Las Mariposas

Today, November 25 is International Women’s Day of Protest to End Violence Against Women. It also marks the death anniversary of the Dominican Republic’s “Las Mariposas”— Mirabal sisters, Teresa, Patria and Minerva, who, in their determined struggle against the Trujillo dictatorship inspired so many others.

In the hands of the dictator, they faced persecution. Their families endured the separation and the constant surveillance, threats and harassment. Minerva, Patria and Teresa were abused, abducted, tortured, detained, executed.

There are Mariposas now as there are Mariposas then.

For three straight days I have been looking at photos of this country’s modern-day Mariposas. Gabriela Women’s Party will be putting forward the issue of women Desaparecidos under the Arroyo regime. The process is haunting. It evokes feelings of sadness, anger, rage.

There are thirty of them as of last count, among them, Juliet Fernandez who I have known in my budding years as a student-activist with Gabriela-Youth. Juliet being Gabriela-Youth secretary general at that time. She was part of The Catalyst, the publication of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines and the College Editors Guild of the Philippines. She eventually opted to affiliate with Amihan the national federation of peasant women and Pamalakaya, organizing fisherfolks in Samar.

Last May 11, Juliet and her husband, Manuel Pajarito was abducted by suspected members of the Philippine Army’s 62nd InfantryBatallion. Efforts to find Juliet and Manuel have led members of a fact finding team from one military camp to another.

S ix months after, we still have no news of Juliet or her husband.

Juliet joins the ranks of Luisa Posa-Dominado, Sherlyn Cadapan, Karen Empeno (who, as of recent developments, were raped and tortured according to a witness) and a host of others who were abducted, tortured, summarily executed.

They are the modern-day Mariposas of this country.

This is a regime that attempts to quell dissent by making women and men vanish. It is an attempt that fails time and again. The legacy of Mariposas live on.

Kendra

Kendra is my handy ultra-portable online Asus EEEPC. Sleek, pearly white, lightweight and tiny enough to fit not in an obvious rectangle laptop bag but in a very normal girlie  kikay bag.

Initially I had trouble about the EEEPC, well, Kendra not being available on time. I was raring to get a laptop by the last week of September, with friends Tonyo, Ina and Kim accompanying me on the quest for a low-budget, quality and respectably cute (definition: below 14″ in size) one. For hours Kim and Tonyo convinced me to wait, wait and wait for Kendra, with Kim even humiliating a respectable 12″ Twinhead laptop in the process.

They said Kendra would be available in October. She was not. Then Mau broke the news it would be available in PC Corner by November 5. It was not. I got Kendra 5 days later. Worth the wait.

It did not take much to adjust to the tiny keyboard, it just takes constant spell checks every now and then. And while I am a neophyte to Linux, it wasn’t that difficult as well.

So its me and Kendra online and when there isnt any wireless internet access, its me and Kendra and Crack Attack.

Kendra has my boyfriend jealous.

She is the reason why I am fast running out of excuses not to blog or not to be online. She is the reason why all of a sudden I am getting this urge to introduce internet connectivity at home since it can very well be so much cheaper than going to your nearest burger king or the office or gloria jeans timog which according to my friend tonyo has free wifi access: see here

I am still way out of my freaking budget so that will have to be postponed.

And oh, my friend Tonyo devoted space reviewing Kendra on his site.

So there, meet Kendra.