Beyond Prison and Hospital Arrest for Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo

Remember this? Remember how we felt this way after the NBN-ZTE scandal?

Well, I have a gentler but more radical proposal for these people whose greed has gotten the better of them.


Rehabilitation.


After all, most progressives are at their very core, pro-life in the real sense of the word, and against cruel and inhuman punishment and the death penalty. So, too, is the Catholic Church.


Ergo, let's unite forces on this one (despite our differences over the Reproductive Health bill) and pray for the speedy and just resolution of all the cases filed against ex-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Let’s pray that the Holy Spirit or the spirits of our anitos—or ancestors—hover inside the (un)august halls of the Supreme Court, helping shine the light on what should have been the nation’s last bulwark of democracy.

Let’s pray that Chief Justice Renato Corona gains the delicadeza to inhibit himself from all Arroyo cases.


AND JUST what do we have in mind for these people who have acted for so long with arrogance and impunity? 

Rehabilitate them.
Yup, rehab not extrajudicial killing, as evil is the resort of the weak, the challenged and the cowardly. 


Here are my suggestions:


1. Prosecute them, without impunity, in an impartial court. 

2. Give them time in a jail. No special treatment for Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. But no need to give her extra difficult treatment on the other hand. I mean, who believes in an eye for an eye? Just give her what is  the normal treatment in our normal, overcrowded jails.


3. While in jail, give them time to review Philippine history, the Philippine Constitution, the Civil Service Code. For a few weeks, put them under a regimented schedule that includes lots of prayer, study time (topics above), and for leisure, watching movies like this: 

 http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/118279/Bayan-Ko-Kapit-Sa-Patalim/overview

4. Keep these images (and that of other heroes) around their room: 

 





Andrés Bonifacio y de Castro (30 November 1863 – 10 May 1897) was a Filipino nationalist and revolutionary. He was a founder and later Supremo ("supreme leader") of the Katipunan movement which sought Philippine independence from Spanish colonial rule and began the Philippine Revolution.He is considered a de facto national hero of the Philippines.






Macario Sakay y de León was a Filipino general in the Philippine Revolution against Spain and in the Philippine-American War.
He continued resistance against the United States following the official American declaration of the war's end in 1902 and in the following year became president of the Tagalog Republic.

Sakay was conned by the Americans into coming down from the mountains on promise of amnesty for him and his officials—on top of the formation of Philippine Assembly composed of Filipinos to serve as the gate of freedom. He was invited to receptions and banquets, one of which was a colonial trap where Sakay and his principal lieutenants were disarmed and arrested while the party was in progress. He was accused of banditry and hanged.

5. Remember, rehabilitation means:
"To restore to useful life, as through therapy and education or to restore to good condition, operation, or capacity."

The assumption of rehabilitation is that people are not natively criminal and that it is possible to restore a criminal to a useful life, to a life in which they contribute to themselves and to society. Rather than punishing the harm out of a criminal, rehabilitation would seek, by means of education or therapy, to bring a criminal into a more normal state of mind, or into an attitude which would be helpful to society, rather than be harmful to society.

Because we recognize that these people who act with impunity are simply not in good mental condition, we also suggest psychotherapy? Try accupuncture. Perhaps there is an acupuncture spot that lessens greed? 

6. Part of their rehabilitation should also include:

a. Labor. Oh, no, not hard labor. Just the usual labor that 2/3 of our compatriots are forced to do everyday. Even better , the kind that many Filipino children have to undertake: 

   http://www.yidff.jp/97/cat051/97c083-e.html

b. Separation from family. For years, please. In the same manner that thousands of Filipinos are forced by a collapsing economy and a dysfunctional government to separate from their families and go abroad. We also suggest a six-month stint, at least, as a maid in Singapore. Read: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4165088.stm

c. Six months living in one of Metro Manila’s slums, where 40 percent of Manila denizens now live. I suggest Payatas or Baseco, Tondo, where generations after generations of Filipino families have lived without hope.

Don't forget the daily fare of Lucky Me, Lucky Me and ore Lucky Me!Oh, for rehabilitation to be effective, we have to take away some things:
No more breakfasts here:

No more limousine rides with a whole barangay of policemen with wang-wangs (sirens) blazing.Instead, more rides here:

You know, Zen and the art of tricycle riding? Oh, and  please, don’t forget the exercise: 

AT THE END OF IT ALL, I am sure those once arrogant, greedy and power hungry will see the light.


So you see, our proposed solution is nothing NOTHING compared what those in power have done to the best and thebrightest who offered their lives for a better country!

Let me end with a song dedicated to those who need to be rehabilitated from their greed:

My personal revenge will be the right 

Of our children in the schools and in the gardens

My personal revenge will be to give you

This song which has flourished without panic

My personal revenge will be to show you

The kindness in the eyes of my people 

Who have always fought relentlessly in battle

And been generous and firm in victory.

