|
For the past 17 years, The Filipino Express has provided the Filipino American community the best news, arts and entertainment coverage from around the United States and the Philippines.
|
|
This website includes selected articles from this week's edition of the Filipino Express. Not all the stories published in the printed version appear on this site.
|
|
|
|
To tell us what you think about Filipino Express Online or to comment on the stories published here, E-mail us at Filexpress@aol.com
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
NEW YORK --- The flood of e-mails reacting to what I wrote in several of my recent columns has left me a bit worn-out reading them. The feeling was like watching news footage of the effects of hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, La. and Biloxi, Mississippi.
Max Fabella, a Florida resident wrote with reference to "The Politics and Economics of Brain Drain" [Aug 8-14 edition]. He said that some teachers were likewise recruited for the Miami-Dade area. While he wished them well and hoped that they are well-trained, he also expressed his sadness in losing "our professionals to work abroad."
However, he doesn't consider this to be a total loss; he says these teachers remit monies to the Philippines to send their relatives to school and provide goods to help them survive. He ends with the thought encouraging "our compatriots abroad to give more to the Philippines in various forms."
Some had different opinions on the issue and pointed out reasons why many of our professionals are leaving the Philippines among which, is not only about economics and politics but also their feeling of hopelessness in our country.
"Who else can the less fortunate go to if our very own government cannot even assure jobs, good education and housing for them?" And she added that if the private sector and overseas Filipinos are the ones asked to help out, "what is the government for?"
Another one wrote somewhat spiritually saying that God's blessings will eventually come to the motherland and he went on comparing her with what God did to the people of Israel. Eventually, he says if people acknowledged God as the creator of heaven and earth, and accepted His Son, Jesus Christ, as their Lord and Savior, "the country will rise up again and become prosperous."
The rest of the e-mails on this subject pertained to more pointed criticisms about the government and its leaders.
On another subject of mine, "Ghosts" [Aug.29-Sept. 4 edition], a woman from Jersey City who pleaded not to have her name mentioned, wrote about the $15,000 allegedly pledged by Elma Santander, 2005 grand marshal of the Philippine American Friendship Committee (PAFCOM) to the organization.
She wrote: "You think it's only in the Philippine Independence Day Council, Inc. (PIDCI) that people have ghosts in themselves? We have them too, in PAFCOM." And she continued on with her outburst charging me of not doing my "reportorial job" where it should be -- right in the heart where the offices of this paper are situated.
I wrote back and promised that I will do my job better. I have heard stories about this and other stuff such as an executive director who was asked to resign from her job because she was allegedly charging overtime which was not authorized.
And yes, this PAFCOM issue would be an interesting piece besides PIDCI. And I'm sure folks are as excited as ever to find more about PAFCOM.
Someone also wrote that 2005's membership in PIDCI is not 195 but 200 members. He said that the 195 members were the ones who cast their votes in the elections. If that was true, what happened to the other five members? Could they be ghost members?
Well, this was something I had to review my record. And as a sports reporter says, let's go the tape. Lo and behold! The election committee chairperson said there were 202 members of which 183 ballots were cast. What happened here? Ghosts must be all over PIDCI! Will someone from PIDCI clarify this, please?
Incidentally, I was told that as of Aug. 31 deadline, some 270 member-organizations have registered with PIDCI. And get this, 91 of which are new members. Now, what can you conclude about this big surge in membership? More ghosts?
A lot of readers responded well to "What Really Matters" [Aug. 15-21 edition] and I particularly like one writer who said that a change of heart is what's needed in us. Not only in local politics like PIDCI but in us as a person and as a Filipino.
Unity, he said, can only be achieved if we see ourselves in the eyes of others. "If we can change our perspective from the standpoint of the other person, we can do more positive things instead of this perennial grandstanding and pasikatan among us."
And a pessimist wrote a one-liner: "Unity will never be achieved, not in our lifetime or in our children's children." But as blunt or as cold it was said, perhaps you and I who have high expectations in our people, we can say that we try to effect change no matter what the odds are. It is by trying that we achieve results. And as I previously wrote, until we change from within, we cannot bring out the best.
We all have one moment in time when we react to everything that is happening around us. And the reaction is varied. Some of us may have mixed emotions about certain issues and others have definite strong reasons for their belief.
