pioneering women

It's been a while since we posted about our eclectic interests here at wonder | wander | world. In the tropics this year enjoying the blistering heat of an equatorial sun instead of our frozen northern winters of COVID times. 

This incredible post about some brave pioneering cowboy women of the west caught our attention. What could their circumstances have been to make them decide to move out west when they did? How were their lives changed and affected as a result? 

pioneering women of the west

The origins of the cowboy tradition come from Spain - beginning with the hacienda system of medieval Spain. This style of cattle ranching spread throughout much of the Iberian Peninsula and later was imported to the Americas. 

In the Philippines we were similarly impacted by the arrival and invasion of Spain and the eventual galleon trade plied between our countries. 

Chinese New Year 2023

Gateways. Beginnings. Portals. 

For the Asian world the Aquarian new moon of January 21 signifies the start of the Year of the Black Water Rabbit for 2023. 

It is a super moon - so very close to the Earth we feel its tides moving strongly through us.

What kind of structure do we want to live in - one of limitations? of rigidity? or do we choose chaos?

broken vessel by Deborah Smith

There is always another way - what Jung called the transcendent function.

What if we let a more organic structure shape what we become instead? 

Entrance

Whoever you are: in the evening step out

of your room, where you know everything;

yours is the last house before the far-off:

whoever you are.

With your eyes, which in their weariness

barely free themselves from the worn-out threshold,

you lift very slowly one black tree

and place it against the sky: slender, alone.

And you made the world. And it is huge

and like a word which grows ripe in silence.

And as your will seizes on its meaning,

tenderly your eyes let go. . . .

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

new books for 2023

wonder | wander | world shout out this week is for this trilogy of books, soon to be released - "Sine Tala: Essays on Philippine Cinema". compiled by Nick Deocampo. 

Three books to enrich our knowledge of Philippine cinema. The three volumes contain thematic essays with forewords by a new generation of the country’s leading film and media scholars. Volume One, "Philippine Cinema and History," with foreword by Patrick Campos. Volume Two, "Philippine Cinema and Culture," foreword written by Rolando Tolentino. Volume Three, "Philippine Cinema and Literacy," foreword written by Fernando Paragas. 

book covers & case concept art 

Paintings of DengCoy Miel grace the covers of the new books plus their bookcase. His works are full of iconographic images that speak of Philippine history and its imaginings. Deocampo calls what he does "historical semiotics." 

The expressive use of images as semiological signs that visually articulate historical events and allegorize, oftentimes satirize, the hidden trauma behind historical events. Thanks to Patrick Flores for brokering the deal to have DengCoy Miel to paint the book covers.

The graphic design is by Matt Sudario - a young, talented, book designer who has created several prizewinning publications in the past. Adding massive appeal to both students and the general public. 

These books contain historical, theoretical, critical, and pedagogical essays essential to a holistic study of Philippine cinema - immersing readers in the culture and society that gave birth to their story and style.

The book series will be published by the 2020 Publisher of the Year Awardee - Ateneo de Manila University Press, thanks to Karina Bolasco. Made possible by a grant from the Film Development Council of the Philippines - thanks to Liza Dino-Seguerra, then the FDCP chair.

We are looking forward to this publication in eager anticipation. 

in service of country & people?

With Bongbong Marcos in China vowing he intends to pursue an independent foreign policy - one more than willing to cooperate whenever possible in the pursuit of regional peace and our two countries’ national interest - wonder | wander | world is wary of what exactly this means. 

photo credit: Office of the Press Secretary

The BBM administration independent foreign policy is broadly outlined as friends to all, enemy to none. As with his unity campaign it brings concerns regarding implementation and doability. Big words that may or may not deliver their intended outcome. An air pie and wind cake smokescreen for the masses.

Stratbase ADR Institute President Victor Andres “Dindo” Manhit and Dr. Chester Cabalza, International Development and Security Cooperation president and founder, discussed these in the book “Beyond the Crisis: A Strategic Agenda for the Next President.”

Rappler Talk coverage of BBM China visit

Compiled and published by Stratbase ADRI, their papers are among 16 policy studies written by experts in the fields of foreign policy, the economy and development, and governance.

According to these studies, “We need a more responsive and strategic foreign policy that would implement a clear, cohesive, and consistent foreign policy direction and develop the country’s comprehensive power according to its military, economic, scientific, and cultural capabilities.”

The devil in the details - cause for many to doubt this ineffective and inefficient BBM administration incapable of attaining or delivering on.