Shaken or Stirred? Just Sit Back.

As we move towards a vastly different Thanksgiving holiday this year, let's use this post-election, surging-pandemic week to take a break from high emotions, and to sit back. It's interesting to watch how traditions and institutions work toward resolving the current political uncertainty being spearheaded by a stubborn incumbent and fanned by his spineless ilk. If you need some reading to quell, or enable, your anxiety, I suggest Gabriel Garcia Marquez's book, Autumn of the Patriarch. The title itself is an apt metaphor for this time, along with "the winter of our discontent".

Nevertheless the world continues to turn, with or without our participation. In Positively Filipino this week, James Bond dies, a young Fil-Am comic rises and, as our Motherland heaves from yet another hurricane, regular people carry on the best way they can amidst the pandemic.

Our Stories This Week

Pinoys Love James Bond, And Vice Versa By Men Sta. Ana

[PARTNER] The Typhoon Victims Need Your Help

JR De Guzman Shows Filipinos Are Truly Funny By Anthony Maddela

Covid Guys By Criselda Yabes

The Happy Home Cook: Oriental Beef With Fried Noodles By Nora V. Daza and Nina Daza Puyat

Video of the Week: Fides Enriquez and Chef Cocoy Ventura’s new documentary series, Ilocandia, which features the Ilocos region’s rich culinary tradition.

In The Know

[ANALYSIS] What will a Biden presidency bring to China, Manila, and the Asia Pacific? 
https://www.rappler.com/voices/thought-leaders/analysis-what-will-biden-presidency-bring-china-manila-asia-pacific?fbclid=IwAR3PRlgwNNjI2Ce1_h-ICVvfsgkMq3RKGdxicT_eD6J3CZMszo-9bjlick0

Things May Get Worse Before They Get Better for the U.S. 
https://fpif.org/things-may-get-worse-before-they-get-better-for-the-u-s/?fbclid=IwAR0DKLpWGt1SIJhski9RPlbDwPcj7b_sXj7hK6N48arU1Zc_gCA2BlIaTdQ

12 Exceptional Filipino Restaurants in SF and the East Bay
https://sf.eater.com/maps/best-filipino-restaurants-food-san-francisco-bay-area-east-bay-oakland

A New ‘Blue’s Clues’ Episode Will Feature Filipino Family Traditions
https://www.vice.com/en/article/7k9bpd/blues-clues-nickelodeon-filipino-family-traditions-lola-grandmother?fbclid=IwAR1vwyhD_b16Y2oWbPaiK30OVkUtjfyrjweNSEKt7w-YP30eU6Y6zUYdc34

Their neighbor allegedly painted a swastika on their driveway. Now they’re getting bullets in the mail.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/11/13/louisville-harassment-couple-swastikas-racial-slurs/

A Whirl Through the Philippines with Jeepney’s Meal Kits
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/11/16/a-whirl-through-the-philippines-with-jeepneys-meal-kits?fbclid=IwAR0gsstldoTVp66WzDELSaIAsqXcCniSD2Q_65KZw2TMhCbKQUhIzInnTgc


Past and Pastime

Often overlooked in the history of American student activism is 1968 Third World students' strike in San Francisco State (University), which led to the formation of the first ethnic studies college in the country. Read all about the Filipino American students' leading role in that upheaval in Juanita Tamayo Lott's "PACE, A Critical Link in Filipino American History." 

But history is not all Big Politics. Read Bibeth Orteza's hilarious recollection of her frustrated quest for romance on campus just when the Big Politics of Marcos' Martial Law was descending on the Philippines.

For a dose of nostalgia, join our raconteur Myles Garcia as he lays his hands on one of Manila's favorite pastimes,  "Oh, How I Miss Manila Mahjong." 