My one moment in time is when I feel that there's a reason for everything that happens. That it is like a grand design some of us probably could neither understand nor explain why we exist.
Send comments to rickyxpres@aol.com or visit Website at PinoyOnBoard.com.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Chicago, ILLINOIS --- The White House wants to buy time -- actually three weeks -- to keep the novelty of the appointment of Filipino American Cristeta “Cris” P. Comerford intact.
So, it instructed the Comerford’s relatives to defer their comments to newsmen unless cleared by the White House.
I thought I hit pay dirt on August 22 when I happened to track down one of Cris’ sisters. But it turned into disappointment when she told me that before she could grant me any interview I have to get a clearance from the White House.
She promised to give me the name and number of the contact person in the White House. But I never heard from her. I even emailed her, hoping that I can get the contact information during off hours. But still nada.
My effort was like Sisyphean because when I thought I was about to get a good story, I could not even write it. Remember Sisyphus from Greek mythology who had to roll a rock up a hill for the whole of eternity because it kept ending up where it started? I had that nightmarish feeling.
Favoritism
For the White House to issue such advisory to Comerford’s relatives simply smacks of favoritism. Why let the Washington Post interview Comerford’s relatives but bans them from entertaining others, specially some enterprising ethnic media, from exercising their First Amendment Rights is beyond me.
Is the White House scared only of the Washington Post, which was responsible for removing President Nixon from his office, but not the lesser known media outfits? To me, it smells of censorship.
Why compel me to attend a White House “press event” when it is still far into the future and too expensive for out-of-town media to cover?
All I wanted was to elicit comments from a relative or two of Ms. Comerford who are accessible to me in terms of physical distance and get some quotes and perhaps obtain a copy of a fading family album picture.
Security Risk
When I reached one of Cris’s sisters in her suburban office by phone only to decline from making any comment, “for security reasons,” it was really nonsense.
Then she directed this columnist to a portion of a front page item in the Washington Post Monday to save my questions for the forthcoming “press event” being arranged by the First Lady Laura Bush for Cris, whom she calls “Teta.”
According to the Post, “The White House is planning a “press event” in the first week of September to accommodate the hundreds of requests -- “more than 500 so far and counting,” says an overwhelmed Susan Whitson, Laura Bush’s press secretary -- to interview Comerford (who, the very moment she made headlines, left for an already-planned weeklong family vacation to Cancun, Mexico).”
The Post said Teta’s mother, Erlinda Pasia, was a dressmaker by profession, her mother was also the head cook in the family. Erlinda handed her culinary talents over to her children.
Nothing Left to Imagination
Teta, according to The Post, is the second youngest of 11 children, with six half brothers, one half sister and three full sisters. “Everyone was everyone else’s babysitter.”
Born in October 1962 in Manila, Teta was raised in Sampaloc, near the University of Santo Tomas. Her father, Honesto Pasia, was an elementary school principal while her mother Erlinda Pasia, was a dressmaker. The Post quoted Teta’s elder sister, Ofelia Aguila, a design director for the College of American Pathologists in the Chicago suburb, as describing Teta as “so driven. So ambitious.”
Honesto died 10 years ago while Erlinda, now 78, lives with Ofelia and her family at Morton Grove, a 20-minute drive from downtown Chicago.
Erlinda describes Teta as “napakabait” (kind). Tuwang tuwa ang buong pamilia para sa kanya,” (“The family is very, very happy for her.”)
Teta’s new position as the White House’s top toque -- a uniquely high-profile and sought-after celebrity chef job -- is an affirmation, her former bosses and co-workers say, of the hard work, focus, imperturbable demeanor and culinary talent she has shown in the kitchen.
With literally all the personal details about Ms. Comercord already disclosed by the Post, I wonder why the White House would still be very stingy with the details about the new White House Executive chef. It beats me!
(lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
OIL prices closed at $67.40 a barrel last week. That’s a long way from $1.80 a barrel in the 1950s. And when Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries clamped an embargo in 1973, prices bolted overnight from over $2 a barrel to $11 plus. Quarrels at fuel pump queues erupted and economies went into tailspin.
Refinery fires, rising US and China demand, the Ecuador oil industry upheaval plus “just-in-case buying” spooked markets, the BBC reports. “We could easily test $70 a barrel.”
