New on Holy Week

As the Christian world takes a breather for Holy Week, we'd like to invite San Francisco Bay Area residents to watch "An Open Door: Jewish Rescue in the Philippines," an award-winning documentary by Noel Izon on how the Philippines opened its doors to more than a thousand Jews rescued from Europe in the early years of WWII. A touching affirmation of love and brotherhood featuring the children of the survivors, this film will be shown for the first time for free on April 15. Seats are limited so click on this link right now for details.

We don't usually do Q&As, but we couldn’t resist one with Walden Bello, who recently resigned as congressman because he could no longer support his party's (Akbayan) uncritical support for the Aquino administration, following President PNoy's skirting of responsibility for the Mamasapano tragedy. Walden is always worth reading, and this interview shines new light on some aspects of the controversy that has been glossed over by media.

And speaking of controversy, writer/professor Peter Bacho shares some pretty strong views about Filipino Americans and the issue of identity, in this profile by regular contributor Anthony Maddela. In "Peter Bacho, Pessimistic Sage," the author of Boxing In Black and White states that “Young Filipinos are not interested in the past; they are not intellectually curious, so I have no real desire to explain [the Filipino experience], to be honest.” Read the story to get the full context of this controversial statement.

Starting with this issue, we're posting a recipe a week to help you with your menu planning for your family. We start off with Elizabeth Ann Quirino's Filipino Fish Stew in Ginger Broth with Tomatoes and Spinach, a perfect Holy Week treat that I can personally attest to as delicious. If you have a recipe that you want to share, please send it in. Read the intro to The Happy Home Cook on how to do it.

And in observance of Holy Week, we've gathered some pictures of rituals and images from our contributing photographers, Marites Falcon, Brian Aguilar Agana and our art director, Raymond Virata.

More Holy Week traditions are featured in our Video of the Week.

In my blog, I focus on a trending topic in the Philippines: divorce, or the lack of it.