The Philippines is a lovely place, truly
Fiesta street dance. [Photo by Mark Angelo Juliano]
By Joe America
The Philippines is a lovely place, truly. But you kinda have to learn to compartmentalize some aspects of your surroundings. Otherwise they act as poison to shade the entire look of the nation.
The one thing I compartmentalize is the essential vindictiveness of a whole lot of people. Cops, robbers, druggies, drug fighters, the neighbors, the relatives, the House of Representatives, and a certain Lorraine Badoy. I tend to wall that vindictiveness off into a little chamber of horrors and then ignore it.
The rest of the nation is an absolute delight.
Well, I never visit Manila, and that has something to do with my happiness. I don’t have to deal with the insanity of a transportation network that is still paying homage and subsidies to private cars whilst a thousand different bus lines ply the narrow streets belching soot and looking a lot like overstuffed runamuck coffins-in-waiting. Manila is its own compartment in my lovely Philippine lifestyle.
I also don’t swim in local beaches, as there are no sewerage treatment plants in the entire nation, as far as I can tell, and 100 million people are doing their business with regularity. But from time to time I venture out to the more remote resorts which have a stretch of beach they can call their own, and it is delightful. There is an island just offshore from here where one can charter (that’s a fancy word for rent) a pump boat to take you over in the morning and pick you up in the evening if the capt’n is not too drunk by then. Only pay on safe return.
It’s like being Bill Gates picnicking on the Biliran Straits, something I never did as a cowboy from Colorado, not even in my dreams.
I actually enjoy driving in traffic here. It’s like playing basketball where you have to do a behind the back swing of the ball whilst angling twixt the giants to deftly finger-roll the ball through the hoop, or just get across the main intersection in town.
“I’m one with the road” I tell myself when embarking on another death-defying trip to Tacloban to take my sweetie to the mall, where she is one with the cash registers.
I love the Philippines because it is not orderly American suburban streets with big box stores and lines in the road and other obsessive-compulsive stuff. You gotta figure your own way past the tricycles, caribao, 10 metric trucks, motor bees, and dogs. It’s a style, y’know?
Fiestas are when everyone sets aside their vindictiveness and pastes on a smile of genuine radiant splendor. People are great. You get the chants from the cockfight pens as another pair of birds slice and dice one another trying to stay off the dinner table. The best fiestas have street dancing contests during the big parade. Nothing beats those tom tom barrels and local’s interpretations of love and rivalry, grass skirts and war paint.
“Hey Joe!”
I still get that now and then, but not as often as I did when I arrived back in ’05. Well, there are a lot of Joes ambling about here and there, so we are nothing extraordinary I suppose. That’s good. I think I blend in well but that’s just because I ignore all the staring kids. Hey, their judgments always come with a giggle, never ever any hostility, and Filipino kids are 100% charming, all day any day.
Overall, my experience is that Filipinos are exceptionally warm when they are not busy killing one another. I’ve only been shot at twice here, and both were peculiar circumstances. I’ve only ever been in one argument in 14 years, that with a lady who cut in front of my son at the ice cream counter at Gaisano mall.
Filipinos don’t like being ‘shown up’ in public. That was my takeway from that unfortunate episode.
It is easy to get along in the Philippines, in the main.
Grab a smile, share it, and it comes back every time.
The Society of Honor by Joe America 
I still want to spend my twilight years here if I live for another twenty to thirty plus years.
Same here, karl — in the context of the current blog, my note below, and my age.
For the distinguished seniors of TSH blog,
to quote Spock: Live long and prosper!
Thanks.
Are we far enough from the “fire” to be at low risk compared with other countries that will be harmed from this idiotic tit for tat children, er adults, play in the supposedly intelligent, powerful countries.? [Reference: the game US-Iran play.]
OFWs NH suddenly DOF, Owwa,DOLE,POEA must have a plan in place for returning OFWs.
For sure this will be not just be on the Middle East .
Right!
👍🏻😀
🙂
Thanks, Karl. My son’s dog seems to approve on both counts. Vigorous tail-wagging is her vote when she sees me and the wife coming.
👍🏻😀
I suspect this realization happens at some cut-off age, Karl. For me it was at age 26. Making it come true is another story. For salmons there is no doubt. For them upstream is where their book of life is borrowed and returned to Nature’s library. (But man has found out why & how to manipulate it)
👍🏻
In a paraphrase of Mark Twain, we have:
Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a government official or some non-gov person who the current blog does not wish to dwell on. But I repeat myself.
Mark Twain aside, the PH is truly a great place to live in. Cheers, Joe — a nice blog to have this early in the year 2020.
Ah, to be Filipino with 20-20 eye vision and for a few with myopic mental vision of what is the good life. God endowed nations of the world equal in scenic beauty but not in ugliness, not equal in peace and harmony, not equal in piety and fanaticism.
God created man in His image and gave them Paradise and lost Eden. Where did God decided His Son to be born to save mankind from the turmoil of his soul? Why in Jerusalem not as beautiful as the Philippines. Because as pupils in the sixties sing before classes every morning ?
