Category Archive for: kawomenan

komentaryo

Tourism and the poor Filipino face

In January, the Department of Tourism (DOT) celebrated the 6.09% rise in the number of tourists to the Philippines. That’s 25,000 more people who have come to visit this country where everything’s more fun. That’s 436,079 tourists who landed in good ol’ Pinas in January alone.

It gives me goosebumps. Far from the good kind.

Because it would take an amount of delusion to think this all good, and only the naïve would think those numbers equal to development or change. This is not to dispute those numbers, neither is it to question those online surveys that say Boracay is the Best Beach in Asia. This is to ask questions borne of actually traveling this country, and observing tourism on the ground.

This is to ask: have you heard of the “poor Filipino face?” (more…)

radikalchick.lit

on Of Love and Other Lemons, v.1*

Making Lemonade

There is a romance that we like to imagine about writing, and especially the writing of a book. And while my rebellious self would like to tell you that this was not the case for Of Love and Other Lemons, that would be a lie. Certainly it came from a personal history of love and loss and sadness, complete with the high – if not OA – drama of buckets of tears. But the writing of this book didn’t happen while I was going through all those things.

Instead the writing happened when I was at the point of reckoning with the cards life had dealt me (naks high drama), and particularly when I was away from Manila. Distance allowed me to think of freedom, where Manila – the Philippines – felt oppressive, too small that I couldn’t even stretch. (more…)

kultura

#SpeakUp about the violence against the Pinay

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kultura

a quickie: prostitution ain’t witty

it was literature that taught me about the objectification of women. no, it was philippine literature that taught me about the oppression of the Filipina, the kind that objectifies her, makes her into nothing but image, nothing but stereotype. half-naked if not totally so. skin and leg and boobs and butt. image not voice. body not thought.

and just in case everyone thought this witty and funny, and thought nothing of the layers of this image we’ve used to sell a a government-sponsored international literature festival.

the red light district, is about prostitution, and carries with it the contingent oppressions of woman in this country. (more…)

komentaryo

click for project stitch!

Project Stitch puts the Filipino woman worker at the forefront of changing her own impoverished life and gives an entrepreneurial bent to the task of struggle. it will allow for women in poor communities in Manila to engage in sewing cooperatives, that will work toward a sustainable and just livelihood for women.

most important? i trust the women who are behind this project. i would trust them with my life, in fact.

Project Stitch is the only Filipina project in the top 9 finalists of Project Inspire 2012. click and vote so that Project Stitch can actually happen!  (more…)