An archipelago of scars

Home birthing in the city

2010-07-12T17:14:00.003+08:00

A shorter version of this story appeared in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on March 20, 2010CAGAYAN DE ORO -- “Ana, please, one more time,” Ana’s mother exhorted, as she dipped closer to her daughter’s head, clasping tight Ana’s right hand, running her left hand over her daughter’s cropped hair. “Push one more time, please,” she whispered close to Ana’s ear.Ana remained still, her eyes closed.“

Not just a toy story

2010-07-10T14:44:00.012+08:00

A version of this story was published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Nov. 29, 2008Photos of bakwit children at play can be viewed here.MAMASAPANO, MAGUINDANAO -- Nothing could persuade four-year-old Ider to show us his toy. He hides it in the shallow cave of his own cupped hands, his eyes close to tears."He is afraid you will take it away," his sister Fatma explains the boy's terrorized look

The Talaandig soil painters

2008-08-07T02:38:00.004+08:00

This story was first published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Feb. 23, 2008THE WORD BALUGTO in Talaandig means rainbow but ironically even after Marcelino Necosia had renamed himself Balugto in an effort to affirm his tribal roots, his oeuvre’s palette didn’t get a dash of the ephemeral sky-bridge’s varied hues. Instead Balugto’s colors are a monochrome of earth tones—rich browns to fiery

RP gov't not yet off the hook in UN racism case

2008-07-30T22:21:00.007+08:00

GENEVA, Switzerland – Even as it had responded in February this year to charges of state racism against an indigenous community in Mindanao, the Philippine government is not yet off the hook. The racism case will again be discussed during the 73rd session of the United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UN CERD) here, from July 28 to August 15 this year. In a

At the fringes of climate change's 'Ground Zero': zemijahns hit global potholed hi-way

2008-07-22T18:04:00.013+08:00

(news report)COTONOU, BENIN – "We are exposed to the heat of the sun over our heads, our eyes hurt in the smog and so we have to wear dark glasses,” says Sebastien Djossa, a moto-taxi conducteur plying the routes between Cadjehoun Highway and the Dantokpa Central Market here.“At night, we are very tired, our bones ache. We have to pray everyday we will meet no accident," he adds. Djossa, a

At climate change's 'Ground Zero': Women most vulnerable but vital resource

2008-07-22T17:23:00.015+08:00

(news report)(UPDATED)COUTONOU, BENIN – Here at the fringes of climate change's "Ground Zero", no mourning bell tolls for the women who are most vulnerable to climate change's impacts, and rightly so, since they can be a key to survival even in a more inhospitable, warming globe. Monique Ouassa, a sociology of art professor at the University of Abomey-Calavi says here this week that her recent

2008-01-12T11:08:00.002+08:00

an earlier version was published as a three-part series in the Mindanao Gold Star Daily, from January 9-11, 2008 while an abridged edition was published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on January 20, 2008...but when we enter the light some of uscarry a little piece of darkness with usand will not let gowe are children of the night-Richard Shelton, "Children of the Night"BALINGASAG, MISAMIS

Balik-Lumad in the city

2008-01-08T12:02:00.001+08:00

Progressio and Lumah Ma Di LautCAGAYAN DE ORO CITY -- For years, Undag had been an exile from her tribal homeland. Even now, as she lives about an hour and a half away from her birthplace in barangay Luna, Claveria town, a glance away from the sacred mountain called Sumagaya, deep in her guts she still feels intensifying dislocation.Nena Undag's latest city dwelling is the first hut in a row of

Crafting A Weave of Women

2007-11-22T13:11:00.000+08:00

Progressio and Lumah Ma Di Laut, Inc.: Center for Living TraditionsA version of this story was published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Oct. 13, 2007 Your hands deftly move among the strands mystically creating magic that slowly evolved with each row/ ….Your weaving spoke a language of its own that needed no interpretation. All the magic.all the beauty/ has already been transformed through

Beading a spirited life

2007-11-21T14:36:00.002+08:00

Progressio and Lumah Ma Di Laut: Center for Living TraditionsA version of this story appeared in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Oct. 12, 2007“…Or are we working out the minor details of a strictly random pattern? Who is setting flower upon flower and cut-glass vine? Who is beading us?” 1 Long after the clumps of cassava stalks along abandoned paddies that used to have nourished the fat and

By fierce and tender mercies

2007-11-21T14:02:00.000+08:00

Blended justice a Higaonon waya version of this story appeared in the Philippine Daily InquirerIMPASUG-ONG, BUKIDNON --The front yard by a bungalow a stone’s throw away from the public cemetery’s gate was ablaze with the fierce mid-morning light, and there, by the shed the newly slain piglet’s blood-soaked throat shone dark crimson. The specks of half-chewed yellow ginger studded the red streaks

Death of a whale shark

2007-07-22T17:20:00.000+08:00

NAAWAN, MISAMIS ORIENTAL -- The Friday the villagers brought Mapu to its, literally, watery grave at 300 fathoms, it rained an odd long rain in Barangay Maputi, Naawan, a coastal town about 60 kilometers west of Cagayan de Oro City among the Iligan Bay.Mapu, a female shark, had a funeral cortege of mostly women who braved the drizzle and stood by the shore, carrying umbrellas. Their talk was

A reluctant tourist takes down some notes

2007-07-22T16:50:00.004+08:00

Oct. 30, 1998, 3 p.m., Royal Ferry Buahan (lanzones) land, Camiguin of several volcanoes, the sharp sundang (bolo, machete) and the legendary tawiki (whale shark), here I come, a reluctant tourist. I am far from being an islomane (''crazy about islands,'' word coined by British novelist Lawrence Durrell). Seven calls in seven days from the chair of Barangay Bonbon in Catarman, Camiguin, where

