Now/here no/where woman

Everybody's talking trash these days. It's a bit late to jump on the bandwagon, but I must, lest I be "sunctioned" by our barangay chairperson, who issued an administrative order with instructions for waste segregation last month: Tie a red ribbon around garbage bags containing "nabubulok". Tie a blue ribbon around garbage bags containing "biodegradables or garbage that can be sold". (Ha? What part of the 3 R's did I not get?) Tie a yellow ribbon around garbage bags containing "residuals or di nabubulok". Tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree. At last! At last! At last! Baguio is implementing a serious waste management program! (But I can't help but wonder, what's the barangay going to do with all those ribbons?) At last! At last! At last! All the waste segregation my mother drummed into our skulls since early childhood will actually mean something beyond the gates of our home! But the all or nothing style of...

My post on Stand Up Against Poverty unexpectedly got a debate started on whether or not people in Baguio are poor! Are we or are we not? Are they or are they not? Are you or are you not? Lisa wrote a long piece on her blog, re-examining her definition of poor , and explaining her own attitudes towards 'it'. Be sure to read the comments too! Here is what Stand Up Against Poverty is all about. I think it's a little bit more than just a worldwide whine. I've read several relevant posts by Bill Bilig, that may not deal with the definition of poverty directly but this post on vegetable farmers and this post on hunger, for example, add on more dimensions to the way we could approach a debate on 'poor or not'. Comments on Bill's blog are also well worth the extra minutes. My own piso-mind shall remain in the comments boxes. I do not feel entitled to speak on the matter at length, although I know people who could speak from experience and I wish they wo...

I love that word. In the market today I checked out the Stand Up Against Poverty concert organized by Baguio's Primary Eventologist for Socially Relevant Events, Frank Cimatu . It took a long time for the sound system to be set up to the satisfaction of the musicians, so for a long time every one was just on Stand By, not knowing what they were Standing Around For or Against. When the sound system was finally ready, emcee Choy explained that they were there to make a statement against poverty and to demand that the government take concrete actions to make poverty history in the Philippines. At first there was no reaction from the men and women standing in the crowd in their aprons and rubber boots, who had just taken a break from scrubbing carrots. But when the petition was passed around people readily signed it. The crowd applauded when the band Binhi took the stage, made of several comboys' karitons. The party against poverty began. Elsewhere, Environment Secretary...

One of my most favorite poems: Wild Geese You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles in the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on. Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers. Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again. Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -- over and over announcing your place in the family of things. by Mary Oliver

"This year's theme is the environment." "On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future." Yeah right, says my cynic voice. The environment is not just a day's theme, or a month's theme, or a year's theme, or a decade's theme, or a theme park we know as "Nature". It's the atis I had for breakfast. It's the stench of the neighbor's burning garbage every evening. It's the sound of rivers rushing and cars roaring. It's the triumph of getting what we want, and the anguish of losing what we love. Ashes to ashes. It's you. It's me. It's all of us and we're all of it and we're full of shit.

Almost daily.