By Tracy Anne Cruz
Its been decades since jeepney was introduce to the Filipinos. The use of this vehicle started when the American troops started to leave the Philippines after the World War II. The Americans donated some of the used jeepneys and some of the new ones are sold to local Filipinos. This is where the creativeness and wit of Filipinos, they started to stripped the jeeps and to accommodate more passengers, added metal roofs for shade and designed them with striking and vibrant colors and drawings.
The jeepney suddenly became the talk of the town and also became one of the most cheapest means of transportation. It was then when the government was alarmed by the rapid growth of jeeps on the roads that is when they decides to require all drivers to have specialized license for driving and the jeeps to have its specific route to travel.
Sarao motors is the most popular manufactures of jeepneys in the Philippines. The oldest jeepneys were of origin old American jeeps. They were extended in length by approximately two meters. Inside were put two long seats and the 'jeepneys' were ready to serve as a small bus. The 'first generation' jeepneys were replaced by 'new' jeepneys produced in the Philippines. Small family enterprises built up jeepneys and even a jeepney fabric arose in Sarao, just south of Metro Manila. The fabric "Sarao Motors" went out of business in 2001. (http://www.philippines.hvu.nl/jeepneys1.htm)
Today, jeeps are considered the "king of the road" as you can see them anywhere. From the nearest and up to the hard to reach areas there are still jeeps that you can depend on if you don not have your own vehicle.
It has been part of the daily living of mostly all Filipinos. Wherever you are heading to, work, school, supermarkets, malls, parks, etc. there is always a jeepney to ride to. Though a lot of advanced means of transportation was introduced to us, still we support this industry.
Sneaking through the traffic on the road and streets to the widest road of EDSA (Epifanio De Los Santos Avenue), there came out air-conditioned vehicles which is faster and more comfortable to ride in yet we still search for this hot and noisy ambiance of riding our traditional jeeps. 
Even other countries also showed their interest of buying and importing this world class jeeps of the Philippines, one of this is Papua New Guinea.
A lot of other means of transportation has tried but still can't put down this very reliable jeeps.
We have come to an era where everything inconceivable for the past 50 years has been made possible and actual. Once a dream, now a commodity. Once a prospect, now outdated. Once a thing of imagination, now an item of sensation. We can say that everything, I mean, everything, is now made available and accessible. The rapid growth of technology and fast paced globalization has changed our ways and shifted our gears from a native Filipino into a revolutionized globally competitive Filipino.
We can't blame the change. No, we cant. The only thing we can blame here why we are losing ground of our cultural heritage is because of our lack of interests in our own history and the lack of patriotism in our hearts.
I've been residing in Malabon for 19 years now, whenever I go out and travel I always get pissed by traffic, by smokes that vehicles produce it makes my asthma worse.
I always love to travel, to places outside Manila where there's no smoke belching vehicles, no sound pollution, air pollution but reaching this places is too expensive and time consuming.
Living in Malabon is such an overwhelming experience for me. It is a lovely place to be in, even if there is always flood. We have a lot of products and personalities to be proud of. First in the list is Pancit Malabon, Sarah Geronimo, Erick Santos and Angelica dela Cruz also hails from our City.
Flood. It has been linked to our City's name for the past decade but some of the citizens here are living and earning money by means of water. Fishing is the main jobs of the people here, we have one of the most freshest fish in town.
Being a river way back then, boating is the main means of transportation when Malabon was founded. But until now, it has been one of the most stress free means of travel to neighboring town and cities. In just 5 to 10 minutes you can reach Navotas without the noise of the jeepney's horn, without passing by busy streets and traffic.
With just 3 pesos in your pocket you can visit our neighboring City, Navotas and take a boat ride experience in our native boats which are usually made of aged woods and are being sailed manually.
Routes are two ways, boats will just sail across the river and it has its own station in Navotas.
Here are some photos of Malabon-Navotas ride via boat.
BY TRACY ANNE CRUZ
You walk through and through, you see lovers. Open the television, listen to the radio, read the newspapers-- come on! Everyone's ecstatic about Valentine's Day, but traditionally, not everyone chooses to celebrate it with roses and boxes of chocolate. Little did we know that there are cultures that have special traditions remembering St. Valentine.
