Category: Philippines
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To Be A Woman in the Philippines
This picture is from a mobilization for International Women’s Day in the Philippines. The yellow sign says, “Fight (President) Aquino’s Oil Cartel Conspiracy!” and another sign says, “Decrease the Prices of Oil!” The women are hurling paint balls at the US embassy in this picture as a militant protest to the collusion of the US…
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RH Bill in the Philippines
The RH Bill has and continues to stir all kinds of frenzy in the Philippines, the only country in the world that still hasn’t made divorce illegal nor has it legislated comprehensive reproductive health education and services. In the 21st century, the resistance of the Philippine government to provide women with access to pap smears,…
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What’s so Super About Being a Maid? The Philippine’s Supermaid Program and Women’s False Empowerment
The erstwhile president of the Philippines, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, launched a domestic worker training program called, the “Supermaid” (or “Supernanny”) Program in 2006 to increase the professionalization of Filipino women leaving the country as domestics. The program teaches Filipino women things like seven ways to cook eggs or how to change a diaper with speed…
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Buhay Migrante, Isang Tula
My favorite poet, Melanie Dulfo, wrote a poem called, Buhay Migrante, Isang Tula, and it is awesome. For my Tagalog speakers and readers, here you are.
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Kiskisan
The morning before the International Women’s Alliance conference in Manila, delegates from Gabriela USA were invited to participate in the Philippine-American “friendship” day, to protest the unequal relations between the US and the Philippines. We decided that it was important to participate in a mobilization to the US embassy, or “emba” as the kasamas here…
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Contradictions
I love the contradictions of the Philippines. Jeeps and ignored traffic lanes Mobilization and repression Malls and poverty Drainage and floods — Just two days ago, my FiRE sisters and i went to Barangay Damayan Lagi, a shanty town next to the San Juan river in Quezon City. Most of the residents have lived in that…
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Diwang Pinay
Sunday, March 6, 2011 – 2pm matinee and 7pm and March 13, 2011 – 2pm matinee and 7pm DIWANG PINAY: Kasaysayan sa Likod ng Babaeng Manggagawa The Story Behind the Woman Worker Hunter College-Lang Recital Hall WWW.FIRENYC.ORG Hunter College-Lang Recital Hall 695 Park Ave. New York, NY.10065 Buy your tickets now!!! https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/148331 Since February 2010,…
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Epifanio De Los Santos
Context: I just got back from the Philippines. Like. Yesterday. All of us climbed into a van headed to Quezon City, all 12 of us. As we passed by “Our Lady of Peace” and made a right onto Edsa, my sister, Alexie, asked our aunt, MamaNes, “What is that?” She began to tell us the…
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Un-Warren-ted Assumptions
Last week, wrote a bit about the Filipino nurses in California, via California Nurses’ Association (CNA) filing a lawsuit against California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) about hiring discrimination against Filipino nurses. After the news of this discrimination suit spread through local and national circuits, Warren Browner, the CEO of CPMC released the below letter to…
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IWA!
My organization, Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment (FiRE) (see http://www.firenyc.org), just went on a summer field trip to Montreal to participate in the Montreal International Women’s Conference and the founding assembly of anti-imperialist, grassroots women’s organizations from around the world, called International Women’s Alliance! This is what happened in Montreal last weekend: There are more…
VFM 