|
|
|
Founded in 1986
Founding Publisher/Editor:
Lito A. Gajilan
Columnists:
Atty. Michael J. Gurfinkel
Joseph G. Lariosa
Gani P. Tolentino
Ted L. Reyes
Atty. Reuben S. Seguritan
Photographers:
Butch Gata
Sheryl Garcia
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not reflect the opinion of the paper nor that of the publisher
|
|
For the past 20 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
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FORMER President Corazon Aquino is fighting a brave battle against colon cancer. As of presstime, she is reported to be in stable condition, although she is far from being well. Her son Noynoy said that the cancer cells in her colon have spread to other organs. She is also being fed through a tube and sedated most of the time to alleviate the pains caused by the dreaded disease.
With these facts, the Filipino people are once again gathered around an Aquino–united in prayer, while bathed in the radiant color synonymous with their legacy: Yellow. In 1983, when Cory’s husband, Ninoy, was publicly executed at the former Manila International Airport, Filipinos began their love affair with Yellow. It was known that the song “Tie a Yellow Ribbon” was a favorite song of Ninoy. So when Ninoy decided to return to the Philippines from the US to fight for democracy against the dictatorship, his followers took it upon themselves to adorn houses gates, tree branches, and car antennas, with yellow ribbons-as a welcome present for the homecoming opposition leader. Almost every highway in the country was glowing with yellow ribbons. Of course, Ninoy did not get to see these ribbons but Filipinos embraced it like they bleed the color. It became the color of a movement that would eventually topple the dictatorship three years later, and would put to power the only other person destined to color her life with the color of the sun.
As Cory continues to battle the disease, Filipinos worldwide are bringing back the yellow ribbons. On the Internet, there are applications that will adorn your online avatar with a yellow ribbon as a tribute to the icon of democracy. Masses are being offered daily to the ailing former president and even former enemies are joining in the prayers for her recovery. Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, Representative Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., former First Lady Imelda Marcos, and ex-military rebel, now Senator Gringo Honasan have all expressed love and concern for Cory in this difficult time in her life. Once again, an Aquino is uniting the nation despite extreme differences and economic strife: “Anything for Tita Cory,” as they say.
If the time comes when the good God eventually takes Cory home, it is a certainty that she will be revered more as she is being revered now. She will join her husband in the pedestal reserved only for true Filipino heroes that gave up all they could to make this tiny South East Asian nation prominent in world affairs. The truth is, the Aquinos have made the Philippines matter in the world more than anybody else. And for those of us who would want to remember them for what they did, there is no need to open up a history textbook, or watch a documentary on Youtube. All you have to do to summon their greatness is to marvel at anything that bears the color yellow.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CHICAGO, Illinois (JGLi) – How many times have we regretted our actions?
Even when we thought, it was not the right move, we still ended up taking the plunge – the wrong plunge. I consider Sarah Palin’s act of stepping down from office as governor prematurely as a blunder if she was ever entertaining thoughts of running for higher office or of making more money than she ever earned as a state chief executive. Her move was never an addition by means subtraction either. Although, Ms. Palin has vehemently denied them, I have a feeling that the speculations of her former future son-in-law Levi Johnston have a glimmer of truth in it that she resigned because of “wanting to cash in on her fame and her desire to relieve the stress in her life.”
KILLED THE GOLDEN GOOSE
How can the former beauty queen “cash in on her fame” when she just killed the goose that laid the golden egg? Her being governor was the source of her fame. She never realized it that if she ably steered the office of the governor, it would yield more golden eggs – more dividends for her than she could imagine. Her governor’s office was her ticket to her fame and fortune. Take it away from her, she loses the clout – her Midas touch -- to anything she could aspire for.
Spaniards have a saying that she might be a governor of a popularly- or economically-challenged state but at least she is the head of a mouse and not the tail of a lion. As governor, Ms. Palin has a natural platform to project her image to national, if not, international stage. To remove her mantle of a governor was to remove her raison d'etre for espousing a public cause that will not only apply to her constituents but also to the nation as a whole. If she thought that her governorship as a public service was an albatross that was the source of her stress as she sets her sights for higher office, she was simply wrong. It was her asset -- her stepping-stone. During his campaign, Senator Barack Obama was right on the money when he did not call public service as stressful but the “noblest profession.” By completing her term of office as a governor, she would have sent a message that she is capable of completing a task that she pledged to do to the Alaska people.
