Category: Geography

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Indigenous spirits revisited

Consider the choice: either spend a weekend in glitzy Las Vegas, or a full week in an Indian village in upstate New York with only minimal amenities. Which one to choose?

A typical Native American sweat lodge. Photo courtesy of Abram’s Creek Lodge (abramscreek.com)

If you choose Las Vegas, here’s ten bucks, good luck with the slot machines. If you choose upstate New York, this column is for you.

I was with the Cordillera People’s Alliance when we were invited by American indigenous activists to attend the Land Is Life founding conference. It was decided that I go to represent the CPA . The conference, to be attended by IP representatives and rights advocates from the various continents, was to be held in Fonda in upstate New York. Continue reading “Indigenous spirits revisited”

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Something about German trains

At first it is intimidating, for a foreigner who isn’t very familiar with a big city’s urban railway system. Much more if a Third World visitor takes on the complex Berlin system with its U-Bahn and S-bahn overlying the tram and bus, and the industrial-strength Deutsche Bahn comprising the much bigger train network that crisscrosses all of Germany and beyond.

But once you get hold of a map and a day-ticket, then all your fears evaporate. After some fiddling with euro coins and perhaps a quick help from someone who understands Deutsche sprache better than you, getting that ticket machine to belch out your precious day-ticket also becomes an easy piece a’cake.

 

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Languages and dialects

Note: This piece was first published as my column piece in the Nov. 15, 2002 issue of Northern Dispatch Weekly. It is being reposted here with very minor edits.

THIS IS A FOLLOW-UP on the piece I wrote last week in this column, about Ilocano and other local languages. I would have liked to use “Northern Philippine languages,” not as an off-the-cuff phrase but an exact taxonomic category established through linguistic studies.

IRAIA thoughts
IRAIA thoughts

Some might be surprised of this talk about “Philippine languages,” on the belief that there is only one Philippine language (which many consider to be Pilipino), or just a few languages that may include Ilocano and Cebuano, while all the others are “dialects.”

There is in fact among us a very persistent notion. That is, if a certain variety of speech is not widely accepted and used, then it is a “dialect,” while another speech variety that has become a national or regional standard is called a “language.” One doesn’t have to travel far to hear apologetic comments such as, “Pasensya dagiti saan a makaawat, mas nairwamak gamin nga agsao iti dialect mi nga Ilokano (or Kankanaey-Bontoc, or Kalinga, etc.).” Continue reading “Languages and dialects”