My personal revenge will be to tell you good morning

On a street without beggars or homeless

When instead of jailing you I suggest

You shake away the sadness there that blinds you

And when you who have applied your hands in torture

Are unable to look up at what surrounds you

My personal revenge will be to give you

These hands that once you so mistreated

But have failed to take away their tenderness

It was the people who hated you the most

When rage became the language of their song

And underneath the skin of this town today

Its heart has been scarred forevermore

It was the people who hated you the most

When rage became the language of their song

And underneath the skin of this town today

Its heart has been scarred forevermore

And underneath the skin of this town today

Red and black, it's heart's been scarred forevermore

Filipina Maid.com

Wow, a whole website dedicated to the Filipina maid. "Filipina Maid uses natural cleaning techniques plus traditional Asian methods of good housekeeping." What? "traditional Asian methods of good housekeeping" Pagbubunot ba iyon? Harhar.
http://filipinamaid.com/
 'via Blog this'

Philippine maids sharpen skills to go abroad - Yahoo! News

All Filipina maid Cherry Pie Antaban wants is a simple job as a domestic helper in Singapore, but training for her new role sometimes feels like sweating through an engineering degree.

Like all women in the Philippines wanting to work overseas as maids, Antaban has to go through a government-mandated crash course in domestic duties that can be bewildering, daunting and occasionally humiliating.

Read the rest here:

Philippine maids sharpen skills to go abroad - Yahoo! News:

'via Blog this'

How to Dance in a Club by Ashley Slips

(Or, the happiest, funniest people in the world)

 Just a short break from all those serious, goodness.how.cerebral.can.you.get!? pieces. 

Here's a post about a really hot Filipina -- the hilarious Petra Mahalimuyak (Fragrant Petra)-- whose really hot, hyperbolized Filipina accent and super hot Filipino humor make her sooo endearing.

Frankly, when I see my fellow Filipinas, I often have this defiant, wicked, un-feminist thought cross my mind: That--power issues and poverty aside--one of the reasons why the Philippines is the choice source of mail-order brides is because, well, we Filipinas are so sexy and pretty and fun to be around, after all. We’re the world’s topnotch trophy wives! Ha!  

I mean, how often do you see get to see an ugly Filipina, anyway? Come on, be honest. It’s kinda rare, ano? Filipinas are among the world's most delectable women, I say. 

And where else can you get a pretty woman who will "lovingly clean your toenails with a toothbrush?" – That’s what YES editor-in-chief  Jo-ann Q. Maglipon said in one of her 1980s articles (published in the book Primed) on Filipina mail order brides, then just an emerging problem. 

Before you accuse her of 'objectifying' women, note that before Maglipon became the entertainment editor that she is today (and consequently, one of the country's highest-paid editors), she was an underground activist who fought against the Marcos dictatorship and wrote articles on slain doctor-to-the-barrioDr. Bobby de la Paz, like this: 

So her toothbrush-for-toenails comment was truly just an accurate portrayal of life as it really is: complex and difficult, astonishing and ugly, joyful and awful, comic and tragic, trivial and sublime—sometimes all at the same time—and always multifaceted, resisting the black-and-white labels the religious and the righteous would like to confine it with.

As I write this, there are hundreds of thousands of Filipina maids deployed  all over the world. Many of them will be beaten, raped. Some will be killed. Most of them suffer milder forms of abuse, but abuse nonetheless. But life does not stop dead because these terrible things happen. And the spirit of the archetypical Filipina lives on, resilient, as lighthearted and bubbly and hopeful as ever.

More on Ashleyslips:   

Youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ashleyslips

Facebook fan page:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Petra-Mahalimuyak-Ashley-Rivera/142498585829166

Another Facebook fan page:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ashleyslips/157908574272534?sk=wall

Great Living Filipino Thinkers, In Their Own Words 4: The Psychology of Moral Certainty

Here's the fourth installment in a series that, taken together, make up what I like to call Great Living Filipino Thinkers, In Their Own Words. Today's excerpts are from Sylvia "Guy" Estrada-Claudio, the current director of the UP Center for Women's Studies.

Dr. Claudio, a Professor at the Department of Women and Development Studies, University of the Philippines Diliman College of Social Work and Community Development, is both a doctor of medicine and of psychology. She is a much traveled resource speaker on activism, feminism, reproductive rights and sexuality, who began her life of activism in high school when she  organized students against the dictatorship of former President Ferdinand Marcos.

After completing her medical studies at the University of the Philippines, she formed the Medical Action Group to organize health missions to treat injuries and psychological trauma in communities torn by counterinsurgency operations. Together with Dr. Junice Melgar she founded Likhaan, an organization working with grassroots women on issues of reproductive health and rights. She is also Chairwoman of the board of the Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights. Her book Rape, Love and Sexuality: The Construction of Women in Discourse was published by the University of the Philippines Press as part of the UP Press "Read Up!" Campaign. These excerpts are from her blog, Pleasure and Subversion, from a post titled The Psychology of Moral Certainty.

 

"As a teacher, a nerd and a psychologist, I feel only frustration and concern. Yet another person who thinks that, 'because my God (or my Marx) says so,' is an acceptable form of engagement in democratic and secular society.