In the entire six elementary school years during the late 40’s to the ?? pupils sing that song. I wonder the piece is still sung before the National Anthem? If JoeAm wrote the blog before seeing this link, then like Pinoys who are AMBOY (like CPR) JoeAm is a FILBOY.
Oh by the way, CPR who landed on the beach in Leyte with General Douglas McArthur during the liberation of the Philippines from the Japanese during WWII, also became a President of the UN General Assembly. Nationalist Filipinos call CPR Amboy and brown American. Would JoeAm become the White Filipino to TSoH Filipinos ?
I did not watch in full the PMA silent order Drill in full because so much NOISE and YAKING AND YAKING of announcers made it the NOISIEST silent order drill. It was emphasized that it was a Presidential Drill Competition so illustrative of the style of current excellence.
After watching silent drills of foot soldiers in USA and in Europe, I thought in war and in peace the perfect and timeless rifle is still the M1, the Garand rifle.
🙂 BTW
Slowly but surely becoming “official” the number of islands in the Philippine archipelago: 7,641 (Wiki/CNN). Erase 7,104 from your stats; dunno from where this number came anyway; the old colonial US Geodetic Charts don’t say, AFAIK.
I recall reading about a 1930s island count made by the USA. That would fit into the US policy that after all also brought about the first Census of the Philippine Islands. Seems imperial, after all it was the census of Augustus that brought Mary and Joseph home to Bethlehem. The Normans also wrote the Domesday Book after conquering England in 1066, even thoroughly listing landowners. The US botched Torrens titling in my opinion.
Re island count: 1930s technology and today’s satellites probably made the difference.
Thanks for the assist, Irineo.
The US colonial gov’t Bureau of Insular Affairs issued annual reports (1900-1916) that included the charting of Philippine waters (10 years) by 5 US Coast & Geodetic boats and must have included island counts gathered from Spanish records and actual counts by the survey trips. The Sulu and Coron archipelagos give the bulk of the counts, c. Natl Geographic Mag.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USC%26GSS_Pathfinder_(1899%E2%80%931941)#Layup_and_recommissioning_at_Manila
In fourth year high school literature, the teacher always is asking what is the poem really about, what is the author saying, is he angry or happy? Why are poems seem so mystifying? So, So what? What happens when lucid prose is turn into a wannabe poem? What is Popoy really saying?
IN UGLINESS THERE COULD BE BEAUTY
Ah, to be Filipino with 20-20 eye vision and
for a few with myopic mental vision of
what is the good life.
God endowed nations of the world equal
in scenic beauty but not in ugliness,
not equal in peace and harmony,
not equal in piety and fanaticism.
God created man in His image and gave them
Paradise and lost Eden. But
Where did God decided His Son
to be born to save mankind from
the turmoil of his soul? In Jerusalem not
in as beautiful as the Philippines.
On CONSTANT WINDS, a book prefaced by JoeAm, on page 24 the first two (of seven) stanzas and last three lines say what should be a good read for grade school pupils students:
Love of Country
What is one’s country but respect
For its natural endowments
All the rightness of its culture
A life of truth and harmony among its people
And all the things that’s good
The world says about the country.
What is NOT love for one’s country
Is lack of respect for its natural endowments,
The deliberate debasement of its culture
Its strong oppressing its weak
And all the bad things the world
Has deplored unacceptable.
Passivity is the absence of love
There’s ambivalence
In loving one’s country
–written in LA, CA, USA January 29, 2010.
Because of the nowadays or here and now, it seems more correct to say:
Passivity is the absence of love
There should be NO ambivalence
In loving one’s country
“Passivity is the absence of love
There should be NO ambivalence
In loving one’s country”
I add, since love always has an object, Eliza Doolittle said it best:
Kundiman is a unique musical form expressing intense longing, caring, devotion and oneness with a beloved, or with a child, spiritual figure, motherland, ideal or cause. According to its text a kundiman could be romantic, patriotic, religious, mournful or a consolation, a lullaby, or a protest and other types. But whatever the type, its music is soulful and lofty and conveying deep feelings of devotional love. The authentic kundiman inspires a selfless spiritual attitude.
The emotion captured by the kundiman is one of affectionate probing, exploring, sensing and empathizing with the object of love and devotion, be it a person, community, country, spiritual symbol, or ideal.
The kundiman songwriter, singer and listener become involved in an essentially dynamic, everflowing, creatively transforming and living process.
Thanks Sonny for the remarks. The first one Julie Andrews seems to have demonstrated an energetic rendition of love which a Pinay can alluringly do with a bakya from Laguna (Paete?) woodcarvers.