Malacañang mumbles, meanwhile, about “coercive powers” for the President to enforce energy savings. The opposition is hypnotized over scraping up 79 votes to impeach the President.
Others are distracted by personal concerns. California Superior Court Judge Barbara Miller issued on Aug. 17 a bench warrant for Sen. Panfilo Lacson’s arrest in the handcuffs controversy. The court ordered Lacson to appear on Sept. 7, reports the Philippine News of San Francisco.
“In a worst-case scenario, we need to have coercive powers for the executive,” Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said. But “regular laws will work.” Will they?
What do you remember about earlier oil crunches? Newsroom colleagues ask those who’re older (the Associated Press prefers the 1978 phrase “near-elderly” for us.)
Which one? The World War II fuel crunch? Or the 1973 artificial shortage, stemming from the OPEC embargo?
Fuel dumps were bombed in that now dimly remembered war. Japanese forces controlled gasoline stocks. We read by coconut oil lamps. The horse-drawn carriage reappeared. Our 350-cavan “batel” sailed from Batangas to Cebu in seven days. And we hoofed it. One walked four hours on 20 kilometers of eerily deserted roads to reach the city from our evacuation home.
In 1973, you could only buy five liters at a time. So, people coasted from one gas pump queue to another. You hauled five-gallon containers “just in case” a station allowed an extra sale.
Abroad, 55 miles per hour speed limits were clamped on. President Jimmy Carter called for the “moral equivalent of war” to reduce dependence on foreign oil. That included filling the US strategic petroleum reserve and research for alternative energy. He was not reelected.
Habits die hard. Wasteful use of fuel continued. Few politicians think beyond the next election -- or impeachment -- even in countries that have no oil wells.
“I have this thing about Moses,” Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir once griped. “He marched us for 40 years through the desert and led us to the only place in the Middle East that had no oil.”
Failure to prepare is foolhardy because, unlike the 1973 artificial crisis, today’s shortages are real, writes Peter Maas in his just published book, “The Breaking Point.”
Supply’s lead over demand was once considerable, but refinery shortages and surging demand have whittled that down. If use pulls ahead of production by even a fraction, oil prices could soar to triple-digit levels, Maas warns in The New York Times magazine. That’d trigger a global recession and affect almost every product, from cell phones to medicine.
Disruptions can come from terrorist attacks, producer shutdowns or geological factors. That’d “cut off the black oxygen that the modern world depends on.”
The impact on ways of life would be profound. Pharmaceutical supplies and fertilizers for food production would dwindle. Ships and planes would be mothballed.
“Saudi Arabia is the sole oil superpower.” Its 263 billion barrels reserve is almost double runner-up Iran’s 133 billion barrels. Unexploited reserves in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge are only 10 billion barrels. New oil strikes in other countries offer small increments.
But today’s record prices are straining producers. Indonesia, for example, is laying the basis to whittle back fuel subsidies. Even Saudi Arabia is feeling the strain as the world burns 84 million barrels daily.
Decades-old oil fields are not as “geologically spry as they used to be. Some may be incapable of producing, on a daily basis, the increasing volumes of oil that the world requires.” “One thing is clear,” warns Chevron, the second-largest American oil company’s new ads. “The era of easy oil is over.”
Will today’s producers be able to meet rising world demand in the months ahead? The answer, Maas thinks, will depend on Saudi Arabia. Can it increase output beyond the target of 12.5 million barrels it set for 2009? Can it ramp up production, say up to 20 million barrels from wells that are past their prime? And more important, is it willing to do so?
“We have the petroleum equivalent of running an engine at ever-increasing speeds without stopping to cool it down or change the oil,” says a Saudi expert. And geology may not be forgiving. Wanton overproduction can wreck fragile and irreplaceable reservoirs, says Nawaf Obaid, a Saudi oil and security analyst.
Conservation, however, is a job consumers haven’t buckled down to. “It’s not our problem to tell a democratically elected government that you have to do something about your runaway consumers,” a Saudi expert says. “If your government can’t do the job, don’t expect other governments to do it for you.”
When elephants collide, the ants get squashed. That’s the danger we in impoverished oil-short countries face.
The government is held hostage by the impeachment controversy, Sen. Joker Arroyo rightly notes. Can a half-paralyzed regime lead us in the inevitable belt-tightening?
E-mail: juan_mercado@pa-cific.net.ph
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
