A Mother of Four, a Community Leader......MURDERED

She was not simply the wife of an indigenous anti-mining activist. Juvy Capion, the woman killed in what is now called the Tampakan massacre, was a farmer, mother of four, and leader of the Blaan community.


Davao City, Philippines — She was not simply the wife of an indigenous anti-mining activist. Juvy Capion, the woman killed in what is now called the Tampakan massacre, was a farmer, mother of three, and leader of the Blaan community.

On October 18 at 6 am Juvy Capion and her two sons Jordan, 13 years old and Jan-jan, aged 8, were killed in Fayahlob Sitio Datal-Alyong, Barangay Kimlawis, Kiblawan, Davao del Sur after military members strafed their hut. She did not get to drink the coffee prepared by her son, Jordan. She was also two months pregnant.

Her death was mourned by her sister-in-law Erita Capion Dialang, who said her perseverance and hard work made her a reliable leader in her community.
“She has the widest farm area in the community. Some Blaans relied on her and would like to work for her because she is generous. When she comes home from the farm, she would share her earnings to her fellow Blaans,” Erita lamented.

Juvy almost single-handedly tends a five-hectare land when her husband, Daguil Capion, went into hiding after waging pangayaw or tribal warfare against Sagittarius Mines Inc. which has mining explorations in Tampakan in South Cotabato, Kiblawan and Sultan Kudarat.
With fellow Blaan farmers helping her, they planted corn, potato, bananas and yam (gabi) for their sustenance.

But aside from farming, Juvy herself is an active member of Kalgad – a local organization they formed against the aggression by SMI in their areas.
Kalgad is a Blaan term loosely translated in Bisaya as “kakugi” or to perservere. Erita said Kalgad represents the Blaan’s ‘kakugi nga pagdepensa sa yutang kabilin’ (perseverance to defend ancestral lands).

The organization was formed after members of the Blaan community turned down the SMI’s offers such as relocation and money.

According to Erita, Juvy opposed the presence of SMI because it has caused division among the community and would destroy the Blaan ancestral lands.
Most of Kalgad’s leaders and members are women including Juvy and her sister-in-law Erita, who is the group’s Vice President.
“We worry about the men because if they will register themselves as members of the organization, the military will just interrogate them, will hurt them and tag them as members of New People’s Army,” lamented Erita.
“There was an assumption that women will not be hurt,” said Dulphing Ogan, secretary general of the Mindanao lumad alliance Kalumaran. However, this is not the case with the murder of Juvy and her two sons.
Kalumaran cited the fact finding mission headed by the Marbel Diocese Social Action Center that “(Juvy and her sons’) bodies were used in an attempt to compel Daguil to surrender to them.”
This has enraged the Blaan community. Erita said they now want nothing more than justice for the deaths of the Daguil family and the pullout of the 27th Infantry Battalion responsible for the killings.
The women’s group Gabriela Southern Mindanao also condemned the military. “During militarization, women and children are not spared. They are always the victims, like Juvy Capion, who in defense for her children’s future chose to fight against mining. And because the AFP tends to look at women as weak, they become easy targets,” lamented Mae Ann Sapar, the group’s spokesperson.

The struggle of the Blaans to protect their land has pushed Juvy’s husband Daguil and other Blaans to wage a pangayaw (tribal war), a traditional system of defending one’s tribe. With the deaths of Juvy Capion and her sons, the resistance intensifies.
In a statement by Kalipunan ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan sa Pilipinas (KAMP), a national alliance of indigenous people’s organization in the Philippines, it said that “it is entrenched in the culture of the indigenous peoples to defend their land and life. SMI is a threat to the way of life and the survival of the B’laan people. The pangayaw being waged is just.” 

By: By KENETTE JEAN I. MILLONDAGA
Davao Today

Education is the most powerful weapon.....

Interesting, I agree on Education is the key.....

