Opening in this city is one of the biggest periodic gatherings of men, women and youth devoted to the issues of health, especially maternal health; and allied issues like family planning and reproductive health, child health, justice and human rights, government development priorities, and funding to eradicate diseases as well as to promote overall health, education and welfare.
In 2000 I covered the Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal in Tokyo that investigated and tried atrocities against women in countries occupied by Japan during World War II. This was some 60 years after the war crimes were committed. The trial was initiated by civil society, human rights and women’s groups from Asia, Europe and the host country, Japan.
One of the less-noted developments in the recent elections is that, with much of the counting over, the country has just doubled the number of women in the Senate. As of this writing, no one among the victorious women is in danger of being dislodged from the winners’ circle, but none of those within shot of securing a place in the two remaining slots is a woman, either.
Last Wednesday, I had to give a talk at the annual convention of the Philippine Pediatrics Society. My talk was part of a session called “Dr. Perla Santos Ocampo Memorial Lectures,” which included a tribute to her. “PSO,” as Dr. Santos-Ocampo was called by people who worked with her, died last year leaving many legacies [...]
Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, lies on the shores of the Caspian Sea and is a gleaming showcase of the country’s robust oil-based economy. One recent evening, leaving the Yacht Club after our culminating dinner, we glanced up and found a trio of skyscrapers with flames projected on their glass frontages. It was an impressive sight, as with the central area with dun-colored European-style buildings with shops of the best-known designer names, names like Gucci, Armani, Hermes, Prada and others on their ground floors.
When you read a newspaper, turn on the radio or switch on the TV set (or log on to the Internet or check your cell phone), does it ever occur to you to check for gender balance in the contents, the depiction of the characters, or the composition of the reporting staff and management?
Baileng Mantawil heads a nongovernment organization called Bangsamoro Women Action for Development Initiatives or Bwadi. She is also, she says, a “child of war.”
Was it because the women speakers before him had already said a mouthful that Ateneo University president Fr. Jett Villarin, SJ, chose to be brief as he delivered the closing remarks at the recent launch of the exhibit of the Women Writers in Media Now (Women) at the Ateneo Library of Women’s Writings (Aliww)? In accepting the collection of works of 18 writers spanning a period of 30 years, it was more than adequate for him to acknowledge that “creativity and courage are feminine virtues.”
I am privileged to have been invited to a regular gathering of Catholic Filipino women theologians—or women doing theology—and participate in a discussion of issues that concern the Catholic Church, especially those affecting women who work in spreading God’s message of love, peace, justice and equality, as well as those that these women serve. I call our gathering a “women’s conclave.”
I have never met Bobby Wong Jr., but because I signed up on his website, I’ve been getting astounding electronic postcards from him every week. The website is called postcardsfrommanila.com, but the photos he takes are from all over the country, the length of which he has been traveling. He’ll be in Mindanao for a few weeks then suddenly he’s up somewhere in the Cordillera, but wherever the postcard comes from, the images of people and places always elicit the many adjectives of the heart: heartwarming, heartbreaking, nakakataba ng puso (please don’t make me translate).
March 8 has been celebrated as International Women’s Day since 1975, when the United Nations designated it as such in order to honor “women’s advancement” and to ensure that the “equality” that they had worked so hard for and achieved would be maintained in all aspects of life. Advancing equal rights meant that young girls could avoid child marriages and enjoy equal access to education, women could plan their families, and pregnant women would not be in danger of losing their jobs.
One of my favorite places in the country has to be Bacolod—and the entire province of Negros Occidental by extension. I can’t tell exactly how many times I’ve visited through the years; there was a time when I was there every year, and more often when the need arose. However, I haven’t been there for a visit for some time, in fact not at all in the past year. I was struck by how much I missed the place—and, more important, my friends based there—as I stepped out of the airport and saw familiar faces. Only then did I realize how much time had passed since I was last there, and how happy I always am every time I come for a visit.
