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03.22.08Coming Up: Strawberry Woodstock
Found this via the BSU Blog. What is it? It is a two day concert scheduled 25-27 April as a tribute to Overseas Filipino Workers. Cool, eh? Proceeds of the concert will be used for the renovation of the San Jose Parish Church in La-Trinidad.
The concert is being organized by the Baguio Market Network in cooperation with The Benguet State University, The Province of Benguet, The Municipality of La Trinidad, and The San Jose Parish Community.
I mistakenly thought that the Baguio Market Network is a network of vendors/stall renters of the Baguio City market but it turns out that it is a company that “deploys wireless infrastructures and provides IT technology”.
Is it me or is that an uncool name (maybe unfortunate even) for an IT company? Really, the image that comes to mind — to me at least — when you say “Baguio Market” is the crowded (and in some parts smelly) Baguio City market. Hehe.
Anyways, this company has a website here. And it promises to do a live broadcast of the Strawberry Woodstock so that OFWs will be able to watch it.
UPDATE: The schedule has been changed from 25-27 April to 29-31 May. It will be held at the same venue. You can read the list of artists who are performing at the Strawberry Woodstock here.
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03.22.08Ask Her
So Gloria is spending time in the Cordilleras again. Today she will be visiting the strawberry farms of La-Trinidad to look into “plight of upland farmers whose produce have been affected by blight due to temperature fluctuations”.
Hah. Truth be told, the weather can be blamed only to a limited extent when it comes to the plight of upland farmers. The greater disaster would be Gloria’s policy of uncritically embracing and advocating for globalization. She opened up the local vegetable market without putting in place any sufficient safety nets that could help our farmers compete against imported vegetables.
In addition, aside from the legal importation going on, there’s a much bigger volume of illegally imported vegetables that is making it impossible for farmers to earn a decent living. Cabbages being sold at P3/kilo? Or carrots at P3.50? This is a scandal. At the center of this scandal would be Gloria’s husband profiting from the illegal importation going on.
Cordillera leaders should be asking Gloria about these things.
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03.17.08Benguet Governor Maximo Dalog?
Image from Sunstar BaguioBenguet Governor Maximo Dalog? Well, that’s according to Sunstar Baguio. We’re kinda tired pointing out to people that Banaue is not in Mt. Province, that Sagada is not in Ifugao, that Tabuk is in Kalinga, etc, etc but people committing those mistakes don’t know any better and are thus forgivable.
But Sunstar Baguio should know better because it IS Sunstar Baguio. Okay, it may be a typographical error which sometimes happen but still….
Anyways, the Sunstar article is about the Dominguez clan’s opposition to Domogan’s appointment as the caretaker of Mt. Province. As we said here and here we should have an election to reflect the choice of the people.
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03.16.08Cool Stuff
Here’s a story about a kailiyan from Sablan who is making money by selling used clothes (a.k.a. wagwag a.k.a ukay ukay) on e-bay. Maybe I should open an account with e-bay and start selling things through the internets, eh? Hmm, since I now have a paypal account, I just might do that. Pero ano kaya, mabenta? The world famous Sagada marijuana? Or sayote kaya?
‘Ukay’ fashion goes e-Bay
By Vincent Cabreza/InquirerBAGUIO CITY—“Where in this country can you sell a whole wardrobe reconstituted from ukay-ukay (secondhand bargain clothes) fabrics for under $400 (P16,000)?”
Check out the online trading over at eBay. For the last six years, a stylist from Sablan town in Benguet has used the Internet to market Baguio’s underground wagwag (a local term for ukay-ukay) and the Benguet weaving fabrics popularized in the 1970s and 1980s by businesswoman Narda Capuyan.
Hilson Busoy, 36, says women and gay men from the United States have found a taste for the Baguio-bred fashion, and have tried to outbid one another for such simple things as blouses put together from discarded Versace fabrics and lined with woven ikat.
Busoy grew up in a town that has yet to find its identity. Sablan is only an hour’s drive from the summer capital, but unlike other Baguio neighbors like the vegetable-trading town of La Trinidad or the mining town of Itogon, the community’s primary trade is banana.
“I am a businessman. I know what sells,” Busoy says. This real-world acumen is what drew him to eBay.
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03.05.08Photo of the Day
Orange skyland. February 2008. Barangay Asin in Tuba, Benguet. Photo courtesy of my once favorite newspaper.
According to my good friend Gina, orange (the color not the Nueva Vizcaya fruit) has a calming effect. I’m not sure about that but maybe she’s right. Maybe this is the reason why God in his wisdom usually paints our sky orange. Maybe it’s his way of telling us, “Calm down, you silly people. Calm down.”
Anyways, it’s the middle of the week where I sit so I’m looking at this picture to calm myself down.
P.S. Sabi pala ni Gina, isang rason daw kung bakit orange ang kulay ng mga damit ng mga Ananda Marga at ng mga Buddhist monks ay dahil sa natatanging “calming effect” ng nasabing kulay na ito.
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03.04.08MarcOzymandias
Once upon a time, in a land not so far away, a man named Marcos, who fancied himself as the legendary Malakas built this monument for himself in the mountains of Tuba, Benguet.
He wanted a grand monument. It would be much much grander than Mt. Rushmore because he will have the mountain all to himself unlike Lincoln, and Washington, and that other President who had to share the limelight with the others. Co-starring lang sila habang si Marcos ay main and only feature.
But Marcos wasn’t contented to be the only dweller of the mountain, so he kicked out the Ibaloys who lived there since time immemorial.
And so the days passed. And the days turned to years. Then the century turned. Then this is what became of Marcos.
PHOTO CREDIT: Andy Zapata/Baguiocity.com
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02.11.08Our Town: Kapangan, Benguet
This video shows the inauguration of the Kapangan Municipal Hall (probably the best-looking town hall in the Cordilleras) and the unveiling of the statue of former Benguet Governor Bado Dangwa.
Cheers to whoever thought of putting up the statue of the Governor. We need more statues of Cordillera leaders like that. [Question: Is it me or would the statue look better if the Guv’s pose was designed to be less stiff looking?]
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