KASAMA March 2005

KASAMA means friend, companion, comrade...
KASAMA March 2005
Volume 19 Number 1

Activists World-wide Come Together at WSF 2005: World Social Forum gives hope to the poor by Fr. Shay Cullen, PREDA Foundation.
A Unique Space for Collective Reflection, Visioning and Action: The Festival of Women's Ideas Into Action took place in Brisbane’s Powerhouse on March 3 & 4 thanks to the support and hard work of many women.
Filipinas speak up at UN women’s meet: Ten years after adopting an ambitious plan of action for women’s rights at a landmark international conference in Beijing, the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women opened its 49th session at the UN headquarters last week to review its progress.
Japan’s new rules provoke differing views from NGOs: MANILA — ON MARCH 15, Japanese immigration authorities would implement new rules slashing the number of visas issued to Filipino overseas performing artists (OPAs) and provoking mixed reactions from OPA rights advocates and recruiters.
An update on Swagman: I FIRST came across Swagman Hotels and Travel in 1996. It was after a visit by a group of Filipina and Australian women’s rights campaigners to a hotel in Angeles City. I don’t know if you remember, but there was a bit of an altercation between the women and the manager of the Bonanza Hotel, Peter Bellamy, which ended with the women being ejected from the hotel. The next day, the study tour participants filed a formal complaint of harassment and grave coercion against the owner of the Bonanza Hotel with the police in Balibago. The women were in the Philippines on a Study Tour investigating Australian involvement in the sex tourism industry in the country and the phenomenal bride trade.
Left Labor in bed with the sex industry: On July 1st, 2001, a Left Labor Conference, was held at the Melbourne Trades Hall. It was meant to provide a speaking forum for ‘left Labor activists and their supporters to force progressive reform’. The first session, entitled ‘Our Bodies Our Rights’, was meant to address issues of civil liberties and free speech. Two of the speakers in this session, Peter Tourney and Maureen Mathews, are members of the Eros Foundation, a lobby group for Australia’s $1.2 billion a year sex industry.

Why is Left Labor in bed with mainstream business lobbyists and asking for their opinions on Human Rights, free speech and personal freedom but not including an independent feminist representative to provide a criticism of the sex industry?
6th Igorot International Consultation: The people of the Cordillera central mountains in northern Luzon, Philippines, are comprised of several indigenous cultural groups. their ancestors are the creators of the awe-inspiring rice terraces often called the eighth wonder of the world. Many have left their mountain homes for the cities and countryside elsewhere. They maintain their cultural heritage in foreign lands by gathering together in common bond. The First International Igorot Consultation took place in California USA in 1995.
Cordillera Cultural Heritage Collections in Australia by Dee Dicen Hunt: Last quarter I promised to include some library information in each issue of “Kasama”. The Igorot International Consultation scheduled for 2006 in Melbourne gave me the perfect reason to look for writings and artefacts from the Cordillera, the ancestral land of the tribal peoples of northern Luzon, that are in the collections of Australian public institutions.
Women, Citizenship and the Politics of Dress in Twentieth-Century Philippines: HISTORICALLY the politics of dress as expressed in terms of a Filipino dress/Western dress binary had gendered implications. Women as ‘bearers of tradition’ wore national dress while men wore the western suit and jacket, reflecting the gendered power relationship in the society: Because of the stark visual contrast between these two types of dress, these visual markers became politically potent. Women in the Philippines, from suffragists to powerful women, have used clothing and gender stereotypes associated with particular forms of dress as part of political strategy and empowerment.
H. WILFRID WALKER’S TALES OF TRAVEL IN THE PHILIPPINES (PART TWO): In letters he sent home to his family in England, H. Wilfrid Walker described his travels and the native peoples he met on his journeys. we are reprinting the photographs and the two chapters in his book that tell of his journey in the Philippines which we think took place sometime between 1901 and 1904. This is the second of a three-part series.
MULTICULTURAL DOCUMENTARY HERITAGE WORKSHOPS: 2005 MULTICULTURAL DOCUMENTARY HERITAGE WORKSHOPS AT STATE / TERRITORY LIBRARIES
Women As Peacemakers - Social Weather Stations survey: The national survey conducted by Social Weather Stations for the Mindanao Commission on Women (MCW) found strong belief that women are better peacemakers, with both Filipino men and women sharing the same opinion.