The economics of infidelity

Infidelity is probably the most treacherous game where consequences could extend beyond the private realm of the heart. People of celebrity status, whose wealth or economic dominance in certain economic fields can cause downfall in stock share prices, shake investors' trust and destroy the public confidence. While it is true that "to err is human...", it is not forgivable to destroy public trust even if it is illusionary.

Take the case of Tiger Wood - the world's best golfer whose dominance in sports is only equalled by the amount of sponsor revenues that has made him the best paid brand in sports. The revealation of his infidelity caused more than a ripple of surprise from a public which saw in him a model figure, not just in golf where he excels but as a son, a family man, a husband and a father. In other words, he has everything in this world except immortality. And he proved to be a God with clay feet. In certain cultures, men of fame earn greatness by having many mistresses. Wives even encourage their husbands to have them for status sake. I don't think that in Tiger Wood's case, his Swedish wife had encouraged him to take extra-marital affairs to prove his manhood outside the golf games he dominate.

In Sweden, the divorce of out-going Ericsson boss Carl-Henric Svanberg - who will be the newest head of British Petroleum has become a public interest. There is no allegation of infidelity in this case and if the news story of his marriage break-up is to be believed, it is simply a case of falling in love with another. It is alleged that the divorcing couple holds no less than half-a-billion Swedish crowns in share assets and if they are dumped in the volatile stockmarket could impoverish thousands of small savers and investors.

There are many celebrity cases involving infidelity and divorces where the economic consequences have not really been brought out in the open. But when wealth is split and the main bulk are in bonds and shares, the result could cause sudden price downfall in the stockmarket. What shares are dumped, one never knows as truth ( the private ones) disappears in the generalities of market trading. When small investors buy stocks and bonds, there is no knowing how much of the private lives of major investors could affect the economic well-being of thousands of innocent people.#

Just me looking at Nobel 2009

Sweden's yearly Nobel Award ceremony is the most prestigious event of this little kingdom. It is an occasion that stretches in significance to all corners of the world and echoes the achievements of men and women in the fields of science, economics and literature to all generations - past and future. Nobel 2009 is particularly special because there were several women awardees. Generally, the prize takers are men which raised some eyebrows if the women population in the various fields of endeavour are truly inferior to men, intellectually-speaking.

The most interesting aspect of every Nobel ceremony - aside from the names and nationalities of the prize winners, is the pomp and glamour that characterise the event. More specifically, it is the anticipation of what and how celebrities and royalties dress up for this magnificent evening. The Swedish royal family has members whose sense of style is closely monitored by the media. Queen Silvia's stunning gowns are often spectacularly beautiful and she carries them with grace and elegance. Last night's gown of light green embroidered (?) tafetta or brocade was not her best. Princess Victoria was in deep purple with matching jewelry set and Princess Madeleine was in deep green gown. Those gowns were not the best choices and they did not do justice to the wearers.

Among the women awardees, the Economy prize winner - who looks like a kindly Auntie was dressed in a very loose African-looking attire, while the Literature prize winner came out straight from the movie " The Adams family" in her black gown, white belt and red, red lips. Among the Swedish celebrity guests - politicians and who's who in arts and media - the harvest of glamour and elegance was poor, due to a draught which probably it was in the form of an economic crisis still looming in the horizon.

Sitting in my comfortable couch and watching the show move from the Kulturhuset to the Stadshuset ( Cultural center to Stockholm's City Hall ), I remembered 1985 and 1993 when I attended the Nobel ceremony and even danced in the magnificent blue room of the City Hall. Every year, the Nobel has memorable images of both the beautiful and the less beautiful, the elegant and the gaudy, the latest in fashion and the left-overs of a vintage period. But Nobel is uniquely Swedish when it comes to honouring the noble intentions of its founder, Alfred Nobel.#

From one mother to others...

What is it in life that fires our enthusiasm to live? Is it the pursuit of lofty ambition for career, money, love and acknowledgement? At every stage in life, there are challenges we face that we must win over. Think of a new born baby suddenly overwhelmed by the bigness of a universe that sorrounds him, then a small child mastering the use of his motor and speech skills, a little boy or girl enlarging his or her social network in day care, and later in school. As the child grows older, he confronts a growing complexity in dealing with people, things and the world around him.

How are choices made on what's important and what's trivial in life? In the beginning, there is a family that guides the making of choices and it seems safer that someone can take the blame for making mistakes. I have four children I watched grow closely despite the rigours of being a single parent for quite some years. One thing that guided me in dealing with the different phases of growing up, was to avoid the errors made by my own parents and family. I am a liberal parent and dealt with my children as though they were adults, even if they were just small children. If and when they had to make a decision, I allowed them with a reminder that if they made a mistake, they had to take the consequence.

The children I brought to this world have learned to form their own opinions as early as they could muster their ability to think and weigh consequences, to make choices - some daring and adventurous, and savour the triumph of winning new pursuits with every challenge. Today, I watch them with great content that the pursuits they have chosen to take in life are worthwhile and meaningful. They have discovered values to guide them and an open mind to hold back judgment against people and situations that corrupt the world they live in.

