Roots
Posted on April 15, 2008 - Filed Under Opinion, Roots | Leave a Comment
Summer heat
By Marifi Jara
Summer seems to have come so suddenly this year.
One day on the second week of March, it was still quite chilly in the late afternoon until early morning and nicely cool during the daytime, then the next day, as if from nowhere, the heat came to signal that summer has [...]
Roots
Posted on March 31, 2008 - Filed Under Opinion, Roots | Leave a Comment
People of the rice
By Marifi Jara
My 63-year old dad is an archetype bitukang pinoy.
That simply means he does not feel full after a main meal without rice.
I myself who can go without rice for a day or two, feeling a bit homesick while in a foreign land once, cried and could only [...]
Roots
Posted on March 24, 2008 - Filed Under Opinion, Roots | Leave a Comment
Pro-life
By Marifi Jara
(I am writing this week's column with reports from The PUNCH student trainees Charmaine Dizon, Wilna Memorial and Jahwela Ocay from UP Baguio.)
In Manaoag, home of the shrine of Our Lady of Manaoag, also known as Nuestra Señora del Rosario, a popular pilgrimage site for Catholics, family planning is aggressively being pushed [...]
Roots
Posted on March 17, 2008 - Filed Under Opinion, Roots | Leave a Comment
Holy Week adventure
By Marifi Jara
Back in the 1980s, I particularly looked forward to family holidays in San Fabian, or elsewhere, timed during the Holy Week because that was an era before the advent of the smorgasbord of viewing pleasures offered by cable and satellite television.
With school out and most time spent at home [...]
Roots
Posted on March 10, 2008 - Filed Under Opinion, Roots | Leave a Comment
In celebration of women
By Marifi Jara
I am a feminist. But that absolutely does not mean I hate men.
I love books by women writers, for example, but my top five favorite authors are all men: Irish Frank McCourt, Columbian Gabriel Garcia Marquez, global wanderer Pico Iyer and our very own Eric Gamalinda and Francisco "Manong [...]
Roots
Posted on March 3, 2008 - Filed Under Opinion, Roots | Leave a Comment
A few good men
By Marifi Jara
The truth? You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!
Not verbatim I think but those were some of the most memorable lines delivered by (the eternally groovy actor) Jack Nicholson in his powerful courtroom acting in the movie A Few Good Men.
I can almost imagine President Gloria [...]
Roots
Posted on February 24, 2008 - Filed Under Opinion, Roots | Leave a Comment
Culture of secrecy
By Marifi Jara
While the media was busy wringing every possible angle on the unfolding ZTE story, not much attention was given to what could well be a landmark decision involving the freedom of speech that we have, which, thanks to our own efforts at fighting for democracy, is one of the most [...]
Roots
Posted on February 18, 2008 - Filed Under Opinion, Roots | Leave a Comment
Collecting on the MDGs
By Marifi Jara
Without awareness of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), both on the part of the people and public officials, there will be no accountability in terms of keeping these promises.
Our local officials must realize that they need to deliver on what our government signed up to and the people [...]
Roots
Posted on February 11, 2008 - Filed Under Opinion, Roots | Leave a Comment
Think MDGs, act LGUs
By Marifi Jara
The Millennium Development Goals, or the MDGs, has for a while now been a buzzword among the development sector. Non-government organizations and civil society groups have been keeping watch on the numbers as reported by the national government, particularly by NEDA and the NSO.
But media coverage has been sparse [...]
Roots
Posted on February 4, 2008 - Filed Under Opinion, Roots | Leave a Comment
Piece of heaven
By Marifi Jara
I planned on writing about the largely overlooked Millenium Development Goals this week, but one e-mail that came through I feel deserves space. Talk of the MDG targets can wait a bit.
The e-mail is a reaction to Kristine Oineza's Young Roots column last week from Mr. Max Mararac, originally from [...]
