David Haldane, a former Los Angeles Times staff writer, is an award-winning American journalist, author and broadcaster. He has homes in Joshua Tree, California, and Surigao City, Philippines, where he lives with his Filipino wife and their two children.
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I thought of those sad experiences recently after learning that a committee of the Philippine House of Representatives had approved an “absolute divorce bill,” effectively putting this predominately Catholic nation on the cusp of legalizing permanent marital separation. Currently, the Philippines is one of only two countries in the world that outlaws divorce, the other being Vatican City.
Tucked on an inside page under the headline “Family says US killed 7 children,” the story describes the only publicly confirmed victims of an American drone strike said to have vaporized a car full of Afghan terrorists about to attack the Kabul airport. An earlier terrorist attack just days before had killed at least 170 people, including 13 American service members.
God, how I longed to hug him. Lord, how I missed his baby sister and mom standing right there beside him. Being apart from them was a sacrifice, for sure. But it was one I was making for the well-being of my son.
It is also strangely reminiscent of an earlier stain on American history; the hasty 1975 retreat from Saigon in South Vietnam.
Like me, he was an American expat married to a Filipina. I must have met him around 2008, probably at one of the many parties he used to host for Americans and their Filipino wives living in Southern California. Les was already a veteran of that burgeoning culture, having married lovely Ruthie four years earlier. I was still a newbie and so looked to him for guidance.
All this, and yet the reaction of average Filipinos has been far more muted than that of their American brethren who are significantly more likely to die. While both countries show a Covid fatality rate of about 1.7%, according to statistics compiled by the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine, the deaths per 100,000 population are many times greater in the U.S.; 187.89 compared to only 26.67 in the Philippines.
The good news was that I finally got to step out of the Cebu hotel room that’s imprisoned me for the past seven days. Even got to spend a moment luxuriating in the afternoon sun. The bad news was that they jammed a stick so far up my nose that it felt like it was tickling my brain.
I could be without Internet, TV and a view of the construction site next door. I could be somewhere without a restaurant downstairs that sends food up just for the dialing. And, let’s face it, I could be in a place with gun-toting guards ordering me to do pushups every morning.
The wonder. The awe. The excitement of a child watching something he knew was historic. Branson, 70, obviously felt it too as he hung weightless in the capsule created by his company, Virgin Galactic, the first private concern to launch its CEO into space.
“Right away we were snapping jokes back and forth,” recalls Jared, 38. “It felt so comfortable; she was exactly the person who could balance my life.”
And so I offer the Mindanao Gold Star Daily congratulations on the 32nd anniversary of its founding. May it continue to serve the community that spawned its birth. May it, as Dr. Spock would say, live long and prosper. Finally, may it be here always to fill that terrifying space where otherwise only silence would reign.
Which is why President Duterte’s recent vow to jail anyone refusing a Covid vaccination raised lots of eyebrows, including mine.