Noise Pollution in The Philippines

This post is about my expat's friend Jan from The Netherlands and his observations about noice, sounds, and music in the Philippines - a very welcome addition to my foregoing post about dog barking. 

Have you wondered (Jan asks), why Filipinos in general speak in loud voices? And why they all speak at the same time? Have you ever attended a real Philippine party where many Filipinos are? Did you notice that Philippine television and radio are mostly (?) loud?

Questions, questions, questions... and, a lot of answers are here:

http://www.expatinthephilippines.com 

from a Dutch expat, who decided to spend the rest of his life in the Philippines.

And so I do!

Dog Owner in Davao City Told to Shut up Dogs or Move Them out!

Living in the Philippines is really wonderful. Loving dogs, my family and I are having also some pets. The dogs in our neighborhood have been really disturbing since more a year. I wish to thank Vice Mayor Rudy Duterte for mentioning the problem in our neighborhood in Bajada, Davao City in this weekly TV program.

Dog owner in Davao City told to shut up dogs or move them out |Davao City News Feed

General Santos City - Unsolved Killings Here?

 

Concerned with the rising unsolved cases of killings here and the neighboring areas, Mindanao Development Authority chair person Secretary Luwalhati Antonio has pushed for the assignment of additional policemen in the area. 

Antonio, who hails from this city, said in a radio interview that the recent killings perpetrated by motorcycle-riding gunmen were considered alaring and showed the need for more intensified law enforcement and security operations.

She specifically cited the killing of local newspaper publisher Christopher Guarin and of city traffic enforcer Oliver Dayap.

God bless Mindanao and the Philippines!

A Dream in Davao...

to materialize this New Year 2012....

To all his friends and benefactors of Davao City, Father Franco wishes a Blessed and Happy New Year. He hopes this is the year, that shall him fulfill his long-cherished dream in Buda on behalf of the Indigenous Youth.

Fr. Franco is a Salesian of Don Bosco and is about to start taking care of 45 "lumad" youths/children, starting this May 2012.

He has decided to start, trusting as usual, in Davao providence, the good hearted people in Davao City and its surroundings. One of the many concerns he has to face ia the preparation of the daily meals and other needs. The help promised by European donors for this project, is hard to come, because Europe has its economic and financial problems.

There's also another way for sponsoring the "cause" of Father Franco, as I was able to learn during my last visit in Buda. Try to buy the gourmet products he himself has designed and produced to be able to support this project, Just visit "Pasalubong Center, Palma Gil Street, People's Park, Davao City" or, find time to take fresh breath along with your family and friends and come up to Buda tp Father Franco's place.

I am also glad to give you more information. Kindly contact me.

God bless you all!

Arthur Honegger - a Swiss Classical Composer

You wish to learn more about him (and many other composers?) and their music?

Go to:

http://www.klausdoringclassicalmusic.webs.com

Valley of Death

The old year ended with natural disasters (check my last post in 2011) - the new year 2012 started with natural disasters.

A team from the Compostela Valley Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council was among the first to send rescue and retrieval groups when landeslides hit Sitio Diat Uno, Napuapan, Pantukan, where -by the way- also several good friends are living - and, THEY SURVIVED!

A HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR TO ALL MY READERS HERE!

EIN FROHES UND GESUNDES NEUES JAHR 2012 AN ALLE MEINE LESERINNEN UND LESER HIER!

Year of Disasters

Editorial (Friday 30, 2011) Mindanao Daily Mirror - with friendly permission by publisher and editor-in-chief "Tita" Marietta Siongco... .

"Year 2011 will exit to history tomorrow as the year of disasters for our country. Of the many typhoons that hit the Philippines this year. Ondoy and Sendong caused the heaviest damage in this supposed "tropical paradise" in terms of lives lost and number of families left homeless. Internationally, 2011 is considered "Record Year for Bad Weather".