Tracing the historical customs, In ancient England, children used to dress up like adults and visit houses and sing love songs to the people living in it. During the Middle Ages, unmarried men and women used to draw names on bowls to see who their valentines would be and putting that name on their sleeves for a week.
Though these traditions might not exist nowadays, there are countries that still practices tradition that is quite related to the latter examples.
- On Malaysia's day of Love, which falls on the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, women write their phone numbers on oranges before throwing them into the closest river with hopes that the man of their dreams might pick one up. Fruit vendors collect the oranges, which are considered lucky fruit, and resell them at the market-- phone numbers and all! Can't you see a romantic comedy flick starting with a guy finding a "call me" orange in his bag of groceries?
- Scotland has a similar party game for unmarried men and woman. During a Valentine's Day get-together, each single person writes his or her name on a piece of paper, which is then thrown into two hats--one containing the men's names, and another containing the women's names. Everyone draws a name and the couples pair off for the evening. Since it's unlikely that the name will actually match, the man has to stick with the woman who picked his name, regardless of whose name he picked.
- In South Korea, the 14th day of every month is dedicated to an aspect of love. For example, May is Rose Day, October is Wine Day and December is Hug Day. On February 14, women give chocolate to men, and on March 14 (also called "White Day"), men give non-chocolate candy to women. People who didn't receive anything on either day get together on April 14, or Black Day, to eat black bean noodles (jajanmyeon) and lament their singleness. Genius!
By. Mariz Pamaong
In a nation like the Philippines, it is so easy for the people, Filipinos to adapt to foreign cultures that are being introduced to us.
Several countries have entered our lives and we gladly hugged it without forgetting our own. We do not select parts of their culture that we will accept but we hug it as a whole. That is also why, sometimes we are being judged of having "colonial mentality" which is in fact not true.
Last year and will continue this 2010, our country has been raid by Korea's culture. From music, fashion, food, etc. A lot of youngsters has been hooked by this what they call the KPop Mania.
While everybody is busy dipping their "tikoy" in beaten egg and frying, a lot of people are also going gaga about this Korea's best.. Kimchi! The country's one of the best cuisine.For Korean's Kimchi is a vital part of their meals.
The word kimchi has 2 possible origins. Some people believe that it evolved from the native Korean words ji or jimchae (meaning vegetables soaked in salted water), then later changed its pronunciation to timchae or dimchae, then to jimchi, and finally kimchi Another possible origin is as a Korean pronunciation of the Chinese character Ham-tse or Kam-tse (meaning processed with salted water or pickle vegetables).(http://lifeinkorea.com)
There are different types of Kimchi, each region has its own way of making it their own and extra special. Each family also has its own recipe passed from generation to generation. There are countless types of Kimchi but the Korean Food Academy only recognizes 100.The flavor depends on ingredients, condiments, the amount of salt, and level of spice used in each region. Korea's various regions produce different types of agricultural products, and this is reflected in each region's type of kimchi. The southern provinces (North and South Cholla Provinces and North and South Kyongsang Provinces) tend to use more salt and seafood so the taste is stronger and sweeter. To the north, kimchi tastes less salty and is very mild.
Kimchi has many different tastes: salty, hot (due to red chili peppers), sour (produced by fermentation), sweet (from pickled fish paste), and other special flavors formed by diverse vegetables. It also has a texture when you chew it that differs from raw vegetables.
Koreans also make fish,pork and beef Kimchi to have variations of their famous cuisine. They also celebrate Kimchi Festival from October 15 to 18 at Gwangju-si Buk-gu Yongbong-dong Around Jungoe Park.
No wander why we accepted this culture, Filipinos also love spicy food. Even foreigners are lovin' this Kimchi too.
by Tracy Anne Cruz
The Amazon is made up of mosaic ecosystems composed of rainforests, seasonal forests, decidous forests, flooded forests and savannas. The Amazon river, is known as the world's largest river in terms of discharge and second longest river in the world after Niles. Its river system is the lifeline of the forest. It is also the most voluminous river on earth eleven times the volume of the Mississippi and drains an area in size to the United States.
