On the day I was born, Guinee-Bissau Premier Vieira fires his President Luis Cabral, a Guamanian was crowned the 30th Miss World, and United States still in Cold War, performs nuclear testing at Nevada Test Site. Another One Bites the Dust by Queen and Rock with You by Michael Jackson are radio staples. A Democrat is the sitting US President and Robert de Niro won the Oscar's nod for his sterling performance as a boxer (move over Cinderalla Man) in Raging Bull and Charlie's Angels were on TV kicking butts.
Maybe I was born with drama. Older sister died on a mysterious plague killing infants in the small, 5th class municipality. Martial Law was still not yet lifted and people continue to talk in whispers. I grew up on staples of conversations about a recent NPA raid or a dead body was found in some places. I saw my first real-live gunfight on the street right across our apartment, with men chasing men, and for all the wrong reasons.
I would read and read and read, because I never had any real serious playmates, there was no cable TV yet, and most of the time I am locked up the apartment with my nanny. (And on one occasion, I almost slept with her at my tender age of around 5ish while my parents were away, the same nanny who once slapped me when I was being too rowdy.)I guess maybe that was one of the factors that made me averse to vaginas. It started a series of traumatic and unfortunate events.
Weekends are a breathe of fresh air for everyone. We would go to my grandparents' house by the beach, and my parents would leave me there overnight. Water, the rain, the beaches, and the pounding surf always have been a cure for me. It makes my mind calmer and more peaceful while I enjoy the sweetness of my solitude. They would find me usually alone sitting on the seawall, looking out to the ocean and take in the salty ocean air. Years later, I would return to the very same spot, this time with my ex, his head laying down on my lap, while looking at a perfectly moonlit sky, and its silvery shimmer on the placid sea below.
Monday, May 22, 2006
Here's Where I Stand.
This is a beautiful song from the movie-musical Camp.
Here's Where I Stand lyrics
[Tiffany Taylor]:(Cast)
Here in the Dark
I stand before you
This is my chance to show you my heart
This is the start, this is the start.
I have so much to say and I'm hoping
That your Arms are open
Don't turn away, don't you need me?
But you have to hear me.
Here's where I stand,
Here's who I am
Love me, but don't tell me who I have to be
Here's who I am,
I'm what you see.
You said I had to change and I was trying
But my heart was lying
I'm not a child any longer
I am stroooongerrrr
Here's where I stand,
Here's who I am
Help me, to move on but please don't tell me how
I'm on my way, I'm moving out
In this life we've come so far
but we're only who we are (who we are)
Courage of love (Courage of Love)
will show us the way (Show us the way)
Unlock the power
To stand up and saaaaa--aaaaayyy (Stand upppp)
(Up and say!)
Herreeeee's where I stand
Here's who I am
(Stand Up) I'll be counting, counting on you
If you're with me, we'll make it through
Here's where I stand,
Here's who I am
Love me, Love me, Love me, and we'll make it through
Here's where I stand,
Baby, Baby, Baby, I'm counting on you
Here's where I stand
Love me, Love me, Love me, and we'll make it through
I'm counting, Oooh,
I'm counting,
I'm counting, I'm counting onn....
Yooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
[Tiffany adlibs throughout this part]
(Here's where I stand,
Here's who I am
I'm counting on you)
(Here's where I stand,
Here's who I am
We'll make it through)
(Here's where I stand,
Here's who I am
I'm counting on you)
(Here's where I stand,
Here's who I am
We'll make it through)
(Repeat till fade)
Turbulence.
The plane taxied on the tarmac of Manila Domestic Airport, and as I peered outside the window to an overcast sky that seems to give off a feeling of dread, I have a feeling in my gut that I should have not come back. As the passengers came filing inside the terminal and headed to the only working conveyor belt to wait and pick up their luggages, I felt like a lost cattle in the huge, unfamiliar crowd. The flight was delayed for an hour and the humidity was suffocating.