Hopefully, Sendong which was not even considered a typhoon by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Administration (PAGASA) but only categorized as a "storm" spoiled the Christmas session as it devastated many areas with just a little over a week before Christmas Day. The Yuletide season is considered the joyous time of the year, especially by Filipinos who celebrate Christmas the longest in the world.

Hardest hit by Sendong was Northern Mindanao, particularly the neighboring cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan.  The combined death toll of the two cities reached over a thousand with still hundreds of missing. And just at the year was about to end, several areas  in Eastern and Southern Mindanao were hit by flash floods caused by heavy rains, incuding Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur, Agusan del Norte, Compostela Valley in the Davao region and Bukidnon. Even nearby Tagum City was not spared by the storm wrath.

With just a few days before New Year, the town of Kapalong in Davao del Norte and Valencia City in Bukidnon were inundated by floodwaters. According to the MINDANEWS report which the  MIRROR carried in its front page yesteray, 10 out of 11 barangays in Valencia City were flooded with floodwaters rising up to four meters high in many homes, displacing no less than 1,150 families.

A heartening development in the wake of tragedy that hit Northern Mindanao a week or so before Christmas Day is that many provinces and cities in the country donated food, clothing, blankets, thousands of bottles of water and other relief materials to the flood victims in CdO and Iligan worth 2 million pesos, plus 1 million in cash.

And just the other day, the Jesuits in Cagayan de Oro donated a five-hectare land as relocation site for the Sendong victims in the so-called "city of the golden friendship".

Richard Heuberger and Paul Hindemith - Two Classical Composers

(Paul Hindemith)

(Richard Heuberger)

You can read more about them on my website:

http://www.klausdoringclassicalmusic.webs.com .

Enjoy listening my radio show "Classics with Klaus Doring" every Sunday (also tomorrow January 1, 2012) from 2 to 4 p.m. (Philippine time) on "The Ede Radio Davao" 104.3 FM or via live stream http://www.davao.theedge.ph .

Philippine Style of Taking a Bath

A red bucket placed upside down in tucked away in a corner of our bathtub. On top is a blue TAKO (or TABO), or a plastic bowl, the type that one usually receives as a complimentary gift for tupper ware orders. they both sit there inconspicuously, one on top of the other like two giants thimbles. On many mornings in my rush to get to the bathtub I have tripped over them, stubbing my toe and wailing to pierce the cold, silent air.

I would then remove the bucket and TABO or TAKO from the bathtub, place them gently on the floor and continue with my shower. I have often wondered why they were there. I knew their purpose and felt it was obsolete. I met them for the first time in 1982, when I stayed longer in the Philippines. I stayed in a boarding house. A continuous gush would mean someone was still using the bathroom and take a shower; just as I used the shower wastefully on many occasions and was scolded for it.

"At least turn the shower off when you lather", I was told many times by my landlord, "this  way you don't waste as much water." I would become annoyed with his admonition, yet secretly  I was pleased with the environmental concerns already  during the early 1980s here in Davao City. My landlord was in the right and, in my guilt, I shut the water off.

I learned that most people in the Philippines bathe using the ubiquitous bucket and TAKO or TABO because of the lack of a proper drainage system. The bucket would be filled with cold water from a pump, and the bather would pour water over his head with TAKO or TABO. In Germany I almost forgot this practice. During my returns to the Philippines and during several stays in hotels all over the Philippines this kind of taking bath or a shower really made an impact on me. 

I never thought that a bucket and a TAKO or TABO would ever become significant for me, but then the sword and the ploughshare have become the symbols of war and peace. Up to now in my house in the Philippines... .

As the water splatters onto the bathtub, I would think of the people who must bath daily this way as a ritual... .

Frohes Neues Jahr 2012 / Happy New Year 2012

A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL MY DEAR READERS OF THIS BLOG! THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR CONTINUING PATRONAGE. GOD BLESS YOU ALL!

+++

EIN GLUECKLICHES NEUES JAHR FUER ALLE MEINE LIEBEN LESER. HERZLICHEN DANK FUER DIE JAHRELANGE TREUE. GOTT SEGNE SIE ALLE!