Goodbye for Now, Singapore.

Christian Julian and his Lola Estelita and Lola Leticia not far behind.

The 6th wealthiest country in the world, Singapore is a city of a million trees, where every street corner surprise you with something that is unique, where people go about their business, where you can be left alone and see the beauty, the order- even in traffic, rules are the order of the day, no honking of vehicles.

There is always something here that stuns you, reminds you of your country, what it lacks and what it should have, what's wrong with it.

Be charmed by the high-rise structures, the shopping centers, the underground malls and restaurants of many cuisines--Chinese, Indians, Europeans.

****

The preacher from Galilee discovered a river running through eternity--the river of love and life, where mortal enemies can quench their thirst and rid themselves of mutual hate and anger, lies, deceits and subterfuges.

BRITAIN EXITS FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION

     The world's fifth largest economy, exited from the European Union as the results of a referendum among British nationals of the United Kingdom came out stunning the member-countries and other nations. The consequences were immediate: the stocks came falling down and the Singapore dollar, for one, loses its value.

     John Donne, one of its greatest poet must be turning in his grave. It was he who said, in one of his poems, "No man is an island." Actually, that was the title of the poem of the 16th century poet. He even said, "If a clod is washed away by the sea/Europe is the less."

     Will Europe be weakened by Britain's cessation or vice-versa?

     Here is the first part of "No Man Is and Island."

     "No man is an island
     Entire of itself
     Every man is a piece of the continent
     A part of the main."

ART IN POETRY AS ART IN JOURNALISM

   

   

     When the blogger was asked during the launching of his anthology of Ilokano and English poems, "Umayka Manen, Ganggannaet/Come Again, Stranger," what his book was all about, he told his listeners that it was a presentation of the country's political and social-economic orientation. The statement was made at the Pangil Beach Resort, Currimao, Ilocos Norte,  Philippines, where an international seminar, 11th Nakem  Conference, was held, May 23-25, 2016.

     We shall focus on the country's political situation, where a multiparty system operates and politicians fight for power and control of local and national governments. Journalists are part of the system and the environment and provide information in the shaping of opinions even as they, in their own way, bring out wrongdoings committed by public men. In the process of doing their job, they are threatened, physically and mentally, coerced, and sometimes get killed.

     In a country where there is supposedly unrestrained freedom of the press, journalists are murdered with impunity by hired guns and followers of political warlords. In one such incident in Mindanao, at least 32 journalists were killed in a certain place called Maguindanao in a one-day carnage. Here is the story as recalled in the poem entitled, "The Massacre of Journalists and Other Political Perfidies," which is on page 104 in "Umayka Manen, Ganggannaet/Come Again, Stranger:"

              "The inner power
               Could not err
               Quote deny not the little woman unquote
               The empress in tandem
               With law cut throats
               Like sunflowers
               And the backhoe was a farmer plowing
               Bloody seeds into the brown earth.
               The newspaper version was a pain
               Thing from Lethe
                    Like the eternal scourge
                    Like the paradoxes of thieves
                    In the summer of their content
                    Like the dream echo
                    Of a surreal world."

So what are the facts in the poem? What are the the 5 Ws, 1H (what, where, when, who, why; how) that guide the journalist in writing a story about, in this case, multi-murders of media persons including civilians? Who is the little woman? What was used in burying the dead?

OTHER VOICES, OTHER DREAMS*

"Agtuloyto ti panagikur-itda/Continue they will write 

Kadagiti pasamak idi kadagiti kalsada/About what happened in the streets
Uray umelto latta dagiti libro/Even if the books remain silent
Iti rikna ken panunotda/On the thoughts and emotions
Idiay Sarrat, Batac, Laoag/In Sarrat, Batac, Laoag
Wenno idiay Pikit ken Victoria.../Or in Pikit and Victoria,,,

....

Ket isuda a nangig-iggem iti rienda/
Agbiagdanto manen uray iti apagkirem
Ta adda met napintas a balikas
A maagsaw kadagiti pinutarda."


"Indeed, this people's domain needs
cleansing cream, new manners, new minds
that, in pursuit of the son, shall burn the
night with liquid fire of gods and high
ambitions: no more ruins to tread this
mid-noon of our separate lives: the swan song
has been sung and the recorder is broken
forever.."

*from the blogger's "Umayka Manen, Ganggannaet/Come Again, Stranger," anthology of Ilokano and English poems, launched at the Pangil Beach Resort, Currimao, Ilocos Norte during the 11th Nakem International Conference on May 23-25, 2016. 

.