I did not finish the second video after being transported by the excellent sceneries in full SPRING and AUTUMN GRANDEUR in countries not my own. The music and the cc palpitates an aging heart. But the background scenery is like a of photo of our katutubo and common village people in news papers “fakely?” captioned as rebels and dissidents who surrendered to the government. The Kundiman is classic musical art, but the works of the masters like Chopin, Vivaldi, Beethoven; and in visual arts like Renoir, Rembrandth and Amorsolo could easily be reproduced by AI technology.
🙂 You’re most welcome, sir.
Makes for a sense of gratitude for all the years we are gifted with. Prayerfully hoping too that the modern gifts of technology such as the Internet and AI will not allow the suppression of good but rather heighten the joy of living for those things that could not be reached by multitudes in the past: truth, goodness, beauty.
This news is SO FILIPINO it beats other countries with a seeming BAHALA NA decision to serve and protect its overseas workers.
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2020/01/08/1983122/philippines-send-2-battalions-middle-east-ofw-repatriation
This news is SO FILIPINO it beats other countries with a BAHALA NA decision to serve and protect its overseas workers.
JUST IMAGINE if other countries with workers in the Middle East like may be Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, etc will follow suit the Philippines, it will be flexing of muscles, like little mights stopping the might of giants like USA and Iran.
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2020/01/08/1983122/philippines-send-2-battalions-middle-east-ofw-repatriation
HELLO UN, hellooo, helllooooww UN!
Three days ago in the previous thread this was posted:
TO COOL OFF AND PERHAPS DIMINISH PROBABILITY of WORLD WAR III :
Upang maging tulad ng mga Pinoys dapat IRAN at USA ay matulog mahimbing sa pancitan. Translation: To be like Pinas IRAN and USA should sleep soundly in the noodle house for at least six months.
Haw, haw, HOW THE CARABAO can it be done: Both countries have military camps with PERSONNEL, offense and defense weapons capabilities against its other and their allies. THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL MUST ORDER Iran and USA to vacate, remove and EMPTY these camps and facilities OF THEIR MILITARY AND CIVILIAN PERSONNEL for a period. Even without powerful UN intervention, both countries can empty their camps of administrative, defense and offense personnel if both countries are against world DEPOPULATION.
Addendum from the past:
Iraq and parts of the Middle East are no EAST TIMOR . Yet the UN for a time appointed a Filipino General to be the overall Commander of Military Peacekeepers and Peacebuilders in East Timor before it became Timor Leste, the youngest millennium country of the free world.
Are accidents anywhere or everywhere the works of SATANS? Just asking.
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/ukrainian-airplane-crashes-near-irans-capital-killing-176/ar-BBYIWuX?ocid=spartandhp
Oh look popoy, it’s a Boeing 737 again.
The same crap of airplane design which also recently went crashing down in Indonesia and Africa.
You think that has anything to do with it?
“Ukraine International Airlines said 167 passengers and nine crew were on the plane , an older version of the 737 that predates Boeing’s grounded Max model, which crashed at 6:18 a.m. Wednesday in Sabashahr, near the Iranian capital. ”
Was the plane NOT grounded after those series of take off accidents?
on another link there is more info brod/sis Micha
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/what-we-know-so-far-about-boeing-plane-that-crashed-in-iran/ar-BBYKiCC?ocid=spartandhp
I like to feel and I do feel like John Donne in his poem.
‘No Man is an Island’ by John Doone
No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as any manner of thy friends or of thine
own were;
any man’s death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
So yeah popoy, human designed planes operated by human hands are the cause of incidents like that. Stop blaming some esoteric mysterious entities that exist only in your imagination.
Kindly brod/sis Micha try to improve your reading and comprehension. Asking a question is NOT BLAMING just as I don’t INVENT concepts like Satan. I possess a rational imagination which abhors dysfunctional ones. I commensurate with the fallen and this is my last word on this issue.
To paraphrase the great Filipino philosopher Bato dela Rosa, shit happens, popoy. It’s a tragedy, no doubt, but human fingerprints are all over those incidents. Maybe if, for one, the oversight power of safety boards regulating the airline manufacturing industry were not trimmed by corporate lobbying we will have fewer, if not zero, incidents of airline crashes?
The fact that you’re asking a question whether those incidents were the works of satan might just come from your inability to process grief for the unnecessary loss of human lives.
Car accidents happen everyday too, popoy. You think those are the works of satan too and not some faulty brakes or steering system?
popoy says:
January 9, 2020 at 4:53 am
Kindly brod/sis Micha try to improve your reading and comprehension. Asking a question is NOT BLAMING just as I don’t INVENT concepts like Satan. I possess a rational imagination which abhors dysfunctional ones. I commensurate with the fallen and this is my last word on this issue.
The only dysfunctional imagination here is your asking whether accidents were the works of satan, so sock your reading comprehension into your own eyeballs.
The Iranians now admit they mistook the airplane for a cruise missile.
More credible in any case than the PNP mistaking a reporter’s cellphone for a grenade.
From your link popoy :
“A number of 737-800 aircraft have been involved in deadly accidents over the years.