NOT EQUAL TO THE CHALLENGE
By relinquishing her office in silver platter to her lieutenant governor, it sent a simple message that she quit her position when the going was tough. If she could not complete her term of office of the governor, how can the American people expect her to trust her to complete the office of the vice presidency or the presidency for that matter? It would be like giving her a passing grade, instead of “incomplete” grade, in school. Should she be promoted from the first to the second grade when she did not do and submit her home works, pass the examinations, etc. by taking a long vacation from class? Is it fair to her classmates to pass her? If she is aiming for higher position than the governor, Ms. Palin had just failed the basic test!
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES
She did not realize it that completing her term of office is like attending school the entire school year that could let her join a “spelling bee” contest that could propel her to the grand national “spelling bee” stage. It opens her to other opportunities that she would miss if she were out-of-school. By quitting, Ms. Palin became a poster girl of a role model in reverse.
I really don’t see any advantage in quitting. As governor, she can still write a book and make money on the side as did the then little-known Illinois state Senator Obama. She may not be able to make product endorsements that her Mr. Johnston might be talking about along the way as governor but she would be investing “political capital” in the process that could prop up her resume in the long run and could become handy once she leaves office.
HAVING A CAKE AND EATING IT TOO
She just could not have a cake and eat it too. She should do it step by step. She could not have it all in one swoop. That’s greediness! If I were Ms. Palin, I will stay in the private sector and set aside any thoughts as a comebacking politician. She just took herself out of consideration as one of the promising political stars of the Republican Party.
Just to fathom the enormity of her mistake, did she ever realize that if she were not a governor of Alaska, would she ever be in the political radar screen of Sen. John McCain? If Senator McCain did not anoint her as vice presidential candidate, will she ever get a national recognition that she now earned? Even if she lost the vice presidency, if she completed her term of office of the governor, she was still on track to be nominated again either as vice president or president.
But now that she lost her platform as Alaska governor, the Republican Party will be putting her name in the backburner while it is in search of other Republican governors, who were able to finish their terms of office. Because the Republicans have a big field of candidates for national office in 2012 presidential elections, Ex-Governor Palin would likely and largely remain Citizen Palin.
Now that she had shown her true colors, the elections of President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have become blessings in disguise (lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
PALO ALTO, California -- Newspapers tag it “the “Great U Turn”. Think tanks use that caption for the 180-degree course reversal by migrant workers, as recession bites.
“Global migration flows have reversed for the first time since the Depression,” notes Wall Street Journal. But where does this “U-turn” go from here? For migrant-exporting countries, like the Philippines, that’s the over-riding issue..
For years, North America, oil-flush Middle Eastern countries or EU members sought brain and brawn from abroad. In Southeast Asia, migrants from Indonesia, Burma and the Philippines streamed towards better-off Singapore or Hong Kong.
Petro-dollars transformed countries, from Saudi Arabia to Iraq, into voracious labor importers. Filipinos and other migrants padded the United Arab Emirates’ population by more than 6% a year. It will dip this year..
Worldwide, the share of† migrants, in total population, more than doubled ( from 4% to 10%) between 1960 and 2005, UN estimates. Workers remitted to the Philippines, Bangladesh to Guatemala and Tajikistan almost $305 billion last year.
Now, World Bank forecasts padalas could decline by† 8% this year. The cuts come in a tense pre-2010 election period.
One out of every nine Filipinos work abroad today. . They are auditors in Iceland, nurses in UK, sailors off Somalia to priests in the US. About two percent of those ordained priests in the US last year came from Asia. About 3,200 Filipinos migrate daily.
There are “involuntary U-turns”. Ex-Superintendent Glenn Dumlao and Cezar Mancao, were extradited in the Dacer-Corbito case. They’re a minority. Some of the jobless have returned. But most remain abroad to seek other jobs.. .
In early 2009, more Mexicans returned (139,000) than left ( 137,000 ) for the U.S. Improved conditions in Colombia and economic opportunities are attracting Brazilians. Latinos in the US declined by as much as 400,000 from a peak of about three million in 2006, says Pew demographer Jeffrey Passel.
Many migrants opt to ride out the recession abroad, rather than go home., observes. Gregory Watson of InterAmerican† Development Bank Indeed, “Developed countries have suffered substantial job losses. But the prospect in their home countries is even worse.”:
Thus, migrants will dig in and may actually see growing demand as employers trade down to lower cost labor”, argues economist Jayati Ghosh in Yale Global Online. We’re seeing anecdotal evidence of Filipino OFWs who tighten belts rather than scrounge for a return ticket.
Remittances buy food, medicine, repaint the house, send kids to school, etc. Human nature being what it is, some dribble away for cockfights, alcohol and kalapati na mababang lipad. But the lag in savings and investments could bite deeper soon.
