Curious Kai and the colors of morning

Butones, my grand-daughter, otherwise known as Kai, and I have sort of established a morning habit since we automatically rise with the sun. After she's been cleaned up by her mother,  Ate Len or me, we go out for our walks when most of the few neighbors in our section of Green Valley are just stirring awake.

When her steps were still tentative, I used to push Butones on her trike, and she loved going over the humps on the side roads with the soundalike of "whee!"

But today, we went out for a real walk, she in her onesie paired with a pajama and sneakers, me in my old sweater pulled over my sleepwear, socks and slippers. I decided to bring my digicam along to see what moves of Butones I could document.

Well, she couldn't keep still so what I caught of her are these shots.

She would stand at attention when the morning breeze swept through her curls.

Most times, she was a study in motion.

On our way back to the house, maybe because her pace was slower, I had time to snap a few shots of the flora in our neighborhood, still fresh with dew and yesterday's rain. They were in unlikely corners and crannies, their fragility and colors a standout amidst the concrete boxes that now mark this part of Baguio. I was careful not to step too close because the bees were busy going about their business.

Wishing my and everyone's Wednesdays always begin this way.

Photos by Babeth Lolarga

Birth, life, love and Robin Lim

BAGUIO CITY—Midwife Robin Lim, 2011 CCN Hero of the Year, once ran into an obstetrician. They compared how many babies they had delivered that day. Both helped birth three each. Lim asked the doctor, "Do you know the mothers' names?"

Taken aback, the doctor couldn't recall his patients' names and admitted to never bothering to know, part of the detachment that his practice requires. Lim recited the names of women she had helped deliver their babies. She had known them well since they went to her for prenatal checkups.

The doctor cried all night. His wife rang Lim, founder of Yayasan Ibu Bumi Sehat (or Healthy Mother Earth Foundation) that encourages natural birth, including those that take place in water in Bali, Indonesia, to ask, "What have you done to him?" That moment with Lim served as the doctor's epiphany when he questioned his profession.

At a time when 918 women die yearly worldwide from childbirth or complications resulting from it, Lim finds the situation scandalous with the US investing heavily on childbirth technology and landing a man on the moon at the cost of billions of dollars.

Life-saver, story-teller

The CNN honor made hers a popular voice. She said it was a human rights issue that "these women are being struck down at the prime of their lives."

A protocol she wants hospitals to allow is to wait for a few minutes so the infant's umbilical cord and the placenta can fall off naturally. This also keeps the mother from bleeding too much.

She said science has shown that it takes years for a child to reach optimum health if the cord rich in nutrients is cut too soon. A proponent of prolonged breastfeeding of up to four to five years, she said giving mother's milk is "a gift to them that you can never get back."

She cited Albert Einstein, also born at home and still taking a snack at his mother's breast till age 10.

She asked individuals and organizations to "communicate, cooperate to find real solutions that the government can back up so we don't need to lose people needlessly." Her work empowers women to own their bodies so "they can have the lives they were meant to live."

She has met prostituted women who get pregnant and whose "bosses" compel them to give up and sell their babies. "It's the most tragic thing," this advocate against human trafficking said.

Lim met a poor young girl who became a prostitute to raise money for her mother's cancer treatment. The mother died, but the girl couldn't get out of the cycle of prostitution.

Lim said. "If you know how love can save lives, ask a midwife. I teach midwifes to practice with love, to look into another's eyes to say, 'I love you.'"

She called her sister midwives "the first line of defense like our lolas, a combination of hilot and medical practitioner."  She described herself as being "pro-women, pro-baby, pro-child, pro-family."

Lim embraces Lolit Dicang who runs Baguio's only birthing clinic.

In a high-risk situation, she has seen how a newborn given up for dead is resuscitated when the room fills up with midwives and relatives prodding the child with declarations of love.

