Condemn Maguindanao Massacre

Sadly, I live in this country...

…. where women, human rights lawyers and journalists are killed like criminals - (this is an understatement)

…. where women, accompanied by lawyers and journalists, on their way to Shariff Aguak to file the certificate of candidacy of Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu for governor of Maguindanao, were slaughtered like animals by cold-blooded killers in broad daylight.

Like most of you out there, I am terribly shaken to the core. These women, lawyers and journalists were all there as believers of our democratic process and why such high price to pay for doing so?! I pray for the victims and their families. I pray for this country. I pray for justice to be served.

“We seek justice for the victims, we seek justice for our rights to freedom.”

Belisa learns...

You can never tell who will be there for you, in times of need or during occasional lows in your life. The friends you expect to be there for some reason may also be as lost as you are while someone you thought indifferent, unexpectedly appears with a ready hand and a listening ear. When the people you used to have a good time with either at work and after work are all gone, you just have to make some difficult decisions and live by it. You either continue working or continue being sour, hence, it is a matter of choice. Most importantly, you can only rely on yourself and your ability to look at the picture differently from the way bitten people have marred it.

And so I say, gone is Belisa the hermit, she needs to reconnect with other humans, she can’t live in a cave. Like all of them, she needs to move on too, afterall, it was she who was given the most daunting role, to stay and survive a bleak situation or was it really even bleak?
When written in Chinese, the word "crisis" is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity. - John F. Kennedy

Photo: www.dreamtime.com

Things I learned from Ondoy

1. Complacency is bane during moments of disaster

It came as a surprise, one minute my family was sitting around the dining table having pleasant lunch, the next minute I was moving around like Dash rummaging on whatever I could get my hands on like the bottle box and milk can of my children, canned goods, medicines etc. My husband hurriedly carried my kids to the 2nd floor as they began shouting, “Mommy, look the water is getting inside the house!” Luckily I have a quick helper who snatched all the other valuable items away from the brown water gushing inside our house and positioned our things on top of every elevated structure available (dining table, countertop, etc.) We never anticipated the flood to reach our house since it is elevated 4 feet from the ground/garage. Our area never got flooded even when most of Metro Manila is flooded during incidents of heavy typhoons. Our neighbors thought the same since most of them overslept on a Saturday morning, unmindful of the continuous downpour that started on Friday evening, we were all confident that we were safe from the flood. Next thing we knew, our cars were submerged in deep brownish water. Too late, the water may have gone through the circuits as one car started off its alarm when the flood rose rapidly seeping in each and every crevice, the sounding off was like a call for help while we all watch helpless as the brown water monster swallowed them all.

2. Our government could not afford rubber boats but could afford fine-dining at luxurious restaurants abroad

All of us have been witness to the amount of help the Ondoy victims got from the private sector. Once again, our government showed its helplessness amidst major calamities such as this one and on how it cannot be dependent upon by its needy citizens. There were not enough rubber boats to rescue those who were trapped on their rooftops particularly residents of Provident Village in Marikina, subdivisions along Imelda Avenue in Cainta and other areas in Pasig. I get a headache every time I recall that Pres. Arroyo and her cohorts dined at Le Cirque in NY for $20,000 and at Van’s Steakhouse in Washington for $15,000, wow that’s a whopping $35,000, if you take out your calculator and convert $35,000 to P46/$1, you get P 1.6 million (P1,610,000). That for me is big money to buy 35 to 50 additional rubber boats that cost around P32,000 to P45,000 per unit. To top it all, the government announced that their contingency fund is running low, the reason again is, it has been authorized for used in the previous foreign travels of Pres. Arroyo.

3. Material things are well just material

We have a friend who lives in Vista Verde, one of the badly flooded subdivisions in Cainta, realizing that the flood was rising fast, she and her family left their house and drove their new SUV to a neighboring elevated village. She and her husband thought that they could do nothing more to rescue the contents of their house since they live in a bungalow. They had their essentials with them, she reasoned, they have their kids strapped at the back-seat and they drove as fast as the rising waters would permit them during the height of typhoon Ondoy.

