by Imelda V. Abaño
- Philippines -

Back in September 2005, the now infamous Danish cartoon of the prophet Muhammad became a worldwide controversy. It was reprinted in newspapers in several countries and led to widespread Muslim protests and violence.

Now the book, The Jewel of Medina, a semi-fictional novel written by American journalist Sherry Jones about the youngest wife of Muhammad, has also led to a firestorm of controversy for its portrayal of the prophet. Many say it could incite similar acts of violence from radical Muslims.

The initial response to the advance edition of Jones’ book was explosive. It was dropped by her publisher Random House because of the anticipated backlash from the Muslim community even though it had paid her a US$100,000 advance. It was also pulled from bookshops in Serbia last August after pressure from Islamic groups.

by Imelda V. Abaño
- The Philippines -

For decades, the Philippines, one of the poorest countries in Asia, has provided skilled medical professionals primarily to wealthy places such as the United States, Europe and the Middle East. But as more and more health workers leave the country for greener pastures abroad, public health experts say the country's health care system is on the brink of collapse.

Long hours, backbreaking schedules, poor conditions and little pay pushed 37-year-old Mary Ann Visaya to leave her job at a public hospital in an impoverished town in Cagayan Valley for higher salary abroad. For the past four years, Visaya has been working as a staff nurse, administering to roughly 30 or 40 patients a day. She has seen poor people lined up at the hospital and heard patients complain of the long wait to get treatment. But like many of her colleagues, she jumps at the opportunity to leave the country and work abroad.

"Most of the time your heart breaks seeing poor people lined up to seek treatment. But I have learned to persevere [through] more hours of work especially during critical staff shortage," Visaya explains. "But I also have to think of the welfare of my parents because with my present salary of $170, it is not enough to sustain our expenses.”

by Imelda V. Abaño
- Philippines -

Hunger is the most crucial manifestation of poverty. In many parts of the world, the soaring prices of food, fuel and other basic goods have triggered social unrest and a growing sense of urgency.

• In Haiti, an estimated 46% of all children under five are severely or moderately stunted in growth due to malnutrition. Photograph by Imelda V. Abaño. •

Witnessing the realities of the devastating consequences of poverty and rising food prices up close reminded me of my first visit to Haiti, one of the world's poorest countries.

In June, I went to Haiti with five other journalists for an experience unlike any of my previous trips abroad. The abject poverty and despair I witnessed there is far more extreme than in my own country. Never before have I seen such deprivation than that which I saw in Haiti; the human suffering is all too real and heart-rending.

Haiti, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, is plagued by violence, hunger, unrelenting extreme poverty, disease, high unemployment rates, low life expectancy and crumbling health and educational systems.

by Imelda V. Abaño
- Philippines -

At the December UN conference in Bali, Indonesia, experts and concerned people alike discussed how poor women in developing countries bear the brunt of climate change in a wide range of ways. They have to walk to fetch water or wood for fuel and carry it back to the household. They have to work longer hours in the fields to till the soil, which has hardened due to severe drought, and yet they receive fewer benefits because of low wages and low crop production. And despite their efforts, they have little decision making power because in these areas, women are considered merely as housewives. In India, as one example, women have very little bargaining power when marketing their crops. When children or spouses fall ill from diseases, it is women who care for them. It is women who will do without or with less when food is scarce.

"Life has been hard, since heavy rains always wash away many of our crops and cause flooding in our village," said Mariana Dau from a farming village in Sumatra, Indonesia who talked about how climate change has affected their family’s life and also their financial security.

by Imelda V. Abaño
Philippines

In times of war and during the peace process, women have played key roles, particularly in the protection of their rights and those of their children.

• Cultures clash in the Philippines as US military presence targets Muslim schools and mosques in the ongoing war on terrorism. Photograph by
Dominic G Diongson. •

Mindanao has long been considered the poorest island, having the highest incidence of poverty of any region in the Philippines. Continual armed conflict has only aggravated that poverty.

by Imelda V. Abano
Philippines

When I visited a dumpsite last week to do a story about scavengers, I saw a group of children sifting through mountains of trash and asked: "What do you do when you're hungry?" They stared and laughed at me before replying: "When we're hungry, we just tighten our belts."

