Can We Remain Apolitical?

It's so easy to distance ourselves from what's going on around us; we have enough personal troubles to sort through, resolve or accept and live through till it sorts itself out (we hope).

I look at my country:With our top leaders aiming primarily to further entrench themselves in power, enrich themselves with the people's money, we are headed for the dumps.

I look at the rest of the world: Millions starve in Zimbabwe and other countries in Africa and Asia; millions await rehabilitation from previous calamities - earthquakes, typhoons; millions crouch in fear for their lives whether from local rebel groups or foreign troops invading their homeland.

Can we remain apolitical? To bring the question, much closer can I? How much longer can I stay parochial in my concerns?

I read of Israel's air strike on Gaza and killing innocent civilians and the escalating war as Israeli troops move into a ground offensive. The plight of the Palestinians stirs up pity, sympathy, then anger at how warring nations make innocent civilians, including children, fair game.

So what am I do to do?

Me a typically apolitical woman is writing this particular post to protest the war in Gaza. Not because I am pro-Palestinian and anti Jewish.

I am protesting our inhumanity to fellow humans.

I want my voice to be heard and be counted as one who wants harmony in the world. I want to move out of my political apathy - speak out and do what little I can to promote harmony where I am. Today.

Come Away with Me...to India

Never thought I'd end up in India last year!

I did not go through the usual tourist route; I was there for work. But I did get to enjoy its exotic sights, so if you ever get a chance to visit India, here's some tips:


1. Go girl watching





This lithe 9 year old danced on a tin plate, moving from the center to the rims with graceful fingers and a smile of a real trooper.








Here are 2 pretty girls gamely smiling for the cam after dancing for foreign guests like me.





2. Visit the home of the great Gandhi

3. Get a tattoo.

It's my dream come true. Ha ha! Tell me, what's your "dream come true" for 2008? Let's compare notes ;>)

Musings of a New Wife

What a year 2008 has been! There's no other quite like it.

Being married for a little over a year stretched me considerably- I am just a little wiser now. What little wisdom I've gained I hope I'd keep and the few foibles I've faced up to I pray I'd remember to be less defensive about.

A hearty "Yes" to...

1. Tolerating clutter
(If it's not a threat to life and limb nor a serious deterrent to health, ignore it girl!)

2. Listening to my husband
(...With thoughtful attention whether he's reading poetry to me, ranting about our corrupt president or raving about his site meter)

3. Affirming my hubby and best friend
("You're articulate, an incisive thinker, technologically savvy and can be depended on to help me with our piles of laundry.")

Less of...

Presuming, instead I will ask about what I do not know or understand.

Resenting, instead I will open my mouth and put into words whatever it is that's bothering me.

And of course, how can I forget the one word that for many years I had associated with moral decadence (I am going through quite a paradigm shift here!) - compromise. It fits beautifully into marriage, making us a little more nimble as we stumble through some rough spots.

A happy new year to all! Let's keep on loving and enjoying life...

Living Green and Grinning

Living green certainly eats up a lot of time and effort: sorting our trash into biodegradable and non-biodegradable, buying huge flower pots for food waste (unfortunately our apartment does not come with a yard) - my version of a compost, and making separate categories for clean paper, batteries and what not.

But it has its perks! I collect all clean plastic bags and set them aside for my favorite fruit vendor. After asking if it was okay with him if I give him our clean plastic bags (from previous purchases elsewhere), I've been bringing him those bags since then. Not only do I get a considerable discount (which I did not expect) for my purchases, I also walk home with a grin on my face. Plus I am making sure that all those clean, reusable plastic bags are put into good use, instead of ending up in the trash bin and in the huge landfills.

But there's one drawback about all these detailed sorting of "trash," - it's driving my loving hubby up the wall. How exactly? Now that' s for an entirely new blog.

Burning Money

It's 11.55 pm and I'm still awake. Blame it on the blasted firecrackers that are blasting at the moment. Firecrackers is such an entrenched part of celebrating new year here in Manila and in many parts of the Philippines. It's a celebration that begins several days before New Year's eve. For the past days, exploding firecrackers intrude on people like me who prefer to go to bed at 8 pm and rise early.

Last night I was fuming mad for the same reason and wished these people who like to burn money ought to do it inside their homes and blast their eardrums. And not disturb people like me who are violently opposed to firecrackers which kill people, burn down houses and tear the ozone layer.

Firecrackers cost a lot of money, and here in my country, exploding firecrackers is burning precious money which millions of Filipinos don't have much of these days. Many families are going hungry.

After ranting like this, I'll try to get some sleep...

Burma on My Mind

It's been more than a year since I last visited Rangoon.

My last visit was in September 2007. The night before I left, a blaring announcement rudely awakened me. I could not understand what was being said, but I quickly sensed something was very wrong and remembered the beginnings of martial law in the Philippines. The next morning I learned from front desk that it was an announcement about the imposition of curfew starting that day; everyone should be home by 9pm-5am.

It was an early morning drive to the airport that morning and my Chin friend was pointing out to me army trucks moving into the city.

Monk- led rallies marked the previous days which the world watched on their TV screens/computer monitors. My Chin friend, concerned for my safety, would not even allow me to watch the rallies from afar; he intentionally kept me as far as possible from the rallies.

Nevertheless, I saw the side of Yangon that the military junta keeps on hiding from the rest of the world: Children, women, men walking on the streets in the rain because they could not afford to commute. Bus fare had increased to 200% - from 3 cents to $15 which is half a month's salary of a school teacher. Many walked through rain and flooded streets without umbrellas because they would rather have food than covering for their bodies. At that time the price of 1 sack (30 kilos) of rice had risen by 65%- from $14 to $21. At that time many families only ate once a day and a meal was a small bowl of rice porridge.

All my thoughts and feelings about what I saw in Rangoon I kept inside. My Chin friends were suffering enough; I could not burden them with my tears. I had to wait for my debriefing in Bangkok.

But my tears, all the pent up sorrow over the suffering that I saw, could not wait for the Bangkok debriefing. I cried on the plane. Bitter tears. Tears of helplessness at so much suffering...

Come January I will visit Rangoon again...Will I be brave enough to see suffering upon suffering heaped on hapless Burma?

Start Them Young

A few days after our honeymoon, my husband and I moved into our new apartment; we had no furniture, no furry friends. After some days, a yellow cat, appeared on our kitchen door, and meowwed itself into our lives, so we had no choice but to adopt it.

To our surprise, Garfield (that's the name we gave her) refuses to eat veggies which is what we usually eat. We also eat fish, but after dinner all that Garfield gets are bones and fish heads (my Western readers, I don't mean to grouse you out). All efforts to change her into a veggie-eating feline failed.

Finally, she has a kitten that survived the first 3 critical weeks (she lost her 3 previous kittens)...Once we got some veggies mixed with the fish, what Garfield refused to eat, Kuting (the name we gave the kitten) ate.

Since then, Kuting has been eating leafy veggies. Start them young, I say. Just this morning, to our great delight, she ate onions and garlic. Bright kitten, she knows anti-oxidants are good for her! Wish more of us humans are as wise as our little kitten.