Photos by Antonio Magno Carranza Jr. of www.pusangkalye.net.
“At ngayon ngang kami naman ang lumayo sa kanyang piling, nagtagumpay siyang pagtibayin ang aming luob na anumang hirap sa ibang bansa ang pinakamahalaga ay ang dahilan kung bakit kailangang magsakripisyo at makipagsapalaran (And now that it is our turn to leave her, my mother has succeeded in preparing us for the hardships of a life overseas and accepting why we must make the sacrifice),” he wrote in “Ang bakal na ibon sa himpapawid,” on his blog Animus (http://dahnjacob.com).
Jacob’s heart-tugging story won the first prize in this year’s Pinay Expats/Overseas Workers Blog Awards (PEBA). His tearful mother, Rubi Garcia, received the award for him during the awarding held Thursday at Teatrino in Greenhills, San Juan.
A parallel category was created this year for Philippine-based blogs that also deal with overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). The winner for the best blog award was “Fil-Am” by Davao-based Fr. Felmar Castrodes Fiel, SVD, posted in his blog, Felmar’s Missionary Journey (http://fielsvd.wordpress.com).
“Fil-Am” relates the culture shock of children of Fiel’s balikbayan relatives from the United States on their first visit to the Philippines.The experience made the balikbayans realize the need to come home more often.
One outstanding entry that won the Nokia award together with “A one less generation” by Deconstructing Dubai” was Niña Simon’s “My mom’s quasi-orphanage.”
Simon’s entry, posted in her blog Pinaywriter’s Oral Diarrhea 2 (http://pinaywriteroraldiarrhea2.blogspot.com), describes her mother who has become a surrogate mother to so many children of OFW relatives “that it seems her burden has been heavier than those who have left their kids.”
The complete list of winners of the third PEBA Awards:
Top 10 Outstanding OFW Blogs: (1) Animus, Kuwait; (2) Gremlines,Dubai, UAE; (3) Kayni’s Corner Café, U.S.A; (4) Baul ni Noel, Saudi Arabia; (5) ¡Soy Negrense!, Saudi Arabia (6) Journey of a Prodigal Daughter, Macau; (7) Gumamela sa Paraiso, Taiwan; (8) Deconstructing Dubai, UAE; (9) The Journey of my Life, Saudi Arabia; Stay at Home Blessings, Saudi Arabia; and (10) Batang Gala, Canada
Top 10 Outstanding OFW Supporters Blogs: (1) Felmar’s Missionary Journey; (2) On This Side of Town; (3) Kayumangging Damdamin (4) Tuyong Tinta ng Bollpen (5) M(.)(.)D Swings; (6) Pinay Writer’s Oral Diarrhea 2; (7) Panay Mud Pie; (8) Siyetehan; (9) Batang Mangyan; and (10) Anak ng Tokwa.
Outstanding Blogs by region, OFW Blogs: (1)Central America and Canada–Kayni’s Corner Café, U.S.A; (2)Asia and Pacific–Journey of a Prodigal Daughter, Macau; (3)Middle East and Africa–Animus,Kuwait.
Outstanding Blog by region, OFW Supporters Blogs: (1) Metro Manila–Kayumangging Damdamin, Manila; (2) Luzon–Tuyong Tinta ng Bolpen,Batangas; (3)Visayas–Panay Mud Pie, Iloilo City; (4) Mindanao–Felmar’s Missionary Journey, Davao
Most Popular Blogs: Michael Shades of Blue, Saudi Arabia and Xprosaic’s World, Davao.
Nokia Best Blog Entry: “A one less generation” by Deconstructing Dubai, UAE and “My mom’s quasi-orphanage” by Pinaywriter’s Oral Diarrhea2, Los Baños, Laguna
Friendster Blog Award: Mizpah, Kuwait
Most Visible Blog by Metrics: The Journey of My Life, Saudi Arabia and On this Side of Town, Davao
Most Commented Blog Entry: Michael Shades of Blue, Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia and Kayumangging Damdamin, Manila.
