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Date: Sunday, September 4, 2010
Time: 1:00pm – 4:00pm

We’ll be experimenting with the Saturday meetups, trying to take this fellowship of freethinkers around different venues. This week we’ll be meeting at Seattle’s Best Katipunan on the suggestion of French. The meetup area should be at the second floor; as always look out for the group of smart, sexy people!

Google Map to Seattle’s Best Katipunan

The discussion Topics are just a suggestion. Like pants.

1. Anti-vaccination
2. Book-wars: The CBCP Natural Family Planning book
3. International/regional involvement
4. Feed a beggar day!
5. Film School: “The Last Exorcism”

* Newbies are welcome.
* Discuss anything with fellow freethinkers.
* Look for the FF sign (or the group of smart, sexy people).
* There is no required age, religion, philosophy, or IQ level.
* Discussions are informal yet intelligent (most of the time).
* You don’t have to talk; you can just sit in and listen.
* You don’t have to buy anything from Seattle’s Best.

If you can’t make it for the meetup schedule, the FF’ers will most likely have post-meetup dinner and drinks at one of the many restaurants around Katipunan. If you’re new and interested in the post-meetup but can’t make it for the scheduled meet, please indicate in a comment below so we can contact you.

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Date: Sunday, August 22, 2010
Time: 1:00pm – 4:00pm
Location: Starbucks (near cinemas) at Shangrila EDSA Plaza Mall

Discussion topics aren’t set in stone. They’re like the ten commandments that way!

1.  ”Don’t Be a Dick”
2. Culture wars
3. ???
4. Profit!

* Newbies are welcome.
* Discuss anything with fellow freethinkers.
* Look for the FF sign (or the group of smart, sexy people).
* There is no required age, religion, philosophy, or IQ level.
* Discussions are informal yet intelligent (most of the time).
* You don’t have to talk; you can just sit in and listen.
* You don’t have to buy anything from Starbucks.

Even if you can’t make it for the scheduled meetup you can always catch us for the post-meetup dinner and drinks at the Krocodile Grill in Shangrila Mall.

Many thanks to Ms. M for the generous treat and the books, and to the rest of the FF Davao guys for the fun weekend.

It was great meeting you all!

Books

And More Books

Singing

And More Singing

Food

And More Food

Sharing

And More Sharing

Catching Some Fresh Sea Air

Raiding our host’s Farm For The Coconuts And The Vinegar

Even More Food, Italian This Time

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This week, we’re having a special meetup in conjunction with the Mind Museum’s Cafe Scientifique event. The Mind Museum and the Silly People’s Improv Theater are presenting Cafe Unscientifique, a hilarious look at a world without science. Look forward to the performance of Kenneth Keng, a Filipino Freethinker and an actor of S.P.I.T!

For this meetup, we’ll be gathering at Seattle’s Best, Fort Bonifacio High Street instead of at our usual mall of Shangri-la. Meetup time is still at 1PM for the discussion, Cafe Unscientifique begins at 4PM.

* Newbies are welcome.
* Discuss anything with fellow freethinkers.
* Look for the FF sign (or the group of smart, sexy people).
* There is no required age, religion, philosophy, or IQ level.
* Discussions are informal yet intelligent (most of the time).
* You don’t have to talk; you can just sit in and listen.
* You don’t have to buy anything from Starbucks Seattle’s Best.

Filipino Freethinkers — UPD is co-presenting the Cinemalaya 2010 Entry Two Funerals with UP Cineastes’ Studio in partnership with UP Film Institute and in cooperation with Cultural Center of the Philippines and Cinemalaya Foundation, Inc. The screening will be on Tuesday, July 27, 2010, 7:30 PM, at the Cine Adarna at University of the Philippines Diliman (where the past FF Film Fest was held).

Two Funerals is a black comedy involving a mother trying to recover the remains of her daughter after a funeral parlor mix-up also sends her family a stranger’s corpse. It was directed by Gil M. Portes and stars Tessie Tomas, Xian Lim, Jeffrey Quizon, Robert Arevalo, Benjie Felipe, and Mon Confiado. Gil M. Portes won the Director’s Showcase in the Audience Choice portion of the Cinemalaya 2010 Awards. Two Funerals also won for Best Cinematography, Best Screenplay, Special Jury Prize, and for Best Director.

