the climate controls incessantly.
And pissed off women fiddle with the climate control knobs and buttons in the car like nothing I've ever seen.
I know because I've seen a lot of pissed off women try to micromanage the climate controls.
Talk about brutal.
Why can't you just be freakin' considerate for once in your miserable life?
If not of your girl, then maybe just every other guy in the world?
Now your relationship junk is gonna be spillin' all of its black death mojo vibes on innocent guys in towns hundreds or even thousands of miles away.
They didn't ask for that.
Thanks a lot dickhead.
I've learned something about women that's as close to a 'universal truth' as it comes.
Their 'volatility' grows to near epic and catastrophic proportions the closer that you get to departure for any trip for which 'packing' is required.
You've gotta be on your best game right before going on vacation.
Screwing it all up on vacation is disasterous because you won't have work to shield you from the ramifications of being your guy self.
You've got to be on top of your game man.
Go the extra mile and help your woman pack to the greatest extent of your ability.
And don't do that thing where you fuck it up intentionally just to make sure that she never asks you to do it again.
You really want this to be a nice vacation don't you?
Then don't fuck it all up idiot.
You have been warned.
Repeat: You HAVE been WARNED.
A concrete statue made by Guillermo Tolentino symbolizing "selfless offering of oneself to his country". It has been known as a symbol of the University of the Philippines since the 1930's. Most of the campuses under the UP system always feature an Oblation statue.
The Oblation that stands in UP Diliman, in front of Quezon Hall facing directly to west (as seen in the photo) is a replica made of Bronze which was a recast from the original one in Italy in 1950. The original statue is currently displayed at the Gonzales Hall or the UP Diliman Main Library.
Date taken: February 14, 2015
Amon Munyaneza, Rwandese, is a theology student. He is part of an ever-growing congregation in Eugene. Testament to his selflessness can be seen a continent away, on these radiant children's faces. Charismatic and committed to changing young African lives for the better, he's recently broken ground for two primary schools in Kigale and Butare. Part of Amon's vision entails feeding street children, then offering them a Christian education.
Every Saturday, on the front yard of the "Living Faith Ministries" headquarters in Butare, about 55 children attend Bible Study. These Saturday afternoons are filled with music, dance, and offer the children a chance to be children--in fellowship.
In America, Amon hasn't forgotten where he's come from, and these children in the deep south of Rwanda look forward to his visits.
Africa Mission Alliance
Pastor Amon Munyaneza of Eugene, Oregon
Butare, Rwanda. Afrika.
July 7, 2006
Mother with Child Portraits from Rwanda By Kresta K.C. Venning Book Preview
A tribute to the selfless service called Motherhood .
© All rights reserved by Arvinder Singh. Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit written permission.
To show his community spirit, Jersey Shore Fightin’ Texas A&M Aggie Ring drove over to a local community college for their food truck event this evening. Aggie Ring had seen most of the trucks that were there before at the many other local food truck events.
There was one particular food truck that caught Aggie Ring’s attention. It was called “1 Potato Two.” Their three main items were “Spudwiches,” “Spudnachos” and fries. Apparently, the “Spudwich” is an oversized potato (over a pound) which is baked, scooped out and deep fried until dark, crispy, and crunchy shells. The shells are then filled with a selection of items (cheesesteak, bacon cheeseburger, pulled pork with coleslaw on top, turkey and cranberry, or BLT.
Texas Aggie Ring doesn’t eat much bread and quite liked the idea of a crispy sandwich made from two halves of a fried potato instead of bread so we decided that we’d order the cheesesteak “Spudwich.” Aggie Ring and I were the first in line at the truck and while we waited for them to open, Aggie Ring kept saying, “This “Spudwich” thing is going to be so damn good…”
After a few minutes, the 1 Potato Two truck opened for business and as we were about to order the cheesesteak “Spudwich,” a miracle happened. The boss lady of the truck put down a static display tray of the three items that they were selling today to show everyone what they were about. The three items on the tray were fries (covered with all kinds of toppings), a bacon cheeseburger “Spudwich” (which looked awesome!) and the most elusive of all potato products, the coveted “Spudnachos.”
