tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89716778262870374262024-02-07T01:55:21.176-08:00Iris Cecilia Gonzales(In between deadlines. In between flights. In between time and space. In between dreams and nightmares)Iris Cecilia Gonzaleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119600940849921719noreply@blogger.comBlogger589125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971677826287037426.post-45661448366464091832019-06-23T03:56:00.000-07:002019-07-15T22:27:51.826-07:00Cracks in this billionaire's empire<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<i>(To those asking, here's my June 3 <a href="https://www.philstar.com/columns/136412">Eyes Wide Open</a> column. Reposting this here because the link on Philstar.com is no longer working because of a glitch).</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is a story of a billionaire’s empire and it begins with the patriarch himself, an enigmatic wise old man who built a multi-billion dollar fortune from scratch.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">He came all the way to the Philippines from Fujian, China way back in the 1930s to escape the Japanese Imperial Army. He was a young boy of four when his family fled to Manila. Poverty was sweeping their hometown, so they packed their bags and rode the first departing ships out of their country to look for their fortune elsewhere. They didn’t know where to go, but any place was better.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Taiwan was nearer to the port city of Xiamen, but as fate would have it, many of those who would be part of the Chinese diaspora would end up in Manila.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The boy and his family were no exception, and so despite his fabled wealth, he knew what it meant to be poor and hard up, having been born in one of the poorest provinces in China.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">That was the beginning of this billionaire’s story as it was for most rags-to-riches taipans here in the country.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">He studied hard, took on jobs with meager pay and slept in friends’ couches to save money. When he had enough, he put up his own company and worked with blood, sweat and tears to make it big.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">He worked and strived to get out of poverty. The rest, as they say, is history.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The man would become one of the country’s richest men, building one of the biggest conglomerates he never imagined he could build.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It used to be simple, this billionaire’s story. It was just another rags to riches tale, one among many. Once in a while the man and his empire would be at the center of controversies — a labor strike, a favored government deal, a skewed tax arrangement — but nothing he could not handle. He was always vindicated.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Yet the story the past days is no longer simple; no, not anymore.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">There are now so many twists and turns and so much drama and in-fighting among the men and women who share his name. There’s a power struggle of sorts, an inquisition long plotted and planned, fuelled by a greed for the throne, just like in the Game of Thrones.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The latest twist in this saga is the rise of a new villain, no doubt out to get the throne no matter the cost. The villain, we’re told, has the ear of the patriarchs queen.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The power struggle is real, no longer imagined, a thickening plot that would be a perfect addition to the long list of edge-of-your seat series in Netflix.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But the patriarch, say his men, will live forever and is not about to relinquish the throne.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Two companies – among the empire’s biggest – are particularly at the center of the power struggle with many of the insiders discombobulated on what to do. Some have been kicked out. Greed for power is the name of the game.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The wise old man must be scratching his head in frustration amid all the squabbling over control of the empire he built.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Once not too long ago when he was asked about his possible successor, he jokingly replied that he would just sell everything.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Cracks in the empire may turn off creditors and big-time clients, or may send investors jittery - a part of it after all is the public’s money.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">What happens next is still up for anyone’s guess. The villains, it seems, are eagerly awaiting victory. But then again, it may be too early to tell.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Let us remember that in life, as it is in chess, the quiet pawns are just as strong as the queen and they may well uniquely determine how the game will end.</span></div>
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Iris Cecilia Gonzaleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119600940849921719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971677826287037426.post-84760194768804359122019-05-21T23:25:00.002-07:002019-05-21T23:29:22.355-07:00The Matterhorn<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I saw the Matterhorn, the mountain in Toblerone and it was majestic. Read my story <a href="https://www.philstar.com/lifestyle/travel-and-tourism/2019/05/19/1918876/matterhorn-king-mountains">here</a>:</div>
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<br />Iris Cecilia Gonzaleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119600940849921719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971677826287037426.post-28287104774352811342019-05-12T08:18:00.002-07:002019-05-12T08:25:21.760-07:00Back online11:09 p.m., 2019, two years after my last entry. It is the night before the mid-term elections. I have been working on my website the past days with the help of fellow journalist Gerard dela Pena of TV5. Thank you so much Gerard.<br />
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It's still a work in progress. I am redesigning it, too. But for now, it's good to be back. And I am happy to share one of my favorite columns on <a href="https://www.philstar.com/columns/136412">Eyes Wide Open</a>:<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"><b>The 1984 confidential report on our bloated dollar reserves.</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://www.philstar.com/columns/136412" style="color: #00659e; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">EYES WIDE OPEN</a> - <a href="https://www.philstar.com/authors/1804708/iris-gonzales" style="color: #00659e; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Iris Gonzales</a> (The Philippine Star) - May 6, 2019 - 12:00am </div>
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<span style="color: #101010; font-family: inherit;">It was a move that stunned the country’s lenders, but very few can remember how it even happened.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #101010; font-family: inherit;">I’m referring to the time when the Philippine Central Bank overstated the country’s dollar reserves, way back in the ‘80s when Manila was in chaos and perhaps the only thing that kept Filipinos going was the Bee Gees’ Stayin’ Alive.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #101010; font-family: inherit;">It’s no longer a problem now, but when I wrote about the Philippines 1983 debt crisis weeks ago, some readers asked why we overstated our dollar reserves by $600 million and how it happened.</span></div>
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="1" style="display: block; margin: 12px auto;" width="1"></iframe><span style="font-family: inherit;">It took a while for me to find out, but I finally did, thanks to a confidential Monetary Board report dated Oct. 19, 1984.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The report was based on hearings conducted by the Monetary Board at the time with key officials of the Central Bank and the Philippine National Bank (then still owned by the government); and on an audit conducted by SGV & Co. on the transactions, as requested by the MB. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I spent nights leafing through the report, which was jaw-dropping to say the least. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Bloating our dollar reserves was no doubt one of the Philippines’ biggest lies. </span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here’s what I gathered from the confidential documents:</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">1) There were five types of transactions which all had the effect of overstating the country’s gross international reserves. They were done by Central Bank officials.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">2) The special transactions were done regularly from November 1982 to September 1983 using placements with PNB’s branches overseas. At the time, lenders were tightening credit to the country because of “the general nervousness on the economy.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">3) “It was at this point that the Central Bank apparently looked into more imaginative ways of improving the balance of payments and maintaining its reserves position. This gave rise to these so-called special transactions.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">3) Transactions ranged from $500 million to a whopping $1 billion, but these were not funded. They were merely accounting entries.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">4) Another transaction involved the sale by the Central Bank of US dollar treasury bills to PNB Hong Kong, amounting to $100 million. No actual delivery happened, but the proceeds were recorded as foreign currency time deposits, thus increasing the international reserves on paper.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">5) “In the first quarter of 1983 alone, the Central Bank has had to contend with an average short position of $150 million to $175 million daily.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">6) Said the report: “the transactions have been found to be fictitious without any funding, in effect generating non-existent reserves for the Central Bank.”</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: inherit;">Desperate measure</span></strong></h2>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This went on for almost a year. How sad and embarrassing it must have been for our country. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Imagine we had to lie about our dollar position so we could borrow money from lenders to pay for imports and to fund the grandiose projects of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. This, while his wife Imelda went on wild shopping sprees around the world. Remember that story about how an airplane that departed Rome had to do a mid-air U turn because the former first lady realised she’d forgotten to buy some cheese?</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: inherit;">Liquidity crunch</span></strong></h2>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Why did Central Bank officials do it? The report concluded that it was a desperate measure for an institution caught in the middle of a liquidity crunch. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Now why am I resurrecting the past? For sure, it’s not nostalgia. I was not yet a journalist at the time. I was in first grade elementary school without a clue of what was happening in my country. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But in response to queries from readers, I decided to dig up the dusty report. After reading it, I too was stunned.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">For posterity, it needs to be told and retold especially today, the golden age of blatant lies.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">More importantly, let us remember the fundamental reasons behind our sorry situation back then.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: inherit;">Building our reserves</span></strong></h2>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It looks impossible now that we could fall back to those times, but we can never be too sure. These days, we may be sitting on enough dollar reserves, but things can change easily. Wasn’t it just less than a year ago when our reserves hit new lows?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">An external shock can hit us in a snap of a finger, just like Thanos’ apocalyptic snap.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Thus, bit by bit, we should continue building our reserves. Many countries are even diversifying their holdings to help preserve the overall safety of their foreign exchange assets. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">BPI lead economist Jun Neri believes the government can take advantage of the recent ratings upgrade by Standard & Poor’s to build up our foreign currency reserves. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">He noted that the size of the country’s dollar reserves now -- at $83.2 billion in March -- is less than 80 percent of our annual imports which climbed to $108.9 billion last year. In contrast, in 2013, the GIR was 50 percent bigger than annual imports.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Is less than 80 percent worrisome? He said it’s not necessarily worrisome, but it can be when there is extreme external vulnerability such as a recession in the US.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Anything can happen for sure.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">No, I’m not a naysayer and I’m not calling the Four Horsemen either, but if they do come and we’re not prepared, it might be too late to do anything else.</span></div>