Japan mayor to Pinoys: Preserve culture by educating younger generations

By GMA News Online / Pinoy Abroad, on October 17th, 2012

SAKAI CITY, Japan – What can Filipinos learn from one of Japan's oldest cities?
Sakai City mayor Osami Takeyama told GMA News Online that it was important for Filipinos to value the preservation of one's cultural traditions.
"The most important thing about the preservation of traditional culture is to provide good education to younger generations," Takeyama said.
"I believe that by doing it (educating the younger generation), people will become more aware of their traditional culture," he added.
Sakai may be a little less popular to tourists than its neighboring Osaka (both cities are inside the Osaka Prefecture) but Sakai boasts of centuries of Japanese traditions successfully interwoven with modernization.
Over the past few decades, the city of Sakai has well embraced industrialization but without sacrificing its cultural traditions.
The city has long been home to sprawling industrial factories and commercial complexes, but at the same continues to preserve age-old traditions like its famous tea ceremonies as well as its blade and bike industries.
Addressing Southeast Asian journalists visiting this city, Takeyama said he was open to possible "interchanges" with any city in the Philippines, in an effort to bring back the once lively relations between the two Asian countries.
"But first, we"d like to start with grassroots or person-to-person interchanges. After that, there could be some sort of opportunities then we can do some formal relationships with other cities in the Philippines and probably we can work on issues on manufacturing things and also environmental issues which Sakai is very much caring for," Takeyama stressed.
Historic relationship to PHL
Sakai's rich historic relationship with Southeast Asian nations especially to the Philippines date back to the 16th century when Sakai's revered merchant Naya traveled to Luzon in search of trade opportunities.
Story has it that the merchant was so enamored by the Philippine Island he named himself after it, and since adopted the name "Luzon Sukezaemon."
Sakai also was once home to one of the most important seaports in the whole of Japan, accomodating trade ships from neighboring countries and the Southeast Asian region.
It was also this openness to foreign products and cultures among Sakai residents that allowed the city to blossom into a melting pot of modernity and tradition.
"Luzon Sukezaemon had a very good and successful career as a businessman. So his courage and awareness to these different cultures  from different places was very important," said Takeyama.
The mayor added that they continue to pass on to the next generation this attitude in welcoming diversity.
"It is important to tell kids here in Sakai about the stroies of our ancestors like Ruson Sukezaemon," Takeyama said.
Katanas to kitchen knives
Sakai is renowned for manufacturing the best blades in Japan (from weapons called katanas to plain kitchen knives).
The city, situated southwest of Tokyo and is only around 20 minutes away from Osaka City by train, is also home to the biggest "tumulus" in the world, a type of an expansive royal burial site shaped like a key hole when viewed from the air.
The Nintoku tumulus is one of more than a hundred tumuli in Sakai City which could rival burial sites such as Egypt's pyramids or India's Taj Mahal.
The city takes pride also in its tradional hand-made knives even as the local government put priority in supporting local craftsmen, by providing them subsidiary and helping them expand their network of market.
"In the age of mass production, it is still important to preserve hand crafted products because these convey the heart of the people," emphasizing further the importance of preserving tradition in a sea of modernity, and at the same time being open to foreign cultures.
The city government of Sakai has for the fourth time invited Southeast Asian students and members of the media from the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Cambodia for a two-week cultural exchange program this October.
The foreign college students – all taking formal studies of the Japanese language – made the rounds in elementary schools in Sakai, sharing their respective cultural traditions with an end goal of strengthening ties between Sakai and the Southeast Asian countries.
MARK MERUEÑAS, GMA NEWS, VVP, GMA News

Outrageous and heartbreaking story.....read on

Afghan girl 'beheaded for refusing prostitution'

Afghan police have arrested four people who allegedly tried to force a woman into prostitution and beheaded her when she refused.

Najibullah confessed to murdering Mah Gul Photo: Aref Karimi/AFP

17 Oct 2012

Mah Gul, 20, was beheaded after her mother-in-law attempted to make her sleep with a man in her house in Herat province last week, provincial police chief Abdul Ghafar Sayedzada told AFP.

"We have arrested her mother-in-law, father-in-law, her husband and the man who killed her," he said.

Gul was married to her husband four months ago and her mother-in-law had tried to force her into prostitution several times in the past, Sayedzada said.

