Youngblood: A Simple Man January 24, 2012
Posted by pilibustero in Personal.Tags: father, inquire, ofw, PDI, roge gonzales, rogene gonzales, youngblood
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I am sharing/reposting below an article written by a friend, Roge Gonzales which appeared at the Youngblood section of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Roge, 23 is a development journalism major at the University of the Philippines Los Baños. He was a former regional chairperson of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines:
Youngblood, PDI — My dad died several months ago. A heart attack triggered by complications from his diabetes ended his life at 62 years.
It was most painful to see my father lying inside a casket especially because I had not yet fulfilled the dreams I wanted to accomplish for him. But his passing also gave some kind of strength to every one of us in the family.
He did not have political power because he was not a public official. Neither did he have fame since he was not an actor or celebrity. But his funeral rites drew almost a thousand people. He was a simple man but a great man nonetheless.
My father spent most of his life as an overseas worker, someone whom the government gives the flattering title of “bagong bayani.” As one of the topnotchers in the civil engineering board exam, it was easy for him to join the first exodus of professionals to the Middle East during the Marcos era. He was there even before he married my mother. They kept their romance alive through love letters.
I practically grew up without a father by my side. However, he never failed to attend every commencement exercise in my elementary and high school years. One time, he arrived as the awards were being handed out after a nine-hour bus ride from Manila and, before that, a long flight from Doha, Qatar.
Shortly after he decided to stop working abroad, he suffered a mild stroke. He was partially paralyzed and almost lost his speech. Thankfully, he recovered—but only after several months of hospitalization and therapy. His medical bills, including professional fees for his doctors and multicolored tablets and capsules, wiped out everything he had saved over several decades as an OFW.
To save money, dad had one of his operations done in a public hospital. I can still picture how the wards at the Philippine General Hospital looked like, with around a hundred patients lying in one room, each one requiring urgent medical attention, much like an infirmary in a war zone.
My father once told me that the governments of countries in the Middle East provided people like him with additional medical benefits (he was given a free supply of insulin, for example). From that point on, I always wondered why in our country hardworking people do not get the services they deserve.
Entering the University of the Philippines and getting involved in the school publication eventually provided me with the answers. I learned that protecting workers’ rights was never a priority of lawmakers. I learned that sending workers abroad was not just a matter of “personal choice” but part of the government’s labor export policy. I was awakened to the fact that allocations for social services, such as health and education, were drastically reduced during Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s term.
In one of our conversations, I asked my dad why he chose to work abroad. He told me that he couldn’t bear to be part of a corrupt system that was devouring the motherland. He used to work at the Department of Public Works and Highways, but in just a few months he was seeing contractors making payoffs and politicians getting kickbacks from government projects. He said he didn’t want to feed us, his children, with food that came from stolen money. Because of my father’s example of making a living through honest labor, I find it hard to comprehend how powerful individuals can live from day to day with their conscience even as they pick the pockets of the people who pay taxes.
These days at home, I sometimes miss my dad’s frank commentaries as he read the newspapers or watched television. He had the ability to make concise analyses of burning issues. I wonder what he would have said now that the peoples of various Arab countries, where he once worked, are protesting against their fascist regimes. What would his take be on the Occupy Movement’s protest against corporate greed around the world?
I have come to realize that my political views were forged neither inside the walls of the university nor in street protests but by a whole lifetime of dad’s experiences. He was able to point out to me the conditions that need to be transformed into something much better.
These days I can’t shake off the feeling that what I believe to be the purpose of my life isn’t any different from what a mother of a desaparecido, such as Erlinda Cadapan, or a daughter of a slain journalist, such as Mika Ortega, yearn for. All of us want to attain social justice and to do away with a system that tolerates neglect by those who should be held responsible for making our society better.
