Good news for Philippine News Junkies

Are you a Philippine News Junkie like me? Always have to know what is going on in the Philippines?

Well, if you are, Feyma and I have three new sites that might interest you!

First, we have a new site called the “Luzon Magazine” which features news and current events on the Island of Luzon! We started this site a couple of weeks ago, and it is starting to build up a nice list of current news and events on the Island of Luzon. Give it a visit and see what you think!

Secondly, we have another new site called “Visayas Magazine” which is much like the Luzon Magazine, but this one covers the Visayas Region of the Philippines! This site has also been online for a couple of weeks now, and you can find a variety of stories and news from the Visayas!

As most of you know, I also have a site called the “Mindanao Magazine” which features news and events on the Island of Mindanao. This is my oldest site by far, dating back to 1996! That site continues.

Rounding out our three new sites is the Balitang Pilipinas site, which ties together the three News Magazines, tying them all into a single outlet for Philippine News and Events. The Balitang Pilipinas site does not feature stories in itself, but will show all the latest headlines from the three News Magazine sites that we offer!

So, if you are a Philippine News Junkie, I hope that you will follow these three new sites, and enjoy them. Any feedback that you have to offer would be most appreciated too!

Join me for some premium virtual coffee?

Hey guys, once again, I have started another new website!  This one is the MKLF Website!  Oh my… the MKLF?  What are they, some new revolutionary group?  Yes indeed, they are, and I am one of the founders!

What kind of revolution is this MKLF starting?  Well, they are starting a Coffee Revolution in Mindanao!  That’s right – Coffee!  You see, the MKLF is the “Mindanao Kape Lover’s Forum,” a small group of coffee lovers who live in Mindanao!  The group has been started by myself and my friend, Bobby Timonera.  We don’t have regular meetings or anything… we just love good coffee!

You see, we purchase great green coffee beans from locations all over the world, roast them ourselves and enjoy super coffee.  Right now, I have some beans on hand from Mindanao (Mt. Matutum), Luzon (Corillera Region), Yemen, and Ethiopia.  I have more beans on order from Brazil, Mexico, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda! So, as you can see, they really are from regions worldwide.

I hope you’ll check out my new MKLF Website and join the Coffee Revolution in Mindanao!

Come and visit me!

Guess what?  I have a new website!  It’s true.  Over this past weekend, I opened up a new site at “MindanaoBob.com.”  The site is all about me and my life in Mindanao.

If you visit my new site you can find out information about me, and even my schedule.  So, for example, if I am going to be visiting a certain festival or event, I will generally try to post that information in advance on the new site, and if you notice that I will be visiting your area, you can arrange to meet me.  Maybe we can have a cup of coffee or even lunch together.  So, keep an eye on my new site, check my schedule, or just find out what I am up to at this time.

I hope you will visit soon!  I’m looking forward to seeing you!

Here we go again

Well, unfortunately, yesterday there was a kidnapping incident in Jolo, Sulu.  It seems that these things happen every time that the Peace and Order situation starts to calm down a little bit.  Three members of the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) were in Sulu to tend to humanitarian situations there.  They were visiting a jail in Sulu, when they were kidnapped.

Those kidnapped were:

Andreas Notter, a 38 year old Swiss national.  Notter is the head of the Zamboanga City Office of the ICRC.

Eugenio Vagni, a 62 year old Sanitation and Water Engineer working for the ICRC.

Mary Jean Lacaba, a 37 year old Filipina ICRC Field Officer.

Current speculation is that the kidnapping was carried out by the Abu Sayyaf Group, an Al Qaeda linked terrorist organization that operates in that part of Mindanao.  So far, there is no confirmation of this, but it would seem logical.

Sulu is one of the only places in Mindanao that I have yet to visit, and I really want to go there.  However, with the current situation, this is not the right time for me to go there.  I feel rather certain that these ICRC people must have had some security people with them on this journey, so it is not a good sign for me to possibly visit.

I hope that this kidnapping is resolved quickly.  The Philippine Government seems to be taking this very sincerely, and is showing a lot of concern.  The Armed Forces of the Philippines is in pursuit of the kidnapping group, or so they say.  In the past, such kidnappings have gone on for months, even years.

I think I’ll be staying away from Sulu for now.

Hard to change attitudes

When an attitude is already set in a person’s brain, it is very hard to change it.  Even things that are not even logical seem to hold a very strong place in some people’s brains.  Did you ever notice that?

What I am mostly referring to is that so many people are scared to death of Mindanao!  The name of the island alone will scare a lot of people.  The thought of even coming to visit the Island sends chills down the spine of people.  Honestly, I can’t figure out why.

About 10 years ago, I knew another foreigner who moved to the Philippines.  We knew each other fairly well.  He moved from California to live in the Visayas.  We kept in touch almost daily by e-mail, and when he was in the States, he even visited me at my house.  This was a smart man too, a College Professor!  When I moved to the Philippines about a year after he did, he started talking badly about me in some online forums that we both frequented.  I could not understand it, as we had been close friends, so I contacted him to see if I could find out why he was being like this.  Well, he started telling me that I must be stupid or crazy since I moved to live in Mindanao!  He said it was a warzone here and that I would be killed before too much time would pass.

Like I say, this was an intelligent man.  But, believe it or not, he had never been to Mindanao before.  The only things he knew about the place he heard from other people.  He had no first hand experience at all with the place, yet he was bad mouthing me online because of my decision to move here permanently.  Now, before I moved here to live, I had been here a half dozen times for 2 to 4 weeks each time.  So, I was not ignorant about Mindanao.  I had also spent a lot of time studying about Mindanao, the place, the people and the issues of the island.  I probably knew as much about Mindanao as most other people, even those who lived here.  But, this guy who had never even been here was making judgements about me living here.

A few months ago, I met another expat friend online.  We have not met in person, but he has been in the Philippines for nearly a year now.  He lives in Northern Cebu (this is no the same guy I was speaking of earlier in the article).  He has never been to Mindanao.  However, he has several websites, and on each of them, he writes a lot of articles about how unsafe Mindanao is!  When he talks about Mindanao, his ignorance about the island is so obvious.  When I explain to him how things really are in most of Mindanao, he doesn’t believe me.  I have lived in Mindanao for nearly a decade now, yet he thinks that he knows more about the place than I do, even though he has never been here!

It’s really sad, and makes me feel bad that there is so much misinformation about Mindanao in people’s minds.  It’s a situation that probably will never change in my lifetime, though.