On the occasion of our first anniversary today, Inquirer.net’s Global Nation has graciously posted a letter I wrote earlier this year.

Blogging has opened yet another platform to air our views, make personal and business connections, perhaps earn a few extra bucks. Of course it …

“I wish you the best of BER, starting this month, BERy healthy, BERy happy, BERy rich, BERy young.”

Text message, received mid-September 03

For me this electronically signaled the beginning of our infamous long, drawn out holiday season that follow every Pinoy no matter where the diaspora has taken him. Once the months end with a “ber” rest assured the celebrations or preparations thereto has begun. Watch for these inevitable signs:

Jingle Polls

With elections just around the corner for the Philippines next year and the U.S. in ‘08 politics will certainly figure in gatherings this season.

I took some time to survey the holiday crowd with John Clarida last Wednesday.

“Tingnan mo ang mga tao dito, puro trabaho, halos walang politika”, observed the former  Pasay cop now employed at Grossinger Toyota, a car dealership in Skokie, a suburb just north of Chicago. “Hindi kagaya sa atin, puro politika, halos walang magawang trabaho”.

A short stocky figure in a mostly male white-dominated office Mang John has proven himself to be at par with the best of them moving around with the ease of a seasoned salesman, the glint of a gold law school college ring on his finger.

“Barack Obama is like Pacquiao, he still has to prove himself”, Mang John muses about the junior Democrat senator from Illinois who is currently being tossed up as a possible frontrunner in the 2008 presidential elections. Although impressed by his Harvard credentials and performance so far, Clarida thinks Obama is still too young to become chief executive of the United States.

Meanwhile Jean T.H. a retired bank executive from Mindanao, now living in Arkansas thinks Obama is “the man to watch”. She and husband Ron, an ex-Navy sailor support his views on domestic issues and foreign relations. As to affairs at home, Jean says “we need political maturity, let’s just leave it at that.”

Though far from scientific, these conversations indicate that the Pinoys’ interest in the political process is alive and well although not perceived as pressing.