I heaved off my huge backpack into my cousin's van and proceeded to perfunctorily greet everyone in a semi-daze. Manila is the city of our frustrations, and this day is not any day different amongst all the others-its festering slums and shantytowns our postmodern monument to our national angst and hopelessness.
I always loved to travel and I try to get away from it all every chance I can get. Filipino folk beliefs say that a mole on the sole of one's feet meant that that person will go places. I wonder what a mole on the tip of one's genitalia do.
Call me escapist, I call myself human. I refused to be a serf enslaved to a mindless monotonous tyranny of everyday living. I guess we are all travellers, because change is the most natural thing in the world. It is always nice to get away from it all, to meet new people, see new places, make new acquaintances and create temporary attachments, because for all we know this will be gone in the wink of an eye. A look at my childhood photos is always an emotional moment for me. These are the moments that I can never bring back. Some faces die, some fades away. Some places gone, some places crumble. To the extreme (in my point of view), one friend is fascinated with airports and travelling. I once received an SMS from him while he is aboard a train snaking its way to the Kenyan port of Mombasa from Nairobi and while I didn't know that he was abroad, I called to invite him to a major sports event. And to his weirdest phone call ever, he was riding at the back of a truck barreling its way in the middle of a desert in Yemen. Today he was at the southernmost province of the Philippines- the Tawi-tawi archipelago.
I guess we are wayfarers all. We are all travellers, sometimes we get to our destinations, sometimes we dont. Others travel in a more blistering pace while others dawdled. And in the journeys we take makes the unbearable weight of our memories even heavier. And with that nagging, blunt pain, we simply trudge on, even when we are lost, we move blindly forward. Because these cursed emotions of hope give us the strength and the faith that everything, somehow, will turn out just fine.
I heaved off my huge backpack into my cousin's van and proceeded to perfunctorily greet everyone in a semi-daze. Manila is the city of our frustrations, and this day is not any day different amongst all the others-its festering slums and shantytowns our postmodern monument to our national angst and hopelessness.
I always loved to travel and I try to get away from it all every chance I can get. Filipino folk beliefs say that a mole on the sole of one's feet meant that that person will go places. I wonder what a mole on the tip of one's genitalia do.
Call me escapist, I call myself human. I refused to be a serf enslaved to a mindless monotonous tyranny of everyday living. I guess we are all travellers, because change is the most natural thing in the world. It is always nice to get away from it all, to meet new people, see new places, make new acquaintances and create temporary attachments, because for all we know this will be gone in the wink of an eye. A look at my childhood photos is always an emotional moment for me. These are the moments that I can never bring back. Some faces die, some fades away. Some places gone, some places crumble. To the extreme (in my point of view), one friend is fascinated with airports and travelling. I once received an SMS from him while he is aboard a train snaking its way to the Kenyan port of Mombasa from Nairobi and while I didn't know that he was abroad, I called to invite him to a major sports event. And to his weirdest phone call ever, he was riding at the back of a truck barreling its way in the middle of a desert in Yemen. Today he was at the southernmost province of the Philippines- the Tawi-tawi archipelago.
I guess we are wayfarers all. We are all travellers, sometimes we get to our destinations, sometimes we dont. Others travel in a more blistering pace while others dawdled. And in the journeys we take makes the unbearable weight of our memories even heavier. And with that nagging, blunt pain, we simply trudge on, even when we are lost, we move blindly forward. Because these cursed emotions of hope give us the strength and the faith that everything, somehow, will turn out just fine.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
World's Ten Most Corrupt Leaders
You gotta love the internet..makes our job faster! Check out Erap Estrada and his fellow crook Ferdinand Marcos.
Name Position Funds embezzled
1. Mohamed Suharto President of Indonesia (1967–1998) $15–35 billion
2. Ferdinand Marcos President of the Philippines (1972–1986) 5–10 billion
3. Mobutu Sese Seko President of Zaire (1965–1997) 5 billion
4. Sani Abacha President of Nigeria (1993–1998) 2–5 billion
5. Slobodan Milosevic President of Serbia/Yugoslavia (1989–2000) 1 billion
6. Jean-Claude Duvalier President of Haiti (1971–1986) 300–800 million
7. Alberto Fujimori President of Peru (1990–2000) 600 million
8. Pavlo Lazarenko Prime Minister of Ukraine (1996–1997) 114–200 million
9. Arnoldo Alemán President of Nicaragua (1997–2002) 100 million
10. Joseph Estrada President of the Philippines (1998–2001) 78–80 million
World's Ten Most Corrupt Leaders-
1. Defined as former political leaders who have been accused of embezzling the most funds from their countries over the past two decades.