I am treading carefully here. Not all Marxists or religious people resort to this argument. Not everyone who has a religious or political belief finds it necessary to cling to the idea that his or her belief is the right one, regardless. I am not also certain that the young woman who had an exchange with me is one of these. I wish she kept engaging me, perhaps I could have known for sure.


But I am certain that the psychology of the ideologue permeates the views of the religious right that has gone all-out against the RH bill. This is also why, I get hate mail and hate tweets after each televised debate. The comments can be quite mean, making me wonder what it is that I have said, no matter how scandalous, would make them feel so threatened that they would lash out with such anger. I have been challenged often too about my agnosticism. Even the nicest ones seem to think that being uncertain is some kind of a defect.


But there is to me, a spiritual gain to be had by accepting ambivalence, ambiguity and uncertainty. For one thing, that is how things are. The truth about what those who believe in a God call “creation” is that it is ever-changing, immense and un-graspable.


Perhaps there is a Truth (yes, with a capital T) out there. But it is not something, little-old-me can ascertain. I remain humble about the presence and laws of what a horoscope writer I follow calls, “the Divine wow”. God is not my FB friend. I ask Her often enough if She is out there and She does not answer. When I die I may dissolve and lose the consciousness that will say that the atheists are correct . If I am wrong and I awake---ooohlala---I will have more questions than a curious 5-year-old.


But for now, I have no need for grand answers in order to lead a harmless, happy and hopefully meaningful life. It is a comfort to me that I do not need ultimate guarantees. I am not a high maintenance child of the universe. I have a brain and enough energy to keep on figuring things out as the need arises. I plod along and get by not having yet committed things like abuse, theft or murder. On really good days, the idea that no one can know for sure when human life begins really makes me ecstatic.


The psychology of moral certainty is the psychology of fear and/or laziness. Maybe when they were growing up, the parents who nurtured those who are morally-certain-Dr. Claudio-is-wrong-on-RH (and therefore we will never yield her a point, besides she is a lackey of the big pharmaceuticals and the imperialist population controllers) laid down the law about what to do, what is right and what is wrong. That can be comforting when one is little. Simple and unquestionable rules can be comforting while parents can control the external environment against the views of those who disagree or the harm brought by those who are mean or criminal. Perhaps the very young ones need not be asked for the courage to face the immense unknowable. 


But those of us who are hoping to live happy lives in a just society must find it in us to face our limitations. Parents must change the parameters of what they teach as a child matures morally and intellectually. Children must be taught not to be afraid of heterogeniety, diversity and uncertainty. They cannot be afraid of difference. Fundamental differences.


If we are afraid to be unsure, to accept that perhaps we and our family, religion, tribe, institutions, science, political party can be wrong, then we will be unable to accept when we are defeated on twitter or we will lash out in anger against people we only see on television. And I am frightened indeed by the man who is so angry at me because of what I have said on television that he takes the time to tweet me venom. My heart goes out the woman who cannot find the grace to end a debate she started with some decorum.


Perhaps someday, we will raise all our children with enough moral courage so that they can face profound uncertainty with good cheer. At least we can rejoice that there are enough brave and moral people out there such that the scientific surveys show that the RH bill has wide support."

Watch her make a subversive presentation on TV.

Great Living Filipino Thinkers, In Their Own Words 3: Forging a New Social Contract

EVERYBODY knows Sheila Coronel as the crusading journalist, the 2003 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for Journalism, Literature and the Creative Communication Arts, and the founding director of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.



In electing her to receive the award, the RMAF board of trustees recognized her for “leading a groundbreaking collaborative effort to develop investigative journalism as a critical component of democratic discourse in the Philippines.”

Since 2006, she is also the inaugural director of The Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism, and a professor at the Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/profile/31-sheila-coronel/10 In a 2006 feature, Columbia Magazine described her as “one of the most tenacious reporters in the politically turbulent Philippines” (of the 1980s). Yes, she has done all that, is all that, and more.



(Find our where you can borrow a copy of the book, Coups, Cults and Cannibals, here)

Of all her works, however, Forging a New Social Contract, her speech before the University of the Philippines School of Economics graduating class of 2006, is the piece I love the most because I feel it says--in the most straightforward manner--just about everything that has to be said about this country. It also makes clear, to many of us Filipinos, the reasons why we should still believe in struggling, every single day, to live well and do right--even if, despite. Here are excerpts from that speech:

"LET me take a break from all these economists talking and let me tell you about the face that haunts me when I cannot sleep at night. It is the face of Christian Alvarez, a frisky five-year old I met on the streets. Christian lives in Plaza Miranda. He and his family sleep on milk cartons near the Mercury Drugstore in Quiapo. Plaza Miranda is his playground. That is also where he and his family eat breakfast everyday: a bowl of lugaw (rice porridge) given free by the feeding center run by a Catholic charity in Quiapo church. Christian’s parents, Rowena and Lawrence Alvarez, are street vendors who make P150 to P200 a day. They have eight children, three of whom — all boys — live on the plaza. Three others are in the care of relatives and friends because their parents do not earn enough to feed and house them. Another was entrusted to the care of an orphanage. The last one, a girl, then aged two, disappeared on the plaza one night when Lawrence left her to fetch water from the Jolibee outlet near Quiapo church. Christian is at the Quiapo church feeding center with his entire family three times a day. 


