ANA AND SIMEON

My cousin Ana, 89, who lives with her husband Simeon, 92, in a senior's home along Avalon avenue in Carson City has been undergoing dialysis for the past three months or so. Thrice a week, the hospital vehicle would come, in the morning, and take her to the facility for this procedure that would leave her weak and tired. She usually sleeps after the hospital personnel take her home.
Manong Simeon is the one preparing her wife's meal. Sometimes, their daughter Malou, who lives with her family on Treyton street, also in Carson would come during the week and do the cooking for her parents. Malou, 62, a nurse, works in a hospital in the city where a Filipino from Bacnotan, La Union became mayor but was removed from office because of corruption.

In the morning of July 19, Manong Simeon, doing her ritual of the day, collapsed at the bathroom of their apartment. Manang Ana, bedridden, heard the thud at the bathroom which is opposite her room and,  alarmed and had to forced herself out of bed, called 911; she also phoned Malou, informing her about what had happened to her father. The 911 vehicle arrived and Manong was rushed to the Harbor UCLA Medical in the city. He underwent several surgeries--his big intestines were removed-- and stayed several weeks at the hospital's ICU department.

Manong Simeon was supposed to die that night but his determination to live was too strong he got his wish. Their sons and daughters, from Canada and New Jersey including the Philippines--Susan, Edwin, Rolly, and Nora-- arrived in Carson expecting the worst for their father. But Manong Simeon lived on, and was later transferred to the ward section of the hospital.

We went to Carson to visit the couple and stayed in the city for ten days. Malou and Nora came to fetched us in Menifee.

The ICU is located at the third floor of Harbor UCLA Medical Center, a 6-story structure. From the parking lot which is usually full of cars and Nora had to drive around for a space to park, we would walked to the first floor, undergo a security check and ride an elevator to the third floor. We would line up for a visitor's card at a table manned by uniformed guards--blacks, Latinos, and one time an Egyptian-- who would take our names and other relevant information in our IDs. Only two people are allowed inside the ICU and one of us would stay in a room, a holding area.  Inside the room, there is a sign at the wall that says in two languages: Room of Bereavement/Cuarto de Condoleci. It is here where  guests, mostly Latinos, wait for their turn to visit relatives and acquaintances confined at the hospital's ICU and wards.

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.

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION?

Breaking Away and Spilling the Rottenness?

Five years of an unholy alliance. Five years of sleeping with his enemies. Five years of keeping the dark secrets of an inept presidency.

But the dissonance of the country's second highest official,  Jejomar ( from the initial letters of Jesus, Joseph, Maria) Binay,  is always surfacing even if the Palace and detractors did not pry open the lid of his Pandora's box.

The political opposition in the Philippines is no longer without a leader, an analyst said, referring to the person--Binay-- who has been accused of unexplained wealth and other anomalies.

Is he a credible leader who can speak for us whose combined "voices are as weak as Padsan and the dying rivers"? Should he not, first and foremost, explain his alleged enormous riches?

He was then a poor human rights lawyer during the time of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos. He came into power after the Edsa Revolution, having been appointed s Officer-in-Charge of Makati, the country's richest city. And the rest is history--an economic empire that boggles the imagination.

Too late to become the hero of the poor and the downtrodden?

Nevertheless, he may yet become the top honcho in the palace by the dirty and highly-polluted Pasig river.

In the dysfunctional Filipino culture, men of honor and integrity and high ideals, do not become President of Las Islas de Los Ladrones. The voters, the great unwashed, elect into powerful public offices men of ill-repute and criminals like the convicted economic plunderer.

THE TRINITY OF CHANGE A FAILURE?

"Every man is a divinity in disguise, a god playing the fool."--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Re Dr. Agca's essay on fraternities at the state university in Diliman

If  his beloved University of the Philippines is a failure as member in the trinity of change--the school, the family, the church, not necessarily in that order--do the rest follow the domino effect?  If this is so, will it explain the widespread poverty and lawmakers as the biggest thieves of state funds?

They say that the country is no longer the sick man of Asia. Does this claim match reality on the ground? Can one explain the squalor and beggary in Manila, which is supposed to be a model in development in Las Islas de los Ladrones?

And what about this dysfunctional Filipino culture where criminals are voted into powerful offices? Like the convicted economic plunderer they call "Erap." Where dynasties rule with impunity. Like the Binays--father, son, wife, daughters-- and amass mind-boggling wealth.

TRINITY OF EVIL

Quotes of the Day:

"Light your candle before night overtakes you."--Greek saying.

"In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule."--Friedrich Nietzche

The Bangsamoro Basic Law is a concoction of the trinity of evil: President Aquino; the governmennt panel composed of the University of the Philippines professor Coronel- Ferrer and Secretary Teresita Deles; and Mohaqher Iqbal and his murderous MILF. The law will give a big chunk of Philippine territory to the Muslim rebels in a part of Mindanao, where Christians, lumads and other ethno-linguistic groups have lived for centuries, and comprise the majority of the population. Billions of pesos will also be alloted to the sub-state for its annual expenditures.

Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr. and other legislators have questioned the Constitutionality of BBL, at least in some provisions, and vowed to make changes to conform to Philippine laws. For all the tirades against the son of the dictator, the senator makes sense with respect to a law that would give a beachhead to Muslim terrorists now stoking the fire that is burning the lands of Islam He has shown he is at par with the best minds in the Upper Chamber.

Congress, controlled by The Big Boss, is again noisy -- make changes in the Constitution to accommodate the BBL?