It’s really the saddest sight on television every time the rescue operation in Sichuan, China is being shown on cable news. I would often turn my stare away from the scenes on the screen as children were being pulled from under the rubles that had resulted from the massive quake that had befallen the area a number of days ago.

It’s the most lamentable of all — I thought the news shouldn’t be as visual as that, that there should be a limit somehow, for the senses could only witness a reasonable amount of grief.

After the tragedy in Myanmar, the earthquake in Sichuan Province is yet another enormous misfortune for Asia, as people in this region barely struggle past neverending food crisis and rising fuel prices. I just wished that we should have had done away with these recent catastrophes. But nature has it’s own willings that are beyond our grasps.

And I hope to the fullest that more and more survivors would be rescued from the rubles three days after, despite that as of now, the death toll is feared to have reach 50,000 — such unspeakable tragedy really.

THE SUPERDELEGATES— any of you who have been closely watching the rollercoaster of a Democratic Party primary elections have surely heard about them already. I for one hasn’t had heard of them except for now; despite that I have had great interest in U.S. pre-election contests for many years now.

Of course — contrary to the way they are termed — they aren’t newly-invented superheroes with flowing capes and glinting gloves fitted to their hands, but real people who are designated to hold distinguished positions in the Democratic Party organizations and has superior voting preferences in the primaries, that in the Democratic Party convention this coming August, they might just be the ones to put finality as to the person of the party standard bearer, whether Senator Barack Obama or Senator Hillary Clinton.

As of now, Sen. Obama had gained more pledge votes by performing well in a number of primaries and caucuses held earlier in the year, more than what Sen. Clinton had gained that right now, Sen. Obama merely needs 176 pledged votes in the remaining primaries for him to finally clinch the nomination.

But as of now, and despite the magic number 176 of Obama, the contest is still seen by many as tight and could still run wide open as the next state to vote, which is West Virginia, is expected to go largely in favor of Sen. Clinton.

The latest news is that Sen. Obama had finally overtaken Sen. Clinton in the number of superdelegates that are expected to vote in August. Observers have suggested that in order for Sen. Clinton to overturn the overall lead of Sen. Obama throughout the primaries, she needs to win big among the superdelegates in August. A slight margin of win for her among the superdelegates would not matter as much.

There were some early criticisms in fact about how the Democratic Party nomination system could become undemocratic in a certain way, where the superdelegates could decide to set aside the results of the primaries, after hundreds of thousands of Democratic Party members throughout America from East Coast to West Coast, have exerted efforts to voice out their nomination choices, only to be overturned by the superdelegates, who are party stalwarts designated to their position or stature merely because they are party officials and elected officials. They are called PLEO’s.

There is no stopping the superdelegates from going against the will of the majority or results of the numerous primaries; they could vote irrespective of the primary results, especially in a very tight contest like this. That, even if Sen. Obama garnered the most votes in the primaries, the superdelegates could still overturn this and push Sen. Clinton as the party standard bearer by largely voting for her. “So much for democracy”, I have heard one party member quipped over CNN.

So the race they say between Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton would most possibly go down the wire, even towards August during the party convention where the superdelegates would finally vote, and this despite many observers had already advised Sen. Clinton to withdraw from the race as the lead of Sen. Obama in the primaries is nearly insurmountable, merely a mathematical possibility.

But because superdelegates could still matter in August, Sen. Clinton is pushing on.

I was just talking about summer and how we all loved the warm sun and the warm season that goes with it. But yesterday finally augured in the rainy season, for it had been raining for more than a couple of days straight since then, and if rain would fall with that kind of consistency, and it happens to be May, then it’d be for sure that the rainy season had finally arrived.

It was my second child’s birthday yesterday and we had planned to celebrate it by bathing at the pool, which we did in the afternoon. And it was also the birthday of Ilana, the very lovely and very cute daughter of my close friend Michael Lopez and Dra. Leileen Lopez, and it was celebrated at the La Vista Beach Resort and my kids were quite excited to hit the beach as early as the sun appeared in the morning.

