Death is a Night Wind: How José Rizal’s immortal poem haunts the Philippines today |Caravan Magazine, June 2018
IN THE DAYS BEFORE HIS EXECUTION, a 35-year-old Filipino named José Rizal leaned over a wooden desk and wrote 14 stanzas in neat Castilian handwriting on a paper about the size of his palm. He folded the paper twice and tucked it inside a gas lamp. On his sister Trinidad’s final visit, he whispered to her, using English so that the Spanish guards would not understand, that she should look for something in the lamp after his death. Just a few miles from his prison cell, in the hills by Manila, a revolution was stirring: a movement that he had inspired and then condemned, one that would bring freedom to his country and then tear it apart. Early in the morning on 30 December 1896, Rizal dressed in a fine, black suit and a white shirt, and turned his back on the near-empty cell. Just after dawn, he stepped out into the city. READ MORE
A Deadly Quake Tests Batanes’ Tradition of Resiliency | Positively Filipino, August 2019
I WAS ON OUR FARM when the ground began to shake beneath me. I raised my arms to steady myself against the motion. From the rise, the forested hills seemed to sway around me. The narrow cement path I stood on was littered with brush I had just cleared. I was putting in a new irrigation line to reach our fields, recently planted with lettuce, spinach, papaya, and turmeric. I braced my feet and replaced the machete to my hip. When the shaking stopped, I went back to work, but this time with renewed purpose. Since last night, the earth had been rumbling, but this quake felt stronger and I was anxious to get back to the village to check on my family and neighbors. READ MORE
Black and undocumented: ‘I didn’t know anybody else like me’ | Southern California Public Radio, March 2016
As the debate on immigration heats up, some are hoping to inject a new perspective into the conversation: that of those who are both black and undocumented.
“For such a long time we’ve couched immigration as a Latino issue that we’ve erased all these communities that are at that intersection,” said Jonathan Jayes-Green, whose family came from Panama when he was 13. “We’re not talking about this huge community of black, undocumented people that really experience the broken immigration system in a different manner.” LISTEN TO STORY
Officer Involved: A routine stop, then shots fired | Southern California Public Radio, November 2015
The Lakers were about to play a key NBA championship game and Charles Beatty didn’t want to miss it. He was rushing to pick up his son when traffic backed up on Central Avenue and he became increasingly annoyed. As the light changed, he crossed into oncoming traffic and swerved around the cars ahead. That aught Ronald Orosco’s eye. LISTEN TO STORY
The Ikalahan: A Forest Community Fighting Climate Change | FSRN, February 2011
Some 1.6 billion people directly depend on forests for their livelihoods. This month, world leaders at the UN’s Forum on Forests gathered in New York to develop a plan to preserve the world’s vanishing forests – and the people who have been living within them for generations. In order to understand how these new policies are playing out on the ground, I visited the Ikalahans, an indigenous people who live deep in the Philippine mountains. LISTEN TO STORY
Indonesia’s efforts against Islamic Extremism | PRI’s The World, February 2009
Indonesians on Obama’s ascendancy from Menteng to the White House | Southeast Asia: News, Culture, Politics, November 2008
YOGYAKARTA, INDONESIA – As he delivered his historic acceptance speech in a Chicago park, Barack Obama paused at one point to speak directly to the world community. “And all those watching tonight from beyond our shores,” he said. “To those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world: our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared.” READ MORE
Dorian Merina 