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Iris Cecilia Gonzaleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119600940849921719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971677826287037426.post-37532452103969666322017-09-29T06:21:00.001-07:002017-09-29T06:21:06.480-07:00My Special Report on the Philippine Competition Commission <div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span lang="EN-US"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">(Here is my two part special report on the Philippine Competition Commission, the newly formed anti-trust body in the country. Its actions affect business, is it a boon or bane? Read on)</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">PCC: Boon or Bane?</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">SOMEWHERE in the bustling business district of Ortigas, there is an inconspicuous, grey building along San Miguel Avenue that is hardly noticeable and easy to miss.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Philippine Competition Commission (<span class="il">PCC</span>), the government’s anti-trust body, occupies some of its floors. Indeed, it doesn’t even have its own office.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yet, inconspicuous as its office is, the <span class="il">PCC</span> is overwhelmingly powerful whether businessmen like it or not. Inside the boardrooms of some of the country’s top corporations, businessmen are cracking their brains on how best to deal with the newly formed government body.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">TELCO DEAL</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s no secret that even before <span class="il">PCC</span> chairman Arsenio Balisacan could even hit the ground running last year, the <span class="il">PCC</span>already had to battle against the telecom industry’s duopoly, PLDT and Globe Telecom.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In 2016, at a time when the <span class="il">PCC</span> was still in transitory phase, PLDT and Globe Telecom embarked on a co-acquisition of the telco assets of San Miguel Corp. for P69.1 billion.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The <span class="il">PCC</span> insisted that it should be allowed to review the deal but the telcos said that under the transitory rules of the <span class="il">PCC</span>, the deal "only needed a notice" to the commission and is already deemed approved.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">However, the <span class="il">PCC</span> maintained that it is only deemed approved if the notice is sufficient.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The case is pending in court.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />Aside from telco players, other businessmen are quietly sighing in frustration over the fact that they have to deal with the <span class="il">PCC</span>. They consider it an unnecessary layer in the labyrinthine Philippine bureaucracy that is already difficult to navigate.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">UNCERTAINTY</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The head of one of the country’s biggest conglomerates said having to go through the <span class="il">PCC</span> causes uncertainty for businesses.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Supposedly, it’s only one month but even after that one month, if they deemed that it’s not complete, then the review will continue. That causes uncertainty,” the CEO told The STAR in an interview but declined to be named, saying that it may affect the company’s future dealings with the <span class="il">PCC</span>.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The official said that for a transaction to be scrutinized by the <span class="il">PCC</span> has its advantages but it also brings uncertainty.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“It adds too much risk to the transaction. While the review is ongoing, the transaction is at a standstill. The operations are halted. You don’t know if you will have a new boss or not,” the CEO said.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The same source said <span class="il">PCC</span>’s definition of “having control in a company” isn’t very clear.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“For other companies, it’s accounting control. There are instances when you have majority control but you do not manage it. Or is it being able to control the board?”</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Another executive, a top-ranking official from a property company that had to deal with the <span class="il">PCC</span> said they experienced the same problem.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“The submissions we have were always inadequate. So (the approval) of our transaction took some time,” said the executive who also declined to be named.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The same source said they just had to explain to their foreign partner that they needed more time.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">30-DAY PERIOD</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But Balisacan said the prescribed period for review as mandated by law is up to 30 days for the Phase 1 and a total of 90 days if the review moves to Phase II.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Most are cleared within 30 days. If there are concerns, we would move to Phase 2 so it’s 90 days in total,” he said.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The countdown can only begin once the parties submit complete application requirements. This is when the formal "notification" happens.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">LAWYERS</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Balisacan explained that this pre-notification process takes time because the lawyers hired by companies to deal with the <span class="il">PCC</span> sometimes move slowly. </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">MANDATE</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The <span class="il">PCC</span>, created under Republic Act 10667 or the Philippine Competition Act, is an independent quasi-judicial body mandated to implement the national competition policy by regulating anti-competitive conduct and protecting the wellbeing and efficiency of competition markets for the benefit of consumers and businesses.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Specifically, it seeks to protect consumers by giving them more choices over goods and services at lower prices in the market and to promote competitive businesses, large or small, that will, in turn, encourage economic efficiency and innovation in the country.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It was established with the premise that markets with enough competition directly benefit the poor. This is because competitive markets offer a wider variety of goods and services at the lowest possible prices.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“This means that the poor, with their limited income, have expanded choices and can afford to buy more with the same amount of money.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It also protects small business owners, including farmers and other small-scale entrepreneurs from unfair and predatory business practices that bigger businesses might implement,” the <span class="il">PCC</span> said.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Companies embarking on mergers and acquisitions with a transaction value of at least one billion pesos need the approval of the <span class="il">PCC</span>.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“”Parties to the merger or acquisition agreement where the value of the transaction exceeds one billion are required to notify the <span class="il">PCC</span> of such agreement. They cannot consummate the same without the approval of the <span class="il">PCC</span>. The <span class="il">PCC</span> is also empowered to promulgate other criteria — increased market share in the same relevant market in excess of minimum thresholds that would trigger this notification requirement,” the <span class="il">PCC</span> said in a primer.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">THE ONE-BILLION THRESHOLD</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At least three businessmen interviewed by The STAR said the one-billion peso threshold is too small.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“That’s practically everything,” said one businessman.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For big conglomerates and foreign companies looking for acquisitions, that threshold is small.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Balisacan said the threshold could change if the commission deems it necessary.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“(The one billion threshold) is mandated by the law but the law nonetheless empowers the <span class="il">PCC</span> to update the threshold as we deem necessary,” he said.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“We will revisit this eventually but for now, it’s not a very high priority but we can update it anytime,” he said.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Balisacan noted that there were indeed some initial concerns on the one billion threshold from businesses concerned that the <span class="il">PCC</span> may be deluged by applications because the amount practically covers almost all major possible mergers and acquisitions of companies.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“But there shouldn’t be a problem because the law prescribes a maximum (review period) of 90 days and so far, we’ve been able to comply,” Balisacan said.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">ABUSE OF DOMINANT POSITION</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Another role of the <span class="il">PCC</span> is to ensure that entities do not abuse their dominant position by engaging in conduct that would substantially prevent, restrict or lessen competition.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">These include predatory pricing, imposing barriers to entry in an anti-competitive manner and unfair exercise of monopsony – a situation where there is one buyer and many sellers.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For mergers and acquisitions, a comprehensive review includes a determination of the relevant market whether there will be substantial changes to the market structure and the potential impact of the transaction on public welfare.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Some key factors that may be considered when determining the effect of a merger or acquisition on competition in a relevant market include number of competitors in a market.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For instance, the <span class="il">PCC</span> said a market with only a handful of players may raise a red flag. Fewer players in the market could have an implication on the level of competition.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Furthermore, mergers that significantly decrease the number of competitors in the market require a closer review of possible anti-competitive effects that could harm consumers.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mergers among competitors need thorough review for potential lessening of competition especially when costs of entering a market are high.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There are many examples of barriers to entry include high cost of infrastructure investments and regulatory barriers.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If the merger results in a market with fewer competitors who have similar market shares, the potential for collusion is high.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">These are just among the roles of the <span class="il">PCC</span> but businessmen insist the <span class="il">PCC</span> is just a thorn on their side. ###</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">When President Benigno Aquino III appointed then Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan as chairman of the Philippine Competition Commission (</span><span class="il" style="font-family: inherit;">PCC</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">), the government's antitrust body, he had his hands full at the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There were so many infrastructure projects up for approval – the agency was so busy.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But Balisacan, a well-known economist who holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Hawaii, did not hesitate to accept the job.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">INCLUSIVE GROWTH</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">An expert on economic development, poverty and inequality, Balisacan believed that a competitive market is necessary to achieving inclusive growth.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“The growth that we’re seeing is not as inclusive as what we would have wanted. It’s these anti-competitive factors that contribute to that. It’s really a big part of the story – that lack of competition that concentrates the benefits to a small group of people,” Balisacan told The STAR.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“If there is level playing field, growth becomes inclusive,” he added.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Philippines posted a stellar economic growth of 6.8 percent in 2016 but such growth has yet to be inclusive, with 25 percent of the 100 million population still living below the poverty line.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Balisacan recalled that it wasn’t easy to set up the <span class="il">PCC</span>, the first time for the country.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“We started from scratch. It’s never been done in this country. We started in February last year and all I had was the commissioners with me and five borrowed staff from NEDA,” he said.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But he and his team persevered because of the crucial role that the <span class="il">PCC</span> can play.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Without the <span class="il">PCC</span>, he said, “the big companies can kill SMEs. They can simply reduce prices so the SMEs won’t be able to compete. This is a very common practice of cartels. The big ones eat the small ones.”</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Balisacan who has been studying the behavior of industries and other players in the economy said industries that are vulnerable to anti-competitive behavior are those with few players.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thus, in looking at mergers and acquisitions, <span class="il">PCC</span> makes sure the merger will not substantially lessen competition.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“These merged companies could have a much larger influence in the market,” he said.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The <span class="il">PCC</span> also makes sure that the merger would not prevent any potential competitor to come in if there is no competitor yet.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“We have to look at the barriers to entry,” he said.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The <span class="il">PCC</span> is also strongly pushing for its advocacy of having a competition environment in the Philippines and is not limited to reviewing M&As.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">GOOD FOR BUSINESS</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Given these roles of the <span class="il">PCC</span>, Balisacan said that in the end, businesses should realize how good the <span class="il">PCC</span> can be for the country’s business environment.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“The <span class="il">PCC</span> is actually good for business because competition is good. They will improve on their products and services,” he said.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Businessmen don't necessarily agree. They said the <span class="il">PCC</span> is just another layer in the already labyrinthine Philippine bureaucracy. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">However, Francis Lim, a prominent corporate lawyer, a senior partner at ACCRA Law Offices and who has worked as an antitrust lawyer in Washington, said the creation of the <span class="il">PCC</span> is good for the country.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“It’s good overall. All businesses have a chance. What is important is to have a competitive environment for everyone. Those big businesses have nothing to fear if they don’t do anything illegal,” Lim told The STAR. </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So far, the <span class="il">PCC</span> has reviewed 114 mergers and acquisition transactions, of which 95 deals have been approved.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Among the recent approvals is the acquisition by Japan Tobacco Inc. of the Philippines’s second largest cigarette company Mighty Corp. from the Wongchuking family. JTI, the world’s third biggest cigarette company acquired Mighty for P46.8 billion.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Now whether or not these approved deals would actually lead to a more competitive environment; prevent market leaders from abusing their dominant position; and improve businesses’ products and services – and in the process translate to inclusive growth for the Philippines – remains to be seen. ###</span></span></div>
