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AT THE TIME of this writing, it looks like Canada will have another Conservative minority government under the steely watch of Stephen Harper. Which means more of the same. The same right-wing economic and political policies skewed to favor big corporations and banks over the poor and working classes including the vast majority of immigrant population and foreign temporary workers.

I attended a National Ethnic Press Council roundtable a week before the Oct. 14 elections where Liberal leader Stephane Dion was the speaker. I asked two questions: 1. Would you sign the UN Convention for the Protection of the Rights and Welfare of Migrant Workers? His answer: Yes, if there are no technicalities involved. 2. What would you do to help foreign temporary workers? His reply: I will fast track their becoming Canadians.

If Dion were to be the next Prime Minister, we could hold him to his words. But that may not be happening soon. We’re stuck with Harper who was next to impossible to meet during the campaign because he was just not accessible except to top editors of the dailies or to CBC’s Peter Mansbridge.

Besides, it’s apparent that the main plank of the Conservative program on labor is to pack the country with foreign temporary workers (translation: cheap labor) without labor rights and benefits and send them back to their home countries when they’re no longer needed.

But let’s see what happens next after the dust has settled in this election. For sure, the Liberals, the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois will be bickering intensely against one another while the Tories will have more power to implement their Bush-inspired agenda. It was a sad spectacle to watch NDP’s Jack Layton and Liberal’s Dion during the campaign attacking each other with passion as if either was the main target of the opposition. What they achieved was worse (for them) than the pre-election power equation in Parliament: more seats for the Conservatives.

This looks like a reverse of what’s happening in the U.S. where Democratic candidate Barack Obama is much favored by the polls than the Republican John McCain. I can’t wait to see, though, how a Harper-Obama chemistry would look like. A supposedly liberal-leaning U.S. superpower leader meeting with a Canadian version of ex-prez Bush. Would Obama really work for pulling out U.S. troops from Iraq while Harper would tend to send more Canadian troops to Afghanistan?

For sure, a second, stronger minority government for Harper would give him more reason to rule like a majority. That’s what he said.

* * *

On page five of this issue (Oct. 16-31, 2008, The Philippine Reporter) there is an open letter of appeal to GTA outlets of Filipino newspapers to help in preventing the theft of bundles of newspapers. The suspect is a publisher of another paper.

We in the local community media know who this person is. It’s been reported that he (or his delivery person) was seen by a storeowner pick up a bundle of another newspaper and brought it to he only knows where, most likely the garbage.

In one instance, a store owner specifically asked this guy not to pick up a bundle of newspapers. When the storeowner turned her back to him, he nevertheless carted away with the bundle.

Obviously, his intention was to reduce his competitors’ circulation so it would appear his paper had a bigger circulation.

I am reminded of the days when the Marcos regime bought bundles of the newspapers We Forum, Malaya, and other anti-dictatorship publications in Manila in the early 80s when the so-called mosquito press started to irritate Marcos.

But that was suppression of dissent and press freedom. The struggle then was in the political realm. What we have here locally is motivated purely by profit. And it is nothing less than low life.
According to another Filipino editor, while he was in a restaurant with colleagues, he witnessed how within minutes of delivery, a bundle of newspapers disappeared and on its spot appeared a bundle of this guy’s paper.

What do we do to stop this nefarious practice of a person occupying a prestigious position in our community. Do we need to expose him in print? Do we need to call the police? Maybe if he apologized to us and commit to mend his ways, there will be no need for this. (The Philipppine Reporter, Oct. 16-31, 2008)

TORONTO — The recent concert produced by Studio Six, “Celebratel Music with Josie de Leon,” was a major production where the performers were all local talents. This is a remarkable effort by our local producers to harness the local musicians, singers, dancers and choreographers to produce a major event comparable to those where the stars are imported from the Philippines or the U.S.

Much like locally-grown produce whose freshness and price benefit local consumers, our local talents shine on center stage when given a chance, not as front-acts nor one-or two-song time killers, but as stars in their own right.

There have been other attempts like this before but I haven’t seen one so elaborate and so filled with varied artists. First, there’s Josie whose effortless stage presence and ease at musical performance fill the stage and stir anticipation in the audience. I’ve watched her sing modern Tagalog love songs that required both energy and lilting tunes but the recent concert revealed she could spar with tenor Leander Mendoza and hit the high notes with aplomb doing a Phantom of the Opera number. And her repertoire included classic Broadway, pop songs, Natalie Cole (“Unforgetable”), Imelda Papin (“Kung Liligaya Ka”), Hot Dog (“Pers Lab”) and numbers with Canadian Idol Mikey Bustos.

Mendoza was a treat with his mastery of the piano and his gift of voice that easily filled the auditorium. Bustos was pure energy on stage with his dances and songs. They are only two of our local stars who made the show worth seeing.

There’s Karen Tan, whose powerful rendition of Kuh Ledesma’s “Dito Ba?” almost mersmerized the audience. I wanted to have more of her songs but her newborn baby rightly deserved time with her more than her stage appearances.

I was reminded of Vonnie Beltran, Chyrell Samson and Rodney Ronquillo whose star quality performances in our Ginsaugon concert in 2006 wowed the audience. Why were they not asked to showcase their talents here? Lilac Caña’s and Emilio Zarris’s appearances could have completed the local cast of stars.

But of course, there was Marvin de Guzman whose rendition of a Gary Valenciano number was done with much feeling. And there was Julius Tinsay whose Spanish numbers entertained the audience no doubt.

Mon Torralba of the Hot Dog fame was the musical director of the show. His handling of the lead guitar kept the musical numbers in order. His band was wonderful. It gave the show a professional sound that filled the air. It was like the glue the kept the show together.

