archive of January, 2009
“Filipinos love America and what we can say is that it’s so easy to have twenty-twenty vision on hindsight when all this easy money policy was going. [It was] very good for the world, everybody’s G.D.P. and our G.D.P. because we had alot of remittances coming from America.” ~ Philippine President Gloria Arroyo in World Economic Forum ~ January 31, 2009
my translation: ‘We love America because our expatriates there have been able to send so much money back to our country.’ »→
Thinking of the kind donations from JoAnn Porter, Kathy Geller, Shannon Fairlie, and Lisa Edwards for library books for Baguio Gold Elementary School:
“Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, it is their only capital.” . ~ Thomas Jefferson
First several photos were made aboard buses traveling from Baguio City to Dagupan to Bolinao
China welcomed a new calendar year at 3:56 p.m. GMT+8. This afternoon, boy scouts, girls scouts, and elementary school bands in Baguio City paraded down Session Road to celebrate China’s new year. I don’t know why. China has never ruled the Philippines. Filipinos aren’t descended from Chinese. Baguio City isn’t in a Chinese colony.
Rather than watch a pathetic parade in Baguio, I walked from downtown to Camp John Hay’s Eco-trail then past the Country Club, past The Mansion and into Itogon to home, as I’ve done about twenty times. On the Eco-trail I saw more trash than ever, people sleeping (camping?), Korean tourists lounging and snacking …
Today I spent $162 donated from some parishioners of Saint Dominic Parish to buy reference books and story books for Baguio Gold Elementary School in Tuding, Itogon. The principal, Nestor Asiong had written a wish list, and the librarian had phoned me to come to the school to get the list. »→
Olongapo City is a smelly, dirty, garbage-strewn, humid, polluted city of 227,000 people in 43,000 homes in Zambales Province. The name Olongapo is derived from the Tagalog phrase “Ulo ng Apo,” which came from “olo nin apo,” meaning “head of the elder.”
James Bong and family members before him have ruled Olongapo City for decades. I saw photos of “Bong” on banners everywhere that we went on foot and by jeepney in Olongapo. Guess who has paid for all the banners. Maybe the taxpayers …
I watch one or two or three movies per month, on DVD or in a lousy Baguio theater. Haven’t watched television for months. Last week I considered watching Lawrence of Arabia, then I noticed that the running time was 217 minutes. I slid the DVD back on the shelf. »→
Despite a lousy, slow Dagupan bus trip from Cubao, I arrived alive in Baguio City and joined Jasmine Fox’s birthday party. Now I’m back in Tuding, past 10 p.m., hearing dozens of dogs barking and the drunk next-door neighbor shrieking at his wife. I sincerely hope that the dogs cease bellowing so that I can sleep. I didn’t buy any tear-gas grenades in Manila. I wish that people had cooked some dogs while I was gone.
Hello from Makati City. I’m drinking Chai tea on a patio outside a Gloria Jean’s Coffees shop. I recently went with Kuya Sel to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Health Administration outpatient clinic beside Roxas Boulevard in Pasay City. I will return to it this afternoon, and I’ll also visit the headquarters of The Jeepney magazine. I also hope to visit a camera- and lens-repair shop in Cubao. Thanks to Jeff Long, Sel and The Jeepney magazine staff, including Reah, for hospitality.
More Americans lost their jobs in 2008 than in any year since World War Two.
The nation’s unemployment rate rose to 7.2% in December. That’s the highest jobless rate in 16 years.
In 2008, in U.S.A., 2.6 million jobs were lost, including 632,000 in December alone! More than half of the job losses – 1.9 million – were in the last four months of the year. »→
If you need to go to the Bureau of Immigration field office in Baguio City, Philippines, note that it has relocated to 38 Military Cutoff Road, south of Panagbenga Park and Camp John Hay. The building in which the Bureau of Immigration rents space bears no Bureau of Immigration sign, of course. The building does not show the number 38, either. Welcome to the Philippines. »→
I enjoyed a very quiet night at home alone yesterday. I didn’t hear chickens crowing and dogs barking their heads off hour after hour. Aside from the sounds of a mouse roaming the apartment, the night was so peaceful, as was this morning. Now Dominic has returned from Sagada in Mountain Province, and the wiener dogs in the redneck compound behind us have resumed their braying.
The flat that I returned to is nicely clean and laundry is done. It’s also squeaky because a little brown mouse has moved in while Dominic and I were in Sagada. I think that it’s in Dominic’s bedroom now. I’ve heard it squeaking behind me for hours, and I startled it a while ago when I moved the refrigerator to see if he was hiding under it. That was its dark hiding place. I guess that it’s squeaking in frustration because it has nothing to eat and no mouse friends in here. I don’t know how it came in. I hope that it can find its way to the front doorway tomorrow, because I’ll leave it open for a while.
Every time we travel from Baguio City to Sagada, Dominic and I see a hundred “Vulcanizing” signs all along Halsema Highway. I guess that the booths, shacks and stalls recap or retread truck tires. Every day in Baguio City we see jeepneys rolling on recapped tires. Twice I’ve been on a Tuding Express jeepney that’s suffered a tire failure. On Wednesday when Dominic and I rode a GL /Lizardo bus toward Sagada, a rear tire’s tread suddenly delaminated, sidelining the bus for several minutes. »→
After breakfast I wanted to walk awhile to enjoy autumn-like weather and perhaps see vacant houses available for rent. I walked south through Sagada and Suyo, all the way to the river. I made a few photos of the only good-looking, vibrant green rice paddy, a caribao, farmers, a school and an Episcopalian church. »→
I had a night of fitful sleep in George Guest House Annex, due to overnight pyrotechnics, pressurized cans exploding in fires, gunfire and the room’s wood window frames and glass panes rattling repeatedly in the wind. »→
