The Filipino Friends Blog

What Makes Us “Pinoy”?

[ad]

In reading more of Gel blogs, I came across this article “What Makes Us Pinoy? – in reading it, I found myself laughing and smiling all the way thru, as it brought back many memories of family gatherings when I was just a child growing up in California. Even though we were living in the US, we still had the value of “family” and my parents friends were “Tita” or “Tito” and their children were “cousins”!! Now, I do have a large family (from both sides)  that has expanded thru the years!

I miss those days and I realized that as we get older we either move away to other places where there is no family around and make new friends. But, you still hope to make similar connections that you had when you were growing up and take them with you wherever you live.

As family grows, we live father apart and we try to re-connect either via phone, emails, texting, or FB (Facebook).  I have re-connected with many of my family members thru FB and some that I have never met! It’s exciting to be re-connected with families and reminisce of memories growing up!

I’ve extracted some of Gel’s article and you can read all the comments that were inputted and she encourages you to add your own so that we can all remember Thanks to Gel for letting me share this with you all and hope that you leave her (or me) some comments of times past! (Picture courtesy of Gel Santos Relos)

By Gel Santos Relos

What makes us “Filipino”?  What is it about how we look, or speak or move, or about our mannerisms that make us different from other people? Read on and be surprised to find your self or someone you know in the scenarios illustrated below! Be amused by the comments of our kababayans as well, and then share your own recollections and insights by posting your comments at the footnote of this article. Feel free to come back anytime when you remember something that you want to share! Ano yung mga kilos at gawi ng isang tao na kapag nakita mo, masasabi mo sa sarili mo na, “Pinoy yun!”?

I remember the popular award-winning Philippine arts and culture  television show that I co-hosted with APO Jim Paredes for  ABS-CBN in the 90s entitled “Tatak Pilipino”— one of the most popular segments in the show was our collection of features, bumpers and trivias of the things that make us “Pinoy na Pinoy”. I found a similar compilation in a book given to me as a present by my cousin when we visited the Philippines. The title of the book is “You Know You’re Filipino If…A Pinoy Primer” beautifully selected and edited by Neni Sta. Romana -Cruz, with funny illustration by Dindo Llana for Tahanan Books.

I wish to share a few of such recollections here just to keep us thinking, remembering, and laughing about our collective re-discovery of those special characteristics, behavior, and everything else that make us uniquely Pinoy!  We, Filipinos, who are now based in the United States, Canada, Europe, or anywhere else in the world may have let go of some of these but when you read on, you will surely remember your past with amusement, hopefully laughing out loud! Hahahaha! Please feel free to share your own recollection about “What Makes Us Pinoy”—the lighter side !  This is going to be fun!

You know you are “Pinoy” if you have “tabo” in your bathroom (hahaha! kahit sa hotel, naghahanap tayo niyan!). You decorate your living room wall with your family’s framed diplomas, plaques, pictures (family pride!). Your dining room has the picture or framed art of “The Last Supper” as well as the giant wooden kutsara at tinidor from Baguio (oh yes, kahit dito sa America, nakikita ko pa rin ito!).

You know you are Filipino if your middle name is your mother’s surname! (dito sa US, yung second name ang middle name!). Almost all the baby boomers have “Maria” as their first name plus the name they go by, while the men are baptized with either “Jose” or “Jesus”, or for both, sunod sa kalendaryo! You have uncles, aunts, lolos, lolas named “Boy”, “Baby”, “Girlie”…(kahit senior citizens na sila!). You call the parents of your friends and your own parents’ friends “Tito” or “Tita”(pati sa parents ng girlfriend o boyfriend) .

You are truly “Pinoy” if you eat with your hands while propping up you knee and having one foot is on the chair or bench where you are seated (lalo na kung sa dahon ng saging kumakain, o naghihimay ng isda o alimango!) , or if you eat  your  meal with large spoon with a fork and  hardly uses knife! (akala tuloy ng ibang lahi, para tayong gutom na gutom o parang “pig” kumain) ; when you feel compelled to greet anyone who sees you eating and offer to share your food– “Kain na” (kahit pang -isa lang yung pagkain mo)!; if you think a meal is not a meal–“bitin“—if there is no rice! (bagay ba naman ang tinapay sa kare kare o sa paksiw?–hello!!!)…..Read More!

