[Oe List ...] Fwd: Jaime for Monday

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-----Original Message-----
From: Jaime R Vergara <pinoypanda2031 at aol.com>
To: editor <editor at saipantribune.com>
Sent: Fri, Jun 20, 2014 6:57 pm
Subject: Jaime for Monday


Hotel, motel, Patel
 
The alliteration inour title was previously used as a slur at the number of Indian-descentproprietors of inns in North America who are from India.  This was the case in Bonham, Texas’ America’sBest Value Inn where I was billeted not too long ago.  I also found the phrase, “it takes a family tomake a dimsum” true in the Canadianprairie in the 70s where the Chinese ran restaurants in small towns of mostly Scandinavianand Slavic descents.
 
My daughter and 6-yrold grandson took me last week to a riverboat ride in Chicago towards Chinatownwhen we passed a docked boat flying a Philippine flag in front of asemi-circular building that had international flags on its river front.  International, multiethnic and interreligiousqualities of American metropolis is foisting the possibility of both realdiversity and, perhaps, even authentic integration, in the mosaic sense, of mergedpeoples and ethnicities from around the world. 
 
Chinatown itself inthe Southside of Chicago had workers and customers attired in veils andscarves, white kufis and black yarmulkas, all in the same place.  Halal andKosher shops were not too far fromeach other, though I must confess that the pinakbetat the Pilipino store my daughter gets her meat barbecues and fresh fish lefta lot to be desired on this Ilocakano palate.
 
One of the gifts ofthe urban center is precisely the intentional setting of amicable presence and interchangebetween traditionally warring factions elsewhere.  My chaplain brother was in a group ofreligious clerics who considered taking on the offer of the newly establishedCity of Kapolei to build a singular religious structure with many fronts thatwould host religious groups and functions in the city.  They never turned the offer into agroundbreaking event, but the intent was there.
 
While living in UptownChicago in the late 70s and early 80s, the local Community College offeredcourses on 48 languages identified as spoken in the area.  The new French market near the Chicago trainstation by Canal St. smells of various cuisine from former French coloniesaround the world, beyond the offerings of the old Latin quarters by the Seine.  The aroma of French breads and pastries waftedus back to one August morning in Montmartre when we innocently shot ourweeklong budget on an Middle Eastern hotel because tourists dominated the Arcde Triomphe and Paris that time of the year while the locals vacationed to the Coted’Azur and visitors were scalped helpless to the bone.
 
In my daughter’s homealong the boundary line of Barrington and Palatine, Illinois, residents jog inthe morning and I was pleased to hear Urdu spoken among their ranks.  The restaurant where I was taken to lunch wasnamed Kai Yee, easily an Anglicized “chao yi”, or “qiao yi”.   Don’t matter.  Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, South andSoutheast Asians numbered among the customers on the hour we were there. Therewere no quarrels on boundary lines, psychological and geographical.  The distinct qualities of each did notdisappear but they were not on each other’s throat over differences.
 
Not so in somequarters.  Delineated boundary is today’s“conservative” agenda.  Ukraine justreceived a suggestion from one of its billionaires to build a wall at theborder of Russia and Ukraine; a task he estimated can be done in 6 months.  This is meant to stem the flow of Russianarmaments that arms the pro-Russian population of the Crimea andEast Ukraine.
 
We are familiar withthis perspective in the US where NAFTA drew us to Canada but had us convinced that thedreaded Mexicans attracted their cousins all the way from Columbia and Ecuador throughPanama, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Belize and Guatemala to “surge” theborder into California, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas.  Ola! Why do you think we built the ineffective but expensive virtual border fencenow staggered at the coast-to-coast Mexican-US border?
 
China, Japan, andSouth Korea also haggle geographical boundaries, though the squabble in East Asia’scontinental shelf is clearly for the oil. But strict geographical boundary is the impulse to protect nationalsovereignty in a time when the very notion of nation-state, a hangover fromcolonial times, is very much in question.
 
At the personal level,psychological space is at a premium, and intellectual integritysacrosanct.  I just left three years ofuniversity where the “footnote” ruled (other people share my thoughts), and most intellectuals quoted sources tobolster their positions.  In democracies,law is predicated on precedence, more often in favor of limits rather thanpossibilities.
 
It was in China that Iread the story of the Life of Pi.  The main character is Pi Patel and that’s howthe “Patel” from our title, previously used pejoratively, is now to me a brandof unique individual distinction worn with pride.  My grandson’s favorite game is Lego,constructing without instruction book and/or glue.  The compassion in our time is to manifest thedesire to see and hear individuals freely claim, “I am,” finishing the sentencewith the fullness of their existence.


j'aime la vie
pinoypanda2031 at aol.com

yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!

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