My husband, Ben Cabrera, had always been fascinated by people from all backgrounds, mainly as subjects for his photography and paintings. For some years before I met him, he had already established an artist/model relationship with a scavenger in the Tondo squatter area of Manila where he had been brought up. The scavenger’s name was … Continue reading The Octopus Man
TIMES THEY ARE A’CHANGING
“Come mothers and fathers throughout the land And don’t criticize what you don’t understand Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command Your old road is rapidly agin’ Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend a hand For the times they are a-changin’ “ This was the voice … Continue reading TIMES THEY ARE A’CHANGING
IT’S ONLY RITA BEING RITA
(a memoir of an enduring but unlikely friendship) “Who was that?” I asked when, after chatting for over an hour, Joe finally replaced the receiver. I was 19, newly arrived in New York, and had just moved into a studio above Carnegie Hall with a man 25 years my senior, Joseph X Dever, the very … Continue reading IT’S ONLY RITA BEING RITA
THE ORIGINAL IGO-ROCKET MAN
(An Interview with Kidlat Tahimik by Caroline Kennedy) London, November 1980 “And it’s going to be a long, long time Till touchdown brings me home and they’ll find I’m not the man they think I am at home, Oh, no, no, no, I’m the rocket man….” (with apologies to Elton John) Kidlat Tahimik, alias Eric … Continue reading THE ORIGINAL IGO-ROCKET MAN
A Valentine Memory
“Great! That’s it!” Nick Joaquin (aka Quijano de Manila), the Filipino National Artist for Literature clapped his hands. Under the light of the tiffany lamp his eyes sparkled. “That’s it!” he repeated as though we could all read his mind. “What? What’s it?” I asked. We were sitting around the centre table at Los Indios … Continue reading A Valentine Memory
Standing Up to a Strongman
Contributing Op-Ed Writer By MIGUEL SYJUCO DEC. 11, 2016 A rally in suburban Quezon near Manila, on Nov. 30, to protest the re-burial of the late Ferdinand Marcos at the Heroes’ Cemetery. MANILA — Dusk set silver-gray over the crowd gathered in a park here on Nov. 25, but the banners and placards could still … Continue reading Standing Up to a Strongman
ONLY MASS CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE CAN BLOCK MARCOS’S BURIAL
I am reposting this article so more people will have the chance to read it. I am hoping its author, Herbert Docena, will not mind my doing so. I am glad to see he is a young man who may never even have experienced the worst excesses of the Marcos years. But he has read … Continue reading ONLY MASS CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE CAN BLOCK MARCOS’S BURIAL
#NeverAgain: Martial Law stories young people need to hear
Here is an article by Shakira Sison that is important for all young people to read so they know exactly what really happened under martial law, what the true cost of human suffering was. Maybe your families were the lucky ones. Maybe your families made money through the corruption of the Marcos regime. Maybe your family … Continue reading #NeverAgain: Martial Law stories young people need to hear
IMELDA HAS A $829 BILLION IDEA TO SAVE THE WORLD
I have decided to publish this article by Norman Pearlstine from October 2013 because it demonstrates quite clearly that Imelda hasn't changed. She is still peddling the weird ideas she was pushing back in the early 70s, a combination of wacky New Age philosophy mixed with a small dose of fact (just for the skeptics) … Continue reading IMELDA HAS A $829 BILLION IDEA TO SAVE THE WORLD
WOMEN TORTURE SURVIVORS SPEAK OUT
by KRIS LANOT LACABA Kris Lanot Lacaba is a writer, poet, essayist and actor. His father, Jose (Pete) Lacaba (journalist, screenwriter and editor) was a friend of mine during the late 60s and early 70s. Pete was imprisoned in Camp Crame during martial law. Pete's brother, Eman, another poet was murdered in 1976 in Davao … Continue reading WOMEN TORTURE SURVIVORS SPEAK OUT
Caroline Kennedy: My Travels 