Inspiring...

   

OFW Diaries 2009/03/13 Pilot Episode

Idioms, idioms...

Common Idiomatic Expressions
& Their Meanings

1. She was tickled pink by the good news.

• Made very happy

2. You were hands down the best player on the team.

• There was no competition

3. I've been feeling pretty down in the dumps lately.

• Sad or depressed

4. I'm feeling sick as a dog!

• Very sick

5. I've been feeling under the weather.

• Not well

6. Rise and shine!

• Wake up and be happy!

7. Close, but no cigar.

• You were very close, but you did not make it.

8. I could play outside till the cows come home.

• For a very long time

9. Wow! It's raining cats and dogs out there!

• Very hard rain

10. That sound is driving me up the wall!

• Making me very annoyed

11. This assignment is a piece of cake.

• Very easy

12. Although he broke the rules, he was only given a slap on the wrist.

• A mild punishment

13. Yikes! This shirt costs an arm and a leg.

• It is extremely expensive.

14. No, I was just pulling your leg.

• Just joking

15. It's Greek to me!

• I don't understand.

16. Keep your chin up.

• Be happy.

17. Hold your horses.

• Be patient.

18. We're all in the same boat.

• All of us are in the same position.

19. He's a bit of a loose cannon.

• Unpredictable

20. I will clean my room when pigs fly.

• Never

New Addition to Articles ...

From Maid to Best-Selling Author
Sunday, 11 January 2009 23:14 Cynthia de Castro AJ Press

A few years ago, a slim bookwritten by a Filipina domestic helper, Crisanta Sampang, made it to the top ten non-fiction bestsellers of Singapore’s The Strait Times within the first two weeks of its launch. The book, Maid in Singapore, immediately became a hit, not only in Singapore, but also in Canada, where the author currently lives after having worked for years as a nanny/ housekeeper in Singapore.

Crisanta has proven her talents as an author, being also the editor of the first Filipino newspaper in Vancouver. She also formed Crazy Planet Films together with two other Filipinos in Vancouver while working as a researcher for the news desk at Canadian TV. Sampang’s dabbling in filmmaking and scriptwriting has earned her awards at the 2001 Vancouver International Film Festival and a Jury Prize at the National Film Board Contest in Banff, Alberta.

It might seem hard to believe that a domestic helper could reach great heights as a best-selling writer and filmmaker. But those who know Crisanta believe that she is certainly no ordinary girl. Born and raised in Batangas, Crisanta performed well in high school which earned her a government scholarship in college. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to graduate from college because she got pregnant at 19 and had to drop out of school and get married. The union bore three daughters who were born one after the other.

The marriage didn’t last long, however, and after a few years, Crisanta separated from her alcoholic husband. Struggling to support three daughters; then aged seven, five, and two, Crisanta desperately looked for a job abroad. Deciding to work as a maid in Singapore, Crisanta left her children with her mother in 1984.

Filled with ambition and knowing that she can do so much more than just cooking, cleaning and looking after children, Crisanta pursued what she would later on discover she was good at—writing. In between household chores, Crisanta contributed to The Strait Times, Singapore’s largest-circulated English newspaper as well as in other newspapers. She described the employers who warmly welcomed her into their family and didn’t object when she began writing about them in features for the newspapers.

"I have always wanted to write about the experiences of those like me who left their homes and sacrifices so much for their children," says the author.

Crisanta admits that she has been fortunate in having worked for good employers. She was not among the countless numbers of OFWs who become victims of abuse, exploitation and sexual assault. "I was living in a bubble with good employers, good people," she says. "And I didn’t have much experience with abused nannies. But I heard things."

What she heard formed the basis of many of Sampang’s featured stories in her book.

The author describes Maid In Singapore as " a story not of one person, but of countless others like me, who had left both hearth and home in the hope of finding a better life abroad."

"Our relatives back home only see the happy faces in photographs and the cash they receive every month but they don’t see the depression and pain that maids in foreign countries go through," she said.

After working in Singapore, Crisanta decided to take advantage of the federal Live-In Caregiver Program in Canada which allows domestic workers to apply for citizenship after two years. Earning in a month what the average Filipino earns in a year, Crisanta worked as a caregiver in Vancouver.