Texas Aggie Ring shined just a little bit brighter in the late afternoon sun when he saw the last of the three items on the display and cried out loudly, “Spudnachos!” It seems that they take pieces of crispy fried potato skins and they top them with chopped bacon burger, and heap on the lettuce, tomato, cheese, a special house sauce, and plenty of chopped jalapeños. Well, I knew that there was absolutely no way to win this argument with Aggie Ring. Anyone who has an Aggie Ring can tell you that there’s nothing any Aggie Ring loves more than Shiner Bock or nachos. Let alone, the miracle of the “Spudnacho.”
“We’ll have the “Spudnachos.” I told the lady at the window. Minutes later, Aggie Ring and I had our “Spudnachos” and headed over to a table with our freshly squeezed lemonade. Before I could pick up a fork and napkin, Aggie Ring in the most selfless and heroic act that I’ve ever seen an Aggie Ring perform, leapt off of my finger and onto one of the crispy fried potato skins in the “Spudnachos.” Then, Aggie Ring cried out “I’m King of the Spudnachos!”
(Editor’s note: As I was putting Aggie Ring into the container of jewelry cleaner later in the evening to get the cheese sauce out of his crest, Aggie Ring said, “I did that because I love you and I wanted to make sure that those potatoes had enough toppings and were safe for you to share with me.”)
#AggieRing #TexasAggie #AggiesEverywhere
and amazing, bizarre ~
dearest friends, magnificent souls ... *
well, am trying to infuse a little humor in this .. as the results of the surgery came in tonight, and they're both amazing and bizarre...
will try to explain, in the least graphic way, what i was just told by my doctor:
when the surgeon took the biopsy of my bone, he kept finding no cells (of either kind) from the lesion to test, only blood.. so he went back in 3 more times, but each time it was the same.
puzzled, the surgeon figured the pathology lab would be able to spin it down and find some cells.. there have got to be cells! ... but the lab couldn't find any cells either.. benign or otherwise..
so... my doctor, who said he is hopefully optimistic yet is not sure what to make of this, is sending me to an oncologist, a cancer doctor for bones, for him to try to figure out the puzzle.
there is only one in the whole state, dr. singer (a wonderful name :)..
it may take awhile to get in to see him, despite my doctor wanting it to be done 'asap', because he is so busy (as, in addition to being a bone cancer specialist, he's also a hand surgeon.. which is also kind of amazing & bizarre :)
that's All okay .. i really have no fear ... because, after the initial wonderment, here's what am feeling in my soul .. ~
Life is a mystery. .. not everything is explainable.
in my heart of hearts, i would not be surprised if they never figure it out ... because.. (and you may think this is bizarre :) ..
i believe its gone ~ and truly believe that You and all my loved ones took it away with your heartful intentions sent to me...
You, with your beautiful gifts... with your healing energies, your generosity of spirit, your selflessness and true kindness... with Love.
*~ may you have these same gifts returned to you a thousandfold in your lives ~*
as soon as i heal a bit more from the surgery .. and can become familiar with my new computer (which is still in the box), i will come to each of your photostreams to thank you personally ... and would then also like to make each of you new friends my contact, hope that will be okay..
am so thankful for You... *
You ~ each of you ~ have meant everything to me during this ordeal ..
You have kept me, tenderly, in the Light ..
and You have allowed me to feel at peace and safe.
because of You, i will continue to feel at peace and safe, no matter what unfolds..
with an enormous warm hug to each of you .. a hug which will last a whole lifetime...
and love on you.. beyond-thanks to you always & always .. alight *
.
'Love is for those who strangle the throat of their desires knowingly.' - His Holiness Younus AlGohar
“One of the chief obstacles to this perfection of selfless charity, is the selfish anxiety to get the most out of everything, to be a brilliant success in our own eyes and in the eyes of other men. We can only get rid of this anxiety by being content to miss something in almost everything we do. We cannot master everything, taste everything, understand everything, drain every experience to its last dregs. But if we have the courage to let almost everything else go, we will probably be able to retain the one thing necessary for us -whatever it may be. If we are too eager to have everything, we will almost certainly miss even the one thing we need.
