Coping with Corona

The Duterte administration's draconian enforcement of stay-at-home orders during this coronavirus pandemic is adding to the stress of quarantine, especially among a large sector of the now-elderly population who experienced martial law. PF contributor Ernesto M. Hilario provides a timely situationer on the enhanced community quarantine that is in place until May 15. ["Fighting Fire with Fire Won’t Stop the Pandemic"]

In one country in the Horn of Africa where the pandemic is an added burden to an already dire humanitarian crisis, it's business-as-usual work albeit with tighter social restrictions for humanitarian aide worker Gerry Romay of Negros Occidental. Our Nairobi-based writer, Agatha Verdadero, reaches out. ["Horn of Africa: Social Distancing as a Lifestyle"]

More nimble than their brick-and-mortar counterparts, Filipino food trucks and pop-ups in California switch their focus to helping the frontliners and those in need. PF regular contributor Jennifer Fergesen reports. ["Filipino Foodpreneurs Keep on Truckin’ Amid Pandemic"]

They say if you have Covid-19, among the first signs are the loss of your sense of smell and taste. Well, if you cook Filipino food, as PF Correspondent Elizabeth Ann Quirino suggests, and you're savoring the aroma and the strong flavors, then you're okay. ["Stop and Smell the Power of Filipino Cooking"]

And what better way to test your taste buds than "Becugan," the Kapampangan bagoong, our Happy Home Cook recipe this week.  

For those waiting to immigrate to the US, here are the basic facts about President Trump's latest directive suspending immigration. San Francisco-based immigration lawyer Maria Lourdes Tancinco writes our Partner post.  

Here are links to more stories:

Job Losses Drain Overseas Money That Helps Fuel the Philippines
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/job-losses-drain-overseas-money-210000713.html

This 81-year-old was L.A.’s most devoted museum-goer until COVID-19 shuttered cultural institutions
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-04-23/81-year-old-ben-barcelona-lives-and-breathes-museums-but-what-happens-when-culture-collapses?fbclid=IwAR1H8Na5TIC2jMZMUtfV1SjzsMnTf88n23ibsaK8QpF6-Ue-seB7779eO0E

Supplier of World’s Nurses Struggles to Fight Virus at Home
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-23/philippines-sends-nurses-around-the-world-but-lacks-them-at-home?srnd=premium-asia&fbclid=IwAR1zyKW0MWrg11tG7uj0TnIGd5Lu2-vN_FNMT5hkTgZ8kDIlE0-asMums40

Love story that started Peyups.com revives it as pandemic ‘escape’
https://lifestyle.inquirer.net/361524/love-story-that-started-peyups-com-revives-it-as-pandemic-escape/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR3FCmpteDj_4XI3sfFqVgry1Yyy15saZWNjHq9Mqko05cMlODs2eSOKFeE#Echobox=1587778400

Nursing ranks are filled with Filipino Americans. The pandemic is taking an outsized toll on them
https://www.statnews.com/2020/04/28/coronavirus-taking-outsized-toll-on-filipino-american-nurses/?fbclid=IwAR3yLDwQM2HF9IH0gw5X-eqHZSMMNp5IKIC4xO6wjfH-Yogua_8e_wWcBRs

A ‘Filipino soul food’ restaurant is reborn as a community kitchen
https://www.latimes.com/food/newsletter/2020-04-25/tasting-notes-escarcega-bebot-filipino-soul-food-long-beach-tasting-notes?fbclid=IwAR13AtMwL35EEym_p_fpC0u4j0ps6ccL9-TeyjTod5D4Mjyba7v3ghQoKB0

For video of the week, in celebration of Asian Pacific American History Month, CAAM launched the trailer of its 5-part documentary “Asian Americans” which premieres on PBS on May 11 and 12, 2020.

Lockdown Lowdown

"Lockdown" "quarantine" "shelter-in-place" "shutdown" "recession" -- the new shared lexicons of the world are emotion-laden terms that stir a variety of reactions. And as the human race absorbs the effects of the pandemic on life as we knew it, each of us seek different ways to allay our anxieties.

Educator and policy analyst J.M. Luz ponders the problem of the class divide in the Philippines and offers suggestions on how to temper a possible social eruption in the midst of the pandemic. ["Metro Manila Lockdown: Finding Openings to Ease the Poor's No-Work-No-Pay Situation"]

From Palawan, Elise Suarez, a precocious teenager who writes a column for Palawan News, gets inspiration from a hit Korean teledrama even as she does her part in keeping the spread of the virus at bay. ["Crash Landing in Quarantine"]

In Los Angeles, PF Correspondent Anthony Maddela uses this time of lockdown to reflect on life's simple pleasures and challenges. ["A Time of Living Cautiously"]

PF contributor Patricia Araneta pays tribute to the legendary radio/TV host Leila Benitez, who passed away recently in New York. ["My Aunt and Friend, Leila Benitez"]

For Happy Home Cooks, here's PF Correspondent Rene Astudillo's "Fried Breaded Spam Musubi," a creative way of using a Filipino lockdown staple, Spam.