The suspect, Najibullah, was paraded by police at a press conference where he said the mother-in-law lured him into killing Gul by telling him that she was a prostitute.

"It was around 2am when Gul's husband left for his bakery. I came down and with the help of her mother-in-law killed her with a knife," he said.

The murder comes against a backdrop of a world outcry over the shooting by Taliban Islamists of a 14-year-old Pakistani girl, Malala Yousafzai, who had become a voice against the suppression of women's rights.

While Yousafzai's case has made world headlines, people using social media in Afghanistan have made the point that oppression and violence against women are commonplace in Afghanistan.
Abdul Qader Rahimi, the regional director of the government-backed human rights commission in western Afghanistan, said violence against women had dramatically increased in the region recently.
"There is no doubt violence against women has increased. So far this year we have registered 100 cases of violence against women in the western region," he said, adding that many cases go unreported.
"But at least in Gul's case, we are glad the murderer has been arrested and brought to justice," he said.
Last year, in a case that made international headlines, police rescued a teenage girl, Sahar Gul, who was beaten and locked up in a lavatory for five months after she defied her in-laws who tried to force her into prostitution.
Source: AFP

Suze Orman warns OFW families....

Sharing to all OFW's :

 

You can't count on remittances forever

By: Likha Cuevas-Miel, InterAksyon.com
February 27, 2012 10:19 PM

InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5

MANILA, Philippines - Families of overseas Filipino workers must anticipate the day when remittances from their loved ones will stop coming, international personal finance advisor Suze Orman said on Monday in Manila.
Orman, who hosts her own show on CNBC and is a favorite resource person at Oprah, said that families who are dependent on remittances must always think that the money will not flow forever; their loved ones can lose their jobs abroad, get sick, or even die.
"Anything can happen at any time and the problem that is going on out there [abroad] when one person from over there stops sending money in here, you've not only affected one person there but also four, five or six people over here. Then that starts the very dangerous possibility of things going wrong," Orman said in a talk hosted by the Bank of the Philippine Islands.
OFW-dependent families have to understand where that money comes from in order for them to get motivated to fix their household finances, she added.
The Philippine economy is kept afloat by consumer spending that is primarily fueled by OFW remittances. Last year, overseas workers sent $20-billion back home, a record in remittances. According to a survey conducted by Citibank in 2007, however, only one of 10 Filipinos save enough to last their families nine weeks.
Orman said OFW dependents must change their expectation that the funds they receive every month are going to always be there.
"And once we understand it is possible that that check would stop [coming], you would think twice before you go out and buy a flat screen TV or you do things other than saving that money," the financial advisor said.
No money of their own
Orman shared that members of her household staff are Filipinos, so she is familiar with the habits of OFWs, and the culture of sending their entire paycheck back home and leaving nothing for themselves.
"And we always say 'Can't you just save a little money of your own? Can you just keep a little something for yourself?' It goes on for 10, 15, 20 years," she said.
Then Orman observed that in the last two years, her staff stopped coming home to the Philippines for their annual month-long vacation every May. When she asked, they said they wanted to save the plane fare money and open a bank account.
"They are afraid they don't have money themselves and what are they going to do? And their parents can't take care of them, their parents just died or something happened," she said.
That sudden change in their thinking was brought about by the realization that they are getting older and they are not feeling as sprite as they did 10 or 20 years ago.
The personal finance guru noted that this phenomenon is not exclusive to the Philippines but it resonates to economies that are dependent on remittances such as African countries.
Change culture of mendicancy
Orman said that it is important to evaluate the realities that are besetting OFWs and their families. They should also think about whether or not perpetuating the culture of mendicancy among the able-bodied members of the extended family is really helping them and the economy.
"Are we helping those people by sending money to them so they never have to dig deep themselves and reach their own potential because the money is coming into them like clockwork when they haven't made any contingency plan in case that money stops because they don’t think it will ever going to stop? It is possible that we're hurting them rather than helping them/ Because a lot of times they [dependents] are still very young," she said.
The personal financial advisor related that some members of her household staff have dependents that are young, employable people. One of them told Orman that her 23-year old brother "just does not want to work" despite being in perfect health.
"But it's another thing for parents. I believe all children should take care of their parents, I don't care where they are. I take care of my own mother, she's going to be 97. It's an honor to have money to take care of my mama. [But] it's a whole different light if you're talking about brother, sister, friends, or things like that," she said.
Pay debts, save
Once the OFWs and their dependents have evaluated their situation, the next step in achieving financial freedom is to pay off all credit card debts.
After wiping out their high-interest credit card debts, the next step is to start saving for the rainy days before trying to learn to invest in complicated instruments like mutual funds or stocks.
"But nothing feels greater than to have a sum of money in a bank account somewhere. And that what they should be striving for," Orman said.

