VANCOUVEREYE ZINE

RIP:BILLY GRAHAM--PINOYS' DEAR FRIEND by Tom Choy Vancouver, British Columbia Reverend Billy Graham, passed away at age 99. He is one of the most popular Christian evangelists of all times. He spoke to over 400 million people in over 150 countries in his events worldwide. No one compares closely to his acomplishments as a preacher and evangelist. This is not to include the number of people he touched via the modern-day internet, radio and television. Pinoys consider Billy a great dear friend. Billy declared, "I want to bring the Filipino people closer to Christ." Graham visited the Philippines in 1977 and spoke to over 400,000 Pinoys. In 2006, his son Franklin spoke to over 317,000 Pinoys. Later on Graham's grandson Will spoke to over 97,000 Pinoys in Bicol, a southern Philipines province. Predominantly Catholic, the Philippines and Pinoys looked up to Billy and his relatives for prayers, blessings and guidance. According to Pew Research,  the Philippin...

WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A CANADIAN by Tom Choy Vancouver, British Columbia Having lived in Canada for a couple decades, Canada becomes home for me and my family.  You appreciate how lucky you can be living in one of the best places to live in the world. Canada gives you comfort and honor. In return, we have to make Canada proud of us too. You feel welcome here in Canada despite some instances when people notice your colour is different from theirs. Sometimes you have to work doubly harder to prove you deserve to live in this wonderful country who embraces people who have chosen to stay here for good. When people tell me that Canadians contributed the insulin, blackberry, basketball and ice hockey and poutine, it gives me enormous pride and honour. Even if I have not invented anything huge, I love possessing the uniquely Canadian aura of being helpful to other people. I love volunteering in the soup kitchens of Vancouver Eastside. There is nothing embarrassing to be...

URBAN LEGENDS ABOUND by Tom Choy Vancouver, British Columbia W hen you find out from the internet or in your email that somebody famous passed away, just before you share it on FB or Twitter, check first the accuracy in Urban Legends or scopes.com or Google it. Or, it can be damn embarrassing to say the least. Sometimes if you get sued it will deplete your pocketbook. And it applies to me too. Recently, a famous actor and TV host Hugh Laurie was rumoured dead on a tweat I read. While chatting with a friend in person about recent news, I mentioned to him that Laurie is dead. I told him "Laurie tried a Viagra-like tablet and even shared it with Dr. Phil, the medic on TV." And I told my friend I better check first if this is just a hoax. I googled it on my Smartphone.  Lo and behold, the hoax verifier  websites say that it is not true. I had to say "sorry" to my friend. Just last year some famous people rumoured dead on Snopes.com included Kirk Douglas...