The day I went there, after the noon feeding, the boy shared with his parents and brothers their only real meal that day: three cups of rice bought for P5 each and pinakbet sold for P10 at the Quiapo market. So at 6 pm, Christian lined up again at the Quiapo church, for another bowl of steaming hot lugaw that will at least ensure that he will not go to sleep on an empty stomach. Unless the situation of the Alvarez family is much improved, the future that awaits Christian is a life on the streets. Like his two other brothers, he will most likely go through two or three years of schooling at the elementary school nearby. He will likely drop out before the third or fourth grade — in fact, nearly 30 percent of all Filipino school children drop out before finishing sixth grade. After that, Christian will scrounge for a living on the streets — scavenging for recyclables, perhaps, or selling cigarettes and candies like his father, perhaps the occasional petty crime. 


I wish I could say that the Alvarez family is a particularly special case. But it is not. In 2000, the proportion of the population not reaching the food threshold was 21 percent. One in every five Filipinos cannot afford to meet his minimum food needs. In current numbers, that’s 16 million people. The numbers, if we look at them, are dismal. Over 30 million Filipinos live below poverty, earning less than the estimated P200 a day needed to keep a family of six clothed, fed, and housed. That is why many families now eat only one full meal — meaning rice and cooked food — a day. 


As marketing expert Ned Roberto found out in his study on the consumption patterns of the poor, ulam for many families in the lowest income strata these days are: patis, soy sauce, pork oil, sugar and even Pepsi. Many of these families can eat real food only once a week. Let me give you more numbers. 


In the 1990s, we (PCIJ) wrote about the PEA-Amari case, billed as the “grandmother of all scams,” where close to P3 billion were paid in bribes and commissions to businessmen and officials — including, it was alleged at that time, the Speaker of the House and the Senate President. In 2001, the Office of the Ombudsman alleged that Joseph Estrada accumulated up to P20 billion in cash and real estate in two-and-half years in Malacañang. Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos were believed to have amassed up to $10 billion in the 20 years they were in power. 


Recently, it has been alleged that P1 billion recovered from the Marcos wealth by the Arroyo government was used to bankroll the president’s 2004 election campaign. To me, the scandal lies not so much in the scale of the thievery. The real scandal is that while all these officials were helping themselves to the national treasury, the country was going to ruin and families like those of Christian Alvarez’s were going homeless and hungry. When hunger stalks millions not because there is a lack of food, but because the social system impoverishes the multitudes while enriching a privileged few, then there is something that is terribly wrong. We are not the Sudan, where millions go hungry in deserts ravaged by war and disease. We are a middle-income country rich in natural resources." 

Read the of the speech rest here  More about Sheila here and here.

Great Living Filipino Thinkers, In Their Own Words 2: Time Travel On the Cheap

So you think the word ‘Filipina’ means maid? Well, think again. For all of you who reached this blog looking for  bargain Filipinas –whether Filipina maids or hot Filipina bodies at bargain basement prices — well, this is for you! You should also know that Filipinas/Filipinos are also among the world’s most efficient people — on the energy from eating really small pieces of fish and a cup of rice, we can spew out great thoughts! Ha! 

Speaking of fish, here's this personal piece, the next installment of a series that, taken together, make up what I like to call Great Living Filipino Thinkers, In Their Own Words. Today's piece is from Leandro Romero, who lectures on Geography at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. His own personal journey to get there is the quintessential tale of the Filipino diaspora-- poignant, bittersweet and riveting. And in his case, written in installments, like this one:


 
The Oblation is a concrete statue by Filipino artist Guillermo E. Tolentino which serves as the iconic symbol of the University of the Philippines. It depicts a man facing upward with arms outstretched, symbolizing selfless offering of oneself to his country."

Time Travel on the Cheap

"Tuesday night I traveled back in time to 1989 or thereabouts. 


The place: Balara behind UP Diliman, near the Narra Residence Hall, then UP's most liberal dorm for men (and coincidentally, the most dilapidated and the cheapest). 


The time: between midnight and three a.m. 


Activity: eating ginisang sardinas at the all-night counter frequented by jitney and cab drivers and other vampires prowling the city in those unholy hours. 


It is a college night like most nights I had back then: interminable, humid and expectant. Like you are waiting for something important to happen, some epiphany to strike you, some Big Truth to slap you in the face with its simplicity and elegance. Meanwhile, the night is surprisingly busy in this corner of the university. Cabbies are just going off duty; still others are just about to take over. There is the stink of vehicle exhaust and cigarette smoke and rotting vegetables and the delicious aroma of street food. Some of the carinderia women have begun to prepare the ingredients for next day's lunches. Kids are selling cigarettes, balut, sampaguita flower leis. 


On such nights, you have finished carousing with your friends in one of those infrequent binges where you indulge in your favorite fermented drink and hope other baser instincts follow suit. Or, you have been obliged to stay and babysit some textbooks and notes, write term papers or solve sample problems, and you just need a quick pick-me-up. Or, you just made a connection with some other lonely collegiate soul and you just want to savor the strangeness of the Other, chew on the purity and innocence of it, before morning comes and shines on it the ridiculous light of day.