“In March 2016, a FlyDubai 737-800 from Dubai crashed while trying to land at Rostov-on-Don airport in Russia, killing 62 onboard. Another 737-800 flight from Dubai, operated by Air India Express, crashed in May 2010 while trying to land in Mangalore, India, killing more than 150 onboard.”
So wag mong pakakasalanan si Satanas dito. Nanahimik sya ngayon sa Malakanyang, malapit ng matigok.
Thanks, Yeah brother/sis Micha, because Satan might complain: “are you crazy, why suspect me? Those dead are not my people, they are up there now. My people bound down with me, are determine and chosen by birth, theirs are fixed and don’t have premature recall.
Inventing satan and god are for the deluded.
Popoy did not invent Satan brod/sis Micha Literature or whatever might be the culprit.
For info of TSoH commenters. Not from popoy but from masscom sources:
“The Great Satan (Persian: شيطان بزرگ; Shaytân-e Bozorg) is a demonizing epithet for the United States of America in Iranian foreign policy statements. Occasionally, these words have also been used toward the government of the United Kingdom.
The term was originally[citation needed] used by Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini in his speech on November 5, 1979 to describe the United States, which he accused of imperialism and the sponsoring of corruption throughout the world.[1] The speech occurred one day after the onset of the Iran hostage crisis.
Ayatollah Khomeini also occasionally used the term “Iblis” (the primary devil in Islam) to refer to the United States and other Western countries.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Satan
Meanwhile, the Trump-Iran kabuki show is ongoing. It’s wholly for entertainment in aid of the Orange Man’s re-election campaign.
I beg for indulgence of space from JoeAm for this post as my expression of pakikiramay to the relatives and friends of all those who perished in the passenger plane crash in Teheran, Iran.
I see the death everyday
Death in relations
Death in religion and faith
Death of man in man
Everyday, everywhere, every moment
Death, death and death.
I experience the death around me
Millions and billions of ceremonies
The smoke on maps of mankind
Death in temple and streets
Death in clubs and parties
Death, death and death.
I foresee the death of humanity
Harassment, discrimination and hatred
Death in purity and sacredness
Death in broken mirrors and home
Death in king, death in masses
Death, death and death.
-Abhimanyu kumar.s
—————————
Tired with all these, for restful death I cry,
As to behold desert a beggar born,
And needy nothing trimmed in jollity,
And purest faith unhappily forsworn,
And gilded honour shamefully misplaced,
And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,
And right perfection wrongfully disgraced,
And strength by limping sway disablèd
And art made tongue-tied by authority,
And folly doctor-like controlling skill,
And simple truth miscalled simplicity,
And captive good attending captain ill.
Tired with all these, from these would I be gone,
Save that to die, I leave my love alone.
-William Shakespeare
————————–
Let me sleep, for my soul is intoxicated with love and
Let me rest, for my spirit has had its bounty of days and nights;
Light the candles and burn the incense around my bed, and
Scatter leaves of jasmine and roses over my body;
Embalm my hair with frankincense and sprinkle my feet with perfume,
And read what the hand of Death has written on my forehead.
-Khalil Gibran
————————-
Because I could not stop for Death-
He kindly stopped for me-
The Carriage held but just Ourselves-
And Immortality.
We slowly drove- He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility-
-Emily Dickinson
—————–
“One Moment in Annihilation’s Waste,
One moment, of the Well of Life to taste–
The Stars are setting, and the Caravan
Starts for the dawn of Nothing–Oh, make haste”
– Omar Khayyam
Thanks to: PoemHunter.com
I can’t and did not finish 20% of it but I did enjoy listening soul enriched to Omar’s Rubiyat.
Translacion Black Nazarene time, sometimes I feel like doing a Micha and curse it for being ridiculous same with Lenten penitensya, flagellation, crucifixion, but I should learn a little more religious tolerance plus a little respect.
Yeah sure, you tolerate and respect madness until they come knocking at your door.
If it is the friendly Electrolux man or a Caroler, I would say: Patawad po.
translacion is tradition handed down from generations, nakaugalian. it maybe ridiculous, quaint and whatnot, but I have respect for translacion. maybe it’s best to enjoy and honor to translacion while we can, for in the not so distant future, anything that unites the nation will be forbidden: translacion, sinulog, ati-atihan, pinagbenga, etc. already, not only is the crazy man absent at important anniversaries, celebrations and events held dear by our nation but also belittles them.
the last days of pompei and people went about their daily lives.
Translacion is pure religious insanity.
Sinulog and Ati-atihan incorporates religious crap into native cultural event.
Panagbenga is Baguio’s version of the Mayflower festival free of religious trappings.
I have come to enjoy religious and cultural rites myself. They need not be literal truths or pragmatic events that attest to people’s rational capacities, just as Rembrant or Van Gogh put oils on a canvas that allow people to extract meanings that are important to them. Emotions, mysteries, the unknowns . . . these are as real as printing money. The most impressive cultural rites for me are the street dances, as I knew people who performed in them. They are historical, religious, artistic, and alive with absolutely no judgment whatsoever, and therefore, refreshing. I also enjoy cathedrals, both for the architecture and the soul-tapping emotions that attach to the joining of humanity that takes place inside them.
