Miriam Quiambao & Oxfam

Oxfam spokesperson Miriam Quiambao is on the cover of this month’s Women’s Health magazine.  Here’s the link to her magazine interview where she talked about her participation in Oxfam’s climate campaign last year.

http://www.pep.ph/news/24367/Miriam-Quiambao-tells-Womens-Health-about-her-new-love

Hottest green concert this Saturday

The World Wants A Real Deal–that’s what millions around the globe are saying as world leaders meet starting today at the Climate Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark to sign a massive deal on climate change.  This Saturday, the Philippines will make its voice heard to the leaders attending the summit via the hottest green concert ticket in town— Oxjam Pilipinas: Tik Tok Rok, Rock for Climate Action at the Riverbanks Amphitheater, in Marikina, from 3 PM to 3 AM. That’s 12 hours on 12 December of making the Philippines count on the global day of climate action. Here’s coverage of the press conference held last week for the concert by Channel 2’s SNN:

 The concert is absolutely free! See you there!

Cool tik tok poster

The press launch of the hottest green concert ticket in town, the Tik Tok Rokin’ for Climate Action Concert, will be tomorrow at the Conspiracy Bar and Cafe, 54 Visayas Avenue, Quezon City, 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM. All media and Oxfam and Dakila supporters are invited. Over 50 climate artist and celebrity advocates will be at the press launch to call for a legally binding, fair and ambitious deal out of the climate talks set to open on December 7 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Tik Tok Rokin’ for Climate Action Concert will be on 12 December, at the Riverbanks Amphitheatre, Marikina City. Here’s the uber-cool tik tok poster featuring Tik Tok climate artist and celebrity advocates:

In honor of Bong Reblando

One of the casualties of the Maguindanao killings was Bong Reblando, who had been part of an Oxfam media trip to Saranggani mere days before his violent death. Those of us who joined the trip are still in shock. As a tribute to Bong, we are re-publishing an article written by Rosa May de Guzman which appeared in the Philippine Daily Inquirer yesterday. We join the rest of the nation in mourning for the victims of what is touted as the worst political massacre in Philippine history and call on the Philippine government to bring the perpetrators of this violence to justice.

 

 

Slain reporter leaves 7 kids

By Rosa May de Guzman-Maitem
Inquirer Mindanao

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—One of the journalists killed in Maguindanao on Monday was a father of seven who was recently regularized by a national daily after serving as its correspondent for 25 years.

“Among my colleagues in Mindanao, I’m the first to be regularized [by Manila Bulletin],” Alejandro “Bong” Reblando said. His promotion gave him regular pay and hefty bonuses.

Reblando just got a brand new car which he proudly called his own.

He had covered stories ranging from petty crimes and house fires to Manny Pacquiao’s least known and biggest fights and the war in Central Mindanao.

In his few remaining days as a reporter, he was intense in his coverage.

On Nov. 17, while covering the effects of climate change in the provinces of Sarangani and South Cotabato with other journalists, Reblando peppered the Oxfam-Philippines team and Sarangani leaders with questions about illegal logging, floods, landslides and the falling fish catch in coastal villages.

“What could be done?” he asked both Sarangani Gov. Miguel Dominguez and Glenn Maboloc, communications officer of Oxfam-Philippines. Both offered few answers and Reblando seemed a bit satisfied.

Along with Philippine Star correspondent Ramil Bajo and Rosa May de Guzman of this paper, and Romer Sarmiento of Business World, they traveled to a coastal village in Maitum.

There they found that people were unaware of the effects of climate change.

After the coverage, Reblando showed extra sweetness to the group, according to Sarmiento.

“Let’s get coffee before we head for home,” the Business World correspondent quoted Reblando’s last words to the group.

Reblando married young at 19. His bride was then 17.

One of Reblando’s seven children is a nurse working in Dubai.

Until his death, Reblando was finishing Mass Communication under special arrangements with a school in General Santos City.

Reblando, second from left, in an undated file photo courtesy of the Manila Bulletin.

