habal-habal diaries

I wrote a new entry in my other tumblr. It made me think about how much I love food and cooking and...

Sun, 02 Jun 2013 23:11:54 +0800

I wrote a new entry in my other tumblr. It made me think about how much I love food and cooking and how I owe 99% percent of that to my lola. I miss her. It’s been 17 years since she’s been gone. Seventeen!

Memories of My Lola's Kitchen

Sun, 26 May 2013 11:55:31 +0800

Memories of My Lola's Kitchen:

So I decided to start a new tumblog.

where i write on my memories of my lola, her kitchen, and the food of my childhood

All is grace

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 08:04:47 +0800

I just got home late last night after the last seminar I organized as Program Officer for JVP. So many thoughts and feelings running through my head right now, and I think it will take the next few months for me to commit them all into writing, but underneath it all there is an overwhelming sense of gratitude.

All is, and has been, grace. I could not be more grateful for the past two years. To think that two years ago, I was afraid that this was a long, unnecesasry detour from my life plans.

I’d like to say that the last two years have illuminated who I am and what I ought to do with my life. But answers do not come that easily in life.

Rather, the last two years have helped me realize that, no matter what work I find myself in, all is grace, and I can’t help but be generous in response, in gratitude to that grace.

nevver: The rise and fall of music delivery formats

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 11:14:24 +0800

nevver:

The rise and fall of music delivery formats

Photo

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 11:52:24 +0800

I spent most of the last two weeks feeling rather blue. Right after realizing what I wanted to do...

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 18:37:00 +0800

I spent most of the last two weeks feeling rather blue.

Right after realizing what I wanted to do for my future academic research, I found out that I could not return to the job I held previous to my present job. I hated to admit it to myself, but I had, deep inside, expected that it would be easy for me to return to the Philosophy department, to teaching philosophy, and to academia in general. I know it’s only human, but in many ways I had assumed too much.

I think I was unconsciously preparing for that possibility several months ago. Last June and July I went through a period of depression and anxiety about the future, such that the reality of the situation didn’t seem so bad.

My first impulse though was to scurry back into my comfort zone—studying. I furiously started researching graduate programs, application requirements, scholarship programs, so much so that I can now identify the universities I want to attend and the academics who are working at the cutting edge of diversity, multiculturalism, and recognition.

I still am not sure if I should go ahead and start applying to these programs right now. A part of me feels as if I should stay here first—partly because I am seriously considering having a child, but more because I feel like exploring what else is out there. Last year, I called the academe my “sheltering shores,” and that description comes back to me from time to time now. Despite all my complaints about it, and my initial difficulty adjusting to its competitive nature (and grappling with my own feelings of anxiety, of my fear of not being good enough, during the course of my MA), the academe—studying, teaching—is my comfort zone.

And I’m beginning to wonder if my impulse to rush back into academia is because of fear. It’s again that anxiety, my fear of failing at life, of being not good enough to succeed at grabbing onto one of the many possibilities that seem to be calling out to me aside from studying and doing my research project.

Yesterday and today have given me a bit more food for thought about that fear of failing. Yesterday at the JVP General Assembly (basically like our annual report to shareholders), I got to reconnect with JVP alumni working in fields that excite me—in indigenous people’s education, in humanitarian aid, in local governance and increasing political participation of marginalized peoples. The whole day today, I was surrounded by people working in a whole host of work—social research, citizenship education, disaster risk reduction and management, community development, student formation, peace in Mindanao, prison reform, indigenous people’s rights and participation, environmental conservation… And despite a raging hangover, I felt so alive listening to them and to the work at hand.

I don’t feel blue anymore. A part of me is still anxious about the future (and I am learning to accept that part of me without letting it control me), but I am now more excited about what’s ahead. There is no clarity in sight, and I’m embracing that. It has occurred to me, finally, that the lack of clarity is also a clearing, a space for possibility to emerge and reveal itself.

Frank Lloyd Wright is <3 ummhello: Petra Island, Frank Lloyd...

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 14:54:26 +0800

Frank Lloyd Wright is <3

ummhello:

Petra Island, Frank Lloyd Wright

“If ever there were a pure ideological phenomenon today,...

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 07:26:11 +0800

“If ever there were a pure ideological phenomenon today, this is it.” -Slavoj Zizek on Gangnam Style.

You know you're the adult child of an OC parent when:

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 07:16:52 +0800

(The things I think of while washing the dishes.)

You find it relaxing to sort out the contents of your wardrobe by color.
You find yourself examining a stubborn spot of dirt on the wall (or the floor, or anywhere) and thinking to yourself, “What would Mom do?”
Cleaning your own flat is fun, despite all those childhood and teenage years you spent agonizing about cleaning your room.
Washing dishes takes considerably less time than you thought it would.
You consider any of the following to be acts of rebellion:

Not brushing your hair in the morning
Leaving your bed unmade after getting up

Not brushing your teeth after lunch

Leaving things on your bed
Pressing the toothpaste tube in the middle (instead of at the end)
Arriving late to appointments

kamatish: Yes, please. Thank you....

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 07:58:00 +0800

kamatish:

Yes, please. Thank you. :)

ifoundoutatzeropoint:

frumiouslychimerical:

How to Live with Introverts, explained and illustrated perfectly by Schroeder Veidt !

ha i love this

Chubby, Tattooed Yogis by Peter Taylor

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 07:52:27 +0800

Chubby, Tattooed Yogis by Peter Taylor:

I’d love to have one of these on a wall.

They may be a little rotund, but Peter Taylor‘s illustrations of tattooed figures in yoga poses all seem to be in a state of incredible peace. His characters bend and fold their bodies into soft but flexible poses with a … Continue reading →

Shadows on a bridge. Lawaan, Eastern Samar.