I remain the mother and parent to my children, but the bond of friendship is stronger and lasting. One can say that close family relationship is cultural and regional. In less developed countries, the family network is strong and basic to one's life. But in developed countries where the state plays a central role in the upbringing of children through welfarism, family ties are not as close and needful. And when children become adults, it is seldom that parents and children meet except during celebratory events of the year like Christmas. One can say that between birth and death, the moments shared in family togetherness is richer among the poor than in the affluent societies.#

A politics of one

The Swedish daily newspaper, Dagens Nyheter carried a news item today wherein the leader of the opposition Social Democratic party, Mona Sahlin invited middle road parties to join her coalition party in order to avert what political analysts predict may might be a catastrophic situation if the newcomer Social Democrats (SD) get into the Swedish parliament. But she was politely refused.

Mona Sahlin referred to the Liberal and Center parties in her invitation for "cross over party borders" cooperation in order to edge out whatever decisive role the SDs might have if they come into the parliament. She excluded the Moderate party, whose alliance with other non-socialist parties are currently in power. Just now, the Synovate political barometer shows an even chance for either of the two blocks at winning the national elections next year.

The SDs have had a phenomenal rise in the Swedish political arena. One wonders why it has gained supporters considering its hostile position on Muslims and immigrants which is anathema to everything Swedish politics stand for. What is it that attracts supporters to SD? I reckon that many Swedes who cannot speak openly against the Swedish open-door policy vis-a-vis refugees and asylum seekers and what it is costing the taxpayers to support the exodus of these people into Sweden, are looking for a way to put a break into this trend. But in Sweden, it is almost forbidden to say one's opinion regarding the government's benevolence vis-a-vis asylum-seekers.

The biggest number of asylum-seekers are coming from Iraq and friendly counties such as Södertälje- in the southern suburb of Stockholm have had the burden of receiving the largest number of Iraqi asylum-seekers. Other counties have flatly refused to take in more than their economies can support. With the current difficulties in the employment situation, it is understandable why many Swedish counties are not as open-hearted in their attitudes towards refugees and asylum-seekers.

But it seems a desperate move on the part of Sahlin to invite middle road parties to a cooperation in order to create a majority party and avert a situation wherein a small unwelcomed party could play a decisivie role in parliamentary politics. What I don't understand is, why don't the big Swedish parties analyse what it is that makes the SDs popular, if not appealing? What is it that they are missing out, like the unspeakable fear of an unstopable exodus of refugees coming to Sweden that puts a burden on a over-taxed population? Instead of unblocking borders between the non-Socialist and the Socialist opposition, is it not better to re-examine the issues that make the SDs attractive to Swedish voters?

When the Swedish elections take place next year, the decisive issue is still employment and taxes. The opposition Social Democratic Party promises to do better, and how is not really specified. They have been in power for a long time without any progress in this major problem. On the other hand, the non-Socialists alliance have instigated not only tax reduction for the low-income earners but succeeded in reducing over-dependence upon the welfare system by those who refuse to work, or make honest attempts at getting jobs.

In an open society, it is better to speak of even the unspeakable topics. When humanity and solidarity are challenged by hard economic times, it is more honest to admit where the limits are to one's sense of hospitality.
Sometimes it pays to think of who's footing the bill for the policy of humane admittance of refugees and asylum-seekers that come not only from conflict areas but from places where life promises no future.#

When economics lord over environmental adjustments

The Swedish EU presidency is soon finishing its six-month term without any concrete promises for the summit meeting on Climate Change to be held in Copenhagen next month. The big countries considered to make a big difference in achieving the target figure in reduced carbon dioxide emission such as United States, China and India are adamant to make any commitments.

The deciding factor - as enunciated by India during the recent trip by Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, is economics rather than environment. Economic progress at the cost of environment devastation is a hard political choice being made in the US, China, India as well as the lesser developed members of the European Union like Poland. The financial crises that hit the world economy left debris that got in the way of economic productivity. It is the strongest reason by many industrialised countries to prioritise economic development at the cost of enviornmental adjustments such as reduction of carbon dioxide emission.

Countries like India and China have strong economies with global impact but at the same time, they have a huge population of extremely poor people. Environmental problems are coming not just from unregulated industrial processes but from usage of natural resources in the areas where poor people earn their livelihood. Forests, rivers, seas are drained of their environmental balance when poverty becomes an excuse for abuse and exploitation.

At the outset of the Swedish EU presidency, it has been made clear that all other areas of concern such as admission of new EU members, regulation of refugee and asylum intake, labour migration, unemployment, regulation of the financial system and bonus payouts, as well as synchronisation of the internal EU market will take a backseat position. The overwhelming concern is signing a climatic change agreement to secure both the short and long-term welfare of the human community. # ( Photo by Jayline. Manila is flooded)

Land of distress and endless misery

It is heartbreaking to view one's homeland as a country in perpetual distress - mostly because it is geographically in the path of annual storms and typhoons, but mainly aggravated by man-made neglect and mismanagement of environmental measures to cushion the impact of such natural calamities. The country known as "pearl of the orient", with nature's gift of endless miles of white sands, green forests, lakes, ocean teaming with marine life- is a sad picture of perpetual disaster.