Counting and Monitoring the Contribution of OFW's

Sharing to all OFW's ( The Nation's New Heroes) ......

by Jose Ramon G. Albert, Ph.D ¹
This October, our celebration of the National Statistics Month, focuses on “Monitoring Progress on Decent Work Through Statistics: Pathway to Inclusive Growth.” Undoubtedly, decent work has eluded a considerable number of our countrymen. Some of them have even become today’s wandering Jews, pursuing better economic prospects for their families by working overseas. Of late, these countrymen have been referred to as our nation’s new heroes (Bagong Bayani) as their aggregate contributions to the Philippine economy have been extremely significant, and certainly provided a mechanism for sustaining the country’s growth. 
The 1974 Labor Code of the Philippines (under then Presidential Decree 442) paved the way for the formal deployment of Filipino workers abroad.  Since 1974, it has been important to pay specific attention to Filipino laborers abroad, describe “who are they and where do they go?” in order to provide them proper attention.
The Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995 named the Filipino laborers abroad as “Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs)” or “Migrant Workers”.   These refer to “persons who are to be engaged, are engaged, or have been engaged in a remunerated activity in a state of which he or she is not a citizen”. For purposes of counting them, the National Statistics Office (NSO) through its Survey of Overseas Filipinos (SOF) identified them as “persons who are presently and temporarily out of the country during the reference period to fulfill an overseas contract for a specific length of time or were presently at home on vacation during the reference period but still had an existing contract abroad.”
Phenomenal Rise in the Number of OFWs
In a span of three decades, Figure 1 illustrates the number of deployed OFWs in 1975 have increased tremendously from 36,035 in 1975 to over a million by 2006. As of 2010, the number of OFWs has been estimated at 1.47 million (38.4 percent higher than its 2006 figure). In 2011, the total number of OFWs continued its rising streak, expanding by 15.4 percent during the year, with the land-based and sea-based workers showing a spread of 19.5 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively. The phenomenal rise in these figures clearly points to the high premium put by the world to OFWs.
Based on POEA records, OFWs listed the Middle East and Balance Asia² as their most preferred work destinations in 2010, accounting for 60.9 percent and 25.0 percent, respectively of the total deployed OFWs.
Compared to the 2000 deployment figures, Figure 2 shows that preferences for work destinations  declined for Balance Asia and Europe but increased for the Americas and the Middle East countries. It is worth noting that the Middle East countries hosted most of the OFWs in 2000 at 44.0 percent which even soared to 60.9 percent or more than half of the total number of OFWs in 2010.  In particular, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates were the top country of destinations in the Middle East in 2010, while Hong Kong and Singapore were the favorite work places in Asia.    
The estimated total count (1,470,806) of OFWs deployed in 2010 represent  about 4.0 percent of the total number of employed persons in the country, which was reported at 36,488,781 persons by NSO’s October 2010 Labor Force Survey (LFS).
Growing Compensation of OFWs as GNI improves
The compensation received by OFWs as estimated by the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) showed continuing increases resulting in higher estimates of the Gross National Income (GNI).  The GNI represents the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) after accounting for the net primary income from abroad, composed mostly of the compensation of OFWs, aside from the property income and property expense recorded as part of the income of the economy from the Rest of the World (ROW).  The money received by OFWs in the form of salaries and wages including other compensation paid to OFWs (like overtime pay, bonuses, clothing allowances, etc.) are accounted for as the OFWs “compensation”. For 2011, its nominal value was 3.35 billion, contributing 26.0 percent to the GNI.
Undoubtedly, the increasing number of OFWs improves the country’s GNI as estimates of compensation continue on an increasing trend, contributing on the average a share of 22.0 percent to GNI.  Remittances data as reported by the Bangko Sentral Ng Pilipinas (BSP), has always been claimed to boost the GNI as this contributes to higher estimates of household final consumption expenditures and gross capital formation. In 2011 alone, OFW remittances amounted to 20.11 billion USD (or Php 871.25 billion), about 6.8 percent of our GNI for that year.
With a population of 94.2 million in 2011, the Philippine economy expanded at a growth rate of 4.7 percent annually from 2000 to 2011.
The Net Primary Income (NPI) from Abroad recorded a share of 17.2 percent in 2000, which escalated to 32.6 percent in 2010 and 31.7 percent in 2011.
On the average, GNI grew by 5.8 percent during the period, 2000 to 2011. (See Figure 3)  With the continued increase in GNI, NPI from he rest of the world likewise prospered, exhibiting an annual average growth rate of 10.7 percent in the same period.