2. All sums are estimates of alleged embezzlement and appear in U.S. dollars.
World's Worst Dictators, 2005
Name Country In Power Since
1. Omar al-Bashir Sudan 1989
2. Kim Jong Il North Korea 1994
3. Than Shwe Myanmar 1992
4. Hu Jintao China 2003
5. King Abdullah Saudi Arabia 2005
6. Muammar al-Qaddafi Libya 1969
7. Pervez Musharraf Pakistan 2001
8. Saparmurat Niyazov Turkmenistan 1990
9. Robert Mugabe Zimbabwe 1980
10. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Equatorial Guinea 1979
Prepared by David Wallechinsky for Parade after consultation with Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, Amnesty International, and Reporters without Borders.
Source: Transparency International Global Corruption Report 2004.
Freedom in the World, 2005
Since 1978, Freedom House has published Freedom in the World, an annual comparative assessment of the state of political rights and civil liberties around the world. Widely used by policy makers, journalists, and scholars, the 600-page survey is considered the definitive report on freedom around the globe. The 2005 ratings reflect global events from Dec. 1, 2003, through Nov. 30, 2004.
According to the survey, 89 countries are free. Their 2.8 billion inhabitants (44% of the world's population) enjoy a broad range of rights. Fifty-four countries representing 1.2 billion people (19%) are considered partly free. Political rights and civil liberties are more limited in these countries, in which corruption, dominant ruling parties, or, in some cases, ethnic or religious strife is often the norm. The survey finds that 49 countries are not free. The 2.4 billion inhabitants (37%) of these countries, nearly three-fifths of whom live in China, are denied most basic political rights and civil liberties. In 2004, Russia was the only country to register a negative category change, moving from partly free to not free.
The list below features only independent countries. Freedom House's separate listing of territories reveals that four territories received the lowest possible political rights rating: Chechnya (Russia), Kashmir (Pakistan), Tibet (China), and Western Sahara (Morocco); of those, Chechnya and Tibet also received the lowest possible civil liberties ratings.
FREE
* Ranking: 1
* Andorra
* Australia
* Austria
* Bahamas
* Barbados
* Belgium
* Canada
* Cape Verde
* Chile
* Costa Rica
* Cyprus
* Czech Republic
* Denmark
* Dominica
* Estonia
* Finland
* France
* Germany
* Hungary
* Iceland
* Ireland
* Italy
* Kiribati
* Liechtenstein
* Luxembourg
* Malta
* Marshall Islands
* Mauritius
* Micronesia
* Nauru
* Netherlands
* New Zealand
* Norway
* Palau
* Poland
* Portugal
* San Marino
* Slovakia
* Slovenia
* Spain
* Sweden
* Switzerland
* Tuvalu
* United Kingdom
* United States
* Uruguay
* Ranking: 1.5
* Belize
* Bulgaria
* Greece
* Grenada
* Japan
* Latvia
* Monaco
* Panama
* St. Kitts and Nevis
* St. Lucia
* St. Vincent and Grenadines
* South Africa
* South Korea
* Suriname
* Taiwan
* Ranking: 2
* Antigua and Barbuda
* Argentina
* Benin
* Botswana
* Croatia
* Dominican Republic
* Ghana
* Guyana
* Israel
* Lithuania
* Mali
* Mexico
* Mongolia
* Samoa
* Sao Tome and Principe
* Vanuatu
* Ranking: 2.5
* Brazil
* El Salvador
* India
* Jamaica
* Lesotho