Firms continue to shutter and employees are cashiered. Backlash against foreign workers is escalating. One out of every three workers in Singapore a foreigner. Like much of Asia, it’s exports collapsed by a stunning 35 percent in January, Washington Post notes. This city state is “an epicenter… of a new flow of reverse migration.
“Thousands of foreign workers, including London School of Economics graduates with six-digit salaries and desperately poor Bangladeshi factory workers, are streaming home,” the paper adds. Singapore may see an exodus of one in every 15 workers -- by end of 2010. †The port †is overcrowded with idled freighters. "We're running out of space to park them,"
Malaysia is expelling 100,000 Indonesians. Thousands of Burmese fled the brutal junta. Now, their jobs in Thailand have crumbled. Czechs and Poles head †home from Britian.
Reverse migration is not a monolithic movement. Models pioneered by Taiwan and South Korea, bring back more than 80% of the students who receive PhDs in the US, says Alex Soojung Kim Pang of the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto.
University Miguel Nicolesis draws talent to a research institute in Brazil, he notes. About 4,900 Chinese scientists returned from abroad to Beijing's Zhongguancun Science Park. Cyberspace facilities in† in Bangalore and Hyderabad, attract Indian executives to return.
“Last century’s 'brain drain', is likely to be replaced by 'brain circulation', Pang predicts. “Globally mobile scientists and engineers will work, for shorter periods, in a wider range of countries. They build professional networks in multiple countries and boost scientific infrastructure of the home country.”
What will the ultimate impact of the current crisis be on migration? Will latest migration U-turn outlast the current recession? That is not clear Historically, the world has never seen these number of migrants before. But cultural factors emerge as troubling as †financial bottom† lines.
What are the effects of absent parents on children, in formative years?, thoughtful Filipinos ask. There is a dearth of sustained research into this field. Almost two generations of Filipinos grew into adults without parents.“ I hear confessions of students whose parents work abroad,” a Jesuit friend said. “I’m stunned by their confusion and pain. I hate to think of what lies ahead.”.
The jury is still out on what the ultimate impact the current crisis may have on migration, says Yale Global Online. Recession or no recession, one thing is sure: “Hunger is a wanderer “ Does this bother any of our “presidentiables”?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
THE politics of racial profiling hit the nation again as the President jumped into the discussion with his remarks over the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, the black scholar. He recalibrated his earlier statement and now believes that Sgt. James Crowley, and Gates had overreacted during the incident. This has been a hot issue in every election, Al Gore debated Senator Bradley in the democratic primary that might have torpedoed Bradley's presidential ambition. Al Gore ambushed the Senator from NJ by reminding him: You know, racial profiling practically began in New Jersey, Senator Bradley."
This is true, "Racial profiling," the thing has been around for as long as police work, and is practiced everywhere. "Racial profiling" the term did indeed have its origins on the New Jersey Turnpike in the early 1990s. Trooper Vincent Bellaran, who is of Filipino, Puerto Rican, and Irish ancestry, told the story in his federal discrimination suit. In 1998, he was suspended after he accused a supervisor of racism. Before he was sent home, he was forced to strip to his underwear and surrender his uniform, badge and gun. He went on to testify in Senate hearings about “Racial Profiling” as it became more of a national issue. A federal judge upheld Bellaran's complaint that he was subjected to racism and harassment as a member of the state police. The state was ordered to pay. New Jersey has since reformed the stop and search procedure and made changes to the State Trooper Academy courses.
Rather than overact, I will leave the subject to racial profiling to the pundits and instead tell you about the Bellaran family of New Jersey. We collected this information from the Filipino American National Historical Society (NJ) and Maria Embry's research of Filipinos passing through Ellis Island in started in 1892.
Vincent Bellaran III was born in New York. He a grandson of the early Filipinos in New Jersey. Vincent Bellaran around 1900 was born to Carmen Bellaran in Manila. His name would be listed in the immigrant ship, The Finland where he made 25 trips from 1921 to 1924 transporting immigrants to Ellis Island. The ocean liner could carry over thousand passengers from Europe. He was listed as Ship's Oiler, 5ft 6 inch 140 lbs on the Ellis Island immigrant's records. He was one of the founding fathers of the Knights of Rizal of NJ in 1928. His three sons, Vincent Jr, Frank, and Raymond stayed in Union Beach.
The following generation of Bellarans still lives around the Raritan Bay area but according to Raymond Bellaran Jr, his grandfather passed away in 1966. The NJ Police Sargeant is the third Bellaran carrying the Vincent name. They are active members of the community mainstream, but they still remember the beauty contests and dance parties of their early childhood.
The origin of racial profiling in New Jersey will not be complete without the testimony of Vincent Bellaran.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
