The ASEAN in New York

Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III, nicknamed PNoy to mean President Noynoy, has come back home to the Philippines with a portfolio containing a $434-m grant to "alleviate poverty and fight corruption", American investors' commitments to do business here, memories that include his $54 worth of hotdog treats to his delegation at a street food stall in middle Manhattan, and a lot of cheerios from Pinoys pursuing their American dreams from New York to California.

We have no idea who else among ASEAN heads of state went street foodie in New Yowk midtown but we're quite certain they didn't have to compare themselves to predecessors who had lavish meals at expensive restaurants in the Big Apple.

We're delighted--and we're grinning ear to ear--that he gave a pasalubong of ticking firecrackers to the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and their alliance of manangs and manongs from Aparri to Jolo.  Mabuhay to Reproductive Health, PNoy! 

There's this no-need-for-an apology-from-the-USA regarding the Philippine flag being displayed as if we're at war (see the pictures here, the red on top).  PNoy frets that the issue is being rubbed in by people who have nothing else to do (walang magawa!). Well, he'll be at war with the bishops soon.

We thought it was serendipity that had PNoy standing right beside His Excellency Barack Obama in this 'must' group picture during the US-ASEAN Leaders Summit because the host American President should be between the 5th and 6th Asean member; that is, Laos and Malaysia. 

Did the ASEAN Leaders endorse PNoy's call for 'global people power to fight poverty'?

The protocol is evident in the arrangement of the ASEAN members' flags, which are flanked by host Stars-and-Stripes and the ASEAN flag:  Brunei, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. 

Serendipity? Could be, but we're told that PNoy should be next to the host because the Philippines chairs the US-ASEAN Leaders Summit.  Anyway, that pose could have enabled PNoy to ask for a cigarette break with the O.  And they did have a short tete-a-tete, seven minutes! It's unlikely they enjoyed a good puff, mentholated or not.

Nanyang Siang Pau, Malaysia

Flags of ASEAN member states.

ASEAN Emblem.

 Sources:

1.   Flags of ASEAN member states.  Retrieved from http://www.retire-asia.com/asia-destinations.shtml 

2.   ASEAN Emblem. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_the_Association_of_Southeast_Asian_Nations

"Mono Jojoy"

"Finally, he fell!" - Q'hubo, Columbia (24 Sept)

We were wondering if "Mono Jojoy" and the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), the Marxist-Leninist guerrilla arm of the Colombian Communist Party, would be ideological relatives of the NPA (Bagong Hukbong Bayan or New People's Army) and its kumanders in the Philippines.

We looked for some patriotic or revolutionary meaning of this alias but found none although we learned that "mono" refers to a monkey in Spanish.  May be it was a term of endearment of FARC supporters for "Jorge Briceño Suárez", another alias of the real Victor Julio Suarez Rojas. He's thought to be the FARC's most revered and yet feared general who headed the Eastern Bloc, said to be the most powerful fighting division.

He was dead at 57 on Thursday, September 23, two days after the Colombian military, the police and the Ministry of Defense launched Operation Sodom (does this mean, "take them from behind?") 200 miles south of Bogota.  This is how BBC (Sept 25) described the assault:

"In the early hours of Wednesday 22 September, 78 aircraft headed for the area known as La Escalera in the Macarena mountain range in Meta province. They dropped dozens of bombs on Mono Jojoy's camp, which Defence Minister Rodrigo Rivera has described as "the mother of all lairs" for its size and the number of hidden tunnels it had. About 400 members of the Colombian special forces then abseiled from helicopters and surrounded the camp. After hours of fighting, another 400 soldiers and police moved in on the camp, taking it in the early hours of Thursday morning. General Javier Florez, the commander of the joint task force leading the attack, said his men were able to identify Mono Jojoy by his scars, eye colour and the fact he carried insulin for his diabetes."

And this is how Hoy (25 Sept) of Ecuador illustrated the Sodoma:

"GPS in Mono's boots gave him away"

 There were two causes of Mono Jojoy's fall:  treachery--a deep penetration agent (a police sergeant) in his unit for the past two years--and modern technology--a GPS chip embedded in his boots.  Thus, his physical whereabouts was known far and wide by the military.