Classical violinist Alex Cheung’s Phantom of the Opera truly held us breathless. And the dancers? With Josie singing and the band playing, the dancers drew the crowd up on their feet singing and dancing towards the end of the show.

The Celebrate magazine published for the show was glossy, had some interesting pieces on the artists and had more ads than it needed.

It could have been a perfect show had the Chinese Cultural Centre auditorium in Scarborough been filled to capacity that night.

Which brings us to a side issue. Why aren’t the usual suspects in the community, some of the high profile personalities not around? I’m sure Josie and her group of artists were not amiss in supporting their events, performing for free many times. Where were the massive crowds that thronged to the events of PIDC, Gawad Kalinga and the regional associations that had our local talents volunteering their time?

We owe these artists the support they deserve. I have always called them diamonds in our backyard. Our existence in a cold country like Canada would not have been richer without them.

I didn’t intend to write a column for this issue. In the last few days, however, I came across two items circulating on the Internet that I thought would be a compelling study in stark contrast. One is about the life of an overseas Filipino worker, or OFW, and the other the life of a Senator.

One is a column written by Conrado de Quiros, award-winning newspaper columnist whose impassioned writings have cultivated for him a large following of readers.  He wrote about the insane conditions under which OFWs work and the government plan to subject prospective OFWs to psychological tests before deploying them to overseas work.

The other item is anonymously written but equally impassioned description of the lives of Senators whose privileges and entitlements are mind-boggling.

Here is an excerpt from De Quiros’s column:

“The question is whether the person you are sending out is loony-tunes or the place he is going to is bound to make him so. Or put another way, the question is whether the person you are sending out is a risk to the community you are sending him out to or the conditions of work you are sending him out to are a risk to the person you are sending out. In many cases, the second is truer than the first. It’s the deplorable working conditions, the verbal, physical, emotional and sexual abuse, the torture, the nonpayment of wages that make OFWs snap and go berserk. That is probably more the rule than the exception. No exam is going to change that.”

xxx

“There is something sublimely absurd about making sure that only sane people are sent out to do insane work. There is something violently contradictory about guaranteeing that people are able to keep their family together by exposing them to conditions that guarantee they will tear their family asunder. There is something maddeningly insane about assuring that people are sufficiently sane to carry out the insane task of keeping a country afloat by sending its people to work abroad.

“I don’t know of any country today that is so dependent on overseas work. That has for its lifeblood overseas work. That cannot survive for one day without overseas work. Absurdity piles up on absurdity. I don’t know of any country today that is so desperate for overseas work it is willing to send its citizens to places God or Allah forgot. I don’t know of any country today that has turned whole universities into nursing schools, or turned entire departments into adjuncts of the nursing one. I don’t know of any country today that doesn’t even mind selling itself, quite apart from its people, to the highest bidder, piece by piece, parcel by parcel, lot by lot, just to survive—or to make its officials happy.”

Here is the item on the privileges of Senators, written in Pilipino or Tagalog. I refuse to translate this to English. I’m sure I would not give justice to the content and all its emotion should I do so.

So here, enjoy:

“ANG SARAP MAGING SENADOR!

“Miriam Defensor Santiago was featured in Correspondents last week.

“Maganda rin naman ang naidudulot ng pagiging prangka ni Senador Miriam Defensor-Santiago. Ayon kay Santiago , marami ang tumatak-bong Senador dahil sa laki ng budget na ibinibigay sa kanila kada buwan.
Lumalabas na P35,000 suweldo nila kada buwan ay pakitang-tao lang sa milyun-milyong budget ng bawat senador. Kada buwan ay may Fixed Monthly Budget ang bawat Senador ng humigit-kumulang P2 Milyon.
Sa opisina pa lang nila ay humigit-kumulang P500,000 ang budget nila sa Maintenance and Operating Expenses (Rental, Utilities, Supplies at Domestic Travels) at P500,000 para sa Staff at Personal expenses. Kaya para makatipid ang ibang Senador, kaunti lang ang staff na kinukuha nila. Nagtataka ka pa kung bakit mayroong mga Ghost Employee?

“Bukod diyan, may P760,000 allowance pa sila kada buwan para naman sa Foreign Travel. At ang masakit pa nito, hindi na kailngan i-liquidate ang mga resibo ng mga gastusin ‘yan kundi Certification lang ang Requirement.

“Heto pa, lahat sila ay Chairman ng mg Komite sa Senado. Ang Committee Chairman ay tumatanggap din ng budget na sinlaki ng tinatanggap ng mga Senador na humigit-kumulang P1 Milyon din! Hindi sila mawawalan ng Komite dahil 24 lang ang ating mga Senador at 37 naman ang Committee sa Senado.

“There’s food for everybody ‘ika nga! Lumalabas na doble ang kanilang benepesiyo at kita kapag sila ay nabiyayaan ng Committee Chairmanship.

“Sa P200 milyon na Budget para sa Pork Barrel ng mga Senador bawat taon, awtomatikong may 10% na S.O.P. o kita ng Senador na P20 milyon. Ito ang porsiyento na ibinibigay ng mga kontratista sa mga Senador na nagbibigay sa kanila ng mga Infrastructure at Livelihood Project.

