Filipino News June 2017

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02 JUNE 2017. ISSUE 102 | www.filipinonews.nz | email: filipinonews@xtra.co.nz | tel: 027 495 8477, 09 838 1221 | Facebook: Filipino Migrant News By LOUIE ENCABO Filipino-Kiwi Hero Awards - Journalist of the Year 2014 The Filipino hero Dr. Jose Rizal once remarked that “the youth are the hope for our country’s tomorrow”. With that line he emphasized the importance of developing our young and properly equipping them to lead the nation in the future. It cannot be denied then that in this year’s general elections we not only need to think of ways to help our home-owners, our jobseekers and our elderly, but we should also look at policies that will greatly benefit our youth. We like to think that enough has been done. Primary and secondary school students enjoy access to tuition-free education and free dental check-ups until the age of 18. However, life is not so easy for university students, many of whom are struggling under the burden of their student loans, compounded by the harsh reality of a good paying job Put our students first being hard to come by. To top it all off the price of housing is ever-increasing, which further hinders our young adults from succeeding. Faced with seemingly insurmountable inconveniences, political will is necessary to help the plight of our young. The Labour Party has recently offered a policy which will give three free years of post-school education for school leavers; the plan includes university, apprenticeship or postgraduate study and can be used on a full-time or parttime basis. The three years do not all have to be used up at once, but can only be applied to educational pathways approved by the NZQA. The plan, while helpful, has been criticized for not being useful to those who wish to pursue medicine or engineering degrees, which often take at least five years to complete. The Green Party, on the other hand, wants to introduce a cap on tertiary education fees, preventing any fee increases, according to their Party website. It can also be recalled that at the last election they campaigned to introduce free off-peak public transport for students, which would alleviate some of the other costs students face while pursuing their studies. These would be of great help to our students, but the policies have been criticized for not going far enough to ease the burden faced by our tertiary students. New Zealand First has also recently announced a tertiary education policy, the Up Front Investment Policy, which promises to wipe off the student loans of graduates who agree to work in New Zealand for the same amount of time that they have studied. If you borrow three years worth of student loans you would have to work for three years in New Zealand to wipe them off. It turns a student’s cash debt into a EDUCATION STAND @ Migrant News Expo (migrantnews@xtra.co.nz) www.migrantnews.nz; www.asia2nz.com skill debt instead, not only reducing the financial burdens they face, but also reducing the skills shortage the country faces. Regardless of what criticisms these policies face, they certainly will help the lives of our younger generation. It is also heartening to know that these parties have the plight of our students in mind and have officially pledged to help them. FREE COPIES OF MIGRANT NEWS: If your club or non-profit community group requires free bulk copies of Migrant News we have a ‘Free Subscription’ campaign going on for a limited time. Please apply by emailing your contact details to: migrantnews @xtra.co.nz Migrant News celebrates 27 years of publication MIGRANT NEWS (www.migrantnews.nz; migrantnews@xtra.co.nz) was launched in 1991 - one of the first ethnic publications in NZ and distributed free of charge nationwide. As the migrant population starting growing by leaps and bounds, offshoots of the main newspaper were launched - FILIPINO MIGRANT NEWS (www. filipinonews.nz - nationwide circulation), PinoyNZ Life (www.pinoynzlife.nz - South Island’s Filipino newspaper) and ASIAN MIGRANT NEWS (www. asia2nz.com the voice of the broader Asian community in New Zealand).
JUNE 2017. ISSUE 102 | www.filipinonews.nz | email: filipinonews@xtra.co.nz | Facebook: Filipino Migrant News www.pinoynzlife.nz 03 BUHAY NZ SUNRISE, SUNSET One photo shows my hubby lifting his older nephew above his head while the child pretended to be flying. Today, that same nephew is even taller than hubby and is the proud father of a one year old boy. I’m sure that many of our readers with children can relate to the song ‘Sunrise, Sunset’, which is about the passing of time. This message was brought sharply home to me when I looked at my two nieces the other day and realized that they were already young women. My older niece, who is turning 21 this year, exudes a confidence and maturity beyond her years and I recall many, many years ago when I held her for the first time in my arms. I still have that picture. She was newly born, an infant who was a mere few days old. Today, she stands before me confident and sometimes cocky, as is typical of youth. She told me once to “get with it, Tita; come into the 21st century”, referring to some technology that I was unfamiliar with. The other niece, no less cocky, asked hubby when he asked for some help with his smartphone, “why do you have such a crappy phone?” And then when he did upgrade to a newer one she had the cheek to tell him, “it’s the wrong model.” Hubby and I could only laugh. It amazes me how outspoken and honest they can be. However, we wouldn’t have it any other way. I was sure it was only yesterday that I was the cocky one, showing off to my parents the knowledge and information I learned from school and the world around me, assuming an air of worldliness in my newfound confidence of knowing more than them. How did I end up on this side This Pinay’s OPINION By Dr Lilia Sevillano of life? How come I now find myself in the same place as my parents? Don’t get me wrong, middle age certainly has its advantages and perks, but time just crept up on me! Where I used to tease my niece a lot, and played games with her like trying to steal her favorite ice-cream can from her, she now looks at me the way I looked at my parents and older people then – with a bit of a longsuffering and amused smile, confident of her ‘superior’ Photo features models knowledge over them. “I don’t remember growing older, when did they?... Swiftly fly the years.” Truly, the years have a funny way of just flowing from day to day, month to month and year to year, without our noticing it. In our busy lives and with our focus on everyday responsibilities and challenges we just do not notice the passing of time. Then suddenly – boom! - you’re actually older and find yourself on the other side of the fence. I guess the lesson in all this is to enjoy the children, their innocence and dependence on you while you can. Spend as much at time with them as possible and actually savor those moments. All too swiftly you’ll be the one who’ll be in need of their assistance and guidance. Where you used to hold their little hands in your big strong ones, soon their big stronger hands will be holding your withered ones. They will also – too quickly – be busy with their own lives, friends and social activities. This switching of places is probably most evident to mothers, as they are the carers who live more closely with their children. But even those who are on the periphery of caring for children, like aunts and uncles, will still notice the subtle changes. Hubby is one example. He has photos of his nephews when they were children. One photo shows him lifting his older nephew above his head while the child pretended to be flying. Today, that same nephew is even taller than hubby and is the proud father of a one year old boy. I tease hubby by telling him that his nephew can now lift him above his head! When our ‘children’ come to visit the conversations can range from the inane to the serious. It is then that I realize that they have truly become our peers, because we can talk to them about anything now. It also becomes more apparent that there are already things they know which I don’t, reminding me again of the words from another song, “they’ll learn much more than I’ll ever know.” Every sunrise and sunset time ever so subtly brings changes. Editor - Dr Lilia Sevillano is a learning consultant at Massey University with a background in Literature. Previously she taught at De La Salle University in Manila.
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Filipino News June 2017

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