I joined in the street dances, joeam, ati-atihan is fav. much fun and lots of movements. I coaxed my fat friends to join in but conscious sila of their flab. forget your flab for a day and jump in! carnivale, yahhoooo. beats having to light firecrackers! nothing like the high of the rush of endorphins.
Good for you! It’s all too strenuous for me. I should have offered to pound a drum. They would have said yes for sure. Dressed me up in fancy feathers and a loin cloth.
No problem with the festivities, it is the fine line between blind fanaticism and faithful devotion I am concerned with.
Well, hard lines in either direction, from the faithful or against them, seem ridiculous to me, or what does inclusion mean?
the madness, the fanaticism, it’s only for few hours and quite acceptable po to way my thinking. under the circumstances, normal yan to display emotion, others call it liberating.
after traslacion, things get back to normal and people are sane again, albeit fed and cleansed by the spirit of god and full of hope too.
it’s when madness become sustained and prolonged for more than 72hrs that we stepped in and take action.
Happy that it was shorter not only by route but also by about five hours.
I also give props to the crowd control.
shortened traslacion was trial run. remember falugong in china? it was outlawed yata and followers of falungong went underground.
the chinese whisper I heard want to throttle traslacion the way falungong was throttled. knew there will be backlash kaya shortened lang muna ang traslacion. next year it will be shorter still hanggang sa, you know . . . gone from the face of the earth.
I take back my praises for the crowd control. Me HR violations pala.
I saw on t.v. the ”arm lock” kapolisan applied to a half naked young man in khaki shorts. dalawang polis berdugo vs one young man.
young man’s arms both bent at the back and push high up, masakit yan. crowd controllers usually apply arm lock to paralyze troublemakers, make them compliant.
I hope the young man did not have both his arms broken.
there were other incidences of human rights violations too.
“the chinese whisper I heard want to throttle traslacion the way falungong was throttled.”
The way Islam and Buddhism are being destroyed in Xinjiang and Tibet?
The Spanish and Portuguese at least tolerated old native practices.
Witness the Yoruban religion from Africa, alive as santeria or voodoo in Brazil and Cuba.
Devotees know the old African gods behind the Christian saints they pretended to worship.
“When the Saints come marching in” is a trace of Creole voodoo in New Orleans jazz.
Brazilian and Cuban dances and festivals have older, pagan roots.
I wonder what the old, native name of Sta. Clara in Obando was.
dang ireneo! I’m still trying to figure out what sort of juju (caribbean magic) mother and daughter (megan markle and mom) did on prince harry that turned the poor boy round his axis, haha.
anyhow, I thought na fertility dance yang kay sta clara sa obando. sa ireland po, women kiss the barney stone. women wanting to conceive ought not leave it too long, thier biological clock has limit. once women hit 37+ their chances of conceiving decrease and risk of miscarriage is high.
like what mischa said, there are fertility clinics that help women reproduce, be it surrogacy, in vitro, etc. smart women will probly have it all covered: do fertility dance and visit fertility clinic as well.
on sobering note, we could well be seeing the last remaining days of traslacion.
incidentally, the current dalai lama in tibet is chinese implant. when chinese dalai lama goes overseas, tibetans living overseas often held placards of free tibet! demonstrating against the chinese dalai lama who continually smiles like xi jin ping. salud!
Kasambahay I was in Iloilo in my early twenties when I began to understand and admire be very proud of our cultural diversity. How come? I was awed by the beat of drums and the people seemed hypnotized dancing their piety in abandoned merriment.
ah, popoy, the rhythm and tempo, hypnotic like the festivities in the caribbean. i’ts ati-atihan for moi! for a while, all my troubles disappear. the costumes, the performers, the sync, the lot. napudpud ang sapatos ko! my poor high heels. I changed to sneakers and felt more the vibration of pounding feet on the streets. I could have cartwheeled! but did not want to show more than I should. that’s the christian in me, modest despite.
when time permits, I’m always off to ati-atihan. with a good pair of shoes and a willing spirit.
Your fat friends will certainly not say no to zumba.
Oh well, zumba is indoors.
🙂
This one is outdoors.
A former boss while still an aggie fieldman was childless had been cajoled to dance in Obando, Bulacan by co-employees. The couple did have a baby daughter after a few years but I am not sure they did dance and how many times in Obando.
🙂
popoy, childless couple can always adopt. there are orphans that need good homes and tender loving care. I’m happy for your boss though.
ORPHANAGES seem the extinct institution of modern times. Orphans just go to foster homes (parents) or gets adopted. Government red tape for a few bucks/pesos has taken over. So? Is it big deal to try and go and dance Sta Clarang pinong-pino in Obando?
“Is it big deal to try and go and dance Sta Clarang pinong-pino in Obando?”
