I am thinking of putting a Hands Off ! warning on all of my online profiles, including YM, Friendster and MySpace. Just because I'm Filipina I get a lot of messages that go something like "I'm John (or Peter or Dave) and I'm from Australia (the USA, UK, etc). I'll be coming to the Philippines next month and I'm looking for a friend (activity partner, girlfriend, someone special). If you are interested, please IM (or email) me." Wow naman. How other people's perceptions of us Filipinas have sunk so low that they think we are all just ready to jump at the idea that a certain Tom, Dick or Harry is due to come to the islands looking for a bride. So what? I read somewhere that of all the foreign brides in Australia, Filipinas have the highest incidence of casualties or domestic violence victims. No, thank you. I have no intention of becoming another statistic.

I'm not slamming all those Pinays who have married foreigners, especially those who saw a way out from the state of the nation nowadays. Uh-huh. It takes a lot of guts to tie oneself in marriage to a man you barely know, especially one whose only attraction seems to be his dollars. Most especially if the reason is to give one's family a better life. I've got friends who chose that path. Hey, with the low wages and high cost of living (that only rises steadily) in the country nowadays, sometimes it just doesn't seem worth living in. That's why a lot of people leave to find work elsewhere, braving illegal recruiters, poor work safety conditions, and a lot of occupational hazards just to have something to send home. I even heard someone say that Pinoys would venture into war zones when other nationalities won't (especially the ship captains and aircraft pilots who help in evacuation) because the hazard pay is too tempting a prize to pass up. I don't blame them. That's their life. The point is, not everybody does it. There are still a few who would rather stay home and do something here. Who would rather earn without having to leave the country. Who would rather wait for the real thing to come along instead of marry a foreigner just for the money. Never mind that some other people would view it as katangahan and lack of common sense. I'm not saying it's all about the money, of course. A lot of women do have this fantasy of this white knight (and Filipinos are not white) on a white charger rescuing them from a life of slavery and riding off with them into the sunset where they live happily ever after, and a lot of men do feel flattered to be seen as the embodiment of this fantasy.

Besides, according to the materials I've read on the issue, foreigners have this conception of Filipinas as meek homebodies who defer to their husbands in everything. Someone even said they're "old-fashioned girls who put their husbands first and will care for you till death do you part." Ha. Perhaps they should be introduced to Gabriela Silang, my own distant ancestress Teresa Magbanua, and Princess Urduja. Urduja ruled her kingdom in her own right, suborning her husband and sons. Gabriela and Teresa commanded men in battle against the Spaniards. Meek women they certainly weren't. Besides, if those foreign guys look at Pinays that way, and make that the reason why they want Pinay brides, that can't help but reinforce my own opinion that they're chauvinistic a**holes like those long ago colonizers who took over these islands and made women into second-class citizens. Yup, for the enlightenment of all of you poor benighted brideseekers out there, the Filipina was an emancipated woman before the Spaniards came along, made her wear long skirts and punished her for expressing her opinions. Where other women in the world were chattels, the precolonial Filipinas were rulers, priestesses, landowners and entrepreneurs. They had the sole right of naming their children, they were queens in their own homes, and when they walked with their families their husbands and sons walked behind them instead of before them. No wonder that even when the Spaniards thought they had succeeded in putting the Filipina in her place, she still kept breaking out in the most unlikely ways. I suspect that the same thing happens with those meek mail order brides... like holding a sparrow only to find out that it was a hawk.

So why am I never going to be a mail-order bride?

1. If I cook, it will be for my own pleasure. Not at the order of a husband who thinks he can terrify me into submission and criticize my cooking. I have this terrible tendency to put purgative in the food of people who annoy me that way. I'll cook for those people I love cooking for, but if you expect a free cook, hire your own househelp, buster. Your life won't be in danger that way, only your pocket.

2. I'm not a laundress. I will wash my partner's clothes out of love, but not as if my life depended on it. I won't slave over your shirts and tremble in fear that you won't like the way I washed them. If you have any peeves with the way your clothes are washed, buy a washing machine or take your clothes to the laundry. That way, you can always sue the laundry if you're not satisfied with their performance. Or hire a laundress. Then you can sue her.