Two Funerals Trailer

Tickets are P80 each. Email ffupdiliman@gmail.com to reserve tickets and to arrange for picking the tickets up before or at the event itself. Tickets will also be sold at this next FF July 25 Meetup at Shangri-La.

See you at the movies!

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1. Noynoy and Theocracy: Less secularism after Gloria?
2. Christianizing Islam: Do you agree with Ayaan’s strategy?
3. Child Indoctrination: Is it ethical to teach children religion?
4. Theist or atheist, what would make you change your mind about god?
5. Technology for parents to predetermine their child’s gender/gender identity — a good idea?
6. Short story workshop

* Newbies are welcome.
* Discuss anything with fellow freethinkers.
* Look for the FF sign (or the group of smart, sexy people).
* There is no required age, religion, philosophy, or IQ level.
* Discussions are informal yet intelligent (most of the time).
* You don’t have to talk; you can just sit in and listen.
* You don’t have to buy anything from Starbucks.

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Date: Sunday, June 27, 2010
Time: 1:00pm – 4:00pm
Location: Starbucks (near cinemas) at Shangrila Mall

Discussion Topics:

1. Starting steps for virgin vegans
2. Short story writing workshop
3. Freethinker Solidarity Day
4. Shoptalk: family planning & contraception
5. How to save Sex Ed (brainstorming)

* Newbies are welcome.
* Look for the FF sign (or the group of smart, sexy people).
* There is no required age, religion, philosophy, or IQ level.
* Discussions are informal yet intelligent (most of the time).
* You don’t have to talk; you can just sit in and listen.
* You don’t have to buy anything from Starbucks.

Looking for a more practical way to help your fellow human beings instead “praying” for them to get well? Good thoughts and well wishes may be well and good but for an unfortunate few, more concrete help will be more appreciated than magically wishing for them to get well.

June is statistically one of the low seasons for blood bank supplies, thus the annual awareness campaign for the need for more people to step up to the challenge of giving something of themselves… literally.

The 2010 global campaign focuses on Young Donors, with the slogan “New blood for the world”. It hopes that a new generation of idealistic and motivated voluntary unpaid blood donors will form a pool that provides the safest blood possible for use wherever and whenever it is needed to save life.

source: http://www.who.int/worldblooddonorday/en/

Some excerpts from Philippine Red Cross Secretary General Gwendolyn Pang:

Young blood is what we need. We need a new breed of heroes. That’s why we say a blood donor is a hero. It’s so nice to see young people giving blood as it is a testament of the hope and future of our National Blood Program and a reflection of the kind of society we have today given the challenges we face. We are still a country of good-hearted, volunteer blood donors.

Blood donation is not dramatic and requires no grandstanding. It is plain and simple but with a great desire to lend a helping hand to someone without the lights and the camera. In blood donation, you never outdo, outwit and outlast anybody to become the hero you wanted to be. It’s only true when you want to be the sole survivor in the world!

Every second, someone in the world needs blood. Majority of the world’s population do not have access to safe blood and it can only be provided by blood donors who will voluntary and willingly donate their precious blood to save a life — a life of a mother giving birth, a victim of certain accident, a boy who is suffering  from leukemia, a child with dengue or a father who is undergoing open heart surgery.

Millions of people owe their lives to people who are not personally acquainted to them in one way or another – these are the people who give their blood freely and without hesitation, without asking anything in return.

In the Philippines, 9 out of 10 Filipinos will need blood sometime in their lives. With the demand for blood increasing every day and with its shelf life of 35 days, it is important that blood donation becomes a regular custom in the Philippines especially among the youth.

source: http://www.redcross.org.ph/Site/PNRC/secgen.aspx

Blood is life. And it’s the best gift you could ever give because more often than not, its a matter of life-and-death.  It’s not just a gift of blood, it’s a gift of life. One simply can’t rely on prayers to God to help make people get well because well, frankly, he’s been slouching off lately, and we’re in short supply of miracles nowadays. So it’s up to us then to make a difference because in the end, it’s people that help other people (… and don’t let the Objectivists tell you otherwise… altruism is good)

comic strip courtesy of: Least I Could Do

For more information:

• World Health Organization – World Blood Donor Day 2010
• World Blood Donor Day – Official Site
• Philippine National Red Cross – How to Donate Blood

May 29 FF Meetup

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Date: Saturday, June 12, 2010
Time: 1:00pm – 4:00pm
Location: Starbucks (near cinemas) at Shangrila Mall
Agenda:

* Is nationalism a good thing?
* The ethics of having sex with friends
* Starting steps for virgin vegans
* Should atheists preach?
* Atheist Solidarity Day brainstorming
* Lesson 1 of short story writing workshop

Dave O'Brien and Hemant Mehta

Dave O'Brien and Maggie Ardiente

This morning, our friend and supporter, American atheist Dave O’Brien, sent us some good news:

This weekend I attended the American Humanist Association annual conference in San Jose –quite close to my home. Great conference with good speakers and about 300+ attendees.

Maggie Ardiente is the development director of AHA and her parents are Filipino but she was born in USA (San Diego) and never visited the Philippines. We had been in contact for a while and she is thinking of writing an article on Freethought in the Philippines so I gave her an update and a FF Tee shirt .

I met Hemant Mehta at the conference and gave him an update and Tee shirt and also got Hemant to sign a copy of his book and dedicate it to FF.

Last week Ayaan Hirsi Ali was in Palo Alto giving a talk and I got her to sign a copy of her new book (Nomad) to “filipino freethinker women.” She was quite interested in the concept of women being active in the movement over there.

Dave is sending us these two books (Hemant’s I Sold My Soul on Ebay and Ayaan’s Nomad — signed!) as well as other literature soon, and it’ll be here in a couple of months.

Maggie, Hemant, Ayaan, and of course, Dave — thanks for all your support!

The First Filipino Freethinkers Film Fest at Cine Adarna in UP Diliman (Photo by Beatriz Torre, FFUPD Member)

If you’re a University of the Philippines Diliman student looking for fellowship with other atheists, agnostics, deists, skeptics, and freethinkers in general, you are not alone!

The first Filipino Freethinkers campus chapter is setting up in UPD and we are looking for members.

Prospective founding members need to provide the following:

• scanned UP ID
• UP Webmail address (e.g. student@up.edu.ph)
• Personal Email address (e.g. student@yahoo.com)

Send these to ffupdiliman@gmail.com by 11:59 PM on Friday, June 11, 2010.

We need to give these to the UP Diliman Office of Student Affairs so we can get officially registered as a university organization, which makes conducting activities much easier.

If you are unable to provide a scanned UP ID via email, you may leave a hard copy at the security guard’s desk of the National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (Albert Hall) near the College of Fine Arts.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask us at ffupdiliman@gmail.com.

You can keep updated with our activities and future meetups at our Facebook group where you can also find out more about the organization.

You can help our org get going by sharing t-shirt design ideas related to freethinking, fundraising activity ideas, ACLE ideas, ideas for guest speakers to invite, ideas for movies to screen at the 2nd Annual Filipino Freethinkers Film Festival, ideas for meet-up (General Assembly) discussion topics, and more ideas!

Help make UP Diliman a nicer place for freethinkers!

For the last time, Maria Ozawa isn’t a member. Nor do we have an equally eloquent expert on sex harassment. Those recent posts are entries in our June writing contest. Interested?

Just write an essay on any of the following themes:

• political correctness
• science vs. superstition
• loneliness and isolation

You may write on a combination of themes (like Ms. Ozawa did) but there’s no bonus if you do. (Except if you manage to allude to bukake.)

Two awesome prizes will be given during our second July meetup:

1. Reader’s choice prize: awesome certificate and any Starbucks beverage.
2. Writer’s choice prize: awesome certificate and the privilege to choose any freethought-related book worth P1,000 (the winner doesn’t have to pay anything, unless they want to get something more expensive.) Although the winner doesn’t get to own it — the book is added to the FF library — they get two months to finish reading the book before having to lend it to someone else. The winner must also post a short review of the book on our blog.

Joining is easy:

1. Register for a contributor account.
2. Compose your post (500-800 words) and tag it with “writing contest.”
3. Submit your post before July 1. Submissions of nonregular contributors will be reviewed before publishing.

Mechanics for voting and judging will be posted before the contest deadline. In the meantime, start writing!