Unable to post anything new because there was no internet access for 5 days on account of a storm that lashed through the country! Realized how dependent I had become on the internet--from email to the news to travel arrangements to banking and bill paying, I could never have returned physically home to the Philippines without the internet.

But now I am back. I wish I was in Manila so I could take part in a giant indignation rally on Sunday organized by various religious groups to protest the indecent manner in which our congressional representatives are trying to force changes in our constitution. Granted that the constitution can stand a few revisions, ordinary folk here are flabbergasted at the sudden burst of energy that some of our congressmen have exhibited, working late into the early morning hours just so they manage to get their way again.

Entirely forgotten once again are the innumerable poor. As always, political expediency and selfish, narrow self-interests rule the day.

He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy.
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sunrise.

Blake

Along the way to the airport, or to the golf course, the Shangri-La Hotel, the posh subdivisions you will invariably pass by classic third world slums and whenever the pervasive traffic forces your airconditioned vehicle to a halt, you might be able to take a glimpse of how terrible the living conditions are of so many women and children.

You wonder how long these people have been struggling, whether they have ever even experienced substantial relief, if they still dream of better days. How much dehumanization can these people bear? Yeats wrote "Too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart".

I was astonished to hear inside an elevator chatter that was heavily accented with Santa Monica, California American English. Apparently, these young people are encouraged to keep on talking like Americans in between their breaks so as to polish further their communication skills.

There are hundreds of thousands of Filipinos working in "call centers". They provide technical support for Dell computers, travel advice for Expedia, billing inquiries for American Express, they "cold call" for innumerable mortgage companies as well as timeshare outfits.

This niche has allowed the country to earn quite a bit of money because our competition is relatively few, mainly India but if we don't watch it, other nations will try to take over with even better services at an even less expensive rate.

Nothing bad with this set-up. Just another reason why we need to continuously invest in educating the youth and teaching them skills that will enable them to compete in the world market.

The flight from Tokyo to Manila was totally full of Filipinos returning home for the Christmas holidays. Quite a number were coming from Canada. There was not a single unoccupied seat in the entire 747. There was a cacophony of dialects and I was able to pick up a lot of tidbits from my fellow expatriates.

What unified all of us was that we were striving hard in other countries in order to make life easier for those left behind. Coming home for Christmas is the one luxury we all try to give ourselves. My family and I will be spending our first Christmas in the Philippines in 17 years.

You see, the Christmas season begins at the start of the "Ber" months, meaning September 1 and it lasts until the old Epiphany day which is January 6. Christmas songs have filled the airwaves for the past several months now. The dollar exchange rate consistently improves during this season secondary to the influx of money that pours into the country from the untold millions of overseas Filipinos.

The temperature dips to the high 70's early in the morning causing sweaters to come out of storage. I look forward to watching my daughters experience this unique Filipino tradition.