A mother of eight, she manages to "chase the genie"  (her term) to put words on paper and produce books of poetry, fiction (Butterfly People) and non-fiction. Coming soon is a workbook on natural family planning to promote a lifestyle of non-violence to be published by Anvil.

She said when mothers give birth at her clinic, she sees butterflies flitting in and out. Her grandmother Vicenta Munar Lim taught her that these creatures may be fragile but they can fly. She said since then she has become "jealous of them" and saved their wings when she found dead ones.

They became her personal emblem. She explained that a butterfly begins as a crawling worm that later goes into a coffin, surviving sun and rain. One day it opens and out flies a thing of beauty. She said the human soul is similar.

Her friend, writer Edgardo Maranan, introduced her to a crowd at Mt. Cloud Bookshop in Casa Vallejo in this city, saying when CNN announced Lim as a hero, many countries rushed to claim her as theirs, including the US and Indonesia, but, he added, "To us she is a Baguio girl."

Lim took nine months of non-stop writing to finish Butterfly People, likening the process to a baby's gestation in a mother's womb. It took nine more years to find a publisher.

Maranan was the first to read the manuscript that covers six generations with action moving in the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Hawaii. He recommended this thinly disguised biography of Lim's family in northern Philippines  to Anvil Publishing.

She said her being Filipino by blood makes her a magical realist storyteller, adding, "It's so Pinay to exaggerate."--Text and photos by Elizabeth Lolarga

Originally published by Vera Files/Yahoo Philippines, May 7, 2012

Mme. Butterfly cast features best from Ph, Japan, Mexico

By PABLO A. TARIMAN
Opera is getting big-time exposure at the CCP this year thanks to the indefatigable effort of the present CCP president Raul Sunico who is succeeding in networking with people and institutions that are opera-friendly.

Truth to tell, staging opera is a noteworthy endeavor but getting the resources to be able to finance it is another story.

After CCP’s successful team up with Korean opera group with La Traviata,  Madama Butterfly is up at the   CCP main theater  next month (June 22-23) this time in association with MusicArtes, Inc. 

Mako Nishimoto

This new Puccini revival features Japanese soprano Mako Nishimoto, Mexican tenor Dante Alcalá,  Filipina soprano Camille Lopez Molina and international baritone Andrew Fernando, with Gerard Salonga conducting the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra. 
In the early 80s, Madama Butterfly was seen at the CCP with the Cio Cio San of Israeli soprano Atarah  Hazzan (a last-minute replacement for the indisposed Japanese soprano Yasuko Hayashi) and the Pinkerton of  Vincenzo Manno and the Susuki of Joann Grillo.
I don’t recall any exceptional singer in this production but I do remember the ravishing performance of the Philippine Philharmonic under conductor Henry Lewis, ex-husband of mezzo icon Marlyn Horne and both close friends of the late Pavarotti.

In 1994, the Art and Music group of Joseph Uy presented a gem of a Cio Cio San in the person of Japanese soprano Yoko Watanabe who later passed away because of cancer. At that time, she was the best Butterfly in the US and European circuit and when I finally heard her, I thought she was the main highlight of that production.
It may be noted that between 1915 and 1920, Japan's best known opera singer, Tamaki Miura, won international fame as Cio Cio San. Her statue along with composer Giacomo Puccini, can be found in the Glover Garden in Nagasaki where the opera is set.

As I look forward to this new Butterfly, it’s just proper that we recall the country’s finest Puccini heroines.

For the record, the first Filipina to sing the title role of Madama Butterfly
was no other than Maestra Isang Tapales who sang the part – not in Manila – but in Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo, Italy in April 1924.

In 1925, it was the turn of Maestra Jovita Fuentes (a National Artist for Music) who sang Cio Cio San  in a municipal theater in Piacenza, Italy.

Dante Alcalá

In the late 40s, Maestra Dalisay debuted in the same role at the New York City Opera.

