Breastfeeding... Is What Women Are All Made Up For

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I feared not be able to come up with this material as I was restrained by logistics and legal issues of this organization. However, persistence and hardwork coupled with divine intervention and kind hearts of the advocates, nothing meant will not happen. I for once, is campaigning for breastfeeding as I breastfed my younger son Jedd for three years exclusively. Therefore, I've got first hand experience of its beautiful benefits. Also, I myself is a breastfed baby, on which I thank my Mom relentlessly as I grew up competitive and independent.  The lady beside me is a newly given birth Mom who was breastfeeding her 3-day old cute little angel boy. I deliberately blurred their photos for their privacy. ‪#‎HappyWomensMonth ‬‪#‎SupportBreastfeeding‬

A Sunday Afternoon With the Philippine Ambassador

 

I'm more than proud to say that we have an Ambassador to Papua New Guinea whose hardwork, humbleness, and goal-orientedness are of significant addition to expediate development to this resource-rich nation. His Excellency, Ambassador Bienvenido Tejano once again, to my disbelief second time, asked me to came over to check the sophisticated rice dryer and packing equipment from China at PAU rice mill to be used for the hybrid rice. Hybrid organic rice is a milestone here in Papua New Guinea as it is a first. My whole Santiago pack did not either miss this opportunity =). #TheWorkingAmbassadorPNG

Why Education is Important

RURAL CLASSROOMS IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA

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I’m at one with my fellow EDUCATION advocates, as they recapitulate the weighty significance of education.  It is indeed our greatest agent for development.

Much has been said and laid on the possible solutions in acquiring literacy.  However, we shall not forget that educating its citizens is a primary obligation of the Government. And it is not only for moral considerations.  An educated population outweighs all the natural resources of the country put together. One needs only look at city states like Singapore and Hong Kong to know what education can do.  Yes, there are international organizations who have been there in our lifetime trying to cushion the problem, but then again, health and education must not be left to donor countries. It is the primary obligation of any self-respecting nation to fund these basic obligations.

Yet many developing countries such as the Philippines and Papua New Guinea may struggle for resources.  Again, the government “must” fund education, and they should do it absolutely “free”!

One of my outrageously feasible idea in pushing through an “absolute free education” is by increasing the value added tax by 5% to 15%.  Many first world countries, collect as much as 40% taxes in order to provide free services for its citizens. The extra 5% would be for the sole purpose of funding decent free education.

If the nation collects P2 billion in VAT annually today, then you are looking for an extra P100 million each year from the 5% tax increase.

To know, before you dig into the plate of rice in front of you that the rice packet might have cost an extra 50 cents, but that is 50 cents for the education of the children would be most satisfying indeed.

Thus, It is money worth spending.

SORCERY

It didn't occur to me that sorcery-related violence is part of the broader context of Gender Inequality and Violence Against Women here in Papua New Guinea (PNG).  People in this country still believe in witchcrafts and black magic.  My husband usually tell me stories of this kind; one of their good local guys, a Papua New Guinean, is no longer frequenting work believed to be inflicted by evil spirits as what the other locals claim.  Whenever my husband tells me stories as such, my judgment would always be, "Baka tinatamad ng pumasok."

But after I've seen this documentary by Vlad Sokhin, a Russian filmmaker and photographer, I felt disturbed, deeply saddened, and extremely enraged; that full-scale foolishness allied to this feature, can possibly cripple the important species of women forever.  I rekindled the question raised by Glyzelle Palomar, the 12-year-old girl in UST Pope's Mass for the Youth, during Pope Francis' visit in the Philippines, who offered question which left the Pontiff speechless.  She said, "Bakit po pumapayag ang Diyos na may ganitong nangyayari?"  The exact same question lingered in my heart as I glimpsed this video.  Question that I don't think, as Pope, will ever present an answer.

I hope you will spare a moment to see this moving video... click this link SORCERY in PAPUA NEW GUINEA



PRESENT:

The situation in Papua New Guinea is slowly changing. Women are raising their voice and can’t be ignored anymore by the local authorities.

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In 2013 the PNG Parliament repealed the country’s controversial Sorcery Act that provided protection for the perpetrators accused of sorcery-related violence if they were acting to stop ‘witchcraft’.

The country’s Prime Minister, Peter O’Neill, publicly apologized to all the women of PNG for the high rates of domestic and sexual violence in the country. On September 18, 2013, Papua New Guinea passed the Family Protection Bill that, for the first time in PNG history, criminalizes domestic violence.

At the same time the PNG government reinstated the death penalty, which will apply to a long list of crimes including sorcery-related murder and rape. International organizations like Amnesty International and local human rights defenders believe that it is a step backward.

It is still too early to say whether the new laws will actually protect women or not. In a country where tribal rules and customs still hold sway in many remote communities, it will likely take years to stop injustice. But now, people are aware because local papers and social media are filled almost every day with horrific news about violence against women and girls.  Thank you to our DevCom specialists or those who work for media, in doing their roles as catalysts of change in a nation.



