PhilFAQS

Had some sad news this morning. Not only because it was the news of the passing of a real pioneer (there are few enough of them left, either in the US or in the Philippines) but because Henry Canoy was a fascinating conversationalist, a fellow adopted Coloradan and the sort of rich and powerful person you seldom run into … one who wears his mantle of business and family leadership lightly, having time to be a true gentleman, considerate and friendly to all.

I met Mr. Canoy at a Malacañang Palace function (the equivalent of a US White House awards ceremony/reception with President Bush)) I was lucky enough to attend a few years ago, and I got a good idea how highly he was valued in society when President Arroyo entered the room and made a bee-line to welcome Henry to the function, ahead of many others who left no doubt of what they thought their own appearance was in their dress and manner.

Broadcast industry pioneer Henry R. Canoy passed away in Cheyenne, Wyoming, U.S.A. on May 16, 2008. He was 84 years old. … Mr. Canoy was born on Nov. 1, 1923 in a Presbyterian missionary hospital to Mariano Ricare Canoy of San Fernando, Cebu and Laureana Valentin Rabe of Opol, Misamis Oriental, both public school teachers.

As a boy, he had an undying curiosity to know how things worked and once dismantled his father´s portable Remington typewriter. But instead of giving him the beating he expected, his father instead told him, "I want you to learn to build things, not destroy them." … And build them he did. … Every hour, listeners would hear the station ID: "You are tuned to Station DXCC, broadcasting with a power of 500 watts on 1560 kilocycles from Cagayan de Oro – Gateway to Mindanao!" … Radio Mindanao Network, which now encompasses the whole archipelago, was his brainchild … In 1954, Henry R. Canoy visited the United States under an observation grant. Instead of going to the giant networks and other big cities, he asked to be taken to the boondocks.

And in the small backwater town of Greeley, Colorado, he came upon a station that was doing exactly what DXCC was already trying to do in Mindanao. Its broadcast fare was peppered with farm prices, market and road conditions, weather warnings and personal messages. He came back more determined than ever to prove that radio could be a strong social force and agent of change…. Full article here (worth a read, by the way):

This experience in Colorado shaped "Tito Henry’s" life and attitude toward Americans all the rest of his days.  He and I spent a long time chatting about how things were in rural Colorado and how important radio was to rural America in 1954, in 2004 and even today.  It’s hard to watch American Idol on TV when you have hundreds of acres left to plow before midnight in order to feed all the folk each American farmer feeds, but radio still keeps him in touch, entertained and even awake waiting for a cow to calve at 0200 on a sub-zero morning.

Mr. Canoy went back to the US many times since those early years, never failing to visit the places in rural America which had taught him that the US was much more than Wall street and political parties.  In fact, he was stricken with his final illness on a family trip to explore the beauties of Yellowstone.

Filipino by birth and heart, citizen of the world by choice and intellect and gentleman by definition … RIP, Henry Canoy, you voice will live on.

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Monday through Friday I usually have my alarm set for 0430.  I usually get up when it goes off.  There are many good reasons for getting up early, some of the more important ones to me are, it’s cool, peaceful and quiet then.  Some people think it’s a ‘success factor’ to rise early, and I certainly won’t argue with them, but I am allegedly retired and not nearly as interested in making money as I might be.

On Saturdays and Sundays I just wake up "whenever", usually some time between 5 and 6.  Seven days a week, when I am at home, I almost always take a little nap after lunch, the tradition of the siesta is one that many Filipinos have adopted from the Spanish days, although it is by no means as universal as it is in say, Mexico.

Unless I have some sort of appointment I never set an alarm in the afternoon, and closing the lid on my laptop makes sure there are no phone calls to wake me up, either .. I don’t waste money and wires on a phone line, the Internet (Skype) does it better, faster, cheaper and voice mail is automatic.

But on Saturday afternoons I almost get awakened by the voices of my youth.  Voices set to music, that is.  Our municipal trash collectors … Filipinos here in Luzon at least often use the Spanish word for refuse or garbage, basura …hence the ‘Basura Boys’ … and why do they wake me up?  Easy.

As a service to their customers (and because they like their tunes) the ‘boys’ have several huge speakers atop the truck, like a politician’s campaign vehicle.  And they place, loud, "oldies" tunes.  You can hear them coming far down the block, plenty of time to get any of the trash sacks out to the curb if you forgot to earlier.

Most of us in the US would call the songs "Ancients" rather than "oldies", we are talking 1960s and even some 1950′s thrown in there.  "Oldies" stations are very popular on the radio here, and believe me, at least here just outside of metro Manila, Filipinos do like them old.