* Namibia
* Peru
* Philippines
* Romania
* Senegal
* Serbia and Montenegro
* Thailand
PARTLY FREE
* Ranking: 3
* Albania
* Bolivia
* East Timor
* Ecuador
* Honduras
* Kenya
* Macedonia
* Madagascar
* Nicaragua
* Niger
* Papua New Guinea
* Paraguay
* Seychelles
* Solomon Islands
* Sri Lanka
* Trinidad and Tobago
* Turkey
* Ranking: 3.5
* Bosnia and Herzegovina
* Fiji
* Georgia
* Indonesia
* Moldova
* Mozambique
* Sierra Leone
* Tanzania
* Ukraine
* Venezuela
* Ranking: 4
* Bangladesh
* Colombia
* Comoros
* The Gambia
* Guatemala
* Guinea-Bissau
* Malawi
* Malaysia
* Nigeria
* Tonga
* Zambia
* Ranking: 4.5
* Armenia
* Burkina Faso
* Congo, Rep. of
* Gabon
* Jordan
* Kuwait
* Liberia
* Morocco
* Singapore
* Uganda
* Ranking: 5
* Bahrain
* Burundi
* Djibouti
* Ethiopia
* Nepal
* Yemen
NOT FREE
* Ranking: 5.5
* Afghanistan
* Algeria
* Angola
* Azerbaijan
* Bhutan
* Brunei
* Cambodia
* Central African Republic
* Chad
* Egypt
* Guinea
* Kazakhstan
* Lebanon
* Maldives
* Mauritania
* Oman
* Pakistan
* Qatar
* Russia
* Rwanda
* Tajikistan
* Togo
* Tunisia
* Ranking: 6
* Cameroon
* Congo, Dem. Rep. of
* Cote d'Ivoire
* Iran
* Iraq
* Swaziland
* United Arab Emirates
* Ranking: 6.5
* Belarus
* China
* Equatorial Guinea
* Eritrea
* Haiti
* Laos
* Somalia
* Uzbekistan
* Vietnam
* Zimbabwe
* Ranking: 7
* Cuba
* Libya
* Myanmar (Burma)
* North Korea
* Saudi Arabia
* Sudan
* Syria
* Turkmenistan
1. Countries are ranked according to political rights and civil liberties on a scale from 1.0 (most free) to 7.0 (least free). Source: Freedom in the World, 2005, published by Freedom House. www.freedomhouse.org/research/survey2005.htm .
Global Trends in Freedom
Year Free Partly Free Free
1974 41 (27%) 48 (32%) 63 (41%)
1984 53 (32%) 59 (35%) 55 (33%)
1994 76 (40%) 61 (32%) 54 (28%)
2004 89 (46%) 54 (28%) 49 (26%)
Source: Freedom in the World, an annual comparative assessment of the state of political rights and civil liberties around the world, published by Freedom House. www.freedomhouse.org/research/survey2005.htm .
Information Please® Database, © 2006 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
The Failed States Index
FOREIGN POLICY and the Fund for Peace have ranked troubled countries that are in danger of collapse. The countries are ranked according to twelve social, economic, political, and military indicators, including economic decline and inequality, demographic pressures, war, and corruption. A failed state is defined as “one in which the government does not have effective control of its territory, is not perceived as legitimate by a significant portion of its population, does not provide domestic security or basic public services to its citizens, and lacks a monopoly on the use of force.” The indexes countries at risk, not countries that have already failed. Below are the top 20 most vulnerable countries.
* 1. Sudan ( Darfur/ Janjaweed Issues/ State Sponsored Terrorism)
* 2. Dem. Rep. of the Congo
* 3. Côte D'Ivoire
* 4. Iraq (Under US Occupation)
* 5. Zimbabwe
* 6. Chad
* 7. Somalia
* 8. Haiti
* 9. Pakistan (Under military dictatorship sponsored by the US)
* 10. Afghanistan (Under US control)
* 11. Guinea
* 12. Liberia (Recently elected the First Woman President in Africa)
* 13. Central African Rep.