We would like to thank our writers who won in the recent 7th Annual Plaridel Awards of the Philippine American Press Club, USA:

Rene Astudillo, Plaridel Award for Best International Story, “Will the Philippine Jeepney Soon Be Extinct?” http://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/will-the-philippine-jeepney-soon-be-extinct

Elizabeth Ann Quirino, Plaridel Award for Best Tourism Feature Story, “Savoring Hidden Flavors of the Philippine Kitchen”
http://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/savoring-hidden-flavors-of-the-philippine-kitchen

Titchie Carandang-Tiongson and Erwin Tiongson, Plaridel Award for Best Profile Writing, “The Untold Story of Nina Thomas: The American Woman Who Could Have Been First Lady of the Philippines” http://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/the-untold-story-of-nina-thomas

France Viana, Plaridel Award for Best Entertainment Story, “Myth, Magic and Madonnas In Eye-Opening Philippine Art Exhibition” http://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/myth-magic-and-madonnas-in-eye-opening-philippine-art-exhibition

Rey E. de la Cruz, Honorable Mention for Best Profile Writing, “Happy Beneath the Sea”
http://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/robert-suntay

Rey E. de la Cruz, Honorable Mention for Best Feature Story, “Dear Satu: Letters Tell the Story of Our Lives”
http://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/dear-satu-letters-tell-the-story-of-our-lives

Lisa Suguitan Melnick, Honorable Mention for Best Entertainment Story, “Incarcerated 6x9 Gets You on the Cell-ular Level”
http://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/dance-theater-review-incarcerated-6-x-9-gets-you-on-the-cell-ular-level

Elizabeth Ann Quirino, Honorable Mention for Best Food Story, “Tupig from Tarlac,”
http://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/tupig-from-tarlac

For Filipino American History Month, we recommend the following Read Again stories:
“An Ilongot Murder Mystery” by Michael Gonzalez: http://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/an-ilongot-murder-mystery

“Fil-Am Olympic Great Vicki Manalo-Draves” by Ed Diokno: http://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/fil-am-olympic-great-vicki-manalo-draves

For our [In The Know] Links:

Soldiers in Facebook’s War on Fake News Are Feeling Overrun
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/09/business/facebook-philippines-rappler-fake-news.html

Wanted: More Public Libraries
https://opinion.inquirer.net/116595/wanted-public-libraries

Gov. Brown rejects ethnic studies bill, saying high school students are overburdened
https://www.dailybulletin.com/2018/10/02/gov-brown-rejects-ethnic-studies-bill-saying-high-school-students-are-overburdened/

For Happy Home Cook, Chef Paolo Espanola dishes his take on a Filipino classic, Pansit Molo.

For Video of the Week, Center for Asian American Media remembers Professor Dawn Bohulano Mabalon, through her film collection on her family's history.

Simple and Successful

After those sumptuous, sinful dishes of the holidays, I'm sure many of us are hankering for simple, basic comfort food. And so we bring you the late great chef Nora Daza's Chicken Tinola Soup recipe for our Happy Home Cook this week. 

In picturesque Victoria in British Columbia, Canada, stands the Bayanihan Community Centre, the pride of the island's Filipino community. Purportedly the envy of other Canadian cities with sizeable Filipino communities, the Bayanihan Community Centre's longevity is attributed to its solid financial management and accountability and its active organization. First-time contributor Ben Pires, who has been involved in the center since its inception, writes its story.

How to pay tribute to someone you admire but hardly knew? FilAm author/academic Laurel Fantauzzo, who just came out with a highly acclaimed creative non-fiction book, shows us how as she honors the late Congresswoman Dina Abad, her mother's friend.

Oh, and by the way, this issue marks the sixth year of Positively Filipino's existence and as is our wont, we list down our ten most popular stories of the past year so you can read them again or for the first time. See below.



Once again, our In The Know links for this week. We can't possibly monitor all the stories from other publications to include in our list so if you come across stories about Filipinos and the Philippines in your local newspapers, please send the link to pfeditor@yahoo.com.

Duterte Threatens to Dethrone the Jeepney as King of Filipino Roads
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/25/world/asia/philippines-jeepney-duterte.html

House panel passes bill declaring Kalayaan Islands as 'alienable, disposable land'
http://cnnphilippines.com/news/2017/12/26/house-panel-kalayaan-islands.html

Zuckerberg Under Fire For Facebook’s Deal With Rodrigo Duterte
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk_ns1ynSRo

Celebrating Brown Skin
https://www.facebook.com/ajplusenglish/videos/1072515149556658/

For Video of the Week, NBC Asian America features dance troupe Kinding Sindaw as they teach and preserve the traditions of southern Philippine culture.

Gemma Nemenzo

Editor, Positively Filipino