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Iris Cecilia Gonzaleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119600940849921719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971677826287037426.post-70397859765725600622017-09-17T00:11:00.001-07:002017-09-17T00:13:14.200-07:00My Russian Journal<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In the port city of St. Petersburg on the Baltic sea, many chilly nights before I had my first shot of Russian Standard, or before I met a beautiful long-legged Russian lady named Anastasia or whispered my dreams to the griffins, I had already found myself in a place filled with long held traditions, enigmas and a rich historical past.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">A lifetime is not enough in this city, Russia’s second largest. Its charm will blow your mind; its history will haunt you; the view of its elegant canals lined with the grandest mansions and Baroque-style buildings will take your breath away; the bright city lights won’t cease to amaze and the legendary White Nights of May – when the northern sun takes its sweet time dipping into the horizon – will trick you into believing a day is as long as you dream it to be.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Peter the Great, he who reigned with valor and a long silver sword, is everywhere. You’ll see him in the sprawling fortress along Neva River, the oldest landmark in the city; in the cathedrals adorned with golden angels on top, in the museums, in the age-old bridges that part at half past one in the morning for the ships to pass, on the cobblestoned streets and in the bookshops. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Russia’s first emperor after all built St. Petersburg out of nothing, expanding the country into a larger empire that made it a major European power, and leading a cultural revolution that replaced medieval systems long held by the country’s aristocrats.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And hundreds of centuries after, I suspect, St. Petersburg is as magnificent as it was before, largely frozen in time.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I arrived in the city in the latter part of May, not to go on vacation but to trail Philippine businessmen who traveled to the Eurasian country to explore potential business deals here and in Moscow during President Duterte’s official visit.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But in between deadlines, I managed to go around. For how can I not, what with the splendor, the sights, the gastronomic delights and the magnificence of history teeming all over? Not even the chilly breeze from the Baltic Sea would deter me from seeing the city.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">And so I roamed its streets and ducked into the corners of its churches and museums. I looked in awe at the intricate paintings on the ceilings and found myself amazed with the overload of gold in every important piece of historical architecture.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Yes, a lifetime is not enough in St. Petersburg but for lovers of history, one should immediately visit the Peter and Paul Cathedral, a Russian Orthodox Church that’s now been turned into a museum.<br /><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It is the gateway to the Romanov dynasty of the past because it is home to the graves of nearly all the rulers of Russia since Peter the Great. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Peter’s grave is at the front right, and to this day, Russians still shed tears over it. Catherine the Great, the Empress of Russia for 34 years is also buried here.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Another place to visit is the Hermitage Museum, one of the largest and oldest museums in the world. Some of the finest pieces of art are found here, including Rembrandt’s “The Return of the Prodigal Son.”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, another must-see, is perhaps the face of St. Petersburg, dazzling with its five spiral multi-colored domes. It stands out in the city’s predominantly Baroque and Neoclassical architecture because of its medieval Russian style. I never imagined a piece of architecture could enthrall me as much as it did, transporting me back to the olden times, in the truest spirit of romantic nationalism.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Outside the city, I went to see the Peterhof Palace, described as the Versailles of Russia and inscribed as a Unesco World Heritage Site. Spending hours inside it will give one a feel of how it was to live like a Russian monarch. One will see the beds of grand emperors and empresses, draped with light pink curtains, the collection of silver and gold cutlery in the dining rooms, the floor to ceiling mirrors – oh, the grandeur of it all!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Outside, the complex is dotted with gardens filled with flowers and a vast collection of sparkling fountains. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">A long walk from the palace is the mouth of the Baltic Sea, with its ice-cold breeze, whispering waves and breathtaking view. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">There are many other places to see in the city. One can also just meander aimlessly and simply take it all in. Or linger on balconies overlooking the cityscape.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The city is as surreal as can be – painters paint the dead for a living; strangers who will not smile at you will pay for your ride; most men share the same names – Igor, Sergei, Yuri and, of course, Vladimir; soup is served with sour cream and nobody gets drunk even with endless shots of vodka.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">On my last day in St. Petersburg, I boarded the bullet train to Moscow where the rest of the business delegation would converge and meetings for Duterte’s official visit would be held.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In Moscow, it wasn’t easy chasing over 200 businessmen, especially with the presidential visit cut short to only 24 hours from the scheduled week. Meetings were cancelled left and right and the schedules were suddenly revised many times over. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But when one is in Russia, its picturesque beauty will dazzle and delight and one will easily forget if not find a way around the nuisances – the horrendous traffic, the cancelled meetings, the jet lag and that one unbearably chilly afternoon when the thermometer read five degrees and the well-planned rendezvous with the legendary billion-dollar spy failed.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In the end, there will always be something about Russia that will penetrate deep into the senses, though I haven’t quite figured out yet which one it was exactly. </span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Was it the classical music at the Mendeleevskaya metro station at midnight or the art in the subway? Was it the powerful voice of Anna Karenina before she faced her death or the bronze horseman in Alexander Pushkin’s mind? Or could it be the soothing vodka in a Country That Does Not Exist one fine evening or the sight of the well-lit Bolshoi Theater across it? Was it the unforgettable Anastasia whose beauty enamored me, or the dashing gentleman’s warm kiss on my cold hand?</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">Maybe it’s all these and more. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s simply sitting behind a dark cherry wood desk in a room in the Ritz-Carlton trying to figure out where to find Stalin’s seven sisters.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></div>
<br />Iris Cecilia Gonzaleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119600940849921719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971677826287037426.post-17863529527880375782017-04-07T06:55:00.000-07:002017-04-07T06:55:34.353-07:00Somewhere Between My Heart and Bagan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFTo-JPpkhNUgqT5S1fTAWY6q399T5qoDsIbod8_WTjXy2_ZYQS5p40b0UhuAcKyLLNtdVzPe9RHtzr-n0rchUYVVCkr99Mb_WKgwPbGg3jGWyUN5WO8h0yxJAPK1jtNPTYTWE02DLXQhQ/s1600/20170305_173953.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFTo-JPpkhNUgqT5S1fTAWY6q399T5qoDsIbod8_WTjXy2_ZYQS5p40b0UhuAcKyLLNtdVzPe9RHtzr-n0rchUYVVCkr99Mb_WKgwPbGg3jGWyUN5WO8h0yxJAPK1jtNPTYTWE02DLXQhQ/s640/20170305_173953.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfUWnuxdQLLSBL9Zl8DL-vl7tb0kQNVKuBYatc5xv5zCQQnI2WEgTbVJ_ZsjgkGt-wK78-p38U-o88aFVBYFCYDfJXSGt47m_PrGgM8z6XViys9W4wOGMV3Hm8GQJxAzOckBqMxGr9HT0k/s1600/20170305_104509+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfUWnuxdQLLSBL9Zl8DL-vl7tb0kQNVKuBYatc5xv5zCQQnI2WEgTbVJ_ZsjgkGt-wK78-p38U-o88aFVBYFCYDfJXSGt47m_PrGgM8z6XViys9W4wOGMV3Hm8GQJxAzOckBqMxGr9HT0k/s640/20170305_104509+%25281%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">THOUSANDS of brownish red pagodas glisten
under the Burmese sun; their stupas spiral upward from miles and miles of vast greenery;
towering Buddhas cast shadows on this dusty patch of earth while white horses,
kings in blue robes, celestial beings and court jesters with velvet hats –
marionettes all -- hang from age-old trees and dance with the wind. The air is
dry but at times refreshingly temperate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Welcome to Bagan, an ancient city in the
Mandalay Region of Myanmar, surrounded by the famed Irrawaddy River and a
silhouette of mountains smiling from the distance. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Founded in the mid to late 9th century,
Bagan is a temple-studded city that stretches as far as the eye can see, set
against a backdrop of a majestic curtain of orange, crimson and brown hues. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Marco Polo, the great Venetian traveler,
once described it as “a gilded city, alive with tinkling bells and the swishing
sounds of monks’ robes.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Indeed, Bagan is no doubt an archeological
wonder, profoundly mystical and perhaps one of the finest sites in the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">It’s a rare off-the-beaten path still
unknown to many travelers and perhaps one of the few remaining places in the
vast growing region of Asia that is untouched and relatively raw. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Bagan isn’t crowded or noisy. It isn’t a party
place for drinking the night away although there are many places for travellers
to drink and eat. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">On the contrary, it might as well be the perfect
place for a spiritual pilgrimage with its collection of 2,200 temples and pagodas
and their shimmering stupas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">And so on a warm Friday morning of March, I
packed my bags and left for the famed ancient city, all by myself. I took a
nine-hour flight from Manila to Yangon and another hour more to reach Bagan.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Nope, I wasn’t really looking for a
religious encounter nor was my heart broken and in need of healing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">But I figured one doesn’t need to have
one’s heart broken into a thousand pieces to “eat, pray and love” halfway
across the world as what the writer Elizabeth Gilbert did after a nasty divorce
and portrayed by Julia Roberts in the bestselling memoir-turned-movie, Eat,
Pray, Love.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Sometimes, in the words of a Filipino
tycoon, “the soul simply needs the
solitude.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">And it was exactly what I found and so much
more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">I found that solitude on top of the Bulethi
Pagoda, one of the highest structures in the city as I sat there in a quiet
corner of the pagoda’s peak after climbing its steep and narrow stairs of more
than a hundred steps. It wasn’t an easy climb, with its slope almost at 45
degrees and you have to walk barefoot and endure the scorching hot bricks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">But the breathtaking view of the city and
its temple-dotted horizon was so much worth the difficult trek. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">I stood there on the top of the pagoda
swept away by the beauty before me. It was a land like no other. And so I
lingered, forgetting the minutes and the hours, just savoring the silence and
taking it all in. The view was majestic, the silence simply magical. It added a
perfect piece to my narrative, yet another step in an ongoing journey. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">But whether it’s just one pagoda or a
thousand, the experience is uniquely one’s own. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The pagodas are sacred sites. One should be
prepared to walk barefoot and to dress appropriately as a show of respect.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">More than the physical preparation, it is
important to empty one's mind, heart and soul to get a richer experience. The emptier
one's vessels are, the more one can take in from the journey, which can turn
into a spiritual pilgrimage if one is lucky enough.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Inside most of the temples are pilgrims from
every corner of the world, praying fervently, making an offering, meditating or
simply being there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">And while Bagan is predominantly Buddhist,
visitors don't even have to have any religion to be able to have a rich
experience in the temples.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Sometimes, to pray is to simply be in total
communion with oneself, or to keep silent and reflect.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">And in such places, one can find perfect
corners for solitude to clear the mind or let it wander back to the olden times
or to just listen to the beating of one’s heart. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">One can stay in any pagoda for hours and
hours on end, to meditate, reflect, and write on a journal or to just escape
from it all. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Some pagodas are crowded with throngs of
tourists but in other temples, it’s possible not to see a single soul. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the popular ones, there are vendors and
hawkers by the entrance selling anything and everything – bells from bygone
times, murals of Bagan’s picturesque landscape, the puppets, Buddhas statues,
ancient watches, lucky charms and what-have-you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">I went to view the sunset one afternoon and
braved a mammoth crowd in the Shwesandaw Pagoda, Bagan’s most famous sunset
stop. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The white pyramid-style pagoda provided a
commanding 360-degree view of the city down below. It has five terraces and a
circular stupa on top adorned with an umbrella-like structure.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">I climbed all the way up the hundreds of
steps and waited for the sun to descend in a spectacular canvas of orange and
red.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">I opened my notebook and scribbled these
lines: “Sunset over Bagan…you have to put up with the clouds to see the orange
crimson sky then you can bear witness to the sun’s fiery kiss to the night. You
have to let the moment linger until it’s gone because that exact moment will be
lost forever.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">It was magical, no matter how fleeting. There’s
so much beauty in its simplicity and I knew it would stay with me for a long,
long time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">On my last day in Bagan, I traveled for
more than an hour to the Taung Kalat Monastery, a fabled pilgrimage site on top
of a volcano plug from the nearby Mount Popa. It sits perfectly 737 metres
above sea level and stands out in the vast landscape below. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The monastery’s golden spires shimmer under
the Burmese sun and provide enough enticement to reach the top.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Some say it’s auspicious to make it to the
temples above. For me, it was enough that I survived – not just the steep climb
of 700 steps but also the army of Macaque monkeys that are all over the
staircase, seemingly guarding the monastery.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Aside from the monkeys, locals say the spirits
known as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nats</i> also guard the sacred
site.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">There are 37 of them and are depicted in
statues at the bottom of the staircase, according to Timetravelturtle, a travel
website. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">I froze many times because of the incessant
fighting of the dozens and dozens of these wide-eyed creatures, wondering which
god-forsaken clinic – if there is such a thing in the mountains -- I would end
up if I ever get bitten or attacked. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">But I’m stubborn like and not one to just
surrender or turn back so I kept going, holding my breath and fervently hoping
the spirits would guard me. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">It was a different story when I reached the
top. I instantly forgot how difficult the climb was. It’s true what they say --
you forget about your burning legs when you finally reach the temples above.
