"P-Noy’s responsibility is first and last to his people. P-Noy’s concern is first and last his people. P-Noy’s priority is first and last his people." That is according to Conrado De Quiros in his PDI column yesterday which had me thinking while taking a bath this morning. Can you imagine that? Me having this much interest in Philippine politics? Hey, I'm the girl who dies for shoes!
De Quiros is among those plenty who are irked by P-Noy's move to give the Chinese government and its people the first crack at the IIRC report. He further wonders, "Truly you have to wonder what kind of people P-Noy has surrounded himself with." Exactly my sentiment.
But I digress from this one.
Everyone who criticized P-Noy about his decision to send to the Chinese government the IIRC report first had forgotten this: P-Noy is Filipino first before he is President.
What is a Filipino? What sets us apart from the rest of the world? Before laws and rights, we have traits and culture first. These two, the bases of our Constitution, the reasons for our madness.
Why do we save the best blankets and pillow cases and take them out because a guest happens to be in the area and asks if he can stay for the night? Why do we not touch the only fish on the table when we have visitors for dinner? Why do we open the blue-sealed canned goods that we proudly put on display in our "estante" and serve to Tatay's officemates one weekend they decide to show up?
When the children of my sister's friends come to visit, they get to play my nephews' newest and "bestest" toys while our nephews look on wondering perhaps, "Spiderman ko 'yun, ah. Bakit binigay ni Tita sa bata?" "Umba, beebee! Beebee, umba!"
When I was a kid, I asked my mother why my cousins get to sleep in our room and we at the living room. She answered: "Eh kase, mga bisita sila." My inquiry didn't end there. But the bottomline is visitors come first.
Those Chinese tourists were our visitors. We gave them hospitality not because they deserved it. They were given it because we are Filipinos. And as Filipinos, we have this crazy trait of hardcore fresh-linen-and-best-pillows hospitality. Whether you like it or not.
Filipino first and we have the blood of these Chinese tourists in our hands? Instead of the best reception, we gave them multiple murder. Instead of the best and choicest fish, we had them eat bullets.
Filipino first? That is so un-Filipino, if you ask me. Do you know what is being Filipino? It is bowing our heads when we pass when people are talking. It is the mother eating only what is left by her children in their plates. It is the mother taking only the smallest part of the fish. It is the first-born taking care of her siblings and sending them to school. It is the neighbor passing a bowl of calderata over to the fence of the other neighbor, "Mare, pasensya na. Nagluto ng konting caldereta. Eto, tikman nyo."
Filipino are never known to have the "Me first" mentality.
Don't, just don't confuse our people with others.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
The Anatomy of a Single Mom
At age 38, my friend gave birth to her first baby. A girl. Her boyfriend whom she met only in December is back in Italy. She gave birth with only her father and a house help by her side from 10 PM until 6 AM the next day. Her OB assured her of a normal delivery, but on the eleventh hour, her doctor called for a CS.
I came to see her and the baby at the hospital the same day. She was OK, with two cellphones in her hands, calling and texting home for instructions - stuff to be sent to the hospital, hospital bills to be paid, etc. And she lying in bed with inches of sewn vertical wound on her stomach. Hell, it was painful. I could see how she'd stop to draw some deep breaths to ease the pain. Some tube stuck on her somewhere so she could pee without leaving the bed. One would see the shade of her liquid wastes.
Damn it! And she was alone with this sleepy girl barely out of her teens acting as her aid. But what does a girl know?
She could have NOT gotten herself pregnant, but she wanted a baby, a child she could call her own. And for what? For this? This loneliness at the time when a woman should be celebrating her womanhood?
No, I would not give credit to the father of her child for calling and calling and calling while she was near-death giving birth. The least he could have done was fly back to this OFW-infested country and be by her side to hold her hand those long hours of birth pains and birth hells. OFW-infested. That is the only time when something is infested and the pest is not on or in the host.
There are no excuses for any man not to be with the woman he has impregnated the time the woman gives birth. Any male human who does that can never claim to be better than male non-human animals.
She said he would be back in December for their wedding and the child's baptism. Big deal. He could have gone home now and get married. Ano siya naghihintay ng Pasko?
Stupid, stupid male. Why is she even marrying him?
My guess, that is what friends are for. To be with their friends when they have no one else. And deliberately fade in the background when things pick up. And back again when things screw up.
I cannot tell her not to marry him. I'm not her mother. I'm just her friend.
I came to see her and the baby at the hospital the same day. She was OK, with two cellphones in her hands, calling and texting home for instructions - stuff to be sent to the hospital, hospital bills to be paid, etc. And she lying in bed with inches of sewn vertical wound on her stomach. Hell, it was painful. I could see how she'd stop to draw some deep breaths to ease the pain. Some tube stuck on her somewhere so she could pee without leaving the bed. One would see the shade of her liquid wastes.
