Musicals a Great Reliever of Anxiety in COVID Times

Volume 1, Issue No. 40

OPINION/COMMENTARY

/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

. . . . . A community service of The Filipino Web Channel (TheFilipinoWebChannel@gmail. com) and the Philippine Village Voice (PhilVoiceNews@gmail.com) for the information and understanding of Filipinos and the diverse communities in North America . . .

Our latest as of Tuesday, April 21, 2020 

~ No better way to relieve stress and anxiety than to relax and watch the full and uninterrupted video of one of the longest-running musicals in the comfort of our homes. Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera streamed for 24 hours for free from London, England this past weekend as a means to ease the uncertainties brought about by the coronavirus pandemic.

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WATCHING MUSICALS ON THE WEB  

Easing the Stress of COVID Days

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

“If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.” ― Amit Ray

TORONTO - For nearly three hours on Saturday, April 18, 2020, I sat in front of my desktop computer watching what I thought was the live streaming from the Royal Albert Hall in London, England of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, The Phantom of the Opera.

A friend had emailed the internet link with the note that it would show, for free, only until 7 p.m. London time, which prompted me to just click it and watch the show without reading the notes below the screen. 

In reality, what was showing was a video recording of the performance in 2011 of the lavish celebration of The Phantom's 25th year, produced by Cameron Mackintosh. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nINQjT7Zr9w).

In my eagerness to share and break the gloom of isolation and quarantine forced on us because of COVID-19, I forwarded the earlier email to family and selected friends. I was hoping it'll provide some delightful relief from the pandemic, if only for a moment.

On my own, my coping mechanism involves watching documentaries on YouTube, reading non-fiction and poetry from my collection, writing news articles and feature stories, and doing videos whenever possible. There's not much else to do. I can't even go hiking or wander in parks as I used to.

My sense was that the musical would help steer our thoughts away from the never-ending tally of confirmed cases of coronavirus (2,540,553) and deaths (175,438) based on worldwide counts as of 2:45 p.m. (Eastern) today, Tuesday, April 21, 2020, by Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.

I like The Phantom in its entirety. But only one song appeals to me personally. And that's All I Ask of You written by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Charles Hart, and Richard Stilgoe. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq6NUKNF3LQ&list=RDYq6NUKNF3LQ&start_radio=1&t=11).

The song was described as "one of the biggest and most commercially successful hits" from The Phantom. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_I_Ask_of_You). It quickly became a favourite the first time I heard it in the mid-1990s.

The three individuals behind the song are excellent musicians and wordsmiths for capturing love's essence in every man's vow to his beloved. There's poetry in every lyric.

Indeed, the words are very touching, for example, the man's strong affirmation of his life-long commitment to the woman he loves: "Let me be your freedom/Let daylight dry your tears/I'm here, with you, beside you/To guard you and to guide you x x x Let me be your shelter/Let me be your light". Nothing compares in meaning.

I told my friend who called my attention to The Phantom that I've watched it live in London a few years ago but wouldn't mind watching it again on YouTube. I knew I took a video of the theatre at that time it was showing.

To my astonishment, it wasn't The Phantom that I had watched; it was Les Miserables at Queen's Theatre (renamed Sondheim Theatre last year) in London's West End in November 2016. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoVsPF8nBTk).

I remember going there for a reason. Then and now, I'm still not quite acquainted with renowned Filipino artists in the Philippines and abroad, but while exploring London at the time, I saw in billboards huge posters of two Filipino artists who were in the cast.

Les Miserables (or Les Mis) had selected Rachelle Ann Go (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachelle_Ann_Go) to play Fantine and San Diego, California-born Eva Noblezada (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Noblezada) as Eponine.

It's a matter of pride to support them regardless of how inconsequential it might look with just a ticket costing £32.50. So I went to the theatre. It felt good that I was not alone in that way of thinking for inside, Filipinos were everywhere to see the two performers excel on stage.