CITATION:
Crying Meri: Violence Against Women in Papua New Guinea is a long-term documentary project by Vlad Sokhin. Vlad started documenting gender-based and sorcery-related violence in PNG in January 2012. In the following three years he worked on his own and in collaboration with several print/online media companies, the United Nations and international NGOs.

4P's Can This Really Help?

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The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) of DSWD, is what we usually coined "band-aid solution" of the government on the inevitable rapid poverty rate in the country.  Though legitimately, I have to commend Secretary Soliman for having the guts in materializing such programs despite and in-spite of these skepticisms;

--primarily, fund allocation that is directly given to the beneficiaries in "cash", is constant and on a regular basis which is a FIRST in the history of Philippine social welfare, and
--secondly, the uncertaintly of the government on whether the allocated funds or cash that are directly down-handed to the stakeholders and the indigents are really spent on what they are intended for.

Clearly, that is why this program is termed "PANTAWID", for this can only aid (presumably) the beneficiaries, "temporarily" in addressing their everyday survival needs.  The change and the passion for development must and should still stem from oneself.  Therefore, investment in unfolding of individual potentials, or Human Development, as how UPLB Professor Emeritus Nora Quebral defined development, would still be our primary weapon in warring poverty.  Hence, a DevCom mindset.

Bride Price In PAPUA NEW GUINEA Equates to Violence Against Women

  

Here is another interesting root from culture of PNG why violence against women here is prevalent.

They call this tradition “ BRIDE PRICE”...

BRIDE PRICE CEREMONY

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A Bride Price is a ceremony meaning the joining of a man and women, whereby the man's family would pay a price and present this gift to family of the Bride.  In traditional times would mean food and livestock, but in more modern times means money, food even a house, depending on the wealth of man family and the worth of the female.

There is nothing fallacious in this tradition neither in its act nor in its context for that matter.  After all, we also have a “dowry” system that is still a practicing culture amongst Bogobos and other Muslim tribes in the Philippines.

However, police said that “Bride price” is the major contributing factor today that’s why married men feel they can do anything to their wives here in Papua New Guinea.  Many men regarded their wives as materials they bought from a shop and not as their partners.  Police officials had received many reports about violence against women but when they arrested the husbands, they defended themselves by saying they had paid bride price.  Further, they were often told the fault was with wives and the husbands reasoning is, “they decided to teach them a lesson”.  As a result most husbands walked away free.

In my opinion, we shall affect the equality in gender on our own terms, when and where it matters.  We shall take it up a notch and show our empowered selves as women, when and where it matters.  Our gender shall never define our beliefs and capableness.  You can only be weakened, if you allow others to weaken you.  Thus, your values and your whole well-being shall characterize you as a person, but never the gender. 

The Face Lift of Baguio called URBANIZATION

CITY OF PINES - BAGUIO

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It is appalling to see how urbanization, akin to a paint brush, can shift the entire canvas of the face of Baguio.  From greeneries to industrial, from agricultural to commercial, and from natural to man-made.  Urbanism shall bring no harm, yet CONSERVATION of natural resources has been proven extremely difficult to achieve along with suburbanization.

We were chanced to visit Baguio City early last year as we observed my husband’s birthday on a place that we perceived, envisioned, and longed to be outside the hustle and bustle of urbanity.  We are from Marilao Bulacan by the way, 20-minutes north of Manila via NLEX :).  It was 2002 when we last visited the place prior to last years’.  Never did we realize when we succeeded the uphill, at the city centre, that we never really evaded the noise and overcrowding of Manila, for Baguio is likewise :), with cooler temperature of course!

What caught me by surprise on our way up as we self-drove and was widely awake; it was hard not to overlook the dead rivers that we passed through.  Not only is a few, if my memory serves me right, yet there are several dead rivers along, and to what I noticed, mining is the culprit.  It was equally daunting to see how houses and buildings had occupied almost the entirety of the mountains in the city central.  If only with the coldness, one will hardly recognizes that you are in fact on a tableland, because everything is covered with vertical houses, less trees, and volumes of vehicles hitting the road.  Tangible beacons of urbanization, indeed.  Nevertheless, we enjoyed our stay to the lovely city of Baguio, and promise to bring the entirety of my clan next time.  Armed of course, with a factual expectations of the place =).

Let me share with you a story, when I’ve met an Australian, who’s a husband to my Papua New Guinean friend.  He said, he used to work in Baguio for a couple of years and he loved it there.  He never mentioned about the quarrying and urbanisation in Baguio, therefore, I assumed he came and lived during those beautiful setting of Baguio several decades ago.  He said, he plans to go back anytime soon to Baguio.  I am hopeful that his adulation for Baguio will not be overshadowed by the eye sore of mining and quarrying going up there, which is once he decided to come back.

In closing, I’m a strong believer that COMMITMENT and PARTNERSHIP are the keys to conservation and sustainable development.  I commend BSU for emulating virtues in Environmental Sustainability.  BSU as one of the steering wheels, in partnership with LGUs and Government Agencies in helping communities and leading the conservation acts to save that one air that we breathe, one ground that we walk, and one earth that we live.  With appropriate planning, perhaps, URBANIZATION with CONSERVATION can get along well.