The Ties That Bind

Let’s start with the grandfather’s generation, a native of Michigan, from a small town named Baroda. As a very young man and after having lost a leg caused by a freakish accident, he decides to embark on a long and fateful journey to the faraway Philippine archipelago right after the end of the First World War. Feeling confident and reassured by his acquired skills in accounting even at a very tender age, this young man is bent on trying his luck in a fledgling mining industry in a disparate group of islands then owned and governed as a commonwealth under US tutelage. In due time, he marries a Filipino woman with whom he has a good number of children, and included there is my wife’s mother. And before long, these grown children go their own separate ways laden with their own families. And inevitably their numbers grow. The old man dies and slowly his offspring, registered at birth as natural-born US citizens, start migrating to the US with their own extended families. And that is a short rendition of how my own family found itself carted away to mainland USA.

Our little hometown in Northern Mindanao can be deferred to as an apt microcosm and rationale for this all too familiar phenomenon. A score of US military veterans and civilians came during the last WW and decided to intermarry and resettle in that part of Mindanao. Over time, their families grew. Now many of their descendants, either having retained or elected US citizenship, migrated to the US and resettled with their own growing families in the land of their parents/grandparents. Some decided to stake their future with the land of their birth and are still left out there, earning their living and/or overseeing investments or inherited properties for themselves and their relocated siblings.

What is succinctly described above is not a unique situation for the Philippines but rather common in practically all parts of the well-dispersed country. And it can summarily be explained in this way.

At the turn of the previous century when the United States acquired the entire Philippine archipelago, the uninterrupted inward flow of US citizens to the islands commenced, and has extended way beyond after the US relinquished the islands giving them independence in 1946. With the constant flow left unabated, US citizens have come here for a variety of reasons. More common are either to intermarry and stake their new family lives in the tropical isles many consider very edenic. Or in the past to work for US companies doing business in the former US commonwealth and many had simply decided to stay on.

For their part native-born Filipinos initially during the 40-odd years that the US held on to the islands as a commonwealth, prodded and enticed by the tempting allures of the good life, had migrated to the US mainland and Hawaii in several waves, in the process establishing a firm foothold in American society which continues to thrive and flourish to this day. Again, this exodus too continues unabated limited only by the legal constraints imposed by the accepting country.

So much so that I will stick to an earlier claim that the number of US residents/citizens who are of Filipino descent totals well over 3 million and closer to 4 million, comprising of those who have elected US citizenship, and those who continue to hold on to their permanent resident status; and those possessing visas either for work or as investor, and even those who are technically classified as illegal aliens, possessing expired visitor’s visas.

Over time, a very intricate and at times, unwieldy, network of relationships by blood and/or affinity has developed between the two countries, which alliances transcend beyond the political, social, and even military arrangements carried on by the governments of both independent countries. Though at times, one may be inclined to think after a cursory reading of local media that the Philippines is still attached to a stubborn umbilical cord emanating from the US.

A human network that I believe is impressively more involved and intertwined when compared with the ones developed with the other former colonizer, Spain, which in unforgettable hindsight accumulated almost 400 years of occupation of the islands. One does not have need the results from formal studies to realize the lack of depth and superficiality in the former colony’s ties with Mother Spain, which pales greatly in comparison with the hardy ties developed with the other former colonizer who held on to the islands for less than half a century.

This less known aspect of the US-RP relationship is one not visited much by the current generation of Filipinos, most especially those in media and academia. That undeniably these ties are not only very extensive, but very deep, securely anchored down to the level of the family unit. And thus more meaningful and significant in the long haul.

While it is common knowledge that 60-65% of the current total inward foreign exchange remittances to the Philippines are originated from the US, what is not known is which families are sending these remittances. It cannot possibly be attributable largely to the new “OFWs” (Overseas Filipino Workers) who are in the US primarily as imported pre-arranged workers? There has to be a lot of US-resident families who have extended family members in both countries, thus the remittances simply reveal how income and/or estate are regularly allocated.

