HK immigration biased against Filipinas

I love Hong Kong.  I’ve lived there for almost two years, and would love to stay for a longer term.  If there was another country/territory that I would move to, it’s either HK or Australia.  But this story is a huge turn down for the former…

…then again, I still love the place.  Though I wish the HK authorities look in to this.

I write this letter to let the Filipino people know of the racism and abuse being done by immigration agents at the Hong Kong International Airport to Filipino women.

I am a US citizen. On Oct. 5, 2008 I flew from the United States to Hong Kong to meet my Filipino girlfriend. We are engaged to be married. Having heard from a friend that Hong Kong is a very romantic city, we were considering getting married there.

Due to a storm, I arrived Oct. 5 in Hong Kong almost three hours after she did. But she was nowhere to be found. However, I was able to locate her unclaimed suitcase in the baggage area.
To my horror, I found out later that she was being detained by immigration agents. She told them that she was meeting me, a US citizen; she gave my name, my flight information, even the hotel information. Immigration agents could have easily verified with me if the information she gave was true. I was there waiting for her for hours, unaware she was being detained. The immigration agents never bothered to find me even though I was in the baggage area for hours.

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Tags: filipina hong kong immigration Philippines

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Migrant workers from around the world protest institutionalization of migration

Migrant groups from several nations joined labor unions and civic organizations in the opening of the first International Assembly of Migrants and Refugees (IAMR) at the Bayview Park Hotel, Manila.

The delegates converged at the forum to discuss issues hounding refugees and migrants the world over, and to express their dismay against the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD).

“The GFMD will bring together government representatives from close to 200 countries, big business interests and their allied non-government organizations to discuss labor migration and development,” Dr Carol Araullo, chairperson of Bagong Alyansan Makabayan (BAYAN) said. “But in the light of the severe global financial crisis and economic slowdown, the GFMD agenda appears to be nothing more than an attempt to squeeze more gains from migrant labor through various anti-migrant schemes and in the guise of promoting development.”

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Philippines: Help Mindanao’s war refugees

An unprecedented humanitarian crisis has brought about tremendous suffering, illness, and death to more than 500,000 war refugees in Mindanao, Philippines.
 
The numbers continue to rise as they crowd evacuation centers, makeshift tents or shelter with relatives. They are not able to return home due to all-out war offensives.
 
Help the evacuees by knowing the issues and responding to their immediate needs like medicines, food and clothing.
 
Visit the website kalinaw.com.ph for details on how you can extend your support.
 
Our work for peace starts with a kilo of rice for the hungry, a blanket to give warmth to a child, a health worker’s healing touch, and an advocate’s voice to end all-out war.
 
Act now to make this happen. Your help counts.

The highs of motorcycle touring

Click here for photos.

I had my apprehensions when I began with the mere thought of riding around Laguna de Bay on my motorcycle.  Just two weeks ago, my bike broke down in the middle of South Superhighway by the Magallanes flyover.  Fortunately, I was on the downward slope, thus, had the momentum to push the bike on to the roadside.
 
Zhi was only two weeks old when my brother, who was taking a joyride inside the village, crashed her on to the curb–forever disabling her and permanently keeping him away from motorcycles.

Since then I felt that I would not be able to bring her on long rides out of town.  Yet slowly, I gave her time to heal…and myself, some confidence on her.  Four months later, during the summer of 2007, I took her to Bataan for her first long ride along with 12 other riders.

And I knew, deep in the recesses of my pseudo-biker instinct, that I would take that Laguna lake ride sooner or later.  And on Monday, October 20th, I embarked on my latest motorcycle adventure.

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Larong Pinoy takes off at North Fairview Elementary School

Selected North Fairview Elementary School students from grades 4, 5 and 6 spent a couple of carefree hours on Oct 21 to help promote the games of the Filipino heritage.  The students were part of the launching of Magna Kultura’s Larong Pinoy–an organization spearheading the integration of traditional Filipino games to the physical education curriculum of Philippine public elementary schools with Metro Manila as the jump off point.

The event, which commenced at 2pm at the school gym, was attended by the Department of Education (DepEd) officials and staff from various NCR offices.  Volunteers from the Rotaract club and PUP Communications Society joined the fun as sports marshalls (aka referees), coaches, and buffet attendants alongside Magna Kultura staffers.

The student athletes displayed their skills and talents in patintero, tumbang preso and piko in a demonstration in front of the DepEd guests and hundreds of their schoolmates.

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