by Martine de Luna (Philippines) | Aug 22, 2013 | 2013, Philippines, Weather, World Events, World Motherhood
In the last five days, the Philippines has been under a slew of storms, heavy rains and flooding brought about by the tropical storm Trami. It has claimed lives, displaced thousands, and left much of the northern part of Luzon (the Philippines’ northern region) in drenched shambles.
A tragedy? Yes. But quite normal in our country, unfortunately. We go through this every year, every monsoon season. Imbalanced infrastructure, compounded with the problems of informal settlers, i.e. squatters and poorly managed drainage systems: these are all “part and parcel” of what our nation has gotten used to when the rainy season strikes around this time of year. Add that to the current corruption scandals involving pork barrel abuses in our country, and you have quite a mess, served “Pinoy” style (or, as we like to say, halo-halo, i.e. “mix-mixed”.)
Poverty. Politics. Calamity. These are words flooding my social media news feeds lately. Some are angry at the state of the nation — and rightly so.
But, despite the negatives, the “Filipino spirit” holds up. I’d say it does so every year, especially in times like these when unmerciful monsoon rains strike our nation’s morale down to all-time lows. Inasmuch as there are angry tweets shaking virtual fists and fingers at corruption in the government, there are hashtags of hope tweeting updates about relief efforts, blasting out encouragement in the face of calamity. (more…)
Martine is a work-at-home Mom and passionate blogger. A former expat kid, she has a soft spot for international efforts, like WMB. While she's not blogging, she's busy making words awesome for her clients, who avail of her marketing writing, website writing, and blog consulting services. Martine now resides in busy, sunny Manila, the Philippines, with her husband, Ton, and toddler son, Vito Sebastian. You can find her blogging at DaintyMom.com.
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by Tina Santiago-Rodriguez (Philippines) | Jul 11, 2012 | Bilingual, Culture, Family, Homeschooling, Language, Motherhood, Multicultural, Philippines, Truly Rich Mom, World Motherhood
Our friends in the U.S. have just celebrated Independence Day and I’m sure they did so in a variety of ways. We here in the Philippines celebrate our Independence every 12th of June, and although our celebrations may not be as grand as our friends in the West, we all do our best to make sure we commemorate the freedom that was won for us oh-so-many years ago by our national heroes.
I have a confession to make though — I wasn’t always a patriotic Filipino. Growing up overseas in Brunei, away from my motherland, I could be classified as what many of us call nowadays a third-culture kid. I kept trying to fit in with my classmates and friends, who were a mixture of native Bruneians, some Malaysians, and a few other nationalities (including Filipinos). I remember even being a bit ashamed of my origins, as I used to associate being Filipino with being poor or not so well off. (Shame on me, I know!) (more…)
Tina Santiago-Rodriguez is a wife and homeschool mom by vocation, a licensed
physical therapist by education and currently the managing editor of Mustard, a
Catholic children's magazine published by Shepherd's Voice
Publications in the Philippines, by profession. She has been writing
passionately since her primary school years in Brunei, and contributes
regularly to several Philippine and foreign-based online and print publications. She also does sideline editing and scriptwriting jobs, when she has the time. Find out more about Tina through her personal
blogs: Truly Rich Mom and Teacher Mama Tina.
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