I have not seen a distinguished Filipina Madama Butterfly in recent times but I did know that soprano Eleanor Calbes sang it in Canada  when she was already in her 50s.

Maestra Tapales would have been 112 this year and among her students were tenor Noel Velasco, baritone Gamaliel Viray, singing Joy Virata, among others.

Tapales’s opera credentials include 1047 performance of  Madama Butterfly, more than 300 performances of La Boheme (as Mimi), Pagliacci (as Nedda) and over a hundred engagements of  the little known opera, Iris, by Pietro Mascagni.

La Tapales was the first Filipino to sing at Opera Comique in Paris, followed by her student, Noel Velasco, several decades later. She was also the first Filipino soprano to sing with such opera icons as Giacomo Lauri-Volpi and Beniamino Gigli who inherited the crown of Caruso before the electronic age of PlacidoDomingo and Luciano Pavarotti.

The country’s first Butterfly is one of 24 (!) children of Silvestre Tapales, a composer and music teacher and a friend of former first lady Imelda Marcos’s uncle, Justice Norberto Romualdez who also dabbled in composition.

She put up a short-lived opera company in Manila in the 50s with Charito Planas as president and the soprano as music director.

Under Tapales, operas such as Il Trovatore, Cavaleria Rusticana and Pagliacci were staged in Manila with no less than Italian tenor Arrigo Pola (Pavarotti’s first teacher in Modena, Italy) in the lead roles.

 When  Japanese soprano  Mako Nishimoto and Mexican tenor Dante Alcalá appear in Madama Butterfly on June 22-23,  I cannot but help recall Maestra Isang Tapales’s opera conquests of Milan. Paris, The Hague and the 100 doves set loose on her farewell performance in Milan’s Teatro del Verme.

 For tickets to June 22-23 performances of Madama Butterfly,  call the CCP Box Office at (02)832.3704 or MusicArtes Inc. at (02)895.8098, (+63918)9085088 and TicketWorld (8919999).


Source: http://www.mnnetherlands.com/dir/_page/101907/

Cool everyday objects bridge old, new in the Cordillera

Cool everyday objects bridge old, new in the Cordillera

Timeless Rizal

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS: Jose Rizal

26 May- 17 June

 

Featuring works by Zeus Bascon, Francis Commeyne, Fernan Escora, Francisco Guerrero, Jacob Lindo, Lee Paje, Don Salubayba, Carina Santos, Luis Santos, Erik Sausa, Shireen Seno, Louie Talents and Clairelynn Uy

This May, a month before it officially ends, Manila Contemporary attempts to reconstruct this tower by introducing our national hero on more relevant and relatable grounds, as a human being. Without discrediting his achievements, this exhibition intends to create a more rounded perspective of Rizal. Digging through layers upon layers of myth, artists are challenged to depict his nakedness as man. Taking into consideration his insecurities, fears and inclinations, we dive into the raw complexity of his person. To have overcome and used these aspects of his humanity for the greater good, only further intensifies the significant prominence that he has attained.

In the Upstairs Gallery, The Center for Art, New Ventures & Sustainable Development (www.CANVAS.ph) will be exhibiting  RIZALPABETO, a unique collaboration between poet Vim Nadera and artist Elmer Borlongan celebrating the life and legacy of Philippine National Hero Jose Rizal.

And as supplement to the show, Manila Contemporary will be hosting a talk by Michael  Charleston “Xaoi” Chua of the De la Salle University and the Order of the Knights of Rizal, Sucesos Chapter on his essay“THE FIRST EMO: Simple Life Lessons from The Extraordinary Story of José Rizal” on the 9^th of June 2012.
 

opening night:
SATURDAY, 26 May 2012, 6.00 PM

talk on Rizal:
SATURDAY, 09 June 2012
 

MANILA CONTEMPORARY
Whitespace, 2314 Pasong Tamo Extension,
Barangay Magallanes, Makati City


cocktails will be served
RSVP Iris  +02 844 7328 / i.ferrer@manilacontemporary.com

This exhibition will be on display until 17 June 2012.
To find out more, please visit our website www.manilacontemporary.com

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Who’s Hoarding the Coffee Filters in This Part of Northern Luzon?