After many years of living abroad, one is not totally liberated from the placental ties with the homeland no matter how hard one tries to distant oneself from the socio-political developments taking place. Many are forced to leave the Philippines for reasons that are politically and economically-motivated. In the dark days of the dictatorship, it was necessary to flee to avoid more repression if not imprisonment. But in the mid-70s, the Filipinos leaving the country were is search of economic security and prosperity. They formed the population of overseas Filipinos whose regular remittances to their families became the country's main source of hard currency.

There are no words enough to honour the contributions of overseas Filipinos. No matter how severe their setbacks are in their search for jobs abroad and despite the tragedies suffered by many in the hands of unscrupulous recruiters, the feeling of loyalty to blood and belongingness remain strong. Such strong emotional commitment is often exploited when in times of severe calamities, we are driven by a strong conscience to help the victims of typhoons back home.

There seems no end to feeling a bad conscience for the disasters that perpetually confront the Filipinos. We, living abroad are always sorry for what we are and have become, because the rest of the countrymen are not doing so well, and because the political management of the country never gets better. How long are we, for reasons of birth, going to be hounded by the abysmal failures committed by political leaders with no conscience?

(Photo: Courtesy of Jayline)

Some living lines in my life's lane

The passing away of many memorable people whom I had the fortune - as well as misfortune of encountering in my life's history in the Philippines, brings to mind some questions about what and how these well-known personalities have touched my life.

I was truly saddened about Cory Aquino's death and memories of her home in Times Street, Quezon city came back. She spoke little, was seen little in a court of friends and journalists where her husband was the main actor. Yet, one could sense the strength she had that was her husband's lifeline during his days of incarceration and exile. She said with a half smile during a dinner I had with her: " So, is it true that (President) Marcos is afraid of Ninoy? What is he afraid of ?" I could have said: " The force that Ninoy Aquino has to end the Marcos regime". It is prophetic that it was infact Cory Aquino who led the moral crusade that ended the dictatorship after Ninoy was brutally assasinated in the Manila International airport.

The late President Ferdinand Marcos left a million quotable lines - his and his brilliant speech writers. As a journalist then, there was no shortage of quotes from this man who knew what to feed journalists hungering for good lines. The one I remember most was what he said at a press conference in Malacanang Palace. I think I asked him if the New People's Army (NPA) could surrender without giving up their arms. And he replied with his typical half-smile, half-smirk on his face: " I will embrace my enemy even as I hold a knife in my hand."

My best pal, Time's Nelly Sindayen owns a great number of lines for each of her friends, as well as foes. The ones that drew great laughter was her Tausog dialect spoken like a homosexual. And when she talks, her own laughter was never far behind. Then there was Teddy Benigno of AFP - also gone and probably having a good laugh with Ninoy Aquino - somewhere out there. Teddy wrote long columns and one often wondered if he ever learned the use of a period to end sentences.

And not too long ago, Adrian Cristobal also passed away. Adrian was a great speech writer not just of the late Pres. Marcos but more so of Imelda Marcos. Of lines and quotes, one cannot forget the ones that Adrian wrote or said. What I remember most were the ones he wrote when I was a newcomer at the College Editors' Guild, and he and the late Labor Secretary Blas Ople - another brilliant speech writer of Marcos, were conference lecturers. In one of his private letters he wrote: "You are Galathea to Pygmalion". I was an aspiring writer and I thought that he was trying to encourage me. They were beautiful lines he wrote when he was not yet in the corridors of power.

As I sit and ponder at many living lines that friends and enemies left behind, I also see their faces expressive in what they are saying and later breaking into joyous laughter. How could these people with great minds simply go and we are left to muse over what had been said, at which juncture of a life's history and that of a nation.#

Cory Aquino - A Woman of Substance

Cory Aquino was hesitant to become president. She did not plan to be a politician. She was a mother, a housewife of the most popular political oppositionist to the Marcos dictatorship, Benigno Aquino Jr. After the treacherous assassination of her husband in 1983, Corazon Aquino ceased to be the quiet person she had been all through her role as politician's wife. She became the leading spirit of the Philippine's people power revolution that led to the downfall of the Marcos regime.

As foreign correspondent of the Far Eastern Economic Review, I had on many occasions been to the Aquino's residence on Times St in Quezon city, where former Senator Benigno Aquino - on a temporary freedom from Camp Crame prison held court and met journalists, politicians and friends almost every day. The senator was a fantastic source of valuable information and made excellent copy for my Hongkong-based paper. In all those sessions with him, Cory was almost invisible in the house. She was in the living room only to see that the guests were attended to. During some late interviews I made with the Senator, she was very solicitous with dinners and once she actually had dinner with me and spoke about her concern over the Senator's situation in prison.

