to ibskaholic.multiply.com

a lot easier to post pictures there...
and besides, good friends who live in distant lands are more in touch with me there...

FILIPINO RACE! NOT MALAY!!!!

got this from another blog, and i do find it interesting!


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The Filipino Race

Posted by ricardo on Jun 19, '06 11:58 AM for everyone

We've always been taught in school that Filipinos are of the Malay race. So imagine my surprise when a form that I filled up while being keyed into the database of a hospital here, I was told that I am not Malay, and that my race is Filipino. I pointed out that Filipino is my nationality, but my race is Malay. As much as she wants to listen and try to understand (I assumed) what I am trying to say, their computer system won't let give her much of a choice anyway.

That was when I filled up the birth cert of my 1st born. And it happened over and over until I learned to put in just what they want and not what I always knew. Now, this issue on race came up again in the yahoogroups for IT profs here. Why is it that people here (even the gov't officially) cannot accept that Filipinos are of the Malay stock?

Wikipedia was not up then yet, or maybe was still in its infancy. So that I have a chance now, I found a relevant entry there. One of the paragraph there in fact noted the "miseducation" of Filipinos regarding their being "Malay":

"...in the Philippines, many Filipinos consider the term "Malay" to refer to the indigenous population of the country as well as the population of neighboring countries like Indonesia and Malaysia. This misconception is due in part to American anthropologists H. Otley Beyer who proposed that the Filipinos were actually Malays who migrated from Malaysia and Indonesia. This idea was in turn propagated by Filipino historians and is still taught in schools. However, the prevalent consensus among contemporary anthropologists, archaeologists, and linguists actually proposes the reverse; namely that the Malays of Malaysia and Indonesia originally migrated south from the Philippines during the prehistoric period. Among these are scholars in the field of Austronesian studies such as Peter Bellwood, Robert Blust, Malcolm Ross, Andrew Pawley, and Lawrence Reid."

So I guess, if we are wrong to think that people from the peninsular Malaysia walked over to Philippines via land bridges, then at the same time the Malaysians and Indonesians are all wrong for thinking there's a Malay race. If the movement of aboriginal people were actually in reverse based on contemporary anthropological beliefs and assumed linguistic evolution (because we are actually more related to the polynesians in the Pacific), then could it be that Malaysians and Indonesians are actually of Filipino race instead? Hehe. Of course, its not so simple as that. But that article did open my eyes.

But the thing is that, there could be no Malay race at all. Because the word is actually used more for group people living in the Malaysian archipelago, based more on a cultural common denominator. As the article said, "the term is used as a form of ethnic self-identification." And to most people, race is simply about skin color. I mean, some fair skinned guy can go to a tanning salon and come out a Malay for a day, right?

As I posted in that yahoogroup, the race in official forms to be filled up here are more from a political standpoint. From the minimum stuff I gather on local history here, they went through a phase of violent conflict between races. Policies since then have to take into consideration the races of citizens, so I guess it manifests itself through the race tick boxes in the forms. In the end, they are more relevant to locals, and other citizens who's countries are closely intertwined with Singapore, like Malaysia.

I never really thought about the "Filipino race" even if I have been filling it up on forms for the past 4 years since I turned SPR. But now that its brought up front, I think I'm quite liking it It seems even better that Filipinos are on a race of our own.

just a thought

i guess everything is just a perception...
on what we think (abt pride abt good looks abt all that)
on what we think others think (miscommunication and all that)
on what we think how things are going...

i just have to hold down a little bit... thinking too much could just be damaging...

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on the lighter side of things... (i wrote this for the sake of remembering when)

im happy i got a red rose from Rohit today... we fought we had misunderstandings mostly because of me but he just knows how to calm me down...

maybe i have not forgiven myself yet...
but i am yet to find out what i really want in life...

I hope He would guide me...

Pinoys speak a lot about their lineage

especially on how they are mixed breeds and not purely Filipino...

Haha... I was once too but heck, I never really bothered... I needed for my high school project though and one interesting happened in class...two out of my 30 classmates realized that they're cousins (long lost cousins!) ! so maybe that's one importance of tracing your lineage...=P

I copied my cousin's claim of lineage from facebook because it is somewhat applicable to me too...

pardon me for this one but I found some interesting "facts" that's why I decided to share: my comments in red


-My bloodline is 75% Filipino, 12.5% Chinese, and 12.5% Spanish (disputed).
Well... I'm somewhat close to this we only vary because of my maternal side...just a bit though and you will see why later...

-I am a Visayan Filipino. Both of my parents are from the island of Bohol, Philippines. I have TONS of living relatives, including a 94-year-old great-grandaunt who still dances and smokes tobacco. One of my dad's brothers is a politician/medical doctor, trying to make it into the Philippine Congress (But I think he can go for the Presidency.)
I'm a Visayan-Mindanao Filipino, dad from Bohol and mom from Davao del Sur (does this really matter???)...

I do remember meeting a great aunt who smokes tobacco...but dances? ooh... i should find this out!

and as for that politician cum doctor for the masses uncle, he looked a lot like my dad. the first time I saw him I thought that my dad's passing was a total lie... Of course I was only convinced momentarily because the truth is the truth and is the hard truth...

-My paternal grandfather's father (great-grandfather) is pure Chinese. He immigrated from Amoy, China, in the Fujian province (SE China), working as a cook in a Spanish restaurant, eventually becoming an entrepreneur, owning farms and construction sites.
I saw our great-grandfather's portrait... he was really something with his posture and looks and he was really tall... guess what? Im short :P. And alas, it is the truth that cooking is in our blood (can I actually claim this? he he)... this is just to justify how I love to experiment with cooking, i had highs and lows and now I am getting the hang of playing with spices ;).