“Your morning cup of coffee may start to taste even better after a major government study found that frequent coffee drinkers have a lower risk of dying from a variety of diseases, compared with people who drink little or no coffee.” –Tara Parker-Pope

frankly, my dear tara,

i give a damn that in

my adopted city

the family’s designated

go-to-the-grocery person has complained

of a shortage of coffee filters

& suggested we start re-using used ones

at which i blanched & turned

coffee-creamer white

for three days now i’ve begun

my mornings with scalding hot tea

un-sugared un-creamed

in keeping with a stray school of vegan thought

that says it’s healthier

the only way i’m taking this tea

is to imagine myself again in

a hongkong noodle place at rush hour

where once i asked for service water

& the harried waiter with nose up in the air

dumped a pitcher of hot water on our table

with some of it almost splashing on

my tourist lap

tea rhymes with mussolini

linguine & eeeeeee

i silently scream like

the figure in munch’s “the scream”

wondering when the supermarket

suppliers will put filters

on the shelves again & i can have

my wake-me-up-before-i-go-go

cup of, now the experts say, longevity

out with this imposed

breakfast of oatmeal with dried fruits

& prunes taken with hot tea

in with aromatic coffee brewed

& sprinkled with cinnamon

paired with sliced bread

that has been thickly

lathered with genuine salted butter

you say that someone’s hoarding ’em filters, 

& you think that they are now part

of the underground market’s prized commodities?

well then, bring out an orphaned sock

& let it do the filtering job


~Babeth Lolarga
May 19, 2012
6:50 a.m.

Photo of grandmother who had just had her afternoon cuppa coffee at Baguio's Hill Station, thus sufficiently fortifying her for another romp with grandchild Butones, by Kimi Fernandez

Source of quote: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/coffee-drinkers-may-live-longer/?src=me&ref=general

Why I Still Write Poetry by Charles Simic | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books

Why I Still Write Poetry by Charles Simic | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books

Talk Safety to Me

A few years back, Sandra Bullock’s big screen character, Gracie Hart in the film Miss Congeniality taught girls to S.I.N.G -- to go for the solar plexus, instep, nose and groin when attacked or assaulted.

According to Hart, targeting these body parts is crucial to defending one's self. Hitting those high notes with S.I.N.G could easily be done by any woman, said the police-turned-beauty queen for an undercover assignment. 

On May 22, Sex and Sensibilities.com shines the spotlight on a real life policewoman, Senior Police Officer 2 (SPO2) Helen dela Cruz of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Women and Children's Protection Center for "Talk Safety to Me", a talk on crime prevention. 

SASsy and multi-awarded policewoman, SPO 2  dela Cruz will give the lowdown on her detective work and share her thoughts on what women need to be aware of when it comes to their protection and safety.

Merited with Metrobank Foundation’s Country’s Outstanding Policemen in Service (COPS) award in 2011, dela Cruz’ work has aided immensely in the solving of various high profile cases that involve drugs and sexual assaults, among others.

Her talk will include practical safety tips, intimate partner violence, and the laws that are meant to protect women, all the things a SASsy girl should have in her arsenal of protection tools along with her favorite pair of stilettos. 

"Talk Safety to Me" is a FREE talk brought to you by Sex and Sensibilties.com together with co.Lab, and in partnership with the Philippine National Police. It will be on May 22 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at co.lab located on the 4th Floor, Optima Building, Salcedo Street, Legaspi Village, Makati.

For more information, please call or SMS 0917.820.7277 (SASs)

“Talk SASsy to Me” is a series of girl power talks hosted by Sex and Sensibilities.com (SAS), the website founded by journalist and sexual health advocate Ana Santos.