Sleepless in the City: DoQ by Connie Sison

I was watching television last night after dinner. It was on channel 7 (GMA) but I was a bit bored with the show on broadcast so I went to the TV and pushed the channel button upward to turn it to another channel. As the monitor opened to channel 11 (QTV), I heard a voice over; a familiar female voice so I stopped pushing the channel button. The program looked like a documentary and was on the early segments. I listened intently to the voice and tried to recognize who was speaking. After my brain had made a quick scan over my “internal hard disc,” I figured out that it was Ms. Connie Sison. Wide-eyed in surprise, it was Ms. Connie Sison, indeed on DoQmentaries, “Sleepless in the City”.

I have been trying to follow her reports on doQmentaries; a program, which used to air every second Saturday of the month over QTV-11 but I could not catch up on all because I could not find the program on its regular timeslot anymore. Well, I have not known that the network has moved the program to a new day and time slot: every first Sunday of the month until last night. It is like an unexpected meeting of two long-parted friends. It is amazing! How would you call such an incident? Could it be… destiny?

Pak! (Slap)

Aw! That is hard! She is a happy wife and mom all right! I do not need a wake up slap!

I am sorry about that interruption. It is just the voice at the back of my mind. We do argue sometimes and even wrestle occasionally. Oops, wait; do not be mistaken. This is not a case of schizophrenia! Many people call the tiny voice “conscience”. It tells you what is right and what is wrong. You should relate to this especially if you are using Safeguard soap (that was a Filipino joke)!

It seems that this is slowly becoming a fan blog site. It is something I have been trying to avoid because it is too embarrassing. However, like a doctor talking to the family of his dying patient, “There is nothing more I can do…”

On serious stuffs, in Sleepless in the City, Ms. Connie Sison tackled stories about people working in night shift. I like how she described it, “people who come home after work to eat breakfast instead of dinner”. They are people who are earning a living while the rest of the world is sleeping. She interviewed a “barista”, (expert mixer of coffee in coffee shops), a nurse, a stand up comedian, a bus conductor; a police beat reporter and a spa business owner.

They all engage in service oriented jobs except perhaps for the police reporter that do more of an indirect service to the people. She gathers news and reports them in the TV news programs for people who are interested in that information whereas the others do direct service to people. We can say that they are night owls that cater to the need of the bigger night owl population who stay up late because of their odd jobs or by inevitable circumstances. They work beyond what people consider as the normal cycle of life: wake up in the morning, work then sleep at night.

However, personally, while there are people who can take a rest, life in this world has no rest at all, as the earth rotates on its axis for 24 hours continuously without stopping for the past 5 billion years. Therefore, where some people have taken a rest, others need to take over in order to meet the demands of continuing life.

Time travels endlessly and life follows. This is the normal cycle of life: people need people 24/7 to sustain life. Life is like a big jigsaw puzzle and each one has a place to occupy in order that life can become fruitful for everyone.

Ms. Connie Sison's image on this post has been cropped from an image from www.goodhand88.com

The Threat of Influenza A-H1N1 Virus

The World Health Organization (WHO) fears that it may soon raise the alert for the Influenza A-H1N1 to level six and declare a pandemic. The number of cases around the world has risen to over 19,000 with 117 deaths in over 66 countries. The latest additions are Bulgaria and Nicaragua. 

In the Philippines, Sec Francisco Duque of the Department of Health has confirmed 29-recorded cases although according to the secretary, the cases are mostly mild ones. In fact, 11 of those on record have recuperated. The country remains in alert level 2.

However, the De La Salle University has confirmed that two of its foreign exchange students from Japan have been infected with the disease. The Health Department is now conducting contact tracing to prevent an escalation of the disease and has declared a level-3 alert in the school. The university has announced a ten-day suspension of classes to ensure the safety of the students. There is a suspicion that the student has acquired the disease here in the Philippines. The student has arrived from abroad on May 12 but has not exhibited any symptom until May 25, which is already beyond the 5-days incubation period in case he acquired the virus infection while abroad.

The H1N1 scare is slowly getting into the peoples’ nerves. The Department of Education and the Department of Health have launched a campaign against the virus among young kids, stressing the importance of hand washing to prevent the transfer of virus. They teach that they should wash their hands thoroughly at a specific length of time. They should wash their hands with soap and water while singing the Happy Birthday song. Within the duration of the song, they can be sure that they have washed their hands properly.