Happiness consists in finding out precisely what the ‘one thing necessary’ may be, in our lives, and in gladly relinquishing all the rest. For then, by a divine paradox, we find that everything else is given us together with the one thing we needed. “ - from No Man is an Island (Thomas Merton)
Politically or philosophically, we can disagree, but we cannot deny their courage, devotion and selflessness. Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery.
This is the moment of arrest for the elderly protester depicted in the previous image and just one of the many older protesters who participated in the demonstration against the proscription of Palestine Action in London's Parliament Square on 6 September 2025.
Her calm expression seems to reflect the quiet dignity and selfless courage that organisers and observers noted in the crowd. This interaction was one of 890 arrests made that day as part of a massive and methodical police operation. It was the pre-scripted outcome of a carefully planned act of mass civil disobedience designed to challenge the legitimacy of the government's ban on Palestine Action
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Protest and the Price of Dissent: Palestine Action and the Criminalisation of Conscience
Parliament Square on Saturday, 6 September 2025 was a scene of quiet, almost solemn defiance. The air, usually thick with the noise of London traffic and crowds of tourists, was instead filled with a palpable tension, a shared gravity that emanated from the quiet determination of hundreds of protesters, many of them over 60 years old, some sitting on steps or stools and others lying on the grass.
They held not professionally printed banners, but handwritten cardboard signs, their messages stark against the historic grandeur of their surroundings. This was not a march of chants and slogans, but a silent vigil of civil disobedience, a deliberate and calculated act of defiance against the state.
On that day, my task was to photograph the protest against the proscription of the direct-action group Palestine Action. While not always agreeing entirely with the group’s methods, I could not help but be struck by the profound dedication etched on the faces of the individual protesters.
As they sat in silence, contemplating both the horrific gravity of the situation in Gaza and the enormity of the personal risk they were taking — courting arrest under terror laws for holding a simple placard — their expressions took on a quality not dissimilar to what war photographers once called the “thousand-yard stare.” It was a look of weary but deep and determined resolve, a silent testament to their readiness to face life-changing prosecution in the name of a principle.
This scene poses a profound and unsettling question for modern Britain. How did the United Kingdom, a nation that prides itself on its democratic traditions and the right to protest, arrive at a point where hundreds of its citizens — clergy, doctors, veterans, and the elderly — could be arrested under counter-terrorism legislation for an act of silent, peaceful protest?
The events of that September afternoon were the culmination of a complex and contentious series of developments, but their significance extends far beyond a single organisation or demonstration. The proscription of Palestine Action has become a critical juncture in the nation’s relationship with dissent, a test of the elasticity of free expression, and a stark examination of its obligations under international law in the face of Israel deliberately engineering a catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
To understand what is at stake, one must unravel the threads that led to that moment: the identity of the movement, the state’s legal machinery of proscription, the confrontation in Parliament Square, and the political context that compelled so many to risk their liberty.
Direct Action and the State’s Response
Palestine Action, established in 2020, has never hidden its approach. Unlike traditional lobbying groups, it rejected appeals to political elites in favour of disrupting the physical infrastructure of complicity: factories producing parts for Israeli weapons systems, offices of arms manufacturers, and — eventually — military installations themselves.
Its tactics, while non-violent, were disruptive and confrontational. Red paint sprayed across buildings to symbolise blood, occupations that halted production, chains and locks on factory gates. For supporters, these were acts of conscience against a system enabling atrocities in Gaza. For the state, they were criminal disruptions of commerce.
That clash escalated steadily. In Oldham, a persistent campaign against Elbit Systems, a key manufacturer in the Israeli arms supply chain, culminated in the company abandoning its Ferranti site. Later actions targeted suppliers for F-35 fighter jets and other arms manufacturers. These were no random acts of mindless vandalism but part of a deliberate strategy: to impose costs high enough that complicity in Israel’s war effort would become unsustainable.