• In the Philippines, many of
the country's poor scavenge
from dumps to survive.
Photo by Imelda V. Abaño. •

Elena is just 35 years old, but she looks much older. She has five children. She sorts with her bare hands through the putrid waste, looking for anything of value - plastics, some glass, aluminum, bits of cardboard or metal - and stuffs her finds into a sack. Elena rises at 4am; 13 hours later, she will have filled several sacks, each weighing around 40 kilos, with recycled detritus. After 13 hours of work, she tosses her sacks up onto her back and hauls them to the middlemen. They will buy everything she and her children have managed to salvage in a day – and for that effort, she collects a measly $18 USD. Then she goes home to a nearby slum to prepare the family meal.

by Imelda V. Abaño
Philippines

The bloody military crackdown in Burma (also known as Myanmar) was bound to happen.

Some people called it "pure democracy" as hundreds of thousands of peaceful protesters joined with 10,000 of the Buddhist monks the entire nation reveres to stage the biggest pro-democracy demonstration in 20 years, demanding an end to 45 years of military rule. Many see the development as a critical turning point in Burma's history.

• Thousands of buddhist monks marched in Burma on September 24th to protest the country's military junta.
Photograph by Robert Coles. •

by Imelda V. Abaño
Philippines

• Women like this 70-year old landfill dweller in Baguio City must find water wherever they can.
Photograph by Imelda V. Abaño. •

In many developing countries, it’s a woman's job to collect water for cooking, cleaning, drinking and sanitation. Women and girls walk an average six kilometers each day to fetch water. They carry around 20 kilograms - roughly the weight of a piece of travel luggage - on their heads.

"We walk long distances every day, sometimes slipping on rocks in the process, but we go on. The water isn't good. It’s brackish. We don't have clean water but we have no choice," says Dela Cruz as she carries two water pails on her way back home.

by Imelda V. Abaño
Philippines

• Anti-Estrada protestors in 2001. Photograph by Imelda V. Abaño. •

The court found Mr. Estrada guilty of plunder - a capital offense - in a 262-page decision, though the former president will avoid the death penalty as it was recently abolished. He was acquitted of the perjury charges that alleged he had falsely declared his assets.

by Imelda V. Abaño
Philippines

• Opening session of the conference. Photograph courtesy of AIS 2007 •

by Imelda V. Abaño
Philippines

• A child living in poverty on the island of Boracay, Philippines.
Photograph by Jenny Webber •

by Imelda V. Abaño
Philippines

• A native farmer atop the Ifugao Rice Terraces. Photograph by Imelda V. Abaño •

by Imelda V. Abano
Philippines

"I was working on our small vegetable farm in our backyard when I felt the earth tremble. I looked up and saw the landslide coming towards me.

• Typical home in the mountainous Mangyan village, an area in the Philippines prone to landslides. Photograph by Dylan Walters •

Ever since a massive landslide triggered by heavy rains buried an entire village in the Southern Philippines on February 17, 2006, 28 year-old Raquel cannot believe she and her two children survived the terror.

by Imelda V. Abaño
Philippines

• Photograph courtesy of IRRI •

Yet according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), only 16 percent of mothers in the Philippines breast-feed their children, an extraordinarily low rate for such a poor country.

by Imelda V. Abaño
Philippines

TORONTO - “What has happened to me can never be undone!”

• Maher Arar addressing journalists in Toronto. Photograph by Imelda V. Abaño •

Even after five years, even after being officially cleared by a prolonged government study, Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian citizen and telecommunications engineer from Ottawa, still carries the pain.

Maher Arar became an innocent victim caught up in the little-publicized US policy known as "extraordinary rendition" - a covert practice of sending terror suspects to third countries for detention and interrogation.