* 14. North Korea
* 15. Burundi
* 16. Yemen
* 17. Sierra Leone
* 18. Myanmar (Aung San Suu Kyi, still in house arrest, passed over ASEAN chairmanship due to pressure from other members, EU and the US)
* 19. Bangladesh
* 20. Nepal (Under civil unrest, King Gyanendra still effectively control the state, Maoist attacks and figure prominently in recent protests)
Source: The Fund for Peace www.fundforpeace.org , 2006.
According to the survey, 89 countries are free. Their 2.8 billion inhabitants (44% of the world's population) enjoy a broad range of rights. Fifty-four countries representing 1.2 billion people (19%) are considered partly free. Political rights and civil liberties are more limited in these countries, in which corruption, dominant ruling parties, or, in some cases, ethnic or religious strife is often the norm. The survey finds that 49 countries are not free. The 2.4 billion inhabitants (37%) of these countries, nearly three-fifths of whom live in China, are denied most basic political rights and civil liberties. In 2004, Russia was the only country to register a negative category change, moving from partly free to not free.
The list below features only independent countries. Freedom House's separate listing of territories reveals that four territories received the lowest possible political rights rating: Chechnya (Russia), Kashmir (Pakistan), Tibet (China), and Western Sahara (Morocco); of those, Chechnya and Tibet also received the lowest possible civil liberties ratings.
FREE
* Ranking: 1
* Andorra
* Australia
* Austria
* Bahamas
* Barbados
* Belgium
* Canada
* Cape Verde
* Chile
* Costa Rica
* Cyprus
* Czech Republic
* Denmark
* Dominica
* Estonia
* Finland
* France
* Germany
* Hungary
* Iceland
* Ireland
* Italy
* Kiribati
* Liechtenstein
* Luxembourg
* Malta
* Marshall Islands
* Mauritius
* Micronesia
* Nauru
* Netherlands
* New Zealand
* Norway
* Palau
* Poland
* Portugal
* San Marino
* Slovakia
* Slovenia
* Spain
* Sweden
* Switzerland
* Tuvalu
* United Kingdom
* United States
* Uruguay
* Ranking: 1.5
* Belize
* Bulgaria
* Greece
* Grenada
* Japan
* Latvia
* Monaco
* Panama
* St. Kitts and Nevis
* St. Lucia
* St. Vincent and Grenadines
* South Africa
* South Korea
* Suriname
* Taiwan
* Ranking: 2
* Antigua and Barbuda
* Argentina
* Benin
* Botswana
* Croatia
* Dominican Republic
* Ghana
* Guyana
* Israel
* Lithuania
* Mali
* Mexico
* Mongolia
* Samoa
* Sao Tome and Principe
* Vanuatu
* Ranking: 2.5
* Brazil
* El Salvador
* India
* Jamaica
* Lesotho
* Namibia
* Peru
* Philippines
* Romania
* Senegal
* Serbia and Montenegro
* Thailand
PARTLY FREE
* Ranking: 3
* Albania
* Bolivia
* East Timor
* Ecuador
* Honduras
* Kenya
* Macedonia
* Madagascar
* Nicaragua
* Niger
* Papua New Guinea
* Paraguay
* Seychelles
* Solomon Islands
* Sri Lanka
* Trinidad and Tobago
* Turkey
* Ranking: 3.5
* Bosnia and Herzegovina
* Fiji
* Georgia
* Indonesia
* Moldova
* Mozambique
* Sierra Leone
* Tanzania
* Ukraine
* Venezuela
* Ranking: 4
* Bangladesh
* Colombia
* Comoros
* The Gambia
* Guatemala
* Guinea-Bissau
* Malawi
* Malaysia
* Nigeria
* Tonga
* Zambia
* Ranking: 4.5
* Armenia
* Burkina Faso
* Congo, Rep. of
* Gabon
* Jordan
* Kuwait
* Liberia
* Morocco
* Singapore
* Uganda
* Ranking: 5
* Bahrain
* Burundi
* Djibouti
* Ethiopia
* Nepal
* Yemen
NOT FREE
* Ranking: 5.5
* Afghanistan
* Algeria
* Angola
* Azerbaijan
* Bhutan
* Brunei
* Cambodia
* Central African Republic
* Chad
* Egypt
* Guinea
* Kazakhstan
* Lebanon
* Maldives
* Mauritania
* Oman
* Pakistan
* Qatar
* Russia
* Rwanda
* Tajikistan
* Togo
* Tunisia
* Ranking: 6
* Cameroon
* Congo, Dem. Rep. of
* Cote d'Ivoire
* Iran
* Iraq
* Swaziland
* United Arab Emirates
* Ranking: 6.5
* Belarus
* China
* Equatorial Guinea
* Eritrea
* Haiti
* Laos
* Somalia
* Uzbekistan
* Vietnam
* Zimbabwe
* Ranking: 7
* Cuba
* Libya
* Myanmar (Burma)
* North Korea
* Saudi Arabia
* Sudan
* Syria
* Turkmenistan
1. Countries are ranked according to political rights and civil liberties on a scale from 1.0 (most free) to 7.0 (least free). Source: Freedom in the World, 2005, published by Freedom House. www.freedomhouse.org/research/survey2005.htm .