During dad’s burial, I sent a text message to close friends which dad inspired during our family’s darkest hours. It read:
“We need to change this kind of society wherein parents are forced to sacrifice their love for their families and leave their homes in order to overcome the harsh realities of our society. We need to continue building our dream of a better future so that the next generations will no longer have to act this way.”
Wikipedia, Flickr, etc protest SOPA, PIPA January 19, 2012
Posted by pilibustero in Personal.Tags: censorship, Flickr, PIPA, protest, SOPA, US, wikipedia
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Online sites across the US and other parts of the world showed their respective protests either by suspending their services for 24 hours on January 18 (US Time) in dissent of the proposed “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA) and “Protect IP Act” (PIPA). I’m sharing below the statement of Wikipedia Foundation and Flickr:
English Wikipedia to go dark January 18 in opposition to SOPA/PIPA
San Francisco — January 16, 2012 — On January 18, 2012, in an unprecedented decision, the Wikipedia community has chosen to blackout the English version of Wikipedia for 24 hours, in protest against proposed legislation in the United States — the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and PROTECTIP (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate. If passed, this legislation will harm the free and open Internet and bring about new tools for censorship of international websites inside the United States.
Wikipedia administrators confirmed this decision Monday afternoon (PST) in a public statement (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Action#Summary_and_conclusion):
Over the course of the past 72 hours, over 1800 Wikipedians have joined together to discuss proposed actions that the community might wish to take against SOPA and PIPA. This is by far the largest level of participation in a community discussion ever seen on Wikipedia, which illustrates the level of concern that Wikipedians feel about this proposed legislation. The overwhelming majority of participants support community action to encourage greater public action in response to these two bills. Of the proposals considered by Wikipedians, those that would result in a “blackout” of the English Wikipedia, in concert with similar blackouts on other websites opposed to SOPA and PIPA, received the strongest support. READ MORE.
Help raise awareness about PIPA & SOPA
Two bills are currently being considered in the U.S. Congress: PIPA the “Protect IP Act” and SOPA the “Stop Online Piracy Act” Both are designed to address a legitimate problem – foreign-based websites that are engaging in digital piracy and trafficking in counterfeit goods. Unfortunately, we and many others believe that these bills miss the mark. These bills have the potential to stifle innovation, require censorship of search results, impose monitoring obligations, and change the way information is distributed on the web. Government regulation of online activities is a slippery slope and these proposed bills fall down that slope without truly addressing the issues that ignited this debate.
With the pending votes on these bills, Flickr is joining other sites on the web on January 18th to help raise awareness about the potential impacts of this legislation.
If you would like to participate in this awareness campaign, Flickr is letting members darken their photos — or the photos of others — for a 24-hour period to deprive the web of the rich content that makes it thrive. Your symbolic act will help draw attention to this issue and let others know about the potential harmful impacts of these bills. READ MORE.
In support of this cause, I just darkened a photo post in my newly-born Flickr Photostream HERE
UPCAT 2012 Results Released January 18, 2012
Posted by pilibustero in Personal.Tags: exam, up, upcat, upcat 2012, upcat result
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Demolition Job. It’s More Fun in the Philippines January 11, 2012
Posted by pilibustero in Personal, Politics & Society.Tags: demolition, fascism, philippines, san juan, state violence, urban poor
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Violence marred the demolition of an urban poor community in Corazon de Jesus, Pinaglabanan, San Juan City, Metro Manila, a known bulwark of ousted President Joseph Estrada. Several dozens residents and supporters were injured and illegally detained by police and demolition team to give way to commercial development in the prime land. Estrada’s son with incumbent mayor Guia Gomez, JV Ejercito currently serves as congressman of the city’s lone district. Welcome to the Philippines!
photo by Luis Liwanag via Facebook
photo by Francis Malasig via Facebook
photo by Francis Malasig via Facebook
STOP ALL DEMOLITION IN THE PHILIPPINES!
In Solitude January 8, 2012
Posted by pilibustero in Random Thoughts.Tags: bayawan city, negros oriental, solitude
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