I assume that this night could have been any of the three, and alternate between options. Obviously, I am sober enough to bring myself this far on public transportation with no major damage to life, limb or property, so it's all good. Whatever awaits me back at the dorm—math or physics or engineering texts—they would wait patiently. There is no hurry, and I am where I need to be at this moment. Meanwhile, the smell of fragrant frying garlic tempts my nostrils and my stomach growls a greeting in return. 


The chopped onions and tomatoes follow shortly, and soon I am witness to tomatoes melting in  the pan, sizzling and bubbling until you are certain that they have aggregately achieved Tomato Nirvana—that is, being one with the pan, the oil, the onions,  the garlic and the Universe. The hot sardines make their grand entrance and are allowed a brief honeymoon with the fulfilled tomatoes. Meanwhile, the flame is switched off, and a raw egg, quiet and content until now, jumps in and joins the fun. The bored cook deftly mixes it in with the other ingredients and in a while, serves it in front of me, hot, with fried rice. 


As soon as the sardines cross my lips, I forget that Physics is my Achilles heel, that women (even those in college) are creatures with expectations and  demands that have to be dealt with in the morning, or that in a few short hours, it would be time to join the elaborate waltzes and tangos of university life once again. The combination touches off several centers of taste on my tongue and palate, and my brain registers an explosion of flavor. I prolong each mouthful into a slow, sticky sojourn into my own personal paradise. 


Minutes later it seems,  but really more than a dozen years hence, I look up  from my plate and find myself alone in a house in  Sparks, Nevada, with no girls or physics texts waiting  for me in the morning. Yesterday, I tried it again with some soto ayam  (Indonesian spicy chicken-and-vegetable soup) and I was brought back to Jakarta in 1990 (I think). But that is another story for another day."

Great Living Filipino Thinkers, In Their Own Words 1: Excerpts from the Diary of a Bargain-Book Addict

So you think the word 'Filipina' means maid? Well, think again. For all of you who reached this blog looking for  bargain Filipinas --whether Filipina maids or hot Filipina bodies at bargain basement prices -- well, this is for you! You should also know that Filipinas/Filipinos are also among the world's most efficient people -- on the energy from eating really small pieces of fish and a cup of rice, we can spew out great thoughts! Ha! 

As proof, starting today I am going to splice into my blog short pieces that together make what I like to call Great Living Filipino Thinkers, In Their Own Words. These are excerpts from, and links to, the personal blogs of Filipino thinkers who are living today.

Today's thoughts are those of Romel Regalado Bagares, the Executive Director for the Manila-based Center for International Law, a non-profit engaged in strategic human rights litigation. Bagares  is one of the lawyers representing the families of 14 journalists who perished in the Ampatuan Massacre, said to be the worst single attack on press freedom in recorded history. The anniversary of the massacre will be commemorated on Nov. 23. Bagares also lectures on international law at the Lyceum Philippines University College of Law. Romel’s personal blog is at http://sanpedrostreet.wordpress.com/

Excerpts from the Diary of a Bargain-Book Addict.

........................................................................................

"But perhaps, I digress. After all, we’re talking of bargain books here. Still I think just as well of the famed library at the ancient city of Alexandria which, in the grandeur of its time, was the scale against which the intellectual wealth of other nations and races was measured. One legend - almost surely false, notes Harvard Professor Stephen Jay Gould in his book Eight Little Piggies: Reflections on Natural History (P215) – that the library was still intact when Muslim invaders captured the city in the seventh century. The library, built by descendants of Alexander the Great about 2,000 years ago, housed the largest collection of books in the ancient world – more than 700,000 volumes – including the works of Homer and the library of Aristotle. Historians tell us that Euclid and Archimedes studied there, as did Eratosthenes, the first mathematician to calculate the diameter of the earth."

  

 "Or am I just taking my reading habits too seriously? There are times when, having finished a book, I fling it to the floor, feeling exhausted and used up. A certain guilt overwhelms me, indeed, a “complete distaste for words,” all at the thought that in the end, knowledge becomes puffed up and the wisdom of this world is mere vanity, “a chasing after the wind,” in the words of Ecclesiastes."


"I open my Bible to the New Testament. “Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age,” asks the apostle Paul in his first epistle to the Corinthian Christians. “Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” "A certain mawkishness. The computer’s thesaurus lists the following synonyms: sentimental drivel, mush, sentimentalism, maudlin act, gush, affectation, exaggerated sentiment, excessive sentiment. But no sooner had I promised myself not to indulge in yet another buying spree than I’d find myself inside yet another Booksale outlet, poring over the books it has to offer, wishing I have all the money in the world to satisfy my cravings for words. It’s as if my day by day struggle with words as a newspaper reporter wasn't enough!"

United States in Asia

Visiting United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday faced a grilling from Filipino students, as the United States scrambles to counterbalance China's growing power in Asia. I thought this made it a good time to republish this piece by radical nationalist Joel P Garduce, as background.  

