Peter Chua, Mar. 28, 2008
Peasants grow rice,
feeding all.
Food processers,
manual laborers,
and vendors
give it value.
Markets double its price to profit,
starving peasants and workers.
The elite consume,
overpriced,
priceless rice.
And the market's gravediggers
rise
of its shadows.
---
Rice Shortages Creating Fears of Asia Unrest
By KEITH BRADSHER Mar 28 2008
The price of rice, a staple in the diets of nearly half the world’s population, has almost doubled on international markets in the last three months.
Jump in rice price fuels fears of unrest
By Javier Blas in London and Daniel Ten Kate in Bangkok
Friday Mar 28 2008 04:15
Rice prices jumped 30 per cent to an all-time high on Thursday, raising fears of fresh outbreaks of social unrest across Asia where the grain is a staple food for more than 2.5bn people.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Friday, March 7, 2008
U.S. Filipinas Face Economic and Political Challenges, Develop New Organizations for Empowerment
By Rowena Tomaneng
March 8, 2008
Column published in U.S. Filipino news magazine
March 8 is International Women’s Day, which is celebrated worldwide, and serves as an apt annual occasion to reflect on the current conditions of 2.2 million Filipinas living and working in the United States. About two thirds of U.S. Filipinas were born in the Philippines and about a quarter remain undocumented.
This International celebration of solidarity with women’s struggles also presents the opportunity to rally for more potent actions that empower Filipinas worldwide and to acknowledge Filipinas who join the hundreds of organizations that campaign for social justice and economic improvement for their families and communities.
There are many issues confronting U.S. Filipinas presently. One of the issues involves pay and economic stability. U.S. Filipina earnings would give us one indicator of their economic situation. I turned to the researchers of the National Bulosan Center for the most up-to-date information available on U.S. Filipinas. The Center provides analysis and resources to grassroots U.S. Filipino organizations.
Earnings of Filipinas in the U.S. have grown at a slower rate—11 percent— than White women since 1999, according to a study by the Center to be published later this year. The Center compared women’s earnings based on data from the last U.S. Decennial Census and its comparable 2006 American Community Survey. This finding is surprising because we would at least expect U.S. Filipinas to improve economically close at the same rate as White women, during the national economic boom since 2002. Nonetheless, U.S. Filipinas confront growing racial and gender problems in the arena of paid work.
These problems are amplified in particular local labor markets. In Hawaii, the earnings growth rate for Filipinas is 50 percent less than White women. In areas such as Seattle, Washington and San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, California, the earnings growth rates for Filipinas were closer to White women, about five percent. While a five percent in the earning growth rate gap seems like an advance, the actual earnings gap between Filipinas and White women remain 15 percent. In northern California, this earning gap is about $9,700 annually.
In cities such as New York where there are highly skilled nurses and medical professionals working long hours, we would expect Filipinas to be doing well. The study reveals otherwise. In 1999, U.S. Filipinas living in New York City earned, on average, two thousand more than White women. In stark contrast in 2005, U.S. Filipinas in the city earned two thousand less than White women. As a result, the earning growth rate is 50 percent more for U.S. Filipinas in the city relative to White women.
Beyond earning disparities, Filipinas continue to face hardship in other areas of employment and social life in the U.S. Take for example the women healthcare workers—many of them working as nurses—who are currently involved in the legal battle against the Sentosa owners in the New York state court. These contract migrant workers were illegally recruited, are unwittingly trafficked from the Philippines to work in the U.S., and then accused by the New York State that the workers endangered their patients as they attempted to free themselves from forced servitude.
Then there is a single mother and her sons who were unwarrantedly tasered in an excessive manner and physically assaulted at a local park for seemingly no wrongdoing by the San Jose, California police in 2007. More than a year later, the Custodio family members are still in court to defend their innocence while ironically the police officers remain in duty.
And, there are thousands of invisible Filipinas in the U.S. experiencing intimate and interpersonal violence and emotional abuse at home and in their relationships. There are also U.S. Filipina lesbians who face public and familial violence and social and institutional exclusion due to their sexual identity and practices. For these Filipinas, there are relatively few safe spaces to share their experiences.
There are thousands more unique stories of U.S. Filipinas to uncover.
Thankfully, Filipinas U.S. and worldwide have been creating mutual support groups and political organizations to improve their conditions and to struggle for social justice. For instance, Pinay sa Seattle provides education and events on women’s issues and human rights in Seattle with the goal to build a more vibrant nurturing community. In New York City, Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment (FIRE) conducts workshops, organizing, and mobilizations regarding Filipina livelihood issues, for the future of their children and their families, and for their right against violence, especially state violence. There is also babae in San Francisco, California, which addresses the rights and welfare of Filipinas in the Bay Area. babae’s work focuses on a campaign against domestic violence and broader violence against women. In San Jose, the MALAYA Women’s Project of Filipino Community Support, Silicon Valley (FOCUS, SV) has been offering leadership development and grassroots organizing to a multi-generation of Filipinas.
