Weaving meaning into loss

Sunday Inquirer Magazine/FEATURES/By Ma. Ceres P. Doyo JOY and hope. These a mother continues to weave into the fabric of her life even after a loss that tore into her heart. She wears them like the bright shawls of silk that she fashions from nature's looms.Rather than dwell in the abyss of grief and sorrow, Jean Margaret ?Jeannie? Lim Goulbourn decided to put meaning into her daughter?s life and death and, by so doing, help those who find themselves...

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Very low fertility in Asia: A Study

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo WHILE THERE is an urgent need and reason to manage the Philippines’ galloping population increase in relation to the country’s economic ability/inability to provide quality life for the teeming millions who live in penury, there is also reason to pause a while and look at what is happening to our wealthy Asian neighbors. The current issues on reproductive health and population control have triggered acrimonious debates between the pro- and the anti-RH bill, between the Church hierarchy and...

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Very low fertility in Asia: A Study

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. DoyoWHILE THERE is an urgent need and reason to manage the Philippines’ galloping population increase in relation to the country’s economic ability/inability to provide quality life for the teeming millions who live in penury, there is also reason to pause a while and look at what is happening to our wealthy Asian neighbors. The current issues on reproductive health and population control have triggered acrimonious debates between the pro- and the anti-RH bill, between the Church hierarchy and the...

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The sex life of the urban poor (2)

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo I DIDN’T expect lots of e-mail for a feature story I wrote 20 years ago and which I recycled and compressed for this column (last week and now) in the context of the ongoing recycled debate on reproductive health. Those who want to read my entire magazine piece (“Just a few meters of loving space,” Sunday Inquirer Magazine, Nov. 26, 1990) from which this column piece was recycled could go to...

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The sex life of the urban poor (1)

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. DoyoTWO DECADES ago, I did a feature story for the Sunday Inquirer Magazine on the sex life of the urban poor, titled “A few meters of loving space.” It was based on my interviews with couples living in blighted, depressed areas of Manila. The story was illustrated by Inquirer cartoonist Jess Abrera (done in semi-abstract, okay?). There was a debate at that time on family planning methods and reproductive...

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From vulnerability to empowerment

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. DoyoBEING A storyteller myself, I read with interest the stories told by individuals who were witnesses to and participants in the transformation of communities. Ten little stories, but each of them spoke of hope despite seeming hopelessness, of how people could exceed the limits and go beyond limitations because they believed in themselves and their dreams. Clueless, frustrated or despondent local government officials could take a cue or two from these community experiences. But I am getting ahead...

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