Kaaba-aba ang karamihan; kaawa-awa ang ilan.Over lunch break in our office pantry, I picked up a thought from an officemate while we were having a chat about how sorry I feel whenever I see a queue of 'kadama' (Kuwait's term for househelp) at Kuwait Airport. He narrated that the other day, he saw a throng of young Pinays at the airport lobby waiting for someone to collect them. It was 12 noon and the 20 kabayans have been waiting since six in the morning. Their eyes are all afraid and hungry... Basahin pa

Vital in social interaction. Confidence-boosting. Relieves office pressure. Nonetheless, we should think first before we gossip.This may come as a surprise to some, but it's nothing new. Yes -- men, like women, gossip. Whether it's less or more is debatable. For someone who worked in the Middle East for a long time, I've seen how a kabayan would rumor-monger about a colleague who pissed him off, or about someone else's wife (and life), or about his boss who never changes his clothes,... Basahin pa

Favor: Please click my 'Archive' page on top. You'll see that it now contains all, I mean a-l-l-!, my posts since I started this blog. Confession: I used to input them manually -- every week! Now, all I need is Abu Farhan's java-tricks to do the job. Visit Abu Farhan's site and be amazed of his Blogger tricks -- one of them is this instant archive listing of all my posts. His intructions are easy to follow. He's truly a web find! Basahin pa

This could be useful to you in the future (I don't know how, don't know when and don't know why you should really bother!).  Don't be surprised:  some people, I excluded, take pride in pronouncing them correctly. Porsche- Poor-sh Maybach- My-bock Cayenne- Ky-en Toureag- Twah-regg Countach- Coon-tock Murcielago- Mer-she-a-la-go Gallardo- Ga-yard-o Scaglietti- Ska-lee-et-ee Maserati- Maz-er-ot-ee Bugatti- Boo-got-ee Carrera- Ker-air-a Koenigsegg- Ko-nig-segg Koenig-... Basahin pa

Quoted: "Silence is acceptance, inaction is the same as collusion, and that makes everyone guilty." I checked what's the latest about Kuwait this week, and here's what is on top of Google's search engine: Abused domestic workers are abused more because of Kuwait's weak legal protection. Their recourse: run away. It's in do-or-die stages. They run away; They find ways to survive (and here's where the most heart-wrenching stories reside); They wait for miracles to happen (which don't come... Basahin pa

My last weekend was typical of my Kuwait weekends: I overslept, I overate, I over-indulged in an unproductive inactivity. I did some readings, though. And yes, I did watch some tv programs, too. Twenty superfruits Mangoes and guava included. I wonder why banana isn't' Living Together, Aging Together "It would be great to grow old with a cluster of friends, we told each other, in a place only a few steps from movies and shops, the YMCA and the bus into Manhattan", or in my case, a few steps... Basahin pa

An article has taken me. "...until the taste of innocent children's blood is removed from my favorite Cadbury's Hazelnut chocolate bar and other chocolate candies that I enjoyed before, I will no longer have any." From PDI article about how kids working in cocoa plantations in Africa are "paid nothing, fed cheap food, beaten up regularly, forced to work 60 to 100 hours a week...and kept under lock at night". So much like some of our kabayans working as househelp in the Middle... Basahin pa

Quoted this: ?I don't understand their parents...(t)hey are working as maids in Italy and they hire maids here to take care of their own children. They value their money more than their families.? From NYT article about how "absence makes the homes grow grander". Basahin pa

It hurts. Burning. The acid on my face. The shame. The knife wounds. The blame. I painted my dream in color; t'was shortlived...four months. Painful. Hellish. A nightmare. At least, I now rest, suffering no more; without aches and burns, and weepings and sleepless fears. For people like me, death is a sweet embrace. My story will be told, between sobs and bottled anger. My family's hurt will last long. My name repeated countless times, with prayers and remembrances and then... I'll be... Basahin pa