THE ILOKANO MALE

Mental change can take a lot of time, or as little as an hour, according to sports psychologist Jarrod Spencer. He explains that when we "hate" something, it is because we are threatened by it--physically, socially or emotionally--and there is likely some trauma tied to it. 

"Oh, to be alive in such an age when miracles are everywhere and every inch of common air throbs a tremendous prophecy of greater marvels yet to be."--Angel Morgan, from "The Hour Has Come, "a war poem


The following is a point of view based on facts on the ground.

There is in the male Ilokano psyche a kind of brinkmanship that prompts him to do and enforce what he believes is right and proper no matter what happens. He might die for this kind of faith but for him "surrender " is a non- word, not in his vocabulary or dictionary. A kind of machismo or a code of honor that the Ilokano male says what he means and means what he says and he can say it mean under certain circumstances.

This characterizes the so-called Ilokano "malalaki" who easily takes umbrage on a negative comment against his manhood. The prefix "ma" indicates a virile, macho man ("lalaki") who never runs away from a fight.

Anyway, there is a danger zone in confrontation and the Ilokano male is not unaware of it.

Ilokanos belong to an ethno-linguistic group, mostly found in Northern Philippines. There is also a great number of Ilokanos in Mindanao, even in Basilan and Sulu where they cleared the land for agricultural purposes.

Ilokanos have also immigrated to Hawaii and other islands, where they worked in the sugar and pineapple plantations. Ilokano is the lingua-franca of Filipinos in Hawaii 

Now estimated to number at least 10-million including those in the diaspora, Ilokanos are known for their frugality and for being hard workers. The blogger is an Ilokano who was born and raised in that narrow strip of land between the mountains and the sea in northwestern Philippines.

Ilokano kalapaw (hut) made of bamboo and Ilokano furniture (below)

RAMBLING THOUGHTS

Part of the so-called Hundred Islands in Alaminos, Pangasinan
 (Photo of a painting in a Filipino exhibit in Singapore)

One of the rivers in Northern Cagayan

Pathway in a garden of the home of the son's blogger  in San Mateo, Isabela 

      This social asphyxia will continue to be a nightmare for Filipinos for as long as their dysfunctional culture reigns supreme and criminals, intellectual-moral imbeciles like the incumbent president, even womanizers like the convicted economic plunderer, are elected to powerful public offices.

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   Speak your mind, speak your truth, according to your ethics and mean it, but don't say it mean.

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Are your words and your life as lived separate? Are they not supposed to be couple living together in the eternity of marriage that knows no fear in a world gone mad with hate?

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Reminder: We speak (and write) Ilokano the way it should be spoken as language in Ilocoslovakia. The expatriate may have the theory of the language but not the practice as gleaned by what he writes. We also have the theory, based on the practice.

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Not living his name?

Jejomar Binay is the Vice-President of the Philippines. His parents, from Northern Isabela, where he was born, might have been religious persons and, no doubt, belonged to the Roman Catholic Church.They named him Jejomar, from the first letters of Jesus, Joseph and Maria.

Binay was a poor human rights lawyer during the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. When Marcos was dislodged from power during the bloodless Edsa (Epifanio de los Santos Avenue) Revolution, and Cory Aquino was installed at Club Filipino as President, Jejomar Binay was appointed by her as Officer-in-Charge of Makati. That was in 1986. Since then, he held on to power without interruption in the country's richest city, establishing a political dynasty consisting of his wife, his son, and two daughters. His son, Junjun, like his wife Elenita, was elected mayor of Makati until he was replaced last month by his vice-mayor, a member of the political party of the incumbent president. The elder Binay's daughter, Nancy, was number five ( 5) in the last senatorial election while another daughter, Abigal, represents the city as member of the Lower House of Congress.

  VP Binay has been asked by a committee in the Senate to explain his enormous wealth. But he refused. Will his non-appearance expose his deformity as a political demagogue?

Lately, the Vice-President who has declared his intention to run for president in 2016, has been touring the country and distributing rosaries with the letter B painted on them. He has been criticized for this act, a desecration of the sacred symbol of Christianity. Corollary,

     1. Is he buying votes with the rosary?

     2. Is he buying his own version of Paradise with the rosary?

     3. Can one buy Eden by desecrating the rosary?

 

PAGWANAWANAN

If you believe in the power of love, there must be no room for hate in your heart.--Peter La. Julian

"Whenever anyone has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offense cannot reach it."--Rene Descartes

"To commit the least possible sin is the law for man.
To live entirely without sin is the dream of an angel.
Everything in this earth is subject to sin. Sin is like gravity."--from the mouth of a bishop in Les Miserables, the 1463-page Victor Hugo's monumental novel, which the blogger is struggling to read.

With his newly-acquired doctorate degree, the Ilokano writer Rod Rodriquez of Candon City, Philippines has joined the ranks of Ilokano teachers--Dr. Aurelio Solver Agcaoili of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Dr. Alegria Tan-Visaya of the Mariano Marcos State University, Dr. Jean Duldulao. Dr. Jaime Raras, Dr. Sonja Chan, among others-- in the intellectual Olympus of academe.

Rodriguez, who writes in the language of at least 8 million people, is also a mural painter and lecturer in journalism..

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They are riding again like mad. And the convicted economic plunderer is making noises, proclaiming, boasting he would run for  the topmost position if the perceived thief of all thieves withdraws from the race.

Yes, even dead horses of our apocalypse are exhaling and inhaling and snorting and resurrecting to life, ready to stand on their feet.

And lo and behold! They are neighing and prancing, ready to gallop away, away to the cemeteries of living and dead voters, the great unwashed who make presidents of criminals and womanizers in Last Islas de los Ladrones.