"Traitor and hidden GPS ended Mono Jojoy" - inside page, Las Ultimas Noticias, Chile (25 Sept)

"Jojoy's boots guided the bombs"- Q'hubo, Colombia (25 Sept)

"A chip betrays Mono Jojoy" - La Hora, Ecuador (25 Sept)

  

"Secret hero pursued Jojoy" - El Tiempo, Colombia (26 Sept)

"Two years of infiltration .." - El Mercurio, Chile (26 Sept)

 "The FARC has faced serious setbacks in recent years," Colombia Reports said, "with high-level commander "Raul Reyes" killed by a Colombian air strike on Ecuadorean territory in March 2008. The group's founder and supreme leader "Manuel Marulanda" died of natural causes in 2008. An airstrike by the Colombian armed forces on Sunday killed FARC commander "Domingo Biojo," political leader of the organization's 48th Front, along with at least 26 other rebels. Current supreme commander "Alfonso Cano" remains at large."

Below is the roster of top-level FARC officials who have fallen since "Sonia" was captured in February in 2004:

El Salvador, Colombia (24 Sept)

Sources:

1.   "FARC commander "Mono Jojoy" killed. (2010, September 23). Colombia Reports.  Retrieved from http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/12002-mono-jojoy-killed-colombian-media.html

2.   "Colombian police examine Farc rebels' laptops." (2010, September 25).  News Latin America and Caribbean.  BBC Mobile. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11412720.

2.   Jerry McDermott. (2010, September 23). "My Meeting with Mono Jojoy".  News Latin America and Caribbean.  BBC Mobile. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11402694.

What America read last Sunday: things Alpha to Omega!

We were just curious today to see what Americans read this Sunday while enjoying an early cup of hot brewed coffee, or having a late breakfast of what hotels the world over tag as American continental - pancake or bread and butter/jam/jelly, token crispy slices of bacon, egg(s), apple, milk, or munching something at a McDo/KFC/Burger King stand.

Thanks to the Newseum, we get to browse through 351 front pages of American newspapers everyday.  This Sunday, the prominent fare comprised the present preoccupations of the American public: the state elections, budget cuts and new taxes, health care issues, among other political hot items, and of course, the latest football game results.  

There were interesting stories as well--usually boxed with catching illustrations--played up prominently on Page One of newspapers from the west to the east coast, and from these we chose ten (1), which we think are worth a second reading as soon as we've downloaded them all from the papers' websites.

 

The list begins with an Alpha story from the Modesto Bee of California--the hot issue of evolution--and ends with an Omega story from The Record of Stockton, CA--the end of the world, which a religious group believes to have began.  The others have no religious undertone at all; they're more, shall we say, about affections and afflictions of mortals that walk on this earth between the crib and the grave.

For this selection, we excluded one on the silent invasion of American households by bedbug armies. We put in another about the stink bugs that are making citizens of West Chester, Pennsylvania pinch their noses because of their awful smell. They're all crawling on page one of the Daily Local News, which qualifies that these are edible in Laos though.

The Tribune of Greeley, Colorado gave us a visual treat of cats, which immediately reminded us of Cats the musical, but these are incidental to the story.  This is about people who have this certain affliction: hoarding these felines.

The Orange County Register of Santa Ana, California was on its 3rd installment about foreign-born immigrants in the USA, specifically those who have settled in this state.  "Who wins? Who loses?," it asks about the presence of 6 million immigrants  on California soil.

Race in the theater circuit was an issue played up by The Gazette of Colorado Springs.  This "drama of race" does not in anyway recall MLK's "I have a dream".  Our first glance told us it's just that there are not so many minorities available for theatrical work.

It took quite a long time before texting or SMS became addictive to Americans (the Pinoy were way ahead in this communications system, and in fact have developed quite a vocabulary for this medium).  We are not too sure if "sexting" is in the Pinoy lingo, but we are certain this word may eventually be in the Oxford dictionary.

It's the "sexting all the time" among adolescents in Anniston, Alabama that the Anniston Star is worried about.   These kids circulate among their friends pictures of themselves in dishabille, partly or fully.  