Global Trends in Freedom
Year Free Partly Free Free
1974 41 (27%) 48 (32%) 63 (41%)
1984 53 (32%) 59 (35%) 55 (33%)
1994 76 (40%) 61 (32%) 54 (28%)
2004 89 (46%) 54 (28%) 49 (26%)
Source: Freedom in the World, an annual comparative assessment of the state of political rights and civil liberties around the world, published by Freedom House. www.freedomhouse.org/research/survey2005.htm .
Information Please® Database, © 2006 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
The Failed States Index
FOREIGN POLICY and the Fund for Peace have ranked troubled countries that are in danger of collapse. The countries are ranked according to twelve social, economic, political, and military indicators, including economic decline and inequality, demographic pressures, war, and corruption. A failed state is defined as “one in which the government does not have effective control of its territory, is not perceived as legitimate by a significant portion of its population, does not provide domestic security or basic public services to its citizens, and lacks a monopoly on the use of force.” The indexes countries at risk, not countries that have already failed. Below are the top 20 most vulnerable countries.
* 1. Sudan ( Darfur/ Janjaweed Issues/ State Sponsored Terrorism)
* 2. Dem. Rep. of the Congo
* 3. Côte D'Ivoire
* 4. Iraq (Under US Occupation)
* 5. Zimbabwe
* 6. Chad
* 7. Somalia
* 8. Haiti
* 9. Pakistan (Under military dictatorship sponsored by the US)
* 10. Afghanistan (Under US control)
* 11. Guinea
* 12. Liberia (Recently elected the First Woman President in Africa)
* 13. Central African Rep.
* 14. North Korea
* 15. Burundi
* 16. Yemen
* 17. Sierra Leone
* 18. Myanmar (Aung San Suu Kyi, still in house arrest, passed over ASEAN chairmanship due to pressure from other members, EU and the US)
* 19. Bangladesh
* 20. Nepal (Under civil unrest, King Gyanendra still effectively control the state, Maoist attacks and figure prominently in recent protests)
Source: The Fund for Peace www.fundforpeace.org , 2006.
Blame Canada!
Oh my...
Filipino table etiquette punished at local school
Lunch monitor tells student his eating habits are ‘disgusting’
BY ANDY BLATCHFORD
The Chronicle
A Roxboro woman has filed a formal complaint with a local school board after her son was disciplined by a lunch program monitor at Ecole Lalande for eating in what she says is a customary Filipino manner.
Luc Cagadoc’s table behaviour is traditionally Filipino; he fills his spoon by pushing the food on his plate with a fork, his mother, Maria Theresa Gallardo, says.
But after being punished by his school’s lunch program monitor more than 10 times this year for his mealtime conduct — including his technique — the seven-year-old told Gallardo said last week that he was too embarrassed to eat his dinner.
