Singular sensation*

Recently, I've been having thoughts about being single. I don't know why but maybe, just maybe, it's because I am.

Or maybe it's because every time I talk to a family member, any one of them is bound to ask me if I have "someone" in my life. Then, I'm always bound to say, "I don't have a someone. I have many-ones."

Or maybe it's because of a botched meet up with A.

Or maybe guys and relationships are the usual topics I have with my gay friends. I don't mind.

Maybe that's it. I don't mind being single. You can't miss something you never had, eh?

I know what it's like to be in a relationship. Having been around with people in various stages and types of romantic relationships has given me a fair picture of what's it like. Yeah, some may disagree and say that to really know one is to be in one. I do concur but it does not debunk what I so far understand about relationships. It is the same as I don't have to be a woman to understand the basics of women's concerns.

Being in a relationship has its ups and downs. There are high moments and low ones. It's a life bound by the same economic, political, social and cultural conditions, blah blah blah. Just like being single.

I do believe that everyone has to have someone with them. But it is not necessarily with a romantic someone.

I am single but I am not alone. I've never felt alone and it's probably due to the constant presence of comrades, family and friends. It's a belongingness that works for me now.

I don't mean to say that I'll be single for life. Romance is not known to be ageist. And yeah, I will take THAT step sometime, somehow.

As matters stand now though, I am happy being single. Anyway, who says that happiness cannot be had single-handed?

* Title was suggested by G: the ultimate sensational single (?) guy.

ID’ed

Dahil marami akong sinulat pero isa man ay hindi pang-blog, ito na lang …

Salamat kay Kiks sa pag-aayos.

This Sunday and beyond

This Sunday will have the first major protest action of OFWs in Hong Kong against the ban on direct hiring imposed at the start of this year.

I mentioned the issue in a previous post and the points remain unchanged. The new rule still sucks. It sucks not only for domestic helpers in Hong Kong because it covers everyone in all countries and even professionals as it stipulated that direct hiring for them shall only be allowed for 10 employees per company.

A couple of things though came up after the issue has been brought to fore.

First is the barrage of statements from no less than the people responsible for rule that have not helped at all but instead muddled the basic flaw of the rule. Ranging from the ridiculous reason that only a few will be affected – yeah right, so let the overzealous recruiters have these precious few to get overcharged as well – to the even more ridiculous and made up distinction between name hiring and direct hiring.

Then there's also the matter about rehires and those applying with new employers. The memorandum does not make any distinction and so even if agencies currently say that these OFWs are not included, there's no telling when it will finally become a blanket rule. Probably if protests fizzle out.

To top it all off, there is this Administrative Order 247 recently issued also that directs recruitment agencies to be more aggressive in seeking out labor markets for Filipino migrants. Considering that the Magna Carta for OFWs explicitly said that the government does not promote labor export, this order obviously says otherwise.

While a growing number of OFWs get laid off from work, have their wages reduced or are facing non-renewal of contracts, there is still no clear program of protection and services established to cushion the blow of the raging crisis to Filipino migrants.

What we have are OFWs from Taiwan who got fired last year and are still waiting in vain for that promised assistance package. What we get is the news that an OFW in Hong Kong got hit by a bus and died reportedly because he was walking dazed and disoriented after getting the axe as well.

What we do now have is this ban that offers OFWs to unscrupulous recruiters in a silver platter.

So yeah, a major protest action is called for. Surely won't be the last in the very near future.

*****

On a more personal note, I've been slacking recently. I'm still managing but I do need to up my ante if I am to pull off what I should be doing in the next few days.

Time to resort to what I have learned whenever I'm jittery and dreading what is about to come: it will happen and all I can do is prepare myself so that by the next day, I can still say that "it ain't that bad".