Which leads us to the next item featured in The Lewiston Tribune of Idaho:  men past their golden jubilee year building their muscles and showing them off in competition.  We don't think they do 'sexting' to display their bodies.

Men & women soldiers who go to fight a war would come home troubled even if they did not get wounded at all.  The trauma or "hidden wounds" are the subject of a 5-part story in The Fayetteville Observer of North Carolina.  The paper says suffering soldiers are demanding mental health services.

The last item we have is historical from The Las Vegas Review-Journal.  From this we gather that Las Vegas would not have been born and grew to be this glittering city on the desert if it were not for Hoover Dam, which was constructed 75 years ago.

 

'Portraits' of the American Bedbug ...

American bedbugs took big bytes/bites of the Express of the Washington Post and the Denver Post end of August, and we thought we'd never see them crawl on front pages again.

It seems though that a buggy invasion is going on, and this September, they've already 'occupied' Indiana, Ohio, Missouri and Tennessee.  This sounds quite cinematic; who knows there may be someone out there around Hollywood crafting a giant bedbug (ala Kingkong) story for a 3-D movie with an itchy-bitchy theme song.

Wondering how Pinoy immigrants (they're not strangers to surot) in America are coping with the social stigma that reportedly ensues from the sight of suspicious bite marks (they may be of mosquitoes) on body parts: they become pariah, they're cut off from guest lists, they can't even be hugged!. 

Ohio bedbug.

Another one from Ohio.

Tennessee bedbug (southerner!)

Indiana bedbugs.

Missouri bedbugs.
  

 Update:    05 November

"Viva Mexico!"

At the first hour of September 16, 2010, Mexico president Felipe Calderon delivered the opening salvo of the bicentennial celebrations all over the country at a fiesta multicolor in the capital city. 

He delivered the traditional "el grito de Dolores"--"Viva Mexico"--thrice, which recalled the cry of the people of Dolores two hundred years ago on September 16, 1810 when the Roman Catholic priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla tolled the church bells and led them to rise against Spain. For the next ten years, the Mexicans were at war for their independence; they got it in 1821.

Pictures of the opening ceremonies--a brilla espectaculo, said one paper-- were spread out in the front page of Mexican newspapers on bicentennial day itself. 

.

 

The next day, the print media had a different focus:  the country's military might displayed during the bicentennial parade.  If it was a consolation to a nation in party mood nationwide, there was no major encounter between the military and the drug cartel on that day.

This bicentenario reminds of ties that continue to bind Mexico and the Philippines, which most of the now generation are not even aware of, all because of Spain.

The history of Spain in these countries began in 1521.  Ferdinand Magellan landed in Mactan (was slain by Lapu-Lapu) but the colonization of las yslas Filipinas of more than three centuries would not start until Miguel Lopez de Legazpi arrived in 1564; and Hernan Cortez landed in Mexico, which became its colony Nueva España for 300 years following the fall of the Aztec empire and an almost complete obliteration of the indigenous people with sword, slavery, hunger and the unknown, untreatable diseases the conquerors brought with them.  

It's the Manila-Acapulco trade or the Galleon Trade from 1570 to 1815, using galleons made of hardwood cut and hauled down from Philippine forests by indios, and built by indio master shipbuilders, that left behind those binding ties.  More than 200 galleons sailed from Cavite with the last one, the Magallanes arriving in Acapulco in the midst of war. These were laden with products from the Philippines and Asia on their way to European markets, and manned by Tagalog-speaking indio seamen.

After a lay period of three months, the galleons returned with silver ingots from Mexican mines, which the Chinese liked as payment for their goods, and had Spanish-Mexicans and Mexican indians (like those who settled in Macabebe, Pampanga) on passage to serve the colonial government in Manila.  The crew were Mexicans--criollos, Spanish-Mexicans, Nahuatl Indians--and thus spoke Spanish and Nahuatl.   These Nahuatl Indians contributed words to Philippine vocabulary like tianggi, palenque, zacate, zapote. 

The galleons brought the "potato, maize, peanut, cacao, cashew nut, avocado, tomato, coffee, tobacco, indigo, maguey, papaya, pineapple, eggplant, cassava, decorative, medicinal, and flowering plants, shrubs, and trees" into the Philippine landscape, food table and herbal medicine bag. 