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KEEP THE FIRE by Joel P. Garduce (published in Cebu's The Voice, February 5, 2010, page 6) 

Yesterday, February 4, marked the 111th anniversary of the beginning of what still stands as the bloodiest war in the history of the Filipino people. On that day in 1899, open hostilities broke out between invading U.S. troops and soldiers of the first republic in Asia.

.
Uncle Sam at the turn of the 20th century

The war came to be known in history classes and textbooks as the Filipino-American War. It's a misnomer, really. Calling the war this way invokes an image no different from a boxing fight, where protagonists do battle as an end in itself, where there are no aggressors to speak of and no justice to be had. Which is obviously not the case with this war.

It would be more accurate and honest to call it the First Great Patriotic War of the Filipino People. For indeed, it was the first war waged by a newly born nation, the first patriotic war in Asia in fact to defend a republic against an invading army of 20,000 imperial troops (that eventually ballooned to 120,000 throughout the war) intent on taking out so soon a people's freedom freshly gained from centuries-long colonial rule.

It was a war that was as ugly as it could get, a signal tragedy where both the peoples of the Philippines and the US lost their respective republics. On the Filipino side, more than a million Filipinos were killed to regain colonial oppression, most as victims of the barbaric “scorched-earth” policy of the U.S. armed occupation, employed via torture, hamletting, food blockades, and massacres of entire towns, including children.


Wounded granny during the Philippine-American war

On the American side, the victorious U.S. subjugation of a new foreign race consolidated the vicious rule of the robber barons, at a cost of 8,000 American lives and racism, workplace abuse, corruption and oppression running rampant in the homeland. Through systematic indoctrination of succeeding generations, this war, "among the cruelest conflicts in the annals of Western imperialism" as one American author put it, would be gutted out of the historical memory of both Americans and Filipinos.


Filipino civilians being interrogated at the start of American colonial rule.


Well, almost. Were it not for the effort—among others—of Americans of conscience like historian Howard Zinn, who died last week, the outstanding war crimes against the Filipino people may well have been entirely forgotten. Thanks to him and his most popular book, “A People's History of the United States”, arguably the biggest-selling book on the full U.S. history, today's generation in the U.S. has been made aware of a bloody and disdainful history of U.S. empire, and of the continuing epochal class struggle of the American people against it.

 “A People's History” was hugely successful. By the time Zinn collapsed fatally from a heart attack last January 27, it had already sold two million copies and gone through six editions since it was first published in 1980 with only 5,000 copies. A 2008 graphic adaptation he co-authored with Mike Konopacki and Paul Buhle, called “A People's History of American Empire”, would go further and boldly parallel the U.S. atrocities against our forefathers more than a hundred years ago to the human rights outrages that attended the U.S.-led war of terrorism ongoing since 9/11.

 A 2009 TV docu titled "The People Speak" and based on Zinn's book brought his views to a far-wider audience. Narrated by actor and his former neighbor Matt Damon, it featured readings and performances by various U.S. celebrities, like Viggo Mortensen of the “Lord of the Rings” fame, black actors Morgan Freeman and Danny Glover, Oscar winner Marisa Tomei, and musicians Bruce Springsteen, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, Bob Dylan, Pink, Darryl "DMC" McDaniels, and John Legend. That a nontraditional take of U.S. history would gain much mainstream acceptance and admiration proves that the time for Zinn's progressive standpoint and viewpoint has clearly come.

 Zinn's work complements efforts by select Filipino historians to speak historical truth to power. Half a decade before “A People's History” first came out, anti-imperialist author Renato Constantino had already made the case for a people's perspective in writing history with his acclaimed twin history volumes “The Philippines: A Past Revisited” and “The Philippines: The Continuing Past”.

Then there's the seminal “Philippine Society and Revolution” (PSR) written by Professor Jose Maria Sison using his nom de guerre Amado Guerrero. What may well be the most well-known history book in the Philippines, specially among the majority who remain downtrodden, PSR came out a full decade before “A People's History”. (This year marks the 40th year since its publication.) In it, Sison tersely outlined Philippine history and society from a standpoint of an oppressed people daring to make history and change society.


 
 A picture of a “water detail,” reportedly taken in May, 1901, in Sual, the Philippines. “It is a terrible torture,” one soldier wrote. Picture found in “The Water Cure”, Paul Kramer, newyorker.com, Feb 25 2008. Original photograph attributed to Corporal George J. Vennage c/o Ohio State University Rare Books and Manuscripts Library. 

Zinn, Constantino and Sison all firmly believe the authentic heroes of history are the unlettered masses and that we ought to champion their hopes and aspirations if we intend to usher in a world of justice and social progress. We are honored to have them remind us all the need to intensely study history to reexamine seemingly unwanted but terribly vital memories, and unearth its lessons pregnant with guidance towards a bright future bereft of ugly and unjust wars, empires of greed, widespread misery and shackled freedoms—a bright future Filipinos, Americans and humankind at large truly deserve. ## Joel Garduce is with the Concerned Artists of the Philippines (CAP). This and previous contributions can be viewed online here. View these historical photos: http://jibrael.blogspot.com/2007/09/philippine-american-war-of-1899-1902.html

 Watch this: (for the footages, but ignore some parts of the commentary, which can be wrong)

Watch this, too:

The Hunger Games

“The Hunger Games” trailer is out, and it promises action and heartache, set in a world that’s both gritty and surreal.