Uninspired

Nag-enjoy sa Slumdog Millionaire. Nagka-crush ulit kay Tony Leung sa Red Cliff. Agitated pa rin sa ban on direct hiring. Nakipag-chikahan sa dalawang kaibigan hinggil sa relasyon. Nakipag-dinner sa mga beckies. Nakipag-inuman. Nakipag-date.

Pero wala pa ring ganang mag-blog.

Masyadong malamig ang winter.

Siguro.

Again, again, again

If a policy can be called the "undead", I think ban of direct hiring can qualify as such. It just keeps on rearing its ugly head every time you think it is dead.

Around this time last year, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) issued Memorandum Circular No. 04 that prohibited direct hiring or sometimes called name hiring of Filipino migrants. Direct hiring is processing without going through recruitment agencies, thus exempting the applicant from paying placement fees that run up to more than P100,000 for DHs even though the legal limit is only the equivalence of a month's salary. This policy also carried the ridiculous employment bond brouhaha.

Due to the uproar MC-04 created, it was withdrawn after one month.

Now, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) issued a memorandum, (again!), banning direct hiring. But this time only targeting domestic helpers while for white-collars, direct hiring is limited to up to 10 employees per company. Like a broken record player, DOLE justified the rule to (again!) "protect OFWs."

Such a reason and such a rule are not new. In 1994, POEA issued MC-41 that basically said the same thing and also aimed for the same protection mantra. For years OFWs, especially in Hong Kong, campaigned against MC-41 and in 2001, DOLE issued Department Order No. 11 that revoked MC-41.

Now, DO-11 said: "In line with the State policy to afford adequate protection to Overseas Filipino Workers, POEA Memorandum Circular No. 41, Series of 1994, is hereby revoked".

What kind of a convoluted mind can use the same reason to justify two opposing sides – banning direct hiring and allowing direct hiring?

What is tricky about the new DOLE order is that it now focuses mainly, as I said, on DHs. This is probably because they were shaken by the reaction of the white-collar workers on the MC-04 and thought that professionals will now be more accepting of the ban.

But targeting only DHs should not make the ban more acceptable. In fact, it makes it more condemnable for it withdraws government responsibility to protect DHs who are very vulnerable during this time of crisis. It transfers such responsibility to recruitment agencies who we all know are mainly a blood-sucking bunch concerned only on how they can make the most from the migration process.

Agencies that provide a semblance of protection to OFWs and services to those in need are as rare as an honest word from GMA. But on second thought, honest and GMA don't really mix. So just think of Edward Cullen's family in Twilight.

But like in the same story, even "immortals" can die. They just need to get chopped into little pieces and burned to ashes.

This is probably what the ban also deserves.

Before 2008 left

The holiday season turned out real happy and such a blast.

• We were able to pull this off: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=O13X_F0XWlM. It was political and, at the same time, so fun to do. It did rain but it did not dampen the anti-chacha spirit of the dancers.
  

• Gifts. This was the only Christmas that I received more than two gifts including a Magical Orb that told me that I'll have a boyfriend this 2009 but we will also break up within the year. Talk about giving me a high and crushing my morale in a span of one minute.

• Went to a Christmas party with my gay friends and drank the whole night away together with never-ending stories and laments about men and relationships. Why does Christmas, at times, bring to fore what should not be brought up? Still, it was loads of fun. Then I went home with a slight hangover and a big crush. Joke!

• Finished reading Twilight. Though it's not something I am inclined to read again – as is my habit – it was alright. Half of the time I was reeling to strangle Bella to make up her mind and the other half imagining how it feels like to be torn between the likes of Edward and Jacob. It was a light read. Somewhat like Harry Potter but with fangs.

• Greeted the New Year with fellow migrant workers and became the Fruitsalad Queen. I am not sure if I ever stopped smiling and laughing for five straight hours. Does it mean that I'll be like this for the rest of the year?

Other stuff that happened here and there: a dinner with Kiks and a good friend, Steve; an unplanned sleepover that made me discover an unknown sleeping disorder of mine, and; the biggest 'birthday' event I've ever been.