The people in this place has a very long history of human settlement. Prior to the arrival of colonialists from Europe and first contact in sixteenth century, the Amazon River Basin had a population estimated at having up to a five million people and perhaps more than a five thousand Amazon tribes. However afterwards, the Amazonia experienced 500 years of violence, exploitation, and disease, that wiped out most of the original Amazon tribes. Presently, only about 500,000 Amazon Indians survive, which are distributed among an estimated 500 Amazon tribes, including about 75 uncontacted Amazon tribes living in voluntary isolation.
There are still over 200 indigenous groups in the Amazon Rainforest , talking 180 different languages and each with their own cultural heritage. If you narrow your view to language families you will still find 30 different language families in the Amazon rainforest. This shows that like the flora and fauna , the cultural diversity in the region is also very high, making it an even more interesting and rich place.
The Amazon tribes of the Amazon River Basin live in many different environments and they have adapted their culture to the various ecosystems. While most Amazon tribes and Amazonian Indians live in the lush, tropical rainforests, some of the Amazon tribes exist in the grasslands and pampas (prairies), and some even live in semi-desert areas. Because of the varied environments in which they live, their material culture of Amazon tribes, which allows them to adapt and survive, varies greatly. Another interesting piece of information about these Amazon Indians is that, depending on the area in which they live and the particular Amazon tribe they belong to, they have had various influences by outside cultures. This would be expected in that the Amazon Rainforest area itself is divided among nine different countries (Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, French Guiana, and Suriname).
However, unlike most current cultivation techniques, these Amazonians were attuned to the ecological realities of their environment from five millennia of experimentation and accumulation of knowledge, with a strong understanding of how to manage the rainforest to meet their requirements within a sustainable capacity. They saw the importance of maintaining biodiversity through a careful balance of natural forest, open fields and sections of forest managed so as to be dominated by species of special interest and greatest use to humans.
By Kriezyl Paguntalan
Try your hand at Origami, the popular art of paper folding, or take a walk down the unbelievably ornate temples. At the heart of the city, step into a theater and take in a performance; the works of Mokuami that grip your innards as well as your soul.
Japan today remains a vast theater of beauty and art, of spaces given over to archaeological sites, tombs, landscapes. Its rich diversity is evident that their achievements are like an unending series of exclamation marks.
Pardon me but I have no money to burn and to visit the extent and superiority of their classical origins that Japan had at their center. It was twice taht I've seen Broadcasting students of PUP-CoC perform Kabuki Theater as a part of their requirements in their Drama and Theater Arts (DTA) subject and I was quite fascinated. The unique blend of dance-drama, the entertaining, energetic and awesome in the use of color, make-up, movements and often other spectacular effects is said to be the barometer of the Japanese spirit.
Kabuki originated in the Edo period and was popular with the lower social class as compared to the higher social classed. The word 'Kabuki' is composed of three Japanese characters: 'ka' meaning songs, 'bu' meaning 'dance' and 'ki' meaning 'skill', translated as the art of singing and dancing. It is more likely a Japanese version of Shakespeare's plays being performed in an Opera and can be interpreted as "avant-garde" or "bizarre theater".
The passion for Kabuki Theater began with the first performance by the shrine dancers Okuri at Kyoto in 1603. In the early phase of 17th century, women were banned f4rom performing because women performers were lured to the business of
prostitution and were getting undue attention from male admirers. This led to the development of art of females impersonation wherein males also played female parts. The theater was as popular as ever, and remained the entity of the urban lifestyle even until modern times. The play itself is all about society in a particular period, historical events, moral conflicts, love relationships etc. and are performed using a combination of dramatic dialogue and dance, accompanied by drums, flutes and stringed instruments.
Performers of Kabuki are very famous in Japan and this theatrical art is usually passed from one family generation to the next.
some says you can only appreciate the theatrical creativity of this art form by visiting a Kabuki performance in Japan, but I guess 'local' Kabuki and the attempt to perform such is a good culture buffing to experience.
-Mariz Pamaong