When I returned to the Philippines in 1986 for a short visit, she had just been elected president of the Philippines. The whole nation was jubilant and yellow became her symbolic colour of victory. I saw her in Malacanang during her first days and she looked like she wasn't sure she was actually the President. She still rode her old car to Malacanang Palace. When my younger sister Daisy was murdered in 1989, I saw her again in Malacanang. She had called her Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Fidel Ramos and asked him to expedite the search for the killers of my sister.

As a President, she was a compassionate person. She had a program of reform that was blocked by old powers and the military - accustomed to getting its way with Marcos tried to topple her government a few times. If she was given the chance she needed, she could have rebuilt a country demoralised by years of abuse, corruption and greed. Even then, she tried her very best and her countrymen will remember her for what she was - an incorruptible moral leader of her country.

June...in an explosion of sun and happiness

In Sweden, it is hard to predict when summer comes and whether it will be all sun or sun and rain. It has become an accepted reality that Swedish mid-summer week is unreliably fickle and many feel cheated to spend their holidays indoor. Nonetheless, this country is extremely beautiful this time of year when everything comes to life and its waters are filled with boats of all sizes lazily cruising the archipelago, or just moored in various small harbours.

Despite the early pessimism over the unpredictable arrival of Swedish summer, it did come in full blast week after midsummer with 25 to 30 plus degree temperature, almost rubbing off the dominance of the sun in places South like Greece. The sun has a strong effect on people's humour and well-being and most of all, on one's capacity for love and affection. Somehow, in the cold winter days and night - our hearts find it difficult to respond to warmth and the need to share it with someone, or others. It is not that love disappears into darkness. The heart just seems more melancholic and proned to dark thoughts ( for others suicidal!).

I have many reasons to be happy before the after June with many happenings of the heart like the joy of awaiting a new grandchild, of being at a son's wedding in Santorini and witnessing an immeasurable surge of happiness in two people who celebrate a much -awaited union, and then becoming part of many events simultaneously occuring in my nearest geographic space. The Volvo Ocean Race Stockholm Stopover for one, was a sight to feast on.

However, even in the brightest of horizons can come some rainclouds and I don't mean meteorologically. The world - near and far, remains unsettled by military and economic conflicts aggravated by the deterioration of life's quality in poorer parts of the world. While I have personal reasons to be happy, I am not entirely detached from a world that is wrestling with hard issues of survival.#

Taking the global market by the horn

(Welcome Speech on the occasion of the formal launching of the Philippine Education Society in Stockholm, June 5, 2009)

I have the honour of welcoming you all to the celebration tonight of the 111th anniversary of the Philippine independence. Eleven years ago, we proudly celebrated the 100 year commemoration of our freedom from 400 years of Spanish colonisation. During that time, the population of Filipino immigrants in Sweden was officially around 8,000. Today, the community- spread in all parts of the country has grown to more than double.

The celebration of the Philippine independence every year strenghtens the consciousness of national belongingness especially among the immigrant Filipinos, who keep the sense of "blood and belongingness" alive through associations and federations. The purposes and directions taken by every organisation vary in certain ways but the ultimate goal is to stay together and strengthen the bonds of common heritage.

Tonight, we celebrate the historic achievement of national independence but more specifically, the commitment we have taken upon ourselves to give back something to the Motherland. It is common knowledge that overseas Filipinos remit huge amount of money to the homeland, to the tune of 8 to 9 billion US dolllars per year - a considerable contribution to the country's national economy.

However, what makes tonight's celebration memorable is the formal launching of a foundation, known as the Philippine Education Society, or PES. The foundation has a specific goal - a modest one to start with and that is to grant scholarship to deserving young Filipinos in the form of language training, to give them a competitive advantage in the Swedish labour market. It is a small step towards the improvement of Filipino competence in a global market that is facing severe competition. But a good step nonetheless and PES is exactly where it should be - which is taking the challenges of a global market by the horn.

The PES has several working committees - each of which has specific targets to achieve. The most important is the fundraising and business committees, upon whose shoulders will rest the life and survival of this young foundation. We are aware of the hard times facing the global economy, the retrenchment made by national budgets to solve the financial crisis. We are also aware that the labour market is under severe pressure to keep unemployment from plummeting into depths never known before. However, despite the economic crisis and because of the economic crisis, we are raising the competence of our workforce that want to find its way to the global market. Sweden is both a national and a global market.

If the PES can - in a modest way, help equip our young workforce the language competence to improve its chances in a global labour market, then we shall have made tonight not just memorable but historic when we look back 20 or 50 years back. Despite the crisis we face, our sense of compassion to help and share resources with the less fortunate can never be taken away from each and everyone of us because of the bonds of blood and belongingness.

I thank you you all for for being with us tonight and for giving support to the new foundation.

What we (Filipinos) do for love...

The growing population of Filipinos in Sweden did themselves proud when they decided- through the heads of various organisations, to organise formally into a foundation which is now called Philippine Education Society or Filippinskt Utbildnings Sällskap. The project is a brainchild of the current Philippine Ambassador to Sweden, Mrs. Angara-Collinson.

