10 Days

“Everyday the news is transmitted to us across the globe. We’re left saddened, scared, inspired, skeptical, hopeful, angry, or simply numb. But the next day brings a new set of stories painting over the memories of yesterday’s events.”

10 Days by Ripo. i love this. you will too.

(via boooooom)

august 5, 2009.

notes to self:
remember today.
celebrate life.
farewells and homecomings are one and the same.
laban. for everyone/thing you love/believe in.
full moon.

welcome home, corazon aquino. RIP.

welcome home, laura and euna.

Nicanor Perlas Announces Intention to Run for Philippine Presidency in 2010

It’s 2:38am and I just read incredible news via facebook that Nicanor Perlas has announced his intention to run for President of the Philippines in 2010. At last – a candidate I can believe in. While his name is little known to most Filipinos, Nicanor or “Nick” Perlas has steadily and quietly championed environmental justice & sustainable development, societal threefolding, holistic education, self- and cultural transformation, and largely as an environmental activist he has been achieving the impossible for over thirty years. In this time, he has built a high-caliber following of thinkers, community organizers, educators, activists, agriculturalists, leaders, business people, and down-home folks who have long urged him to take on a government post. A private person who generally shies away from the limelight, Perlas has (to the cheers of his supporters) finally made the decision that the time is now. Affronted by a Philippine government mired in “guns, gold, and goons,” Perlas – a 2003 recipient of Sweden’s Alternative Nobel Prize along with several other global accolades – is ready to change the game.

Can he win? In the same vein as our own popular President – I’ll go ahead and say it – Yes He Can. He has been lauded by global leaders as one of the great thinkers of our time, he has mobilized communities in successful movements under impossible conditions (See Bataan Nuclear Power Plant), and with a plan to mobilize over a million volunteers during his campaign, he hopes to edge out the wealthier, more popular candidates with the notion that money “cannot buy hearts and minds that dream of something better.”

I know. Sounds like a long shot. Too idealistic – especially in a grossly impoverished nation where money and mainstream media control votes. But let us be reminded how few thought that a young, Black Jr. Senator from the south side of Chicago with a hope for change could actually steal away an established white institution. So we all know that when enough people yearn for change and BELIEVE that a broken system can be challenged in viable ways, magic happens.

Perlas has set up a website www.nicanorperlas.com specifically surrounding his 2010 bid for the presidency. Here, you will find everything you need to know about him – his biography, qualifications, writings from 1976-present, his talks from 2001-present, newsclips, his strategies and theories for winnability, etc. You will be astounded by this one man’s pursuits not only for a better Philippines, but for a better Asia and Global condition.

I will definitely be following Perlas’ campaign and if I figure out things we can do stateside to get him elected, I will surely let you all know.

Read his formal announcement of his intention to run here.

It is now an ungodly hour but now that I’ve blogged away my excitement, I hope I can rest better. (this is what i get for skimming my facebook news feed ‘just one last time’ before bed…)

CA Supreme Court Upholds Prop. 8

In a 6-1 decision this morning, CA Supreme Court Justices upheld Prop 8, banning same-sex marriages in California. While the unions of 18,000 gay and lesbian couples who were married before Prop. 8 took effect will not be dissolved, this decision is highly disappointing to say the least. The decision was issued by the same court that declared a year ago that the definition of marriage as the union of a man and a woman violated individual rights on the basis of sexual orientation.

Of course, the fight isn’t over. In response to the court’s decision, The Courage Campaign will be launching a 60-second TV Ad version of the online video “Fidelity,” and a petition to gain one million supporters – gay and straight – for Marriage Equality.

60-sec TV spot:

Original Online Vid:

pinaySPEAK @ ucsd. 4/25.

this saturday, apr 25, i’ll be in sunny san diego for pinaySPEAK: Dialogues for Action and Healing, a one-day mini-conference tackling and embracing the struggles and triumphs of Pinays* worldwide. i’ll be there presenting on a US-based, not-for-profit organization that i co-founded, kamay at puso, focused on community development projects in the Philippines.

you should come, too.

don’t think you’re invited? now you are:

Kamalayan Kollective invites you to PINAYspeak: Dialogues for Action and Healing, a one-day community-building intensive for self-identified Pinays and their allies. PINAYspeak will be hosted at the University of California, San Diego Cross-Cultural Center on Saturday, April 25, 2009.

PINAYspeak will include workshop sessions, speakers and focused conversations in an effort to explore and narrate the stories and experiences of Pinays. Our vision is to collectively create a space that inspires Pinays to organize, mobilize, and be in community. Participants will engage in the artistic, the spiritual and the material as ways to share voices, speak back to power, and cultivate radical societal transformation and personal growth.

Conference goals:

• Create community with Pinays of various backgrounds
• Engage in mutual learning, teaching and self-reflection
• Validate, relate and narrate Pinay experiences and our multiple identities
• Nurture and support personal growth and radical transformation
• Envision and practice our agency and activism

Please visit and register at http://pinayconference.wordpress. com. Check out the various pages for more information.