“Bago matapos ang termino ng isang Senador, kumita na siya ng P100 milyon sa Pork Barrel pa lang. Yung ibang Senador mas gahaman, hindi lang 10% kundi 20 - 30% ang komisyon hinihingi sa mga kontratista.
Pansinin niyo na lang ang pagbabago ng buhay ng ilan sa ating mga Senador simula nang manungkulan sa puwesto. Kung dati ay simple lang ang kanilang pamumuhay ngayon ay nakatira na sila sa mga eksklusibong subdivision, maraming bahay sa Pilipinas at abroad at mahigit lima ang sasakyan.
Ngayon nagtataka ka pa ba kung bakit gumagastos ng daan-daang milyong piso ang mga Senador sa kampanya para sa isang posisyon na P35,000 lang ang suweldo kada buwan? Bawing-bawi pala ang gastos kapag naupo na!

ANG SARAP MAGING SENADOR! ! !
PLEASE FORWARD TO AS MANY OF YOUR FRIENDS AND LET THE WHOLE COUNTRY KNOW THAT ELECTION IS MORE OF PUTTING AMBITIOUS PEOPLE IN POSITION WHO ARE GREEDY FOR POWER, WEALTH & PRESTIGE THAN OF PUBLIC SERVICE… ANG MASAKIT PA PERA NG BAYAN PA RIN GAGAMITIN SA ELEKSYON MALUKLOK LANG ANG MGA BUWAYA SA PWESTO!!!”

Two quick updates:

1. A NEW Philippine Reporter website has been uploaded. Check it out at http://philippinereporter.com and enjoy the new design. We have also installed videos that are footages from the July 19, 2008 Mabuhay festival at Metro Convention Centre and the Juana Tejada press conference on July 18. We are using a software template that is similar to those used by CNN and other mainstream media sites. So you’ll sure to benefit from the leading edge features.

We at the Reporter are very excited by this new development. Now we can update the site with new stories and photos quickly and easily. No more tedious work with HTML stuff. No more waiting for the print edition to be finished. No more waiting for those trained with uploading to be free of their other work. I myself can upload stories, photos, make corrections, etc.

And the most exciting thing is when we cover stories, we can videotape the interviews and the events and upload the video footages the same day!!! I imagine this can be an exhilarating experience for our readers. It’s like, after attending a Filipino event or hearing about it, you check out the Reporter website and you find out what you just saw or heard about can be watched on video on the same day or a few days after.

So check it out now at http://philippinereporter.com and post your comments at the end of the stories and the videos. Bookmark the site because the url is different from the old site’s. Check out the Tinikling video and the other Fiesta Filipina videos. The music, the dances will mesmerize you.

2. At the top of the homepage you will notice a banner ad announcing a brief Free Review of the top 3 weight loss products. Check this out too. But don’t be scared, there is no product offer at the review page, only information. But of course, if you’re a bit interested in more information, you may read the linked pages which themselves contain a ton of great and useful info. They are well-researched and educational on the topic.

Since I am a health and wellness buff myself (I don’t eat meat, fastfood and greasy stuff, I drink Pimag oxygenated water, I take calcium, Coq10, Saw Palmetto supplements, etc.) I learned a lot just reading those pages. I even practiced some of their recommendations. And you know what? I lost 14 pounds in three weeks just using a couple of them. No kidding. Go check out those pages. They are highly-recommended by yours truly.

For a short cut, here’s the url: http://WellnessHealthWise.com

Here’s my latest column published in the Aug. 1-15, 2008 issue of The Philippine Reporter:

Notebook
By Hermie Garcia
Sweeping review of Mabuhay festival (Toronto)

I attended the Mabuhay Festival at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre last July 19 and I witnessed the huge success of the event.

Jun Enverga, President of the Philippine Independence Day Council (PIDC) says it was the biggest attendance so far in Mabuhay’s history. That’s true. I saw Mabuhay fest held at Harbourfront, several times at Metro Convention and one time at CNE Grounds. In most times, the crowd were sparse and some parts of the shows were ho-humm… some of the booth vendors said sales were not good enough and many food vendors complained about the sparse crowd.

These complaints and the lack of a substantial crowd led to various problems which included financial losses for the event organizers and the vendors.

But these may be a thing of the past. Almost two weeks after the event, I have yet to hear a buzz from complaining participants.

The huge turnout in the latest Mabuhay can be deservedly credited to the organizers, led by the Jun and Rosemer Enverga couple; Minda Neri, the event chair; Bernie Sychangco; Imee Belanger; Pete Mauricio; Ben Corpuz and the rest of the very able PIDC team and volunteers.

Most of the numbers were good , to say the least and some were awesome, to say the most. The dance troupes Fiesta Filipina and Culture Philippines were mesmerizing with their amazing dancers and their vibrantly colorful costumes. Against the huge Philippine flag as backdrop, you could describe the scenes magnificent.

Lilac Cana and Emil Zarris put up a classy number with songs the audience just relished and showed it with much applause. The Musika ng Ating Bayan was a pleasant relief from the seriousness and tradition-steep previous numbers. I liked the jeepney and karaoke bar scenes with Josie de Leon and Chyrell Samson.
I heard the San Lorenzo Ruiz Choir rendered a moving Bayan Ko number that touched a patriotic chord in many people’s hearts. Fiesta Filipina’s Bayani that featured Filipino heroes Bonifacio, Aguinaldo and Melchora Aquino reminded us of our historical struggle for freedom. After all, Mabuhay’s theme was the 110th independence day anniversary.

Note that PIDC supported Tejada’s fight for permanent residence in its Earl
Bales Park picnic. At the Mabuhay, Tejada was invited to join on stage the PIDC officers and some politicians that included Secretary of State for Multiculturalism Jason Kenney. It was appropriate to celebrate the Tejada victory at a huge event like Mabuhay. Problem is, it looked like the politicians were largely responsible for Tejada’s being granted eligibility for permanent residency. Fact is, her application was denied twice and were it not for community action and cries of injustice aired in the media, she would have been “removed” from Canada now.

