Categories
Parenting

All I want for Christmas

I saw this photo on a friend’s timeline and it reminded me of all the gifts I asked for when I got married. We purposely did not have a gift registry because we were going to live with Mom. Her house is fully equipped and we did not really need anything new. Plus, we were […]

Categories
Gems of History

Parian in Cebu

The Parian of Manila is by far the most known district the Spanish colonizers had restricted the Chinese in the Philippines to during their four-century rule. Outside of the city, however, were other thriving, albeit less known parians. Several of them were home to not only the Chinese but also Chinese mestizos.Two parians I came […]

Categories
Life

Ambassador Howard Q. Dee (李景欣): Servant of his faith, exemplary citizen of his country

For “his quietly heroic half-century of service to the Filipino people, his abiding dedication to the pursuit of social justice and peace in achieving dignity and progress for the poor, and his being, by his deeds, a true servant of his Faith and an exemplary citizen of his nation,” Ambassador Howard Q. Dee was conferred […]

Categories
Life

Howard Q. Dee: My lamppost in peacebuilding

It was at the Peace Commission in the late 1980s that I first came to meet Ambassador Howard Q. Dee, or HQD as we often refer to him. Fresh out of graduate school, I was a very diligent staff reporting to then Cabinet Secretary for Rural Development Edilberto De Jesus under the Aquino Administration. I […]

Categories
Idioms...Hokkien style

When words fail, use idioms… Hokkien style (73)

Hokkien, on the tongues of Tsinoys, has grown and evolved, taking on a life of its own. Sometimes words simply fail us. With some creativity, Tsinoys have strung together words to form colorful phrases that simply hit the bull’s eye. Here are some expressions unique to Hokkien as favored by Tsinoys. 請鬼醫病 tsnia kui ee […]

Categories
Life

HQD: a father, a grandfather, a great-grandfather

I recall attending a convention on philanthropy with my mom and dad in Singapore. He was speaking to one of the organizers and mentioned he disliked the title of philanthropist. He felt the word has an undertone of a hierarchy between rich donors and those in need. He preferred to see himself as a social […]

Categories
Tsinoy Beats and Bytes

News that bothers me

I have been in and out of circulation for the past three weeks. Backtracking news reports, I found, to my regret, a number of disturbing happenings that make me question where recent events are leading us. Shabu disappears Media reported that former Bureau of Customs (BOC) Commissioner Isidro Lapeña was promoted to Cabinet rank on […]

Categories
Health

Advance Directives

Choices regarding medical care are generally within our control. However, there may be times when we are unable to make decisions ourselves, due to illness or incapacity. Therefore, planning for when we cannot make important medical decisions is crucial. An advance health care directive has two parts: • The living will give family members and […]

Categories
Kaisa Page

Kaisa sends relief to Benguet families displaced by typhoon Ompong

Kaisa Para Sa Kaunlaran sent two teams to give relief and aid to several remote barangays in Benguet province from Oct. 9 to 21. The first team was funded by Disaster Relief Fund, Government of HKSAR People’s Republic of China through The Amity Foundation (中國香港特區政府賑災基金 愛德基金會救援行動). About 2,300 relief packs each worth an average of […]

Categories
Idioms...Hokkien style

When words fail, use idioms… Hokkien style (72)

Hokkien, on the tongues of Tsinoys, has grown and evolved, taking on a life of its own. Sometimes words simply fail us. With some creativity, Tsinoys have strung together words to form colorful phrases that simply hit the bull’s eye. Here are some expressions unique to Hokkien as favored by Tsinoys. 出世無縛手 tsut-si bo pak […]