Better living standards for families of OFWs?
While statistics clearly show the contribution of OFWs (in terms of compensation received from abroad and the resulting remittances) to the growth of the country’s economy, it is important to also examine if the rising number of OFWs has translated to better living conditions of families of OFWs.
A policy note entitled “How do Filipino families use the OFW remittances”, written by Aubrey Tabuga, a research associate of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), suggests that OFW households are spending OFW remittances for better uses, such as education , medical care and housing aside from other basic needs. These findings are similar to those of other researches conducted on OFW remittances. Undoubtedly, Henry Sy and a number of our Filipino Chinese taipans have been big beneficiaries of such increased household final consumption expenditure.
What remains unanswered is whether the economic benefits the country and OFW families gain far outweighs the social costs of having some of our countrymen/women leave their families, especially their children, behind.  During times of unrest, natural calamities and other disasters in the receiving country, a number of our OFWs are forced to come home to the Philippines.  Although in such cases, government provides some immediate temporary relief, often these Filipinos choose once again to become OFWs as they find that labor opportunities in the country cannot fulfil the economic needs of their families.  When I was stationed in Qatar for several months (as an OFW), I heard harrowing stories of OFWs not getting their salaries on time, being promised wages much higher than what they were getting, and suffering verbal (and even physical) abuse from their employers. Immediately, after hearing these stories in Doha, I got the chance to chance upon Organisasyon ng mga Pilipinong Mang-aawit (OPM) President Ogie Alcasid, my schoolmate from La Salle Green Hills, and I encouraged him to write a song about the plight of OFWs. I am glad that Ogie not only wrote a song regarding OFWs, but also organized, together with other OPM artists, the “Balik Ka Bayani” benefit concert for OFWs in 2011.
So, ultimately, like every decision in life, there are benefits and costs. For OFWs, they have chosen to pursue economic gains even if leaving their children behind may yield irreparable harm to the ties that bind their families… how much are we, especially taipans like Henry Sy (who are reaping a lot of benefits from the toil of OFWs), doing to help these new heroes?   

________________________________

* “Beyond the numbers” is our latest addition to the statistical articles that the NSCB Technical Staff has been releasing in our effort to enhance the way we communicate statistics. It tackles relevant economic, social and environmental issues that matters to the lives and well-being of people through in-depth but understandable statistical analysis. “Beyond the numbers” aims to transform numbers into accurate, timely and relevant knowledge to enable users to understand the value of statistics in their daily lives.

“Beyond the numbers” expounds on current issues by providing relevant statistics, explores  the details of how the data were generated and explains the meaning behind the figures.

¹ Secretary General of the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB). The NSCB, a statistical agency functionally attached to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), is the highest policy making and coordinating body on statistical matters in the Philippines. Immediately prior to his appointment at NSCB, Dr. Albert was a Senior Research Fellow at the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, a policy think tank attached to NEDA. Dr. Albert finished summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Mathematics from the De La Salle University in 1988. He completed a Master of Science in Statistics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1989 and a Ph.D. in Statistics from the same university in 1993. He is an Adjunct Faculty at the Asian Institute of Management. He is also a past President of the Philippine Statistical Association, a Fellow of the Social Weather Stations, and an Elected Regular Member of the National Research Council of the Philippines.