Another sour note is the distasteful jokes and antics of event star Ai Ai de las Alas. She started with her series of jokes about the color, odour and shape of the genitals of the youth and adults. The crowd roared with laughter and it looked like they enjoyed her green and obscene jokes. But when she continued relentlessly and it seemed like they consisted the major part of her performance, I saw people shaking their heads. Aside from a few lively songs and the dirty jokes, she spent a large chunk of her time making four members of the audience inanely dance and compete on stage. Worse, she asked money from members of the audience who requested her to sing specific songs or have pictures taken with her. It was all in good fun, of course. But I heard comments like, “Was she underpaid by the organizers?” (Fact: She was paid a huge sum.)

In fairness to the organizers, I heard they did not know the staple of De las Alas’s performances. I watched some of them looked flabbergasted by it all. Also, she was warned that the event was a family-oriented show. But could you blame her? She has made a huge fortune from her kind of show in the Philippines, Asia, Europe and north America. Her fans love her for that. Well, some audience.

But this notwithstanding, this year’s Mabuhay was a huge success. I heard people say you’d be proud you’re Filipino when you witness a day-long event and show like that. Well, almost. Except maybe for the western-oriented fashion show which had no relevance to the occasion, and the overdone beauty pageants.

To sum up, Mabuhay made a headstart this year with historical content and relevance (Tejada issue, GK charity). Cultural content was superb. However, there’s room for improvement in handling non-relevant matters.

Following is my column for the July 1-15, 2008 issue of The Philippine Reporter:

Education for Change

I was invited to give the keynote address in the graduation ceremonies for the Grade 12 graduating class of the Jean Vanier Catholic Secondary School last June 24.

It was a special honor for me for two reasons. First, it was my first time to speak before a huge audience of youth where their parents, teachers and school authorities were present. There were about 120 graduating students and the audience was more than 400. Second, it was the school of Jeffrey Reodica, the 17-year old who was fatally shot by a Toronto police officer in May 2004.

Here is my prepared speech, some parts of which I omitted due to time constraints.

* * *

I have agonized over what message I’m going to deliver to you. You are younger than my children but you are older than my grandchildren. I have spent decades relating to my kids and some years relating to my grandkids. I don’t know if I know your generation enough to be able to stimulate your mind and touch your heart.

I decided I would just speak from the heart, from my perspective as an immigrant who brought his family from a Third World country. I understand a vast majority of the student population of your school come from Asian or African or non-English and non-French speaking backgrounds. A significant number come from Filipino families living in Scarborough.

When I graduated from high school in the Philippines, and that was 44 years ago, 1964 to be exact, I was extremely excited. During our graduation ceremonies, aside from the excitement of having pictures taken with my classmates, with a medal or so pinned on our white robes, my mind was preoccupied with the prospect of soon becoming a university student with all the stature and prestige that would come with it. We had a distinguished speaker, a famous economist who later became a Senator. But I didn’t listen to a word he said. All I could remember was his American accent, he having been schooled in a Jesuit-run university.

So you see, if you now have the attitude I had then, you wouldn’t hear a word I say here. And I don’t blame you. Your mind must be pre-occupied with what suit or dress you’d be wearing on your prom night, if you haven’t had it yet. Or maybe on how you now look in the eyes of your girl friend or boy friend. But still, if you listen enough, I’ll share with you some life lessons you will still remember forty years from now.

When I asked your guidance counselor what was I expected to say on this graduation day, I was told I need to inspire the graduating students. I assume it is about inspiring you to succeed in your chosen careers. But that is assuming you already know what career you want to build, which is not a reasonable assumption to make. Many young students of your age do not know what they want in life. In a vague way, maybe many of you want to go to university or college and eventually start a profession, start a business or just have a good job.

But in the pursuit of your goals, if you have set them up at this time, you will be doing so in very specific and given political, economic, social and cultural environment. You are not pursuing your career goals in a vacuum. And these conditions either help you or work against you. What do I mean by this?

Let’s start with the economic conditions right now. We are either seeing or facing a recession in north America. Thousands of people are losing their jobs. Millions of houses in the United States are being foreclosed – being taken by the banks from owners who could not pay their mortgages. The price of oil keeps on rising which pushes the price of everything to go up. More and more people are realizing their money is buying less and less of what they need. More and more people are being driven below the poverty line. More and more people are going to the food banks. Child poverty is in an all time high.

In other words, times are getting more difficult. Life is hard, times are tough. There is an economic crisis that is building up.

Where does that put you, the graduating Grade 12 students? How will this affect your pursuit of your careers?

It is said that today’s adult population, including the baby boomers – those born from 1946, after the war, to 1964 – are having a tougher time coping financially than their parents did. And you, the generation younger than Generation X, or Gen-X, will face even tougher times than your parents are experiencing right now.

This will mean, the cost of university or college education will be harder for your parents to shoulder. Even if you get part time jobs or summer jobs, post-secondary education will be costlier and harder to save up for. Your parents are working very hard to put you in school and maybe even university. Understand their situation. You cannot and should not blame them in case they couldn’t afford your university education. Believe me, they want you to be in university. Some of your parents may be holding two or three jobs to raise their families in an expensive city like Toronto. Add to that responsibility the cost of your university education, which is no joking matter in Canada. Have a heart big enough to understand their situation. Help them out if you can.

