Red Tent By Anita Diamant

RL Stine’s, Archie Comics and Bobson Twins were not only my introductory reading pleasures when I was a kid. Believe it
or not, my parents bought us 2 heavy sets of Bible Stories at a time when Encyclopedias were a fashion and a must-have, and I loved it! It’s the perfect way for children to get to know the stories in the bible with excellent drawings and representation. It’s like reading a Fairy Tale book only that you get to read about Jacob, Elijah, Ester, David, Solomon, Jesus and so forth.

But sadly, Dinah is not very familiar to me. I can’t say that I’m an expert in Bible Stories, but I guess I am comfortable with what I know and I can say that I didn’t know who Dinah was.  To have her as the main character in Anita Diamant’s force of a novel was enough to make me want to read it.

The book is told on a first-person narrative of Dinah, the only daughter of Jacob and Leah. Yes, Dinah is the sister of Benjamin and the popular Joseph who was famous for receiving his brothers'  wrath, a colorful coat and was appointed in high office of the Pharaoh because he has a gift of interpreting dreams.  Though the book is fiction and is inspired by biblical texts and research, it’s like reading a novel about old village life during biblical times having the same ancestors like Jacob, Sarah, Abraham attending to domestic needs and troubles. But there are no grand romantic versions of the story which can be easily found in the Bible. Here, they are humans with shameful and relatable weaknesses. Despite their lineage, their humanity and sinfulness were greatly depicted.

The book centralizes on the Dinah’s family from the start of Jacob’s betrothal to the more popular women in the bible called Rachel, which then was moved to Leah who became his first wife. The book strengthens the story of what women’s roles are in family and society in which the Red Tent in their camp pertains to the symbol of womanhood, camaraderie and the gifts of being a woman. The life was told under Dinah’s perspective and day to day observations until she reached adolescent, womanhood and motherhood.

The characters you have known so well from the bible were humbled by the story. We also get to glimpse the position of women at those times. We’ve come a long way from being treated as mere properties, child factory and ornaments in a man’s household. Most importantly, you get to know this daughter of Jacob who has a darkened story in the bible and after which was silenced. Admittedly she is not one of the most popular women like her mother Leah or her Aunt Rachel; and in this book you’ll know why. You’ll see her glory and pain, but most importantly you’ll appreciate women’s life through her eyes.

Kill me with Frustration

I just have to say my piece as a citizen of this country and I'm sure you've formed your own opinions and read pork barrel articles to last you a life time. But for a simple citizen, not even a top tax payer in BIR's coffers, a simple citizen who works and duly pays her rightful taxes without question, I have to say that I am deeply mad about this whole thing. Silent but seething with anger that I might lose my decorum and probably slap any righteous politician I come across the street. I know it's irrational to reach this level of anger, but no point in denying it.

I've worked for almost 8 years in private institutions and ever since I have always accepted that a chunk of my earnings go to the government. How it is being used, I only have a faint clue. They say it's for public education, infrastructures, healthcare and poverty alleviation. Okay. I look left and right. Result to prayers and goodwill when natural calamity strike. Enjoy majority of inefficiencies of Government agencies if I need to from time to time. Get irked at the public transportation that we currently have and receive never-ending, negative and literal progress reports on unemployment, poverty and crimes. I am not surprised about all of these because I don't think it ever changes anyway.  Year on year, we have had exposes, impeachments and scandals, but it just fades away until a new comes along. For some reason, it's not shock that will kill me, but frustration for this country.

Money is needed by the government. We are not contesting that. Pork Barrel was devised for the good and I believe it can actually work in the RIGHT HANDS. But obviously most of the politicians' hands are soiled. Billions of tax payer's money go to the personal coffers of these politicians that promised their servitude to turn this country around. Tell me....how hard can proper accounting and audit be? Sure funds are entrusted, a person is put in the position to allocate these funds, that person on his better judgment and research will allocate these funds to the rightful cause, someone logs it and someone liquidates it. We can go forward by publishing it for people's view real time, people make websites and update them every single day! Employ a think tank, an independent party of monitoring arm, business analysts and computer engineers! How hard can this be?  These politicians don't even have to pull their hairs to earn billions of funds, the working class have already earned it FOR THEM, presented on a silver platter. All they have to do is allocate them to where they are supposed to go, to our schools, roads, health and security.  Isn't that basic? Isn't that what Pork Barrel is supposed to be?

As much as I want to skin this so-called Madame-Fugitive-Napoles alive, I'd want to skin and boil the politicians that made her illegal business thrive and make them into a wonderful stew. Without these goon-politicians, do you think her business will survive in the first place? She's been doing it FOR YEARS!! How can this fly so gracefully? But of course, politicians protect this thief. And it would've gone on and on had this whistleblower stuck to family ties and shut up. Imagine, if this whistleblower was non-existent, this Madame Napoles may now even have enough money to pay off the debts of the Philippines and in another life she would've been this FINANCIAL HERO awarded by Malacanang! How stupid of us!

