The author with Philippine ambassador to Singapore Mindy Cruz

By Arpee Lazaro

Did you know that Singapore ranks 10 in the list of countries with the most number of Filipinos? The US tops the list with close to one million Filipinos, including those who have been naturalized and those who were born there. Overseas Filipino workers contribute a substantial chunk to the country’s revenues and it is because of our reliance on their remittances that our economy has stayed afloat despite the trying times.  With about 160,000 Filipinos working  in Singapore to send money to their families, they need someone who will look after them and have their interests above all else. This is the mission of Philippine ambassador to Singapore Minda Cruz.

Cruz has been Singapore’s guardian angel for Filipino workers and tourists since 2008. In 2009, I was invited to participate in the Singapore Food Festival and on my third day, I got the opportunity to meet the good ambassador. I was a guest at the ambassador’s official residence at the very posh Holland Village area. [Read more]

by Myrel Joeanne C. Agarano

Food could be a way of making sense of the world. If you watched people as they ate, you could find out who they were.

- Ruth Reichl

On my first weekend in Seoul I made a show of cooking noodles. To my mind, it was a chance to cook the talk. In our small circle of Seoul-based engineers, someone I used to work with blabbed about my cooking and raised the expectations and so X, a colleague and friend requested one thing: pasta with white sauce, akin to the one he ate and loved in a California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) branch in Seoul. I said, okay. I’ll give you my version of White Pasta. Something cheap, easy on the pocket and very reproducible. In my head, I was telling him, I’ll kill off your doubts. Because, truly, above a pursuit for beauty or love or money, Cooking is my single most compelling vanity. It is the one thing, along with writing, that helps me make sense of the world and get out and be one with the people in this planet. While I agree with Ruth Reich’s line above, in my food-obsessed world, what holds true all the more is this: [Read more]

At some point in our lives, we all wanted to get tattooed, whether it was to proclaim our independence, profess eternal love, prove that one isn’t chicken, fit in, or just be different.

We know you’ve always wanted to bare your tattoo, and we want to hear your story.

Share a good-resolution photo of your tattoo and tell us, in 150 words or less, the story behind the tat. The PinoyCentric team will pick the best three tattoo stories, and the winners will get a special edition Pinoycentric T-shirt. Contest ends April 17, 2010 (Philippine residents only). Now go and get that tattoo you’ve always wanted and tell us about it!

Image: Wanderlust by Leon B. Dista. © All rights reserved

Canvas, a nonprofit organization that promotes Filipino arts and culture, is calling out for entries to the Romeo Forbes Children’s Storywriting Competition.

Entries may be in English or Filipino, not more than 1,600 words, and should not have been previously published. The theme of the stories should center on an untitled piece painted by CCP Thirteen Artists awardee Don Salubayba (see photo above). The winning entry will receive a P35,000 cash prize and will be published as a full-color book by Canvas.

Last year’s winner of the Romeo Forbes story-writing was Fernando Gonzalez, whose story “Mga Huni sa Loob ng Kawayan” was based on an oil painting by Juanito Torres.

Previous winners include Palanca awardee Becky Bravo, whose story “The Rocking Horse” was inspired by Elmer Borlongan’s painting; Rowald Almazar, whose entry “Si Lupito at ang Baryo Sirkero,” was based on a work by Jose Santos III;  fiction writer Fernando Rosal Gonzalez, who wrote “Ang Batang Maraming Bawal” from a painting by Rodel Tapaya; and Eline Santos, whose “Doll Eyes” was inspired by Joy Mallari’s painting.

Now on its sixth year, the storywriting competition was named after award-winning artist Romeo Forbes, who succumbed to cancer in 2006. Forbes had a prolific career as an artist, winning the 2000 Asia-Europe Young Artists Competition, the 1998 Instituto Cervantes art competition, as well as other contests by Petron, Shell, and the Asian Development Bank. Along with some artists, he pioneered the Malate-based visual-literary group Artery.

For contest rules and details, read the Canvas blog.

To the lovers and the hopeful, here’s balladeer Richard Poon’s version of the classic Rey Valera song, “Kahit Maputi na ang Buhok Ko.”

And to you all, for loving us and wanting us back–happy Valentine’s Day!

Kung tayo ay matanda na
Sana’y di tayo magbago
Kailan man, nasaan ma’y
Ito ang pangarap ko . . .

Makuha mo pa kayang
Ako’y hagkan at yakapin, hmm
Hanggang pagtanda natin
Nagtatanong lang sa ‘yo
Ako pa kaya’y ibigin mo
Kung maputi na ang buhok ko . . .

Pagdating ng araw
Ang ‘yong buhok ay puputi na rin
Sabay tayong mangangarap
Nang nakaraan sa ‘tin . . .

Ang nakalipas ay ibabalik natin, hmm
Ipapaalala ko sa ‘yo ang aking pangako
Na ang pag-ibig ko’y laging sa ‘yo
Kahit maputi na ang buhok ko . . .

No one could have said it better than the late senator and national hero Benigno Aquino Jr., who, in a 1975 letter from prison, told his son Noynoy, “There is no greater nation on earth than our Motherland. No greater people than our own. Serve them with all your heart.”

Today, Ninoy Aquino Day, remember Ninoy and Cory’s love for the Filipino by wearing something yellow or lighting a yellow candle. Or if you happen to be on the road between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m., switch on your hazard lights to symbolize the yellow spark.

To read Ninoy’s three-page letter to Noynoy, click here.

Image: “Rest in Peace, President Aquino” by Oebanda