This blog entry cannot hope to completely and exhaustively expound on this far-reaching issue. But anecdotal evidences can be applied to sufficiently lay out a firm foundation that when built upon and fleshed out may invariably point to this conclusion.

As first generation US immigrant with over a quarter century of residency, our own immediate family has grown exponentially. Our own kids have intermarried and raised their own kids, with undeniable ethnic and emotional ties to both countries.

And this obviously unstoppable development will continue on, as long as families continue to be regarded universally as the basic social unit.

Because these are the real ties that bind, and which can ably withstand the tests and rigors of time and history.

Some Basics On Jogging/Running

It seems trite and needless to go through the process of trying to understand jogging and running. We all know it to be as germane to living as breathing and talking. One does not think about it, one simply does it.

So second nature, one does not need to study and understand how it is done properly, right.? And even worse, for some know-it-all third party to lecture one on how to do it properly, right?

Wrong.

And I see the tenable proof most times I jog in public places like parks and trails where enthusiasts gather and practice their physical exercise rituals. And not straying far from the family tree, even from members of my own family.

Jogging/running is definitely not rocket science, but it does not mean that everybody who jogs or runs does it right, based loosely on prevailing conventional wisdom; or if one wants to get technical, based on what medical practitioners believe how it should be done properly to maintain the integrity or health of one’s body parts.

Where does one kibitzing busybody start? Attire? Shoes? What about the act of jogging itself?

Okay, let’ start with the action of jogging. Let me ask the first question. Which part of your foot touches the ground when you jog? Heel or ball of the foot?

I have seen many joggers, not only clumsy beginners but well-toned, well-muscled and young experienced joggers, hit the ground, asphalt, macadam road, or grass with the balls of their feet and speed away like a spirited steed, for the next 2 or 3 miles. If they could, without causing immediate injury.

Because this would be one greatly possible way to cause foot injuries, or maybe be responsible for the painful collapse of one’s foot arches.

Unless one is sprinting, meaning running for short distances like 100 or 200 meters, week-end jogging warriors are advised to let the heel of the foot take the full brunt of the impact as the foot travels the ground. The reason being that the entire body is then positioned best to absorb the shock generated by the striking foot with the full impact of the body weight behind it. Allowing the small and delicate bones of the ball of the foot and the arch to take on the initial impact would be reckless and negligent. Many may be able to get away with foot injuries, but the good likelihood is that over time, one is unnecessarily inviting unwanted foot injuries or problems. Be reminded of the thousands of times your feet have to go through this process even for just one jogging session.

What about shoes? Well, in the not too ancient times, we would not have this discussion. Modern man ran or jogged barefoot, or on whatever foot cover was available. He did not have many choices then.

But then again time and/or degree of civilization have not been the only inevitable constraints I suppose since for example, I heard that in the boot camps of the armed forces of most countries, recruits are still made to run or jog on their heavy-duty combat boots with full gear on their backs. But that’s an entirely different subject.

But we now live in a very modern world, too focused and absorbed with developing technologies to make life easier and longer, healthier and as pain-free as possible.

And in this regard, the athletic shoe has been more than blessed with all possible and current technologies applied to its shape and construction, not only to protect the overall integrity of the foot but also to assist it perform its functions better; and to specialize it for whatever myriad of functions required to be done. Whether for walking, running, playing basketball, tennis, football, soccer, etc. So to date, the shoe has become not a foreign contraption, but a well-fitted and seamlessly attached extension of the human foot.

Thus, weekend jogging warriors, learn about your most unique feet and try to fit them properly into the many utilitarian features of the countless arrays of athletic shoes available out there. There is one out there for your most proper fit, Cinderella! Take the time to learn.

Your flip-flops, your comfy leather mocs, or maybe even, your haughty “orthopedic” shoes, have no rightful place in the jogging/running tracks or trails. Try your level best to learn about pronation and supination, or eversion and inversion. About the proper heel support and torsion-resistant soles. Because the very sedentary nature of the life of bi-pedal man has almost made this a prerequisite for good living. The very unique evolutionary advantage of being upright and being mobile on two rather than four peds has somehow been stymied by the physicality-free ease of civilized living.