Read the New York Times review of Suzanne Collins's 2008 book "The Hunger Games". Check out the trailer of the 2000 film  “Battle Royale” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v8X9We3x1c The won­drously gruesome Japanese novel that has been spun off into a popular manga series. Here's a fan site

"A Maidservant's Lot in Early Modern England" -- Parallelisms

Axed IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn

A few days ago, news linking Dominique Strauss-Kahn to a high-profile probe of an alleged prostitution ring at a luxury hotel in Lille broke, causing the story of how a New York hotel maid had accused him earlier this year of rape to resurface.

Charges have since been dropped, even as DSK was forced to quit as head of the IMF and to shelve his aspirations to become the next French president. But the story of DSK's accuser — called just that until the moment she came out, or alternately, "the DSK maid" — reminds us of how Filipina maids are at all times vulnerable to all forms of abuse — emotional, physical and sexual.

I thought I'd republish excerpts of this history article here as a way to contribute to the better understanding of the lot of thousands of Filipina maids in foreign lands.

By doing so, I hope to shed light on the power relations between females in subservient levels of society and their "masters" -- something that many of my British friends seem to forget, as they are now accustomed to thinking of maids as Filipinas. Watch this episode of BBC's Harry and Paul:

For me, it's clearly an issue of power: Not much has changed between then and now; only the nationalities of the maids and their masters involved have changed.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author: R.C. Richardson

Title: "A Maidservant's Lot in Early Modern England"

Publisher: History Today

Date: Volume: 60, Issue: 2

Pages: 25-31

"The life of a maidservant in early modern England was one fraught with perils with young girls often prey to the advances of their masters. In 1693 the London newspaper The Athenian Mercury carried the story of a manservant who, with his employer's active encouragement, married a maidservant in the same household, only to discover that she was already pregnant with the master's child. The employer said he was grateful to have 'such cracked ware [taken] off his hands' and gave financial compensation to the couple. Most maids made pregnant by their employers were not so fortunate.

"Servant-keeping was a ubiquitous and defining feature of society in the 16th to 18th centuries — around 60 to 70 per cent of 15 to 24-year-olds, the majority of them female, were employed in domestic service even in poor households as pauper servants. Most of them lived, worked and slept in close proximity to their employers, sometimes in the same room. Privacy even in great houses with features such as corridors and backstairs was often impossible to achieve. Poverty was an endemic aspect of life in service. There were many like the 'poor maid' in a 1567 Canterbury court case who possessed 'nothing but her personal apparel and 16 shillings a year wages and no other goods.'

"Maidservants therefore were often precariously positioned both physically and economically. This made them sexually vulnerable to the whims of their masters and other men of the house as well as to lodgers, guests, manservants, and apprentices. Some would-be maidservants newly arrived in London were procured by pimps or by patrons of disreputable labor exchanges almost as soon as they set foot in the capital.

"There were maidservants too who exploited their sexuality to gain advantage. An early 17th-century Somerset maid giving evidence in a court case unwittingly revealed she was flattered when she attracted the advances of her employer and 'did not tell her dame because her master promised her new clothes.' Much later in the following century Jonathan Swift in his satirical Advice to Servants (Dublin 1745) advised housemaids on how to strike the best bargain when their sexual favors were solicited by their masters. At all costs, Swift urged the eldest son of the house should be avoided 'since you will get nothing from him but a big belly or a clap and probably both together.' In 1763, Mary Brown a maidservant in Glamorganshire, was still blackmailing Dr Morgan, her former employer, who had fathered her illegitimate child six or seven years previously.

"Church court records are filled with cases involving illicit sexual relations between master and servant. At the beginning of the 17th century, Edward Glascocke from Enfield, Middlesex found himself in court since he had been discovered in bed with his maidservant as well as his wife. In the same period church wardens in Stoke St. Mary, Somerset were scandalized by disclosures of an employer's open preference for his maidservant over his wife. When they went to work in the fields the maid rode on horseback, while the humbled wife was made to walk. The master and maidservant slept in the same bedroom while the mistress of the house was consigned to another.

In Glamorganshire in 1763, the death of a master produced revelations about his 'vile life' in keeping a maidservant as his concubine 'to the great disturbance of his house and to the great grief and vexation of his loving wife.' A London moralist J. Moir warned parents in 1787: 'You had better turn your daughter into the street at once than place her out to service. For ten to one her master shall seduce her or she shall be made the confidante of her mistress's intrigues.'

