SALIP TI DANIW 2012-2013

No less than a member of the Lacar family, originally from Bacarra, Ilocos Norte, will come from Australia for the launching of a poetry writing contest in Iluko. It will be done during the 4th Timpuyog dagiti Mannurat nga

Ilokano MI-Global International Iluko Literary Conference at the Philippine Ports Authority Convention Hall in Poro, San Fernando City on May 18-20, 2012. The contest, Severino and Eufemia Lacar Commemorative Contest in Iluko Writing Poetry, will be a yearly affair. First prize will be P10,000; 2nd prize, P7,000; and third prize, P5,000; and other consolation prizes. Dios-ti-agngina, Francisco and Juanita, and Fr. Lacar, for trusting TMIF and Timpuyog Journal. Agbiagkayo!

SALIP ITI SALAYSAY PARA KADAGITI AGDADAMO 2012

We have read some of the entries to "Salip iti Salaysay Para kadagiti Agdadamo 2012" sponsored by Timpuyog dagiti Mannurat iti Iluko iti Filipinas, the national association of Iluko writers. Judging by their orthography (spelling of Ilokano words) some of these young writers are tyros and we would like to express our appreciation for their efforts nga agsurat iti bukodda a pagsasao. We could see new perspectives in their writings, how they look at things, even as they reflect their academic background, nay, intellectual and moral orientation. We have chosen the following articles to vie for the prizes (six): "Iti Laksid ti Amin", "Pagwadan a Mangitandudo iti Bukod a Pagsasao", "Napabaruan a Biag", "TI Pamulinawen ni Uliteg Ilan", "Nanabtuog", ken "Ti Babai nga Aglaklako iti Likmot ti Kapitolio." The cash prizes and certificates

will be personally handed by Lady Fele Mann, a Filipina civic leader in Darwin, Australia, during the 4th TMI-Global International Iluko Literary Conference at the Philippine Ports Authority Convention Hall at Poro, San Fernando, La Union on May 18-20, 2012.

Random Thoughts

Graft and corruption can not flourish in the government if there are militant subordinates who can stop his or her boss and say loud and clear: your freedom to dip your dirty finger in the cookie jar ends where the people's interest begins. This sounds like the great Manuel Luis Quezon who steered a Commonwealth government that was not tainted with graft. It is merely a recast of the bureaucratic slogan that has become a cliche, without force and meaning:"Public office is a public trust." To Oleah: In the realm of the abstract, we are our own mortal enemy, our greatest fear, our greatest pain, our greatest sorrow.

CHINA WARNING MANILA ON SEA DISPUTE? Now flexing its military power, this is simply the tactic of a bully. It is clear that China has no right to the Scarborough Shoal. It should respect the 200 kilometer exclusive zone as mandated by the United Nations. China Sea was just a nomenclature created by cartographers of antiquity. The body of water and the land under it does not exclusively belong to China. This could be a flashpoint because of China's greed. Photo caption: The Yellow Peril will also lay claim the sea off Currimao, Ilocos Norte and the beach?

SAPSAPLITENDA TI BAGIDA ITI RAY-AB A DAYAW DAGITI BANGOLANDA

SAPSAPLITENDA TI BAGBAGIDA ITI RAY-AB A DAYAW DAGITI BANGOLAN
Agarigengen dagiti samut-samut iti alipaga/dagiti balikas, balikas, balikas./Agar-arimasa iti apas dagiti kunada a biktima/Dagiti nangmaniobra kadagiti gunggona./Anian nga ab-abbi, anian a kalintegan!/Uray dagiti mongha agalumiimda a rummuar/Iti imeng ti puraw a sudida. Dagiti agid-idolo kasda la bakes/Nga aglagtolagto iti ragsakda./Sapsaplitenda ti bagbagida iti ray-ab a dayaw dagiti bangolanda. (Ay, ti gameng ti Furikawa!/Inkalida kano iti pamuon ti patta idiay Santa Maria./Siaasut ti kampilan iti rinnupak dagiti nagabungot./Adda kadi pannakasubbot iti rikkian/kadagiti binnatog ti pungtot? Umno koma nga agsisinnaguttayo/ta saan aya a ti berdugo/Isu met laeng ti dasig dagiti anniniwantayo? Saan kadi koma nga agipeksa kadagiti balikas, balikas, balikas/A nagsusuon iti bendision ti sirmata/ken panagkaykaysa? Ket iti rangrangkay dagiti darikmat/Siasinoda a natnag iti allilaw ken am-amangaw? Ania dagiti kari ti panagulimek/Wenno subbot ti adu a panaganus/No di man ti panagpangas? Itag-ay dagiti kusapo a wagayway/Uloden dagiti tirtiris ken ublag./Putden ti saringgayad dagiti umsi/Idinto nga itanem dagiti kumpay ken tikap nga isem. 

Photo caption, bottom picture: the author and the late Gov. Godofredo S. Reyes, 13-time president of the national association of Ilokano writers. The structure on the right is the patta house in Suso, Sta. Maria, Ilocos Sur, for which half a million pesos was spent for its construction, according to GF Financial report. Prescy Bermudez, a GF member, has described this eyesore as "Dugol". He has written the president of the association about it, in an attempt perhaps, to "cure" once and for all this disease that has afflicted this writing group. JB, one time president of  the association has declared before writers that most of the money was spent in the construction of the patta's foundation.

Julio Belmes, the novelist/architect from Abra, now an OCW in Papua, New Guinea, is writing a blockbuster, the English translation of which will be launched in October. He is taking a vacation, hoping to attend the 4th TMI-Global International Iluko Literary Conference at the Philippine Ports Authority Convention Hall, Poro Point, San Fernando City on May 18-20. See you, Brigoli. The registration fee is P1,000.00 for this live-in seminar, where the sponsor in Ilokano Poetry Writing, will be announcing the rules of the contest. Only the major prizes will be awarded, with the first prize at P10,000.

TO A GIRL NAMED OLEAH/THE SECRET OF "THE SECRET"

Are you somewhere else, traveling again? In Timbuktu?

I shared the Australian writer's Rhonda Byrne's best-selling book, "The Secret", with a young girl who will enter college this coming June. She enjoyed viewing it. She expressed gratitude for possessing the film version and audio rendition of the book now stored in her USB including your book collections authored by Dan Brown and Stephenie Meyer. How old is the girl who uploaded into your USB this inspirational book? she asked. Maybe 22, I said remembering your email address (olelo_22@yahoo.com), your laughing voice and Chinese eyes. A million thanks for the "gifts" from the stranger I met on a Laoag-bound passenger bus on April 21. Meeting you was fortuitous. The bus that stopped at the plaza was full and there was only one vacant seat at the back where you were sitting by the right window. I sat beside you, a wisp of a girl in black T-shirt (?) and brown khaki shorts busy talking on her cellphone in Tagalog. I would learn later you were going to San Nicolas, Ilocos Norte, to visit your boyfriend, a medical doctor. I have just attended a board meeting of the Timpuyog dagiti Mannurat iti Iluko iti Filipinas, the national association of Ilokano writers, at the Patio del Sol in San Fernando and I was going to Laoag to visit my sick sister Inocencia. Did I meet my soul mate in that Partas bus? Or was it the dynamics of "The Secret" working and producing the circumstances that led me to you and acquiring the film version and audio rendition of a great book? You have wonderful, wonderful years ahead of you. You have "The Secret.

photo captions, from top: Laoag street in front of the Ilocos Norte provincial capitol, a Filipina Singapore girl