-I have some family legends; my great-grandfather buried some treasure (Spanish gold) near a guava tree to hide it from the Japanese soldiers during WWII, who used his mansion as a base. The soldiers also tried to open his safe, jamming the door for good. That safe is still in the house, and no one knows what is inside of it to this day.
Only saw my grandpa's house... I better search for my great grandpa's mansion and for that guava tree too!!! =P the safe? sounds mysterious! if he buried the gold near a guava tree then what's inside the safe??? !!!

-My dad's dad (grandpa) lived in both China and the Philippines. He could speak and write in Chinese (I think it was Cantonese).
cool... I talked to grandpa when i was small...no idea he could speak some Chinese no idea of the existence of China either...all I had was my funny hard to read english writing of i love yous and my grandpa... wow... he atually lived in that place? I got to dig more of this history!

fact: My grandpa died in the US and buried there...

-My original last name is not Molina; it is Yap. My great-grandfather changed it from Yap to Molina after becoming a Philippine citizen and a Roman Catholic, taking on his sponsor's last name.
Well Im not adamant about being Chinese neither am I a fan rather I am quite the contrary at times... I so prefer the Molina surname. Sorry bout that but... I'm Italain! =P

-I have not fully confirmed my Spanish heritage, but this is what I know from both my grandmothers:

-My paternal grandfather's mother (great-grandma) is 1/2 Filipino, 1/2 Spanish. Her family was originally from Zamboanga, Philippines. She came from the Besas family, a prominent Mestizo family in Bohol.
this should account for me too... 100% Chinese + 1/2 Filipino and 1/2 Spanish => grandpa 1/2 Chinese, 1/4 Spanish and Filipino... So my dad? my grandma was a Corre...another Spanish (or at least European) sounding surname I do not know her lineage so I guess I could not deduce much... assuming that my grandma is 100% Filipino which I doubt 100% because she doesn't look like it at all, it would make my dad 1/4 Chinese(at least), 1/8 Spanish(at least),62.5% Filipino...hahahahaha

-My maternal grandmother's mother (other great-grandma) is also 1/2 Filipino, 1/2 Spanish. She died in Mindanao following the Japanese attacks on the island during WWII. My mom and grandma said she was mestiza-looking.
hmmm this does not account for me... But my grandma is 1/4 Spanish although she looks a lot like 1/2 Spanish with all the freckles and brunette hair... She was a shortie, i guess I got that from her while my other siblings and relatives got her fair complexion.... oh well... anyway i heard she also had a Chinese blood so say she is 1/4 Spanish, 1/4 Chinese, 1/2 Filipino... My grandpa is said to be highly Chinese although I do not recall their mysterious stories about his family or was it my grandma's? hmm anyway, I guess it is safe to say my grandpa is at least 1/4 Chinese and 3/4 Filipino to account for his highly Chinese side... This makes my mom 1/8 Spanish (at least), 1/4 Chinese (at least), 62.5% Filipino (utmost)

mom + dad = 25% Chinese, 12.5% Spanish, 62.5% Filipino + 1/4 Chinese, 1/8 Spanish,62.5% Filipino = 25% Chinese, 12.5% Spanish and 62.5% Filipino

lol!

no comment... eventually I find myself so pathetic... this kind of maths does not really apply to genetics right? most especially to gene expression... wish i was more like 25% Angelina Jolie, 12.5% Natalie Portman and 62.5% Ivy Molina =P !!! heee

whatever...

-The place of origin I assume: Andalucia province.

never heard of this place =/
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So yeah...there goes my precious 2 hours! wups...I enjoyed myself though

pathetic but I enjoyed it! esp. the interesting stuff about my great grandpa....

=D

so what's yours?

thoughts

happy thoughts make me happy...

it's late now... but i am glad...

a while ago though i was bothered about the Romanov history, about Anastasia, Rasputin and all that... interesting and mysterious really... i better rid of such unnecessary search... because happy thoughts have filled my mind now...

yay

thank you Lord...

update

I love the morning bible study/discussion... It is just that the temptation to sleep is very strong. Then again, it is worshipping with my friends. I get to learn a lot and share what I know as well as my opinions. Most of all, we get to know God more and more...

Today however, is another sort of failure... I did woke up and waited for my buddies to go online... I should have taken initiative since I left my phone in NUS but I have a landline and my friends must have worried that Im unreachable and probably not showing up again. Hopefully tomorrow...=) Another fresh start. I pray that we could get stabilized somehow, one day...

Ah... I always go to Jurong East and I know Shamoy keeps checking up on me... For the record though I have only gone to his house 2.5 (2 of them during the weekend) out of 7 days this week... improvement from 5 out of 7 =D. I think that is decent. It is just that I left my phone in my room for 2 straight days... I was unreachable.

Right now I am supposed to write my report for my first fyp CA. I kept procrastinating about it because it is only 3 pages rather than what I initially thought to be 20 but now I am left to cram. I had too much procrastination but I will definitely do it today...over the weekend I made some 2 paragraphs.=P I'm ten percent done so let me finish my blog post first =P

Thank you Lord for today!

Hugs!

p.s. oops...forgot my laundry this morning >_<

it is kind of "messed up" at home

it is troublesome and im really concerned...

but yeha! i will survive this storm because the Lord is with me...

I will wait! =)

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on the bright side...
i got a new lipbalm! yay! =P