Damn it! And she was alone with this sleepy girl barely out of her teens acting as her aid. But what does a girl know?
She could have NOT gotten herself pregnant, but she wanted a baby, a child she could call her own. And for what? For this? This loneliness at the time when a woman should be celebrating her womanhood?
No, I would not give credit to the father of her child for calling and calling and calling while she was near-death giving birth. The least he could have done was fly back to this OFW-infested country and be by her side to hold her hand those long hours of birth pains and birth hells. OFW-infested. That is the only time when something is infested and the pest is not on or in the host.
There are no excuses for any man not to be with the woman he has impregnated the time the woman gives birth. Any male human who does that can never claim to be better than male non-human animals.
She said he would be back in December for their wedding and the child's baptism. Big deal. He could have gone home now and get married. Ano siya naghihintay ng Pasko?
Stupid, stupid male. Why is she even marrying him?
My guess, that is what friends are for. To be with their friends when they have no one else. And deliberately fade in the background when things pick up. And back again when things screw up.
I cannot tell her not to marry him. I'm not her mother. I'm just her friend.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Kawawang Gobyerno
Too fast for HK lawmaker. The Incident Investigation and Review Committee report that is.
There really is nothing we can and will do that will satisfy them, is there?
"Why China first? Solons ask Palace."
The National Union of Jounalists of the Philippines (NUJP) "warns government about haling media to court over hostage crisis coverage."
There really is nothing this government can and will do that will merit a tiny bit of positive outlook, is there?
There really is nothing we can and will do that will satisfy them, is there?
"Why China first? Solons ask Palace."
The National Union of Jounalists of the Philippines (NUJP) "warns government about haling media to court over hostage crisis coverage."
There really is nothing this government can and will do that will merit a tiny bit of positive outlook, is there?
For My Lover
Tracy Chapman
Two weeks in a Virginia jail
For my lover, for my lover
Twenty thousand dollar bail
For my lover, for my lover
And everybody thinks
That I'm the fool
But they don't get
Any love from you
The things we won't do for love
I'd climb a mountain if I had to
Risk my life so I could have you
You, you, you...
Everyday I'm psychoanalyzed
For my lover, for my lover
They dope me up and I tell them lies
For my lover, for my lover
And everybody thinks
That I'm the fool
But they don't get
Any love from you
The things we won't do for love
I'd climb a mountain if I had to
Risk my life so I could have you
You, you, you...
I follow my heart
And leave my head to ponder
Deep in this love
No man can shake
I follow my heart
And leave my mind to wonder
Is this love worth
The sacrifices I make?
Two weeks in a Virginia jail
For my lover, for my lover
Twenty thousand dollar bail
For my lover, for my lover
Everyday I'm psychoanalyzed
For my lover, for my lover
They dope me up and I tell them lies
For my lover, for my lover
And everybody thinks
That I'm the fool
But they don't get
Any love from you
The things we won't do for love
I'd climb a mountain if I had to
Risk my life so I could have you
You, you, you...
Saturday, September 18, 2010
I Know This Much Is True
is the title of the novel I'm reading now.
What happens if someone literally follows the teaching of the Bible that says, "if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee"? What if someone really cuts off his right hand?
It would be so easy to call the guy "mental." Because that's probably what he is.
If you were the mother, would you have your child cut in two? Would a sane man suggest such a thing to prove a point? Would the Prince of Wales do that? What about Noynoy? What about Obama?
The Bible is a highly metaphorical book of stories and teachings, it should not be left among men and women of lesser mental, emotional, intellectual and spiritual faculties. Seriously.
No one book in the history of mankind has been so open and vulnerable to misinterpretation than the Bible. I will not touch on the other books from which other religions have risen.
But God has given us this one legacy. Like any other piece of great literature, it is a power to be possessed, and not a body of objects to be studied.
What happens if someone literally follows the teaching of the Bible that says, "if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee"? What if someone really cuts off his right hand?
It would be so easy to call the guy "mental." Because that's probably what he is.
If you were the mother, would you have your child cut in two? Would a sane man suggest such a thing to prove a point? Would the Prince of Wales do that? What about Noynoy? What about Obama?
The Bible is a highly metaphorical book of stories and teachings, it should not be left among men and women of lesser mental, emotional, intellectual and spiritual faculties. Seriously.
No one book in the history of mankind has been so open and vulnerable to misinterpretation than the Bible. I will not touch on the other books from which other religions have risen.
But God has given us this one legacy. Like any other piece of great literature, it is a power to be possessed, and not a body of objects to be studied.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)