This article was co-written by Mr. Raymundo J. Talento, Ms. Vivian R. Ilarina, Ms. Luzviminda S. Mitra, Ms. Irene T. Talam; Director, Statistical Coordination Officer (SCO) VI, SCO V, and SCO III , respectively, of the NSCB. In our effort to reach out and explain the statistics to the masses, this article was translated in Filipino by Mr. Edward Eugenio P. Lopez-Dee, SCO VI of NSCB. The authors thank Mr. Candido J. Astrologo, Jr.,Mr. Noel S. Nepomuceno, Mr. Ruben V. Litan, Ms. Ma. Libertie V. Masculino, Ms. Simonette A. Nisperos, Mr. Sonny U. Gutierrez and Mr. Dennis E. San Diego; Director, Information Technology Officer II , SCO IV, SCO IV, Information System Analyst II, SCO I and Artist/Illustrator, respectively, for the assistance in the preparation of the article. The views expressed in the article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the NSCB and its Technical Staff.

² Balance Asia in this article refers to Asia without Middle East.

Lebanon’s airline fired employee after broadcasting at the loudspeaker “Filipino passengers stop talking"

Wednesday, October 10, 2012 

An Asian Nepalese talking traveler mistakenly recognized as Philippine National, humiliated by Lebanese Air Staff. Philippine's popularity for migrant workers from Asia serves as a trash basket for bad and good impression for other Asian people for the whole central and Southeast Asia.

In Lebanon, an official said Tuesday (October 09, 2012) that an employee of Lebanon's national airline MEA was fired after a passenger complained in a social media campaign that the worker humiliated travelers from the Philippines at the Beirut airport and told them over the loudspeaker, "Filipino people, stop talking."

The incident is part of what human rights groups say is widespread discrimination and abuse of foreign workers in Lebanon. More than 200,000 women from Asia and Africa work as maids in the country of 4 million people, said Nadim Houry, a researcher in Lebanon for the New York-based group Human Rights Watch.

In recent years, the foreign maids' work conditions — long hours, little pay and alleged physical abuse — have come under increasing scrutiny in Lebanon. Some private beaches in the country have barred foreign workers, and not all have complied with a Tourism Ministry directive earlier this year to halt such practices, Houry said.

He lauded the social media campaign protesting Saturday's airport incident, calling it a sign of change.

"The latest incident shows that more and more people in Lebanon are angry and tired of this racism that exists," Houry said, while urging the government to do more to protect foreign workers.

"What we have been missing are concrete new policies, a new enforcement mechanism to put an end to it," he said. "It is no longer the time for nice words."

Mr. Abed Shaheen, a Lebanese businessman based in Dubai, witnessed Saturday's incident while waiting to board a flight at Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport. The flight was delayed and passengers, including about two dozen domestic workers from Asia, were talking among themselves, he said.

At one point, a woman staffing the counter at the gate took a loudspeaker and announced, "Filipino people, stop talking," Shaheen said. He said the woman's male colleague corrected her, telling her the travelers were from Nepal, not the Philippines. The woman proceeded to admonish the group twice more, giggling as she did so.

Mr. Abed Shaheen said he was outraged and walked up to the counter to complain. He said he was brushed off by the two members of the ground staff and was told they would do as they please.

He later launched a protest campaign on Facebook and Twitter and sent an email to MEAG, an MEA subsidiary that handles ground services. Mr. Abed Shaheen said he received a call from a senior official in MEAG and was promised the company would investigate.

On Tuesday, MEA said on its Facebook page that it investigated Saturday's incident, which it portrayed it as an isolated case of "misbehavior" by an MEAG passenger service agent.

The airline said severe disciplinary action has been taken against an employee, but did not elaborate.

A MEA official said the woman was fired, and that disciplinary action was being considered against her male colleague. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case with the media.

The Washington Post 

Near death experienced of an OFW in Kuwait.....