Sat, 10 Nov 2012 21:12:00 +0800

Shadows on a bridge. Lawaan, Eastern Samar.

(In)Tangible Indigeneity

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 08:26:03 +0800

Most of the existing literature about indigenous peoples (IPs) and the politics of recognition focus on the North American situation—a situation where the locus of one’s indigeneity is in one’s embodiment. The body is the most tangible identification of indigeneity as a Native American, and one’s blood determines one’s tribal membership. This constant, tangible reminder of indigeneity also highlights how the politics of recognition of IPs in N. America is one of reparation, the bodily difference in skin color and physical features being a constant reminder of Native American otherness and white colonial oppression.

In contrast, IPs in the Philippines—except for the Aeta/Ita populations—have no such embodied reminder of indigeneity. There is no marked physical difference between IPs and the rest of the Filipino population. Moreover, although there is a similar history of colonial oppression, the politics of recognition of Philippine IPs does not appear to be solely that of reparation.

This leads us to the two major questions of this project: First, that of identifying indigeneity, and second, that of the politics of recognition operative in the present context of Philippine IPs. In the Philippine situation, where one’s locus of indigeneity is less tangible, more intangible—anchored in language, culture, practices—how do IPs identify themselves as indigenous? In turn, how do the broader political structures identify indigeneity? As a result of these modes of identification—self-identification and political/systemic identification, what form is taken by politics of recognition of IPs in the Philippines?

kittehkats: Misao and Fukumaru. “We will never be apart.” 12...

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 08:24:10 +0800

kittehkats:

Misao and Fukumaru. “We will never be apart.”

12 years ago, Japanese photographer, Miyoko Ihara (伊原　美代子) started to take photographs of her grandmother, Misao. Born in 1981 in Chiba (Japan), Miyoko Ihara has studied under Kenji Higuchi (樋口健二), after graduating from the Press Photography Course at the Nippon Photography Institute in 2002. Miyoko is also a member of The Photographic Society of Japan.”

“Under the sun, everyday is a good day. Another good day, Fukumaru”, Misao. Eight years ago, Misao found a odd-eyed kitten in the shed. She named the cat “Fukumaru” in hope that “God of fuku” (good fortune) comes and everything will be smoothed like a “maru” (circle)”.

“We’ll never be apart!”, says Misao to Fukumaru. Both of them live in a tiny world, with dignity, with mutual love. Still today, under the blue sky, Misao and Fukumaro work in the fields and in these natural surroundings, where they shine like the stars.”

Sources: asianoffbeat.com

fotomen.cn

Website: whitemanekicat.p1.bindsite.jp

Dinner tonight: onion, olive, and balsamic vinegar pasta.

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 23:27:59 +0800

Dinner tonight: onion, olive, and balsamic vinegar pasta.

Notes from James Tully, Public Philosophy in a New Key Volume I: Democracy and Civic Freedom, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 17:52:01 +0800

Am migrating some of my Facebook notes to here. Carry on!

James Tully, Public Philosophy in a New Key Volume I: Democracy and Civic Freedom, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.

Just taking down some notes as I read. Haven’t felt like this about a book since Taylor’s Sources of the Self.

(Thank you mahal for giving me this for my birthday. It’s priceless.)

From the Introduction:

“The role of a public philosophy is to address public affairs. This civic task can be done in many different ways. The public philosophy I practise carries on this task by trying to enter into dialogues with citizens engaged in struggles against various forms of injustice and oppression.” (p. 3)

“What is distinctively ‘democratic’ about public philosophy in a new key is that it does not enter into dialogues with fellow citizens under the horizon of a political theory that frames the exchange and places the theorist above the demos. Rather, it enters into the relationships of normativity and power in which academic researchers and civic citizens find themselves, and it works historically and critically on bringing them into the light of public scrutiny with the particular academic skills available to the researchers. Every reflective and engaged citizen is a public philosopher in this sense, and every academic public philosopher is a fellow citizen working within the same broad dialogue with his or her specific skills.” (p. 4)

“Finally, I would like to respond to a common objection to this style of public philosophy. Radical critics often say, given the radical character of your particular public philosophy, why do you engage in the ‘mainstream’ academic debates and use the conservative language of citizenship, public philosophy, governance, democracy, and civic freedom? Your work will be co-opted by the mainstream you disagree with and alienated from the civic activists you hope to reach. You should write in a language of radical politics.

I acknowledge that my views are somewhat radical relactive to the literature I discuss. However… . the alternative language of radical politics often involves a kind of self-marginalisation and an attitude of self-righteousness that I find incompatible with the democratic ethos.” (p.10)

Have had a nerd crush on Elizabeth Warren ever since I saw her in Capitalism: A Love Story

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 17:47:10 +0800

Have had a nerd crush on Elizabeth Warren ever since I saw her in Capitalism: A Love Story

"I’m not talking about blind optimism, the kind of hope that just ignores the enormity of the tasks..."

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 17:33:55 +0800

“

I’m not talking about blind optimism, the kind of hope that just ignores the enormity of the tasks ahead or the roadblocks that stand in our path. I’m not talking about the wishful idealism that allows us to just sit on the sidelines or shirk from a fight.

I have always believed that hope is that stubborn thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us so long as we have the courage to keep reaching, to keep working, to keep fighting.

”

- Barack Obama, presidential acceptance speech, 2012

Go Bangladesh! (AKA There is hope for the Philippines yet!)

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 08:57:00 +0800

Go Bangladesh! (AKA There is hope for the Philippines yet!):

“Bangladesh has dysfunctional politics and a stunted private sector. Yet it has been surprisingly good at improving the lives of its poor.” Yun yun eh.

just gorgeous.

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 23:23:53 +0800

just gorgeous.