The view was as I had imagined it would be and so much more – breathtaking and
perfect as the gods seemingly welcomed me in a warm embrace. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">I’d say it’s a slice of heaven on earth. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Climbing the monastery allows one to think
of the simplest joys in life, those that really matter. It reminds you to
travel light – literally and figuratively – and to leave behind those that
could weigh you down, be it a tripod, an umbrella or memories of a nasty lovers’
quarrel. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">While I was up there, I forgot about the
time and ended up just savoring the whole experience. I remembered whispering a
prayer or two, releasing everything I didn’t need to the universe below. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">A pilgrimage, after all, is a long arduous
journey to get closer to the gods. Many have done it: the Greeks, Mayans and
the Israelites. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<!--StartFragment-->
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Maybe I achieved it, maybe I didn’t. I have yet
to find out. But I am sure of one thing: that somewhere between my heart and a
place called Bagan, after all the sunburn and trouble, the loud shrieks of the
monkeys, my aching body and the burning legs, I have successfully slid through
a thin membrane in this great big universe and at the stillest, stillest point
in this chaotic world, reached a mind-bending state of pure bliss. And it’s
still here, still here inside me. I can feel it running through my veins. </span><!--EndFragment--><br />
<br />Iris Cecilia Gonzaleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119600940849921719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971677826287037426.post-91954862360172924162017-02-26T15:57:00.000-08:002017-02-26T15:57:02.963-08:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-tBrq9BWznz3uPCOrr3ZVA8gL6k2VRwiRev75UqKSFRU3be17q4rCWDVjEe_5l_w0Wrk-8kcZHVR5hf9FwpDXcUGf1dxY8rs3BCw7JgQK6hvJQEoREXv37LtuRl18ogeqtR-9032mwnML/s1600/image-963aa9b2add71631d388cb837e9aa701b56fc8124ac30c6632646c6c0fbb7573-V.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-tBrq9BWznz3uPCOrr3ZVA8gL6k2VRwiRev75UqKSFRU3be17q4rCWDVjEe_5l_w0Wrk-8kcZHVR5hf9FwpDXcUGf1dxY8rs3BCw7JgQK6hvJQEoREXv37LtuRl18ogeqtR-9032mwnML/s640/image-963aa9b2add71631d388cb837e9aa701b56fc8124ac30c6632646c6c0fbb7573-V.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
I like it quiet. I like it quiet in the mornings or just before the sun sets. I like it when not a whisper could be heard, nothing but the beating of my heart. I like it simple, so simple that I could feel, see and hear only the most mundane of details.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Iris Cecilia Gonzaleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119600940849921719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971677826287037426.post-32182554706242924362017-01-29T07:09:00.001-08:002017-01-29T07:09:15.204-08:00Happy 2017!I've never been so happy to see a year finally come to an end. And so with all my aches and pain, I've finally said goodbye to 2016, which I considered a really difficult one for me. There were a lot of positive things but one traumatic event overshadowed everything.<br />
<br />
It's probably the most difficult year for me as far as I can remember. And I'm not even a drama queen. Anyway, I'm just happy it's over.<br />
<br />
I survived and as in anything in life, I really don't have much choice but to carry on.<br />
So here's to moving on and making the best of another year.<br />
<br />
Happy 2017!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNKKPpM6OPjoicENUYWBTUkG1no84zUi_b0e2UR6nE8YW_7024mSzmYv78KA1UDFET9abXBkxk39WQaqXPh22zI5L_I5RoDxdU-6tb-2QiwBOZ7snwLw7RgS0eFS72Euruj-HSpA65kdur/s1600/20170127_231912.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNKKPpM6OPjoicENUYWBTUkG1no84zUi_b0e2UR6nE8YW_7024mSzmYv78KA1UDFET9abXBkxk39WQaqXPh22zI5L_I5RoDxdU-6tb-2QiwBOZ7snwLw7RgS0eFS72Euruj-HSpA65kdur/s640/20170127_231912.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi4G3meb0LdAghceMMJJWCpcGVUhbEcxXxnVMZ4KKWcuyjfd-uAThAGb5wat6m-XFMaZwVdiIaBotxA6nOsSf_XM-qwMT3ZZPWer941kdBrvJVYo3rVIuu-l6xKxIOqZRTc0Ry03H232Y3/s1600/20170127_231815.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi4G3meb0LdAghceMMJJWCpcGVUhbEcxXxnVMZ4KKWcuyjfd-uAThAGb5wat6m-XFMaZwVdiIaBotxA6nOsSf_XM-qwMT3ZZPWer941kdBrvJVYo3rVIuu-l6xKxIOqZRTc0Ry03H232Y3/s640/20170127_231815.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw9CYxk9BOTfDo7Xsbcxjo8uyL7v8rgZHnekeVLsDnB6C15GvEsyHKWup7Ht9iCwgmfIs4SsRXObkSOiuD0yCh2avhelCEISfTqIbILfr4VCSzq-wcKSGMlf5TE0iJGPOoc4WVeCNdFGOp/s1600/20170127_204544.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw9CYxk9BOTfDo7Xsbcxjo8uyL7v8rgZHnekeVLsDnB6C15GvEsyHKWup7Ht9iCwgmfIs4SsRXObkSOiuD0yCh2avhelCEISfTqIbILfr4VCSzq-wcKSGMlf5TE0iJGPOoc4WVeCNdFGOp/s640/20170127_204544.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
Iris Cecilia Gonzaleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119600940849921719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971677826287037426.post-25891723540643190662016-09-25T20:23:00.002-07:002016-09-25T20:28:03.027-07:00EverydayPhilippines<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.3pt 56.65pt 85.0pt 113.35pt 141.7pt 170.05pt 198.4pt 226.75pt 255.1pt 283.45pt 311.8pt 340.15pt; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>(I found this in my archives. It's an unpublished version of a piece I did for Starweek. I forgot writing about this but I'm posting it here because I think I like it more than the published piece. But why I chose to submit the other version remains a puzzle).</i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.3pt 56.65pt 85.0pt 113.35pt 141.7pt 170.05pt 198.4pt 226.75pt 255.1pt 283.45pt 311.8pt 340.15pt; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.3pt 56.65pt 85.0pt 113.35pt 141.7pt 170.05pt 198.4pt 226.75pt 255.1pt 283.45pt 311.8pt 340.15pt; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">A scissors, a
chair and a cloth to cover falling hair; there is little boy and a lanky
barber, his hair grown thick as well. This is a pop-up barber “shop” in an
empty alley in downtown Manila. There really is no shop with the trademark
helix of red, blue and white, the barber pole that dates back to the medieval
times. There is <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.3pt 56.65pt 85.0pt 113.35pt 141.7pt 170.05pt 198.4pt 226.75pt 255.1pt 283.45pt 311.8pt 340.15pt; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.3pt 56.65pt 85.0pt 113.35pt 141.7pt 170.05pt 198.4pt 226.75pt 255.1pt 283.45pt 311.8pt 340.15pt; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">There is a woman,
she with long hair cascading down her shoulders sitting alone appreciating art
inside the Oarhouse Pub on Bocobo Street, described as one of the last remnants
of Manila’s colourful past. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.3pt 56.65pt 85.0pt 113.35pt 141.7pt 170.05pt 198.4pt 226.75pt 255.1pt 283.45pt 311.8pt 340.15pt; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.3pt 56.65pt 85.0pt 113.35pt 141.7pt 170.05pt 198.4pt 226.75pt 255.1pt 283.45pt 311.8pt 340.15pt; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">In a mass grave in
Leyte in the southern Philippines, the names of the dead, they who perished
when Haiyan came, are cast in stone and etched in gold, remembered forever. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.3pt 56.65pt 85.0pt 113.35pt 141.7pt 170.05pt 198.4pt 226.75pt 255.1pt 283.45pt 311.8pt 340.15pt; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.3pt 56.65pt 85.0pt 113.35pt 141.7pt 170.05pt 198.4pt 226.75pt 255.1pt 283.45pt 311.8pt 340.15pt; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">In a town of water
lilies, in the middle of cornfields, there is a woman covered in blue. She is
the wife of a dead rebel, she is the mother of an infant son and four other
children, now without a father. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.3pt 56.65pt 85.0pt 113.35pt 141.7pt 170.05pt 198.4pt 226.75pt 255.1pt 283.45pt 311.8pt 340.15pt; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.3pt 56.65pt 85.0pt 113.35pt 141.7pt 170.05pt 198.4pt 226.75pt 255.1pt 283.45pt 311.8pt 340.15pt; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Welcome to the
Philippines where little boys get their hair cut anywhere, anytime, in empty
streets or in crowded barber shops, where children roam fishing villages in
Snow White costumes, where town elders read the livers of freshly butchered
pigs in fog covered mountains in the northern Philippines and where cornfields
become massacre sites. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.3pt 56.65pt 85.0pt 113.35pt 141.7pt 170.05pt 198.4pt 226.75pt 255.1pt 283.45pt 311.8pt 340.15pt; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.3pt 56.65pt 85.0pt 113.35pt 141.7pt 170.05pt 198.4pt 226.75pt 255.1pt 283.45pt 311.8pt 340.15pt; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">A country of 94
million people, the Philippines is a storied place. Surrealism runs through the
daily lives of people. And the stories are endless as they are varied; every
place is a cartographic reality; age-old traditions exist alongside the
ephemeral and yet the Philippines is as real as it can get. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There is more to the Philippines than just
poverty and politics and this is what Everyday Philippines, an Instagram
project put up by three Filipino freelance photojournalists, Tammy David (tammydavid.com),
Veejay Villafranca (veejayvillafranca.com) and Jes Aznar (jesaznar.com).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">All three said that EverydayPhilippines, an
account on photo-sharing site Instagram seeks to show the Philippines and not
just the usual stories of poverty and corruption that the country is sometimes
synonymous with.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.0pt;">The Instagram project joins the
growing global Everyday movement inspired by EverydayAfrica, which started in
2012 initially as a Tumblr Blog by photographer Peter DiCampo and writer Austin
Merill.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.0pt;">EverydayAfrica
inspired similar Instagram accounts put up by mostly professional
photographers: EverydayIran, EverydayBronx, EverydayUSA, EverydayEasternEurope,
EverydayMyanmar and also to non-geographic issues such as EverydayClimateChange
and EverydayIncarceration, among others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.0pt;">EverydayPhilippines
officially started on Jan. 1, 2015 and joins this global movement as it aims to
break the visual stereotype of the Philippines being just another Third World
country mired in deep poverty.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.0pt;">The
goal is to break these stereotypes, says David, who is also a video journalist
and whose works have appeared in both local and foreign publications including
the Wall Street Journal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.0pt;">Villafranca,
a photographer represented by Getty Images, said it has become difficult to
pitch stories about the country because some Western media’s preconceived
notions of what the Philippines is. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.0pt;">“The
Philippines on its own is very rich (but) when you pitch (stories) to the
Western media, there are a lot of misconceptions,” says Villafranca.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.0pt;">And
yes some people zero in on the country being just another Third World nation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.0pt;">Aznar,
whose works appear on the pages of the New York Times, thought of coming up
with the project so he suggested it to his two friends Villafranca and David,
who in turn, happen to have the same idea, inspired by EverydayAfrica’s
success. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.0pt;">The
rules are simple. The project is open to other photographers and the
photographs must be, as much as possible, phone-camera captured, visually
stunning and must provide contexts. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.0pt;">“There
are many photographs and stories but what is important is to put the context,”
Aznar says.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.0pt;">Photographers
can then post their photos on their individual Instagram accounts and use the
hashtag #EverydayPhilippines and from this, the three proponents then curate
the photographs that appear on this hashtag search before reposting these on
the EverydayPhilippines account.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.0pt;">And
true enough, the result is a visually stunning tapestry of vignettes of life in
the Philippines that entices the audience to take a closer look at a nation
whose daily life is so rich in history, culture and magic realism. </span></div>
Iris Cecilia Gonzaleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119600940849921719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971677826287037426.post-51328581933576859512016-09-08T20:34:00.001-07:002016-09-22T23:49:31.341-07:00On Self Preservation<div style="line-height: normal; min-height: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Behind</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> the driver’s seat, I listened intently to his story. He’s been driving all his life, the only skill he knows that can earn him a living. For two years, many moons ago, he was in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, too, driving under the scorching heat of the Middle Eastern sun, serving the thousands or so servants of the King.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">He’s been driving his brother’s car for a month now, to bring commuters to wherever they need to go. Brother is in Qatar, earning a living, for his daughter who is left in Manila with her grandparent. </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Back to the driver. He’s earning a decent amount every month but things could be better. Much, much better, he says. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">And so he wants to try his luck again abroad. In Bahrain this time to earn more and more and more. Life abroad is difficult. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Very, very difficult but what can he do? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"The </span>loneliness<span style="font-family: inherit;"> can kill you," he says.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">"But it’s where the money is." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The stories of survival in the Philippines are varied as they are endless. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In the streets of Metro Manila at night, small time drug pushers are playing cat-and-mouse chase with the police and vigilante groups. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Everyone’s trying to survive the times -- in the most mundane of hours, the most difficult days. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; min-height: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">And it’s not only a matter of life and death. It's also about one’s happiness and sanity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">There are a hundred and one ways to do it — from the illegal to the overt. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; min-height: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Those in unhappy marriages, for instance, take in paramours and those who fall in love with their paramours just try to fight the misery. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; min-height: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Some wives settle with their philandering husbands for the family to survive. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; min-height: 18px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Others just go on with their lives, just winging it, surviving on other people’s skills, talents and perhaps, even money. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">We all have our ways. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">As for me, </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">I write to survive. I write to stay sane. I write to breathe. Most of all, as Anais Nin said, I write to taste life twice.</span><span style="font-family: "courier new"; font-size: 16px;"> </span><br />