Tik Tok TV ad

This is the first of a series of Tik Tok ads featuring Filipino artists, directors, actors, and musicians advocating for climate action. The ads are running on Channel 2’s MYX Music Channel. The artists will headline the Oxjam Pilipinas: Tik Tok Rokin for Climate Action Concert on 12 December 2009 at the Marikina Riverbanks Center. See you there!

Weather we like it or not

Pretty soon we will roll out here the full version of the video “Weather We Like It or Not”, which looks at climate change impacts in East Asia. The video stars Miriam Quiambao and Paolo Soler and was direcred by Tara Illenberger. Meawhile, here’s the one-minute teaser. If you want to show the video in your school or office, send an email to Glenn Maboloc at gmaboloc@oxfam.org.uk and we’ll give you a copy. Hurry, offer is good until supplies last.  

Climate change in sorsogon

Naomi Dayrit and crew of TV 5 glady went with Oxfam to visit our disaster risk reduction efforts in Sorsogon. Will let the three-part special report that aired from 26-28 October do the talking:  

Marc Nelson talks about women

 

This is the blog entry we promised you last week in which Marc Nelson talks about women he met in Bangkok— women farmers and fishers, that is. Marc joined a women’s march held during the Bangkok Intersessional. The women called for the inclusion of women’s issues and concerns in the ongoing international climate talks. The Philippine Star published Marc’s piece last Saturday, 24 October 2009.

Marching for climate action

By Marc Nelson

MANILA, Philippines – My experience during the march in Bangkok was quite an enlightening one.  While I had always had an interest in the environment, and had completed some courses in environmental science in university, to actually be in the thick of things with the potential of influencing decisions beyond my own household made me realize how important a public voice can be.

In light of the recent devastation caused by the tropical storm Ondoy, we here in the Philippines have felt first hand the powerful effects of climate change. Not that we haven’t weathered tropical storms, or even super typhoons in the past, but the fact that they are occurring much more often and of a much stronger intensity can be directly attributed  to climate change.

As a developing nation, Ondoy’s lesson to us has been that the Philippines, like many other nations in the region, is woefully ill-prepared for these sorts of calamities. We lack the infrastructure, early warning systems, emergency relief services and sometimes even basic solid building materials to not only survive a flood or tsunami, but have the ability to rebuild our lives after it has passed.

In talking to some of the fisherfolk that I marched with from different Asian nations, I realized just how badly these kinds of disasters affect those living in coastal areas. They are often the ones directly in the path of destruction caused by climate change. They are susceptible to losing their boats, their homes, their livelihoods and their lives during a catastrophe, and once the catastrophe passes, the survivors are usually so poor that they don’t have the ability or funds to try and put their lives back together. 

But it’s not only the fisherfolk who have experienced the detrimental effects of climate change. The flooding of urban and provincial waterways, or on the flipside, the droughts that also ravage the world these days, is ripping apart the means of survival for a lot of people who are earning or growing enough to be barely subsisting at the best of times. If their homes and possessions get washed away in a flood, or their crops dry up in the sun for an entire year, what hope do they have to survive? 

In recognizing the needs and situation of these people struggling to cope, I’ve also realized how the inequality of women’s rights has contributed to them bearing the brunt of climate change disasters more than others. Often with less education, rights, skills, strength and access to loans or employment opportunities, it’s that much harder for them to cope during and after a calamity.

Many may think that these problems are not theirs. It happens to poor people, or those in another country far away. It may raise a momentary feeling of sadness, a 30-second clip on the news before a cheerful return to the happier stories. Let me tell you, the people affected here are not mere numbers. They are people’s mothers, grandfathers, daughters and sons. Here in the Philippines this realization has been brought home hard and fast with Ondoy’s destructive floods. For those of us lucky enough not to have been affected personally, we all know a number of close relatives or friends who were stranded on the roofs of their houses, saw their cars float and sink into the muddy waters or, heaven forbid, lost a loved one. Imagine if that loved one was one of yours. If we don’t act now to do something about climate change, then these disasters will become an even more regular occurrence, and before long, that missing loved one could be one of ours. Tik tok. Act now before it’s too late.//end

Marc Nelson talks to media at the Bangkok Intersessional.