3. I'm not a domestic helper. I will put the house in order and do the cleaning, but don't expect everything to be so spick and span like it's the only thing I live for doing. If you want your house to look like a hotel, then buy one. Or hire a maid!

4. I have a career. I like my job. Don't expect me to give it up just to cater to your whims, or because it insults your male ego because your wife is a wage earner and might even earn more than you do. If you feel embarrassed about it, then work hard in your own career so you earn more. But don't punish me for having more sense than you do, because I won't stand for your nonsense. Bite me and I'll bite back.

5. I don't need your money. Because I'm a working girl, I earn my own keep. I pay my own way. I'm not dependent on any man. If I wanted dollars, I'd earn them. I don't exist just to be dressed up and shown off like a Barbie doll. I won't expect you to pay for everything that I want or need. I'll even insist on paying for dinner half of the time. When I fall in love, it doesn't matter who he is, if he's rich or poor or elite or peasant. All that I would expect of him is that he be worthy of my love and respect, and that can't be quantified in money.

6. I'm not a baby factory. I like children and would like to have my own someday, but I don't exist just to bear your heirs. And you will be content with whatever I bear you, and not get angry at me for not bearing boys. Incidentally, male children are determined by the Y chromosome which comes from the father, so if a wife bears only girls, it's probably the father's fault anyway.

7. I'm proud of my nationality. Despite all the bad things that happen in my country, despite the turmoil, despite the bad image, I know my people are trying to make the most of life. So if anyone ever puts my country or my people down when I'm around, or try to convince me to repudiate the land of my birth, they better watch it because I'm not just gonna stand meekly by and take it.

8. I'm not a martyr. I will not sit idly by and watch you go around with other women or go out with your friends and smoke and drink yourselves into stupor, then meekly accept your dictum prohibiting me from having any friends of my own, or going out with them, or anything aside from staying at home and being an unpaid househelp/nanny/babymaker/cook. I believe in adherence to wedding vows, and that once you made a promise to a person you should keep it, but don't strain my patience and my respect too far. When it comes to my respect for you and my own self-respect, mine will win over yours anytime.

9. I have a mind of my own. I will not have you putting me down or denigrating me as an ignoramus, because frankly at this point I probably know more about a lot of things than most people.

10. I despise double standards. I detest male chauvinists. Nuff said.

So hands off, buster. Just because I'm a Filipina doesn't mean I'm for sale.

It's really a bummer when you google the word Filipino and most of the time the results are derogatory content. I was trying to write something about Philippine women, and when I googled the word "Filipina", there's this "Filipina 101" right on the first page of the search results, and it's an ad for a book that contains tips on how to court and marry a Filipina. Like Filipinas are commodities. You might ask, what am I so mad about when it could be viewed as a backhanded compliment that Filipinas are prize wives that's why there's a book specially written on how to "catch" one. Hello, is there a book entitled "American Woman 101"?

Anyway. I'm just glad there's Wikipilipinas and Filipiniana.net. That way, there will be web content about the Philippines that's not derogatory, for a change. Wikipinas and Filnet content are about the Philippines from the Filipino point of view. The sites try to present uncompromising content, content that says, here we are, we are Filipinos, we are human beings with unique and beautiful culture, all 100+ varieties of it, we live in a beautiful country the potential of which has not yet been fully explored. We are not just domestic helpers and mail order brides, japayukis, hospitality girls, seamen, construction workers, nurses and doctors. We are human beings who are trying to bear up the best we can in an environment that can be very hostile to us, and yet we have not lost our humor, our faith and our hope for a better world. We were an independent people who had a distinct culture before we were subjugated by a better-armed power who tried to make us forget who we are. But we assimilated their different cultures, and we survived. We live in a country that has many troubles, and yet we can still smile, we can still sing, we can still laugh. Would you have reacted the same way, were you in our place? We have to let our sons and daughters leave the country so that the rest of us might live. Condemn us for that if you may, but what would you have done, were you in our place? We may have burdens, but we love life so much that even when it deals badly with us, we still manage to embrace it. And see, this is what we have managed to do with it. We have produced great artists and performers, heroes, writers and scientists. We have composed great music, created beautiful dances, written beautiful literary works, painted masterpieces, developed scientific breakthroughs that benefit the rest of the world. We have concepts and beliefs that are not found elsewhere. Although many would disparage us saying that we cannot define ourselves, we accept that part of our mystique is our undefinability. We present us, as we are, a people as diverse as the 7,100+ islands we call home. Take us or leave us. We are as human as you.