The long lay-over allowed the indio seamen to travel to other towns, to fall in love with local girls and start a Filipino-Mexican family.  And that explains why guinatang (fried fish cooked with coconut milk), tuba, ceviche (kilawin), ylang-ylang, mangga, among others are part of the Mexican cultural landscape.  It's also reported that houses in some areas of the Pacific coast have the basic bahay kubo design.

In the state of Guerrero where Acapulco is located, scholars have found around 300 Filipino family names.   It's no wonder then why Filipinos or Filipino-Mexicans were involved during the ten-year war of independence.

When the war broke out, a Filipino student from Manila, Ramon Fabie, was one of those arrested and executed.   General Vicente Guerrero, Mexico's first black president for a very short term, after whom the state was named, had "mostly colored" soldiers--chinos, Filipino-Mexicans, Filipinos newly arrived from Manila--in his army.  It's said that he had two Filipino aides when he surrendered in 1830. 

P.S.  The el grito sounds like the "Cry of Pugad Lawin" of August 23, 1896 although Andres Bonifacio did not shout "Viva Las Yslas Filipinas" or "Mabuhay ang Pilipinas" to launch the Philippine revolution. That armed struggle against Spain would not reach a decade, and this would be replaced by a new war, military and parliamentary, within and beyond the "age of imperialism" (1870-1920, according to the UMichigan) of the United States of America in the Philippines and it's other territories.

Front Page of California & Texas newspapers.

Sources:

1.   Agoncillo, Teodoro A. (1990). History of the Filipino People. 8th Edition. Quezon City: Garotech Publishing.

2.   "Mexican Independence Day, Mexico Bicentennial: The History of Mexico." Retrieved September 17, 2010 from News Provider: http://www.providingnews.com/mexico-bicentennial-the-history-of-mexico.html

3.   "RP, Mexico linked 250 years by galleon trade." Manila Bulletin. Manila Bulletin Publishing Corp. 2004. Retrieved from HighBeam Research: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-114372296.html

4.   "The Galleon Trade (1565-1815).(Opinion & Editorial)." Manila Bulletin. Manila Bulletin Publishing Corp. 2007. Retrieved from HighBeam Research: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-168637965.html

5.   Mercene, Floro L. (2004). "Filipinos in Mexico's fight for independence; Merry-Go-Round.(Opinion & Editorial)." Manila Bulletin. Manila Bulletin Publishing Corp. Retrieved from HighBeam Research: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-126595908.html 

6.  "The galleon trade.(Opinion)." Manila Bulletin. Manila Bulletin Publishing Corp. 2009. Retrieved September 17, 2010 from HighBeam Research: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-197502045.html

33 Chilean trapped miners celebrate their country's bicentennial

Last Saturday, 18 September, the whole of Chile--including the 33 miners trapped 750 meters under the earth--celebrated the 200th anniversary of their independence.  "Con gestos y espiritu de unidad," bannered the El Mercurio, "Chile mira al futuro y celebra sus 200 anos  (With action and spirit of unity, Chile looks at the future and celebrates its 200 years)."
 
The next day, the bottom picture, front page of Ultimas Noticias showed one miner dancing to the beat of "La Consentida," probably a popular song in Chile.  The inside feature said the 33 miners celebrated their bicentennial "pura alegria" (pure joy) as they sang loudly and danced ("cantaron a todo pulmon y hasta bailaron cueca"); they also hoisted their flag simultaneously with the ceremonies up on the earth above them.

El Mercurio said at the bottom of the page that the drilling machine has 624 meters below the earth, and is now in the final phase of the rescue operations.

The Hoy of Ecuador on the same day said the driller--commissioned by the Chilean military--has gone 630 meters down, and the front page had an illustration of the equipment with a description of its features: it's a steel plated and cylindrical; 2.5 meters tall - enough to accommodate one man; has an oxygen line, wheels for damping, an intercommunicator, bandages to prevent damage to the eyes, and a door coated with 3mm of transparent polycarbonate; and it's provided with a escape system in case the equipment gets stuck on the way - the person can open the bottom door and descends with a rope.

