colonialism | civilization, christianity, commerce

From George Washington to Barrack Obama, we tend to idealize our president. We put them on a pedestal, raise them above the rest. We conveniently paint wide swaths of praise, washing off any stain or whiff of wrongdoing or misstep they may have committed. 

United [?] $tates of America

The United States of America is adept at whitewashing its history and covering up crimes and horrors committed throughout its short lifetime. Indulging in egocentric praise for the nation's forefathers - the same group of men who ruined the land and its people through their avarice and mandate. 

The road to hell is paved with the intentions for these evangelists spreading their word with their forked tongues and personal agendas. Blatantly using the power vested on them by their office and the folks who elected them. Then and now government officials are tainted by the system they operate in. 

How do we fix and correct our information infrastructures? So facts are accurately reported rather than distorted or embellished or even fictionalized? So historical events are recorded across the board and not just by the winners? 

Even more complicated and daunting is the road we take to retrieve our lost histories - recovery, repair and reparations - to move us forward. Otherwise, we risk wallowing in and perpetuating the mistakes and crimes of our past. 

The choices we stand by today are the paving stones of our future. May we have better cause to celebrate future Presidents Days. 

Wakanda forever

wonder | wander | world choose to celebrate Black History Month recalling a supreme being and superhero - Chadwick Boseman. 

Chadwick Boseman didn’t just bring a comic book character to life. He was a bright beacon of the beauty and complexity of Blackness. He embodied everything we could be - against all odds. 

The fact that he had accomplished all of this for all of us while also fighting for his own life is inconceivable and almost too much to bear. By that and any other metric, Chadwick Boseman was the hero that we were taught as children we didn’t deserve. He showed us – showed me – how wrong those lessons were. ~ Brandon Lewis 

No one is more deserving to rest in power than him. Chadwick Boseman. Black Panther. The king, T’Challa. May you live forever in our hearts and consciousness. 

Chadwick Boseman & Michael B. Jordan

Before Black Panther there was Blade, Storm of the X-Men, Static Shock if you watched Kids WB on Saturday mornings. But they didn’t stand as tall as Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, or The Flash. 

heart | heart | heart

Featured on Negros Season of Culture - "On with the Show" pays tribute to Bacolod born and grown, Eduardo "Toto" Sicangco. 

Showstoppers' central display of Toto's red showgirls

Toto, as he is known to us back home, is a master scenographer and illustrator. His multi-awarded creative work - on stage at the Cultural Center of the Philippines and on Broadway, in ballets and opera, on Disney and Hollywood films - have taken him all over the world. 

wonder | wander | world is happy to ride on his coat tails aboard his magic carpet of creative color - bravo, Toto! 

Happy Valentine weekend to you all - spread the love far and wide. 

2022 Winter Olympics under fire

The 2022 Olympics begin this week under the shadow of COVID and Beijing's flagrant abuses of human rights. Under ruler-for-life Xi Jinping, who took power in 2012, China has made a sharp turn into unapologetic authoritarianism, with no dissent or forbidden ideas permitted. So why are the 2022 Olympics being held here? 

volunteers wave flags during a medal ceremony on February 7 Marco Bertorello/AFP/Getty Images

China was originally one of many contenders to host the 2022 Games, but Poland, Ukraine, and Sweden dropped out because of domestic opposition. Norway's bid collapsed over public outrage at the International Olympic Committee's demands for luxury treatment, such as special lanes on all roads for IOC members. 

Winter Olympics 2022 | NBC Sports

rediscovering the fine art of Pan Yuliang

In 1984, mystified researchers began cataloguing the prolific but unfamiliar archives of an artist who had been all but been erased from the nation’s history of art. 

Unsure of what to make of this “misfit” artist in China’s nationalist narrative, it wasn’t until several years later that her forgotten legacy was reintroduced to collectors of the modern world. 

Pan Yuliang self portrait

Pan Yuliang, formerly known as Chen Xiuqing was born on June 14,1895 in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province. Later, she changed her name to Zhang Yuliang. in 1913, she married Pan Zanhua and took his surname, Pan.

mindful breath

We've lost another of our great guiding lights. The incredible Zen Buddhist teacher and activist, Thich Nhat Hanh died yesterday at his home in the temple where he'd been a novice monk in Hue, Vietnam. Thay as he is called by his students finally returned home in 2018 after decades in exile.

walking meditation with Thich Nhat Hahn

push the pause button

Creating creative space is a delicate balance between inspiration, absorption, immersion, gestation, process, and production. We need to remove and step away for freshness and space to come in. Often when it looks like nothing is going on, so much is happening. 

When we don't take the time out to prepare the ground before planting our seeds, chances are we miss out on watching our garden grow.

one more selfie for now