Taking pictures or videos during the performance was strictly prohibited so the visuals I had were taken outside the theatre. Anyway, watching Les Mis with Filipino artists in it proved to be an overpowering experience particularly in a place like London. (I just saw somebody else's video of their June 2016 performance on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdJBMQcgke4&list=RDMHeid6YECno&index=4).

I like Go's interpretation of I Dreamed a Dream, the song that catapulted Susan Boyle, a middle-aged Scottish singer, to heights of fame. (Her version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk and Anne Hathaway's: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmHcDWrMH-8).

Misses Go and Noblezada earned praises for their Les Mis performance. Go eventually got the "Best Performance of a Song Award" for her rendition. 

Watching them in London's Queen's Theatre was quite a prideful experience then. They affirmed what we all knew long before them, that Filipino artists have arrived! (Copyright 2020. All Rights Reserved).

Harry Roque Returns to Malacanang as Presidential Spox

Volume 1, Issue No. 39

OPINION/COMMENTARY

/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

. . . . . A community service of The Filipino Web Channel (TheFilipinoWebChannel@gmail. com) and the Philippine Village Voice (PhilVoiceNews@gmail.com) for the information and understanding of Filipinos and the diverse communities in North America . . .

 Our latest as of Sunday, April 19, 2020 

~ Harry Roque is candor personified. Early this week, the human rights lawyer and advocate returned to his former haunts in Malacanang Palace in Manila as presidential spokesman, a position he had previously held, then relinquished to run for the Senate, and quit prior to the polls for health reasons. On Monday, April 13, 2020, President Rodrigo Duterte signed the papers appointing him to the post. His presence there indicates the government's commitment to freedom of expression.

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ATTORNEY HARRY ROQUE  

Celebrating The Return of Candor

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

“Keep everything open and live from openness to openness.” ― Francis Lucille

TORONTO - Philippine lawyer Harry Roque is back in the saddle in Malacanang Palace as spokesman for President Rodrigo Duterte. (Full story at: https://tribune.net.ph/index.php/2020/04/14/spox-again/).

It's a cause for celebration as far as I'm concerned, for with him up there, one feels assured the freedom of expression and the freedom of the press are safeguarded no less by a rights advocate.

"For a second time, I accepted the appointment to be the presidential spokesman," he explained in a commentary in Manila's Daily Tribune on Tuesday, April 14, 2020. "I did so," he explained, "for the same reason that I accepted the original appointment: to do so would be to promote freedom of expression and the corollary right of the people to information on matters affecting them".

That statement is very heartening despite the incessant whinings by left-leaning groups, including those categorized as "Yellowtards" in and out of government, about the alleged loss of those fundamental freedoms exemplified by the controversy over the application of ABS-CBN network to renew its franchise.

Their informal alliance makes them "strange bedfellows". Indeed, their common aspiration to undermine President Duterte and his administration is the glue that binds them. I believe Secretary Roque, with his background as a human rights lawyer and congressman, would be in the best position to pacify them.

During his first term as presidential spox, I'd watched him preside over this daily ritual with a fawning press corps and knew right there and then he was fearless but patient enough to impart his wisdom. He is one of those knowledgeable and effective communicators for the chief executive due in part to his knowledge of the law and international conventions. 

I've had a long experience with presidential spokesmen and press secretaries while covering Malacanang Palace as a foreign correspondent during the sunset years of Ferdinand Marcos (1965-1986), through the whole term of Corazon Aquino (1986-1992) and the inception of Fidel Ramos (1992-1998). Midway through Ramos' term, I had already moved to California.

My readers might wonder why I use the adjective "fawning" to describe the palace press corps. No offense there, please. I'm simply recalling the adversarial nature of press conferences at that time with Marcos' spox Francisco Tatad; Cory Aquino's Teddy Locsin Jr., aka Teddy Boy, Teddy Benigno aka Teddy Man, Rene Saguisag, and Adolfo Azcuna; and Ramos' Rod Reyes.