And oh, after all the sweat and aches of getting through this neat and enlightening preparation, please tie your shoelaces neat and tight. The manifold and exhorted benefits of your new pair can only work if they can become an integral part of your foot, and not some dangling member chafing in the wind every time you lift your foot.

And lastly, attire is entirely optional. One needs only witness the annual Bay to Breakers run in San Francisco for proof.

Fit For A Museum

Harken back to mid-1984, in San Francisco.

Cupertino, in nearby Santa Clara County, is abuzz with new-fangled products coming out of its most prominent resident, Apple Computer.

Yes, Apple then was the flavor of the day for an entire valley that was going ape on technology. The entire Silicon Valley was in frenetic state singularly focused on emerging technologies related to the new product called personal computers.

And San Francisco, the populous and wealthiest core of all this, becomes the made-to-order market for these new-fangled tools. While consumer interests ran high for these never-before seen and experienced tools, retail sales were not really that impressive. Primarily because retail prices were not that great.

Click to read more.

Is Man Perfectible?

Every time I cruise along in the virtual confines of my regular cyberspace travels, invariably the above question somehow manages to insert itself into my mind. Giving me pause to ponder on it. After much troubled thought, I have come to believe that how one answers that question determines largely how one views life in general and more importantly, how one views and judges the actions of men individually and collectively, including all the possible fortuitous events that happen globally.

Off the bat, the default answer to the questions appears to be in the affirmative, even conceding our fiercest faith on the “fallenness” of human nature. Man is perfectible. After all, we have been conscripted as faint but nevertheless true images of somebody larger, greater, and infinitely perfect; that much many religious beliefs will grant and hold sacrosanct.

But given the over 40,000 years history of modern man to play with, can we truly declare with one voice that man if perfectible is approaching closer to that perfectibility, or is he even trending toward that?

Unarguably, we know a lot better and more truths than our ancestors. Maybe, even wiser. We are as a species more “civilized” and discerning, and thus at our own initiatives we have consigned to history many silly default beliefs such as human sacrifices and many other gross manifestations of idolatry common and prevalent during the times of primitive man.

But are we showing a discernible and unmistakable trend toward that perfectibility which is so ingrained in our attitudes and beliefs? That maybe at times we feel them as second nature? But think just of the last century we left behind where on last tally over a 100 million people died with needless abandon in the countless wars and killings undertaken by man against his own kind.

Picture any place in the world today and try if you may to pinpoint any blessed piece of land where true peace reigns and where man is not at odds with his fellowmen. Anywhere one goes, the results are less than not encouraging even granting that at no time in history do we find more people latching on to some religion or other.

Even benign and indifferent poverty spreads unabated to all corners of the world. The most laudable human experiment that has made the US the richest and strongest nation on earth cannot even provide ready answers to help extricate itself completely from its own endemic poverty, still currently registering in double digits within its sainted shores.

So, where are we going with this?

I believe the answer is to qualify the initial question. Is man perfectible, in his life here on earth?

Since it is generally accepted that man has both immanent and transcendent existence, that revised question assumes a better fit. The nobler purpose of man is toward that transcendence that goes beyond the material or the reality which life on earth is all about. Man becomes perfectible when he focuses on the vertical plane where his transcendent destiny points him. Only then will his earthly life, however fraught with flaws and shortcomings, serving as prelude and cornerstone foundation, takes on an understandable and worthy role leading to his perfectibility.

Since man cannot accomplish his perfectibility here on earth, then he simply aims for the next best thing, things that are humanly possible and doable in the context of the world of imperfectability that grips the earth to the core. Because there is no utopia on earth where perfect men and complete goodness hold sway, man should continue to aim for the stars at the behest and in compliance with the pinings of his higher nature, but in another vein, he should be ready and content to live in a world of compromises and feasibilities, a world of less than perfect, even humanly perfect, proportions..

