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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Here's to Pulutan

PF Correspondent and food expert Elizabeth Ann Quirino checks in with chef/author Marvin Gapultos who has come out with a new cookbook, his second, that focuses on that most proletarian of food traditions: the pulutan. Gapultos, who has shared some of his recipes from his first cookbook, The Adobo Road, likewise shares with the Happy Home Cook his own take on the classic Fish Kilawin, a favorite among Filipino beer drinkers anywhere.

This month brings back memories of Proclamation 1081, President Ferdinand Marcos' declaration of martial law dated September 21, 1972. To counter the push from certain quarters to revise history, there are ongoing efforts to gather stories of that period so the millennial generation will know how life was during that time. I write this week about the curfew which, in the overall scheme of things, was a relatively benign imposition compared to the other impositions of the authoritarian regime.

A new contributor from Illinois, Christian Gabriel Pareja, introduces us to a Filipino art therapist, Corazon Pecson Pagnani, who treats mental patients at Chicago's Kindred Hospital.

The news from the Philippines about the government importing rice infested with bukbok (weevil) and the Agriculture Secretary trying to convince people of its safety by eating it himself beg the question: how much lower can the administration get on the pathetic meter? It's a good time to Read Again Fil-Am journalist Dorian Merina's piece, "Wanted: A New Agriculture to Face Climate Change." In this article, Merina also pays tribute to Fil-Am labor leaders Larry Itliong and Philip Vera Cruz whose contributions to the US farm labor movement are immeasurable.

Here are the links to stories you may have missed this week:

How Duterte Used Facebook To Fuel the Philippine Drug War
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/daveyalba/facebook-philippines-dutertes-drug-war

Duterte voids amnesty of critical senator, orders his arrest
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/duterte-voids-amnesty-of-critical-senator-orders-his-arrest/2018/09/04/0588ceae-b00a-11e8-8b53-50116768e499_story.html?utm_term=.fa377f0dc11e

The art find of the century or its greatest hoax
https://news.abs-cbn.com/focus/08/29/18/the-art-find-of-the-century-or-its-greatest-hoax

The Sarah Huckabee Sanders of the Philippines
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/08/18/the-sarah-huckabee-sanders-of-the-philippines-219370

PH’s Maya-1 CubeSat deployed into Int’l Space Station
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1019926/phs-maya-1-cubesat-deployed-into-intl-space-station

And for Video of the Week, Our Better World features one of girls whose life was transformed when she was taken in by Tahanan Sta. Luisa, a shelter for girls in the Philippines.

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Tell Us Your Martial Law Story

We are collecting personal stories of life under Martial Law (1972-1981) in the Philippines. If you were there, you would have at least one. Did you violate curfew? Were you arrested? Was anyone in your family a political detainee or was "salvaged?" Did martial law motivate you to leave the country?  Did you benefit from it? What is your most enduring memory of that period?

In 200-600 words, join us in documenting that important era in our homeland's history. Your story counts. And if you have pictures, that would be great.

Please send to martiallawstories@gmail.com.