4. Bayanihan is well and alive

If there is one great thing brought about by this massive flooding, I need not say more, the amount of support from every Filipino inside and outside of the country is overwhelming. The donations and the volunteers are outpouring like Ondoy’s outpouring rain, our efforts to ease the pain and suffering of our countrymen is ever present and alive. We all should learn from rival networks like ABS-CBN and GMA 7 whose race to become the best network in the land in terms of raising funds/donations through Sagip Kapamilya and Kapuso Foundation is working well towards benefitting thousands of lives. We are also grateful to the aid extended to us by foreign governments and international organizations. Much of this assistance has gone a long way to help those who have lost their homes and lives and basic right to live a normal life especially the children. I hope and pray that long-term solutions for those displaced from their homes be made possible. Maybe a village donation would be a good start for the communities tossed in evacuations centers, a village with reasonable location wherein displaced families could still have access to their source of income. Another concern would be to beef up funds and info-campaign, re-organized and strengthen the disaster management system and program of the government including the private sector. It is time that we all take disaster preparedness and management seriously, ours is a disaster-prone country, aside from lying in the circum-Pacific seismic belt, we received about an average of 19 cyclones per year.

5. Be prepared like a boy scout and a girl scout

Ondoy the big floodmaker shook the core in each of us. I chat with my friends and officemates about it and evidently most of us have taken the issue of disaster preparedness more seriously than before. Someone even mentioned that he’s going to purchase a rubber boat, lifesavers and lifejackets for the family and renovate the 2nd floor of the house for an emergency exit door and evacuation area in case of another massive flooding. I on the other hand became more conscious on the contents of my kitchen cupboard. I make sure that we have adequate stock of canned goods and first aid medicines. The picture of harried masses lining up in the grocery on a Sunday after the big flood receded in our place stuck with me. For the first time I did my grocery at Puregold Shaw, I found its shelves almost empty of sardines, corn beef, canned tuna and meatloaf. People around me, like me, were all pouring canned foods into our carts our hands and arms could amass.

6. What is Climate Change?

One needs not be an environmentalist to understand the global impact of Climate Change. Environment experts warned that cyclone Ketsana (Ondoy) is just a taste of what it is to come in the future. According to the 4th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC), human activities have contributed to climate change; activities that led to the increase of the 4 principal greenhouse gases like as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and halocarbons. The release of carbon dioxide emissions have greatly contributed to global warming which is a significant factor in the increase in intensity as well as frequency of typhoons. For a friendly detailed discussion on Climate Change and Global Warming, you may visit IPPC and Noble Peace Price environment activist Al Gore.

Photos: Globalnational.com, Travelpod.com

Impt!

How can you help? Please reblog to spread the word. Thank you.











My source: Ondoy Tumblr

Strong Shoes (part 2)

Broken Shoes



Don't look at your broken shoes,

Just sit in a corner,

And enjoy Traviatta,

So that Verdi would know

That you love Opera music,

As much as I do.

Verdi wouldn't look at your shoes,

He would just ignore

All the snobs in the rooms.


The poem above is authored by Ms. Cristina Toropu which I found serendipitously in Agonia.Net, an international convergence of literature lovers and critics in the web. Ms. Toropu is born in Romania and is currently a math PhD student in the US.


You can lend a guess on why I am posting her poem “Broken Shoes” :

a. I am a snob to snotty people referred in the poem;

b. Cristina and I both like opera music (though I prefer Puccini

over Verdi);

c. My favorite and comfortable shoes, a pair of gray Crocs, has been subject to much glowering by fashion conscious snobs, my only consolation is that at least I have happy feet while they may be suffering from plantar fasciitis resulting to their dour attitude;

d. All of the above.





Answer: D

Welcome to the Tango House

In my quest to further the breadth of my writing, I am getting my hands on new material which I believe would be engaging but not to the point of becoming syrupy in contrast to the sober pinch of Purple Scribbling. I have started my another dot in the blogosphere "Tales from the Tango House" which aims to capture the happy, exciting, challenging, intriguing and occasional drama of family life, motherhood and everything in between.

Tango House chronicles the lives of DB, GM, Sharkboy and Baby Diva, pay them a visit here!

Active dot in the blogosphere

Okay I’ve moved on. I’m done grieving for Pres. Cory’s passing from this world but of course the inspiration she has stirred among us lingers. Her death affected multitudes and I’ve never felt my Pinoy blood flood my consciousness as vigorous as the way it did while witnessing the outpouring of love and respect for an icon of democracy. I hope these emotions would be translated into concrete manifestations of our love for our country’s gift of democracy. I hope that we would all take the responsibility of keeping it unscathed and protected.

