Networking, identity and culture for Second Generation Filipinos in the UK

The Philippine Embassy has posted an article about their Chirstmas party for Filipino students and young professionals. Find out how it went.

Christmas is nearly here and community groups are preparing to host their parties. Here are some upcoming events in December.

• Embassy Christmas Party for young Filipinos
• Filipino Chaplaincy Christmas party
• PASKUHAN, KANTAHAN, YUGYUGAN AT MAY LITSON SA CASTLE

Drop us a note if you'd like us to post your event on this site.

A manager of a home care organisation in Bedford asked us to help inform Filipino workers in the area about their rights to transfer benefits. Apparently, another company has provided incorrect information to their staff.

If you are working for a home care provider in Bedford, Biggleswade, Sandy, Arlesey, Shefford, Stotfold and surrounding areas whose contract with Bedfordshire County Council has not been renewed, you may be entitled to transfer to our company under the Transfer of undertakings (Protection of Employment) TUPE – regulations. Under these regulations your employment rights are protected and you should be able to continue working in the same geographical area you have been used to and provide continuity of care for those Service Users that you currently look after. If you currently need a work permit with your current employer it should be possible, under the TUPE regulations, to transfer this to our company.

A TV production company is looking for young people with a South East Asian background to take part in a series revolving around food. The programme will take people on a cultural journey to South East Asia to give them a chance to see where and how our favourite foods are made.

They've asked us to post this press release:

Are you of South East Asian origin? A brand new BBC TV show is looking for Brits with a South East Asian background to go on a journey of discovery to find out here our food comes from.

Does food play a major role in your life?

Ever wondered where your food comes from?

Have you never had the chance to visit Asia?

We want to give you the chance to travel to South East Asia to find out how the food we eat is made.

If you are aged between 18 and 26 and interested in finding out more,
Please call one of the team on 01273 224 819
Or email myfood@ricochet.co.uk

I've just discovered Up Dharma Down. Does anyone know more about them?

Tasmin Poynton, one of our visitors, wanted to let us know about her place in the Miss Fresh Photographic competition.

Tasmin: "I'm 18 and live in Wiltshire, my mum is from Philippines (wooo) and my dad is English. To my knowledge, I am the only Filipino girl in the heat, and would love to become the first Filo-English Miss England! I am a black belt in kickboxing, I have been doing the Filipino martial art kali illustrisimo for about 3 years now, and I also have a keen interest in music: having a grade 2 in clarinet, grade 4 in violin, and grade 6 in piano. After I finish college, I would love to stay with my family for a year in the Philippines and do some sort of charity work, including help street families and children. By becoming Miss England I feel that I will have the ability to achieve this, as well as various other voluntary work all over."

Over the past few days, the Filipino community has been brewing a storm over Episode 4 of the 'Harry and Paul' show. It contained a short sketch featuring a Filipina maid which some people found offensive enough to start a petition.

I don't watch the show but caught the clip via the BBC iPlayer service. Personally, I think that the those complaining missed the real butt of the joke and that the issue was being blown out of proportion.

It was not the Filipina maid who was being mocked. The target was the British class system and culture. The skit ridicules stereotypes of the dim-witted Northerner and the pompous upper middle-class Englishman. What you see in the 'Harry and Paul' comedy series are typical examples of British self-deprecating and satirical humour.

neatorama has an entry on The Evolution of National Flags. Item seven covers the Flag of the Philippines. Did you know that the blue color in the flag has been changed at least 5 times?

 

I recently found +63, a site showcasing creative trends in the Philippines. They aim to feature work from Filipino creatives around the work. If you're a designer or artist, you might want to pay them a visit: http://plus63.net

"+63 is a collective blog dedicated to providing an online venue for Philippine creatives. The idea behind +63 is to create a rallying point for the industry by adapting and updating the international country code for the Philippines into a recongizable trademark for Filipino culture, design, and art.

The site features articles and entries on industry trends and provides a base for interaction among Filipino artists by allowing user participation. The goal is to provide a source for updates on developments in the field and a venue for relevant discussion."

Sunny Vergara, in his American Pop blog, writes about how he doesn't like losing his Tagalog accent. The implication in his post was that losing your accent was like losing part of your identity. He disliked people pointing out his American accent, presumably because it made him feel less Filipino.

I've heard this opinion many times before but just don't buy into it. Why should improving your language skills suggest that you've turned your back on your background? Surely a big part of mastering any language is to try speaking it like a native?

We had to learn French and German at School. Aside from learning grammar and vocabulary, the top students tried to lose their English accent. None felt that this would somehow make them less English. For them, it wasn't even an issue. Why is accent such a big thing with us Filipinos?

A Chiswick based production company is currently filming a medical-based documentary in the Philippines and requires translators beginning the 22nd of August. They need 4-5 people to be able to translate from Tagalog and possibly Hiligaynon.

They will provide successful candidates with timecoded DVD's from the 22nd of August and will need to have translated word for word onto a formatted word document as soon as possible.

This job is paid and will be negotiated on query.

Please get in touch ASAP if you're interested and I'll send you contact information.

Ivar Berglin of VBS.TV covers Payatas, Metro Manila's only rubbish dump. Although this short documentary focuses on the dump, it does make you think about issues like poverty, entrepreneurship, ecology, over-population and the Church's stance against contraception.

Jimmy Soriano, a Manila Times columnist, writes about his view of the Filipino psyche.

While UK-born second-generation Filipinos share some of these traits, I notice that they're also the cause of conflicts between us and our 'first-gen' parents, friends and relatives. I'm specifically referring to his point about Filipinos being reactive and unwilling to openly settle problems.

What do you think?

It is safe to assume that Filipinos, as a people, are among the ‘easily pleased’, as compared to the other nationalities of the world. This notwithstanding, they also get hurt very easily, very onion-skinned in a manner of speaking. Little things make Filipinos in general happy but even the slightest incident could also trigger their disappointments.

Nina at ForwardPilipinas.org sent this message about the effects of pesticide spraying in the Southern Philippines. We can support the ban by signing the online petition at www.dirtybananas.org.

Communities (around 40,000 people) living within banana plantations in Davao, Mindanao, Southern Philippines have been subjected to regular aerial spraying of pesticides for years, suffering from acute effects such as skin rashes, nausea and stomach cramps. In February, after an imaginative well-coordinated campaign, the City Government of Davao passed an ordinance to ban aerial spraying of pesticides.

The Philippine Centre confirms the new date for Barrio Fiesta sa London 2008:

The meeting [of the Health and Safety Working group] agreed to offer Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th September as an alternative date for the Philippine Centre to hold the 24th annual Barrio Fiesta sa London in Lampton park Hounslow, Middlesex.