After being granted Canadian citizenship, Sampang began to explore other options, pursuing the writing career she started in Singapore. She worked in TV, film and in the publishing industries. She has flourished in Canada and visits her family in the Philippines for several weeks every year. Working abroad enabled her to buy her family a house and property and send one of each of her brothers’ children to college with the understanding that they will help their siblings. Crisanta explains, "A Filipino nanny is not working for herself only, she’s working for everyone, first and foremost her children, then other family members."

In the internet, the book Maid in Singapore is described as "a book about the serious, quirky and sometimes absurd life of a domestic worker. It tells of why young women are forced to work overseas, to live, work and struggle amongst strangers. It speaks frankly about the aspirations, hopes and dreams of a whole race of people who bravely went where few would like to go."

Crisanta Sampang embodies the hopes and dreams, the struggles and successes of the millions of OFWs around the world. Rising from maid to best-selling author, she has become an inspiration to Filipinos everywhere. Truly, galing Pinoy!

( www.asianjournal.com )

( Published on January 10, 2009 in Asian Journal Los Angeles p. A7 )

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articles for Crisanta Sampang from http://thetyee.ca/

A Global Nanny's Story

The Philippines exports caregivers, stripping its own families of mothers. Crisanta Sampang knows the cost.

By Deborah Campbell, 28 Mar 2006, TheTyee.ca

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"It's a small world…but not if you have to clean it."

Artist Barbara Kruger appended this pithy caption to a photo of a 1950's housewife wielding a magnifying glass. Well, goodbye to all that. Yesterday's (truly) desperate housewife, suffocating under a mountain of laundry and suburban ennui, is today's manic working mother, striving to balance home and family obligations without falling off the corporate ladder. Yet, to turn the magnifying glass on millions of homes in prosperous nations is to discover something rather more unsettling than expanding colonies of dust bunnies or rings around the toilet bowl. The world has indeed become smaller, but the ones cleaning up after it are, increasingly, millions of poor women who have left behind their homes and families in far-off lands to care for ours.

What prompted me to look more closely at a phenomenon so vast and unprecedented that it now strikes me as shocking never to have seen it addressed in any editorial on globalization was a slim, new book by Vancouver-based writer Crisanta Sampang. Sampang was born in the Philippines and worked as a nanny/housekeeper in Singapore from 1984-88, before immigrating to Canada to take a similar job. In Maid in Singapore, she writes that hers "is a story not of one person, but of countless others like me, who had left both hearth and home in the hope of finding a better life abroad." Like a million Filipinos a year, 70 percent of them women, she saw migrant work as her ticket out of poverty. What she left behind remained a secret for more than twenty years.

'Love' for hire

On a recent sunny afternoon, I join Sampang at a Filipino restaurant on the west side of Vancouver. It's the weekend and the direct-to-the-Philippines courier service across the street is crammed with women sending home the remittances that sustain their families. With more than eight million citizens working abroad, some ten percent of the population, foreign remittances are the Philippines' largest source of income, bringing in upwards of US$8 billion a year. Through nannies, housekeepers, nurses and home support workers, the country's primary export is something rarely identified as a global commodity: care.

In Global Woman: Nannies, Maids and Sex Workers in the New Economy, co-editors Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild sum up the "feminization of migration" in startling terms. "The lifestyles of the First World are made possible by a global transfer of the services associated with a wife's traditional role-child care, homemaking and sex-from poor countries to rich ones…Today, while still relying on Third World countries for agricultural and industrial labor, the wealthy countries also seek to extract something harder to measure and quantify, something that can look very much like love."

They offer a theory on the way modern life-workaholic, narcissistic, cut off from the obligations and supports of community-is affecting the emotional landscape. "It's as if the wealthy parts of the world are running short on precious emotional and sexual resources and have had to turn to poorer regions for fresh supplies."

The restaurant where I meet Sampang is full of nannies and former nannies, but she may be the first of their lot to publish a memoir. "It's a niche subject and no real domestic worker has written on it except The Nanny Diaries," says the very petite Sampang. She suspects the nanny diarists were fakes. They write in "this gossipy American way," she says, "looking down on their employers. I didn't look up to my employers, but I didn't think I was better, either."