Organising Filipinos in Sweden is not a novel experience. Since the celebration of the 100-year RP centennial in 1999, the number of Filipino-Swedish organisations have grown. A few, like Bayanihan headed by Edgar Gumabon in Helsingborg has been around for a much longer time. There has been an attempt to start a federation of Filipino-Swedish organisations in 1999, and it did get started but was burnt out after the second year. Federations are not always easy to manage if the member-organisations do not fully commit themselves to a common goal and shared purposes.

The Philippine Education Society, or PES, for short has one clear vision. It is to upgrade the professional status of Filipinos seeking job specifically in Sweden by helping them with language training in Swedish before they arrive in this country. This is the specific aim but the long-term vision is to upgrade the professional level and competence of Filipinos seeking work overseas.

It is lamentable that a majority of Filipino manpower export abroad crowd the service sector, which means roughly that most young Filipinos go abroad and work as housemaids and baby-sitters. Nevermind if the hardworking image of Filipino nannies is immortalised in films like "Mammoth", but the truth is that, we can do better with Filipino competence in other fields.

Looking at how China and the Chinese are crowding universities and colleges in Europe and the North America for advanced knowledge in edge-cutting technology fields, why are we settling for low-status work and sinking the general image of the country to that of exporter of cheap labour?

The Philipppine Education Society, PES, is just getting started and refining the procedures and strategies for achieving its goal will take more than a half-hearted voluntarism. It requires an engagement that comes from love, the love of one's birth country. Because even if we overseas Filipinos have long ago cut our placental ties with the Motherland, there is no way we are getting anywhere without looking back at our roots and our identity.

A tribute to Nelly Sindayen

Nelly Sindayan is an institution in Manila's media community. She became one without any efforts on her part. And there are not so many who have attained a celebrity status who can claim the honor of being one. She was unique in the way she became a necessity to all, her nearest friends and every distant visitor who came to Manila to start a long acquaintance with a country, whose secrets were never unraveled so easily. For Nelly Sindayen, Manila and the country was an intimate knowledge.

I have no words that can describe a woman of substance that Nelly Sindayen was. She would probably burst into laughters if I dared so. Our friendship began in mid-1978, when all of a sudden I had to take over Far Eastern Economic Review because Rodney Tasker, the Manila Bureau Chief and ASEAN correspondent was sued by the Defense Minister and hence could not return to Manila for fear of being arrested and taken to jail. Nelly was then, secretary to Rodney Tasker and secretly, the main source of all juicy news on the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

Nelly walked out of being secretary and became - rightfully, her own person as stringer for Time magazine. Southern Philippines was brewing in a two-sided hell: the Muslim separatist war and the Communist insurgency war. Nelly Sindayen, who was a Tausog had all the contacts in the South and had no problems locating the news sources. We made many trips to Southern Philippines, sometimes waiting for airplanes at midnight in the airport.

She had her MNLF contacts and I had my NPA sources. On several occasions, I had to report on the MNLF as well such as the elections for the autonomous regions. I was never alone. Nelly always shared her news sources.

We were also together through many harassments in the hands of Malacanang guards who refused us from going to press conferences, under various pretex that we were not listed officially and Nelly would burst out: "Do you know who you are talking to? Call your superior!" The same scene in many accreditations for coverage of foreign dignitaries. Our names would inadvertently not show up in the official list. I can see how Nelly placed both hands on her hips and said: "Do you see anyone from Time magazine here?"

She was not just an indispensable partner in media reporting. She was an indispensable friend in all those times we suffered setbacks in our emotional lives. Journalists are proned to turbulent love affairs and Nelly was always a heart minder and mender. I don't remember how many times we had been in Mabini - Manila's red district and favorite hangout of our male counterparts, to meet up with them and talk about how we filed our stories. Most of all, to brag about who made a scoop. And Nelly was always joking about male colleagues who celebrated the day's triumph behind the curtains of some sleezy bars.

Nelly Sindayen became an institution not because she ever tried to be one. It just happened through the years of her being a helpful, hospitable friend to all. Her home was a favorite meeting place of everybody- politicians, diplomats, academics and fellow foreign correspondents. She loved to hold parties and invite people of every political persuasion and creed. Her home in Magallanes was designed for parties. When I came to Manila in May 2004 - after ten years of absence, I stayed at her place. We partied almost every night, had lunches with

media friends and went to all the places of the usual "media suspects." She was vibrant, energetic and defiant of all threats of human failures. She defied cancer and refused hospitalisation.

When she stopped responding to my emails, I became worried. It was not like her to let a mail go unanswered. And then I was told she suffered a stroke and was confined in a hospital. I wished, as I had never wished that she would walk out of this situation with the same defiance she had shown during all those difficult situations we had been together, the same defiance against death or the threat of it.

I guess that finally, she had to give up. My biggest regret is that I have not had the chance to see her again, to hold her hands as she lay in her hospital bed and assure her that the friendship we had through all these years, was never going to grave. I will miss her but I have been lucky to be her friend for a very very long time.