If they cannot afford to send you to university at this time, don’t get upset just because some of your classmates and friends will go to University of Toronto or York University, University of Waterloo or Queens University. If they can only afford to send you to Ryerson Polytechnic University or George Brown College or Seneca College, be thankful and finish your course with distinction. You are lucky that you have parents who send you to school. There are thousands and thousands of youth in Canada who haven’t seen the inside of a high school or even finished Grade 8. There are millions or maybe hundreds of millions of youth in Third World countries, especially war-torn countries, those plagued by unimaginable poverty and disease, who have not spent a single day in school. Some of them have not experienced being cared for by their parents who had died of disease, poverty or in wars.

Believe me, even as some of you have parents who could not afford to buy you an iPod or a fancy cell phone, you are still wonderfully blessed you have your parents and you are graduating from high school. You are blessed you have your school, your principal and vice principals and your teachers and support staff whose job it is to help and guide you earn a decent education.

So that is my first advise to you: Be grateful for what you have. Rest assured there are thousands in Canada and millions in the world who don’t have what you have.

Now, whether you get to university or college, or you don’t get to pursue post-secondary education at all for whatever reason, or you don’t get to register in a course you’ve always wanted, always take it with a positive attitude.

Whether you become a university student or a college student or needed to get a job right after high school, you should always be guided by one thing and only one thing: Do what you love, pursue your passion and excel in what you do.

When you enter the university, it will be a whole new ball game. You will be given heavy academic responsibilities. You have to read more books, stretch your brain more, spend sleepless nights studying. You will be required to write and speak out your mind on subject matters you hardly know about. But your gains will be bigger. You will discover new fields of learning, new sciences and the arts, history and social studies. Your horizons will be wider, your view of the world will be bigger. You will learn deeper about the cultures and histories of other peoples and countries. You will understand the world better. You will mature intellectually and with your association with other students, academic experts and school authorities, you will also mature emotionally.

In your journey to higher learning, a whole new world will open up to you. And you will develop critical thinking. You will be able to form your own opinion with conviction. You will develop an insatiable thirst for knowledge. You will ask many questions and will not be satisfied with traditional answers. You will learn the value of excellence in your academic pursuits. If you achieve this level of intellectual sophistication, all the money and time spent for your university education, all the blood, sweat and tears that were shed so you’ll be a university student, will not have been in vain.

It was Albert Einstein who said that “Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.”

In short, education is not about grades and diplomas, though they are important in getting jobs and they could be a measure of academic achievement. But education is more of what remains in your mind, how you think and how you connect information and ideas to the real world you live in. It is about the quality of your mind and not the quantity of information you have gathered for your exams and term papers.

Einstein also said: “I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”

We used to say in our university days, “Don’t let your schooling interfere with your education.” Some of those who said that took it so seriously they dropped out of school. For good reasons, like the political turmoil that defined those years in that country.

And there are distinguished dropouts who were stupendously successful. Bill Gates of Microsoft, the world’s richest person, dropped out of Harvard when he, at 20 years of age, found it too boring. He is now worth $58 billion. Michael Dell of Dell Computers dropped out of university as freshman at 19 years of age in 1984. Today he is worth $19 billion. In the Philippines, a school dropout became the country’s President with the highest number of votes ever garnered by a President. (Though he was later convicted for plunder.) A Filipino writer, awarded National Artist and was one of the most highly regarded for writing in English, was a dropout. The list goes on.

But don’t get me wrong. If you start university education, by all means, finish it. That distinction alone can be crucial in how people regard you in this society. And there’s too much to learn in university you won’t exhaust it in a lifetime. University experience can give you a kind of confidence in your intellectual capacity for whatever field you’re in.

Another clarification: I don’t mean to say that success is measured only in terms of how materially wealthy one becomes. You can be successful in life without being filthy rich as the billionaires I have mentioned. It all depends on your life’s purpose. Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years and wealth was never one of his goals in life. Yet he led the liberation of South Africa from the clutches of apartheid, a form of racial discrimination. Martin Luther King, Jr. was not one of America’s richest. Yet he was a leader and now a symbol of the American civil rights movement.

There is one last message I’d like to convey to you. You will recall that 17-year-old Jeffrey Reodica was a student in your school when a tragic incident ended his life in May 2004. He was fatally shot by a Toronto police officer.

As a result of community protests and cries for justice, with the active participation of students in this school, a public inquiry was called by the Ontario government where the police officers involved and dozens of witnesses were questioned to determine what really happened that led to his death. In that Inquest that lasted for months, Jeffrey’s family’s lawyers and the lawyers of the Community Alliance for Social Justice (CASJ) engaged the lawyers of the police in tough arguments and debates. The Inquest jury adopted seven recommendations, five of which required the Toronto Police to implement certain changes in their policing practices. And they cost more than $400,000 in the police budget. The community advocates and Jeffrey’s family won certain changes that were supposed to prevent a similar incident from happening again. Although the perpetrator of the killing was not brought to justice, a qualified victory for the community and the family was apparently achieved.

The incident and the resulting policing changes provide us life lessons even the police authorities now recognize and one of them is that community concern and action can lead to positive changes no matter who were responsible for the wrongdoing.

My final word to you, graduating Grade 12 Class of 2008, is this: As you reach this milestone in your education and as you pursue higher education in your journey to start your careers, be deeply aware of the political and economic environment. The world out there will not always be kind to you. Some of the individuals and institutions you will encounter will not be fair to you and will treat you unjustly. Some of them you will see blatantly victimize others. You should have the courage to fight them for the benefit of those whose rights are trampled upon. You should always be on the side of those who are victimized and oppressed. Like the boy from your school who should have graduated years before you — Jeffrey Reodica, had his life not been taken by an officer of the law.

After all, what’s the value of our education if we allow the wrongs to prevail in our midst? What’s the value of our education if we look the other way when others are being robbed of their dignity, and worse, their life?