In September 2002, he cut short a family vacation in response to a request to report back to work in Montreal. Then, at New York’s JFK Airport, he was stopped by US officials. To his astonishment, he was interrogated about his supposed links to terrorists. But things quickly worsened. He was then transported to Syria, where for ten months he was physically and mentally tortured.

by Imelda V. Abaño
Phillippines

Body tattooing is one of the world's oldest art forms having been widely practiced for thousands of

Lagya Aturba remembers her mother who bore intricate tattoos all over her body.

In many cultures, tattoos were not just drawings on the skin - they were elaborately decorated testaments to the life of the culture. They often depicted men’s and women's status as warriors in society. They served as profound depictions of their cultural identity, emblems that embodied the story of their life experiences. And for some cultures, tattoos were simply a convenient way to identify and brand criminals.

But as tattooing has become less about tradition and more about fashion, people of all walks of life, especially young adults, are joining the ranks of the “inked”. Tattooing is no longer the exclusive tradition of indigenous peoples and many fear that this once unique practice is dying out.

by Imelda V. Abaño
Philippines

The Philippine government will award its highest decoration to slain United States Peace Corps volunteer, Julia Campbell, describing her as a "martyred volunteer."

Campbell, 40, of Fairfax, Virginia went missing April 8 during a trek at the mountainside rice terraces in Northern Philippines. She was found buried in a shallow grave 10 days later.

The citation honors Campbell for bringing "light and joy into the lives" of many Filipinos. "She epitomized the ideals of the Peace Corps and of the American people," the citation says.

Campbell, also a freelance journalist, had served as a college teacher in Donsol, Sorsogon, in Southern Luzon, since she began her Peace Corps service in the Philippines in March 2005.

by Imelda Abaño
Philippines

On May 14, 2007, as the Philippines is scheduled for national elections.

For this year's general mid-term elections, 87,000 candidates are running for 17,000 national and local positions, which include all of the 250 seats in the House of Representatives and half of the 24 Senate seats. All of course are wooing the women's votes as half of the estimated 40 million voters are women.

In short, the absence of the women's votes is really a big factor considering that there are more women registered voters than men and considering that there is always a higher female voters' turnout than the male counterpart.

It was 70 years ago when over 400,000 women in the Philippines voted for the first time in an election that eventually paved the way for their participation in government.

Since then Filipino women have always been an important electoral force.

by Imelda V. Abano
Philippines

Environmental group Greenpeace called on Asian governments to work in mitigating the impacts of climate change by shifting to renewable energy sources.

The challenge to Asian governments was made April 28, at the launch of the report, Energy Revolution: A sustainable East Asia Energy Outlook, timed ahead of the third working group meeting of the ninth session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in Bangkok that took place on May 4.

"Developing countries in Asia must stabilize its carbon dioxide emissions by choosing renewable energy and enhancing energy efficiency, while at the same time increasing energy consumption through economic growth," said Jasper Inventor, climate and energy campaigner of Greenpeace South East Asia.

by Imelda V. Abaño
Philippines

Helena, from Hyderabad, India, lost her father when she was 13 and her mother when she was 15, both from AIDS-related illnesses. And now at age 18, she is the head of the household, looking after her two younger brothers, 10 and 13. It’s an especially difficult task because her two brothers are HIV-positive.

“When our mother died, we were so scared of being on our own. I remember her telling me to continue to study and make a future for myself and she also told me I had to take care of the little ones for as long as they need me. So I will,” said Helena during an interview inside their small shack.

“When my mother died we suffered so much. There was no food, and there was no one to look after us,” she recalled while pulling out a picture from her wallet of her mother. It was extremely difficult for Helena to make ends meet until recently, when she began receiving counseling, some food, clothes and blankets from a non-governmental organization.

By Imelda V. Abaño, Philippines

Philippines --- HIV/AIDS, like other life-threatening illnesses, can open a path of reflection for many, redeeming them from living in dread of death, allowing them to relish, instead, each day as a gift of life. For some, in serving others, their lives take on a new sense of worth.

This is the story of Frika Chia Iskandar, 24, a young vibrant woman from Jakarta, Indonesia. Diagnosed with HIV at age 18, Frika declared, “I am the new face of AIDS, a young Asian woman. I was born when AIDS was discovered.”