If a woman wants to conceive but couldn’t, she needs to go to a fertility clinic or see a gynecologist.
Si Micha KJ
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=://m.youtube.com/watch?://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8dXp4ggb7
Nagkamali ako
Talking about “fun,” I had great fun reading Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods. It is about Bryson’s description of his experience hiking with a friend — who has a different view of things — the great American Appalachian Trail along the US Eastern sea board [some 2000 miles from end to end]: starting with choosing the equipment for the hike, the troubles/ dangers they encountered along the way and the great joy of experiencing nature along the AT.
Even if you are not a nature lover, try reading it — especially the next time you take a vacation. You will not be disappointed. [Specially recommended as the earth heads toward a Climate Change disaster.]
A divergence and diversion from the religious links here’s may be great fun tribal Pinoys (even imbeciles) everywhere would like to watch.
Well, what can a Pinoy say, when a Kano said it all:
“I love the Philippines because it is not orderly American suburban streets with big box stores and lines in the road and other obsessive-compulsive stuff. You gotta figure your own way past the tricycles, caribao, 10 metric trucks, motor bees, and dogs. It’s a style, y’know?
Fiestas are when everyone sets aside their vindictiveness and pastes on a smile of genuine radiant splendor. People are great. You get the chants from the cockfight pens as another pair of birds slice and dice one another trying to stay off the dinner table. The best fiestas have street dancing contests during the big parade. Nothing beats those tom tom barrels and local’s interpretations of love and rivalry, grass skirts and war paint.”
“Hey Joe!”
Last no po ito. tungkol sa celebrasyon ng translacion. Filipinas kong mahal hindi ka nagiisa.
https://www.google.ca/search?q=dancing+religious+images+in+the+streets+by+devotees&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=WFs-g-D36rBtnM%253A%252CKBRn8HT3czpJKM%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kS57EghKL_L9RxF55aQNLFAq7TEUQ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiynonykvbmAhXYXc0KHXsQAQ4Q9QEwCXoECAYQIQ#imgrc=iZcKOv-2soDPmM:&vet=1
Once upon a time a fan of Bill Bryson’s Americana, MADE IN AMERICA. Good Stuff – fun reading for fans of American English..
Reforestation has been an epic fail-correct that by
Having a land use law so Baguio would not have to be replicated.
(Once a pristine beauty soon to be destroyed by overdevelopment)
Time to have farm to have market roads in accessible places.
A nationwide sewerage system must be improved, maybe by having modular Lego type roads with underground cabling and pipes.
Our coral reefs can be augmented by sinking old ships ands structures plus they have to stop dynamite fishing.
Have a military industrial simplex
Time to bring back the engineers for earthquake proof buildings and roads.
Time for more farmers and agriculturists.
Time for more psychiatrists.
Time for more naval architects…….
what? what you saying, WHAT ARE YOU SAYING Karl? stop plundering? Not on anyone’s life Karl.
And BBM plans to run and he wants text books revised
bbm would have to revise textbooks overseas as well, they said few things about them marcoses too. bbm’s sons who studied overseas should be able to recommend which foreign books are due for revision. cos dapat tugma ang textbooks rito sa atin with textbooks overseas. make it factual and universal, may uniformity.
parents are normally superlatives when talking about their children. when alive, apo bangkay could only say bbm has good muscle coordination, not superb muscle coordination, not perfect muscle coordination, just good.
Plastic is only about 30 percent of our landfills.
Most are construction debris, food waste, plant waste.
Plasma gasification will be a must in the next few years
Recycling can only do so much.
Direct democracy is the way to go, but first there must be a way to make the requisites and prequisites of people’s initiative simpler.
Micha says:
January 10, 2020 at 1:28 am
The only dysfunctional imagination here is your asking whether accidents were the works of satan, so sock your reading comprehension into your own eyeballs.
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For info of TSoH commenters. Not from popoy but from masscom sources:
“The Great Satan (Persian: شيطان بزرگ; Shaytân-e Bozorg) is a demonizing epithet for the United States of America in Iranian foreign policy statements. Occasionally, these words have also been used toward the government of the United Kingdom.
The term was originally[citation needed] used by Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini in his speech on November 5, 1979 to describe the United States, which he accused of imperialism and the sponsoring of corruption throughout the world.[1] The speech occurred one day after the onset of the Iran hostage crisis.
Ayatollah Khomeini also occasionally used the term “Iblis” (the primary devil in Islam) to refer to the United States and other Western countries.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Satan
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‘I want answers’: Justin Trudeau says missile downed plane in Iran – video
https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2020/jan/09/i-want-answers-justin-trudeau-confirms-missile-downed-plane-in-iran-video
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2020/jan/10/iran-video-appears-to-show-missile-striking-ukrainian-plane-video
IF the Ukrainian plane crashed because of ordnance . . .
Two important synonymous concepts namely : intention (intentional) and accident (accidental) as claimed by pundits will be clarified after completion of the investigation and the report of the downing of the Ukrainian passenger plane in Iran.