“It has been said, ‘Time heals all wounds.’ I do not agree.  The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens.  But it is never gone.”—Rose Kennedy

Embassy to Pursue Case of Filipina.

By Opaw, on October 8th, 2012

KUWAIT CITY – The Philippine Embassy is bent on helping the Filipina who was allegedly raped and stabbed several times by a lance corporal at the General Traffic Department on the early morning of Oct 1 and was left half dead somewhere in South Surra, disclosed on Sunday Head of the Assistance to the Nationals Unit at the Philippine Embassy Dalidig Ibrahim Tanandato.
Tanandato told the Arab Times that the embassy had already consulted Kuwaiti lawyers to legally assist the victim in filing cases of rape and murder against her assailant.
“We will leave no stone unturned so that justice will be served against the suspect,” stressed Tanandato who visited the victim at the Mubarak Al Kabeer Hospital on Sunday where she is now recuperating in the female ward. She was earlier admitted to the Intensive Care Unit after suffering from multiple stab wounds on her neck and some parts of her body. Tanandato accompanied by embassy case officers Muamar Ali Hassan and Muamar Balindong Mamosion has visited the victim four times in the hospital since she was admitted on Oct 1.
Marissa, 27, a native of T’Boli, South Cotabato in Southern Philippines can barely move from her bed as she cries of back pain while her wounds on her neck have started to heal. She was deployed to Kuwait on Sept 12, 2006 to work as a Household Service Worker for three years and later on at a dress shop in Farwaniya. “I came here to work for my son and family,” said Marissa, a single mother.
She disclosed to the Arab Times that the authorities brought the suspect to the hospital on Sunday for positive identification. “I’m still in trauma and I just looked at him while he was in handcuffs. I told the police who were with him that I can never forget his face. He was the one who raped me and stabbed me as I begged for my life,” sobbed Marissa. She added that the suspect even managed to smile at her, giving her a chill in her spine.
She recounted that on the late evening of Sept 30, she and her female friend came out from a mall along the Sixth Ring Road. They were inside a cab on their way home to Farwaniya when they were stopped by the suspect who alighted from the police car. Unfortunately, her residence visa had just expired four days earlier and it was still being renewed by her new sponsor. The suspect let her friend get away as she still has a valid visa while she was taken by the suspect to the police car.
“He told me that he will take me to the police station in South Surra but I was surprised when he stopped in a dark and deserted place,” she recounted. She added that the suspect forced her to perform oral sex and raped her from behind and front. “After raping me, I begged him to stop and I was terrified when he reached for a small knife that looked like a Swiss knife and stabbed me on my neck several times then kicked me hard on my back. I lost consciousness and when I woke up I was already here at the hospital,” she cried.
Marissa said that she is grateful that she survived the ordeal and vowed to fight for justice. She revealed to the Arab Times that one of the female relatives of the suspect visited her on Saturday at the hospital and allegedly offered her some money. “Imagine this lady, I don’t how is she related with the suspect, visited me here at the hospital and offered me KD 100 and said that she will fix my visa and find me a job on a condition that I drop the case. But I told her no way. I almost lost my life and I will fight for my case so that the rapist who did this to me will suffer all the pain that I’ve been through. I want him behind bars,” she cried.

Vote YES on 35--Stop Human Trafficking in California

Hello all, I received this forwarded email from a friend, if you're in California--please help us STOP HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN CALIFORNIA--Vote YES on 35..... Dear Friend, We looked at the man who sold our daughter in the eyes -- but we didn't see the malice that lurked underneath. When he came into our house, we didn't know he was planning to put our daughter on the street. It wasn't until we got a call from the police telling us that our daughter was under arrest that we understood what had happened. Our daughter was a victim in every sense of the word. The human trafficker deceived her, tricked her, and forced her to do something she would never have done otherwise. Watch us tell our story now, and hear how our daughter became a victim of human trafficking. One of the many tragedies in our story is that many think of girls like our daughter as criminals. But if they had the chance to spend a minute with her, they'd realize that she's not a criminal out to make a cheap buck. She's just a young girl who was tricked by the true criminal -- the human trafficker. We're so grateful that our daughter was returned to us. But we know that there are other families out there like we were, families that either don't know or are powerless to help their daughters -- and we know the incredible pain this crime can cause. Proposition 35 is going to change that. Prop 35 is going to give the police the resources they need to rescue girls like our daughter, and give victims the resources they need to put their lives back together. We hope you'll watch us tell our story, and then tell your friends about Prop 35 and how important it is to vote yes this November. Watch us tell our story now, and hear how our daughter became a victim of human trafficking. Thank you for taking a stand against human trafficking. It is time to bring this tragic crime to an end. Sincerely, Gary and Melinda