Sleep well, Nelly! We are many who love you.

Winter break in Fuerteventura, Canary Island

People living in Northern Europe, or more specifically the Nordic countries need an escape from a long winter, which could last until the month of April. There's a feeling of heaviness to shake out of the human body, like beating a carpet of dusts it has accumulated. Aside from a delayed celebration of the new year - because January is just too frozen to wake up happiness in slumber, getting away during February or March is just saying goodbye to winter and hasten its departure so that spring can arrive in all its glory.

Fuerteventura is the second biggest island in Canary Island, the largest being Tenerife. It had literally risen from the ocean's bottom after a huge volcanic eruption some 30 million years ago. In 1402, it was discovered by Jean de Bethencourt who exclaimed: "Que fuerte ventura!" Or, "what strong winds!" Looking down from the airplane, one sees a landscape similar to the mooncrater - burnt grey-black, sparsely-dotted by white-painted housing settlements, many of which have flat roofs. The volcanic earth is contrasted by the deep blue Atlantic sea that holds the islands in firm embrace.

It was my first trip to the Canary Islands, and it was an experience worth remembering for the joys as well as the curses that came with the trip. The Dalai Lama said last year that, we must visit a new place at least once a year and that's exactly what happened. On the way to Arlanda, I discovered that my luggage was left behind and there was no way for the taxi to return if we were to catch the flight to Fuerteventura. My fiance´ comforted me and said, it wasn't a catastrophe. We could shop in the city or even go to Tenerife. That was all done the following day, except that I could not find a suitable swimsuit and ended up buying an extra large two-piece for a 12-year old girl.

Vacationing in a sunny place means adoring the sun in all nakedness, almost anyway, and discovering gourmet delights. The hotel Bahia Grande - which is owned by the tour operator Apollo, is a beautiful landscape of sprawling buildings, gardens and a swimming pool that faced the ocean. Its closest neighbour is a village separated by a low mountain that jotted out to the waters. The easiest way to reach this place - which we discovered while searching for an authentic fish restaurant, was to take the mountain side, go inside shallow caves and avoid the coming high tide by literally rock climbing. Since we liked the fish restaurant very much, we took the adventurous trail three times. The restaurants owned by the hotel - one Spanish and another Italian, were not so memorable, culinary-wise.

We took excursions to well-recommended places, although it is rather easy to go around the island on a rented car or the bus. But being on holiday means avoiding the stress of finding directions and waiting for bus schedules.

There are only 70,000 to 100,000 people living in the island. The most important source of income is tourism, fish, goat ( for its milk made into cheese) and tomato, potatoes and onions. There are more goats than people. What makes the island unique in its physical character is that it is mountainous, volcanic with lava areas, and its big areas of sand dunes. Here, it is the sand, the sun, the sea that lord over. The climate is influenced by two main elements: the Golf stream and the Sahara desert which account for the very dry climate, lots of sun and pleasant wind.

When you visit this place, take the chance to go to Corralejo- a fishing village on the northernmost part; Caleta de Fuste, only 10 minutes from the capital Puerto del Rosario; Costa Calma, a modern vacation village in Jandia island; and Jandia, a quite relaxing holiday resort with a shopping mall that offers tempting designer goods. Or, to to the flea market where almost real Gucci, Pradas, Louie Vuitton bags are peddled by Africans. "Everything very cheap today, Madam!" #

Breaking out of solitude

There are thousands of single households in Sweden, especially in Stockholm. Marriages and partnerships break up and one faces a life of torturous solitude. There are actually two sides to this situation. On one hand, one can look forward to a life of freedom that has been compromised in a relationship. On the other hand, loneliness is a hunter that strikes when you are most vulnerable. And the pain of having lost someone overcomes the joy of being set free from a relationship that had gone sour. There is no easy choice, no balance between having and not having someone if only to cheat solitude.

During these days, net dating has become a popular tool for meeting people not only to seek new partners but to make new friends. Most datings occur in workplaces, which is a popular ground for meeting future partners. There are also other places where meetings and potential romances happen such as single bars, dance places and cruises. Going alone on any of the cruises guarantees...if you happen to be a good looking girl or gal, a night of fun especially on the dance floor. The rest of what might happen..depends upon your sense of right and wrong, or simply put, your own conscience.

I had to deal with solitude in various ways. There are friends who are always prepared to offer company and such meetings especially on Friday nights are unforgettable. But then when you come home, you know that the silence of the rooms are taunting reminders of solitude. I have been kind of brave to go to cruises alone not because I wanted to meet anyone, but simply to get away from a boring work routine, to relax and to have fun in the dance floor. One time, I happened to have platform shoes that I could not walk properly. So I sat in the nightclub and watched others enjoy themselves. A man took courage to ask me if I wanted to dance and I said, "No, thank you, my shoes are too high!" Then he said: " Can I buy you a drink?" to which I relied: " I already have one". Then he said: " Would you like to join me in my cabin?" And I said straight in his face: "Dream on!"

