Working Abroad

Lately there have been talk about taxing OCWs to make more money for the Philippine Government. The three students from La Salle also reasoned that this tactic will curb the growing number of migrant workers leaving the country, draining it of necessary brain/man/woman-power. Tough.

The first ever 16-year old genius, who graduated summa cum laude from UP, in her speech challenged the youth like her to take the road less travelled, the choice of working and living in the Philippines; against the growing trend of leaving the country for greener pastures. Good luck.

Here in the UAE, government agencies have been set up as mandated by the President to ensure that all graduates find jobs at the end of their college or highschool year. About four agencies now look after the training, job placement and support of all the UAE's youth to ensure that they are on track in their career and live as productive professional and citizens of their country.

As I listed to a recently concluded forum on Emiratisation, I wonder when my very our government would make moves to ensure jobs for million of Filipino graduates; when will my own government set up agencies that would welcome back professionals working abroad into the country and ensure that they share the skills and the expertise learned abroad with their fellowmen in return for job opportunities back home.

See there is something very different from a Filipino trying to make a living and a life from an Emirati. The Emirati has a government that truly supports its youth. I on the one hand, has a country that exports even our native aborigines, the Aetas, as electricians in Saudi Arabia and Australia.

Nevermind that my country's rulers are corrupt. Nevermind that every Filipino household is getting poorer and poorer if not for the OFW families that help make ends meet. Nevermind young blood like Mikaela calling for the youth to give the Philippines a chance. Arroyo and her cronies have done nothing to encourage Filipinos to go work back home, worse, she's made more Filipinos leave the country. It is afterall healthy for the economy that more dollars are coming in.

I sit there in the Emiratisation forum thinking in 5 - 10 years, these local Emiratis, with the full support of their own government, will eventually get the jobs that we Filipinos once had claim on. Since they will be the priority for vacant jobs, where will all these Filipinos, on visit visas in Dubai and the rest of the Emirates find employment? My own country, currently ruled by Gloria Arroyo must put measures to ensure that workers coming home get some form of support, so they are able to integrate back into the labour market. OCW coopratives and projects that would encourage more and more to opt for a life back home, as millions actually long to do.

But like everything else, it must come from the top down. There must be mandate from the highest governing body - the President. And as I see Aetas being trainned and shipped off to foreign lands, I get a bitter taste in my stomach that whatever it is I longed for will never truly be.

Life indeed is tough so we truly need lots of luck in order to make it.

Angel

The name of an angel
With a smile that’s like heaven
You look at me and my heart leaps
Happy and nervous at the same time

A face of beauty
That could rival that of Helen’s
Your friendship means so much
I’m afraid you’ll never be mine

My heart’s full of love
Meant for no one else but you
I stare blindly into the darkness
Wishing that you knew

A friend I may be
One who’ll always be so
But more than that, I would love
To love you openly, freely, true.

If only you knew, that I love you.

Al Ain, UAE
in my computer while Barry, my Canadian colleague, is playing Bubbles
4th April 2007
Naisip ko lang while driving
Pwede kayang song? Gusto ko si Bamboo kakanta....

Lunchtime Filipino show still makes me laugh after over 20 years

One of my fondest memories while growing up in Cebu City is lunching with the whole family while enjoying the happy banter of TVJ on television. Tito, Vic and Joey - the enduring hosts of noontime show "Eat Bulaga" which aired first in 1979 are still making millions of Filipinos laugh up to this day.

From their earliest shows with Chiqui Hollman-Yulo and Debraliz Velasote in RPN 9 they rivalled Channel 7's Student Canteen. They even managed to "pirate" the two female hosts of said rival show; Helen Vela and Connie Reyes. For a short while, Plinky Recto and Ces Quesada shared hosting parts with the trio and later, Christine Jacob and Rio Diaz became their muses.

Now, it is a whole gang of individual shapes, personalities and sizes - contributing to the pot that is filled with memories and fun, indeed their line in Tagalog says it all, "ito ang tanghalian ng inyong buhay" (this is the lunch of your life)! Who could forget seeing little Aiza strut the duckie walk in Little Miss Philippines or the many loves found and lost and found anew by 'bossing' Vic; the romantic marriage of Senator Tito to enigmatic Helen Gamboa and seeing their children especially Ciara who is now host of the same show grow up before our very eyes? Joey's own children Kempee and Chenee also made memorable appearances along with Daria Ramirez and now, Kempee joins in hosting segments of the show. The same goes for Vic's children Oyo Boy and Danica.

Last week, Vic even showed excerpts of Danica's wedding to Mark Pingris. And it was but proper having had the entire Philippines see him from that 'tikling' singer fronting then VST band to the 'bossing' that he is now. His courtship and marriage to Miss D (Dina Bonnevie) was shown in Eat Bulaga, their painful married woes and the many other loves that followed were all visible in the show - if not consciously so - then it was shared as normally as anyone who goes through lifes many journeys. And we watched, perhaps judged, but continued to watch the comedy and the drama that is Eat Bulaga because we know everyone by heart. We know them and have owned them as one of us, maybe we know they live more comfortable lives, go to more lovely homes, drive fancier cars, have assistants and servants at their beck and call - but we know their strengths, their weaknesses, their errors, we have been through the happiest and saddest moments of their lives with them; cried their sorrows, laughed their joy, even created jokes along with them, we have expressions, one-liners, banters that have come from them, popularised by them and shared with them.

My daughter is starting to dance the "itaktak mo" and watches Bulagaan along with me and my husband. The lunch of our life is being passed on to the next generation.