Long live Pres. Cory!

Source: Definitely Filipino

Thank you Tita Cory

My father bought a copy of this magazine when I was in grade 4 and this is how I got to know more about Mrs. Corazon C. Aquino aside from the media feed at home while witnessing the 1986 EDSA Revolution. I am very sure and a lot of people will agree that “Tita Cory” will always be an icon of democracy not only to Filipinos but the whole world as well. She was our instrument of faith that finally ended the dark days of the Marcos dictatorship. Our bloodless revolution in 1986 has put our country back in the world map of consciousness and has inspired various democratic movements worldwide. Imagine guns vs. flowers… people vs. tanks… deception vs. prayers… and finally an unassuming widow dressed in yellow vs. a strongman from the north, that for me is FAITH.

Image: Time.com

More on Pres. Aquino

The Old House (s4. Scar Story)

It disappoints me to the point of irritation that some people just don’t get it.

When confronted with a major decision, I’ve always relied on myself first. I believe that you must at least attempt to carry your own load before you could actually seek someone’s help. It’s essential to test the waters for us to answer the basic question – “Will I sink or swim? Ok, I’ll go figure". While others see you as (too) proud, I call it self-reliance.

I remember when I was little my grandmother won’t let me play with her newly refurbished vanity table. Since we were roommates then, I couldn’t resist touching this piece of furniture, it looked so shiny and new, quite appealing even to a child who knows nothing about vanity. I had a strong impulse to touch it that I even imagined the vanity table summoning me to do so.

Being a true-blue inquisitive vagabond in my grandmother’s old house, I finally found time to go beyond looking one afternoon. I run my fingers on its big round mirror and newly varnished smooth wooden surface, opened and closed its drawers and touched its glass top. I again run my fingers on the glass top including its edge, and started gliding my hand on it like the way you smoothen a wrinkled cloth, feeling the cold surface until I accidentally cut the back of my hand which jolted me back to reality.

I found the wound in my left hand bleeding, the gushing scarlet liquid scared me a bit and I rushed for the bathroom. I even rolled the front of my shirt on top of my bloody hand to conceal it from the adults in the kitchen as I passed them by. I made a number of back and forth trips to the bathroom as the bleeding did not stop. I found solution when I took some cotton from my Tita China’s room and pressed it against the cut.

I stayed in the garden swing all afternoon to keep my wound a secret from Nanay and all the other adults in the house. The expected amount of scolding as well as the fussing on me was not something I enjoyed. Days after, the wound dried up and became a scar and still nobody noticed it. A month passed and the scar never lightened even up to this day because it was not just any scar but a keloid half the size of a 5 centavo coin. It became my permanent mark, a symbol of my stubborn streak, but at least I handled it myself.

Image: FlashGlitters

Farewell MJ

Farewell MJ!

You will always be the King of Pop.

No one will ever come close to your musical genius.

Thank you for giving the world your masterpieces.

You will be remembered forever.

Photo: www.fanpix.net

Not Funny

• It's not funny when you discover by accident that someone you hold dear has practically lifted 3 paragraphs of your old blog post without your knowledge and consent. Imagine a piece of your thought copied verbatim, then spruced up by an additional closing paragraph for a cheeky ending statement. I could not believe it myself when I first read it. I don’t know how to feel, I guess the right word here is dumbfounded. Someone has plagiarized my writing. I was thinking that maybe it was done unwittingly but any form of plagiarism is a deliberate act and the additional insult comes from knowing the person who has copied your idea. The "Copier" took it without considering that a writer can only call it her own unless she blows life into it. Rubbing more salt to the wound, she filed the lifted section using the same title I did 3 years ago.

• It’s not funny when someone you know, not really a friend just someone you work with makes fun out of something you feel the opposite. Example when you got a sick child and someone who thinks she’s smart makes a joke out of it. Well the person committing such a despicable act is not only sick and cruel, she is one rotten soul. I say what I want to say, this is my blog!

• It’s not funny when you want to break away from the grinder machine but you can’t. On 2nd thought - I can! I must stop complacency from consuming my zeal and start taking charge of what’s going on with this department in my life right now. It not too late for a carpe diem!