Perhaps the present time with President Duterte is much different in many ways from the situation then. The revolutionary fervor from People Power and the series of coups had not dissipated and members of the foreign press corps were not exactly friendly with whoever sat at the palace.

Secretary Roque had distinguished himself in the twelve months that he had held the post as presidential spokesman in 2017, resigning only for a run for senator of the republic, but withdrew for health reasons before the election took place. 

I had some limited interaction with him early last month. I had written him a letter requesting his permission to republish selected articles for Periodico Pilipino, the newest Filipino newspaper in the Greater Toronto Area which has hired me as editor-in-chief.

Due to financial constraints, I had to abandon my earlier plan to get him to write for the paper outside of his media outlets in Manila. I was trying to avoid a common practice among Filipino newspapers in Toronto of reprinting articles from Philippine newspapers without permission and then making it appear like they write for them.

In my view as a journalist and editor, Periodico would be a lot different from existing publications. I would raise the bar by setting ethical standards in newspaper publishing and adhering to high moral principles. Secretary Roque very well fits this profile.

I also took pains to have the articles of Manila Times columnist Rigoberto Tiglao to be in Periodico to give readers here an understanding of his progressive views. Mr. Tiglao is a former ambassador, press secretary, and presidential spokesman for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Within hours of my requests by email, Atty. Roque and Ambassador Tiglao accepted and allowed me to publish any item from their archives in the Daily Tribune and the Manila Times, respectively.

The powerhouse that I envisioned for Periodico was now in the process of building up with the addition of the two popular columnists in Manila. I was careful about selecting people who would write for the paper, knowing many of the names in staff boxes of Filipino newspapers are deadbeats.

And so it is most welcome news from Manila to know that Atty. Harry Roque is back again as presidential spokesman. 

He best describes what he's going to do: "So, aside from informing the people, the job now entails inspiring the people and assuring them that all resources of government are being harnessed to uplift their plight in this challenging time . . . I am humbled with this latest appointment but determined to make a difference". (Copyright 2020. All Rights Reserved).

Stopping COVID-19 Spread by Physical Distancing

Volume 1, Issue No. 38

OPINION/COMMENTARY

/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

. . . . . A community service of The Filipino Web Channel (TheFilipinoWebChannel@gmail. com) and the Philippine Village Voice (PhilVoiceNews@gmail.com) for the information and understanding of Filipinos and the diverse communities in North America . . .

 Our latest as of Tuesday, April 14, 2020 

~ Staying frozen in our homes and sheltered with family, we've become "virtual" than "personal" in our communications with colleagues, relatives and friends. It's the coronavirus and the disease it carries (COVID-19) that sets how we move and behave. Everything is changing rapidly, in fact, it took just several weeks to learn new ways to cope and survive this pandemic that gives rise to Generation C.

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2020 START OF GENERATION C? 

We've Become 'Virtual' Than 'Personal'

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

“Temper us in fire, and we grow stronger. When we suffer, we survive.”― Cassandra Clare

TORONTO - Close friends lament the inability to meet up for our usual fortnightly dinner of kamjatang (also gamja-tang), the spicy neck-bone soup we've accustomed to eating in the last few years prior to the recent unwelcome arrival of coronavirus.

The last time we had kamjatang, or KJT in our lingo, was exactly two months ago at our favorite Korean restaurant in northern Toronto. Another place we went to was in Chinatown, only because a streetcar stop was close by and driving posed a big challenge due to the winter snow.

That was February 15, 2020, when Toronto Public Health had registered only two cases in this multicultural city of 2.9 million people. A month later, on March 15, the number jumped to 32, then 48 the next day, then 75. 

The progression continues from that day on. As of this writing (April 14), Toronto lists a cumulative total of 2,362 cases, 122 recovered, and 92 deaths. Province-wide, the Ontario total is 7,953 cases with the addition of 483 new cases and 334 deaths. Across Canada, it's even grimmer with 26,146 cases, 7,945 recovered and 823 deaths.