The campaign also discourages close contact between people like hugging and kissing. Campaigns like this are funny sometimes but acquiring a deadly disease is no joke.

Photo courtesy of:
http://missionlog.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/

Angela Gomez, founder Banchte Shekha; An Amazing Woman: from a report by Connie Sison

I watched the GMA-7 Documentary “Sulyap sa Likod ng Abaya,” a World View presentation last night. It was informative, inspiring but disturbing at the same time. It was a report about the real condition of Muslim women behind their traditional dress- the Abaya and Sheila.

The Abaya and Sheila
Photo courtesy of: www.masala.com
http://www.masala.com/images/tmp/full/fashion10_17_full.jpg

According to the report, Islam began in the 7^th century AD during the time of Mohammed. The word Islam meant “submission to God”. Islam came to the Philippines in the 13^th century AD through Shariff Macdum. He traveled from Malaysia and Indonesia and came to the Philippines. The inhabitants of the archipelago embraced the new religion. For almost two hundred years, the new religion had spread not only in Mindanao but also in Visayas and Luzon. However, when the Spanish conquerors came to the island in the 16^th century, they brought a new religion, the Roman Catholic faith and colonized the land for over 300 hundred years except for Mindanao, the land of the Moros.

The teachings of Allah are written in their holy book- the Koran, which includes even the manner of dressing especially of women. According to the Koran, women must cover their “aura” or beauty. Only the face and the hands could be exposed. Thus, Muslim women wear abaya (the long, black dress that covers the body) and sheila (the cloth that covers the head and neck).

However, stories of Muslim women seem to vary between Islamic cultures. In Dubai, the Muslim princess and the ordinary Muslim woman have equal opportunities to succeed in life. Both the law and their culture respect the rights of their Muslim women. In Mindanao, Philippines, there are Muslim women who joined the armed struggle for the liberation of the Bangsa Moro people. Although there are still pockets of discrimination, by and large, the Muslim women in the Philippines are now empowered women. In fact, there are many women Shariah lawyers and politicians in the Philippines.

The most disturbing for me is the report of Connie Sison about the Muslim women in Bangladesh who suffer from abuse and cruelty from their own men. Much like how Muslim women suffer in Afghanistan under the rule of Taliban. In Bangladesh, men burn their women and young girls with acid. All civilized people must condemn these acts of atrocities to the highest degree! In fairness, the government of Bangladesh does not consent to these inhumane behaviors and has enacted the Acid Control Act of 2002 to limit and control the use of acid in the country but since jewelers still use acid for their industry, acid getting into the wrong hands has remained inevitable. The Dakha Medical College hospital is the only hospital in Bangladesh that can handle acid burns.

Do you want to know why? One woman refused a marriage arrangement; the man whom she was supposed to marry took it grudgingly and threw acid on her face. One woman refused to give permission to her husband to take another wife; her husband threw acid on her face in anger. In another case, a father wanted a baby boy but his wife gave birth to a baby girl. The father poured acid on his poor baby girl. In another case, a child was forced to swallow acid. The child survived but her mouth was severely damaged. There were acid attacks that did not even have any apparent motive at all.

Angela Gomez, founder Banchte Shekha

Angela Gomez, ironically, a Christian, has founded the “Banchte Shekha”, a non-profit foundation that cares for these abused women. She is a recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay award for community service in 1999. She admitted that at first, her religion was an obstacle for her desire to help these abused women because there were times that they would refuse her help. They would even stone her away but that did not prevent her from offering a helping hand. She is someone who is truly amazing. If you want to know more about her mission, visit this link- Banchte Shekha.

There are different stories behind the black dress and the shoal but the most important thing to remember is that in spite of differences in race, faith and culture, we need to treat one another with dignity and respect as human beings especially those who profess the Christian faith.

Photo:

http://www.banchteshekha.org/UploadImages/1234859504_wfs591.jpg
http://www.banchteshekha.org/

"Sulyap sa Likod ng Abaya"

Reporters:

Rhea Santos reported from Dubai;
Connie Sison reported from Dakha, Bangladesh;
Queenie Padilla reported from the Philippines