While there are abstract and untainted standards and “absolutes” for many of the “ideals” that man has discovered over the ages, they are in reality not realistically attainable. While man can debate and devise a scenario for the most perfect government to govern diverse people, it will never come to seamless fruition. While the entire globe can collectively decide and earnestly put muscular measures in place to erase global poverty, poverty will be with us until the last day of our existence.

And this resignation to and acceptance of relative realities is nothing new. We experience it everyday in our workaday lives. When we say, for example, we have full employment, it does not mean that unemployment has been reduced to zero. The US at 4.5% unemployment is considered at full employment, because man being man, a stubborn portion of the population will not go to work even if work is available.

If one accepts these premises, one becomes very pragmatic when viewing the world and how people are realistically coping with it.

Men will learn to view and take events and actions of people based on reality-based standards whether of ethics, morality, politics, and even the waging of wars and the violence associated with them, not for the sake of simple expedience but because man’s nature is flawed and can never attain perfectibility living in this imperfect world.

Pragmatism allows people to look kindly at how events are shaping the world, and how man is interacting and playing with the cards dealt him. Not how things should or ought to be, in an abstract utopian manner.


To be continued.

Quantifying Migration Under Globalization

In a country like the Philippines, beset as it is with stubborn economic problems exacerbated by sticky and shaky political institutions, the human component of globalization figures very prominently and is quite known and accepted generally. While a vocal minority emanating from academia and the media may not cease to balk at what globalization (as personified negatively by the WTO) has wrought to many distressed local economic sectors, this least-noticed offshoot of globalization races on unabated.

Inward foreign currency remittances coming from human labor exports (OFWs, for short in the Philippines), including from many long-time Filipino ex-pats scattered throughout the globe, account for at least 12% of the country’s GDP. Unchecked in its continuing upward trend dating back many years, the annual figure now stands at US$13.6 billion for 2006, with 60-65% originating from the US alone. More are unaccounted because they do not go through established financial channels.

But all this time, we have not really known what the global total was for this unexpected phenomenon brought about essentially by globalization. From a WorldBank source now we know that the current annual total stands at US$276 billion (for 2006).

To lend perspective to this huge global total, this amount is a lot larger than the annual trade imbalance the US has with one of its major trading partners, China, which accounts for 26% of the US total trade imbalances with the world.

Not surprisingly, the report further reveals that India tops the list with about US$27 billion, which is double the figure for the Philippines. Understandably, in a country with over one billion people in population, its overseas citizens’ sheer numbers translate to more inward dollars or foreign exchange.

Here in the US, we have known that Mexicans here, both legal and illegal, send a total annual amount more than its oil revenues, and now we know that that same amount is also more than its direct foreign investments. “Remittances "are larger than direct foreign investment in Mexico, tea exports in Sri Lanka, tourism revenue in Morocco, and revenue from the Suez Canal in Egypt," World Bank economist Dilip Ratha said in a recent report. “

But this traceable phenomenon is not unique only to some countries because it is happening in most countries in the globe. From Albania and Latvia, to Poland, to unknown Moldova and from populous countries like Mexico.

While the astronomical money figures will singularly astound the world, one cannot help think that they represent the value of adult human labor done in foreign countries. One cannot help consider the many aggravating personal circumstances being inflicted on those who perform the labor. Where young productive mothers and fathers are wrenched away from their families for long periods of time on end and transported to foreign countries to earn their living. Families chopped to pieces and missing their heads, physically absent to care for and to nurture their vulnerable families.

Thus, while the impressive cornucopia of liquid cash coming from abroad invigorates local communities with former residents working abroad, there are serious trade-offs involved. True, many local communities across the globe have seen many economic transformations, from new spanking houses to new small businesses sprouting, and maybe even better citizens out of former residents who return to their homelands. But one doubts whether one could assess the telling blows on the families of those affected until maybe a generation later.

And worse, because this shift in population self-perpetuates until the home country is able to correct the very imbalances that brought about the mass exodus, such as dismal lack of domestic jobs and necessary economic and social infrastructures needed to bring about or sustain an economy of growth.