My friend Bob did  a very nice write-up on Al’s Diner down in Davao City (a nice place, by the way, I’ve been there and highly recommend it).  One of the things he mentioned set Al’s apart from many other dining emporiums was the "Oldies" music that the owner, "Al" often ha splaying.  hate to say it, but there are probably 99% pf all the restaurants that play music in the Philippines playing songs as old as the music at Al’s, or older.  If you weren’t brought up with Peter, Paul and Mary, Roy Orbison, the Dave Clark Five and the Beatles before they came to the US, you have a whole musical education in store for you

Anyway, that’s what wakes me on most Saturday afternoons.  Just one of life’s little pleasures here.  While I was looking around for a picture of a basura truck in action I came across the one above, on this website.  Worth a read, in itself.  In spite of a lot of talk about recycling and cutting down on waste, and a lot of "nose in the air" superiority over "developing countries" attitude, I see very little going on with actual "hands on" doing anything about the environment or just outright waste in general.  here in the Philippines the saleable trash (Bote … plastic containers, glass, cans, etc.) are picked up separately by fellows and gals who earn a living that way.  The actual garbage is required to be put in separate bags .. wet (compostable food waste) and "dry" (all others.  Even though they would make an OSHA inspector have a heart attack, riding atop their truck the way they do, our basura Boys keep it separate and compostable waste gets made into something useful rather than just filling up the landfills. 

It may not look like much to a Westerner who "knows it all" but it actually works out to be a pretty good system.

I just had to throw the picture of the crew with the yellow pushcart in there.  They are from Quezon City, not my town, but nearby.  The lettering on the top of the cart, "SIMOT BASURA" struck me.  Simot is a word we use often, it means getting the last drop out of a bottle or using all the scraps on a carpentry project … thus: making the Most of Garbage".  Kewl.

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Just in case some of you have the idea I am too much of a Pollyanna, always preaching good things about the Filipinos, "This Bud’s for You".  recently, my dear wife, the Unofficial Cook, posted a rather moving story or two about our experiment with having a maid … and trying to do a little good for people … on her personal blog, Mainly Mita.

I started out to make a comment to her "finale" story, here Losing More than a Maid, but I find there’s much more on my mind about this young woman, her family and the whole idea that so many of my countrymen have about "making a difference" in the Filipino scheme of things.

Cheryl … or "Cyril" as he birth certificate is written first came around out home about 16 months ago … back when we first moved into our rental home here in Marilao, Bulacan.  Her mom has long done occasional housework and particularly plancha (ironing) for several of our extended family and neighbors.  Cheryl would sometime come with her mom and do cleaning as well, and a couple times when her mom was sick, she would come by and ask to clean the house because her mom was bed-ridden and there was no food in their house (she has 7 brothers and sisters that I know of, and a father who is said to be both alcoholic and abusive.)

That’s the first thing many of my "outside looking in" readers may have trouble getting their heads around.  I was brought up in the 1950′s, in a rural community, and it was standard practice that children worked … to help support their families or even to help develop themselves …from an early age.  Today, in the US at least, we have a society which insulates our children from the real world until late teens or 20′s … as if they were physically and mentally incapable of doing anything.  Often a a parent wonders out loud why their high school or college student seems to think the world owes him/her a living and why they are always asking for more an more money and material ‘things’.  Duh.

In the Philippines it isn’t a moral or behavioral science debate when children can start work, it’s an economical decision.  Or a stomach decision.  If there is no food on the shelf (forget in the ‘fridge, you need electricity and money for one of those) and there are able-bodied people at home, doesn’t matter if they are 14 or 40, they need to be out working … or begging … and I far prefer that children work at honest labor than beg … or. for young teens, fall into the sexual predator traps which are all to easily available.  For those who wonder at the propriety and correctness of giving a 14 (she’s 15 now) year old girl paid housework to do, I wonder if the alternative of giving here a forged birth certificate and a GRO (Guest Relations Officer) ID card to work the bars at night is a better alternative?  Myself, I opt for giving them honest work and decent meals.

At any rate, my post is already growing long.  I suggest you read Mita’s articles on the subject for more details.  Suffice to say, the whole experience with Cheryl has made me a little bitter, very sad, and contrary to my usual outlook, more than a little hopeless.  If you can’t help even one kid, on a one-to-one basis to even learn how to take daily showers, wear clean clothes (you have to have a change of clothes first), learn to read at the second grade or so level … and most importantly, not to look you in the eye and lie … about even tiny things … that eventually leads to a complete loss of trust and an end to what could be a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship.

For years now I’ve been saddened and sometimes even angered by fellow foreigners who get angry and voice opinions about lying and deceitfulness being endemic in the Philippines.  These sort of negative stereotypes would just set me on edge, because I have had such a good relationship with so many Filipinos who have been honest as the day is long.  But into each life some "rain’ or reality must fall.  And though I’m not "down" on the Philippines or Filipinos at all, I have to admit that my life is never going to be quite the same.  I guess it is a bit of a coming of age to me … a cold water splash of reality dashed on my warm, positive outlook definition.  Happens to us all at one time or another, I guess.

Cheryl … I still think you’re a wonderful person in many ways and I hope (almost against hope) that there is something better for you and your inevitable brood of children … but you’ve taken away a spark of innocence I feel will never return, and for that I really can not find it in my heart to say thank you.  You, and your mom and your sisters needn’t bother coming ’round anymore.

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