The decisive rupture came in June 2025, when activists infiltrated RAF Brize Norton, Britain’s largest airbase, and sprayed red paint into the engines of refuelling aircraft linked to operations over Gaza. For the activists, it was a desperate attempt to interrupt a supply chain of surveillance and logistical support to a state commiting genocide. For the government, it crossed a line: military assets had been attacked. Within days, the Home Secretary announced Palestine Action would be proscribed as a terrorist organisation.
Proscription and the Expansion of “Terrorism”
Here lies the heart of the controversy. The Terrorism Act 2000 defines terrorism with unusual breadth, encompassing not only threats to life but also “serious damage to property” carried out for political or ideological aims. In this capacious definition, breaking a factory window or disabling a machine can be legally assimilated to mass murder.
By invoking this law, the government placed Palestine Action on the same legal footing as al-Qaeda or ISIS. Supporting it — even symbolically — became a serious offence.
Since July 2025, merely expressing support for the organization can carry a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.
This is based on Section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000. The specific offence is "recklessly expressing support for a proscribed organisation". However, according to Section 13 of the Act, a lower-level offence for actions like displaying hand held placards in support of a proscribed group carries a maximum sentence of six months imprisonment or a fine of five thousand pounds or both.
Civil liberties groups and human rights bodies have denounced the proscription move as disproportionate. Their concern was not primarily whether Palestine Action’s tactics might violate existing criminal law. One might reasonably argue that they did unless they might sometimes be justified in the name of preventing a greater crime.
But reframing those actions as “terrorism” represented a dangerous category error. As many pointed out, terrorism has historically referred to violence against civilians. Expanding it to cover property damage risks draining the term of meaning. Worse, it arms the state with a stigma so powerful that it can delegitimise entire political positions without debate.
The implications go further. Proscription does not simply criminalise acts. It criminalises expressions of allegiance, conscience and even speech. To say “I support Palestine Action” is no longer an opinion but technically a serious crime. The state has moved from punishing deeds to punishing expressions of solidarity — a move with chilling consequences for democratic life.
Parliament Square: Civil Disobedience on Trial
It was this transformation that brought nearly 1,500 people into Parliament Square on 6 September. They knew what awaited them. Organisers announced in advance that protesters would hold signs reading: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.” In doing so, they openly declared their intent to break the law.
The crowd was strikingly diverse. Retired doctors, clergy, war veterans, even an 83-year-old Anglican priest. Disabled activists came in wheelchairs; descendants of Holocaust survivors stood beside young students. This was not a hardened cadre of militants but a cross-section of society, many of whom had never before faced arrest.
At precisely 1 pm, the protesters all sat or lay down silently, cardboard signs raised. There was no chanting, no aggression — only a quiet insistence that they would not accept the criminalisation of conscience.
The police response was equally predictable. Hundreds of officers moved systematically through the crowd, arresting anyone displaying a sign. By the end of the day, nearly 900 people were detained under counter-terrorism law. It was one of the largest mass arrests in modern British history.
Official statements later alleged police were met with violence — officers punched, spat on, objects thrown. Yet independent observers, including Amnesty International, contradicted this. They reported a peaceful assembly disrupted by aggressive policing: batons drawn, protesters shoved, some bloodied.
www.amnesty.org/zh-hans/documents/eur45/0273/2025/en/
Video footage supported at least some of Amnesty's report.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZQGFrqCf5U&t=1283s
The two narratives were irreconcilable, but only one carried the weight and authority of the state.
The entire event unfolded as political theatre. The government proscribed a group, thereby creating a new crime. Protesters, convinced the law was unjust, announced their intent to commit that crime peacefully. The police, forewarned, staged a vast operation. Each side acted out its script. The spectacle allowed the state to present itself as defending order against extremism — while in reality silencing dissent.
The Humanitarian Context: Why Protesters Risked All
To see the Parliament Square protest as a parochial dispute over free speech is to miss its driving force. The demonstrators were not there merely to defend abstract principles. They were responding to what they, and a growing body of international experts, describe as a genocide in Gaza.
