I’ll be at the Philippine American Writers and Artists Arkipelago Reading Series in SF on August 23rd — stop by and say “hello!”

Where: The Bayanihan Center 1010 Mission Street @ 6th Street, San Francisco

When: Sunday, August 23, 2009 at 2:00 pm

Who: Penélope V. Flores, Joaquin Jay Gonzalez III, Kevin L. Nadal, and Benito M. Vergara, Jr.

More details at the PAWA blog.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Corazon Aquino is dead, and — especially since I’m writing this in the Philippines — I’m in the midst of a fit of national mourning. It’s all over the place: the funeral procession on TV, people wearing yellow T-shirts, banners on buildings, tweets and Facebook status updates, constant newspaper coverage, the lines of mourners, tributes from world leaders. Even Pope Benedict XVI has lauded Aquino’s “courageous commitment to the freedom of the Filipino people, her firm rejection of violence and intolerance”.

Yet I can’t seem to feel any sorrow over her death. Quite frankly, I’m a little disgusted by all these encomiums and how easily people forget.

This is not to say that I’m some sort of heartless grump — quite the contrary — but I’m hoping that this blog entry may serve as more of an explanation. It really has to do, I think, with where I was twenty-three years ago, about my emotional maturity and my political education. It has to do with what I remember.

Continue Reading »

Popularity: 8% [?]