I believe education’s primary purpose is not only to deepen our understanding of the world but also to strengthen our humanity so we may become more just and humane to have the courage to change the world for the better.

Thank you and congratulations.

Here is the column I wrote about Crispin “Ka Bel” Beltran published in the June 16-30, 2008 issue of The Philippine Reporter:

Working Class Hero

THIS ISSUE is like a Special Issue on Crispin “Ka Bel” Beltran. (Check pages 1, 8, 9, 11, 22 and other pages.) Ka Bel is fresh in the memory of many of us in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver and Winnipeg. He, together with Rep. Satur Ocampo and Rep. Luz Ilagan, visited those cities last April and spoke before audiences and met hundreds of mostly Filipinos and Canadians. The three Filipino solons were on a mission to ask the Canadian government to help stop the extrajudicial killings in the Philippines. They also presented to many groups and in many events in these cities the state of human rights in the Philippines and asked support for the struggle for freedom and to end poverty in the country.

It came as a shock to us that Ka Bel, who we listened to as he spoke passionately and tirelessly about the poverty, the hunger and desperation among the working classes in his country, died on Tuesday, May 20 after an accident in his home.

In Toronto, I attended three of his speaking engagements. I met him first at the York University campus, then at OISE, University of Toronto and then at the Casa Manila forum of the Philippine Press Club-Ontario.

On the day of the three solons’ departure from Toronto to Manila on April 18, I was in the group who saw them off at Pearson International Airport. That’s when I interviewed him after a late lunch before they boarded their plane.

I had read a lot about his deep involvement in the anti-Marcos dictatorship struggle when he was imprisoned for years, his escape from detention, his leadership in the strong labor movement, capped by his years as the leader of Kilusang Mayo Uno, his enormous work as People’s Parliamentarian at the Philippine House of Representatives and his tireless participation and leadership in the parliament of the streets to his last days. No wonder, the present Arroyo regime had tried to silence Ka Bel by putting him in prison for one and half years which caused the dramatic deterioration of his health.

At age 75 and with a track record of more than 50 years of involvement in the struggle for meaningful social change for the working poor people, Ka Bel is a working class hero.

He’s been called the New Andres Bonifacio during his funeral. That title he rightfully deserves. Not only because of his total devotion to the working class as he was known as the leading advocate for workers’ rights and welfare in the Philippine scene. It’s also because he came from their ranks, being a worker himself, and never left their ranks throughout his life.

In Congress, he was known as the poorest parliamentarian in terms of material wealth but the richest in contribution because he was the partylist representative who filed the most number of bills and resolutions (130) in the 13th Congress, a feat recognized by the prestigious Philipppine Center for Investigative Journalism. He was chosen Most Outstanding Congressman for four years, from 2002 to 2005.

On the three occasions I listened to him in the Toronto forums, he was soft-spoken and always took the side of the oppressed in any topic. He was impassioned and emphatic when he spoke in Pilipino.
At the PPCO forum, he talked about the hard struggle in Congress which is overwhelmingly dominated by the Arroyo regime’s stooges and allies. Yet Beltran performed his job tirelessly and meticulously working on legislation after legislation that served to uplift the condition of the workers, mainly through wage hikes, opposition to anti-labor laws and policies and to the current land reform program that ironically has resulted in further depriving the peasants of the fruits of their labor for decades.

To those who knew him personally, Ka Bel, as tough as he was a figther, had a big heart for everyone in the rank and file of the countless mass organizations he led and related to. He was even known to be soft to the policemen assigned to demonstration sites, calling them kababayan (countrymen) and asking them to open their eyes to the conditions of the country.

During those days he was in Toronto, he had a ready smile for everyone but he never tired of talking about his people. He said the situation was simple: The Filipino people are hungry and they are oppressed. And people have to do something about it.

Ka Bel is truly a working class hero. He will be remembered in history as a valuable contribution of the Philippines to the international movement to liberate the working class in the league of Isabelo de los Reyes, Crisanto Evangelista, Felixberto Olalia and Rolando Olalia. He is truly the New Andres Bonifacio.

I am so grateful I met the man.

There is a burning issue here in Toronto — the case of Juana Tejada, a Filipino caregiver who worked for years in Canada and while applying for resident status, she was diagnosed with cancer. Now she is told that she has to go back to the Philippines because her health condition will be a burden to Canada if she is allowed to stay as a permanent resident.

There was a press conference today Friday, June 20, 2008, in Toronto held by her supporters. There is a statement detailing her situation and the demands of the community in her case. It’s published in the current issue of The Philippine Reporter.

Here is the link:

Justice and Compassion for Juana Tejada

(Here is the column I wrote before I wrote the piece on “Death by Medicine…”)

RECENTLY I received in the mail a free promotional issue of Bottom Line/Health magazine or newsletter. I usually receive health or wellness materials and newsletters in the mail. Having subscribed to some of them in the past, my name must now be in the mailing lists of dozens of health-related marketing organizations.
This last one caught my attention because it contained pieces of revealing information you will rarely find in the newspapers and magazines.
Here’s one: People who interrupt conversations are at greater risk of having heart problems. This is according to several university studies in the United States. In fact in a study at Duke University it was found that if you interrupt conversations you are up to seven times more likely to have heart disease.
Why? The theory is that people who interrupt conversations are excessively “competitive and controlling,” considered the hallmarks of “the worst ‘Type A’ personalities.”
Now I quote the more interesting part of the story:

“Now here’s the amazing part: These high-risk people can lower their risk without totally altering their personalities… and without any drugs, exercise or dietary changes. All they have to do is practice being good listeners.
“In one study, the test subjects focused on being silent while others talked.
“Result: They lowered both their blood pressure and their stress hormone levels!”
So next time you feel that urge to interrupt somebody who’s talking, suppress that urge. You’ll not only be seen as a polite good listener. You’ll also be greatly reducing your risk for a heart attack.
Here’s another one. Don’t use your cell phone before bedtime. “A study at the University of Zurich found that exposing people to the electro-magnetic fields from cell phones altered their brain waves during sleep… resulting in sleep disturbances!”
Here’s a shocking information: A recent survey in the U.S. revealed that MORE THAN HALF of pharmacists “admitted they’d filled the wrong prescription due to a doctor’s sloppy handwriting!”
Some mistakes are corrected in time to save the patient but the others result in injury and even death.