Image: Angry Buttercup from Cartoon Channel

Mermaids

I support my children’s interest and fascination with sea creatures. They visited the MOP twice last year and it influenced them positively on how they look at the ocean and its wonderful marine life. When they learned about the Mermaid Show at the MOP through a front page photo in the Inquirer, they would not stop asking me to bring them again in the oceanarium.








When their Grandpa R paid us a visit last holiday (Independence Day), he was apparently charmed by my little cherubs and brought them to the MOP one morning. The Mermaid Show was only scheduled in the afternoon until the evening and my children felt disappointed. I promised to bring them back on a Wednesday afternoon before the 7-day expiration of our entrance tickets. So it was done on a Wednesday, I got off early from the office to beat the traffic, my brother was kind enough to pick me up and my kids with their nannies since Braveheart was on a client call. Was it worth all the trouble for a 15 minute show? Yes of course, I could not buy my children’s smiles and squeals of delight, including their Yayas’ as they watch in awe the beautiful and graceful mermaids of MOP.

MOP Mermaid Show runs from June 5 to July 15, 2009. Regular schedule: Tuesdays to Sundays; starting 4 pm onwards. For more details please visit the MOP website.

Photos: MOP, Reuters

What does it mean to be Filipino?

I came across this question while visiting Inquirer.net and got pique as usual. Now I can’t resist to giving my answer though Gigo Alampay encourages its readers to analyze more the above question rather than provide a response to it.

Being Filipino is relative to each person, we are all entitled to our own definition based on unique circumstance, orientation and upbringing but one thing stands similar for all of us, we give premium to values that relate to family and hardwork.

I define being Filipino as a way of life, a daily conscious decision each one of us makes. I see it as more than a mindset and a culture, as well as the feelings of pride we derive from it. It is the everyday struggle we put up to keep our spirit and integrity as a Filipino in this global community.

So what sets us apart from the others, it’s our simple attribute which is our "love of family". Our family orientation goes beyond kin and friends, it may even extend to complete strangers. I observed in everyday hubbub, we still take time to pause and look for ways to help other people.

I remember an incident in SM Makati’s foodcourt when a group of old ladies occupied a table nearby our table during lunch. As the women were busy taking their places, one of them carrying a tray of beverages accidentally spilled all of it on their table. They were unsettled and embarrassed of such clumsiness that resulted to a dining disaster but the crowd around them reacted differently. My friends and I gave them our tissue papers to wipe off the dripping mess while people in the other table called for the roving utility to clean it up. A nearby customer even took the extra mile to request a replacement of the spilled drinks. This is what I love about being Pinoy, we love to dip our fingers on other people’s problems. I mean I’m saying this in a good light, the presence of interest is a lot better than indifference in this case. Further, I would like to answer the question, “Why did we help them?” Well most of us (me and friends) remarked that these women reminded us of our beloved “lolas” (grannies).

We Filipinos are known to be self-giving. We believe in hard toil and its rewards. We work in foreign shores to give our families financial security. We take care of our aging parents and grandparents. We look after our siblings. We treat our friends like family. We approach other people in a more personal way. We are into each other’s dealings. Who doesn’t have an officemate who inquires about how your kids are doing and discusses “have you got a replacement to your delinquent yaya” topic? We ask personal questions that foreigners often find intrusive though the intention was to get to know them more. We build rapport through knowing one’s family. In our village, isn’t it that we will always be the daughter or son of their “kumpare” or “kumare”. So how about you, what makes you Filipino?

“Hoy Pinoy ako, Buo aking loob
May agimat ang dugo ko!” -Bamboo

Bitchology

I got this "bitchology" from my friend and mentor Amherstia. While the use of the term "bitch" may seem extreme for others, the situations described below are real. They happen in everyday life.

People may call you names when they can't get you to agree with them but when one calls you a bitch out of frustration, they become the best sore loser in the world, Haha!

BITCHOLOGY

When I stand up for myself and my beliefs,

they call me a bitch.

When I stand up for those I love,

they call me a bitch.

When I speak my mind, think my own thoughts or

do things my own way, they call me a bitch.

Being a bitch means I won't compromise what's in my heart. It means I live my life MY way.

