COMFORT WOMEN ..the sex slavery WORLD WAR II

Over seventy decades had passed, estimates of the comfort women during World War II ranges from 80,000. And still some serving comfort women who was forced to serve their fragile body as early as age 11, treated as bad and sustained permanent damage to their mind and health seek for unfinished justice. 

The term "comfort women" as stated in Wikipedia was a euphenism use to describe women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese during World War II. Young women from countries under Japanese Imperial control were abducted from their homes. In many cases, women were also used with promise of work in factories or restaurants. Once recruited and abducted, the women are incarcerated  in comfort stations. Other women were rounded at gunpoint and being raped before even being brought to comfort stations.

Lola Precilla Bartonico was one of the comfort women. She was abducted by the Japanese Imperial Army in 1943 in Tamburaga, Burauen , Leyte.  A Filipina. She kept this pain all her life for 50 years just like other comfort women. She is surviving without getting any kind of formal apology or any financial award compensations from the brutality happened to her past. No one takes full responsibility of what happened to her. My parents are part of World War II. My father was Army who was part of Death March in Bataan and my mother was First Aide for the Philippine soldier. That's how they met in the soldier camp where my mother used to volunteer as a first aide. I remembered when my parents once told me about this comfort women during World War II but i would just ignore and  tell them how come i'ts not even stated and we didn't cover that topic in my Philippine history classes ever. So as i was reading the Lola's House: Women Living With War, an excerpt by M. Evelina Galang, this is the time  that i recalled what my parents were telling me about comfort women. Those Filipina comfort women had kept their silence and hide their trauma to themselves and yet the pain remained in their lives. They never voice it out. It's like when i child got molested and will kept carrying the damaged  through their life.It takes one woman to voice it out and it became part of the Philippine history now. It's hard to understand but its a permanent nightmare to them. The one that really hurts most is that how can it be compensated. Even a formal apology will not change any bit at all for all this years like what happened to Lola Precilla. She kept her own history to herself. 

Professor Tuyay's Presentation

It was a  very impressive and such a brilliant lecture i have experienced with Professor Tuyay today. He filled his presentation with all kinds of visual aids and Filipino American  theme posters.  I appreciate his spontaneous presentation that covers almost 3 Chapters of our Filipino American Psychology book. I felt relaxed. Professor Tuyay
should be consider as one of a role model and an instrument in promoting Filipino American history. Thank you so much for inviting him to our class. I salute him.

YOU KNOW YOU'RE FILIPINO WHEN.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbElQWs6-cY&feature=related
Click the link

This short video got my attention because of what the girl describes about how Filipinos are. Whoever going to watch this will have a smile and can laugh about it because it's true.
The girl describe some Filipino cultural values in this video. I can recognize one of them as the "kapwa" which is the feeling of togetherness when a Filipino meet another Filipino, they will get so excited and start feeling connected already to each other instantly. Another one is the " pakikisama" which means Filipino Americans will gather other family members to accommodate just to host a party and watch Manny Paquiao fight and individual will cancel other schedule just to attend the family function. There's also so much to say about various family and household practices in the common Filipino American household that she mentioned in the video which are true. These are the furniture that you can often see in the Filipino house like the piano, last supper frame, rice cookers..and the funny thing she said, "A meal is not a meal without a rice." The dishwasher is often use as a storage. The Filipino famous gestures of raising an eyebrows meaning yes, the pointing of lips and the hand signal of a square to get the bill in the restaurant. The letter "P" to replace all the words in the English letter starting with an "F".
These are just some of the things you'll know that one is a Filipino. I don't care what other may say about Filipino are and what we are noted for, all i can comment about it is that....I am proud to be a Filipino.

My Reflection about THE LEARNING.....why women?

I'm feel sad about the women working as a teacher at Baltimore. I feel sorry for them. They have captured my feeling being as a mother leaving their families far away only because just to earn more than 20 times they are earning in their own country for the reason of the bad economy in the Philippines. They also have to miss all the important occasions, the precious times to be with their own children while they are growing and as a mother without their presence. As a mother, it's so painful and hurting.They don't have a choice.These women has to struggle. I ask myself why?   They were given the better opportunities to grab the job outside the country, so whose going to take the mother role for their children?  In that film, I admire Dorotea for sharing her thoughts and feelings of her braveness. The other teachers who left with her are helpless too. I can feel the passion and pain that surrounds them. When they took the job, they face challenges in their life, the culture shock, the students are different, especially in  Dorotea's class where students are so disrespectful and defiant. I can see how brave she accepted and face the turmoil in her class. She said she accepted this job then why will she give up! i didn't see tears on her, i saw braveness and strength on her, but at the end.....she broke out. There's the pain! she cried i know she would...she is a woman.  The other teacher whose husband in the jail, ..gosh she couldn't do nothing! but what she said is  to move on..very positive woman!!!. There's another teacher that's all she think important is to send money to support her siblings for school in the Philippines instead of his own father doing that role. Her father kept on asking for money!!!!!  As i was watching the video, it captured my mind the questions why women? why women has to suffer?, why women has to take this role? why women has to be the brave one? ....Isn't it that it should be the role of a men to provide and make a living for his own family? I salute all this women for their courage, strength and never gave up!! ..why women?