The newsletter states that in the U.S. “drug errors account for 140,000 deaths per year!”
So what to do? The story advised that next time your doctor writes a prescription for you or your kids, ask him or her to spell it out so you can write it down together with the dosage and schedule. When the pharmacist gives you the drug, compare the label with your note.

* * *

Talking about drug errors and deaths caused by them, I recently received an email from the country director of Nikken Philippines, Emil Quinto, quoting a paper/article from Life Extension Magazine, March 2004 issue. The magazine is published by Life Extension Foundation, based in the U.S., whose main objective is to contribute to the extension of the healthy life span of people. (Check their website, www.lef.org)

The paper “Death by Medicine” is the work of a group of researchers, three MDs and two PhDs, who “analyzed and combined ALL the published literature dealing with injuries and deaths caused by government-protected medicine.”

I quote from William Falloon who in the foundation website quoted a portion of the 30-page study that had 160 documented references:

“This fully referenced report shows the number of people having in-hospital, adverse reactions to prescribed drugs to be 2.2 million per year. The number of unnecessary antibiotics prescribed annually for viral infections is 20 million. The number of unnecessary medical and surgical procedures performed annually is 7.5 million. The number of people exposed to unnecessary hospitalization annually is 8.9 million.

“The most stunning statistic, however, is that the total number of deaths caused by conventional medicine is an outstanding 783,936 per year. It is now evident that the American medical system is the leading cause of death and injury in the U.S. (By contrast, the number of deaths attributable to heart disease in 2001 was 699,697, while the number of deaths attributable to cancer was 553,251.5.)

To put this statistic in perspective, the report states: “Our estimated 10-year total of 7.8 million iatrogenic* deaths is more than all the casualties from all the wars fought by the U.S. throughout its entire history. (*What’s iatrogenesis? From the Greek roots, iatros = doctor; genesis = caused.)
More from this shocking report next issue. In the meantime, please share this knowledge with your family and loved ones. Please don’t get me wrong. I’m not bashing doctors or the drug industry. I’m only highlighting disturbing revelations from the scientific studies of some American medical doctors and PhDs.

Throughout the years I have developed the belief that since you have only one body and it is the only place you have to live in, why not take charge and take care of it yourself? Why entrust it to medical professionals who commit the above-mentioned unbelievable errors?

-30-
Notebook, The Philippine Reporter, March 1-15, 2004

I was recently reviewing my past articles published in The Philippine Reporter. I came across this one (see article below) about a major health issue in the United States. It’s about a shocking number of preventable deaths every year. What is mind-blowing is the figure far exceeds the total number of American deaths in all of the wars the U.S was involved in. And the ‘death by medicine’ figure is a yearly figure!

Since I was deeply disturbed again by being reminded of this phenomenon, I am republishing my article for my readers. Do drop me a word what you think.

In the meantime, check out this link: http://wellnessispossible.com for detoxifying your body systems and losing fat naturally. I got the ebook referred to in this website and I’m using the concepts and the recommended health practices like avoiding bad food, eating only good ones, especially organic, juicing, not mixing protein and carbohydrates in one meal, etc.

My warning, though: the above-mentioned website shows you in gory detail what happens when you don’t detoxify. The author is an American doctor who knows what she’s talking about. So, if you find the graphic and “yucky” nature of the photos and the videos disgusting, don’t go to the website or leave the site right away. I’ve warned you already. Otherwise, if you’re the type of person who’s brave enough to see the truth no matter how ugly, then go and read the material and watch the videos and look at the photos.

Another thing, there is a health report I want to share with you. The title is “24 Types of Healthy Food for a Healthy Life”. It’s a short report that can be read at http://renewtowellness.com and it has links to other health websites.

These other linked websites are very educational too but they are selling their products which are worthwhile to look into. But you don’t have to buy anything if you don’t want to. The point is to learn a lot about health and wellness because there is too much bad food, bad air and bad water, pollution, toxins and poison out there. Our only defense is to be educated enough so we know what to do to protect ourselves, our family and loved ones from the onslaughts of all forms of toxins and environmental destruction.

So, to sum up, here are the websites:

http://wellnessispossible.com

http://renewtowellness.com

If you want to post a comment in this blog after reading this article and checking the websites, please do.

Thanks.

Hermie

Here is my article:

‘Death by Medicine’: 780,000+ die yearly

THE information I’m about to share with you is shocking, to say the least.

It’s about the medical system in the United States where some practices and errors cause more than 780,000 deaths annually. I mentioned this in this column in our March 1-15, 2004 issue but we’ll go into more detail this time.