Who’s done it and how it was carried out could lead to the truth or lie that the event was an ACCIDENT and NOT INTENTIONAL. Clear and straight thinking could cool down hot headed shallow opinions.
Granting it was intentional (most likely not), you still think it was carried out by the works of Satan?
Now here is an idea worth spreading:
Poverty Isn’t A Lack Of Character; It’s A Lack Of Cash
My favorite motivational speaker
Andalusian Holy Week processions are also organized by cofradias, but it is a totally different atmosphere, I find the Klan-like hoods a bit scary. They have opulent floats, very heavy so at times even the young men carrying them get heart attacks. And some processions are also very long.
Two things about the Ukrainian plane that crashed near Teheran:
1) Iran has admitted it shot it down accidentally
2) Many Iranian-Canadian academics among the victims: Professors, researchers, students.
Present day Iranian theocracy is, for the most part, a creation of misguided (for lack of better term) US foreign policy.
The original sin happened in 1953 when the CIA actively orchestrated a coup against a democratically elected and secular gov’t of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh.
In collaboration with the United Kingdom’s MI6, the CIA successfully ditched Mossadegh because he had the gall and temerity to nationalize Iran’s oil industry in defiance of both the British and American wishes.
The US then supported the Shah until his ouster in the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
Post 1979 Iran until today is ruled by a succession of Shiite theocracies involved in a brutal religious conflict with the rival Sunni Muslims, mostly from Iraq.
The assassinated general Soleimani actually fought side by side with the US in the Afghanistan war hunting down Bin Laden as well as the war against ISIS in both Iraq and Syria.
Now we know why Trump cannot escalate this conflict with Iran because the US is losing all semblance of credibility for both religious power factions in the Middle East.
The only constant and common denominator at play for the US now is its support for nuclear armed Israel in its war against the Palestinians.
https://www.vice.com/amp/en_asia/article/y3mdpk/filipinos-trust-trump-highest-world?utm_campaign=sharebutton&__twitter_impression=true
Filipinos trust Trump the most, of all people worldwide. IN TRUMP WE TRUST.
Teodoro Locsin is all gung-ho to evacuate OFW’s from the region and sending Philippine troops (ridiculous) apparently anticipating the imminence of war but the US war machine, while ready and vastly superior, has no stomach for this conflict.
CNN and ABS-CBN are also drumming up the beat for a full blown conflict because, you know, war is good, war is profitable, war is peace.
locsin ought to know he cannot just send troops to the middle east without backup. and because troops would have to be armed, they’d be considered invading force and hostile and could well be sent back. and if taken hostage in foreign port, not only do we have ofws to repatriate but troops as well.
already locsin has been previously put in his place by the ambassador from turkey as regards bangsamoro murad’s business foray in turkey. locsin thought murad was out of his depth, but turkish ambassador said murad was on proper and official business okayed by duterte.
A link for the timeline of the conflict
https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2020/01/world/us-iran-conflict-timeline-trnd/
the PHILIPPINES is a LOVELY PLACE also BECAUSE:
IN the late sixties, home from studies abroad with a bought second hand portable typewriter a custom examiner won’t let me take it home UNLESS I pay an amount he calls tax. I left the thing in the airport. I won’t forget to my death bed the name and the face of that heartless customs man.
A neighbor who drives the PAL limo that fetches and takes PAL stewardess home heard about it and said he can get it with just a little amount. My first case of successful AREGLO.
Eighteen years later, first on my going home on R and R as OFW, I was pleasantly, happily surprised I was also covered and entitled to benefits of the BALIKBAYAN PROGRAM. Balikbayans are immigrants and working Pinoys. Pinoy professionals like doctors, nurses, engineers, executives work abroad, some gets naturalized and stayed in their countries of work for good.
Pinas is a Christian country that takes care whole heartedly of its people, regardless of acquired citizenship and no matter for what reason. Pinas happily entices them to visit home and do not think they are unpatriotic or without gratitude for leaving the country. OFWs are modern day unequivocal heroes but it is otra cosa and pass through the changing times of leadership at home and abroad.
🙂
At the height of import control times, mid ’50s, mom was a home bound student from Chicago studies. She wanted to bring home a 1956 Plymouth Belvidere to go with her freshly minted diploma to drive around our poor man’s subdivision (EDSA was still Highway 54, the denizens of Araneta compound were grazing carabaos among the ‘lush’ talahib pasture; NEPA-Q market was only a glint in our collective consumers’ eyes). After being told that customs will charge 100% import tax on her car, she bought a 13″ Black & White Emerson TV instead. This she brought home via SS President Wilson (steerage fare) to Pier 7. Our taste of rags-to-riches homecoming, Cubaoville-style.
Your mom Sonny is of higher integrity. A poor student realizing extortion and bribery tried to avoid it but was assisted to accept areglo because he needed the contraption. Corruption is likely to victimize more the poor than the better off.