Pork Barrel in our incompetent and ineffectual system won't work. It's been 10 years of minimal result and continuous corruption in my working lifetime. I need changes. I need to know where my money is going and I need to see RESULTS. It's frustrating and not enough marching will fix this.

So Government, I really don't give a fuck about your explanation. God knows that when politicians go defensive on camera, they spew stupidity from their mouths.  What we need are actions!! Get Napoles, prosecute these invalid politicians and develop a system. It's our well-earned Money for our country. I hope these politicians understand what that means. 

The 34th Manila International Book Fair

HEY HEY HEY!

It's that time of the year again! In a few days its going to be September! And no, this not about Christmas, but it will definitely feel like Christmas to me and to all the book lovers out there!

It's the the annual, massive Manila International Book fair at the SMX Convention Center from September 11 - 15 (Wed - Sunday) at 10 am - 8 pm! 

This is where publishers, local and international book stores, book advocacy groups and independent literary shops converge and showcase what's new, what's hot and what's definitely worth-it in the world of literature! Imagine a clothing or travel bazaar only that it's books!

Thank you to the organizers for religiously hosting this event every September. Expect this to be jam-packed and worth your while. A scavenge hunt with amazing discounts.

Time to prepare my budget! And for those who are planning to go, please prepare cash!

You may find the list of exhibitors, sponsors and programs in this link:

http://www.manilabookfair.com/


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Winter of the World by Ken Follet

The first time I read the Fall of Giants by Ken Follet, I was hooked. As much as I am not a telenovela fan, this is my own guilty telenovela pleasure in literary form. I was hooked on the well versed effort and epic story of the main characters and how their lives are gracefully intertwined in the face of war. 

It took about 2 years for me to wait for the 2nd book and another couple of months to wait for a paperback version to come out. Finally I got it this year. 

This is the 2nd book of Ken Follet's Century Trilogy. The story centralizes on the 2nd generation of Fitzherberts, Peshkovs and Von Ulrichs and how their lives are magnificently intertwined in politics, war and relations. While the first book was set up on the 1st world war, the 2nd book is set in 2nd world war from the start of a rising power of Nazi Regime. More characters are introduced with sweeping connections with the main characters. There are the usual topics of betrayal, familial ties, politics and romance that are brilliantly knitted to create another epic story. Honestly, I don't know Ken Follet does it. How he maintains and flourishes stories with infinite characters in this magnitude. Think of Pillars of the earth. This involved clearly a lot of thought, writing and immersion to the web of characters. This is again an epic read. 

Best to read it on vacation! 

my frugal adventures.com

**Out in the leading bookstores. Got mine in Fully booked, mass paperback. 

BATTLE ROYALE Koushin Takami

With all the young adult genre novels about post apocalypse, future societies, angels, werewolves, vampires, zombies and everything else in between, one particular plot type that's out in the market is about survival, the basic story of to kill or be killed. And there's an interesting flavor if kids do it, the actual game of killing that is.

Imagine the SURVIVOR show, but instead of fighting for material reward, they are fighting for their life, survival of the fittest.  Also imagine that raging kids or teenagers are involved. It's either monsters or life threatening challenges are created by these sick organizers (usually the government) or the goal is simply for the participants to kill each other. I've read the Maze Runner Series and Catching Fire. Both have interesting plots and challenges. While Maze Runner is an experiment, Catching Fire is a tradition. If you like this kind of genre, I hope you won't miss Koushun Takami's The Battle Royale because by far, this one tops the list for me.

Battle Royale is about a yearly military government project where they randomly select a 3rd year HS class to be deported to a controlled island to kill each other. Winner would obviously be the last man standing. Society knows of this with only the hopes that their son, daughter, sister, brother or friend will not be a part of that selected class. Anyone creating violent objections from family, friends and organizations will immediately be put to death. The fight is televised and all actions completely monitored.

The kids being in the same class know each other and developed their own groups or connection, which is an added emotional burden. With minimal explanation, they were only given collars to wear and randomly selected weapons and supplies to carry in the island. There is no escape. If they try to escape, they will be killed. If they take off their collars, it will self detonate. If no one is killed within 24 hours, all collars will self detonate resulting to no winner. And some additional challenge, there will be randomly selected areas that the government will announce every few hours for the kids to avoid. If they find out that they are in the forbidden area at the announced time, their collars will also self-detonate. So the challenge is to strategically hide from your peers, familiarize the map, listen to announcements and efficiently kill opponents (which are your classmates and friends), without losing one's sanity. Did I mention that suicide is allowed?