When we arrived at La Vista, the weather was still in drizzle, as it was all morning. I was hoping that the sun might come up later in the day, but it didn’t. The rain fell but Sep-Sep, Beng-Beng, Bobi and Bebet suited up to their swimming trunks and bathing suit and got themselves all wet. It was raining, but it was so fun yesterday. The rain may fall, but joy is still in season.

Happy Birthday to my son Yves and to lovely Ilana Lopez.

By the way, before we went to the beach resort, we had to stopped by the new and sparkling Southway Mall in the middle of downtown, the only shopping store in town with a covered parking space that even if it was raining, it would still be convenient to shop. The kids and me were a bit in discussion on what type of toy we would buy Ilana as her birthday gift and for nearly half an hour there, we couldn’t meet at an agreement. I told them that Ilana was a girl and them three boys wouldn’t really know what a little girl wants.

Of course, my youngest daughter Bebet wouldn’t be able to speak just as eloquently yet that I didn’t consult her at all. But I was thinking what Bebet had always wanted to play with often and I have observed how little girls enjoyed so much playing with quaint little kitchen sets (aside from dolls and playhouses), pretending to cook and serve. There were quite a number of times that I had to pretend drinking something from empty little cups served by Bebet and I would go ‘Huhmm’ that was a very delicious tea, when in fact it was only air I took in, and Bebet would giggle often by those pretensions.

I hope Ilana would enjoy her kitchen set so well and serve her dad those very fine imaginary teas.

Just months after being perturbed by widespread conflict, where hundreds of monks took to the streets in protests of the military junta there, where some have been fatally shot at, Myanmar is once again thrown into a crisis, this time all the more grave and lamentable.

Cyclone Nargis lashed at the southwestern region of Myanmar, along the famed Irriwaddy delta, and left more than 22,000 people killed. At that rate, this tragedy has become of massive proportion as the number of deaths is expected to rise steadily where 40,000 others remain missing and unaccounted for.

The first time I heard about the cyclone hitting Myanmar, I was not as perturbed at that point considering that in this part of the world, harsh weather conditions mostly come and go throughout the year, especially such as in the Philippine situation. But hours after I heard the initial reports from CNN, I began to hear the word “cyclone” and that got me a little bit more disturbed. I never thought a cyclone exist or could possibly happen in this part of the world, for I’ve never heard windstorms passing through the Asian region called that way. Tropical cyclones are often termed as typhoons around here.

But Nargis was called a cyclone even from the beginning, bringing such havoc.

It is but sad for our neighbor Myanmar. I have been in full disagreement to the military rule there, especially with Nobel laureate Aung Sang Suu Kyi still being persecuted there under a prolonged house arrest but the Myanmar people surely doesn’t need to be disturb by yet another ugly situation. It’s just a bad thing for them.

I hope the aids and assistance from the international community would continue to pour in and not be delayed any second more. A minute delay might mean lives being saved or lost. Electricity is all cut-down. Water is not to be found. Shelter is ever more needed. It’s time that the military junta there set aside their all-too-ardent politics and allow every possible assistance to come in.

Earlier, an American response team were disallowed entry into the affected area as the military government continues to be adamant against the U.S. government and wouldn’t allow any possibility of an American military presence there, even for just a small length of time, despite the urgent necessity for assistance.

EU had pledged about 3 Million dollars and that would be just be about sufficient for the immediate concerns. But U.S. personnel are more experienced and far more capable to respond to this kind of situation that their presence is of extreme necessity there. I hope politics should take a backseat for now. Lives of thousands in the Irriwaddy delta are at stake here and that should be the main focus now.

And I hope members of ASEAN, like the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand should extend the most help possible, and it is time to apply and put into action the ASEAN spirit of neighborliness and cooperation and help Myanmar get out of this very distressing situation.