On another occasion, I ran into a group of entrepreneurs belonging to an old Swedish brotherhood organisation. They were having a boardmeeting but that evening they were all in the nightclub. I was alone, which was evident to dance partner hunters, so one of them approached me if I would like to join them in their table. They were obviously Swedish gentlemen, so I joined them. It was the funniest most memorable evening I ever had. I became the brotherhoods "muse" of the night and we danced until three in the morning. They became good friends after this cruise.

But the best meeting place for new friends that I discovered is the net. I have always been kind of cynical about net dating. I thought that meetings face to face was better, if only to test the chemical reaction between two different people. But since I became a member of a Swedish/Nordic friendship club, I found out that it is actually fun to communicate with people you have not even met in person. And it is not surprising that many find partners through net friendship clubs. The "M" magazine runs a series of successful romances that blossomed from net friendships.

So whats keeping one from breaking away from a heart-tearing solitude? With a little ingenuity, daring and lots of charming personality, the devil in disguise could be vanished. One the other hand, there are also pitfalls in net dating that one has to guard oneself against. There are bluffers and social miscasts waiting for a kill. Be on the guard, as always.#

All about hearts...

When Valentines Day celebration is just a few hours away, many hearts are throbbing faster at the excitement of an anticipation in the strange world of love. Is something memorable going to happen..like a declaration of love? Maybe an engagement which brings two people one step closer to matrimony? Will a shy person finally have the courage to make his feelings known? Will it be reciprocal?

It is so much easier to discuss making love than making war, between loving and hating and between having and losing. Love defies definitions. It is different from person to person. I have just been reading a Swedish blog where there is a heated discussion on the meaning of love. Many are of the opinion that it involves strong feelings between two people, and that there is reciprocity of such feelings. One woman was very clear in her definition that it is respect for each other. For me, respect is respect and love is love.

I wrote a long time ago that we all have love stories, unforgettable emotional encounters that defy the norms of the heart. I thought that in each life, one is lucky to experience at least one big love affair. It takes enormous courage for the heart to become whole again after it has been broken because of a loss. Many allow their hearts to stagnate in bitterness.

Valentines Day's most important message is most probably to remind us how important and valuable the heart is, not only from a fysiological but more importantly from an emotional point of view. A heart that has grown hard with bitterness and hate, is already dead.#

Bloging on middle age crisis..and new beginnings

Little did I know - much less appreciated - how difficult it is for sixty-plus people to fall in love...again! Until a woman friend I met on the net brought out what I could not comprehend in the beginning. Re-starting life is harder for many middle-aged people because many are saddled with painful experiences caused by losses that wounded their souls.

I recently became a member of a society of sixty-plus people who are looking for friends and love. A majority of the members are women, which proves that they are the surviving parties most affected by losses as a result of death of a life partner or one's own child, divorce that came too late in life, and other heart-shattering experiences that left deep wounds in the soul. The "society" offers a forum of exchange between members that keep the flow of communication on different topics lively, thus breaking social isolation among those that have already been deleted from the system after retirement.

I found myself writing a Swedish blog in the form of a diary. In the beginning I felt hopelessly lost in the nuances of the Swedish language. I was searching for a style I am used to in English, meanings I could hide between the lines but which do not escape the detection of the native speakers. But I was already there, and hell! I was going to write in Swedish. I wanted a unique style, something all my own and not one subject to comparison. Hence, I decided that all my narrations would start with an exotic recipe, and then proceed with a philosophy. I would find a philosophy for my day's encounters from the "sublime to the ridiculous".

I started this new project first with a diary entry about "Hot meatballs for a Sunday family dinner", and continued with a serious topic on how to break social isolation without being lost in cyberspace. The response was awesome. I had orders for several kilos of hot meatballs by a reader ready to offer cash on immediate delivery. Then, I followed it with "Sushi and Tempura, after getting lost on the way to the city". Then came "Peking duck and the English taxi-driver " - (the English driver who offered me a place in his bed when I could not remember the address of the place I was going to one late night in London.).

Then came " From Sjögräs" to "Cibo" - which was about a booking in Söder's Sjögräs restaurant that was unfortunately not booked at all, and that we were forced to find another restaurant and ended up in "Cibo", an Italian restaurant in Åsogatan that was much better than Sjögräs. And after the dinner, we went on a car drive around Stockholm's harbour, looked at the majestic white ships quietly moored side by side on a still night when Stockholm city slept. And inside the car, Tom Jones sang "Touch Me..and I will be a fool again."

My latest diary entry was about "Hot lamb curry and the poetry of life". I gave the recipe of an authentic indian lamb curry and proceeded to describe a day in my work in a nursing home; how my heart broke when one of my patients died especially after the relatives arrived and started to cry. I went to a dark room and cried my heart out, not because a very sick patient died but at the images of deaths happening in war torn areas; of children lying dead in the street; of mothers clinging to the lifeless bodies of their children and all the mothers and wives losing their sons and husbands to senseless killings in the Middle East. I cried over the lifeless body of my husband on a hospital bed, and over many other deaths all over the world, unmourned and uncelebrated. I wanted to call someone and say:" Help me!"