It means I won't allow anyone to step on me.
When I refuse to tolerate injustice and speak against it,

I am defined as a bitch.

The same thing happens when I take time for myself
instead of being everyone's maid,or

when I act a little selfish.

It means I have the courage and strength to allow myself to be who I truly am and won't become anyone else's idea of what they think I "should” be.

I am outspoken, opinionated and determined. I want what I want and there is nothing wrong with that! So try to stomp on me, just try to douse my inner flame, try to squash every ounce of beauty I hold within me. You won't succeed.

And if that makes me a bitch, so be it.

I embrace the title and am proud to bear it.

This post is empty.

What a terrible day! I can’t just put it into words. I have been reduced once again to someone who lost a friend - another comrade-in-arms. I can’t do a thing to stop “it”. It’s so frustrating. I could feel the edge slipping through my fingers. How many more should I count or should I even dare count?

Murmurs (s2.)

Been doing a lot of murmurings lately, I call the 1st one “the bite” and the 2nd one “the 2 evils”, here goes:

I have fangs. I grew them while dealing with wicked people. I sharpened it through a number of scrapes and bruises against malign motives thrown by the stuck-up lot.

This is my best feature. I bite. I chew. I live. (Can also be read as: I live, I bite, I chew.) Provocation is not good for me because I don’t have the patience for people with bloated egos. I refer to patience as a single horse-hair strand to which the sword of Damocles is fastened, dangling from the ceiling above his head, threadlike yet sturdy, tough yet fragile. It’s amazing when you think about how two opposing characteristics could appear at the same time on a particular circumstance, though this is not always the case as one would supersede the other anytime soon.

*****

So what holds you back from expressing yourself?

I did an informal survey among friends and here are 3 general responses:

1. I might not say the right thing.
2. What will ______ think of me?
3. I might be misinterpreted.

While you may have a different answer from the ones cited above, it all boils down to fear of judgment. So the culprits are fear and judgment, these 2 evils are unnecessary and are of our own making. To have a healthy outlook in life, we must decide to face our fears since it is the only way for us to go. Oh well, I intend to keep my voice steady and heard in a sea of boisterous laughter and howls of despair.

“Fearlessness is facing what you fear with power.”

Image: Flash-screen.com

A Dream

Susan Boyle is making waves in the web and I am going to have a share in spreading the word about her incredible talent as shown in Britain's Got Talent. She is more than the female version of Paul Potts to me. Go Susan Boyle! Go get' em girl!

The audience were laughing at her first but not until they heard her sing (click on photo to see video). Lesson: Dreams are for free, who can stop you from having one?

Video Link: Dwarthy of Daily Motion

Maternal Pride

I got 2 wonderful children and I am very proud of them. They are the sunshine of my life to put it succinctly.

One child is a painter who loves to tinker with crayons and watercolors since he was 2 years old. His earliest work included the walls of our bedroom where he used a mixed medium of crayola and a green stabilo. My little artist is now 4 years old and apparently influenced by the art on-line of Playhouse Disney requested me to buy him a painting set which I did this weekend. It was perfect timing my brothers D and FA paid us a visit on Sunday. FA is the one endowed with aesthetic sense and talent. He gave Speed Racer a blast with their instant painting lessons. My son’s masterpiece is now posted in my brother’s blog “Arnoland” and it really made my day.

One child is a lover of words. I am thinking and praying that she grows up embracing the gift of gab. The first thing I observed about my little girl is her preference for books over toys. She owns a considerable number of new and old books, some inherited from her brother, some sent by our Tita Mari, and mostly we bought for her during our visit to the mall. Her books occupy a good portion of space in the 3rd level of my bookshelf for her easy access and storage. She initiates our reading time before we go to bed as she pulls 2 to 3 storybooks from the bookshelf and requests me to read to her. She listens intently at every word I utter. She also knows when I skip a word or re-word a phrase for she insists that I read that same phrase again. I observed that this practice is doing her well for she did not only talk early, just last night while playing with Speed Racer, she said, “Kuya please turn off the lights.” Hubby and I exchanged looks and we started laughing, YB’s voice might be tiny but she expressed her thought in a sentence. Moreover, she’s only 2 and yet she knows how to get her kuya to follow her.


*Image by Little Ms. Nana