What "Nakem" Means

"Nakem," an Ilokano word, has multiple meanings that include intelligence, intellect, consciousness, awareness. It has a moral sense, as in "naimbag a nakem," (roughly translated as goodwill) which reflects a positive Christian value as lived by the Ilokanos, an ethnolinguistic group in the so-called Amianan in Northern Luzon, Philippines and the Ilokano Diaspora in Mindanao, Hawaii and the US Mainland including Alaska.

The 12 Nakem Conference was held at the University of Hawaii at Manoa on November 16-18, 2017.

The Wisdom of Not Judging a Situation

Just let go. Roll with the punches.
This is easier said than done, especially those who are physically abused. The emotional scar takes a long time to go away. But the healing could take place early.

J. Krishnamurti, the Indian guru, said, "What happens does not affect me," or something similar. He lived a long life and his wisdom is known far and wide.
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A Zen master, reacting to a report, said, "Is that so?" Another said, "Maybe."

Nothing is permanent; all is temporary, in transit like the high wind that will not stay and destroy.
Sic transit gloria mundi.  St. Paul spoke of transitory glory.

This, too, will pass. A wise man said this to a king. And he, the ruler, lived in peace and quiet.

You may have all the wealth and the honor in the world, but you, when the time comes, will leave them behind.

Prayer For Cancer-stricken Friends

Our Heavenly Father, you created Mariel and Feliciana for your own purpose and enjoyment and you smiled at their birth. They, too, worked among your creations, according to your will. But they are only humans and they also suffer as they go on with their separate lives. They have been afflicted with a disease for many years but it is hard for them to defeat this illness. Have mercy. Free them from pain and agony.


1. Mariel R., formerly of San Fernando City, La Union, now a long time resident of West Covina in California. She lives with her two children--a boy and a girl, now grown-up, all born in the Philippines. Mariel was married to a certain Tony, also from San Fernando, who left her when she was still working at the regional office of the Philippine Information Agency.

2. Feliciana J. A., a Bannawag magazine writer, before she immigrated to Darwin, Australia. She has been married for many years to a Lithuanian, who traces his roots to a European royalty (Lithuania). Fele has been with an Ilokano writers' organization for the past years. The husband, in his Twitter account, is soliciting $100,000 donation for her wife, now 77 years old. She originally came from Villasis, Pangasinan.

"There is a time for everything; and a season for every activity under heaven."--Ecclesiastes 3;1

"Writing is spooky. There is no routine of an office to keep you going, only the blank page each morning, and you never know where your words are coming from, those divine words."--Norman Mailer,  an American author, in his book,"The Spooky Art, Some Thoughts on Writing"

Writing and Rhetoric

The art of discovering the title of a poem
as applied to the high priest's theological confusion

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Is the image in the mirror
A reflection of the woman?

Or is the woman  a mirror
Of the image?

Or must she, regaining composure, say,
She is the other woman?

Is the water in the tub
A mirror of God?

Is God in the water
That flows in the river?

Is God in the rains
That fall mainly in the mountains?

Or is God the rains
That flood the plains?

Is God or a woman an image?
A reflection?

A mirror?
A loving invisible invincible?

"Reading a poem is an experience analogous to that of encountering a person. Just as one can think and speak separately of a person's physical appearance, his mind, and his character, so one can consider the formal aspects of a poem, its contents, and its spirit while knowing that in the latter case no less than in the former these different aspects are not really separate but an indissoluble trinity-in-unity."--Wystan Hugh Auden, English-American poet. "Stop all the Clocks" is one of his poems. 

A Mirror of Concerns

We could not discount the possibility that instead of discussing the Ilokano language on a common level, the young writer and her supporters were engaging in scatology that, in a way, mirrors intellectual and moral concerns.

This may be a judgment but nothing is permanent in the world, unlike probably the literature that is supposed to last forever.Like Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection"; Hamlet; and the Greek tragedies.

 And loving-kindness as taught by the teacher from Galilee, the carpenter's son whom Pontius Pilate chose to be executed on the cross of hate and rage.

...

An attempt at humor by touching the behind of a young  woman? And the "joker" is an old man on a wheel chair.

***

The country has abolished capital punishment but it appears this is not so when you see Philippine police kill their victims, drug pushers and drug addicts as if this is the natural thing to do irrespective of the law.

No Llores, Sofia

Estelita on a Singapore street 

 High-rise Singapore buildings

Gilbert bridge across the River Padsan in Laoag

NO LLORES, SOFIA

An unremembered remembering:
The spasm of an imagined
Laughter after love and a bird-call
On a stormy Padsan night
The scimitar moon was emerging
Dripping with yellow liquid fire.

Sorrow lies in a limbo rock.
The door was wide open and the voice
Made no promise to return.


I had wanted to confront
The enigma in your dark eyes
Looking down that road
To the massive church in the east
Where faith ends in cacophony
 At the marketplace.

The space between us now
Is as wide as Death Valley in the desert
As endless as the ocean of peace
As long and eerie as the sun's rays
Sinking in Gabu by the lonely sea
Near the sand mountain.


***

We have to go beyond the mind-thought, away from its noise and clutter and liberate ourselves from hate, anger, greed, the tendency to dominate others, jealousy--this may have been the way the Teacher from Galilee expounded his theory of the eternal message.

STATE OF HEALTH OF SOME OLD ILOKANO WRITERS

     "He is in bad shape," said Dr. Aurelio Solver Agcaoili of the University of Hawaii and Manoa.

     Dr. Agca, as he is known by friends and acquaintances, was referring to Terry Gabriel Tugade who has been living in San Francisco, CA for the past 30 years or more.

    In his blog, Dr. Agca made mention of Terry's open heart surgery last year  I talked to Terry (via messenger) and he was telling me of her eyes failing him--what he usually saw, he said, was all white. He did not sound distressed;  he was saying it matter-of-factly.

     I tried unsuccessfully to contact Terry via the FB account of his daughter Ruby.

     On August 28, at 11 in the morning, Terry died in San Francisco, according to Dr. Agca who had been in contact with Ruby, one of two daughters of Terry. Terry left behind his wife Teresita, from Laoag City; twin daughters Ruby and Michelle, sons Edward and Gerald. He will be buried on September 5, at the Holy Cross Cemetery, 1500 Mission Road, Colma, CA.

The following month, sometime in September, Manuel Saguiped Diaz, died in his village in Nagsaag, San Manuel, Pangasinan. This was relayed to us by another writer Prescy Bermudez. Manny was a tri-lingual writer.