Nokia Connecting OFW Families Best Entry: Wala kasing celpon si Lola by Mga Kathang Isip ni Kiko, Qatar
Most Commented in Facebook: Michael Shades of Blue, Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia and Mazeplace, Davao
Most ‘Liked’ in Facebook: Michael Shades of Blue, Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia and Mazeplace, Davao
Most Commented in Friendster: Michael Shades of Blue, Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia and Felmar’s Missionary Journey, Davao.
A nonprofit, nonstock organization of about 300 Filipino bloggers around the world, PEBA was founded in 2008 by OFW bloggers Ion Gonzaga (Dubai), Pete Rahon (South Korea), Kenji Solis (Saudi Arabia) and Nereus Abad (Saudi Arabia) to harness the talents of Filipino expats and overseas workers through blogging, update them on issues affecting them, and help them adapt to life as migrant worker.
“Blogging is no longer a past time; it has become a driving force to make a statement, a platform to help others realize the importance of telling our stories abroad, a way to communicate our feelings and a channel to create a binding force in helping each other,” PEBA said.
Aside from the annual blog awards, PEBA has set up a scholarship fund for children of OFWs.
And with the wonder of latest tech the global community just a click away
Can you believe I’m posting this comment via iPhone while doing my my daily morning walk inside d mall while it’s snowing outside? Sometimes it is d time that we seems to have not enough with.
I’m also happy with my Blackberry. I can check email, do my tweets with my cellphone. I still have to learn to do Facebook from my cellphone.
In the beginning we had the Filipino deckhands working in Spanish Galleons, then we had the sugarcane field workers bound for Hawaii (The Hawayanos), then the left and right applications to join the US Naval Forces, next came the “exportation” of workers in the medical field, especially our nurses to every corner of the world, and then the domestic helpers to Greece, England, Hong Kong, etc., followed, the Mid-East workers, I think were needed at the same time as the domestic helpers, and my “timeline” may not be accurate but that’s beside the point.
My Pointless Sisters point Marz pardz is that early on, many of us are denied the comfort and pleasure of staying in our own country of birth and forced by circumstances to go somewhere else so we can take care of the respective members of our family.
While I must admit that some are in for the adventure, the number is very miniscule as compared to those who MUST find a greener pasture for themselves and, most especially, for the members of their family.
There are many factors involved but the main one, I think, is the continuing and consistent, failure of the government to create jobs for its people and the continuing chokehold of foreign powers, dictating the flow of international commerce ruthlessly and on their own “live and let die” terms!
Ellen,
I believe you may have to download or bookmarked FB on your blackberry. Lucky iPhone came w/ program (icon) installed w FB, otherwise I have to . But it consumes twice more cellular data than blackberry. So if paying data by usage BB is data efficient and it’s Canadian.
It was mostly the prospect of the uncertain future for the children and the next generations that drove the early immigrants to leave and build the future for their families in lands not of their birth while at the same time helping financially the love ones left behind to also have the opportunity to determine their own destinies. Some and many worked out, while many still end up in shattered dreams.
Blogger Danilo Garcia Jacob had lived the most part of his growing up years without a mother who had to leave them when he was young to work abroad as caregiver. The cycle is being repeated today: He works in Kuwait, his younger brother in Dubai and his elder brother in Saudi Arabia
I identify fully well with all OFW’s because I was one myself for three years. I was in a region called, Hail, Saudi Arabia working as a power substation technician in a electric power company serving that region. I came to realize early on that had I continued working out there (with a pay scale that was a lot higher than most OFW’s received), it would have been a vicious cycle. Meaning, if an OFW didn’t have that “outlandish” dream of somehow going into some kind of business on his/her own somewhere along the line, they will realize that they are stil mere workers who would go on a spending spree when they go home for a month or so, and when the money is gone, he goes back to the Middle East and be separated again from his family for months or years on end.