"Masters would often consider it their right to molest their maids. It was made clear to a London maidservant in 1605 that providing sexual favors to the master on demand was simply part of her job. She was told: 'Thou art my servant and I may do with thee as I please.' "

http://www.historytoday.com/

And check out this blog on how Lebanese employers perceive the sexuality of Filipina maids, which reads:

Filipina women, compared to their Ethiopian and Sri Lankan counterparts, are seen as fairer, sexually more attractive, and promiscuous. These images of Filipina women legitimate employers’ tight control of their bodies and persons...Just in case you’ve been wondering why some families lock the doors on their maids when they leave home.

http://beirutspring.com/blog/2011/05/03/the-sexuality-of-filipina-maids-in-lebanon/

Or, alternately, you can google the words Filipina, maid, rape. I got more than 2 million results.


Do Filipina maids form the base of the new slave trade?"

Hello World! --Super Hot Filipina Maid from the Nation of Nannies

Hay naku. Instead of griping over how Filipinas are today known as the world’s maids, japayukis and mail-order brides, or how Filipinas lack pride and self-respect, and all that, what about celebrating our traits, for a change?

I’ve been to many parts of this country and one thing I can tell you about the Pinay in any of these parts: she is so funny.

Just look at our politics, at what goes on at the "august halls" of Congress – it’s an eternal carnival, a circus, a carousel—turning 'round and 'round and yet everything really stays the same. (hopefully not). Watch this:

(In 2007, the daughter of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo turned the tables on her accuser and claims that whistleblower Joey de Venecia, son of the sacked House Speaker, brain may have been damaged by marijuana use.)


For the latest Philippine news stories and videos, visit GMANews.TV

Bwahahahaha. What drug use? Pinoys use SUGAR, not marijuana. Same effect, larger doses needed.

Yeah sugar. It really must be all that sugar: One tablespoon added to the milo energy drink, two heaping spoons full into the cup of coffee. Or sprinkled on top of bread ala maruya, or with coconut to top off sticky sweet rice cakes. Panutsa on taho. Or sugar in your meat: marinated to make sweet ham, tocino. Hell, there's even sugar in your spaghetti, like nowhere else in the world.



Who needs marijuana when there's sugar?

That, and the bananas are enough to keep us up, up and about.

So what if we end up cleaning other people’s toilet bowls, or teaching children other than ours so that our incomes could support the 10 other families back home?

Is that something to be ashamed of? Or is that heroic?


Baseco, Tondo slums on a placid night photographed by Geo Olaya

Try living in a place like that, and if you can still laugh – everyday and heartily too – well kudos to you!

And what of all those children being raised by Pinoy nannies? Well, they may learn to speak English with a distinctly Ilonggo accent, but won’t they also imbibe that light, bubbly, ever-hopeful attitude towards life, that resilience in the face of tremendous difficulties--?

Pinay maids should demand for higher pay because of that specific skill set, ha! We take humor for granted, but is really so hard pala to come by. Check out my German friends, who look like this:


Street art photographed by Pie Crew

Yes, we are the funniest people on earth, believe me.

Dig this:


Secondhand bedsheets for sale in an open Philippine market.

And this is even better:


Beleaguered ex-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as Real Doll?

Had enough? Here’s something I got from relatives abroad:

Top 10 Reasons Why There Couldn't Be a Filipino-American US President

• 10.  The White House is not big enough for in-laws and extended relatives.
• 9. There are not enough parking spaces at the White House for 2 Honda Civics, 2 Toyota Land Cruisers, 3 Toyota Corollas, a Mercedes Benz, a BMW , and an MPV (My Pinoy Van).
• 8. Dignitaries generally are intimidated by eating with their fingers at State dinners.
• 7. There are too many dining rooms in the White House - where will they put the picture of the Last Supper?
• 6. The White House walls are not big enough to hold that giant wooden spoon and fork.
• 5. Secret Service staff won't respond to "psst... psst" or 'hoy....hoy. ..hoy...'
• 4. Secret Service staff will not be comfortable driving the presidential car with a Holy Rosary hanging on the rear view mirror, or the statue of the Santo Nino on the dashboard.
• 3. No budget allocation to purchase a Karaoke music-machine for every room in the White House.
• 2. State dinners do not allow "Take Home"

AND THE NUMBER 1 REASON WHY THERE COULDN'T BE A FILIPINO-AMERICAN U.S. PRESIDENT IS...

1. Air Force One does not allow overweight Balikbayan boxes!


The ubiquitous Balikbayan box!

Now here’s the advertisement portion:

"Hello, Garci?" Jokebook

Filipinos like to think that they can laugh at anything, and however much they put themselves down, they believe that their sense of humor is not only a defining national trait but also their saving grace. This book is a collection of contemporary political humor and is made up largely of jokes forwarded from one cellphone to another. Also included in the collection is a sampling of political humor from websites and blogs. Price: 190 Philippine pesos.

ORDER NOW at http://www.pcij.org/blog/2005/11/22/hello-garci-jokebook

Seriously, we are becoming a cradle of noble nannies.

And for those fatally attracted to life's darker side, read this:


"Ghosts of Manila by James Hamilton-Paterson, reclusive genius whose nipa hut I have yet to find."


More about the book:
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/book-review--gouging-out-hells-entrails-ghosts-of-manila--james-hamiltonpaterson-jonathan-cape-pounds-1499-1420229.html

More on the author, really, a Philippine rare bird:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2004/jun/05/featuresreviews.guardianreview8