What in the world is going on with the world?

Just this weekend alone, a series of shocking news of mass shootings and a family murder assaulted our equanimity and made us pause our holiday spirit.

In our homeland, the exposés of unmitigated greed and growing tensions in our seas continue unabated.

This week, the shootings, assaults and the mudflow of hate continue (fanned unfortunately by people in the news who should know better), putting a damper on what should have been a season of peace, goodwill and all the good things that the holidays used to bring.

We thought the parade of deaths that we mourned during the pandemic has toughened us from grieving over the deaths of people we don't personally know.

We expected that the almost daily outrage we felt from the beginning of this year has numbed us into just letting things go, with nary a care.

How wrong we are, and fortunately so. The recent shockers have brought our sensibilities back to where it should be: caring, angry (but productively) and unaccepting of current-day maladies like bigotry, lies, crassness and mental breakdowns. So let's not waste this period of clarity.

Be careful out there but be vigilant against falling (back) into the abyss of hatred and indifference.

This Week’s Stories

Teacher Gigi Can Make You Love Math by Claire Mercado-Obias

Stephanie Syjuco’s Wall of Hidden Histories by AJ Fox

Behind the documentary ‘The Road to Sydney’ by Esther M. Chavez

[Read It Again]

Holiday Dishes with Ilocano Flavors by Elizabeth Ann Quirino

Delicious Dishes for Your Christmas Table

[Video of the Week] The Forgotten Cebuano Recipes

In The Know

‘They attacked my religion, my faith’: Muslim photojournalist detained by ICE speaks out
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/12/photojournalist-detained-ice-social-media

Can Jollibee Beat American Fast Food at Its Own Game?
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/01/jollibee-fried-chicken-american-fast-food/684949/?utm_source=apple_news

Filipino who reported medical neglect in ICE facility to be deported from US
https://www.rappler.com/philippines/greggy-valerio-sorio-deportation-usa-ice-medical-neglect/?

The power of alternative media
https://malaya.com.ph/entertainment/the-power-of-alternative-media/

Philippines says Filipino fishermen were hurt after Chinese Coast Guard fired water cannons
https://www.instagram.com/reels/DSSnTxbEe93/

While the stories of the Manong generation -- the first group of Filipino migrant farmworkers to Hawaii and the US West Coast who arrived in the early 1900s -- have been and continue to be documented, their offspring who have dubbed themselves as the Bridge Generation have not been as lucky. This according to one of its stalwarts, Peter Jamero, who has written a book and several articles appealing for more research and documentation on the narratives of his contemporaries -- Filipino Americans born in the US before 1945. The Bridge Generation is unique because unlike their parents who never shed their Filipino-ness despite having resided for decades in the US, they grew up Americans. Yet they were never accepted completely as such. Jamero's impassioned plea this week should resonate among historians, cultural torchbearers, journalists and story gatherers.

We likewise feature two cultural torchbearers: the artist Stephanie Syjuco whose ongoing exhibit assembles valuable and otherwise ignore archival photos of the American colonial period in the Philippines; and acclaimed movie director Erik Matti, whose inspired and disturbing film, On the Job: The Missing 8, documents a dark period in Philippine contemporary history.

And we continue to join the chorus against the continuing injustice of keeping former senator Leila de Lima in jail, despite the key witnesses against her recanting their testimonies.

[Cook It Again] The Happy Home Cook: Easy Tuna Pasta With Vegetables by Elizabeth Ann Quirino

[Video of the Week] Ilocandia