The miners shaved and wore red shirts during their celebration down under.  They may be home for Christmas!

Pinoys in America

This 12 September 2010 front page of the California newspaper below says it all: California runs on the sweat, blood and tears of immigrants.  State Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger himself, the body building champion from Graz in Austria, rose from being a Hollywood megastar to become the duly-elected California's head honcho.

Among these 9.8 million Californian immigrants were Filipinos, and are now Fil-Ams, but the same Pinoys like the countrymen they left behind in the other side of the globe.

"There were about 1.7 million foreign born from the Philippines residing in the United States in 2008," wrote Aaron Terrazas and Jeanne Batalova (April 2010) of the Migration Policy Institute, "and nearly half of the Filipino born resided in California."   Interesting information about the Filipino Immigrants in the United States from these authors are at the end of this article, and the details can be accessed through this hyperlink. 

The first documented immigrants were the "Luzones Indios" who landed in Morro Bay, California on October 18, 1587.  Almost 200 years later in 1763, the  first permanent settlement of Filipinos was set up in St. Malo Parish in Louisina. In 2006, the centennial of the first wave of Pinoy migrants -Ilokanos - recruited to work in the farms in Hawaii was commemorated with, among other events, a traveling exhibit from the Smithsonian Institution called Singgalot: The Ties That Bind about "the rich history of Filipinos in America, honoring early immigrant pioneers and the determined generations who came after them."

California was the crucible of Carlos Bulosan's America is in the Heart, which was about the pain and anguish of the Pinoys who struggled against discrimination in the fruit plantations and the canneries in Alaska. In 2002, this was distilled by Lonnie Carter into a play--Romance of Magno Rubio--and staged at the Ma-Yi Company Theater off-Broadway in New York City, and a Pilipino translation of it at the Cultural Center of the Phillippines in 2004.

Since we are a very frequent visitor of San Francisco, we've seen both the then and now presence of the Filipino character in California, from the ghosts of Jose Rizal in the Palace Hotel on Montgomery St, of the founding caballeros of the masonic lodges, and of the fallen defenders of the 1st Philippine Republic among the trophies of the Fil-Am war in the Presidio, to the stoic senior citizen guides in the SFo MoMA, the Pilipino-speaking sales people in Old Navy and other boutiques, the World War 2 veterans waiting in line for their food subsidies at the Bayahihan Center or huddling at McDo on Market St, and the homeless Pinoys on Mission St.   Always every Sunday, St Francis Church on Mission is the meeting house of Pinoys in San Francisco.  And in December, the Philippine parols of various design and color come out in festive procession to say that Philippine Christmas is alive and well-kept among the Pinoy families in America! 

It's no wonder then that Filipino visitors from the Philippines would immediately feel at home as soon as their planes land in San Francisco or Los Angeles; tt's as if they've just slept for twelve hours and woke to find themselves still in Manila now teeming with foreigners. They see brown skin as they pass through Homeland Security into the waiting areas; hear typical Philippine dialect accents on the streets, groceries, department stores, museums, wherever; smell the whiff of Pinoy condiments in restaurants and parties hosted by their friends or friends of friends; and since there are so many Pinoy migrants from particular sitios, barrios and towns in the Philippines, attend a California edition of fiestas organized to coincide with festivities back home.

-----------------------

Key Information Points from Filipino Immigrants in the United States (Terrazas and Batalova, 2010) based on data gathered from US Census Bureau's 2008 American Community Survey (ACS) and 2000 Decennial Census, and the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Immigration Statistics (OIS) for 2008:

"Size and Distribution

• There were about 1.7 million foreign born from the Philippines residing in the United States in 2008.
• Nearly half of the Filipino born resided in California.
• The Filipino born accounted for a large share of all immigrants in Western states.
• Between 2000 and 2008, three states saw the size of their Filipino immigrant population grow by 25,000 people or more.
• More than one-third of Filipino immigrants resided in three metropolitan areas.
• Filipinos were two of every five immigrants in Honolulu.
• There were 2.9 million members of the Filipino diaspora residing in the United States in 2008, including 1.4 million native-born US citizens of Filipino ancestry.