Such a situation warrants drastic rules in our movements. We're all frozen in a sense, told to shelter in place, while the search for a cure is pursued by scientists worldwide. The Johns Hopkins University's Coronavirus Resource Center tallies 1,970,225 confirmed cases globally, and 124,544 deaths as of Tuesday afternoon, April 14, 2020. 

It may sound frivolous to not engage in our normal routine, such as having KJT once in a while - which is actually a convenient excuse for a lengthy talk - but it actually typifies a loss, albeit temporary, of some of our freedoms at the real risk of losing our lives to COVID-19, the disease that coronavirus brings.

What's dreadful is in not seeing the common enemy that COVID-19 is, and in not knowing how to defeat it despite advances in science and technology. Health authorities decide that the best alternative to slow or mitigate its advance is personal hygiene and strict observance of physical or social distancing. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liYW6EgxXu8).

Physical distancing dictates our activity in and out of our homes, offices, public transports, parks, restaurants, among others. We can't walk alone unless we observe a distance of 6 feet or 2 meters from others. We can buy food from restos but can't dine-in. We can't mingle unless it's with the family and so on.

During the weekend, city authorities warned they're issuing $1,000-citation tickets to those who violate physical distancing rules. "Any two people who don’t live together, who fail to keep two metres of distance between them in a park or public square, can receive a $1,000 ticket – the maximum set fine available," the order reads.

"Virtual" has replaced "personal" in many aspects of our lives in what some people now casually call Generation C, the age of the coronavirus. The new insert is supposedly between the Millenials (or Generation Y, birth years 1981 to 1996) and Generation Z (the mid-1990s to 2012), and Generation Alpha (2010 to late 2020s).

I can't begin to imagine how dreary life would be in this so-called Generation C without the computers, the internet, the cell phones, and the other "virtual" gadgets that's become tools of social media. We're physically detached but not completely as we could still connect.

The self-isolation we're advised to do, including imposing limits to unnecessary outings unless it's for food and medicine, benefits us the most. It's a simple but difficult thing to do for social animals like us. 

Physical distancing deprives the coronavirus of potential carriers to latch onto. Authorities estimate that within 6 feet of an infected person, droplets from coughs or sneezes could make their way to one's nasal passages, mouth, lips, and other mucous membranes.

So there's not much choice but to keep our distance. In the meantime, our lengthy talks will have to wait. And when the time comes that COVID-19 is conquered, it will be a grand feast to have bowls and bowls of KJT to celebrate life. (Copyright 2020. All Rights Reserved).

In Canada and US, Filipinos Are Among Those in War vs. COVID-19

Volume 1, Issue No. 37

OPINION/COMMENTARY

/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

. . . . . A community service of The Filipino Web Channel (TheFilipinoWebChannel@gmail. com) and the Philippine Village Voice (PhilVoiceNews@gmail.com) for the information and understanding of Filipinos and the diverse communities in North America . . .

 Our latest as of Tuesday, April 7, 2020 

~ It's heartening to know that among the thousands of frontliners in the fight against the global coronavirus disease are Filipinos - medical doctors, nurses, health workers, and others in allied workplaces. A popular American broadcaster infected with coronavirus mentions that his doctor is a Filipino. Right here at home in Toronto, a Filipino is also at the head of efforts to safeguard public health while the search for a cure to defeat the virus causing the illness continues worldwide. 

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 PANDEMIC FRONTLINERS

Filipinos at Forefront of Fight vs. COVID-19

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

“Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson 

TORONTO - The Filipino in me could not hold off saying what amounts to bragging rights. Not at this time, my inner self tells me, when coronavirus persists in devastating populations with its dreaded disease.

This article, let me be clear, is not meant to underestimate other professionals and workers in the health sector. I'm simply overwhelmed by the realization that Filipinos, many of them unheard and unrecognized, are doing their best in containing COVID-19 as do others of different ethnicities and racial backgrounds.

This Tuesday morning (April 7, 2020) I watched on CNN television journalist Chris Cuomo talked about his struggle battling the coronavirus that currently afflicts him. The "secret to kicking this virus" he calls it and relays the advice to him by an unnamed pulmonary expert, which is to put up a fight.

