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“NPA (No Permanent Address) in New York”
Howie Severino’s I-Witness Anniversary Episode
Airing Monday midnight: March 31, 2008 on GMA7, delayed on Pinoy TV overseas

In New York, the world’s richest city, Howie Severino encounters an underworld with thousands of homeless people. Their nomadic population is made up of the poorest of the poor, stark evidence that not everyone in America has achieved the American dream.

Nearly all races are represented among these street people … except one, if one believes the many Filipinos in New York who proudly tell Howie that there are no homeless Pinoys in the Big Apple.

Howie discovers that this is not true. There ARE homeless Pinoys in New York.

He meets Teddy, a Philippine-born US Army veteran who sleeps in a box on a cold sidewalk in Chinatown and collects cans during the day. He surprises passersby by suddenly breaking out into operatic song. He seeks Howie’s help in locating a place in the Philippines close to his heart. They not only locate it but see the neighborhood where Teddy grew up. But the search for his long-lost American father will take a little longer.

Howie also spends a few days with Lex Cachapero, a well-known painter in Manila who got stranded in New York and now struggles to sell his paintings on the street in the dead of winter. He too is homeless and sleeps not in a box but in a place that Howie least expects.

Despite their extraordinary situations, the two gentlemen exude qualities peculiar to Filipinos everywhere, including exuberant attitudes in the face of extreme odds. Even on New York’s cold streets, their hope springs eternal.

The only reason migration is such a sore topic is because our minds are imprisoned by the utterly UNSTABLE concept of the Filipino.

We have at some point to accept that this concept only exists on paper.

Once we dispose of that unnecessary baggage and and focus more on what ahcieving personal fulfilment through ethical means, the world will become a crystal clear and sensible to each one of us.

did you just give your reasons for becoming an aussie?

Achievement of personal fulfilment through ethical means. It’s simple, really.

may i know whats your view of Pinoys who chose to pursue personal fulfillment through ethical means here?

“GMA ‘politically weak’ but will finish her term–Eurasia”

While corruption charges will continue to preoccupy President Gloria Arroyo’s remaining two years in office, she will not be unseated but she will be unable to implement major reforms.

But the next president in 2010 will likely have more leeway to implement political reforms, a New York-based political risk analysis group said.

“We are pessimistic about the short-term political prospects for the country, especially that before the 2010 presidential elections,” Roberto Herrera-Lim, Southeast Asian analyst of New York headquartered political risk consulting firm, Eurasia Group, said in an email interview with abs-cbnnewsdotcom/Newsbreak.

But Herrera-Lim predicts that efforts to unseat president Arroyo will fail—unless the opposition groups are able to address all the issues that divide the political, social and other institutions that, in the past, have formed the critical mass that ousted previous presidents.

Even with the government’s credibility problems, these groups—the middle class based in Manila, the elites, the judiciary, the church, as well as other institutions or groups, such as the academe, business community and military—are divided over the corruption scandals that the opposition-dominated Senate have raised against President Arroyo. These include kickback allegations in the $329-million botched broadband deal that dragged the President’s husband and several of her cabinet officials in the picture.

President Arroyo has the economic gains in the past years to thank. “The economy has done reasonably well since 2005, and we can argue that a fair proportion of this growth has benefited Metro Manila’s residents. Therefore, the larger middle class is unwilling to tempt outcomes that could threaten economic stability. And for them, this is a substantial risk, because there is no clear post-Arroyo scenario from the opposition.”

Divided elite

The Arroyo administration, reckoned Herrera-Lim, has protected its back better than the Estrada Administration. “It has recognized the formula that divided institutions will more likely prevent a critical mass from forming. Estrada probably thought that as long as he held his ground in the Senate, he would survive. The Arroyo administration has done the opposite. It has conceded the Senate, but held its ground in the key institutions that shape public opinion and mobilize the population.”

But with only about two years to go before the 2010 national elections, Herrera-Lim said, “we believe that it will be very difficult for the opposition to coherently address all the issues that divide the key constituencies, elites and organizations on the question of President Arroyo’s political future.”

The next president, however, will have more latitude to carry on political and economic reforms. “We believe that the 2010 elections will potentially have corruption and political reform as key issues, which could help constrain large-scale corruption—especially the type that the administration is being accused of,” Herrera-Lim concluded.

Mar Roxas or Manny Villar for president.

We have at some point to accept that this concept only exists on paper.

Once we dispose of that unnecessary baggage and and focus more on what ahcieving personal fulfilment through ethical means, the world will become a crystal clear and sensible to each one of us.

Achievement of personal fulfilment through ethical means.

It’s simple, really.

i know (admittedly few, in comparison to the total OFWs) people already occupying positions that are director-level and up, who live in rich gated villages like ayala alabang, who can afford to send their children to private schools from grade school to medical or law school, who can afford to be confined at Asian Hospital – who left everything behind to migrate in Canada and Australia, presently holding rank and file jobs

but i also know (few also) other people who went abroad because they were promoted to a job at the head office or to lead a regional office.

You said “In search of excellence, so to speak, not just for survival.”

i think its also the default notion of Pinoys that they can only ‘be all they can be and more’ abroad, not here

And remember, no matter where you go, there you are.
Confucius

Or this more morose version:

So, the cross is always ready and waits for you everywhere. You cannot escape it no matter where you run, for wherever you go you are burdened with yourself. Wherever you go, there you are.

—Thomas a Kempis, Imitation of Christ, ca. A.D. 1440

“Not necessarily…”

well, yes and no

i agree that opportunities exist abroad that are not around here. the best example is the new Pinoy lead singer of the rock group Journey, Arnel Pineda. He was personally picked by some Journey members, after seeing him in a YouTube clip! Arnel had to leave his band here. If i were him, I’d do the same too, and if i were his bandmate/s dito, i wont begrudge him for his decision

Not necessarily, Anthony. Many highly educated and skilled professionals (from the best colleges) who are already doing quite well in the country migrate to other countries not only to have better financial opportunities but to pursue careers which will maximize their academic backgrounds. In search of excellence, so to speak, not just for survival.

Maybe you are referring to some less-skilled OFWs.

pinoys can be successful in the home country.

“It was tongue-in-cheek when I wrote that GMA is an example of a Filipino who has progressed financially without needing to migrate to overseas.”

i know. the icon you used revealed that

i just couldn’t resist citing a Pinoy success right here in the islands (to use a favorite expression of our faborite Fil-Aussie).

the default notion kasi of Pinoys in choosing to migrate is choosing survival over starvation.

Pinoys can really succeed here.

If Pinoys would just take personal accountability (wow, another of our favorite Fil-Aussie’s terms) for their financial independence….