Alas, Popoy. Just as well, that car at the time had “high-maintenance” written all over it; so we would have taken JDs & jeepneys for daily transport and left the car in a garage covered with a kumot, took tikim of luxury every so often on a very rare Sunday ronda. 10 years later, mom had to trek back to good ol’ US of A and join America’s huddled masses just to keep 7 bodies and souls together with long-distance love, Filipino sweat, Ilocano thrift and American $.
Students in many disciplines cannot HELP IT BUT KNOW
In Agric engineering 11 plane surveying segment ERROR in measurements is differentiated from MISTAKES.
In UK Aerial Photogrammetry studies one need to understand PARALLAX ERROR.
In military training on map reading the magnetic north is an error from the true north.
In military operations important attack and defense decisions pass and flow down from the highest honcho in the line of command.
In criminal law pre-meditation and motives are aggravating, NOT mitigating circumstances in the commission of a crime. In the study of criminology, error and mistakes are causative factors in the saying: There is no perfect crime. Crime does not pay.
BECAUSE students are soaking wet studying various social, physical and natural sciences, students KNOW and will fight with their lives to make the TRUTH vanquished the lies against the people. When students chants and march in the streets something is gravely amiss in the sciences.
Kasambahay, you kept mentioning Pompeii recently. I have not only seen Cagsawa, once destroyed by pyroclastic flows, the type that destroyed Pompeii, hot gas and hot ashes that leave as little of a human being as an atomic blast but keep the buildings in place. Taal is phreatic now.
I have been to Pompeii. We visited my father who was in Naples then, oddly comfortable there, but I guess living under an active volcano like the Vesuvius is great for someone from Albay. Pompeii which was covered by ashes after the people died, and Herculaneum which was buried under lava and was much harder to excavate. I was near the top of Etna in late September 2018, saw the different crater from various eruptions. I saw Mayon erupt from up close in June 1978, way back.
Taal I have only seen from Tagaytay, but never went down lakeside. Mayon of course, not much of Malinao, the volcano near Tiwi hot springs, or of Masaraga, the little sister of the two in Albay. Mount Iriga close to where De Lima comes from, and Mount Isarog near Naga, I have not seen.
ay, pls dont mind me, ireneo. I’m idiot and a charlatan and I dont really like volcanoes. and I cannot explain why when looking and admiring at shoes in the mall, old pompeii insinuated anew and poled ax me with frescoes, broken tiles and darkened skies, I have to grab a seat and sit down. I thought it was my hangover na-delayed. I had few of those incidences some scary, some not. MRI scan ruled out brain tumor yet again, must be hangover then.
I’ve heard of pompeii but never been to pompeii and not been to any volcanoes. I dont want to come near.
https://m.facebook.com/PHIVOLCS/photos/a.285127764929462/2512050592237157/?type=3&refsrc=http%3A%2F%2Fnewsinfo.inquirer.net%2F1212149%2Flava-fountain-from-taal-volcano
karlg, this is going to be inappropriate but I’m going to say this: yeng constantiono ought to see a doctor not just a lawyer. she’s currently being sued for cyberlibel yata.
only a doctor know the ins and out and the failure of another doctor, whereas lawyers are adversarial. yeng needs wider scope and a bigger picture than that presented by a lawyer. hypocratic oath, do no harm, I think yeng is being harmed.
na-trauma siya and lashed out, natural lang yan. kaso, yong doctor has poor beside manners and did not immediately contain a panicking yeng constantino. 1st rule yan to subdue panic like in a crashing airplane, airline staff control panic and impose order.
yeng’s proximity to the victim/patient makes her a patient too, only yeng cannot see it, but the doctor can. yeng should have been immediately pacified and taken out of the way, so doctors can concentrate on the patient. if yeng was loud and belligerent and interfering with treatment, doctor should have asserted authority and told her to, shut up! and apologize later, or give her sedative.
in trauma situation, doctors sometimes have to treat multiple patients (yeng and partners can be considered multiple patients) and treat both simultaneously. doctors trained for this (assessing medical situations) and act accordingly. any medical superintendent know how to direct traffic.
sorry, karlg, I dont know why I got sucked into this.
First off thanks for sharing.
The unwritten triage rule willnever be acceptable to loved ones.
About shaming, we bash politicians, government, famous people we do not agree with but shaming should not be a habit.
Many a netizen had committed suicide because of bashing, good thing here we have a good moderator.
This is my octogen view of the POTUS impeachment: Pres. Trump is impeached.
IT IS A DONE DEAL in the US House of Representatives which has done a USA-quality job that the US Senate must accept and hold a trial where the Speaker and the Committee Chair need only to testify to clarify some parts and closed the issue so the Senate can make the vote to culminate the Impeachment.
The Senate is the entity of second and final judicial opinion. More witnesses and a lengthy trial will mean historically that USA’s Lower House of Congress did a LOUSY JOB which contradicts the Speaker’s dictum that Pres. Trump is already impeached permanently .