Paid for by Vote Yes on 35: Stop Human Trafficking in California, a coalition of survivors, children & human rights advocates, law enforcement & community groups, sponsored by California Against Slavery and Safer California Foundation. Major funding by Chris Kelly and the Peace Officers Research Association of California.

Mendicant Society - a new form of social illness ?

The constant financial disasters have created more broken dreams and ambitions that never find traction.

Dreams and aspirations are being destroyed by constant financial disasters which are not steadying out but rather plummeting our economy.  It is affecting people worldwide and it focuses on ordinary, everyday people.  Those impoverished are stranded with their hands tied.  The slums are weakening and are fading away while booming cities are hitting record-breaking numbers.

“Part of our aim in making this film is to take into account the forces that shape human behavior, understand these and create a new view of who we are and what we are doing here on earth."

This documentary is about the struggle to spawn a change in society, the regulations that define our actions, fundamental reasoning to the sorrow we feel and either our success or failure.

Please check the article written by SF base lawyer Rodel Rodis:
http://globalnation.inquirer.net/50520/ofw-remittances-promote-mendicant-culture

Mendicant Society....a new form of social illness ?

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Many of us ponder the factors behind the creation of corruption in our youth, our culture, our politicians, even our families. By taking a look at the issue broadly, we might query too how an entire society can lose its balance due to lack of morals, principles, discipline, hope, and other factors. Mendicant Society zeroes in on a number of societies, be it those from the Philippines, the United States, or elsewhere, which in essence have relinquished their powers to third parties and become, quite literally, mendicants--in other words acting as if unable to stand on their own without the good grace and assistance of others.

            What are some examples of mendicant societies, how do these societies come to be, and what can be done to help them help themselves? We exemplify the Philippines as a case and point because of its long history of government-sponsored human exportation which adds a great sense of calculated malignancy to this problem: 1) by creating a society at that sustains itself by way of remittances home sent to them by family members working abroad; and 2) by supporting a national government that lends itself to being mendicant to the very people it serves.

            In the case of the Philippines, its mass exportation of human labor breaks up families, leaving for instance mother and child at home while the father sends remittances home from abroad. Given the scarcity of employment opportunities in the Philippines, family members left behind often begin to self-identify as hopeless and helpless victims of circumstance. To compound this dilemma, these family members receive remittances: an at-first enticing prospect which gives them (however) very little motivation to seek employment themselves. The figurative door is thrown open as a result to sloth, greed and corruption.

            Such corruption is largely reflected in the Filipino national government, an entity that profits enormously at the expense of its own citizens--the overseas foreign workers. It may not be so far-fetched to reason that many Filipinos who stay on the Islands subconsciously, if not consciously, structure within their own minds false expectations for the world, for example that we need not sow anything to reap. By looking closely at the dynamics between parties, Mendicant Society aims to uncover some worldwide truths, not to mention deeper inquiry.

            As noted earlier however, the Philippines is of course not to be singled out as the sole proprietor of a mendicant society. In this day and age, perhaps most strikingly in the United States, the widening gap between rich and poor is reaching alarming proportions. If we take the Philippines again as a prime example, there too the huge disparity between upper and lower class is to be denounced, especially because it works to the bone those with very few possessions while stripping the wealthy few of their grasp of reality.

            This fate need not play itself out in the Philippines, in America, or elsewhere. Mendicant Society is a much-needed exploration (in the end) of the ego, of how to let go of our possessions in order to save our souls, for every one of us to embrace the value and power of work, and that in the end, now, and always, we receive exactly what we give.