Poem Sets Off Memories of Years Ago

Volume 7, Issue No. 43

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 Friday, March 13, 2026 

~ Reading is a delightfully rewarding experience passing time especially when one encounters passages that one feels speak out for himself. While immersed in the 2022 poetry book "the tears that taught me" by Morgan Richard Olivier, I came across verses I believe described an unpleasant situation of years ago. 

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'THE TEARS THAT TAUGHT ME'

Poem Sets Off Memories

of Hostility and Mockery

 

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

“Everyone laughs in the beginning.

They mock your efforts,

discredit your development,

and aim to distract you.

Let's see who keeps that energy in the end."

― Morgan Richard Olivier,

from her 2022 poetry book "the tears that taught me" 

TORONTO - Writing this commentary does not mean reviving depraved instances in the early days of a journalism journey in Canada that began in January 2010.

I was engrossed in Morgan Richard Olivier's 2022 book of poems this week when a flood of memories crept back. One particular passage set me off, the one I quote here at the top.

Certainly it was there for our reading pleasure. But the vividness of her verses mirrors my situation at the time I was trying to resume a public service journalism I had begun in California in the mid-1990s.

I am struck by this poem for its simplicity in speaking about challenges anyone could face in pursuit of an idea. As a journalist, my goal is public-interest reporting, which includes ferreting out wrongdoing.

Pursuing that self-imposed mission is not without difficulty. In my experience, for example, I had to endure the scorn, the endless mockery, the physical and legal threats hurled at me for doing what I believe would benefit the community. It's a passion for service writ large.

"FOB (fresh off the boat)" I was called, not as an endearment but to ridicule me as an inexperienced wannabe in Toronto. That put-down came from a lawyer who, aside from having the morals of a dog in heat, passed himself off as "retired" but is actually disbarred for his financial and adulterous misadventures. 

Then followed snide remarks such as "whorenalist" and "churnalist" from cohorts that consisted of fake journalists and a petty thief disguised as a "playwright."

All these invectives were lumped one after another and saw print in a left-leaning rag sheet whose corrupt publishers are reputed in some uninformed quarters as folk heroes. No, no, no, they're not! In truth, they're faux heroes.

When I settled in Toronto, only one dear friend knew my background as a foreign correspondent. That person was the late Tenny Soriano who himself had stints with the foreign press corps in Manila. (Related videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN7EkMlNLgQ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5Wuqttvm9Y).

At that time I noticed that most of the people in local newspaper publishing, except perhaps the departed Ruben Cusipag, were not familiar with such newspapers as the Asahi Shimbun in Japan and wire agencies like dpa (Deutsche Presse-Agentur), the German news agency headquartered in Hamburg, Germany.

I mention the two news organizations because I worked with them for a stretch of time. Before I joined Asahi and dpa, I struggled for stability even as I worked as a stringer for other foreign news agencies.

When I moved to the United States after an exhausting coverage of the Philippines from the tail end of Ferdinand E. Marcos' term to his overthrow in February 1986, to Corazon C. Aquino's assumption of the presidency (1986-1992) through people power revolution, to the first year of her successor General Fidel V, Ramos in 1993, I believed I'm sufficiently knowledgeable to engage in all aspects of journalism and its genre. 

Filipino community newspapers in San Diego, California, and their owners and writers were not quite knowledgeable about news agencies except for the Associated Press and United Press International. 

That same situation was palpable in Toronto's Filipino community. The dozen or so tabloids I familiarized myself with from 2010 to when the COVID pandemic struck in 2019, were eerily striking. It only meant the local tabloids had not gone outside their geographic scope.

I don't blame anybody. As the proverb says: "ignorance is bliss," meaning not knowing is better than knowing and worrying.

So those people who threw their offensive epithets at me for no reason could be disregarded, not forgiven, even if they are manifestly ignorant.

Ever heard of the legal principle "ignorance of law excuses no one"? That's the predicament they're in. And that is why Morgan's poem finds relevance. (Copyright 2026. All Rights Reserved).