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Iris Cecilia Gonzaleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119600940849921719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971677826287037426.post-34064678037059780242016-08-14T03:52:00.002-07:002016-08-14T05:23:42.187-07:00The Earlier Mona Lisa<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Imagine strolling the streets of Shanghai, which is known all over the world as the Paris of the Orient and finding out that the Mona Lisa, too, happened to be there. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This was exactly what happened to Jes and me as we were walking aimlessly in the nooks and crannies of Xintiandi -- "New Heaven and Earth" -- Shanghai's Old French Quarters. It is a shopping district so posh one would think one is walking around the cobbled stone streets of Paris, with its charming cafes and where art is all over the city.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And that's exactly how we felt. At the House in Xintiandi, an exhibition place, we met Leonardo Da Vinci's Lisa del Giocondo. Nope, this was not the Louvre and this isn't the Mona Lisa at the Louvre but we would later learn, it was Da Vinci's Earlier Mona Lisa. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">She had a warm smile and she did look younger. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Just how lucky can we get. It's not everyday that you get to stumble upon a masterpiece. I remember a few years back when I also saw the works of Frida Kahlo on <a href="http://irisgonzales.blogspot.com/2012/09/meeting-frida-kahlo.html">exhibit </a>in Brussels. This was a de ja vu of sorts. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Earlier Mona Lisa, according to an <a href="http://www.shanghaidaily.com/feature/art-and-culture/Something-special-about-Earlier-Mona-Lisa/shdaily.shtml">article</a> on the Shanghai Daily, is a<span style="color: #333333;">lso the portrait of Lisa del Giocondo, but painted a decade before and therefore looks much younger. After almost 35 years, during which historians made comparative study and carried out scientific research, the Mona Lisa Foundation, together with experts, scientists and art historians, presented evidence in 2012 that confirmed that the “Earlier Mona Lisa” was indeed done by da Vinci. </span><span style="color: #333333;">Mona Lisa,” which was commissioned by Guiliano de’ Medici, was done between 1513 and 1516. The “Earlier Mona Lisa” was painted from 1503 to 1506 and commissioned by Francesco del Giocondo. It had a young Lisa, and was flanked by columns, but was left unfinished.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">In all probability, da Vinci used the same model to create the Louvre masterpiece, and the earlier unfinished work ended up with da Vinci’s assistant after his death, the article also said. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">It was on exhibit in Shanghai after years of being kept in a Swiss vault.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333;">And how lucky we were to be in same place at the same time that young Lisa was there. </span></div>
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<br />Iris Cecilia Gonzaleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119600940849921719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971677826287037426.post-43817282605884347432016-07-05T02:37:00.002-07:002016-07-05T02:42:09.989-07:00My Piece for Rogue: Andrew Tan's Fundador<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
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<br />Iris Cecilia Gonzaleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119600940849921719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971677826287037426.post-38182492555977110642016-06-21T17:47:00.002-07:002016-06-22T16:25:17.756-07:00Memories of HomeFrom my window seat, I could see
Kansai Airport slowly disappear in the distance. All I could see now was the
tail of the plane and the huge white clouds that now surround us.<br />
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<span lang="EN-US">And this is how it happens every time. I
look on the right, watch the earth below me disappear into the horizon and when
there is nothing left to see except the clouds that look like giant cotton
candies, I lean back, close my eyes and try to catch up on my sleep.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US">Departures always mean a step away from
home or to home, depending on where I am. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">When I no longer see the place I’ve just
been to and the glittering city lights disappear, I know I will soon be home.
That moment when the plane’s wheels touch the runway, I know it’s only a
matter of hours before I am back in my bed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">But being in a different place makes me think
of home more vividly. Oh how I miss the smell of our tiny apartment; the
flowers in the balcony, the aroma of freshly brewed coffee wafting in the air
in the morning, the clean sheets in my bedroom and the love and laughter that burst in the seams. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I cannot even begin to count how many times
I’ve had to leave but wherever corner of the world I am, I carry with me
memories of home. Home is always with me, never far, never gone, never forgotten, not even for</span> a
moment.<br />
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Iris Cecilia Gonzaleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119600940849921719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971677826287037426.post-43101105852976381172016-05-29T06:01:00.001-07:002016-07-05T02:12:17.447-07:00When Bourdain Came for a DrinkBy now, the episode has aired; the secrets unveiled.<br />
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Yes, Anthony Bourdain came to Manila last year and his weeks of exploring the country were captured in the Manila <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2016/04/22/travel/anthony-bourdain-parts-unknown-manila-essay/">episode</a> of his Parts Unknown.<br />
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Together with a group of photographers, I was there during the Oarhouse scene but didn't expect to actually be part of the episode. Still, it was a pleasant surprise.<br />
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Thank you Mr. Bourdain for dropping by for a drink at the now historic Oar house Pub.<br />
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<span style="font-size: 13px;">Photos by Jes Aznar, Jun Sepe and screen grab by Justine Tan</span></div>
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<br />Iris Cecilia Gonzaleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119600940849921719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971677826287037426.post-30248306625172668242016-05-19T21:14:00.001-07:002016-05-19T21:16:25.225-07:00My Commentary on Duterte's Rape Joke for WomenseNews<div style="color: #151718; line-height: normal;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My latest piece for <a href="http://womensenews.org/2016/05/will-filipinos-elect-a-rape-culture-leader-as-president-today/">Womensenews</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">May 9, 2016</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by Dondi Tawatao</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">MANILA, The Philippines (WOMENSENEWS)—Although he has been leading his rivals in the pre-election opinion polls, today is the day when the Philippine voters really say what they think of him.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Whether or not he gets elected on May 9 won’t be known for a couple more days, as the votes are counted. In the meantime, everyone should know what he said not long ago when he stood on a stage in a rally in Quezon City, in the northeast part of the National Capital Region.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Rodrigo Duterte, 71, in a bright red collared shirt and with a bulging belly, proudly told a story of a 1989 prison siege. An inmate, he told the cheering crowd, was holding hostages at the Davao City </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: 0px;">Detention Center, in the city in the southern Philippines where Duterte has served as mayor for more than 22 years, among the longest-serving city chiefs in the country.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Duterte <a href="http://www.rappler.com/nation/politics/elections/2016/129784-viral-video-duterte-joke-australian-woman-rape"><span style="color: #298a9e; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">recalled</span></a> the events vividly. There was an assault, then an exchange of gunfire between the troops and inmates. The inmates used the hostages as cover and raped all the women, among them an Australian missionary, he said casually.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The rape of the Australian missionary angered him, he told the crowd. Oh not just because the inmates raped her but because he, the mayor, should have been first in line.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Son of a bitch, what a waste,” Duterte said in a <a href="http://www.rappler.com/nation/politics/elections/2016/129784-viral-video-duterte-joke-australian-woman-rape"><span style="color: #298a9e; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">video that went viral</span></a>. “I looked at her face, son of a bitch, she looks like a beautiful American actress.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“What went through my mind,” he continued, “was that they raped her, they lined up. I was angry because she was raped, that’s one thing. But she was so beautiful; the mayor should have been first. What a waste.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Her name was Jacqueline Hamill, 36 years old, raped by a gang of inmates and her throat slashed. She is among 20 hostages who died in the two-day siege.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That a viable presidential candidate should discuss what happened to her in such terms is incomprehensible.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The grotesque joke drew the ire of the <a href="http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2016/04/20/1574953/groups-file-complaint-vs-duterte-violating-magna-carta-women"><span style="color: #298a9e; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Philippines’ Commission on Human Rights</span></a>, the diplomatic community, women’s groups and ordinary citizens.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Rape and murder should never be joked about or trivialized. Violence against women and girls is unacceptable anytime, anywhere,” said Australian Ambassador to the Philippines Amanda Gorely, who <a href="http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2016/04/18/1574187/australia-rape-should-never-be-joked-about"><span style="color: #298a9e; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">criticized</span></a> the mayor for his remarks on Twitter.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Nikki Luna, a Filipina feminist artist based in Manila, was among the first to decry the comments.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"This is by far the best, clearest example and understanding of what is meant by the phrase 'rape culture',” she wrote in a Facebook post. “Watch and listen. Sexual assault, rape, and violence are trivialized, made into jokes, it becomes the 'norm' straight from this 'mayor'."</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #298a9e; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><a href="http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2016/04/17/1573829/womens-group-demands-duterte-apology-rape-joke">Gabriela</a></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">, a militant women’s group, called on the candidate to apologize. “Rape is a criminal offense, a serious crime against humanity. It is no laughing matter. Duterte should know better and must apologize,” <span style="color: #298a9e; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><a href="http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/779906/gabriela-on-duterte-rape-joke-rape-is-a-serious-crime">the group said.</a></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Several women’s groups here issued a protest statement. “The rape culture in our society persists when officials like Mayor Duterte crack jokes at the expense of rape victims,” it reads. “By making light of the gruesome rape and murder of Jacqueline Hamill, he sends the signal that it is OK to rape women. Mayor Duterte, it is not OK to disrespect women.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But the mayor sees no reason to say sorry. “Don’t force it. I will never apologize,” Duterte told reporters in a video by <a href="http://cnnphilippines.com/news/2016/04/19/Duterte-apology-rape-remark.html"><span style="color: #298a9e; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">CNN Philippines</span></a>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Duterte’s supporters see him as the best candidate. They say he is the solution to the country’s woes; crime and corruption that combine with deep poverty. More than a quarter of the Philippines’ 100 million people live below the poverty line, roughly a dollar a day.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The tough talking unapologetic mayor not only jokes about rape but also boasts of his womanizing ways.</span></span></div>
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Iris Cecilia Gonzaleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119600940849921719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971677826287037426.post-86392036404462762572016-03-26T17:14:00.003-07:002016-04-07T07:23:04.064-07:00Cleansing with Sage <div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sometimes all you need is sage. I recently tried it as a way for an energetic shower and a deep metaphysical cleansing.</span></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">How does it happen? Here's an <a href="http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-17875/a-sage-smudging-ritual-to-cleanse-your-aura-clear-your-space.html">article</a> from <a href="http://mindbodygreen.com/">mindbodygreen.com</a></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Whenever I burn sage (aka <i>smudging</i>) at my yoga studio before a session, I've heard comments like: </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"It smells like weed in here!" Or, "What smells like barbecue?" And then there's my all time favorite, "It smells like my grandmother's cemetery."</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sure, dried white ceremonial sage has a distinctly beautiful scent when burned. And if you're new to this practice, just try to be open minded about it. You can take a moment of meditation to notice if the smell evokes a sense memory for you. Where does that resonate in your body? </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Examine whether <a href="http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-17129/how-to-effectively-communicate-with-your-spirit-guides.html"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">you feel a spiritual connection</span></a>, or an earthy, ancestral stirring within your blood.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is the smell of thousands of years of spiritual communion and ritual.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Smudging your sacred space, your home or office, or even your body with sage is like taking an energetic shower, or doing a deep metaphysical cleansing. The smoke from dried sage actually changes the ionic composition of the air, and can have a direct effect on reducing our stress response.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Smudging is ritual alchemy — changing and shifting the air element, and transforming our current experience to a mystical one.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The use of incense and other smoke and vapor to connect humans to the spirit world, can be easily traced throughout the East in parts of Asia and even dating as far back to Ancient Greece.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The use of dried white sage however, is a 2,000 year old Indigenous American practice. The shamans used dried sage plants on their fires as a ritual of calling upon ancestral spirits. Any conflict, anger, illness or evil was absorbed by the sage smoke to be released or cleansed from the energy field of a person.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Next, sweet grass would be burned to call forth the energy of peace and love. This ancient shamanic mystical ritual is a simple one to incorporate into your daily or weekly routine, or any time you feel like you might need a little aura polishing. You can never really smudge too much!</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Some ideal (or necessary) times to sage smudge your aura and/or space would be:</span></span></div>
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<li style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When you move into a new living space</span></span></li>
<li style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When you begin a new job or start your own business</span></span></li>
<li style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Before and after a guest enters your home</span></span></li>
<li style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Before and after a yoga or healing session</span></span></li>
<li style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Before meditation</span></span></li>
<li style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">After an argument or any illness</span></span></li>