The Asian Women’s March gathered women farmers from Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, calling for the inclusion of women in the agenda of international climate meetings. Marc Nelson is a climate advocate for the campaign Tik Tok Pilipinas of international aid agency Oxfam and artists’ collective Dakila. Tik Tok Pilipinas is part of the international tck tck campaign for climate action. Visit www.tiktokpilipinas.com to learn more about the campaign.

Oxfam and Dakila’s Tik Tok Pilipinas celebrity advocates launch

Oxfam and Dakila’s Tik Tok Pilipinas climate campaign celebrity launch was all over the news. Celebrity climate advocates such as Diether Ocampo, Marc Nelson, Rovilson Fernandez, Kate Torralba, Ebe Dancel, Noel Cabangon, Bayang Barrios, Tim Yap, among others, went to the launch to show their support for the Tik Tok campaign.

Here’s the launch on Fashionistas by Heart on QTV11. Heart is also a Tik Tok celebrity climate advocate.

The launch was also on Studio 23:

And on Myx music channel:

Ping Medina’s Brgy Soup Kitchen

Republishing here Dakila and Oxfam Climate Advocate Ping Medina’s article about the soup kitchen he initiated for victims of Ketsana. Ping Medina is a fast-rising actor of note, starring in the landmark movie, The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros and in the recently concluded popular TV series, Tayong Dalawa. Ping is one of the local celebrities supporting the Tik Tok Pilipinas climate action campaign (www.tiktokpilipinas.com).

Ping Medina with actress Alex de Rossi at their Brewrats radio show guesting over at 92.3 FM. Both Ping and Alex are Dakila and Oxfam celebrity advocates for the Tik Tok Pilipinas climate campaign.

Barangay Soup Kitchen

By Ping Medina

Manila, Philippines – Last week, I joined my first ever advocacy campaign. The Dakila Collective invited me to be an advocate for Oxfam’s “Tik Tok” campaign on the looming climate crisis. Four days later, Typhoon Ondoy hit our shores. It massacred almost everyone in its path. It was a ruthless viking. It was the wrath of Mother Nature scorned. The very next day, I decided to open my second restaurant.  

I am an avid commuter. Perhaps being too idealistic, I’ve been holding off buying a car in hopes that Honda’s hydrogen  car would come into mass production within the century. I am a fan of “An Inconvenient Truth”. It is a beautiful journalistic piece, exaggerating facts to get a faster response. Or is it exaggerated, really?  

My purposes for starting Barangay Soup Kitchen are all in the name of service. Once as a kid, I gave away all my change money to a random beggar I felt a deep pity for. So instead of commuting, I ended up walking two hours to get home. Normally, I would shy away from any words describing me as a humanitarian. I abhor being praised for something I feel like I had no choice but to do. But now I wil admit, it is in my blood. 

These are extraordinary times, right? It requires friends to be enemies. It requires bad people to be behave. It calls for everyone to work towards a common goal. For leaders to unite us all. Because if we don’t, we all know what’s going to happen. The Ondoy rainfall lasted for a mere one-and-a-half days, putting 3-storey buildings underwater. Now what if it rained 30 days and nights, like the story of the ark? 

Barangay Soup Kitchen is a restaurant that serves the victims of Ondoy. It hates anything with the word “sardines” or “kamote”. It embraces ingredients like “native saffron” and “ginger”. It makes sure that with every serving of hot Arroz Caldo, there is an abundance of juicy chicken meat you can sip right off the bone. The congee, thick and filling, comes with a pan de sal bread meant to be soaked. The hard-boiled egg covers all your protein needs. 

If you are willing to donate, please give us glutinous rice. If you trust us more than your politicians, you can make monetary donations to CRISPIN C MEDINA II BPI-Morato savings account number 3149 0943 84. Our soup kitchen does not accept perishable donations anymore. From a feeding program, we are also diversifying with a Bowl Drive. Drop off any bowls/cups/mugs/non-disposable containers. When doing soup kitchen, we will also be giving away the bowls the arroz caldo is served in. The Bowl Drive is about rebuilding the community and preventing non-disposable stuff from clogging our drainage again. 

Always remember, soup is the best comfort food for this rainy season. Ondoy may have taken away everything we own, but it has restored everything that is human about us. END