Don't fail to read our Partner posts this week:

Help Our Artists And Our Community

Filipino Food Movement Launches An Online Campaign, Supporting Filipino Chefs And Restaurants

And to further enhance your coronavirus knowledge, our In The Know links:

Meet the health-care workers spearheading the Philippines’s fight against coronavirus
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/world/2020/04/11/meet-health-care-workers-spearheading-philippiness-fight-against-coronavirus/?fbclid=IwAR38UtJzT6LH8XI9STe69m4g9Jav2x8WVZieSshjWSm4lMZqaL2d1nWmqqk

The Anti-Virus Warriors in My Blood
https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/specials/content/142/howie-severino-the-anti-virus-warriors-in-my-blood/?fbclid=IwAR24MWyac6rBlagMmh2OagtmVfQraV-m7mZXlESYy096K8_5tOX1G9fN4bU

Life after lockdown: An infectious diseases expert on how we could avoid a surge in COVID-19 cases
https://news.abs-cbn.com/ancx/culture/spotlight/04/13/20/life-after-lockdown-an-infectious-diseases-expert-on-how-we-could-avoid-a-surge-in-covid-19-cases?fbclid=IwAR3FMI8xA4093vDx6-NDDUf96AxhWLRKnDqkULKrHCvRBOurHkbyoJ-bA8A

Philippine jails are a COVID-19 time bomb
https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/investigative/257640-philippine-jails-covid-time-bomb?fbclid=IwAR2YV1guhhmSmXgivXY3OdyjnAnPKbUGGrSZrZ4hj7Founthfa8YOACLTCA

Looking Out for Your Own in the Philippines
https://www.asiasentinel.com/p/looking-out-for-your-own-in-the-philippines?fbclid=IwAR3tfXWdoWwsZ6TRno_T7d0ndFUhfBn10B7vupanzGyXWBvem5LwYhElyl4

“Kindness station” in Sorsogon allows residents to get free food, clothes, rice for free
https://virtualpinoy.com/2020/04/kindness-station-in-sorsogon-allows-residents-to-get-free-food-clothes-rice-for-free/?fbclid=IwAR0eH897zz6I8eqmwk2nbSdV3qTxnOT8LD7So0WGxMYc2cpF66uRbmYyaVg

For our Video of the Week, the families of the medical staff of St. Luke’s Medical Center in the Philippines made a tribute video for their loved ones battling on the frontlines of Covid-19.

We're Honored

We got an unexpected but very welcome surprise this week when the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) informed us that Positively Filipino won the Best Interactive Media Award - Website Category, one of six categories of the 2014 Migration and Media Awards (MAM). CFO is the very active agency that oversees the wellbeing of Filipino expats all over the world. It also honors outstanding individuals and organizations -- and media outfits -- that bring on Filipino pride. 

According to the MAM Awards Secretariat, "This year’s awardees were chosen for having raised public awareness on issues on Filipino migration, advocated the cause of Filipinos overseas, promoted a positive image of Filipinos overseas, and espoused the concepts of migration and development." We're pleased and honored for being chosen. A big thank you to CFO and MAM for recognizing our efforts, a month short of Positively Filipino's second birthday.

Another source of pride - the Filipino Food Movement (FFM) that was started in the San Francisco Bay Area by some dedicated foodies. Its Savor Filipino inaugural event brought together 22 chefs from all over the country, cooking Filipino-inspired dishes that whetted the taste buds and appetites of the big crowd that attended. Ron Quesada reports in "Not Just Another Filipino Food Festival."

And speaking of events, organizing them is the core service of Plan C Agency, a Los Angeles-based advertising and event marketing agency founded and headed by Giancarlo Pacheco. Anthony Maddela profiles this marketing expert who attributes his drive and vision to his Filipino roots.

Contributing to Pinoyspotting this week is Albert Romero who traveled to Rome and Barcelona and met some interesting Filipinos. You too can contribute your photos of close encounters with Filipinos during your travels to Pinoyspotting. Send them to submissions@positivelyfilipino.com with a short caption on how, when, where, who.

LOL with Mikey Bustos as he eavesdrop on his mother cooking adobo in our Video of the Week.

And while we can enumerate things wrong with Filipinos, there are also a lot of good things to celebrate about being Filipino. My blog this week reminds us of the good in us.