On the rare occasion that magazines like Vogue write about the hidden world of domestic workers, it is inevitably from the employers' point of view: the secret jealousies of an ambitious Gucci-clad mother confronted by a nanny who bonds more closely to the children than either of the parents do (and, even more galling, may be younger and thinner than she). Or it's in the form of deliciously scandalous novels like the bestselling Diaries, wherein the caretaker (a graduate student on her way up and out, since no one would stay in such a job) exposes the comically dysfunctional lives of Manhattan's über-rich.

Sampang's memoir is about as far from that perspective as Vancouver is from her rural farming village. Her story begins with the suicide of Imelda, a desperate 23-year-old Filipina domestic who had lost her job. Imelda's parents had borrowed money to pay an agency to bring her to Singapore; if she was unsuccessful they could lose their farm. Imelda's suicide-later echoed by the suicide of a Filipina domestic working in Canada-is the most extreme response to a situation characterized, Sampang writes, by "isolation and lack of emotional support."

A long held secret

Though it begins on a tragic note, Sampang's account of the profession is largely positive, even light-hearted. She describes the employers who warmly welcomed her into their family and didn't object when she began writing about them in features for the Straits Times, her first foray into writing. She chronicles the way other domestics found love in the arms of migrant construction workers (or in one another's), touching briefly on the consequences for marriages back home.

Smart, attractive and confident, Sampang flourished in Singapore and Canada. She was not among the abused, the runaways, or the victims of sexual assault-fates that prey upon the particular vulnerabilities of workers in private homes. "I was living in a bubble with good employers, good people," she says. "And I didn't have much experience with abused nannies. But I heard things."

What she heard ran the gamut from those who didn't get time off to those that didn't get enough to eat. "I heard stories that their dogs were better fed than the domestic." In Canada, where many Filipinas who arrive under the federal Live-In Caregiver Program and have university degrees, there are reports of 16-hour works days, withheld pay, the subcontracting of their services, physical and sexual abuse, even forced captivity. Many keep silent for fear of losing their jobs.

At the table next to us, a Filipina toddler in a pink jumpsuit samples from her mother's plate. Watching the little girl, I am reminded of Sampang's secret. By the time she left the Philippines in 1984, she had separated from her alcoholic husband and was struggling to support three daughters; aged seven, five, and two. Desperate to find work abroad, she did not declare her children. Later, when the opportunity arose to go to Canada-where the Live-In Caregiver Program allows domestic workers to apply for citizenship after two years-she did the same. After all, a domestic worker in Canada makes about the same per month that the average Filipino earns in a year-roughly $1000 US.

It was not until her book was published in Singapore last fall-hitting the Singapore Timesbestseller list within two weeks-that her partner of ten years, writer Daniel Wood, read it and learned of the children. "He was blindsided," she says. But he understood her reasons. "It has made us closer. It was a great relief because now I can talk about my children."

This, then, is the hidden cost of the global trade in mothering-a cost that has become, in the words of Berkeley sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild, a "dark child's burden." An estimated 30 percent of Filipino children, some 8 million, live in households where at least one parent works abroad. In three Asian countries-the Philippines, Indonesia and Sri Lanka-women are the majority of migrant workers and most are mothers.

'Working for everyone'

"My children 'understand,'" says Sampang, curling her fingers into quotation marks, "but it's still not good enough. I thought they would be better off growing up with my mother, but apparently not." The middle daughter dropped out of college at eighteen to marry a merchant marine after becoming pregnant. "I asked her why she got married so young," says Sampang. "She cried and said there was a hole in her life that cannot be filled. Now she is married and has a family to fill the hole."

The effect of migration on families is a "two-edged sword," Sampang says. Working abroad enabled her to buy her mother a house and property and send one of each of her brothers' children to college with the understanding that they will help their siblings. "A Filipino nanny is not working for herself only, she's working for everyone, first and foremost her children, then other family members."

But children who grow up with absentee parents show higher delinquency rates and often experience "reunification issues" after years of living apart. A cultural upheaval has taken place as parents compensate for their absence with money and gifts. "In the Philippines, every teenager has a cell phone, an iPod," says Sampang. "Everyone wants the latest fashion. It's become a western culture of materialism, as if the local is not good enough."