In the Philippines, grassroots women’s organizations have been also working to mobilize against the deteriorating economic and politically corrupt conditions, against political repression and state violence, and for genuine empowerment of every Filipino and the preservation of human rights.
We are at a historic juncture to see how far U.S. Filipinas, particularly those who are immigrants, can advance, as women’s organizations forge an agenda that address their immediate concerns and forge political power into the twenty-first century.
March 8, 2008
Column published in U.S. Filipino news magazine
March 8 is International Women’s Day, which is celebrated worldwide, and serves as an apt annual occasion to reflect on the current conditions of 2.2 million Filipinas living and working in the United States. About two thirds of U.S. Filipinas were born in the Philippines and about a quarter remain undocumented.
This International celebration of solidarity with women’s struggles also presents the opportunity to rally for more potent actions that empower Filipinas worldwide and to acknowledge Filipinas who join the hundreds of organizations that campaign for social justice and economic improvement for their families and communities.
There are many issues confronting U.S. Filipinas presently. One of the issues involves pay and economic stability. U.S. Filipina earnings would give us one indicator of their economic situation. I turned to the researchers of the National Bulosan Center for the most up-to-date information available on U.S. Filipinas. The Center provides analysis and resources to grassroots U.S. Filipino organizations.
Earnings of Filipinas in the U.S. have grown at a slower rate—11 percent— than White women since 1999, according to a study by the Center to be published later this year. The Center compared women’s earnings based on data from the last U.S. Decennial Census and its comparable 2006 American Community Survey. This finding is surprising because we would at least expect U.S. Filipinas to improve economically close at the same rate as White women, during the national economic boom since 2002. Nonetheless, U.S. Filipinas confront growing racial and gender problems in the arena of paid work.
These problems are amplified in particular local labor markets. In Hawaii, the earnings growth rate for Filipinas is 50 percent less than White women. In areas such as Seattle, Washington and San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, California, the earnings growth rates for Filipinas were closer to White women, about five percent. While a five percent in the earning growth rate gap seems like an advance, the actual earnings gap between Filipinas and White women remain 15 percent. In northern California, this earning gap is about $9,700 annually.
In cities such as New York where there are highly skilled nurses and medical professionals working long hours, we would expect Filipinas to be doing well. The study reveals otherwise. In 1999, U.S. Filipinas living in New York City earned, on average, two thousand more than White women. In stark contrast in 2005, U.S. Filipinas in the city earned two thousand less than White women. As a result, the earning growth rate is 50 percent more for U.S. Filipinas in the city relative to White women.
Beyond earning disparities, Filipinas continue to face hardship in other areas of employment and social life in the U.S. Take for example the women healthcare workers—many of them working as nurses—who are currently involved in the legal battle against the Sentosa owners in the New York state court. These contract migrant workers were illegally recruited, are unwittingly trafficked from the Philippines to work in the U.S., and then accused by the New York State that the workers endangered their patients as they attempted to free themselves from forced servitude.
Then there is a single mother and her sons who were unwarrantedly tasered in an excessive manner and physically assaulted at a local park for seemingly no wrongdoing by the San Jose, California police in 2007. More than a year later, the Custodio family members are still in court to defend their innocence while ironically the police officers remain in duty.
And, there are thousands of invisible Filipinas in the U.S. experiencing intimate and interpersonal violence and emotional abuse at home and in their relationships. There are also U.S. Filipina lesbians who face public and familial violence and social and institutional exclusion due to their sexual identity and practices. For these Filipinas, there are relatively few safe spaces to share their experiences.
There are thousands more unique stories of U.S. Filipinas to uncover.
Thankfully, Filipinas U.S. and worldwide have been creating mutual support groups and political organizations to improve their conditions and to struggle for social justice. For instance, Pinay sa Seattle provides education and events on women’s issues and human rights in Seattle with the goal to build a more vibrant nurturing community. In New York City, Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment (FIRE) conducts workshops, organizing, and mobilizations regarding Filipina livelihood issues, for the future of their children and their families, and for their right against violence, especially state violence. There is also babae in San Francisco, California, which addresses the rights and welfare of Filipinas in the Bay Area. babae’s work focuses on a campaign against domestic violence and broader violence against women. In San Jose, the MALAYA Women’s Project of Filipino Community Support, Silicon Valley (FOCUS, SV) has been offering leadership development and grassroots organizing to a multi-generation of Filipinas.
In the Philippines, grassroots women’s organizations have been also working to mobilize against the deteriorating economic and politically corrupt conditions, against political repression and state violence, and for genuine empowerment of every Filipino and the preservation of human rights.
We are at a historic juncture to see how far U.S. Filipinas, particularly those who are immigrants, can advance, as women’s organizations forge an agenda that address their immediate concerns and forge political power into the twenty-first century.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
