It's never too late!

Re-published from Mindanao Daily Mirror, Opinion Section, my column dated September 20, 2013 with friendly permission of my publisher Marietta F. Siongco.

I know a lot of pension expatriates living in the Philippines for good. Many of them get a big problem after staying here for only a couple of months: they get bored.

Having a vacation all day, all week, all month and all year long is really not an egg's yellow. I experienced the same in 1999 after moving to Davao City. At that time I justed turned 46.

I remember my last days in an international publishing house in Berlin (with branch offices in New York and Amsterdam. I packed up my things after signing my resignation letter. Of course, I hadn't reach my final pension age yet, but I got a lot of ideas on how to shape and organize my "new" life in the Philippines. I never forgot some office mates smiling at me: "We can't cross such bridges before we come to them!" Of course guys, you have been right!

Anyway, age doesn't matter - you can enjoy the second half of your life residing in the Philippines. As many of you know already: I stayed in many countries worldwide. I could have migrated to the U.S. I didn't. I choosed the Philippines.

Most important thing: Keep yourself busy... .

Sure, there is always a time, when we should rest and really enjoy life. Sure, we brought our savings and many of us enjoy the monthly pension in Euro or Dollar. Several weeks ago, I read a good idea in an U.S. business weekly: "Partner up with entrepreneurs who have long been in the business, or those who have just retired as well!" Worth to think about it!

Getting bored, means also for some to start grumbling and complaining about everything and everybody in the Philippines. I always keep my distance to such negative people. We are not here to change this country and its people. Why? What for? Filipinos are also not planning to change our home countries or us!

I really don't get more stressed than in my home country before. Critics reproach and accused me of living a life as expatriate while wearing pink tinted glasses. Sorry, but my conscience is very clear.

I keep myself busy, too busy sometimes: Teaching, translating, writing, in the radio, and many more things. It's never too late. It's your life! Take your chance and enjoy life in the Philippines. And stay away from grumblers and grousing people... .

Noli me tangere - Ruehr' mich nicht an... - Don't Touch me...

Ich war schon immer fasziniert von Jose Rizal, dem philippinischen Nationalhelden.

1887 erschien in Berlin ein spanisch geschriebenes Buch mit dem lateinischen Titel NOLI ME TANGERE (Ruehr' mich nicht an!). Autor war der junge philippinische Schriftsteller Jose Rizal. Er hatte nach seinem Studium in Madrid und einem Aufenthalt in Paris 1886 Deutschland bereist und in Heidelberg die Niederschrift seines Romans beendet.

Der Erscheinungsort Berlin ist kein Kuriosum. Wie so viele wache und begeisterungsfaehige Koepfe jener Zeit suchte Rizal die Verbindung von wissenschaftlicher Erklaerung und "deutschem Idealismus". Sein Roman, der von der spanischen Kolonialherrschaft der Philippinen als politisch brisant betrachtet werden musste, war "mit Herzblut geschrieben", wie Rizal's oesterreichischer Freund, der Gelehrte F. Blumentritt, schrieb: Er wollte ebenso aufklaererisch wie aufruettelnd wirken.

Die spanische Kolonialmacht erkannte sofort die subversive Kraft des Romans: nicht in den manchmal karikaturartigen Einzelgestalten, sondern darin, dass die Fremdherrschaft eben als FREMDherrschaft ad absurdum gefuehrt wird. Noch im Erscheinungsjahr 1887 wird der Roman verboten. Am 30.12.1986 wird Rizal als geistiger Urheber der nicht laenger zu unterdrueckenden philippinischen Freiheitsbewegung exekutiert. Zwei Jahre spaeter endet die spanische Herrschaft auf den Philippinen, ebenso auf Kuba, wo Jose Marti eine aehnliche revolutionaer-literarische Rolle gespielt hat.

Noch heute teilt sich die leidenschaftlich politisch-ethische Kraft dieses wirkungsreichen  Romans dem Leser unmittelbar mit.

Ich besitze die spanische, englische und deutsche Ausgabe (aus dem philippinisch Spanisch uebersetzt von Annemarie del Cueto-Moerth, 1. Auflage 1987, Insel Verlag, Frankfurt/Main).

More Rain and Landslides in The Philippines

Luzon has been drenched by monsoon rains enhanced by Typhoon Usagi. Photograph: Francis R. Malasig/EPA
 
Torrential monsoon rains have hit the north-west Philippines triggering landslides and killing 20 people in areas already weakened by a powerful typhoon, and raising the death toll to 47 from storms across Asia.

Philippine officials said soldiers and villagers were also searching for at least seven people missing in mountainside villages hit by the landslides on Monday in the province of Zambales.

In China, where typhoon Usagi struck after passing by the Philippines, officials said the storm killed 25 people in the southern province of Guangdong, 13 of them in the city of Shanwei where it struck the coast late on Sunday.

Two people drowned when a passenger boat capsized in north-east Aurora Province in the Philippines.

Jeffrey Khonghun, mayor of Subic, Zambales, said 15 bodies were dug out in two landslide-hit villages in his town. Five people also died in landslides in two other towns in Zambales, according to army officials and police.

Rescuers used their hands, pots and shovels to dig through the muck that buried a cluster of houses, while relatives of two other missing residents waited in the rain in the village of Wawandue.

"This is the first after a long time that we were hit by this kind of deluge," Khonghun told Manila's DZBB radio network. He had to stop the interview when another body was pulled out from the mud near him.

Typhoon Usagi enhanced the torrential monsoon rains that drenched the main northern Philippine region of Luzon over the weekend. The powerful typhoon blew away late on Saturday and a new tropical storm off southern Japan was continuing to intensify the downpours in Luzon, government forecaster Samuel Duran said.

Many low-lying areas of the Philippine capital, Manila, and outlying regions were swamped on Monday, prompting authorities to close schools and offices.
In Hong Kong flight schedules were returning to normal on Monday after major disruptions caused by Usagi, which was the season's strongest storm. At its peak it forced about 250 flight cancellations in Hong Kong, before weakening to a tropical depression over the southern Chinese province of Guangdong.

Train and airline services around Guangdong had returned to normal after the storm, China's state broadcaster CCTV said.

China's national weather centre said the storm would continue to weaken as it moves north-west.