<li style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Upon returning home from crowded situations</span></span></li>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And here is a simple 3-step sage smudging ritual to try:</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">1. Use loose dried white sage or a white ceremonial sage bundle (aka wand), which is usually bound together by a thin string. You can find sage bundles at your local herb shop or health store, Wiccan/pagan bookstore, metaphysical store, and even some yoga and healing arts centers. Or, if you have a sage plant, you can make your own — just bundle and tie it, and then hang upside down in cool dark space until it is completely dried out.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">2. Next, place it on any heat-proof burning surface like an <a href="http://www.amazon.com/New-Age-Pearlized-Smudging-Abalone/dp/B001LOHCPK/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?tag=mind0a3-20"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Abolone Shell</span></a> — a traditional vessel used by Indigenous American people that represents the element of water. Light the bundle by holding a flame to it until it begins to smoke. If a true flame appears, shake the bundle gently or blow until it is just embers and smoke. I often find that I have to re-light my sage bundle a few times during the ritual process. If you are burning loose leaf sage, the best method is to use a charcoal burning disk inside of a censor or small cauldron.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">3. Once you have a nice smoke going, use you hand or a feather to direct the smoke over your body from your feet up to your head, then back down again. As you do this, visualize the smoke taking away with it <a href="http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-5585/Who-Stole-My-Energy-How-Difficult-People-Affect-Your-Aura.html"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">any negative energy from your life</span></a>, any darkness or malady.</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you feel comfortable with this incantation, repeat the following:</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">"Air, fire, water, earth. Cleanse, dismiss, dispel." </span></i></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The sage ceremony lifts the veil between the everyday and the sacred. As you say your incantation, you are shifting energy at will.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Once you have smudged your body, begin to move through your space. Wave the smoke into all corners, across doorways and into shadow spaces. To maintain the atmosphere of ritual, keep repeating the incantation in your mind as you diffuse the smoke.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Once <a href="http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-17791/7-simple-tools-to-clear-negative-energy-from-your-space.html"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">the space is cleared</span></a>, allow the sage bundle to either burn out or gently press it out in your heat-proof shell or container. You can even bury the remaining smudge in your garden to really feel the completeness of the cleansing ritual. Once buried, the sage has done its work in completing the elemental cycle. Ideally, you should try to use a new smudge for each cleansing.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Happy Enchanting!</span></span></div>
Iris Cecilia Gonzaleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119600940849921719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971677826287037426.post-91838021260807200142016-03-18T16:48:00.001-07:002016-03-18T16:48:20.774-07:00Indigenous Women in the Philippines Are Fighting for Their Way of Life <div style="color: #151718; line-height: normal;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My latest story for <a href="http://womensenews.org/2016/03/indigenous-women-in-philippines-are-fighting-for-their-way-of-life/">Womensenews</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0000ee; font-family: inherit;"><u><br /></u></span><span style="color: #151718; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://womensenews.org/2016/03/indigenous-women-in-philippines-are-fighting-for-their-way-of-life/"></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaT6Wv9yl1EKsViMR45zt9lcM3c8r3V6S97AW2onFVgT6IS6uy2j8-xJBcIKh5z2rHCLwGskFtSypz2s29UIUiDDc_1yLa7MlIRGQw9clwpwWmTNZ6JR3eGE8nywujLzYCVzZnHtoOwjA-/s1600/20151030_102712.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaT6Wv9yl1EKsViMR45zt9lcM3c8r3V6S97AW2onFVgT6IS6uy2j8-xJBcIKh5z2rHCLwGskFtSypz2s29UIUiDDc_1yLa7MlIRGQw9clwpwWmTNZ6JR3eGE8nywujLzYCVzZnHtoOwjA-/s640/20151030_102712.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They woke up to the smell of gasoline poured on the canvas roofs of their tents at an evacuation center on the grounds of a church, the complaint says.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It was around 2:30 a.m. on Feb. 24.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"Immediately after, the tents were set aflame when a lighted torch was thrown in," reads the complaint, which was sent to a U.N. official as well as members of the press. "Five makeshift houses were already consumed by fire when it was put out."</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Dormitories near the camp were also burned, according to the complaint.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The attack occurred on the compound of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, or UCCP, in Davao City in the southern province of Davao. Those under attack were over 500 indigenous people from the south of the country, known locally as Lumads.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Five people were hurt, including two children who suffered burns when the canvas roofs melted and fell on their feet.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Now Karapatan, a Manila-based umbrella organization of human rights groups, is waiting to hear back from Chaloka Beyani, U.N. special rapporteur on the rights of internally displaced persons. They submitted the complaint to Beyani at the 31st Session of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Switzerland, which opened Feb. 29 and runs through March 24.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">While the focus of the complaint is on the burning of the encampment, advocates are also looking for help with the deeper problem of the Lumads' displacement pressures.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Legal advocates are lodging this particular complaint, but the Lumad themselves have been doing everything possible to protest on their own behalf.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Month-Long Protest</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Late last year about 700 Lumads left their mostly thatched huts and makeshift homes in villages in different parts of Mindanao to travel on foot, by bus and ferry to a camping ground inside the University of the Philippines campus in Quezon City, a two-hour drive outside Manila.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Many were mothers who left their children to join the month-long protest.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">One is Minda "Dindin" Dalinan, 36, from the Blaan indigenous tribe. She is a mother to eight children, ages 1 to 17. Dalinan left her children under the care of her husband and relatives. She didn't want to leave them but she knew that joining the protest was something she had to do to try to give them a peaceful life.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"In 2004, the military killed my father. My father is a member of the tribal council in our community. He was stubborn. He did not want to give up our ancestral land so armed men killed him. I just want the killings to stop. My dream is to see an end to human rights violations," Dalinan said.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">She comes from the poor farming village of Bacong, Tulunan in North Cotabato in Mindanao, the second of the three island groups of the Philippines in the southernmost part of the country. She is a full-time housewife, taking care of the children while her husband ekes out a living as a farmer.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">She spoke with Women's eNews last November inside the Baclaran Church, a popular 1932 Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"Why would a mother like me leave her eight children?" she said. "It's because the human rights violations in our community are so rampant. I have to join this protest. It's too much."</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Protesters called their trip "the Manilakbayan," a play on the words Manila, the Philippine capital, and "lakbayan," the Filipino word for journey.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The displaced evacuees at the center of the current U.N. complaint came mostly from remote communities in Davao del Norte and Bukidnon, both in Mindanao. </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They said they were forced to flee because of operations of paramilitary groups in their communities.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Country's Food Basket</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mindanao is considered the food basket of the country, with more than 700,000 hectares of land in the region covered by banana, pineapple, oil palm, rubber and other plantations.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ten of the poorest of the country's 81 provinces are on the island.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">By plane, the distance from Manila is more than 500 miles, or up to two hours away, depending on the province.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">More than 500,000 hectares of land in Mindanao, or 12 percent of the region's land, are also covered by various mining concessions, according to industry data. The region ranks fourth in copper, third in gold, fifth in nickel and sixth in chromite deposits in the world.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Indigenous people say they are a business obstacle that mining concerns are leaving up to paramilitary groups, with possible help from the military, to remove.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Months before the Manilakbayan, the different indigenous tribes of Mindanao suffered a series of direct attacks, killings and harassment. The abuses were concentrated in three provinces--Bukidnon, Davao del Norte and Surigao del Sur–that host private Lumad schools that are regulated by the government.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Among the series of incidents against the Lumad, one of the most highly condemned was the displacement on Sept. 1 last year of at least 2,000 residents from the village of Diatagon in Lianga, Surigao del Sur.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Another was the killing of Emerico Samarca, executive director of the Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and Livelihood Development (Alcadev). He was found inside a classroom hogtied, with a stab wound and his throat slit open.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The armed men then killed indigenous community leader Dionel Campos and his cousin Juvello Sinzo, who have campaigning for the protection of ancestral lands, said Josephine Pagalan, 37, a Lumad mother from the village belonging to the Manobo tribe.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"I was there, I saw them kill Dionel Campos and Juvello Sinzo," said Pagalan.</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #151718; line-height: normal;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="color: #151718; line-height: normal;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The murder has not been solved and the military has denied any involvement in the attacks, saying that the armed group did not belong to the Armed Forces of the Philippines.</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #151718; line-height: normal;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="color: #484848; line-height: normal;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">International Attention</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #484848; line-height: normal;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="color: #151718; line-height: normal;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The incidents have drawn international attention.</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #151718; line-height: normal;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">On Feb. 12, 62-year-old American playwright and feminist Eve Ensler, author of "The Vagina Monologues," visited the Lumads in the Davao evacuation camp.</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #151718; line-height: normal;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="color: #151718; line-height: normal;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">She was moved to tears upon hearing of the plight of the Lumads, according to <a href="http://bulatlat.com/main/2016/02/13/us-playwright-moved-to-tears-at-davao-city-evacuation-camp/"><span style="color: #298a9e; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Bulatlat.com</span></a>, an online news site, which covered her visit.</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #151718; line-height: normal;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="color: #151718; line-height: normal;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"They love the earth. They know how the earth operates," Ensler was quoted as saying on the news site. "They are one with the earth and we're destroying them for mining companies, for greed, for capitalism, for exploitation and when you see how beautiful they are, when you see how generous they are, when you see how all they want is to be one with their beautiful trees and their sky and the earth, their rivers – how can any human being be doing this to them?"</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #151718; line-height: normal;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="color: #151718; line-height: normal;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Whoever is to blame, Lumad mothers said they want to live peacefully and take care of their children and return home from evacuation camps.</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #151718; line-height: normal;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="color: #151718; line-height: normal;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Gertrudes Layal, 43, left her five children, ages 8 to 19, to join the Manilakbayan. "I just want to protest so that we can keep our ancestral land. </span></span></div>
<div style="color: #151718; line-height: normal;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="color: #151718; line-height: normal;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mining companies want our land. They always promise development, they promise to give us jobs but they do not keep their promises," Layal said.</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #151718; line-height: normal;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="color: #151718; line-height: normal;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Pagalan, the Lumad mother from the village of Diatagon, left four children at home to join the protest.</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #151718; line-height: normal;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="color: #151718; line-height: normal;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"We want the government to be made accountable for the human rights violations and attacks," she said. "Mining companies promised too many things in the past but they did not deliver. We don't want to give up our land because money can be consumed but land will not perish."</span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></div>
Iris Cecilia Gonzaleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119600940849921719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971677826287037426.post-21481483227922314832016-03-12T19:14:00.000-08:002016-03-12T19:14:50.760-08:00Old Jazz Band from Old Shanghai<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>This is a <a href="http://www.philstar.com/starweek-magazine/2016/03/06/1559782/jazz-days-gone">story</a> of a legendary jazz band and how its music mesmerized us. Photo by Jes Aznar. </i></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">SHANGHAI, China - The thermometer, I suspect, reads four or
five degrees Celsius. It is around 9 in the evening, on this cold winter night
in Shanghai and my step counter says I’ve walked 11,000 steps already, a
thousand more than required.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Twelve hours ago I was in the middle of
Manila’s worsening traffic, navigating my way to the airport, to board a plane
to this Paris of the Orient.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Landing in Shanghai around 4 p.m., I am
brought straight to a posh nightspot, the tree-lined French
Quarter, Xintiandi, which literally means the New Heaven and Earth, for a
sumptuous Chinese dinner.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">After dinner, we walk in the crisp cold
winter evening, through the district’s quaint corners and curio shops.