By September 2025, Gaza had descended into almost total collapse. Over 63,000 Palestinians had been killed, the majority of them women and children. More than 150,000 had been injured, many maimed for life. Entire neighbourhoods had been flattened. Famine was confirmed in August, with Israel continuing to impose and even tighten deliberate restrictions on food, water, and fuel, a strategy condemned by human rights groups as a major war crime. Hospitals lay in ruins. Ninety percent of the population had been displaced.
It is in this context that the term genocide has been applied. Legal scholars point not only to mass killings but also to the deliberate infliction of life-destroying conditions, accompanied by rhetoric from Israeli officials dehumanising Palestinians as “human animals.” In September 2025, the International Association of Genocide Scholars declared that Israel’s actions met the legal definition of genocide.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cde3eyzdr63o
Major NGOs, UN experts, and even Israeli human rights groups such as B’Tselem echoed that conclusion.
For the protesters, then, the question was not abstract but immediate: faced with what they saw as a genocide, could they in good conscience remain silent while their own government criminalised resistance to it? Their answer was to risk arrest, their placards making the moral connection explicit: opposing genocide meant supporting those who sought to stop it.
The Price of Dissent
The mass arrests in Parliament Square were not an isolated incident of law enforcement. They were the product of a broader trajectory: escalating tactics by a direct-action movement, a humanitarian catastrophe abroad, and a government determined to suppress dissent at home through the bluntest of instruments.
The official line insists that Palestine Action’s campaign constituted terrorism and thus warranted proscription. On this view, the arrests were simple enforcement of the law. Yet this account obscures the deeper reality: a precedent in which the state redefined non-lethal protest as terrorism, shifting from punishing actions to criminalising expressions of solidarity.
The cost is profound. Once speech and conscience themselves become suspect, dissent is no longer tolerated but pathologised. The chilling effect is already evident: individuals weigh not just whether to join a protest, but whether uttering support might expose them to years in prison. Terror laws, originally justified as a shield against mass violence, are recast as tools of political management.
The protesters understood this. That “thousand-yard stare” captured in their faces was not only the weight of potential arrest, but the knowledge of Gaza’s devastation, the famine and rubble, the deaths mounting daily. It was also the recognition that their own government had chosen to silence them rather than address its complicity.
In a functioning democracy, the question is not why citizens risk arrest for holding a handwritten cardboard sign. It is why a state finds it necessary to treat that act as a terror offence. The answer reveals a narrowing of democratic space, where conscience itself is deemed subversive. And that narrowing, history teaches, carries consequences not just for those arrested, but for the society that allows it.
...inside or outside... then we have to pray... as i believe, as more of us will pray... the more positive vibes will be generated and that unseen power; which all the great crusaders of inhumanity, hate & injustice; who made the history of mankind, had in them, to bring justice & freedom to humanity, which at a time seem impossible, with there committed, selfless n genuine efforts...
Notice:
"Beware of my bad English... i beg your pardon!"
hehehe...
About the Photo-
This capture was taken when i went to see the Hyderabad city...
It was sunset time; all of sudden a Jet plane came along, as if to make my capture more interesting.. there's more to come!! :)
Inspired to-
With all respect towards the noble souls, i am planning to do some pencil sketching...
the list is as follows...
1. Buddha
2. Abraham Lincoln
3. Nelson Mandela
4. Mahatma Gandhi
5. Mother Teresa
& so on....
My Studies-
Well, my Btech classes of final semester(8th) will probably start from next month's first week.
Before that our Final year Project batch of 4, have to go for a course at the capital city of Kerala, Trivandrum - as called by the Late British Rulers..
its like 'tree+van+drum', hah.. its funny school day memories! :)
[its 'Thiruvanathapuram' actually in our sweet language.. (But. English will be my buddy, k!!) :)]
My LIfe (n all the present 'emos')-
// I m Sorry for these emotional words... pls skip this, if uninterested!! :)
Flickr should introduce a flip-updown facility for hiding this if required... just saying.. bit seriously!!;-)//
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"hello friends, check...check..k.. this is the real ME i m going to tell you guys!!"