There's really no choice in such a situation. The medicine to cure COVID-19 is yet to be found. (As of 8:30 a.m. Eastern, April 7, Johns Hopkins' Coronavirus Resource Center reports 1,362,936 confirmed cases worldwide, 76,373 deaths and 292,188 recovered). 

Interestingly, China, where the virus began, prompting President Donald Trump to call it the "China virus", is in sixth place in the rung. The United States tops the number of cases at 368,449; followed by Spain at 140,510; Italy at 132,547; Germany at 103,717; France at 98,984; and China at 82,718.

One minute and 50 seconds into Chris Cuomo's regular update while quarantined in his home in New York, he mentions in passing that "This doctor's Filipino" without naming the physician, but enough to draw my attention, and thus this article. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b74d6NVTJ6s at 1:50 mark.

I wish Chris had identified the physician by name though he might have hesitated for ethical reasons, which is understandable. I do know that Chris is not over the hump yet. My point, however, is to give credit where credit is due, as the saying goes. Or, maybe it's too soon.

The advice Chris got - and I presume it's from his Filipino doctor - sounds revolutionary in the sense that it steers away from traditional protocol, which is to take medicine, eat nutritious food, take bed rest and wait until everything is gone. 

Chris indicated he did heed the advice, explaining how difficult and painful it was to break away from the normal routine of treating the virus. That was his "secret" apparently. Whether Chris would continue to broadcast, which is to say to live, or not, is another question. My prayer goes to him. He could just succeed with the secret treatment.

Chris' mention of a Filipino doctor treating him leads me to another doctor right here at home in Toronto. And it just makes me proud as a natural-born Filipino and a naturalized Canadian that one of us is there to look after us and take care of our medical needs.

That should be our open secret, a comforting one at that, knowing we're in good, capable hands, and fully aware of how Filipinos regard others, especially their families and friends. That's part of being hospitable, I suppose.

I'm referring to a Filipino-Canadian, Dr. Eileen de Villa, who is at the front and center of the local war against COVID-19 as the Medical Officer of Health of the City of Toronto, Canada's largest public health agency with nearly 2,000 employes. She's basically the public doctor of 2.9 million Torontonians.

She's born of Filipino parents who are physicians themselves. Her mother, Dr. Maria Antonina “Nenette” de Villa, is a cardiologist. Her late father, Dr. Guillermo “Jun” de Villa, was an obstetrician/gynecologist.

Dr. de Villa comes to her post well-equipped. She's a Doctor of Medicine and a Master of Health Science (MHSc) (Health Promotion), degrees she got from the University of Toronto. She also holds a Master of Business Administration from the Schulich School of Business at York University. Dr. de Villa is also an Adjunct Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Health at the University of Toronto.

Since COVID-19 blew into town, Dr. de Villa presides over a daily press briefing with city officials led by Toronto Mayor John Tory. Hers is a calming presence. Composed, articulate, knowledgeable, she tells the situation as it is without trying to obfuscate the dire issues. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liYW6EgxXu8).

There may be others, but I know of only one in the US who possesses the same persona, Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the lead members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, whom the New York Times called "the nation's leading expert on infectious diseases". (Info at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Fauci).

In the current situation, Dr. de Villa is the voice of confidence and authority. In these trying times of the pandemic, her cool presence is enough to console and pacify uneasiness in Canada's largest metropolis of 2.9 million people. Indeed, she's our protector, the people's doctor, the guardian of public health. (Copyright 2020. All Rights Reserved).

Pandemic of COVID-19 Beyond Imagination

Volume 1, Issue No. 36

OPINION/COMMENTARY

/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

. . . . . A community service of The Filipino Web Channel (TheFilipinoWebChannel@gmail. com) and the Philippine Village Voice (PhilVoiceNews@gmail.com) for the information and understanding of Filipinos and the diverse communities in North America . . .