And it goes on and on un-mindful that their children are growing without seeing them (at times with indifference notwithstanding), and that they themselves and their mates had grown apart and a lot older. And that does not even count the possibilities of infidelities.
No I did not go into business. My family and I chose instead to come to “Uncle Sam’s Cabin” and called it (our second) home. BUt while it may be a bummer to be so far away from my own mother and siblings, it is a small price to pay for raising my own family in a place we really like than in a place where religious beliefs would at times get one to rot in jail by simply holding hands with the opposite sex in public.
Sana Ellen, may support system din sa mga families of the OFWs. I heard that the children of OFWs live lavish lifestyles at the expense of the working parent/parents. Also, there should be a way to harness the money coming from the OFWs, form cooperatives etc for extra income rather than sending all the monies to just buy consumer goods and spend the hard earned money like there is no tomorrow.
I do not know if there is even a study where the parent left at home, in the Philippines commits infidelity because of the absence of the spouse.
I beg to disagree that all families of OFWs live lavishly. There are those who also have practical members, like wives who invest on buying jeeps or tricycles, building a store, budgeting money well and putting it in simple yet good investments. There are just different kind of people who lead different kinds of lives. If a family is not motivated by their OFW relative to be better versions of themselves then, it becomes a problem. Pero if they are inspired by that person, like the winner for this year was inspired by their mother, then they would be able to work just as hard as her and not be a burden or be spendthrifts.
I have seen the extreme versions of OFW families. And although I envy my cousins’ gadgets and toys when we were young, I know they would have given all of those up to have their dad fall asleep on PTA meetings and have their mom fuss over their lunches. ^^
jawo,
just read your post today. As an electrical contractor (substations and switchgear) myself, a big heart/headache comes every time one of my top technicians say goodbye for the usual greener pastures thingy. There goes a lot of years (and money) of training and experience going away to be utilized in some desert while we go back to square one with a new guy. This is just one of the biggest demotivators (as well as resource-drainer) to some trying hard businessmen.
I do not regret having armed these people with the finest training they can have in the local setting, I just pray they live better lives with their families and they don’t screw up and come home in a box. I just console myself with that thought.
just read your post today. As an electrical contractor (substations and switchgear) myself, a big heart/headache comes every time one of my top technicians say goodbye for the usual greener pastures thingy. There goes a lot of years (and money) of training and experience going away to be utilized in some desert while we go back to square one with a new guy. This is just one of the biggest demotivators (as well as resource-drainer) to some trying hard businessmen.
I do not regret having armed these people with the finest training they can have in the local setting, I just pray they live better lives with their families and they don’t screw up and come home in a box. I just console myself with that thought.———->TonGuE-tWisTeD – December 27, 2010 10:37 pm
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Tounge,
Somehow, I always knew I had something in common with you. I just didn’t know what exactly it was. Now our cards are in the open. We are both substation engineers/tech people. Sabi nga nila, “that is the because”, kaya ganoon (ha-ha-ha) !!
I agree with you that it is a pain losing people you invested time and money on who would eventually go on a quest for greener pastures. Tawag ng pangangailangan, kung baga. I guess it’s human nature. And while you knew it would happen eventually, masakit pa rin any way you look at it. In my case, the green pastures was right under my nose already. It was just that I realized it was not so much for the money that I quit a job I liked and was technically trained for. Rather, it was what I personally thought was a very hostile environment that made me decide it was not a place I would like to invest my young and productive life at and possibly raise a family. I didn’t like to work in an environment where command responsibility was non-existent when the going got rough, and one’s points of view, however pertinent, is brushed aside as irrelevant just to undermine the correctness of my counter arguments. We never saw eye-to-eye because sa utak nila, pirmi silang tama. I didn’t like that at all !! Gone are the days where one’s will is hammered on hapless people who did not have the capacity to think for themselves. But sad to say most of these guys still think the same just because they have the monopoly of black gold under their feet.