Gel Santos Relos

[ad]

I wanted to introduce to you Gel Santos Relos, I stumble on her blog while doing some researching, or surfing in the Internet for information about any Filipino related articles, news, etc…

She has a great blog – The Fil-Am Perspective – It is written from her perspective of living in the Philippines and then coming to the U. S. and how her relationship with her new country developed while moving from coast to coast in a land that was not her own.  I can relate to her as I grew up in California when my parents decided to migrate to the U.S. in the 1960’s to join other family members that were already here. It was also to give us the opportunities that they felt were best for us.  I find that I have the same aspirations as she does, that WE can bring back what we have learned to our birth place and help those that are in need.  Below is her biography: (image courtesy of Gel Santos Relos Blog)

Giant lizard species discovered in the Philippines

[ad]

This story was from the BBC site that hubby found… I thought it was interesting article that scientist have found some strange looking species! If you want to see the original article you can click here I hope you enjoy this as much I enjoy finding news worthy articles around the globe to share with all of you!

By Matt Walker

A new species of giant lizard has been discovered in the Philippines.

A close look at the giant Varanus bitatawa

The 2m-long reptile is a monitor lizard, the group to which the world’s longest and largest lizards belong.

The monitor, described as spectacular by the scientists who found it, lives in forests covering the Sierra Madre mountains in the north of the country.

The striking reptile has bright yellow, blue and green skin, and survives on a diet of just fruit, yet until now it has escaped the eyes of biologists.

“It is an incredible animal,” says Dr Rafe Brown, one of the scientists who describe the new lizard in the journal Biology Letters.

In the journal, the researchers describe how rare it is to find such a large terrestrial animal new to science.

WILD GIANTS Last year, a giant new species of meat-eating plant was discovered A previously unknown giant rat species was also uncovered by a BBC expedition filming in the Philippines This year, extraordinary footage of a rarely seen giant 17m-long deep sea fish was captured by scientists off Mexico’s coast Watch videos of giant monitor lizards, including the Komodo dragon, here

The discovery of the lizard, they say, is of a similar importance to two other large species of so-called “mega-fauna” discovered in recent years: the kipunji (Rungwecebus kipunji), a new genus of monkey found in Africa, and the saola, a Vietnamese forest bovid (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis).

The giant lizard is actually well known to resident Agta and Ilongot tribespeople living in the forests of northern Luzon Island.

The tribespeople regularly hunt the lizard for its meat, a vital source of protein.

Yet scientists were unaware of its existence.

That was until Dr Brown and an international team of colleagues from the US, Philippines and The Netherlands surveyed a series of lizard specimens preserved in museums both within the US and Philippines.

Within these specimens they identified the new species on the basis of its body size, scales, colouration and DNA.

With a main body length approaching 1m, with an additional 1m-long tail, the lizard has dark skin covered by golden yellow spots and flecks.

The new species is strikingly yellow

Its legs are mainly yellow, and its tail striped black and yellow.

In some pictures, the animal also looks to have green or blue scales.

The new species, which is called Varanus bitatawa, is thought to survive on a diet of fruit, making it one of just three species of fruit-eating monitor lizards in the world.

Monitor lizards include the world’s most massive lizard, the Komodo dragon (V. komodoensis), which can reach up to 3m-long and weigh up to 90kg.

While not as massive, other species of monitor, such as the Crocodile monitor or Salvadori’s monitor (Varanus salvadorii) of New Guinea, can also reach similar lengths.

Secretive creature

Why the new massive lizard has remained undiscovered by scientists until now is a mystery, especially as many biologists work in the northern Philippines.

The researchers say it may be because the lizard is naturally reclusive, being a highly secretive animal that never leaves the forest or crosses open country.

It could also be because few scientific expeditions have characterised the reptiles living in the Sierra Madre forests.

The new species of monitor lives at least 150km away from its nearest relative, another lizard called V. olivaceus, which also lives in trees and eats fruit.