At Nanjing Road, we revel under the dancing city lights glowing under
a bright winter moon. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Finally, we reach the
famed Bund and we stand by the Huangpu River to savor the
view of the city at night.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But by now, I am tired and cold and could
really use a good night’s rest.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Oh, but our gracious host, Ambassador
Carlos Chan, the Philippines’ special envoy to China, insists we should have
some drinks to cap the night.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I can’t very well say no to a 75-year-old
man who doesn’t look tired at all.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And I’m glad I didn’t because he was saving
the best for last, right here inside the Peace Hotel, an iconic
early 20th century gothic-style structure along the Bund.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It is known around the world as an art deco
masterpiece while its amenities and interior were said to rival if not surpass
European and Manhattan’s best.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The hotel, which originally opened on Aug.
1, 1929, is known as Asia’s center of glamor and glitterati for the
rich, famous and nameless from around the world.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It is also a fitting home to a legendary
group.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Indeed, it is here at the Peace Hotel’s
Jazz Bar, a cozy bar with gothic chandeliers, where I find myself face to face
with Shanghai’s legendary Old Jazz Band, playing live jazz music to a huge
crowd.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Until tonight, I have never been up close
with a world famous jazz group or rock band, one whose music could make one’s
heart melt, feel warm all over and fall in love like a little girl.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They all look elegant in their suits and
bow ties, as in the heyday of Shanghai jazz in the 1930s and 40s.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Stepping inside the bar is a trip to a
different era, to Shanghai’s bygone days. The soulful music transports you. You
hear the variety of rhythms, improvisation and the blues. The band makes
you forget where you are; you get lost in the moment. It was a rabbit hole of
sorts.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Indeed, nostalgia rules. And why not? The
Old Jazz Band plays classic jazz, harking back to the 30s and 40s when most of
World War II took place and had a profound effect on Europe and Asia. They play
Beatles songs, too.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Guinness World Records has acknowledged
the band as the oldest in the world.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The band was official formed in 1980 but
its members have been playing jazz decades earlier. Today, it is composed
of six veteran musicians whose average age is 80.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Zhou Wanrong, the leader of the band, is 94
years old.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">According to an article in the Shanghai
Daily, Zhou was born in 1920 in Wuhan, the capital city of China’s Hubei
province. He studied music at an institute named Juyuan in Wuhan’s former
French concession.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It was in this school where jazz in China
originated.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“I started when I was 14 and studied for
three years,” he says.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">However, in the 1930s, Wuhan banned dancing
and jazz, so Zhou moved to Shanghai to form an all-Chinese band in what became
the center of jazz in Asia.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In 2013, German documentary filmmakers Uli
Gaulke and Helge Albers produced a documentary about the group: As Time
Goes By, which followed the band from 2011 to 2012, including its gig at the
North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The band plays here every night. “We’ve
been playing everyday since 1980,“ Zhou says.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The group has attracted a loyal following
through the decades. US presidents Jimmy Carter and </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ronald Reagan have traveled
to Shanghai to listen to them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We stay for more than an hour. I forget the
time and the biting cold. I am just enjoying the music and getting lost in the
moment. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But soon it is time to go. It is almost 11
in the evening and I am sipping the last of my tea.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The musicians have packed their instruments
and off they walked to a waiting private bus outside the hotel.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I don’t want to leave. But there’s no one
on the stage now; the seats are empty, the spotlights have been dimmed. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then I realize that hearing them play even
once is enough to make the music linger, to reverberate in the deepest recesses
of my soul, echoing as we walk out into the cold on the Bund.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8bpTWcNcmXe18drX4FI0e-YI5dCZmYwAgTBgPTO4zw0GVKLN8maTg7RF44phSftnvD2p3fuHqzb3eqaE9-8uZLs5_Xa94ARVRiTGRdINRUmX-5t4i3WGE_gkgGn4SWbn_uN-x_VSH2WzI/s1600/12804370_1060357367361210_1107493386_n2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="436" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8bpTWcNcmXe18drX4FI0e-YI5dCZmYwAgTBgPTO4zw0GVKLN8maTg7RF44phSftnvD2p3fuHqzb3eqaE9-8uZLs5_Xa94ARVRiTGRdINRUmX-5t4i3WGE_gkgGn4SWbn_uN-x_VSH2WzI/s640/12804370_1060357367361210_1107493386_n2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
Iris Cecilia Gonzaleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119600940849921719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971677826287037426.post-13076303047769503362016-03-04T19:26:00.001-08:002016-03-09T19:58:24.517-08:00Notes from Heartbreak Hill<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">C</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">urtains close. Music stops. Kisses end. Some good things never last. Moments, however intense, disappear with the passing of time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Perhaps, ours disappeared with the cherry blossoms blown away by the February breeze or as we stood up there in the mountain that took my breath away. Or perhaps, in the middle of the night as dragons breathed fire and red lanterns lit up the night, you just decided that you would leave. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Or maybe, you weren't ready or you couldn't. Or you simply just had to go. No goodbyes. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It was short, sweet and forever etched in my heart. You have made your mark. I will find comfort in the possibility that we had. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Who was it who said that one can never go back to the same place ever? We can never go back to the way things were. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Not a day will go by without me succumbing to the misery of losing the “we,” the “us,” the “you and I." It has rearranged everything inside me into an incoherent, incomprehensible narrative.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">There's no lesson in all this, no sense at all, just pain -- a deep, profound and lingering pain. </span></div>
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Iris Cecilia Gonzaleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119600940849921719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971677826287037426.post-8215100015175835812016-02-13T01:07:00.002-08:002016-02-13T01:18:36.665-08:00The Stories of Comfort WomenOne of the most difficult stories I've covered and written is the continuing story of the comfort women.<br />
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They are the Filipinas who were raped repeatedly by Japanese soldiers, members of the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. They are euphemistically called comfort women as they were forced into sexual slavery during the war.<br />
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Every time I talked to them, I often had a difficult time listening to their painful stories. But as a journalist, I just could not ignore such stories, no matter how painful they may be. It is my responsibility because I am privileged to be born at the time when they are still able to tell their stories. It is an honour to bear witness to their stories. I fervently hope that they would finally be given the apology and compensation they very much deserve.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHeh-tmoBqq-M3j12tmwxYbP7KROz7w77-sVE2V6HOy5mEKpcUJ3MzfINVADmx5tZlFpcqyBf-Tow_rVqGYpF2jAFg7kYkfVUMbrBYjJFT-_OB1n_iAcN-nuIiN6J2wJEVcUIgS2FuPRD7/s1600/RIMG0360-1+%25281%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHeh-tmoBqq-M3j12tmwxYbP7KROz7w77-sVE2V6HOy5mEKpcUJ3MzfINVADmx5tZlFpcqyBf-Tow_rVqGYpF2jAFg7kYkfVUMbrBYjJFT-_OB1n_iAcN-nuIiN6J2wJEVcUIgS2FuPRD7/s640/RIMG0360-1+%25281%2529.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />Iris Cecilia Gonzaleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119600940849921719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971677826287037426.post-58021329931124221792016-01-03T21:06:00.001-08:002016-01-03T22:04:38.423-08:00Happy 2016!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">And so it is. </span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHr9OThdVCnebw0GwENvNiTarVzhYYR83KELfw0oFpqJYQF8UUxWaZeKJb9xUHBhwFVFTnMiv2jzkhpTYygyK2I0oVThSbP43gd0TBnDLo-zoWK_wk7bro0Tq8l5Ey0wHgZPBkEcrisP-f/s1600/20160101_172515+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHr9OThdVCnebw0GwENvNiTarVzhYYR83KELfw0oFpqJYQF8UUxWaZeKJb9xUHBhwFVFTnMiv2jzkhpTYygyK2I0oVThSbP43gd0TBnDLo-zoWK_wk7bro0Tq8l5Ey0wHgZPBkEcrisP-f/s320/20160101_172515+%25281%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">flowers from my mini garden</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 8px; min-height: 12px;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1LxVXqTnY8Guw3ES9c0wq3XDr37bgfmoxBs-cE5hvkw6lJcf-jSO8g4CP9P-x3z_aydYlZQoK2l_9iwnye-hGxZuh2ONZ6OCivX4rPtpWft59G4KsHTF51M_KkVdfxYIreQiE2MjUR8vk/s1600/DSCF2604.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1LxVXqTnY8Guw3ES9c0wq3XDr37bgfmoxBs-cE5hvkw6lJcf-jSO8g4CP9P-x3z_aydYlZQoK2l_9iwnye-hGxZuh2ONZ6OCivX4rPtpWft59G4KsHTF51M_KkVdfxYIreQiE2MjUR8vk/s320/DSCF2604.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nepal. One of the highlights of our 2015</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtS-HQYa6HSAQWHlXyAuR-ebEbylYujeWByASgk8uJIH6a_LCv9pbn_hEVNmFR8mJMcCEocOKtFp70K-Y5Cdr7mIT6tWeDyBowGOTup9Ng5-SDRgKug-8We6hLoDnk0i6reZ0SvH2enuW-/s1600/DSCF2708.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtS-HQYa6HSAQWHlXyAuR-ebEbylYujeWByASgk8uJIH6a_LCv9pbn_hEVNmFR8mJMcCEocOKtFp70K-Y5Cdr7mIT6tWeDyBowGOTup9Ng5-SDRgKug-8We6hLoDnk0i6reZ0SvH2enuW-/s320/DSCF2708.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nepal </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvMVqpxJzIpgwp3AFyXkT4RSxFOcRcdQmKj5D8YFBUqy5i2pPiOdRLFbpQ3R7bqgislygN8fU30N6cbT_ySfwXgyo3mRlvbyfiboeMxRKNa4YGR3Y6jdCdjbITEghYGKEyN2YLRBx39e3O/s1600/DSCF2673.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvMVqpxJzIpgwp3AFyXkT4RSxFOcRcdQmKj5D8YFBUqy5i2pPiOdRLFbpQ3R7bqgislygN8fU30N6cbT_ySfwXgyo3mRlvbyfiboeMxRKNa4YGR3Y6jdCdjbITEghYGKEyN2YLRBx39e3O/s320/DSCF2673.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nepal</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJIYbxOJldpiqfeCbcqXqpq2aC95cZe75lfZn2apmZWvUr4zdpdukFk-QsnLE0SbpdA-MB9RqX37Y2h6rKPphBGfJTl5Wq5ZEgHViytNE5Em8Dknb4nEHu_lNzCZjCVcSZEN76SASHHJke/s1600/IMG_20150528_135833.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJIYbxOJldpiqfeCbcqXqpq2aC95cZe75lfZn2apmZWvUr4zdpdukFk-QsnLE0SbpdA-MB9RqX37Y2h6rKPphBGfJTl5Wq5ZEgHViytNE5Em8Dknb4nEHu_lNzCZjCVcSZEN76SASHHJke/s320/IMG_20150528_135833.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nepal</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nepal </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Korea 2015</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzW2d49CD2deS9Bc29_SDQmVGzFwABj8B6ZBrr6AG8VYR8-SMroQvQVMEFfqhJNmNNCbkwhtEZKtfKadhoUtZ5cemjtD3jkjWXe8o8Oy4U5AmuNc-jPIny7utX340MQ2frQPZtoZt1DStd/s1600/20151118_191746.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzW2d49CD2deS9Bc29_SDQmVGzFwABj8B6ZBrr6AG8VYR8-SMroQvQVMEFfqhJNmNNCbkwhtEZKtfKadhoUtZ5cemjtD3jkjWXe8o8Oy4U5AmuNc-jPIny7utX340MQ2frQPZtoZt1DStd/s320/20151118_191746.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the Lumads of Mindanao</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Another year has come to a close. I cannot thank the universe enough for a year filled with much love and blessings.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">2015, like 2014, has been kind, indeed. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">It is a year filled with stories, photographs, travels, hugs, kisses, flowers, Oscar moments, long drives, a blooming mini garden and bells.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">As we enter another year, I am keeping my fingers crossed that the new year would continue to be filled with only the best. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Namaste everyone! Have a great 2016! </span></div>