Thank you, Wikipilipinas and Filipiniana.net, for each time I am there I find a new reason to be proud that I am Filipino.

Lintok na Chuvaness toh, kahit di ako mapapaniwala sa chain letter o chain text, bigla akong natakot dun sa resulta nito ah. Ma-post nga ulit!! sinong susunod na biktima?!? hahaha...

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FOR YOUR CHINESE HOROSCOPE:

DO NOT CHEAT OR IT WON’T WORK AND YOU WILL WISH YOU HADN’T.

TAKE 3 MINUTES
TRY THIS - IT WILL FREAK YOU OUT.

This really made my heart like jump into my throat. It is creepy. Honestly I did not even cheat, and it came out with answers I didn’t even let myself believe until now.

THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO ME SAID HER WISH CAME TRUE 10 MINUTES AFTER SHE FORWARDED THIS

NO CHEATING!!!!

THIS GAME HAS A FUNNY / CREEPY OUTCOME. DO NOT READ AHEAD, JUST DO IT. IT TAKES ABOUT 3 MINUTES - WORTH A TRY

1st. Get PEN and PAPER

2nd. WHEN CHOOSING NAMES, MAKE SURE THEY ARE REAL PEOPLE THAT YOU ACTUALLY KNOW

3rd. GO WITH YOUR FIRST INSTINCTS !!!!! Very important for good results.

4th SCROLL DOWN ONE LINE AT THE TIME DON’T READ AHEAD otherwise YOU WILL RUIN THE FUN.

1. On a blank sheet of paper, WRITE NUMBERS 1 through 11 in a COLUMN on the LEFT.

2. Next to the NUMBERS 1 & 2, WRITE DOWN ANY 2 NUMBERS YOU WANT.

3. Next to the NUMBERS 3 & 7, WRITE DOWN THE NAMES OF TWO MEMBERS OF THE OPPOSITE SEX. SAME SEX IF 3rd KIND

CAUTION: DO NOT LOOK AHEAD or IT WILL NOT TURN OUT RIGHT

4. WRITE ANYONES NAME (like FRIENDS or FAMILY…) next to 4, 5, & 6.

DON’T CHEAT OR YOU’LL BE UPSET THAT YOU DID

5. WRITE down FOUR SONG TITLES in 8, 9, 10, & 11

6. Finally, MAKE A WISH

ARE YOU READY? HERE IS THE KEY TO THE GAME

1. THE NUMBER of PEOPLE THAT LIKE YOU is found in SPACE 2

2. THE PERSON IN SPACE 3 IS THE ONE YOU LOVE

3. THE PERSON YOU LIKE but your relationship CANNOT WORK is in SPACE 7

4. YOU CARE MOST about the PERSON you put in SPACE 4

5. THE PERSON YOU NAME IN NUMBER 5 IS THE ONE WHO KNOWS YOU VERY WELL.

6. THE PERSON YOU NAMED IN 6 IS YOUR LUCKY STAR

7. THE SONG IN 8 IS THE SONG THAT MATCHES WITH THE PERSON IN NUMBER 3

8. THE TITLE IN 9 IS THE SONG FOR THE PERSON IN 7

9. THE 10TH SPACE IS THE SONG THAT TELLS YOU MOST ABOUT YOUR MIND

10. AND 11 IS THE SONG TELLING HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT LIFE

11. NUMBER 1 IS YOUR LUCKY NUMBER

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REPOST WITHIN AN HOUR OF READING THIS.

IF YOU DO, YOUR WISH WILL COME TRUE!!!

*pinatulan ko baka sakaling mga ka-totoo, hahahah*

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Disclaimer: Repost lang po ito. Any complaints should please be addressed to chuvaness at http://mynosebleed.com/

:p

Congressman Jose de Venecia was ousted as Speaker of the House just after midnight today, Tuesday, February 5, 2008, and Congressman Prospero Nograles was elected Speaker in his place. What makes this ironic is that, in an earlier (failed) attempt to unseat JDV and install another Prospero (this one a lettuce, er, Pichay, what's with the Shakespearean names anyway?!?) in his place, Nograles reportedly claimed that JDV was his friend and that he would not "do a Brutus" on his friend.

