Asian Mixing Bowl
My brother and I grew up in a multi-cultural household. Our father is hundred percent Japanese and our mother is half-Filipino, half-Chinese. It was pretty interesting growing up in that kind of household. Japanese, Filipino and Chinese culture are not that different from each other but it is the small differences that make it interesting, [...]
The Asian Woman Now and Then
The Asian woman now can hardly be recognized by the Asian woman of past, the new shoes, clothes and hairstyle is enough to confuse them. But if one looks carefully, there are still some traits from past Asian women that have survived and can be found flowing in the bloodstream of the Asian woman now. [...]
Celebrating Love
They’ve been lovers for almost two months now. They spent the entire couple of weeks of the Christmas break from school with only the two of them in the same house together. They hold hands, kiss, and hug.
But they haven’t had sex yet.
“We actually sat down and decided not to have sex until after a [...]
The Girl With The Veil - Part 2
Managing stress
Being a student leader means a great balancing act – juggling one’s studies and duties in the council. Shahana starts her day as early as four in the morning to pray. Then the rest of the day – from eight in the morning until nine in the evening — she devotes to council work. [...]
The Girl With The Veil - Part 1
The girl with the veil waved her hand, beckoning on the coming taxicab. But the cab did not stop, like the previous one, two, three ones she had tried to hail. It was already nine o’clock tonight, and the dorm where she stayed had a curfew at ten. A picture of her standing outside the [...]
GMA Demands Congress Laws To Curb Killings
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo urged the Congress to create laws that will curb political killings in the country in her State of the Nation Address (SONA) at the Batasang Pambansa, Quezon City, Monday, July 23.
Arroyo described those laws as:
“laws to protect witnesses from lawbreakers and law enforcers”;
“laws to guarantee swift justice from more empowered special [...]
Your Favorite Corn Just Got Better
A perfectly formed ear of corn, not a kernel damaged. Resists its natural pest, as well as the herbicide meant for the weeds. Needs little caretaking. Yield is higher than usual. Why not?
Things that we had used to only dream about have been materializing since recombinant DNA technology has been used in a multitude of [...]
Whispers From The Drawers
I opened a drawer. Inside I could hear a toddler crying while his mom and dad are quarreling in the other room.
I opened another drawer and an impoverished mother asked if she had went overboard in spanking her daughter, whom she just wanted to protect.
A couple was torridly kissing inside the next [...]
Less Cesar, More Richard
“Makeover” is the mantra today. Lifestyle shows turn stressed-out mothers into sophisticated women, and drab living rooms into works of art. Despite the economic depression, spas and salons mushroom. Celebrities thank their cosmetic surgeons for lifted noses and firmer skin.
Film production company GMA Films is a perfect example of a makeover. As the Philippines celebrated [...]
Marilao Sheds Her Shawl
If my hometown would be a woman, it would be a spinster. A forty-something spinster who was once wrapped in a crocheted shawl, letting her afternoon pass by reading paperback Tagalog romance prose. But this lady has started to hang her shawl in her aparador, and has settled for a blouse and skirt ensemble which [...]