*Pinay = Filipina (that’s the short answer, not the conversation)

thursday thaumaturgy: Playing for Change

thaumaturgy \THAW-muh-tuhr-jee\, noun:
the performance of miracles or magic.
(via dictionary.com word of the day)

***

so, i’ve been trying to think of alliterative “th” words to aptly describe my thursday posts – “thoughts,” “theology” (that one was jaymar’s), “things to -”, “thorax” (another one of jaymar’s), “thesaurus” – and i hadn’t had much luck…until I stumbled upon thaumaturgy. It’s not the prettiest sounding word and i’ll probably have to include its definition at the beginning of each thursday post, but i dig it.

so, thursday posts henceforth will be dedicated to people who do things that blow my mind – talented artists, educators, crafters, designers, writers, photographers, musicians, sustainability gurus, activists, business people, and the like – thaumaturges, if you will.

Enter Playing for Change.

Playing for Change is a worldwide multimedia movement of artists working to “inspire, connect and bring peace throughout the world with music.” They’re dropping a DVD/CD package, Playing for Change: Songs Around the World on April 28 at Starbucks and retail stores. The first of 10 tracks, Ben E. King’s, “Stand By Me,” is played by 37 musicians from countries around the world, including the United States, the Netherlands, Brazil, Spain, Russia, and more. They are currently on tour (I just missed them here @ Slim’s in SF. darn). Check out the video above. It’ll rock your socks!

(via josh spear, la times, and youtube)

The Passion of El Hulk Hogancito

Jason Magabo Perez, aka “Jay” aka “JPZD” aka “Hason” aka my friend, has MAJOR issues, childhood traumas that run deep – to a time before he was even born – and he just can’t get over them. He’s no different from the rest of us, I suppose. We all have treacherous memories of our wayward youth, failed piano recitals, parental boot-knockin’ in the next room, etc. Most of us have moved on and are stronger people for it. Not Jay. The thing is, Jay’s got plans…plans to turn all those traumatic childhood experiences into, well, fame, respect, and at least a million dollars. Because, unlike the rest of us, he’s writing a whole novel about all the things, for better or worse, that have molded him into the storytelling genius he is today- all while illuminating the tragedies of a racist 1970s America that convicted his mother, Leonora Perez (Hi Auntie), for mysterious murders committed in a VA Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

And he’s going to share his lunacy with all of us (yippee!) in a poignantly humorous, heart-breaking, mind-widening, multi-media performance reading of his novel-in-progress.

Here in SF. You should come. It’s gonna be a riot.

THE PASSION OF EL HULK HOGANCITO
Sat – Sun, Mar 28 – 29 8PM/6PM
Sat – Sun, Apr 4 – 5 8PM/6PM
Bayanihan Community Center
1010 Mission St @ 6th St. SF CA 94103
Tickets: $13 – 20, http://brownpapertickets.com/event/56330

Here’s an excerpt:

Third Grade is all about warfare.

Soon we’re stopped at San Diego Avenue. Fuck this intersection. Turn right and you enter Locos del Sol barrio. Up ahead: scrawny palm trees, the I-5 and the Pacific Ocean. Directly to the right, in the bicycle lane, stand the peewees, the apprentice-gangsters with not much better to do than ditch and flash signs at passing traffic. These not-quite eses, in their shaved heads, shredded Dickies and Cortezes, manipulate their fingers to spell the acronyms of the most elaborately-named gangs. It is their God-given purpose to assure that Rancho Del Oeste 1 & 2 Bedroom Apartments Posse does not go unnoticed in this cruel cruel world.

More deets can be found at kularts.

Read a preview of The Passion in this week’s SF Weekly here .

Pareng Barack: Filipinos in Obama’s America

On Sunday, I attended the book signing for Benjamin Pimentel’s Pareng Barack: Filipinos in Obama’s America at the SF Public Library. I haven’t read it yet, but the small book is about how Filipinos responded, “often with excitement, sometimes with fear and dread,” to Barack Obama’s historic campaign and election. Having just returned from D.C., imagine my excitement to purchase a book with the words “Obama” and “Filipinos” on the cover.

The event wasn’t that well-attended, and the question-and-answer portion turned more into a long-winded-comment-and-answer session, but I was inspired by Pimentel’s reflections and his eagerness (the book was released 2 weeks after the Nov. 4 election) to chronicle the diverse perspectives of the Fil-Am community in the context of Obama’s phenomenal rise to the presidency.

I found one of the author’s reflections to be particularly stirring. During the event, Pimentel noted that he was 8 years old when President Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law in the Philippines. From that point on, for 14 years, his own political views (ultimately cynical and pessimistic) would be shaped by a dictatorship. Today, one of Pimentel’s sons is 9 years old. How wondrous it will be for this father to witness how his son’s views on politics, race, and social conditions are shaped by an (hopefully awesome 8-year) Obama administration.

“It will be Obama’s face and voice that my sons will see and hear on television and on the Internet over the next four years, maybe longer. It will be Pareng Barack who will play a critical role in defining my sons’ future in America.”
-Benjamin Pimentel

Not sure yet where you can get your own copy (I’ve been looking all over the internet, and can’t find ANY purchase information), but as soon as I figure it out, I’ll let you know!

Sneak Peek: Inauguration ‘09

still defrosting after our incredible whirlwind trip to the east coast. will do my best to post more during the week (once i stop spinning). in the meantime, here are a couple choice shots from the inauguration festivities.

by the way, barack obama is the president (!!!!!!).

The Presidents’ Club

War, Murder, Corruption. Not off to the best start in ‘09.

So, I wonder what these guys talked about at lunch today?