She sees an ingrained "colonial mentality" extending back to the Spanish and American occupations of the Philippines; a mentality that says "white skin is better," in which "everyone wants to leave." It is as if centuries of dependence on wealthier nations have created a crisis of faith in their own culture and country. A survey of children of Filipino migrant workers found that 60 percent want to leave. "They leave because they think life is better outside-and life is better," says Sampang. "There is so much poverty."

Sampang has made a good life for herself, working in television and film, exploring options that would have been unthinkable back home. Like most female migrant workers, she has settled abroad, visiting the Philippines for several weeks a year. Her, and the millions like her, epitomize the adaptable workforce praised by free market economists. They have made tough decisions that may just be their best options in the global economy.

Migrant work, dictators' debt

But why are these women forced to make such wrenching decisions, essentially abandoning their families in order to save them? What creates the conditions that compel them to leave?

The disturbing answer is that entire countries have become dependent on the incomes of migrant workers in order to service the foreign debts owed to international lenders like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. These loans have, to a remarkable degree, been handed to corrupt leaders with few or no controls. It would almost appear that the lenders crave the kind of power these massive debts afford them, from lucrative interest payments to the ability to dictate economic and social policy.

The term "crony capitalism" was first coined to describe Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who counted among his personal friends Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr. In 1972, Marcos pronounced martial law; two years later he enacted the first government policies in support of overseas migrant work. Such policies have since evolved from a stop-gap measure to a permanent economic survival strategy.

Between 1980 and 1999, the Philippines received nine structural adjustment loans from the World Bank. By the time Marcos went into exile in Hawaii following a people's revolution in 1986, half of the government's annual budget was earmarked to service foreign debt. And what did these debts accomplish?

The largest single debt of the Philippines is the Bataan nuclear power station. Constructed for more than $2 billion (all amounts in US dollars) on a fault line at the foot of an active volcano, it was completed in the mid-'80s but never opened due to safety concerns. The plant was built by US multinational Westinghouse, which allegedly paid $80 million in kickbacks to the Marcos government (and which built a similar plant in South Korea for a third the cost). Though Westinghouse eventually paid the Philippines government $100 million to drop charges of fraud, Filipino taxpayers still pay $155,000 a day in interest on the plant. The debt will not be repaid until 2018.

"We are not asking for debt forgiveness; we are asking for justice. We are asking the creditors to repent and debt cancellation would be a symbol of that repentance," said Archbishop Alberto Ramento of the Philippine Independent Church, in an interview in 1998. The IMF and World Bank, he said, had given loans to the Marcos regime despite knowledge of its corruption. "We are paying for the shoes of Imelda Marcos," he said.

A 'war' for dignity

Structural readjustment loans have required governments like the Philippines to cut funding to education, health and social services, exacerbating poverty and perpetuating the export of labour. Yet, the influx of foreign capital has not been used for development that might create the kind of society where women like Crisanta Sampang and her daughters can achieve their potential. Education has become focused on exportable skills, with doctors studying to be nurses in order to emigrate. Debt payments now account for nearly 70 percent of the Philippines' government expenditures. Spending on social services shrank from 35 percent of the budget in 2000 to 23 percent in 2004, sowing the seeds for greater social instability and extremism-and, of course, more migration.

The same factors lurk behind the growth of sex tourism-another form of "women's work," one with a long history linked to the American military presence in the Philippines. A friend who worked for an American high-tech company located at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines described the peeler bars and brothels that have sprung up around it to service US troops. One of his colleagues, an overweight middle-manager in his fifties, had found several Filipina "girlfriends" there, some as young as fourteen.

"Developing countries are fighting a war," said Archbishop Ramento. "We are fighting to live with dignity and we cannot win this war because we do not have the power to win it on the streets of Manila alone. But it can be won in the streets of London and Washington by those who have the power."

The kitchens and cradles of suburbia can seem a long way from the slums and brothels of the Third World, but they are linked by economic policies with far-reaching consequences. Somebody's mother, so attentive to the needs of her employers, listens to the voices of her children through the crackle of a long-distance connection. She notes how they have grown and changed, how they have become, through years of separation, almost strangers. Then she hangs up the phone as another voice, someone else's child or parent, calls her name.