It was a perfect two weeks. Well, almost … if only Israel did not go all berserk, bombed Gaza, and spouted the same mantra of "terrorism" that Bush used to spout just before he invaded Afghanistan and Iraq.

Happy New Year everyone!

Closet Talks

I've been thinking about closets recently and it's not just because Kiks and I are thinking of looking for one that can accommodate clothes and knick-knacks accumulated for years.

A question that nagged me a couple of days back was: can a relationship between an out gay man and a closeted one work? My opinion is that, yes it might for a while but there will come a point where the matter will have to get resolved: should the closeted person come out or the out gay guy comes back in the closet?

Basically, I think that for an out gay guy, going back to the closet is a very hard thing to do. It's too constricting, it's dark, it's messy and it's a place you'll never want to come back to once you've experienced being in the open. After the personal liberation of coming out, to be guarded once again with how you act, how you speak and the freedom of saying that "he's hot" to anyone without apologies is surely a gut-wrenching decision.

But of course, coming out is a decision that must not be forced. Else, instead of that sweet feeling of finally being able to do so, it becomes a bitter source of resentment and self-loathing.

Thoughts about closets once again came up after I finally watched Milk.

Indeed it was about the life of Harvey Milk. But it was the message of what he did while he lived that struck me more powerfully: gays must come out.

His advocacy to promote the rights of gays and protect the gains of the gay movement was both acts for out gay men to rally and an encouragement for closeted guys to come out. He thus worked for policies that could set the condition for those in the closet to be able to come out without shame and fear of any form of retribution.

Like any movement for change, it has ups and downs. But perseverance is hinged on and can lead to hope. For at the end, anyone who has been in an oppressed condition will want for a better one.

Every pride march, every rally for a gay cause and every time that someone speaks and acts for gay rights is a message to those in the closet that says, yes it can be done. Moreover, it must be done for, cliché as it may sound; it is in being and doing things together that give us the resolve to push forward.

Now I know I sound agitated.

Still the films let me look back to the times I spent inside the comfort of a closet that is actually a prison. We always say that experience is the best teacher and closets are not built to allow one to live and learn from the nooks and crannies of the gay life.

And yeah, if I have to live the gay life with someone like James Franco, I'll smash that closet into pieces.

Ayokong magmura, pero …

Namputcha naman!

http://www.tribune.net.ph/commentary/20081215com1.html

Nang mabasa ko ito, hindi ko napigilan ang mainis. Hindi lang ito simpleng gimik. Walang kahihiyang panloloko na ito.

Sa mga susunod na buwan eh nanganganib na mawalan ng trabaho ang libo-libong mga OFWs. Ang balita nga, mahigit 1,000 pa ang mapapauwi mula sa Taiwan ngayong buwang ito. Sa Macau ay may 500 na ang natanggal sa trabaho sa construction sector at may mahigit pang 12,000 na migrante ng iba't ibang lahi na nagta-trabaho sa casino ang hindi na raw ire-renew ang kontrata. Meron pang 500 sa property sector naman sa UAE ang nawalan na ng trabaho.

Kung sa kada 100 mapapa-uwing OFW ay magpapa- photo-op si Gloria, sana ay tamaan na sya ng kidlat sa pagiging sinungaling.

***

Namputcha naman ulit!

http://www.facebook.com/inbox/?ref=mb#/group.php?gid=42044632270

Ilang linggo ko na ring nababasa ang hinggil sa isyu na ito: ang pagkakait ng tenure ng Sociology Department ng College of Social Sciences and Philosophy (CSSP) ng UP Diliman kay Prop. Sarah Raymundo.