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Iris Cecilia Gonzaleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119600940849921719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971677826287037426.post-81706959381465292052015-12-07T02:43:00.000-08:002015-12-07T02:45:27.774-08:00From Brazil to Quiapo: Informal Market WorldsI am happy to share this newly published atlas on the informal markets of the world, which includes my story on Quiapo, published by NA1010 PUBLISHERS.<br />
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Thank you to Peter Mortenbock of the University of Vienna, the brains behind the project. I am honoured to be part of this. </div>
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Iris Cecilia Gonzaleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119600940849921719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971677826287037426.post-87535943127004688242015-10-31T04:56:00.001-07:002015-11-01T03:26:43.004-08:00Scenes from the 24th EJAP Journalism Awards NightWe won! My fellow Star reporters and I won in this year's EJAP awards. Yehey! Thank you EJAP and to the esteemed panel of judges. Read about the awards night <a href="http://www.philstar.com/news-feature/2015/10/26/1514907/star-named-business-news-source-year">here</a>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrfTUE6A3hs9R2iPTB25dE03lPEw2Fo3rw20r7oRfjwuhHkqWlhKjbgp6mhI-NqDXtx9ZMJciwWSOlQSeI2hVpxWv4lMZ3qcT1k_9OmZyYDK-MPti6iUaXBihXnJ1dABCYcexqQnvyfPpV/s1600/FullSizeRender.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrfTUE6A3hs9R2iPTB25dE03lPEw2Fo3rw20r7oRfjwuhHkqWlhKjbgp6mhI-NqDXtx9ZMJciwWSOlQSeI2hVpxWv4lMZ3qcT1k_9OmZyYDK-MPti6iUaXBihXnJ1dABCYcexqQnvyfPpV/s400/FullSizeRender.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It's always good to see long lost friends</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is me with my trophy </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here with my amigas, Alena and Lenie</td></tr>
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Iris Cecilia Gonzaleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119600940849921719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971677826287037426.post-70165674771825515842015-10-03T01:52:00.000-07:002015-10-08T19:29:10.668-07:00Pananampalataya<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It is quiet in the confession booth, except perhaps for the
whispers of sinners seeking salvation from strangers in white robes. Men and
women, thieves, vagabonds, adulterers, lonely mistresses — sinners they all are
— will kneel and confess their acts before they do it all again, in another
time, another day. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">There is a soldier, slumped on his back, perhaps dead or
dying, perhaps wounded or too weak to stand. His gun-wielding comrades are by
his side. They are in the middle of a battle, or the war has just begun. All
are fighting for their lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In a place named Tacloban, after the world came to an end
when<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Super Typhoon Haiyan struck,
a man stands in the middle of the chaos. He has almost nothing, no shirt, no
bags, no home; just a black rosary he wears around his neck. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is faith, held deeply by nearly every man, woman and
child in this predominantly Catholic country of 100 million people. There is
sometimes no rationality or reason but faith, nevertheless, serves its epistemic
function here in this country where more than 25 million Filipinos are mired in
deep poverty. It is an end to contradictions or at the center of ironies. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Faith is expressed in many ways and the differences are
stark and telling. The ways are varied, as they are endless. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And the different ways by which Filipinos hold on to their
faith are vividly captured in a collection of images by five Filipino
photojournalists: Jose Enrique Soriano, Veejay Villafranca, Jake Verzosa, Carlo
Gabuco, and Jes Aznar.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The result is Pananampalataya --the Filipino word for faith
-- an exhibition, which is part of the inaugural <a href="https://www.facebook.com/PhotoBangkok?ref=stream"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">PhotoBangkok Festival</span></a>,
an ongoing international photography festival in Bangkok, Thailand.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Pananampalataya is presented by <a href="http://asianeye.gallery/"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">AsianEye Gallery</span></a>, an online gallery that
aims to raise the profile of veteran and emerging Asian photographers and to
encourage collectors from all over the world to discover and appreciate their
vision and works. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“Any simple attempt at describing the belief systems native
to a Filipino is likely to be inadequate. The Filipino photographer is unique
when juxtaposed with the rest of his Asian and Western counterparts. The artist
comes from an archipelago composed of 7,107 islands in Southeast Asia, and is
greatly influenced by the country’s history of popular struggles. One
unparalleled historical factor which explains the distinctiveness of the
Philippines in Asia, is its prolonged history under direct colonial domination.
Colonialism in the Philippines began in the sixteenth century, as in Latin
America – 300 years earlier than most Asian countries. The worldview of
Filipinos reflects a strong Hispanic and Christianized influence, with the
Catholic Church contributing to this. The Filipino is the fruit of this
integration. And what is integral in this integration is the faith
(pananampalataya) of its people - a faith in a force (tadhana) that determines
the destiny of its people,” according to the exhibition notes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Pia Artadi, the Filipina behind AsianEye, says she wanted to
show the world the unique talent of Filipino photographers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“I wanted to portray how strong the work of Filipino
photographers are and unique all over the world,” Artadi says. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">On the subject of faith, Artadi says its universality
remains profound and that she wanted to share Filipinos’ practice of faith to a
wider audience that in the process, they may find a common ground. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">She says the gallery is proud to be part of the inaugural
Photo Bangkok Festival.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Piyatat Hemmatat, director of PhotoBangkok 2015 said the
festival, which would go on for two months, aims to elevate the development of
the creative community through the next generations. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“As we believe that our country is full of passionate
creative artists with promising photographic capability and potential, it is
inevitably now that all concerned parties come together to work hand in hand in
creating an integrated platform that leads the works of Thailand’s photographers
to an international stage,” he said. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
Iris Cecilia Gonzaleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119600940849921719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8971677826287037426.post-80809942087540275842015-09-06T17:58:00.002-07:002015-09-07T04:53:38.120-07:00Walking the Streets of Bangkok with Sonny Yabao<span style="font-family: inherit;">Bangkok, Thailand - Many things have changed in the Kingdom of drunkard kings and dancing queens. Once many moons ago, I woke up in the middle of the night in the smoke-filled bars of Patpong, in full view of fat and ageing naked strippers out to please sex-starved men in another night of hustle. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This time, I found myself walking the streets of Sukhamvit Road in broad day light, looking for a place to eat. I couldn’t wait to fill my hungry stomach, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/yabaosonny">Sonny Yabao</a>, on the other hand, couldn’t wait to shoot. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We turned left and right and left again, looking for an authentic Thai cuisine. I didn’t see the bars this time. Sonny, who was here one time and another, thinks too that the world has changed by leaps and bounds. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"In the Broadway musical “Fiddler on the Roof,” the lead player sings, “Sunrise, sunset… when did she get to be a beauty… I don’t remember growing older… when did they?” Indeed, and Bob Dylan mourns, too, about “The times, they are a-changin’.” It cannot be denied that we all share these hopes and fears in the ever-changing things as they are, that one cannot go home again. And on a train ride, Bob Dylan again asks, “I wonder if that old oak tree’s still standing, that old oak tree, the one we used to climb," Yabao muses, writing about this particular <a href="https://thealternativeph.wordpress.com/2015/08/12/on-the-road-again-bangkok/">trip</a>. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As for me, I'm thinking...is it my imagination or there are now more transgender walking the streets of Bangkok? Perhaps, this goes with a more progressive world or it is because having your penis removed is now as simple as going to a salon here in this city?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Meet Ashley, cherry-red lips, with chest brown hair, sexy and voluptuous. She sure turned heads including Sonny's but she was, once upon a time, a man like the rest of them. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">There’s also a whole industry of massage salons and spas, a sign of a more stressful city. (Traffic takes hours, just like Manila’s gates of hell). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Many signs are now in English, a relief to visitors like me who have no patience doing sign language with Thais. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Once, years ago, Jes and I found ourselves desperately lost in the middle of nowhere — there were no signs in English and not a soul spoke a language we could understand. We were on our way to Laos and the only thing that helped us get out of the rumpus and on to our destination was a lone rickety Third World bus with a wooden sign on its window: "Laos." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Jes and I are back in Bangkok, this time for the opening of Pananampalataya. We’re lucky to have Sonny join us though until the last minute, we weren't quite sure he would leave the comforts of his Laguna abode, hop on the plane and actually take the flight. Or if he did, I imagined he might just choose to run away with a beautiful flight stewardess and forget about the exhibit. The night before he arrived, while we were setting up the exhibit, the photographers washed away their jitters with Japanese whiskey </span>as they imagined the Master shaking his head in disapproval.<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But showed up he did and allowed himself to be dragged all the way to this city, lending </span>honour<span style="font-family: inherit;"> to the jam-packed exhibit opening, which is another story for another day.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">After walking a while, Sonny and I finally found the authentic Thai restaurant we were looking for. The </span>voluptuous<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Ashley, 100 percent Filipina, graciously served us like we were the only ones in the place. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We walked the rest of the afternoon. I had one goal: to look for a bookstore while Sonny just wanted to shoot. I thought I was guiding an old man in an unfamiliar place, making sure he wasn't too tired from too much walking. But this was not quite the case. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sonny saw things I didn't see: birds huddled in twisted branches; she-men and a stranger's foot in the sprawling grassy park, the signs and </span>silhouettes, the puddles of water with the reflection of the Bangkok sky; all these and more. Indeed, <span style="font-family: inherit;">there's a whole plethora of things I almost missed. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">He refused to take the </span>escalator<span style="font-family: inherit;"> on the way to the hulking white mall and laughed at me when I insisted the stairs might be too much for him. </span><br />
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We spent hours in the bookstore and I would have dragged him for more shopping but I found myself really tired. The man, more than twenty years my senior, wasn't done. He went chasing a vendor with a Vietnamese style conical hat and a rickety food cart -- perhaps this would make a good photograph -- and they both disappeared in a narrow alley filled with street food.<br />
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Iris Cecilia Gonzaleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17119600940849921719noreply@blogger.com