What's interesting about the novel is how the human behavior will transform given the situation. It clearly mirrored the degradation of reasoning and emergence of paranoia and how these affect and transcend through their actions. The novel also explicitly showcased the emotional and psychological damage it has imposed on these kids more than the physical one. For round 30 so students, the author has given a glimpse of each student's background and how the person reacted to the situation. As a person, fighting for one's life, the reader will get to fully understand why someone pulled the trigger. Others were scared, others were paranoid, others became systematic while others were betrayed. It doesn't matter if they're highschool or college; it's the intensity and rawness of a person trying to survive.

Sure, there will be gory deaths and commendable twists. Written in 1996, a disturbing, fast paced and interesting read, this is the ultimate survival-thriller book. You've read Catching Fire, well this is as raw and real as it gets.

**OUT IN LEADING BOOKSTORES. GOT MINE IN FULLY BOOKED around 800 Pesos. Worth it. 

Buddy

With much publicity of my three dogs, Harvey, Chivas and Bruce, I believe we had unrightfully neglected this other dog who had been with us the longest. He came to our lives even before I even realized that I had so much affinity for dogs. He came to us when the family could only tolerate one simple pet. He was our beloved pet who was provided shelter, food and enough affection. Of all the dogs that we have right now who shared enough publicity, received extra attention and care, there's this one dog who remained silent and loyal to the very end. And it pains me to think we've let him down. Buddy, our 12-13 year old german shepherd - mongrel mix, died this morning.

It has been a week since he became lethargic. He wouldn't eat. No strength and affection would come from him. He'd always be at the corner where there was no light, watching and coping. He would vomit a couple of times a day and we knew something was terribly wrong. It was also this week that we found out that the dogs'  veterinarian Dr. Pedrito Peralta died of a heart attack two weeks ago. We thus experienced a shortage of good veterinarians. There was nothing we could do at that moment but provide him extra care, pray for him and somehow give him liquefied food. For the past couple of days before his death, he would always go to this one dark spot near the garden to rest. Sometimes with lack of energy, his breathing would be labored and a couple of times we mistook him for being dead. Every day, we would transfer him to a more secured spot, but every single time, probably with the remaining energy that he had, he would always go to that one spot near the garden even if it was raining. I knew from Marley and Me that dogs with this weird behavior are resigned to the fact that they are ready to leave this world. And we, his masters, undeserving humans, didn't do anything much about it.

We've let him down to the point that we made him suffer those last days. Even though we gave him extra attention, extra comfort and security it seems a pitiful effort for us to cover our guilt for the thousand times we have neglected him. We thought he was our wonder dog that he could withstand even the slightest pain. Buddy had always been quiet and resilient, but we forgot that he also needs comfort and peace.

He was the favorite of my parents, probably because seniors think alike. My father would always favor him against the pedigrees. Our helpers adore him. He has been with us for almost 14 years, that's unbeatable by far.  He is an excellent guard dog. He is patient and very loyal. There were times though that I had fights and quarrels with him. I wanted him out of the house for a couple of times because of how he bullied Bruce when our bullmastiff was still a small puppy. The fights and isolation would continue, and how much I pained him with words and gestures. He had suffered retaliation from the three dogs and for the last couple of years. He suffered a lot. On his last remaining days, I realized my wrongs and had my moment to cradle and say sorry to him.

I'm just so sorry again and again for not being able to rescue him from sickness. We have scheduled him for treatment on the day that he died and clearly it was too late. We didn't even give him the decency to skip the pain and suffering and just let him sleep. He deserved too much wonderful things that we simply have gotten frozen. We didn't act fast and we didn't act smartly. Early this morning we found him in the garden, with eyes opened and the last traces of dried liquid in his mouth.  We didn't even know the exact time he passed away, probably when all of us were sleeping. And just like that, it was never his method to grab attention and give us troubles.

I'm sorry, Buddy for the wrongdoings I've done. I apologize for not making you feel any better soon and I am sorry for all our shortcomings. You've been a good dog, loyal and patient. You've taught us to be better. Without you, we wouldn't have had the courage to take care of the three other dogs. You nursed us with the transition and we thank you. It's a sad day for all of us.

After saying my personal prayers, I thought of my dream to put up an advocacy group to shelter and redeploy stray animals. I don't know how I'll do it, but it's a profound dream. If I were to have one now put up now, I'll know what to call it. Buddy. Buddy Foundation in honor of a wonderful dog.

Thank you, Buddy. Rest In Peace, we love you.

I don't even have a decent photo of Buddy. If there's such  a  dog who'd shy away from the cameras, it's him. He's loyal, patient and strong. Clearly he was misunderstood most of the times, but he was part of our family. He has seen it all.  We will surely miss him.