There is indeed poetry in life and in death, in the beautiful as well as in the ugly, in the solitude the heart suffers from as well as in the glimpses of hope that, what has been shattered may find a new hope, only if the heart can forgive and forget that hurts from the past.#

Lukas Moodysson's "Mammut" film premier on Jan. 19th

Lukas Moodysson's new film "Mammut" or Mammoth will be premiered on Jan. 19th, in the Stockholm cinema Rigoletto. The story, as earlier announced is about the effects of globalisation upon various lives in different countries. This particular film by a very social-oriented Swedish director who has won acclaim for previous films like "Lilja Forever" and "Container" is set in three countries, of which two are in Asia.

I worked as the interpreter for the parts shot in Manila, Philippines. I am not at liberty to disclose what the film looks like because I have not seen the whole of it, but based on Moodysson's previous films one can expect an emotionally touching story.

Globalisation has altered many people's lives, social structures, traditions and human relationships. A Time magazine featured the Philippines some weeks ago - for which I wrote a comment in this blog- in an article entitled " A Motherless Generation". The article is factual yet humanised in bringing out the anguish and agony that take place between parents - who worked abroad and children left behind in the care of relatives. Thousands of children are growing up in homes devoid of warmth and parental love, and even if they get the schooling they need for a good future, there will always be that nagging loneliness by parents missing on their children's young years and children not knowing the closeness of a mother's affection.

Globalisation has altered for good the boundaries of the labour market, so that surplus labour in Asia and Africa find way to the nearer places like Hongkong and Japan; to Europe and especially to the Middle East. The Philippines in particular, witnessed as exodus of contract workers to the Middle East in mid-70s at the height of the oil crisis. In those days, the conditions of work especially salaries, were much better than what is offered in the crowded markets today. Stiff in competition due to surplus labour, the salaries that overseas workers receive have dropped to as low as USD100 monthly. How does one support a family back home and one's self with this kind of money?

It is not just the diminution of wages that overseas workers suffer from. Many women are constantly exposed to sexual exploitation, the worst of which is rape - first in the hands of the recruiter, then the employer. In the Middle East, this is a common story among many young girls, some of whom were sent to jail accused of false crime like stealing, but who in reality were raped by their employer who want to discredit the girl victim's story.

Lukas Moodysson's film is not about this particular effect of globalisation. It is something else and I do recommend warmly to all, to see the film because it is very close to the reality of the world we live in.#

My "nyårslöfte" for 2009

One of my favourite authors, Paulo Coelho- with Gabriel Garcia Marquez at the top of the list, wrote and I quote "The great blessing of life is the existence of tomorrows - and having dreams to realize". Do dreams have a future or are we deluding ourselves into believing that by dreaming something we want desperately in real life they would come true? Is there a price to unattainable dreams?

It is the first day of 2009, and I left behind the things that happened in 2008 - with the full knowledge that some things that took place in the passing year will continue in 2009, if I let them. It comes down to my new year's resolution. And it is here where the real inner struggle begins. What do I really want in 2009, and beyond? And I mean, outside of the burning desire for genuine peace in the world, for brotherhood and sisterhood, for equality among all peoples, for tolerance between religions and political beliefs and for a better status for women especially in certain countries where women rights are suppressed. Outside of all these bleeding causes we are struggling to support for a change, what do I really want that really touches me in a personal way?

In the recent past, my struggle has been the re-making of myself after being submerged in grief and loss. There was a time when my life's direction took a meaningless turn, an indiference to everyting that happened around me. It was a self-centered existence, an egoistic trip into self-pity and destruction. Such feelings are common among those who have experienced a great loss, a loss that seemed to find no replacement, emotionally and intellectually. Where does one start? How many of us have gone through, or are going through a loss that is so overwhelming that the heart simply caves in?

And here comes my nyårslöfte, or new year's resolution. As the cliche goes, one chapter closes and a new one opens. It is unbelievable to fall in love with someone that you only communicate with via a mobile phone. It feels rediculous to connect emotionally with someone who barely exists in reality and to build a new life, a day- to- day living based on such connection. But the simple truth is that, the emotional attachment feels stronger and closer than a less caring physical reality.

My new year's resolution in matters of the heart is to accept the interventions of new technology into the traditional ways of courtship and declarations of love. I can live with kind and loving thoughts that regularly come via my mobile phone. They are supportive and well-intentioned, as well as being genuine. I am also prepared to live with the idea of an imperfect love, a love that is hindered by a previous commitment which honour dictates be kept. Does this sound silly and demeaning?

The new year's resolution I do want to keep in earnest, is to start writing my book or books. It is all in the head just now and I sincerely hope that memory keep them fresh until they are committed to written words. I do believe that I have witnessed great history in my country, even participated in a small way to its making. The generations to come, including my children have no idea how difficult times had been to make it through tomorrows. I owe this one to them and to other children whose parents were part of a great historic struggle to change the destiny of a nation.#