Just some notes

2007-06-09T13:59:00.000+08:00

Today,as I was searching the Guardian's website for a review on a novel with a strange plot on migration/cultural displacement, I stumbled on an obit for Tillie Olsen:'feminist author famous for inspiring aspiring women writers to find a voice'. I just learned she died on New Year this year. The book I forgot, by the way, is The Opposite House by Helen Oyeyemi. Today, I also read that this

Of desaparacidos and disappearing acts: Rendering the Mindanawon as Woman Artists

2007-06-04T19:35:00.000+08:00

The problem lies in how to transform a culture where women artists continue to be rendered as absent.Katy Deepwell, “Questioning stereotypes of feminism in the visual arts,” in n.paradoxa One out of 14. Only one woman out of the 14 artists at the art exhibition, Sungduan 2003,Mindanao Phase. In a earlier report prior to the launching of the exhibit, the roving curator had these numbers:

Gold mining pits indigenous women vs. indigenous women

2006-08-17T13:10:00.005+08:00

SIOCON, ZAMBOANGA DEL NORTE – Even as the recent assault on the town center by rebels have been quelled by military troops here, a more deeply-rooted tension threatens the peace of this former 17th-century mission settlement, about 109 kilometers from Zamboanga City in southern Philippines.All claiming they prefer building peace to sowing war among themselves, Subanen residents are pitted

Homage and Requiem

2006-07-25T14:08:00.000+08:00

Homage and requiem to Bukidnon’s cornBy Lina Sagaral ReyesSanggi, a farewell art exhibition of Bro. Hansel MapayoSM-City Cagayan de Oro, April 5, 2003CAGAYAN DE ORO -- Bro. Hansel Mapayo’s “Sanggi” recalls to mind travel writer Paul Theroux’s description of the fruit salad that African cook Julius Magoya gathers in a glass bowl (“Personal Effects,” last chapter in the novel My Other Life, Hamish

Something swirls in the remotest garden of her soul

2006-01-23T12:51:00.003+08:00

The first time you encounter her, Rorie Aradanas smothers you with an overwhelming diffidence. She only thaws and warms up after several bottles of beer, prawns cooked in wine and first-person narratives of the charmed life as an only daughter, a beauty queen and a career man’s wife.As she describes her long affair with painting and her equally long marriage, scattering around a potpourri a

Circa '90s: 'Betamax' nightwatch

2006-01-23T12:29:00.000+08:00

this is quite an old, old story... but wait for its sequel...Tonight the house of Gertrudes Paler in the village of Villalimpia, is full of children, mothers and some men.Since all the glass jalousies are shut tight, the smell of sourish sweat and hands stained with fish stew mingle and hover in the air like an unseen cloud.The children settle down to sit, squat or sprawl on the clean linoleum

Uncharitable wards

2006-01-23T12:18:00.000+08:00

"Got newspapers?" the nurse asks, rather sternly."Newspaper? What newspaper, Ma’am?" the shivering patient asks in return, rather confused. "None, Ma’am. What for, Ma’am?""Next time you come here bleeding like that, be sure to bring newspapers. We don’t want our table to be smeared with blood."The dialogue above, between a caustic-talking night-shift nurse and a beleaguered woman seeking help at

Aba Ginang Pinokya

2005-12-28T19:31:00.000+08:00

Aba Ginang Pinokya, puno ka ng patay-malisyaPalibhasa'y ang Panginoong 'Merika pa ma'y sumasainyoItinatakwil ka na ng maraming mga kababaihang naninindigang tapatAt itinatakwil na rin ng taumbayan ang niluto mong buto-botohan

OFWs off to Jordan, with dreams and anxiety

2005-11-18T12:47:00.000+08:00

OFWs off to Jordan, with dreams and anxietyAMMAN, JORDAN – “So this is a country in the desert but why is it so cold here?” Jeany Munoz said out loud, menacingly sarcastic, without meeting Alice’s eyes.It was not only cold, it was actually freezing, so that Jeany stood up from the steel seat at the arrival area of the international airport and walked back and forth, back and forth. Something

Tserman Africa: a child of war becomes a peace builder

2005-11-18T12:46:00.000+08:00

MASIU, LANAO DEL SUR -- On the 20th anniversary of Ninoy Aquino’s death, despite the drizzle, the festive mood reached an all-time high here, about 40 kilometers from Marawi, on the northeastern shore of Lake Lanao.The road leading to the Madrasah Darussalam Al-Islamia, past the Islamic Research Library and the white streamers mourning the death of Amerol Mujahedin Hashim Salamat, was replete

Patriarch in spring twilight

2005-11-18T12:45:00.001+08:00

On Nov. 11 this year, the Palestinians marked the first anniversary of Yasser Arafat's death. About seven months before his death, I had the chance to be in his company twice in April 2004. And, yes, in hindsight, I did sense his slow dying but it did not occur to me then it would be soon. RAMALLAH – Contrary to expectations of tardiness, Old Man Arafat came ambling towards our delegation of

Red Stars

2005-11-18T12:43:00.000+08:00

1“Red Stars,” Rukmah Panti Atab called the tiny crimson flowers nesting on a vine with needle-like leaves. The vine was climbing a double-arched bower by the façade of her house.We were in the newly-rebuilt village of Delabayan, 12 kilometers uphill south of the Poblacion facing the Iligan Bay, about 30 kilometers west of Iligan City.“Their seeds, like this house, were given to us by the pastors