Huh.


"Et tu, Brute?" Caesar gasped after being stabbed by the person he considered his friend in the Roman Senate.

What makes me snort (as in smoke coming out of my nose) is that on Monday morning, on my way to work, I heard over the radio (I think it was DZRH), one of the commentators in one of those "tambalan" programs say that JDV's goose was cooked since there already had been a celebratory dinner at the Arroyo house in QC the night before, complete with everybody slapping everybody else on the back and offering toasts all round. Wow. Talk of being sure of yourself. Well, they must've been pretty sure of their 174 votes if they were celebrating as early as Sunday evening. The commentator went on to speculate how much money changed hands and where it was from (kalahating milyon na naman?). Wow naman. Buti pa sila, ang lalaki na nga ng suweldo, marami pang perks of the job, tapos binibigyan pa ng kalahating milyon. Samantalang ang taong bayan, kumakayod ng kumakayod, halos kulang pa nga pambuhay ng pamilya, kinakaltasan pa ng kung gaano kalaking buwis. I wouldn't be so bitter about the taxes if it went to something tangible for the people. The problem is, we already know that most of the taxes we pay go into somebody's pocket and we get only the dregs as government services! Hello! Then I see that half-assed advertisement that mars my enjoyment of Channel 9's C/S shows-- "umunlad ang aking buhay" daw, pwe. So are we supposed to be grateful for government services? Hello ulit! Binayaran namin yan sa buwis na kinakaltas n'yo sa amin kada buwan! Wala kaming dapat na utang na loob sa inyo para sa serbisyo na binibigay ninyo dahil karapatan namin yan bilang mamamayan ng Pilipinas! Pwede tama na tong hacendero mentality na to?

That's what I call this sort of thing: hacendero mentality. I think historians and sociologists would also call it the "datu" system. You know, parang peon sa asyenda, kumakayod ng kumakayod para gumanda ang buhay ng hacendero, tapos kailangan pang mangutang sa hacendero at tanawin pa na utang ng loob yun, samantalang kung tutuusin yung serbisyong naibigay na nila ay hamak na mas mataas na ang halaga kaysa "utang" na yun. We Pinoys should've had enough of thinking that we are worthless, or that we are worth less than those whatevers that we often see on TV yelling at one another in Congress over who's going to get what. Kaya nga popular representation tawag dun eh. They are just our delegates! We put them there! So when we need something from them, we shouldn't think that they're going to do us a favor, because we are entitled to their services, damn it!

Anyway, ranting again. It's the result of reading Katherine Mayo's book "Isles of Fear: The Truth About the Philippines" on top of the ouster in the House. This book (published 1924) will be available on Filipiniana.net soon, so watch for it. Maaasar kang matatawang maiiyak. Tapos mapapaisip ka, is there a difference between what is depicted in the book and what is happening nowadays? Granted, exag ang book, not to mention the decidedly biased American viewpoint of the author, but if you disregard the pontification on how America is better and look at the facts and incidents as depicted, baka masabi mong nangyayari pa rin hanggang sa ngayon. Ang tanong: bakit walang nagbago? Ang sagot: aba, ewan. Tanong mo kaya sa mga unnamables sa Kongreso?

Where was I? Ah yes, the ouster. Nag-abstain si Darlene (Congresswoman namin) kaya no comment na rin ako sa mga nangyayari. Dog-eat-dog ang labanan --- so what's new? Bakit ako kakampi sa isa sa kanila, eh pare-pareho lang naman ang mga lintok, pinag-agawan na naman ang liderato para kung may gusto silang ipasa o ilusot, may backer na naman sila. Para malakas ang kapit. Oy, mahiya naman kayo sa mga taong bayan na naglagak sa inyo sa puwesto, gumawa naman kayo ng para sa kanila at yung hindi para sa mga sarili nyo! Kundi, mas gugustuhin na lang namin na mag-ubusan na kayo at ng mapalitan na! Peste!

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