Savages

The Filipino-American War pictorial series #1
I chanced upon my copy of Neely’s Photographs Fighting in the Philippines, a pictorial book on Filipino-American war and I felt a strong imperative to share some of the more telling pictures in it. The pictures speak for themselves. The captions amplify the colonizer’s sentiments.

A century ago, the maids and global slave workers called Filipinos were called savages.

Fast Facts 2 – Labor

3000 – number of Filipinos who leave for abr0ad daily to work in more than 150 countries

10 million – number of overseas Filipino contract workers

25% – percantage of Filipino labor force working abroad (the highest proportion in the world)

7.9% – unemployment rate in the Philippines

Memorial Day

I am reposting this piece I wrote two years ago from my old blogsite. My opinion doesn’t change and current global situation further strengthens the point

Thursday, 02 June 2005

Memorial Day

When asked by my co-worker why I didn’t take the holiday off, I bluntly reasoned out that I was motivated by economic reasons. I would rather work on national holidays if only for the bigger pay. Short of calling me unpatriotic, he talked up the need to remember the valorous troops who sacrificed for us. Such provocation would have been enough to get me started on normal circumstances, but I sensed he said it in jest, just to make a little conversation after being gone for a long weekend. Good thing I knew he wanted the holiday off because he had to party all night on the eve.

Threes

I do not usually keep a list of anything, not even of things I would buy when I do my grocery or shop for things. I only have an idea of the kind of things I need and then make decisions on what I find available or readily available. But it is fun sometimes to come up with a list of your own, without pressure of the kind that comes with a holiday presents list or monthly bills or pasalubongs for relatives.

So here it is, without pressure.

Pirates 3…hmmmm

Pirates of the Caribbean opens tonight at midnight, with the local cineplex having early screening at 8 and 9, the only one among its many branches to do so, or so I heard. But all tickets are sold out. I’ m not inclined to compete for parking space on friday or memorial weekend, and I’m working late monday, memorial day. So, I guess it’s going to be a tuesday night with Jack Sparrow, assuming everybody comes to an agreement. Well…

Fast Facts 1 – Of Doctors and Nurses

56,000 – number of doctors in the Philippines

9,000- number of Filipino doctors that retrained to become nurses abroad

5,000- number of doctors-turned-nurses that have already left for abroad

1,800 – number of physicians who pledged to remain in the Philippines for the next 3 years

2,200 – number of doctors that refused to sign the pledge

25% – percentage of overseas nurses provided by the Philippines worldwide

US$150-250 – average pay of nurses in the Philippines

US$300-800 – average monthly inc0me of doctors in the Philippines

Again

For some reason I wanted to post this in full…

The Heart Of The Matter
(Don Henley)

I got the call today, I didn’t wanna hear
But I knew that it would come
An old true friend of ours was talkin’ on the phone
She said you found someone
And I thought of all the bad luck,
And all the struggles we went through
How I lost me and you lost you
What are these voices outside love’s open door
Make us throw off our contentment
And beg for something more?