“Mommy, I don’t want to eat anymore,” Gallardo says Luc told her at the kitchen table April 11. “My teacher is telling me that eating with a spoon and fork is yucky and disgusting.”
When he eats with both a spoon and fork, instead of only one utensil, the Grade 2
student said the lunch monitor moves him to a table to sit by himself.
Upset over Luc’s story, Gallardo confronted the lunchtime caregiver the next day and on April 13, she telephoned the school’s principal, Normand Bergeron. His reaction brought her to tears, she says. “His response was shocking to me,” Gallardo, who moved to Montreal from the Philippines in 1999, told The Chronicle. “He said, ‘Madame, you are in Canada. Here in Canada you should eat the way Canadians eat.’
“I find it very prejudiced and it’s racist. He’s supposed to be acting like a professional. This is supposed to be a free country with free expressions of culture and religion. This is how we eat; we eat with a fork and spoon.”
Luc’s father, Aldrin Cagadoc, was also surprised by the comment. “I can’t believe even the principal would say that,” he said. “A person of that calibre, I wouldn’t expect him to say that.”
Gallardo, who operates a day care out of her Roxboro home and is close to completing her studies in early childhood education, wrote a letter last week and lodged a formal complaint to the Commission scolaire Marguerite Bourgeoys (CSMB) yesterday.
She disagrees with the lunch monitor’s approach to teaching children how to eat and says it is emotionally abusive to Luc. When she questioned Bergeron about punishing students for their table habits, she says he replied that, “If your son eats like a pig he has to go to another table because this is the way we do it and how we’re going to do it every time.”
But Bergeron says it was Luc’s eating technique combined with his behaviour at the table that was inappropriate that day, which is why he was moved. “Luc can be turbulent,” he said yesterday. “Like other children, he is frequently in situations where we have to intervene. It’s normal, he’s a child. He is in a period of learning.”
The principal of the 387-student Roxboro school said he explained his position on using two utensils to Gallardo during their telephone conversation. “I said, ‘Here, this is not the manner in which we eat.’
“I don’t necessarily want students to eat with one hand or with only one instrument, I want them to eat intelligently at the table,” he said. “I want them to eat correctly with respect for others who are eating with them. That’s all I ask. Personally, I don’t have any problems with it, but it is not the way you see people eat every day. I have never seen somebody eat with a spoon and a fork at the same time.”
CSMB spokesman Brigitte Gauvreau says the board will not comment — due to confidentiality procedures — until Gallardo’s complaint is filed and she makes a public statement.
---------------------
From West Island Chronicle:
http://www.westislandchronicle.com/pages/article.php?noArticle=6063
Filipino table etiquette punished at local school
Lunch monitor tells student his eating habits are ‘disgusting’
BY ANDY BLATCHFORD
The Chronicle
A Roxboro woman has filed a formal complaint with a local school board after her son was disciplined by a lunch program monitor at Ecole Lalande for eating in what she says is a customary Filipino manner.
Luc Cagadoc’s table behaviour is traditionally Filipino; he fills his spoon by pushing the food on his plate with a fork, his mother, Maria Theresa Gallardo, says.
But after being punished by his school’s lunch program monitor more than 10 times this year for his mealtime conduct — including his technique — the seven-year-old told Gallardo said last week that he was too embarrassed to eat his dinner.
“Mommy, I don’t want to eat anymore,” Gallardo says Luc told her at the kitchen table April 11. “My teacher is telling me that eating with a spoon and fork is yucky and disgusting.”
When he eats with both a spoon and fork, instead of only one utensil, the Grade 2
student said the lunch monitor moves him to a table to sit by himself.
Upset over Luc’s story, Gallardo confronted the lunchtime caregiver the next day and on April 13, she telephoned the school’s principal, Normand Bergeron. His reaction brought her to tears, she says. “His response was shocking to me,” Gallardo, who moved to Montreal from the Philippines in 1999, told The Chronicle. “He said, ‘Madame, you are in Canada. Here in Canada you should eat the way Canadians eat.’
“I find it very prejudiced and it’s racist. He’s supposed to be acting like a professional. This is supposed to be a free country with free expressions of culture and religion. This is how we eat; we eat with a fork and spoon.”