Vancouver writer Deborah Campbell is the author of This Heated Place.

Join Crisanta Sampang and hear her story at the Canadian launch of Maid in Singapore on Thursday, March 30, 2006, at Fireside Books, 2652 Arbutus Street in Vancouver, from 7 to 9 PM. 

I Should Be Proud Of This...

The Maid turned Writer – Crisanta Sampang

By Myke

I watched the pilot episode of GMA 7’s OFW Diaries and there I rediscovered the feeling of living in a foreign land. Yep, I too was an OFW before, back in 2007 when I work as a hotel acoustic vocalist at night and during the weekends; and a kindergarten teacher at daytime. It was quite an experience for me.
At the pilot show of OFW Diaries, they featured Crisanta Sampang, a domestic helper from Canada who made it possible to succeed in a foreign country, a thousand miles from home.
Her story is inspiring. It’s simply because who would think that despite being busy doing household chores, cleaning some foreign employer’s house and doing the dishes for several years, she managed to pull herself out of the monotonous routine and published her own book. Yep, she is a writer. And she became a writer because the book chose her to be its author. The book came about, taken from her actual encounters and day to day experience which made it more interesting.
Her book is entitled, Maid In Singapore: The Serious, Quirky and Sometimes Absurd Life of a Domestic Worker, which made me more curious about it because she’s an OFW from Canada and yet she chose Singapore as the location/setting of the book. I heard that several Filipino directors and movie producers are scrambling to seek rights to produce a movie based from her book.

I think it’s an honest regard to the OFW life, since the writer itself is an OFW. And I must say that one could only understand that once he or she is faced with the real, actual experience.
I haven’t read the book yet, but I’m very much looking forward to have the book, I checked at PowerBooks and it is priced around P500 pesos. I don’t usually buy books this expensive but I would definitely buy this one. I’ll post a review once I finished reading the book. =)

My Happiness

Another Angel...

            It took me five years to finally decide to have another baby. I am 35 years old already while my husband is 50. We had our first daughter unexpectedly and she brought us so much happiness but life is not so easy and happiness always had to go with some uncertainties and problems. I, myself always had second thoughts of having another baby because I want to give my first-born the best life can offer. I wanted to send her to the best preschool, I wanted to always provide the things that would make her happy.

            As five years went by, I came to realize that parents would not be always here to be with their children. In my case where I had my first daughter in my early 30's, it would always create questions at the back of my mind; how about if I will not be around in the future when she would need me the most? how if she has no one to turn to in her most difficult time in the future? and a lot of questions...

             Last February I finally got pregnant with my second baby, she is now 1 month old and also a girl. She is a great blessing once again but also a great responsibility. I had to stop working to personally look after her because my husband is not too hands-on when it comes to infants so we have to set a division of labor. Since I gave birth thru C-SEC, I am advised to rest for the whole 3 months before I can go back to normal life and attend to my usual responsibilities. I am looking after the baby while hubby do everything in the house including being a nanny to my first-born.

            Financial responsibility is but another thing, it is not very easy to have a lot of needs but less money. It is sad and disappointing. But when I think of what will happen in the future, I can do nothing but to be grateful that God again gave me another angel; basically not only for me and hubby but for her sister.

Writing Tips

Going Back to School – Basic Grammar Rules - Paid Online Writing Jobs

Since you are trying to be a freelance writer, it may seem silly to write an article about basic grammar, but you would be surprised at how many writers forget about the basic parts of speech and the basic rules of grammar. Even experienced writers sometimes make silly mistakes when it comes to something like grammar. So, stop rolling your eyes, and let’s have a grammatical refresher course, shall we?

First, and foremost, remember the parts of speech:

Noun – person, place, or thing and usually the subject of a sentence
Pronoun – a word that stands for a noun (i.e. Sophie/she)
Verb – an action word, must be present to make a complete sentence
Adjective – a describing word for the noun
Adverb – a describing word for the verb, usually ends in “ly”, can also describe an adjective
Preposition – a word indicating the relationship of the noun to another word (to, at, for, with)
A complete sentence will have a subject and a verb/predicate. The subject is what the sentence’s verb refers to; the predicate is the verb plus whatever other parts modify or elaborate on that verb. A phrase, as opposed to a sentence, is an expression that contains a single thought but isn’t necessarily a complete sentence on its own. Words make up phrases, and phrases make up sentences.

