Twenty-five years ago, I was in kindergarten at UP South School in BF Homes, Paranaque when the Mendiola Massacre occurred on January 22, 1987. While police bullets were showered into a crowd of unarmed farmers at the lip of Malacañang Palace, I was protected by the walls of my subdivision.
January 23rd, 2012
January 18th, 2012
Hanalei: the birthday girl!
You are my birthday gift to myself. SUBMIT TODAY! <3
January 10th, 2012
(Source: noimaginaryfriend, via somewisdom)
January 6th, 2012
Still life of this past week.
Skyping with Lola in San Diego during Noche Buena.
December 22nd, 2011
One teachers approach to preventing gender bullying in a classroom
For example, as teachers, we often use gender to divide students into groups or teams. It seems easy and obvious. Many of us do this when we line students up to go to the bathroom. In one conversation that I had with Allie’s mother, she told me that Allie did not like using public bathrooms because many times Allie would be accused of being in the wrong bathroom. As soon as she told me I felt bad. By dividing the children into two lines by assigned gender, I had unintentionally made the children whose labels aren’t so clear feel uncomfortable in more ways than one.
When we lined up to go to the bathroom, I kept my students in one line until we reached the bathroom, and then let them separate to enter their bathrooms. Allie usually said she didn’t need to use the bathroom. The few times that she did, I offered the bathroom around the corner, a single-stall bathroom that was usually unoccupied. When the kids came out of the bathroom, they wanted to line up as most classrooms do, in boys’ and girls’ lines. Instead, I thought up a new way for them to line up each day. For example: “If you like popsicles, line up here. If you like ice cream, line up here.” They loved this and it kept them entertained while they waited for their classmates. Here are a few more examples:
- Skateboard/Bike
- Milk/Juice
- Dogs/Cats
- Hot day/Snow day
- Fiction/Nonfiction
- Soccer/Basketball
- Beach/Pool
Which would you choose?
Alie arrived at our 1st-grade classroom wearing a sweatshirt with a hood. I asked her to take off her hood, and she refused. I thought she was just being difficult and ignored it. After breakfast we got in line for art, and I noticed that she still had not removed her hood. When we arrived at the art room, I said: “Allie, I’m not playing. It’s time for art. The rule is no hoods or hats in school.”
She looked up with tears in her eyes and I realized there was something wrong. Her classmates went into the art room and we moved to the art storage area so her classmates wouldn’t hear our conversation. I softened my tone and asked her if she’d like to tell me what was wrong.
“My ponytail,” she cried.
“Can I see?” I asked.
She nodded and pulled down her hood. Allie’s braids had come undone overnight and there hadn’t been time to redo them in the morning, so they had to be put back in a ponytail. It was high up on the back of her head like those of many girls in our class, but I could see that to Allie it just felt wrong. With Allie’s permission, I took the elastic out and re-braided her hair so it could hang down.
“How’s that?” I asked.
She smiled. “Good,” she said and skipped off to join her friends in art.
‘Why Do You Look Like a Boy?’
December 19th, 2011
love this! An - always amazes me! hope you are well, where you are! <3
Utensil options at Taiwanese/Filipino Buddhist temple Mabuhay’s cafeteria. Forks, spoons, chopsticks. Vito Cruz, Manila. (Taken with instagram)
December 18th, 2011
Northern Mindanao, you are our heart…
As two Filipinas based in the U.S., it’s difficult to begin this project today without thinking about the casualties and survivors of Typhoon Sendong/Washi in Northern Mindanao.
Please find out ways to make a DIRECT contribution at this link, and support locally organized grassroots efforts in Ilagan, Cagayan de Oro,and Bukidnon.
-Hanalei
December 1st, 2011
Haikus everywhere. This one is my fave:
Oncoming cars rush
Each a 3-ton bullet
And you, flesh and bone.
Read more here.
November 21st, 2011
OCCUPY The Highway: March from OWS to DC (by karinmoveon)
November 13th, 2011
On heartbreak and being HIV+. The Moth Presents Mike DeStefano: Franny’s Last Ride (by mothstories)
Rest in peace, Mike.
November 4th, 2011
The demand for demands is an attempt to shoehorn the Occupy gatherings into conventional politics, to force the energy of these gatherings into a form that people in power recognise, so that they can roll out strategies to divert, co-opt, buy off, or - if those tactics fail - squash any challenge to business as usual. Rather than listing demands, we critics of concentrated wealth and power in the US can dig in and deepen our analysis of the systems that produce that unjust distribution of wealth and power.
This is a time for action, but there also is a need for analysis. Rallying around a common concern about economic injustice is a beginning; understanding the structures and institutions of illegitimate authority is the next step.
November 3rd, 2011
For many, Selena Quintanilla-Perez—known to fans simply as Selena—embodies the heart and soul of Latin music. A charismatic entertainer with a rich and emotional vocal style, she helped transform and popularize Tejano music by integrating techno-hip-hop beats and disco-influenced dance movements with a captivating stage presence. (via Selena’s Spirit Lives On | USPS Stamp of Approval)
OF COURSE I WILL BUY ALL YOUR STAMPS!
October 31st, 2011
wow. (still shouldn’t have stole it, beyonce…)
Rosas Danst Rosas by Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker
October 26th, 2011
To Shane Engelerdt, a 19-year-old from Jersey City and self-described former “head drummer,” this amounted to a Jacobinic betrayal. “They are becoming the government we’re trying to protest,” he said. “They didn’t even give the drummers a say … Drumming is the heartbeat of this movement. Look around: This is dead, you need a pulse to keep something alive.
The Organizers vs. the Organized in Zuccotti Park — Daily Intel
The “pulse” of #OWS lives in the desires of the occupiers to live in a better America. It ain’t in a drum. JUST SAYING.
