Go Slow and Easy

It's going to be a slow and quiet holiday season this year, especially in the US, where the galloping numbers of covid cases and deaths have united health professionals and public officials (except for a minority) in pleading for people to stay home and forego multi-family gatherings and travel. 

So between Zoom, Netflix and doing the stuff that gets you from one day to the next, we hope you'll spend time to peruse the stories, hundreds of them now, that we have posted since we started Positively Filipino in 2013. PF, as you are well aware, is an online-only magazine, thus all our posts are permanently stored on the web, available 24/7/365 to anyone who wants to read them.

If you're a new subscriber, PF posts new stories every Wednesday such as today. Our target readership are Filipinos all over the world, aka the diaspora, and we try to reflect that wide variety of interests in the equally wide variety of stories that we curate. If you click on our site, http://www.positivelyfilipino.com/ and click on Collections, you'll see the categories of articles that we cover. For quick look-sees on what's happening in our global community, we have our In Brief section, https://www.positivelyfilipino.com/in-brief that capsulizes important news daily. For those who want to look beyond our pages, we have our curated In The Know links to interesting stories in other publications included in our Wednesday newsletter.

However you want to fit PF into your life, we thank you for reading. We are truly appreciative of your continuing support.

Our Stories This Week:

‘50s-Style McCarthyism Comes To The Philippines By Ernesto M. Hilario

Joe Mari Chan’s Enduring Heart Songs By Paulynn Paredes Sicam

Girl Interrupted By Cecilia Manguerra-Brainard

The Happy Home Cook: Holiday Pavlova By Jojo Sabalvaro-Tan

Video of the Week : Here's a new pandemic Christmas song from Fr. Manoling Francisco 

In The Know

[ANALYSIS] What can the Philippines learn from the US elections?
https://www.rappler.com/voices/thought-leaders/analysis-what-can-philippines-learn-us-elections

1st Philippine-made Maya nanosatellite completes space mission, returns to earth
https://www.goodnewspilipinas.com/1st-philippine-made-maya-nanosatellite-completes-space-mission-returns-to-earth/?fbclid=IwAR1DcmUPUM0lOnXFazJlvC65z3XVGFAV2x-L9iXAEzxl-FslDgvF89AjyI8

14 drive-by spots in and around Manila—for when you just have to get out of the house
https://news.abs-cbn.com/ancx/travel/destination/12/08/20/15-drive-by-spots-in-and-around-manilafor-when-you-just-have-to-get-out-of-the-house?fbclid=IwAR2aJuQi4_szza7sQhdCGYojPNbSk6F94CRQzjgpGH5JgfcC50fAmXLaM_A

Filipino Immigrants in the United States
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/filipino-immigrants-united-states?fbclid=IwAR1Wot0dYhWAv1ikhMLJxcqKGtVxys0R4wB1YegJXigArEyxonXmBSW1sQU

What the lullabies we sing to our children reveal about us
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2020/12/what-the-lullabies-we-sing-to-our-children-reveal-about-us-feature/?cmpid=org=ngp::mc=crm-email::src=ngp::cmp=editorial::add=Photography_20201204&rid=A6813A01D20D50942AFADAD6C6F1E549

Owner of stolen P10-million plant: ‘Alagaan niyo lang siya’
https://philstarlife.com/living/940897-the-p10-million-sansevieria-bg-regale-has-been-stolen-and-other-plant-heists?page=4

Here’s A Complete List Of The 46 Parts of A Filipino House
https://www.realliving.com.ph/lifestyle/arts-culture/here-s-a-complete-list-of-the-46-parts-of-a-filipino-house-a1618-20180821-lfrm?utm_source=Facebook-RealLiving&utm_medium=Ownshare&utm_campaign=20201121-fbnp-lifestyle-here-s-a-complete-list-of-the-46-parts-of-a-filipino-house-a1618-20180821-lfrm-fbold&fbclid=IwAR3gXfwZ5e6MjhFx7yuDpwNKoc74f-dnjAGcfVMYcpKzJJ_tLcpnraUCaQU

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Sisterhoods

For the Cold War generation, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are unfamiliar names. These countries fell within the expansive cloak of the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), thus their separate identities weren't spoken about much. Now with the USSR gone, tourists are flocking to what constitutes Eastern Europe -- the exotic former Soviet states that hold astonishing sights and treasures of their own. One of these visitors was France-based Filipino artist Ofelia Gelvezon-Tequi, who recently took a journey with her sorority sisters and their families to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and, with her artist's eye, describes the fascinating things to see in "Vilnius Mon Amour." If you're a devotee of the Divine Mercy, Lithuania should be on your bucket list.

Journalist/community activist and domestic abuse fighter Cherie Querol Moreno adds her voice to the rapidly expanding #MeToo and #TimesUp movements in "Sisterhood Shatters Silence on Sexual Harassment," as she talks to some Filipina women and California State Rep. Rob Bonta, who are in the forefront of the community's participation in changing the culture of harassment.

PF Correspondent Rey E. de la Cruz shares his encounters with kababayans across the pond in Pinoyspotting: England.

And from the Philippines, PF Correspondent Rene M. Astudillo documents "The Curious Case of the Disappearing Faces in Philippine Peso Bills," which has many Filipinos tsk-tsking about the supposed "computer glitch."

From Rene Astudillo's food blog (mybaykitchen.wordpress.com), we also picked up our Happy Home Cook recipe for this week, Adobo Pineapple Fried Rice, using rice left over from when you cooked too much.

Another collection of In The Know links to stories you may have not caught from other publications:

Trump Immigration Plans Hit Hawaii's Filipino Families Hard
http://usa.inquirer.net/9417/trump-immigration-plans-hit-hawaiis-filipino-families-hard

Recovering from Historical Amnesia
https://www.teachforamerica.org/one-day-magazine/recovering-historical-amnesia

The Filipino Guide to Staying Sane
https://www.ncronline.org/ news/opinion/young-voices/ filipino-guide-staying-sane

The Ominous Rumblings of Mount Mayon
https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2018/01/the-ominous-rumblings-of-mount-mayon/551513/

For our Video of the week, the UP Office for Initiatives in Culture and the Arts presented a documentary of National Artist for Sculpture Napoleon V. Abueva. The video was written and directed by Katrina Ventura.