One day i ll speek up to an audience like that... i always feel so.. :)
Now I feel like the Turning point thing have begin... to its full swing... & i am able to move ahead towards my dreams now.. with a proper pace, focus n stability!!
What i mean is that the struggle which was going on for ages, over a particularly disturbing 'cause' is at last over..finished!!!
Its like i have made to the end of a big chapter in my life... & so so much relieved by that!!!
No words for that.. yeh some are destined to have a life with so much pain n sorrow...
But dear.. :)
I thank god... yepp!! and i really appreciate myself for being so brave, persistent, patient, optimistic, honest, sensitive, flexible, sacrificing, innovative, creative, etc. for myself...
and my family too... to support & guide them to safety!!
My Sister is now happily married, & actually living her dream - to own a business of her own with her husband!!
Mom is relieved & is now under my protection of love & care...
This family which has gone through literally a HELL... is now gradually recovering...
and ohyaa... what was the main CAUSE of this 'family' tragedy sh*t??
What else.. F*ck yeh...
Ego problems..!!
& I GUESS its 'the problem' everywhere around here on planet earth..
and wherever LIFE is... Its an Universal phenomena...
& here man often 'defeat' himself for being an As***le!!!!!!
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A Message-
But i want to spread the message, my life have taught me..
"to move on, may what happen around you,
believe in yourself & do whatever you can for yourself first... but just do it!!
If you are truly strong, you will automatically do all the karmas of being a good human!!
Jungle rules are the basics of our life, so be strong, keep learning & grow on, its a continuous process & always will be... however ultra-modern our planet earth may become these rule are set forever!!!"
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May God bless us...
I wish you all a great weekend.. have a lovely time with your family n the loved ones...
This love & relations... Its not just precious... its invaluable ... :)
Man may travel far and wide or establishes a second home beyond the borders of his native land; Yet at the twilight years of life, he will travel back on the long road to the old Home where he spent the first 7 years of his childhood from the time he was born. - wilfredosrb
Everyman in his second childhood forgets all material things. His wife, children and grandchildren are mere friends and playmates. He remembers only the years as a child below 7 yrs of age and going home to the place where he was born.
Robert Frost, an American poet, wrote "Where Are The Old Men?", re-living in poetic lines the men who left England on the MayFlower. The men with their family who worked in American plantations until their old age. No one saw them leave, died and buried in American soil . . . -wilfredosrb
Mindanao Tourist Destinations
Local/Travel Website and Angelique Ross Kaamiño/TravelEscapade TRAVEL Leisure/Cebu/CdO/Butuan
Featured Link-
Selfless dedications in God, Country and People
PHOTO INFO-STORY: -wilfredosrb
Marley taught me about living each day with unbridled exuberance and joy, about seizing the moment and following your heart. He taught me to appreciate the simple things - a walk in the woods, a fresh snowfall, a nap in a shaft of winter sunlight. And as he grew old and achy, he taught me about optimism in the face of adversity. Mostly, he taught me about friendship and selflessness and, above all else, unwavering loyalty.
Quote: John Grogan, Marley and Me, 2005
And for those who have not yet read the book or watched the movie.... you should.
"You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you."
~ John Bunyan
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Just last month, I learned how to knit! This has been a huge gift to me, since I have always wanted to learn. The thought of making scarves and blankets for our long New England winters has always warmed my heart...especially when I can share my warmth and love with needy people who will truly treasure my handmade gifts. This soft wooly red scarf will go to the Orphan Foundation of America sometime this winter, and be given to a special person on Valentine's Day. Every year hundreds and hundreds of people knit red scarves to give away to young people as a gift of selfless kindness and love. What a beautiful gesture. If I ever saw all those thousands of scarves, knitted from people all over the world, in one place, I think I would cry. I am so proud to be a part of such a beautiful tradition. If you wish to take part in it too, here is the link...Red Scarf Project.
♥
A small tiger,It has just been born.but it lost its mother.So it is eatting a dog's milk.That dog become its nurse mother.In order to take concrete only a small tiger,so i didn't take to shot the female dog.but "she"is selfless and lovely,because "she"is feeding a future king of animals.This's motherly love.