This IS a Feminist Issue

As a Pinay feminist, should I be concerned with globalization in my homeland? With neoliberal economic development policies that address poverty in my country through privatization, trade liberalization, and integrating into a world economy controlled by the Group of Eight?
Hell yeah, this is a feminist issue.
Excerpts from a paper by Ligaya Lindio-McGovern:
[Trade liberalization] destroys [...]

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Feminism and Race in the Philippines

Over at Racialicious, Latoya Peterson has a great post and discussion on whether feminism has to address race. I was thinking about this in the case of the Philippines, where I grew up and where first identified as a feminist as a teenager, almost two decades ago.
My feminism initially aimed to tackle issues like the [...]

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Yellow Road

When struggling against allies gets tiring, there’s nothing like a trail run in springtime.

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Good Reads: Fit to Be Citizens? by Natalia Molina

In Fit to Be Citizens?, Natalia Molina gives a thorough but engaging account of how public health discourse was deployed to exclude non-white immigrants and institutionalize racism in the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Los Angeles. Clothed under the aura of scientific objectivity, she illustrates how “diseased” immigrants—starting with Chinese launders, then Japanese farmers, [...]

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“Closing the Gender Gap”

Some highlights from the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Report for 2007:
“The Philippines (6) and Sri Lanka (15) remain distinctive for being the only Asian countries in the top 20 of the rankings. The Philippines is once again the only country in Asia to have closed the gender gap on both education and health and [...]

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Rice is Life

During the lean times of his Manila childhood, my partner M remembers meals of rice sprinkled with a little toyo for flavor. His mom shares her own childhood memories of rice with coconut milk for lunch and dinner. Our cousin Kuya Jun remembers meals of rice and cononut meat.
These were meals during times [...]

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“Human Security”

Forced abductions and disapperances were a staple of the Marcos dictatorship. These disappearances continue under the Arroyo government, a staunch ally of the Bush administration’s War Against Terror.
Today, April 12, marks that first year anniversary of the abduction of Maria Luisa Posa-Dominado, a former political detainee under the Marcos government. Luisa is the [...]

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First World Manila

A few months ago, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo announced that the country would reach “first world status within a generation.” Possibly within my lifetime. Already, a simple Google search yields hyper-realistic renderings of Manila as a “first world” city, with networks of freeways, special economic zones, and call centers. There are [...]

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Two Steps Forward

Last semester, our history class trooped out of the classroom into a nearby courtyard for a class activity on privilege. You know, the one that goes, “If you have immediate family members who are doctors, lawyers, or similar professionals, take a step forward. If you had over forty books in your home when you were [...]

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Hello world!

This blog and I are both works in progress.

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