November 18, 2020

Shaken or Stirred? Just Sit Back.

November 18, 2020/ Gemma Nemenzo

As we move towards a vastly different Thanksgiving holiday this year, let's use this post-election, surging-pandemic week to take a break from high emotions, and to sit back. It's interesting to watch how traditions and institutions work toward resolving the current political uncertainty being spearheaded by a stubborn incumbent and fanned by his spineless ilk. If you need some reading to quell, or enable, your anxiety, I suggest Gabriel Garcia Marquez's book, Autumn of the Patriarch. The title itself is an apt metaphor for this time, along with "the winter of our discontent".

Nevertheless the world continues to turn, with or without our participation. In Positively Filipino this week, James Bond dies, a young Fil-Am comic rises and, as our Motherland heaves from yet another hurricane, regular people carry on the best way they can amidst the pandemic.

Our Stories This Week

Pinoys Love James Bond, And Vice Versa By Men Sta. Ana

[PARTNER] The Typhoon Victims Need Your Help

JR De Guzman Shows Filipinos Are Truly Funny By Anthony Maddela

Covid Guys By Criselda Yabes

The Happy Home Cook: Oriental Beef With Fried Noodles By Nora V. Daza and Nina Daza Puyat

Video of the Week: Fides Enriquez and Chef Cocoy Ventura’s new documentary series, Ilocandia, which features the Ilocos region’s rich culinary tradition.

In The Know

[ANALYSIS] What will a Biden presidency bring to China, Manila, and the Asia Pacific?
https://www.rappler.com/voices/thought-leaders/analysis-what-will-biden-presidency-bring-china-manila-asia-pacific?fbclid=IwAR3PRlgwNNjI2Ce1_h-ICVvfsgkMq3RKGdxicT_eD6J3CZMszo-9bjlick0

Things May Get Worse Before They Get Better for the U.S.
https://fpif.org/things-may-get-worse-before-they-get-better-for-the-u-s/?fbclid=IwAR0DKLpWGt1SIJhski9RPlbDwPcj7b_sXj7hK6N48arU1Zc_gCA2BlIaTdQ

12 Exceptional Filipino Restaurants in SF and the East Bay
https://sf.eater.com/maps/best-filipino-restaurants-food-san-francisco-bay-area-east-bay-oakland

A New ‘Blue’s Clues’ Episode Will Feature Filipino Family Traditions
https://www.vice.com/en/article/7k9bpd/blues-clues-nickelodeon-filipino-family-traditions-lola-grandmother?fbclid=IwAR1vwyhD_b16Y2oWbPaiK30OVkUtjfyrjweNSEKt7w-YP30eU6Y6zUYdc34

Their neighbor allegedly painted a swastika on their driveway. Now they’re getting bullets in the mail.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/11/13/louisville-harassment-couple-swastikas-racial-slurs/

A Whirl Through the Philippines with Jeepney’s Meal Kits
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/11/16/a-whirl-through-the-philippines-with-jeepneys-meal-kits?fbclid=IwAR0gsstldoTVp66WzDELSaIAsqXcCniSD2Q_65KZw2TMhCbKQUhIzInnTgc

October 14, 2020

Vote Like Our Future Depends on It

October 14, 2020/ Gemma Nemenzo

US citizenship, long considered the "pie in the sky" by many Filipinos, comes with a duty to exercise the right to vote, the most sacred of rights bestowed on those who have pledged allegiance to the American flag. Thus with the ongoing election that's tagged as "the most consequential of our lifetime," Positively Filipino's webinar last Monday, was a necessary service for Filipino Americans. It was a highly informative and lively discussion on the electoral college, Fil-Am voting patterns vis a vis other Asian Americans, and why we should all cast our votes (the down ballots or local races are just as important as choosing a president). If you missed it, here's the recording.: How Do We Make The Fil-Am Vote Count?

We have two other webinars scheduled this Fil-Am History Month and we hope to have the pleasure of your company then.

Three years ago in Mindanao, the beautiful city of Marawi was reduced to rubble as government forces and Muslim militants engaged in a fierce battle that lasted five months. The battle was officially declared over on October 17, 2017 by President Duterte. We think it's the right time, on this its third anniversary, to point you to a new book that tells in minute detail the story of the Marawi siege, which is a lesson in modern-day warfare. The Battle of Marawi, the book, is written by PF Correspondent Criselda Yabes and reviewed here by Dr. Patricio Abinales of the University of Hawaii.

This Week’s Stories

[New Webinar Video] How Do We Make The Fil-Am Vote Count?

