Find your peace in this Field of Faith

Philippine Daily Inquirer-Lifestyle/ 
Feature/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

"AS OFTEN as you can, take a trip out to the fields and pray. All the grasses will enter your prayers and give you strength to sing praises to God.”

These words from an 18th-century rabbi ring true once your feet touch the grass and the stillness embraces you like a shawl of soft rain.

Truly, this is one of the beautiful spots on Earth which the eye of the soul can behold, and can be seen by the physical eyes and felt by one’s entire being.

Field of Faith calls out gently to everyone who enters. Rest. Listen. Feel. Remember. Awaken. Heal. It might as well remind: Do not hurry, you are at home. This is a sanctuary, a repository of beauty, a haven for sojourners and seekers.

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One billion words for Earth

8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 28 is Earth Hour. People all over the world are urged to switch off all their lights for one hour. This is not only saving energy but also casting a Vote for Earth.

This year, Earth Hour (last Saturday of March) has been transformed into the world’s first global election, a choice between Earth and global warming. For the first time in history, people of all ages, nationalities, race and background could use their light switch as their vote. Switching off the lights is a vote for Earth. Leaving them on is, well…

Voting for Earth with the use of the light switch should be easier than the 2010 automated Philippine elections. And its impact is global. Staying in the dark for an hour should be an opportunity to create activities. Before you know it the 60 minutes are over and you’d probably want to stay in the dark a little longer.

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Pension Now! for poor older people

I am told that the Philippines is the only country in Asia that has no social pension for poor, older people. These are mostly the ones who had not been formally employed when they were younger and therefore did not have social security or insurance that they could draw from in their older years.

Countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, India and Vietnam have some kind of social pension for the elderly poor, says Ed Gerlock, advocacy officer of the Coalition of Services of the Elderly (COSE). COSE is a non-government organization (NGO) that focuses mainly on the elderly poor.

Founded 20 years ago, COSE empowers poor older persons and helps them live productive lives even in their sunset years. Empowered, they become catalysts in their neighborhood. They serve and help one another so that they are not a burden to their families and their communities. They even go beyond their small confines to serve the community at large. And when some of them become too frail to be of service, the stronger elderly care for them.

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So sue us

“So sue me” was a popular 1990s in-your-face dare, an I-don’t-care. But I read somewhere that its origin could be the 1950s “Guys and Dolls” movie musical starring Frank Sinatra where he sings “Serve a paper and sue me, sue me.” There’s even a So Sue Me hot sauce.

The hot sauce is on my mind as the right-of-reply bill, principally authored by Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr., threatens to find supporters in the House of Representatives.

Last week, a bunch of former church activists and social action workers with a couple of writers among them had lunch with Pimentel. In case you didn’t know, in the late 1970s Pimentel was legal counsel for the social action arm of the Catholic Church in the Philippines. He cut his legal teeth where most politicians, at that time, feared to tread.

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Pinay caregiver dies in Canada, inspires law

Philippine Daily Inquirer/News/

By Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

MANILA, Philippines—JUANA TEJADA, a Filipino whose plight as a caregiver inspired her supporters to name a proposed Canadian law after her, has died in Toronto. She was 40.

Tejada died of complications resulting from colon cancer. The disease, which struck her when she was on her third year in Canada, had provoked a move to have her deported.

She died on Sunday, March 8, International Women’s Day.

The pending legislation would benefit foreign caregivers in Canada who may find themselves in a similar situation.

Citing humanitarian reasons and Tejada’s dedication to her work, thousands of Filipinos and non-Filipinos in Canada, the Philippines and other countries supported her plea to remain in Canada through an online petition addressed to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Fil-Canadian couple Oswald and Mila Magno started the campaign online in 2008.

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Pinay caregiver dies in Canada, inspires law

MANILA, Philippines—Juana Tejada, a Filipino whose plight as a caregiver inspired her supporters to name a proposed Canadian law after her, has died in Toronto. She was 40.

Tejada died of complications resulting from colon cancer. The disease, which struck her when she was on her third year in Canada, had provoked a move to have her deported.

She died on Sunday, March 8, International Women’s Day.

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Asian fisherwomen dare to speak out

Philippine Daily Inquirer/News/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

Fisherwomen?

Yes there are such women. And they have voices to denounce the state of the fishing industry, particularly the unregulated fishing practices that have marginalized the small fisherfolk and caused their sources of livelihood to perish.

And, of course, like their male counterparts, many fisherwomen go out to sea to fish or do significant work related to fishing.

Fisherwomen from the Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia gathered here recently to train and do cross-visitation of fishing areas.

This was part of their advocacy to promote and project the “Hanoi Declaration of Women Fishers” that they signed in December last year in Vietnam.

Among the issues the fisherwomen raised were “the socio-environmental costs of intensive aquaculture, especially industrial shrimp farming and marine aquaculture.

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The war is not over

Philippine Daily Inquirer/Opinion/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

World War II Filipino veterans who fought alongside US troops more than 60 years ago will at last get some monetary compensation. The announcement came even while many of these hardy Filipino veterans here and abroad are dying every day before the cameras. Many died poor. Some died just before the announcement which means their bereaved families cannot get the compensation.

The war is not over. The veterans need to remain alive and it is heart-rending to see some of them at death’s door, hooked to tubes and machines and hanging on just until…And see that right thumb drenched in purple ink?

And the outrageous thing about this is that those who had moved to the US are getting more than their counterparts who have remained here. No wonder so many had gone to the land of milk and honey (now the land of collapsing financial institutions) even if that meant losing some of their dignity and living in deplorable conditions there.

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