Luc’s father, Aldrin Cagadoc, was also surprised by the comment. “I can’t believe even the principal would say that,” he said. “A person of that calibre, I wouldn’t expect him to say that.”
Gallardo, who operates a day care out of her Roxboro home and is close to completing her studies in early childhood education, wrote a letter last week and lodged a formal complaint to the Commission scolaire Marguerite Bourgeoys (CSMB) yesterday.
She disagrees with the lunch monitor’s approach to teaching children how to eat and says it is emotionally abusive to Luc. When she questioned Bergeron about punishing students for their table habits, she says he replied that, “If your son eats like a pig he has to go to another table because this is the way we do it and how we’re going to do it every time.”
But Bergeron says it was Luc’s eating technique combined with his behaviour at the table that was inappropriate that day, which is why he was moved. “Luc can be turbulent,” he said yesterday. “Like other children, he is frequently in situations where we have to intervene. It’s normal, he’s a child. He is in a period of learning.”
The principal of the 387-student Roxboro school said he explained his position on using two utensils to Gallardo during their telephone conversation. “I said, ‘Here, this is not the manner in which we eat.’
“I don’t necessarily want students to eat with one hand or with only one instrument, I want them to eat intelligently at the table,” he said. “I want them to eat correctly with respect for others who are eating with them. That’s all I ask. Personally, I don’t have any problems with it, but it is not the way you see people eat every day. I have never seen somebody eat with a spoon and a fork at the same time.”
CSMB spokesman Brigitte Gauvreau says the board will not comment — due to confidentiality procedures — until Gallardo’s complaint is filed and she makes a public statement.
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From West Island Chronicle:
http://www.westislandchronicle.com/pages/article.php?noArticle=6063
Tuesday, May 9, 2006
The Politics of No and the Deodorant Commercial Models
(Images: 1) The deodorant models. Imagine Imee Marcos whose Daddy waged a nasty war against the communist at the backing of the United States raising fists alonsgide with her mortal enemy, Satur Ocampo. It is so sick. 2)One of the cash coupons found in Ayala Avenue, Makati City during an Anti-Arroyo rally staged by the opposition. This confirms the systematic and well-funded effort to destablize the government. 300 Pesos are paid each person to crowds usually gathered from the slums of Makati.)Finally, the Batasan 5 left the protective custody of the Philippine Congress after rebellion charges were dropped by the Makati RTC. Strangely, for a militant leader, the five was too cowardly to face arrest and jail time; instead they hid under the skirt of democracy, the very same space that these flimsy-veiled Communists always wanted to overthrow in the history of their so-called ‘struggle’. Give us a break, these political parties – Bayan Muna, Anakpawis, Gabriela and other militant groups who you can always count on to scream “NO to (fill in the blanks)” and Anti-“This or That” and “(name of the seated Philippine President)/US regime” tirade in every street demonstrations there is available. Punching the air with their clenched fist that reminds us with deodorant commercials (only with unsavory looking Communist hags and cadres), an anachronistic defiance of every thing that is not connected to their own anti-establishment, pro-Communist agenda, these are the same groups that receive (and up still is unaccountable) the much-vilified Countrywide Development Fund or simply Pork Barrel.
Of course, these militant groups have a finger in everything, like the consummate politicians and demagogues they are. At the University of the
On the international front, the Terrorist Group tag by EU and Washington given on the Communist Party of the
As usual with the Batasan 5 out of their rat holes, expect more noise in
Meanwhile, count that the Commission of Human Rights will always be siding with this troublemakers everytime they are dispersed in demonstrations. I always wondered whose side is the CHR is on. When a police or a soldier is murdered or a common person is inconvenienced by these stupid demonstrations or a legit company victimized by these Communists, criminals, demagogues, bandits, terrorists and troublemakers, the CHR's reaction is strangely muted but when these people cry oppression everytime the law put its foot down, CHR is quick to howl violation of Human Rights. For crying out loud. what is this double-standard application?
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