After a short rainfall or two, the road that led to my partner M’s hometown just outside Manila would turn into a long stretch of potholes. Then a campaign and much fanfare, and the potholes would be “fixed” by the contractor who offered the biggest bribe. Whatever watered-down crap they used as [...]
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Posted in Philippines, human rights, immigration, social justice, tagged domestic workers, Filipinas, immigration, Juana Tejada, overseas foreign workers, Philippines on June 20, 2008 | 1 Comment »
After posting this entry on domestic workers, I learned of the case of Juana Tejada, a Filipina caregiver working under the Canadian federal Live-In Caregiver Program (LCP). She came to Canada in 2003, fulfilled the LCP’s stringent requirements, and was applying for permanent residency in 2006, when she was diagnosed with stage 4 lung [...]
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Posted in Filipino Americans, Philippines, globalization, human rights, immigration, race, social justice, women, tagged DAMAYAN, domestic workers, Jocelyn Dulnuan, National Domestic Workers Congress, overseas foreign workers, Philippines, race on June 20, 2008 | 2 Comments »
In October 2007, Jocelyn Dulnuan was found dead with multiple stab wounds inside the Mississauga mansion where she worked as a live-in caretaker. She was 27 years old, a native of Ifugao province.
Jocelyn migrated through the Canadian government’s Live-In Caregiver Program (LCP), a program which has been heavily criticized by groups like the [...]
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Posted in Body politics and representations, Filipino Americans, Good reads, Philippines, race, social justice, tagged Blood of Government, Paul Kramer, Philippine history, Philippine-American war, Philippines, race on June 18, 2008 | 12 Comments »
“The Filipino people are the most pro-American people, maybe even more pro-American than the Americans themselves.”
Ladies and gentlemen, that was our President Gloria Arroyo, with a candid description of how she regards her country’s former colonizers. And she’s hardly alone in this attitude. Many Filipinos do promote this idea of a westernized Philippines, [...]
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Posted in Philippines, globalization, social justice, women, tagged feminism, indigenous, intersectionality, mining, Philippines, politics, women on June 12, 2008 | 4 Comments »
Following is from Vernie Yocogan-Diano’s column “Violence against indigenous women related to land rights“:
Mining as a concrete form of development aggression imposes greater violence against indigenous women. We are displaced from our major role in sustainable agricultural production, conservation of resources and subsistence food production. We are displaced from our role as holders of [...]
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Posted in Philippines, human rights, social justice, women, tagged activism, contraception, contraception ban, manila, Philippines, reproductive health, reproductive justice, reproductive rights, women on June 7, 2008 | 2 Comments »
I previously wrote about how an estimated ten to twelve women in the Philippines die everyday due to complications related to pregnancy and childbirth. So it made me happy to read that in Carmen, a small town in the central Philippine province of Bohol, there has only been one maternal death in the [...]
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Posted in Philippines, feminist theory, human rights, social justice, women, tagged feminicide, human rights violations, overseas contract workers, Philippines, political killings on June 2, 2008 | 4 Comments »
It’s been almost two months since the murder of Honiefaith Ratilla Kamiosawa, a Filipina waitress working in Japan. Much of the sensationalist news coverage focused on the details of her murder, mutilation, and dismemberment. Her death was painted as an isolated incident, a cautionary tale for Filipina overseas contract workers.
I argue that her [...]
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