Ni ha ni ho ay walang sinabi ang puno ng departamento kung bakit. Basta na lamang sinabihan si Prop. Raymundo na hindi na nya kailangang magturo simula noong Nobyembre 6 at matatanggal na sya sa unibersidad pagkatapos ng kanyang kontrata sa Marso. Sampung taon ng nagtuturo si Sarah sa UP at naabot na nya ang mga rekisito para maging tenured faculty – may MA, magandang ebalwasyon ng kapwa-guro at estudyante, at may mga na-publish na sa mga kinikilalang journals.

Dahil wala namang iba pang maibigay na rason, simple lamang ang pagsusuri ng mga kapwa-guro, kaibigan at kasama ni Sarah: aktibista kasi sya.

Malayang kaisipan sa malayang pamantasan. Diba? Diba?!

Sa personal na antas, kilala ko na si Sarah noong estudyante pa lang sya. CNS sya at LFS ako. Kabatak, kaibigan at kasama. Bakla sya kung baklaan ang usapan pero hindi rin sya umuurong sa seryosong mga talakayan.

Ano na ba ang nangyayari sa UP Diliman?

***

Pagkatapos ng aking mga rants, Pride naman.

Wagi sya. Yun lang. Sa susunod na Pride March ulit …

(Salamat kay Kiks sa pagpapahiram ng larawan)

Pride against prejudice

A couple of things inspired me to write this. First was Lyka's post on the movie Milk. Second was the coming first Pride March in Hong Kong this Saturday. Third was because a friend of mine urged me to write about Pride.

But at the end, it is because I am gay.

Pride is a deadly sin and so they said. But if you've taken beatings once too many, it is liberating.

When I think of Pride, I think of celebration. I haven't been in a Pride March for it was only in Hong Kong did I come out. But anybody who's seen Queer as Folk or just knows how to browse the internet will have seen the rainbow of colors decorating floats and marchers in all the Pride events in the world.

When I think of Pride, I think of men and women – homosexuals and heterosexuals – who, in their own ways, have strived to make this world a place where gays need not live in fear. Of groups like Progay Philippines who have endeavored to make homosexuality a matter that should not only be discussed in hushed whispers or within the walls of the academe. Of the likes of Jonjon whose case has shown that reasons abound for such marches.

When I think of Pride, I think not only of individual pride on who I am, how I turned out to be and how I will still be. Beyond this is the collective pride in the community whose struggles have seen highs and lows but still standing. There may be differences in opinions and various debates even among us but still, the common cause against discrimination and prejudices and destroying the myths on homosexuality remains.

Lyka asked how far have we gone since the time of Harvey Milk? If I may dare add, how far are we willing to go?

I know that you cannot live on hope alone. But without it, life is not worth living. And you, and you and you gotta give them hope. – Harvey Milk

The Pride March may only be for one day and, in fact, for only two hours. But the pride and hope that it gives may last for a lifetime.

***

On a different but related note, tomorrow is the International Human Rights Day. Allow me to share this video of the human rights situation in the Philippines. Nothing that I may say can equal the message that the images here evoke.

Emote lang

Lately, I've been feeling restless. I feel like I'm drifting.

It's not about work. I still love what I'm doing and it is not that stressful. If truth be told, the pressure of the past month was not as great as before.

It ain't about romance as well because I've already made peace with my decision months ago to not dwell on it for the rest of the year. After a couple of bumps, I have moved on and I've no plans of stopping.

Maybe it is because I haven't been home for the past 18 months. Though I am used to being away, this is the longest period that I haven't taken a home leave since I arrived in Hong Kong nine years ago and I think the longing is getting into me.

Some may say that HK is not like on the other side of the world. Still it is not easy to just pack a bag and go home for a while. Also, I'll definitely need more than a weekend to satisfy this craving to be with my family and just be in the Philippines.

Oh well, in a couple of months, I'll be taking that leave. I've lasted this long and I can take four months more. If this is indeed what is making me restless and feeling adrift, then I guess I will know soon.

But if it is not, that's another matter.

***

A friend of mine suggested that it may just be sex. This one can easily be tested.