"Demographic and Socioeconomic Overview

• Over one-quarter of all Filipino foreign born in the United States arrived in 2000 or later.
• Almost two-thirds of Filipino immigrants in 2008 were adults of working age.
• Filipino immigrant women outnumbered men in 2008.
• Filipino immigrants were much more likely than other immigrant groups to be naturalized US citizens.
• Less than one-third of Filipino immigrants in 2008 were limited English proficient.
• A minority of limited English proficient Filipinos did not speak Tagalog, one of the national languages of the Philippines.
• Over three-quarters of Filipino foreign-born adults had some college education or higher.
• Filipino immigrant women were more likely to participate in the civilian labor force than foreign-born women overall.
• Almost one-third of employed Filipino-born men worked in health-care support or in construction, extraction, and transportation.
• Nearly one of every four employed Filipino-born women worked as a registered nurse.
• Filipino immigrants were far less likely to live in poverty than other immigrant groups.
• Filipino immigrants were more likely than other immigrants to own their own home, but they were also more likely to have a mortgage.
• One in 10 Filipino immigrants did not have health insurance.
• About 87,000 Filipino immigrants have served in the US Armed Forces.

"Legal and Unauthorized Filipino Immigrant Population

• The Filipino foreign born accounted for about 4.5 percent of all lawful permanent residents living in the United States in 2008.
• More than half a million Filipinos gained lawful permanent residence in the United States between 1999 and 2008.
• Over half of Filipino-born lawful permanent residents in 2008 were admitted as the immediate relatives of US citizens.
• Filipino-born lawful permanent residents made up 3.7 percent of all those eligible to naturalize as of 2008.
• In 2009, 2 percent of all unauthorized immigrants in the United States were from the Philippines.
• The number of unauthorized immigrants from the Philippines increased by one-third between 2000 and 2009." 

------------------

References:

No author. (2009, Sept 10). California declares Filipino American History Month.  San Francisco Business Times. Retrieved from http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2009/09/07/daily59.html.

Terrazas, A. & Batalova, J. (2010, April). Filipino Immigrants in the United States. Migration Information Source.  Retrieved from the Migration Policy Institute at http://www.migrationinformation.org/USFocus/display.cfm?ID=777.

Front Page Caricatures

We love to see caricatures hug front pages.  These two below have something to do with faith, strong or faltering.

Fidel Castro in the waning years of his life seems to have said his valedictory to the revolution he led and nurtured through the years in his Cuba.  "Has aging Fidel turned away from revolution?," the National Post of the UK asked.  He was saying his revolution failed.

What could Hugo Chavez be thinking about Fidel's faltering faith in his own brand of socialism? A donde vas, senores?

Reverend Terry Jones's faith is of the contra mundum kind.  The German newspaper was looking at him as a Christian with a time-bomb cross if he carried out his plan to burn copies of the Holy Quran on 9/11.  He and the Muslim suicide bombers are brothers of the same faith: extremism.

On the eve of 9/11, he canceled his plan, but we read that it still gestates in his mind until the mosque idea gets transplanted some place else away from Ground Zero.

Nine years ago on 9/11 ...

From this distance, we could feel the tension as people gathered to commemorate the ninth anniversary of 9/11 around Ground Zero last Friday.  It didn't help that the Reverend Terry Jones of Florida canceled his plan to burn copies of the Holy Quran to protest the proposal to build a mosque a few blocks away.

9/11 was front page stuff in America around that date with accompanying pictures of the burning Twin Towers, the twin commemorative lights, American flags and other evocative memorials.

The 9/12 Newsday front page spread of a single rosebud below reminds us of a similar picture we took at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington DC in the late 1990s.   There is always a rose to tuck on the grave of the dear departed as a message of love and peace in times of war or peace.

That day nine years ago, we were set to go buy a discounted ticket for the Broadway play 'The Producer' at the Tkts booth at the World Trade Center.  We were having coffee in Queens when we saw on TV the burning tower after the first plane struck.  We knew there was something deliberate and sinister when the second plane hit the next tower.  All hell broke loose in the house when the towers came down; there was weeping since there could be friends who got trapped there and perished.