Some common grammatical sentence errors include the following:

Run-On Sentence – This is a sentence that should be broken into two sentences. One of the sentences should present one basic concept. If it presents more than one, it could be a run-on sentence. Run-on sentences are generally quite long and contain a large number of “and’s” and “but’s” along with other joining words.

Sentence Fragment – This type of sentence does not present a complete thought. Remember, a complete sentence should contain both a sentence and a verb. If these two components are not present in a phrase, it is a sentence fragment.
When it comes to sentence structure, you will want to make sure that you are keeping with the point of view you have started with. This is called tense and will present itself in either past, present, or future. If you are writing a phrase in present tense, the verb should be in present tense. For example, “I am writing” is in present tense, denoting what you are doing right now. Past tense of this same sentence would be “I wrote”, and future tense would be “I will be writing”.

We should also briefly touch on passive and active verbs. A verb is active when the subject is performing it. A verb is passive when the subject is the recipient of the verb. In general, passive verb construction is considered weak and is not usually recommended in professional writing.

Pay attention to your sentences and phrases. In another article, we will cover punctuation of our sentence, but sentence structure is just as important as what you are writing about. You don’t want to look like an amateur, which is why basic grammar is so important to know and to remember!

JUST TO SHARE IT WITH YOU...

Writing Tips

Common Writing Mistakes and How NOT to Make Them - Paid Online Writing Jobs

Have you ever read an article or some other piece of writing where the author, who is supposed to know what he or she is doing, has made an obvious writing mistake and you think to yourself, “What the heck? Have I ever done something like that?” Chances are good that you have. Here are some of the most common writing mistakes that people make and how to avoid making them and looking like a novice:

Subject/Verb Agreement – Does this sentence look correct: “Mrs. Doubtfire” is a better cook than me”? If you say “yes”, you are wrong. The verb in this sentence is “is”. While it is stated with the first subject, with the second one, “me”, it isn’t. If you look at this sentence with the second verb present, it would read “Mrs. Doubtfire is better cook than me (am)”. That makes it obvious that the second subject should be “I” and the sentence should read “Mrs. Doubtfire is a better cook than I (am)”. Make sure that all subjects and verbs agree.

Pronoun/Antecedent Agreement – A pronoun is a word used to replace a noun; the antecedent is the word being referred to by the pronoun. Look at this sentence, “I spoke to someone in the office, but they couldn’t help”. The pronoun is “they”, the antecedent is “someone”. While this sentence might look correct, it isn’t because we don’t know if that “someone” is a male or female and “they” is a plural pronoun; therefore, the correct way to word this sentence would be “I spoke to someone in the office, but he or she could not help”.

Mis-Use of Apostrophes – This is most definitely the most common writing error and is made by professionals and novices alike. That doggone apostrophe looks good almost anywhere, but you need to be sure you use it correctly. Apostrophes are used in two ways: to indicate possession and to make contractions.

When you use the apostrophe to indicate possession, if the possessor is single, you will use an apostrophe followed by an “s”. If the possessor is more than one, you will use an “s” apostrophe (Judy’s bear, the boys’ tent)

When you use the apostrophe to make a contraction, be sure you are doing it correctly. The contraction of they are is they’re; the contraction of is not is isn’t, etc. Come on people, we learned this in third grade, know it learn it, love it!

Do not use nouns as verbs – For example, the word “parent” can mean to give birth or to be the main part of a company. Another example is the word “focus”. You can focus a camera or you can be the focus of an investigation. It can get confusing so just avoid this altogether.

Use similar words correctly – This is a very, very common mistake. You “affect” someone when you have influenced them. You have an “effect” on them when the aforementioned “affect” has been applied. It is very easy to use the wrong word – especially under deadline. Be sure that you are getting across the message you want to instead of one you do not.
Of course, these are only a few of the more common writing mistakes. Err on the side of caution and look up anything you are unsure of. It is better to be safe than sorry and be professional instead of not.