Shocked And Awed By Patricio Abinales

Taylor Healy Saves The Signs Of These Times By Anthony Maddela

Octogenarians In Love, In The Covid-19 Era By Agnes Alikpala, MD

Filipino American History Books

[Partner] ALLICE's 16th Annual Free From Violence By Cherie M. Querol Moreno

The Happy Home Cook: Amboy Adobo By Chef Alvin Cailan

Video of the Week: TGIF, Thank God I’m Filipino

Read Again:

"Where Exactly Did Filipinos First Land in California?" by Abraham Ignacio Jr.

"Pieces of the (Midnight) Sun" by Oscar Peñaranda provides a preview of the stories he will tell for our webinar.

In The Know

Les nouveaux Misérables: the lives of Filipina workers in the playground of the rich
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/oct/12/les-miserables-nouveau-the-lives-of-filipina-workers-in-the-playground-of-the-rich?CMP=share_btn_fb&fbclid=IwAR11ZJxAc2j2vJg-Rop9K5JF_DZLL1mVsKa-Gj6RtRp9hV-SA1N1vDeGYIs

Pasig uses online tech to consult residents on 'open streets' proposal amid pandemic
https://www.rappler.com/nation/pasig-city-uses-polis-consult-residents-open-streets-proposal?fbclid=IwAR2ItD_uTt1K6VJfEgzF5kxdjRtFp5nYd2u48mqLEjg8WztjvoC_MN1pxW8

beabadoobee Made Bedroom Pop. Now She’s Turning Up the Volume.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/08/arts/music/beabadoobee-fake-it-flowers.html?fbclid=IwAR23w_iqx_m21ZPbaHUoWFRV8k0ppLz6QQKfDR8GcPnZPe3QOX2prpYUY4I

A Letter from Napa Valley, Where Love Burns Hotter Than Fire
https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2020/10/08/glass-fire-napa-valley-northern-california-wildfires/ideas/dispatches/?fbclid=IwAR1JuWAUeI8QQRB32rJer12325XHvoLlr5OaoUgWlsiCCikgtQ9tnt0XGpc

Nostalgia: The untold stories of ‘Batibot,’ according to Kuya Bodjie
https://news.abs-cbn.com/ancx/culture/spotlight/10/11/20/nostalgia-the-untold-stories-of-batibot-according-to-kuya-bodjie?fbclid=IwAR2sYTeNsmIz8lj8anKBULkU8XvMPnLcb0b13PxS6yYYvTQxLXfeOmT2rH8

August 05, 2020

They Who Heal Us

August 05, 2020/ Gemma Nemenzo

At the beginning of 2020, our world was still what we had known it to be. Our daily routines were simple: work; play; love; travel; enjoy.

Two weeks into the year, the Philippines suffered its first major tragedy, but it was localized. Taal Volcano erupted, spewing tons and tons of ashes that turned some parts of Batangas and Cavite gray, forcing large-scale evacuations and rendering farms and orchards dead.

And then Covid-19 happened towards the end of January and, just like that, the world as we knew it was completely upended. Within a few weeks, lockdowns would be imposed in almost all countries, businesses destroyed, international travel banned, and mass deaths became the norm.

We're now on the 8th month of the pandemic and the end is nowhere in sight. In the Philippines, 80 health care groups representing 80,000 doctors and a million nurses have petitioned the government for a "timeout" to recalibrate its strategy (or the lack of it) in fighting the virus because the entire health care system is now in danger of complete collapse, its frontliners exhausted to their human limits.

The US is not doing any better. The country is on top of the list in covid infections in the entire world and every day, records are broken for new cases. Toiling at the forefront, side by side with the doctors and other health care workers are the 150,000-strong Filipino nurses scattered in most states but mainly in California and New York, where they make up about 20 percent of the labor force caring for coronavirus patients. Do a Google search and you'll see many reports on how Fil-Am nurses have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. Watch our Video of the Week -- a CBS news report by Fil-Am journalist Elaine Quijano on precisely this topic.

Our story this week on Zenei Cortez, the president of the California Nurses Association and co-president of National Nurses United, the US' largest nurses' union, is both a call to action and a tribute to these heroes of the moment, many of whom are our kababayans. PF Correspondent Cherie Querol Moreno reports.

Writer and long-time activist Bonifacio P. Ilagan gives us a capsule post-mortem on the real state of the nation, following President Duterte's address last July 27.

And, if you haven't yet, register for Positively Filipino's webinar on "Immigrants in the Time of Racial Unrest, the Pandemic and Trump" featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Jose Antonio Vargas and veteran immigration lawyer Lourdes Tancinco. The webinar happens on Monday August 10, 6pm PST/ 9pm EST (Tuesday 9 am Manila time). Here's the link: bit.ly/ImmigrantsRacialUnrest.