Treasure the Question

Today we celebrate the 75th anniversary of VJ Day (Victory over Japan), the end of the Second World War. My uncle served in Japan and never recovered from what he experienced, some of my relatives lost their lives. Yet not all wartime memories were bad, and today I would like to share a wartime recipe that has lived on as a family favourite. Imagine your bread has gone stale – solid - what to do? In wartime England, my grandma knew exactly what to do, she turned it into a dessert, or pudding as we call it. When most of the men were away fighting, women took over the jobs, but despite the added income, food was scarce, and every person was issued a ration book. Our family still have one, and despite it bringing back memories of war and death, it holds deep sentimental value and is kept in the family photo album. The only photo of my father with my grandfather who died in the war months later. The rations allowed per adult a week, unless stated otherwise:         Bacon/Ham: 4oz (100g

Copyright: Island Records Zack Tabudlo has signed to Island records ; a label that should feel at home in a land of 7,107 of them (at least at high tide). Island are celebrating 60 years of nurturing talent, from Bob Marley to U2, and are, “a byword for artistic integrity and innovation… signing mavericks and game-changers who have altered the course of music.” Copyright: Island Records You may be familiar with Zack from Voice Kids back in 2014 when he was 12. Six years later and his maturity makes him that “maverick game-changer” Island pride themselves in nurturing. He spans so many genres and talks of mixing, “old school vibe with today’s music.” At eighteen he is already a veteran performer, frequently collaborating with, and producing, other artists. Nangangamba Listening to his recently released, “Nangangamba” it hits you; this is no normal ballad. Hearing the lyrics, “Ito na ang pagkakataon, Wala nang pipigil sa’yo, ‘Wag ka nang mahihiya, Sabihin na ang totoo.” ("This is

Today, in Rick Olivares ’ Intro to Journalism class , we met a superhero. He was not wearing a cape, but he was still wearing his superhero mask, except it was a surgical mask and his cape, standard Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) . This real-life Superman was obviously exhausted from a day working hard saving lives and yet he found the time to recount his story to a class of novice journalism students. Like most champions of the Marvel or DC universes, he dons his uniform before turning into a hero, and takes it off when protecting us is done; unlike them, he then thoroughly disinfects himself before seeing his family. What is even more amazing is he is married to another superhero. Yet this is no comic, this is real life. Today we interviewed Jojo Katalbas, a 40-year old comorbidity nurse who works at Quirino Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City, a Covid-19 hospital at the heart of a nation suffering from the pandemic. We shed tears listening to his acts of bravery, and

Covid-19 has an ugly and dangerous twin, misinformation. While the world has been fighting the pandemic, the amount of information it has generated is causing serious problems of its own. The abundance of academic articles, press, commentary, social media postings, all about the same topic - many inaccurate, others not - make some Doctors feel as if they are fighting two enemies, Covid-19 and misinformation. The World Health Organisation (WHO) have labelled the twin an “infodemic”, and it is making it hard to know what is trustworthy and what is not. Once-upon-a-time, before the pandemic, Snopes was the gold standard for fighting misinformation. If something did not sound quite right, if you needed the truth, a quote from Snopes could end the argument. That is no longer the case when it comes to Covid-19, the sheer volume of misinformation has overwhelmed the Snopes fact checkers and they have admitted they can no longer keep up with the avalanche of misinformation.   Some misinfor

What if we could fly like a bird, soaring high, coasting on the wind? By order of the government we are isolating, stuck indoors, protecting society. We can see the birds, the fat pigeons that wonder why less of us feed them nowadays. Is this bird also trapped by the pandemic? Searching for the tourists who used to feed it so well. Now the pigeons look at us through the window, and we look back. Who really is free these days? Our busy skies emptied of the planes that were always overhead, now filled with birds wondering where we all are. Let’s imagine are they encouraging us to look after not just them, but also each other? Then we will all soar high.