The article “Death by Medicine” published in the Life Extension magazine (www.lef.org) and authored by three American MDs and two PhDs, cited an independent review commissioned by the Nutrition Institute of America of the quality of “government-approved” medicine. The study was in response to the “baseless challenges” to natural medicine (“slanderous media campaigns”) launched by drug-company front groups. Findings from this study indicated that conventional medicine or government-approved medicine is “the leading cause of death” in the United States.
The authors of the article established the authority and credibility of the study:
“The Nutrition Institute of America is a non-profit organization that has sponsored independent research for the past 30 years. To support its bold claim that conventional medicine is America’s number one killer, the Nutrition Institute of America mandated that every “count” in this “indictment” of U.S. medicine be validated by published, peer-reviewed scientific studies.”
Let’s go to the specific findings of the study from which I will quote extensively minus the footnotes.
“Each year approximately 2.2 million U.S. hospital patients experience adverse drug reactions (ADRs) to prescribed medications. In 1995, Dr. Richard Besser of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated the number of unnecessary antibiotics prescribed annually for viral infections to be 20 million; in 2003, Dr. Besser spoke in terms of tens of millions of unnecessary antibiotics prescribed annually. Approximately 7.5 million unnecessary medical and surgical procedures are performed annually in the U.S., while approximately 8.9 million Americans are hospitalized unnecessarily.
“As shown in the following table, the estimated total number of iatrogenic deaths—that is, deaths induced inadvertently by a physician or surgeon or by medical treatment or diagnostic procedures— in the U.S. annually is 783,936. It is evident that the American medical system is itself the leading cause of death and injury in the U.S . By comparison, approximately 699,697 Americans died of heart disease in 2001, while 553,251 died of cancer.
Look at the total number of these deaths induced by medical intervention: 783,936! That’s more than three quarters of a million Americans dying every year. And practically no significant cries of protest are being heard to correct this modern-age anomaly.
Let’s put this in the present day perspective. More than 3,000 people were killed in the September 11 terrorist bombings in the U.S. that shocked the world and awakened the recent wave of American “patriotism.” Not that I’m degrading the value of 3,000 lives lost in 9/11 but that is less than four per cent of the almost 800,000 lives lost every year in the hands of the American medical system.
Here’s another shocking estimated figure: One million die every year from “medical intervention”. “Using Leape’s 1997 medical and drug error rate of 3 million multiplied by the 14% fatality rate he used in 1994 produces an annual rate of 420,000 for drug errors and medical errors combined. Using this number instead of Lazarou’s 106,000 drug errors and the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) estimated 98,000 annual medical errors would add another 216,000 deaths, for a total of 999,936 deaths annually.”
Using the most conservative figures from its statistics, the study projected a 10-year total of 7,841,360 iatrogenic deaths. These more than 7.8 million deaths “is more than all the casualties from all the wars fought by the U.S. throughout its entire history.” Put in this perspective, the picture looks like this: More American human lives were lost in ten years in the medicine killing fields than in all the U.S. wars in its more than 200-year history.
These are deeply disturbing statistics but this is U.S. information you may say. That’s true, but is there any significant difference between the Canadian and the U.S. medical practices and professions? Aren’t American giant pharmaceutical drug companies lording it over here in Canada?
Here are some more direct quotes from the Life Extension magazine article:
In a 1994 paper by Dr. Lucian L. Leape, “Error in Medicine” published in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA), he found that “in 1964, 20 % of hospital patients suffered iatrogenic injury, with a 20% fatality rate; in 1981, 36% of hospitalized patients experienced iatrogenesis with a 25% fatality rate, and adverse drug reactions were in involved in 50% of the injuries; in 1991, 64% of acute heart attacks in one hospital were preventable and were mostly due to adverse drug reactions.”

Medical errors

“Leape acknowledged that the literature on medical errors is sparse and represents only the tip of the iceberg, noting that when errors are specifically sought out, reported rates are “distressingly high.” He cited several autopsy studies with rates as high as 35-40% of missed diagnoses causing death. He also noted that an intensive care unit reported an average of 1.7 errors per day per patient, and 29% of those errors were potentially serious or fatal.”
“In 1995, a JAMA report noted, ‘Over a million patients are injured in U.S. hospitals each year, and approximately 280,000 die annually as a result of these injuries. Therefore, the iatrogenic death rate dwarfs the annual automobile accident mortality rate of 45,000 and accounts for more deaths than all other accidents combined.’”
In 1997 a survey by the National Patient Safety Foundation, which is sponsored by the American Medical Association (AMA) found that more than 100 million Americans have been affected directly or indirectly by a medical mistake. Forty-two percent were affected directly and 84% personally knew of someone who had experienced a medical mistake”
Medication error

“A survey of a 1992 national pharmacy database found a total of 429,827 medication errors from 1,081 hospitals. Medication errors occurred in 5.22% of patients admitted to these hospitals each year. The authors concluded that at least 90,895 patients annually were harmed by medication errors in the U.S. as a whole.
“A 2002 study shows that 20% of hospital medications for patients had dosage errors. Nearly 40% of these errors were considered potentially harmful to the patient. In a typical 300-patient hospital, the number of errors per day was 40.
“Problems involving patients’ medications were even higher the following year. The error rate intercepted by pharmacists in this study was 24%, making the potential minimum number of patients harmed by prescription drugs 417,908.

Why are all these simple errors that cause monumental loss of lives happening? Not that doctors are bad people. Doctors have in fact saved and will save countless human lives. It is the fundamental flaws in the medical system that is causing all of these. But more of that in my next column.

Dr. Joel D. Wallach, a 1991 Nobel Prize nominee in Medicine gave this advice for a long and healthy life:

1. Do not do foolish things like excessive drinking, smoking, and eating unhealthy foods, and

2. Do not go to your doctor!

-30-
(Notebook, The Philippine Reporter, April 16-30, 2004)