The trains stood still, and there was no way for us to go to Lower Manhattan.  We could only watch the anguish of the city and America on TV all throughout the day. Pretty soon, we were checking with Amtrak if we can escape from New York, and yes, the trains would be running the next day.  

It was a long trip to Boston.  From the windows of the train as it exited to New Jersey from Upper Manhattan, we could see the smoke and/or dust cloud still rising from the smouldering rubble of the twin towers. And then before we reach Providence in Rhode Island, the train stopped on its tracks, still far off the station. There's some technical problem, we were told every now and then.  But we knew what was happening from the mobile phones: the world outside our train was telling us that another train bound for New York had been stopped in Providence to ferret out terrorist suspects who could be on board. 

We had lunch at the WTC the day before, and we had fun watching tourists getting their souvenir shots with the twin towers in the background.  We could imagine how the two young Frenchmen would be telling about their great effort to capture the entirety of the tallest structures at that time and with them, even if a bit distorted as they took turns lying down to shoot, in the picture.  We guess those pictures are very much treasured now, and had been passed around each time they reminisce about their last look of the WTC.

 

Ten years earlier, we spent six months at the 89th floor of the second tower studying health physics and radiation exposure management with EBASCO in preparation for the operation of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP).  Everyday we commuted via the A train from 132nd W to Cortland at the foot of the towers. We got on the express elevator to the 64th floor, and boarded another one for the 89th, and these rides took just a few minutes.

In our mind, we still see the large tapestry hanging at the lobby, at our back when we get on the elevator.  It was created by Joan Miro in 1974, who had to learn to weave to do it.  We're digging up our photo files because we know there is at least a couple of shots we took of one of works of art that perished on 9/11.

We had our back to the glass window.  It was not because we had fear of heights; in fact, we enjoyed looking at the top of other skyscrapers and the ant-like movement of people on the streets far and wide.  What got us was that the towers swayed on windy days.  We could see the vertical steel frames of the tower windows swinging when viewed against the neighboring tall buildings.

We'd remember the towers for one other reason.  We almost won the city lotto bought from one of the magazine stalls at the basement there, and we were sleepless for days because we missed one number.  Sad to tell, nobody told me--not even the Pinoys who have been New Yorkers for years--that yes, there is money in five numbers.

Autumn is here!

The grapes are being harvested and pressed in the wineries. The butterflies and the bees are enjoying the last nectars, and pretty soon the birds will be seeking out warmer climes.

Autumn is coming!

Soon the monarch butterfly will fly somewhere else!

Prospects for great wines!

It's time to plan the fall foliage tours in New England with stop-overs at country shops selling herbal wellness things, fruit jams and jellies.  Years ago, we enjoyed the red, orange and yellow panorama of autumn leaves on board a steamboat that cruised on the Mississippi river.

Then the leaves fall. And you bring out the rakes.  Then the chill in the air, and soon the Haunted Happenings in Salem, MA with the witches coming out in procession on Halloween.

"Eid mubarak! May your religious holiday be blessed!"

To our Muslim friends here and abroad, our warmest greetings on this their blessed day of Eid al-Fitr:  Eid mubarak!

Going home for the Hari Raya!

We hope our friends in Jakarta and Malaysia were able to board the trains, or to book a flight, or to navigate their cars through the crowded highways, and reach their home towns and villages in time to enjoy the Hari Raya Puasa (the Bahasa term for the Eid) with their families! 

Yesterday, the New York Times broke the news that the Florida Christian minister has canceled his plan to burn Korans on 9/11, and would meet with the imam who proposed to build a mosque near ground zero.  Great thanks to the Divine Providence, the Almighty God that the minister saw His Light!

Christian leaders oppose the Florida minister's plan.

That it came on the eve of the Eid was a magnificent message of peace, love and reconciliation to brother Muslims all over the world who will celebrate today the end of their 30-day fasting with a festive sharing of meals with their friends and families, and of blessings with the poor in their communities.  

To Christians like us, this is very much like our celebration of Christmas. 

Eid mubarak! Peace be with us all, and may we never get to see front pages like these below ever again!