 Our latest as of Monday, April 6, 2020 

~ The immensity of coronavirus disease is hard to comprehend. When it affects over a million people and causes the death of thousands, we beseech divine intervention to complement what science may have in store to defeat it. As we've been reminded all this time, a fundamental solution also rests on us, on people adhering to rules and following regulations.

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CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

The Contagion of Our Lifetime

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

“The world will overcome the pandemic in unity of hearts through prayer.” ― Lailah Gifty Akita

TORONTO - Before COVID-19 (or coronavirus disease 2019) surfaced and entered our vocabulary, I had no concept of what a pandemic was, or what constituted a pandemic. It was an abstract idea as far as I was concerned.

Its dimension was beyond my grasp. I had known only epidemics of infectious diseases such as influenza and tuberculosis, which are common in the Philippines, from covering the health beat as a staff reporter for The Manila Chronicle (now defunct) many years ago. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrIFXOV-7mU).

But a pandemic in real terms? I had no knowledge at all.

I could not imagine how big pandemics are. My understanding was limited, very much limited, until the number of cases counted by the thousands, then by the hundreds of thousands, and now over one million.

The one pandemic I learned from reading historical accounts was the Spanish flu of 1918 which lasted two years from January 1918 to December 1920, infected 500 million people and killed anywhere from 17 to 50 million people. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu).

At that time, many of us had not existed yet. Maybe our parents had not been born either. Which makes the current coronavirus disease (COVID-19) the contagion of our lifetime.

Actually, the more relevant to us in understanding pandemics are those that occurred after the 1918 flu. There's the Asian flu, which came in 1957 or 39 years after the Spanish flu. 

"It (Asian flu) was first reported in Singapore in February 1957, Hong Kong in April 1957, and in coastal cities in the United States in summer 1957. The estimated number of deaths was 1.1 million worldwide and 116,000 in the US," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Ten years later, the pandemic by an influenza A (H3N2) struck. First noted in the United States in September 1968, it has claimed the lives of an estimated one million people worldwide and about 100,000 in the US. Most excess deaths were in people 65 years and older. 

"The H3N2 virus continues to circulate worldwide as a seasonal influenza A virus," according to CDC.

In 2009, a novel H1N1 influenza (flu) virus emerged to cause the first flu pandemic in 40 years. "The 2009 H1N1 pandemic was estimated to be associated with 151,700 to 575,400 deaths worldwide during the first year it circulated. This H1N1 virus has continued to circulate seasonally to this day," the CDC said. 

When I first heard (on March 11) Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, called the disease pandemic, it gave me the creeps, especially after he described it as the "first pandemic caused by a coronavirus".

He cautioned: "Pandemic is not a word to use lightly or carelessly. It is a word that, if misused, can cause unreasonable fear, or unjustified acceptance that the fight is over, leading to unnecessary suffering and death".

A pandemic, says the WHO, is the worldwide spread of a new disease. It is "an epidemic occurring on a scale that crosses international boundaries, usually affecting people on a global scale". In other words, the disease is an epidemic many times over, except that it has crossed borders and becomes boundless. Either one is terrifying.

From Wuhan, China, where it was first identified in December 2019, the disease has leapfrogged to places far and wide. At the latest tally, COVID-19 has affected 204 countries and territories around the world.

As of this posting (April 6, 2020), confirmed cases totaled 1,289,380. The number of deaths stood at 70,590. The statistics are culled from Johns Hopkins' Coronavirus Resource Center in Baltimore, Maryland.

After exposure to COVID-19, symptoms (such as cough, fever, difficulty breathing, pneumonia in both lungs) may take up to 14 days to appear, "the longest known incubation period for this disease," says Canada Public Health Services.

 As of April 6, Canada has listed 15,494 cases, 2,942 recovered, and 280 deaths. The province of Ontario has 4,347 with the addition of 309 new cases, 132 deaths, and 1,624 resolved cases. The city of Toronto has 1,232 cases, 27 deaths, and 69 recovered. (Copyright 2020. All Rights Reserved).