June 30, 2013, Or If The Other Children Would Be Required To Provide Parental Inform: Fill & Download for Free

(This is an expanded version from my answer in a similar question)I’m from the Philippines. Here’s my list in addition to those already posted by some of my countrymen here:We use umbrellas on sunny daysI guess the correct term would be parasol, but these aren’t in fashion in the west anymore and I rarely see people doing it in the US.We use umbrellas for both rainy and sunny days because the tropical sun is seriously no joke and temperatures can reach 32°C to 38°C. It’s dangerous to stay under the sun without shade. Not only because of the risk of sunburn, but also skin damage, heat stroke, and cancer. If no umbrellas are around, anything wide and flat will do, ranging from banana leaves to books.Similarly our fishermen and boat personnel also don’t lounge around in bikinis or board shorts like clueless tourists do. They wear ninja outfits that protect as much skin as possible, or they do night fishing.Our coconut trees have stepsTourists might be puzzled at why coconuts on beaches have half-moon shaped notches cut into them at regular intervals. Those are used as footholds for harvesting coconuts. You can make them with a machete easily. They stay there forever and don’t really seem to be damaging to the tree itself. Pretty much every coconut tree has them. Even backyard ones. Other countries use special equipment, slings and harnesses, or ropes around the trunks.We have armed security guards everywhereAnd it has nothing to do with crime rates. Though some (especially in malls and ports) do secure vulnerable public places after past bombings by ISIS and Al Qaeda-affiliated groups, in practice most of them do nothing but greet and open the door for customers.It’s a traditional part of the standard employee roster, and is even required in some companies for insurance purposes. We Filipinos treat them more like doormen and information booths.Our boats have wingsOutriggers (katig in most Filipino languages). They are parallel structures that are connected to the boat, usually made from carved wood or bamboo. They contribute to the boat’s stability and bouyancy, allowing them to load more cargo and making them less likely to capsize. They also increase the speed of the vessel and they are smoother overall, as there is less contact with the water surface in comparison to similarly-sized single hull ships. The connecting spars can also be built with platforms in larger ships, which became fighting decks in the past when these vessels were used regularly for piracy and seasonal raids on enemies (Viking-style).In the Philippines, even very large warships (~25 to 30 meters in length) had outriggers in the past. They remain in extremely common use today. Not only as fishing boats, but also as island ferries, tourist boats, and even coast guard and military vessels. I once heard a tourist describe them as “spider boats”.Below is a reconstructed Visayan paraw with the characteristic outriggers of native Philippine boats. It is used as a tour boat by Tao Expedition in Palawan.People often make the mistake of thinking it’s an exclusively Polynesian thing, because most Americans only know it from Hawaiian or Maori designs (like in Disney’s Moana). It’s not, it’s part of the heritage of all Austronesian cultures. Although the style and number of outriggers can vary (even within the Philippines), they are what clearly identifies a culture as being descended from Austronesians or had regular contact with Austronesians in the past.It allowed Austronesians to settle almost all the islands of the Indo-Pacific in the first place, as outrigger boats, even small ones, are perfectly capable of sailing oceanic waters. Other important sailing inventions of Austronesians include the triangular crab claw sails (Oceanic lateen) and the tilted square sail (tanja sails).Modern catamarans and trimarans (which are used as fast ferries in most island nations) are based on the same principles.It is common to see people riding on top of passenger vehiclesThe jeepney is our version of a bus. A flamboyantly colorful, named, and heavily customized bus. It originated from converted WW2 American jeeps. In rural roads where it can take a long time for a passenger vehicle to arrive, people would rather climb on to the roof the jeepney or cling to the sides than wait for another one to come along. We call it “toploading”.There are no seating or real handholds, just the regular roof racks that you hold on to for dear life and pray you don’t run into too many potholes and break your tailbone. This practice is disappearing as more and more modern buses ply the roads.However, tourists do it for fun while traveling by jeepney along the winding mountain roads in the northern Philippines, often mere meters from the edge of sheer cliffs. It’s also catching on for backpacker tourists in Palawan Island. It’s totally illegal and dangerous but there are no traffic cops in the hinterlands, and admittedly it’s exhilarating.We prefer water to toilet paper, or both. Never toilet paper alone.Similar to almost all countries in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, we clean our butts with water, not toilet paper. Hence why our bathrooms are always the wet kind. It’s a sort of half-shower, soap and all. Bidets are used more and more these days in private homes but traditionally, we use a long-handled water scooper called a tabò. Most Filipinos just won’t feel clean with toilet paper alone, unless it’s an emergency and you have no choice but to use a public toilet.We have a regular kitchen and a “dirty kitchen”It’s not dirty, rather it’s a kitchen where you can be dirty. It is a traditional part of every house. It is usually a semi-open extension to the house or an outdoor structure separate from the house. It’s where we do things like cleaning fish, butchering livestock, and cooking larger dishes that require open fires, hot coals, or traditional clay ovens (pugon). Things you can’t do in an indoor kitchen without making a huge mess or dying from smoke inhalation. It also doubles as a storage room for things like large cauldrons and firewood.We pair the fork with the spoon, not the knifeA custom that is also common in Indonesia and Thailand, where people traditionally ate with their hands, not chopsticks. It’s because of the fact that a knife and fork would be useless when eating the most important part of every meal: rice. Most of our food are also already served in bite-sized chunks.We don’t have divorceAnd we’re the only remaining country that doesn’t have it. Aside from the Vatican, which doesn’t count. If you want separation from your spouse (regardless of the reason, including domestic abuse, adultery, etc.) your only choice is annulment which is ridiculously expensive. Conversion to Islam (temporarily) is another option, since the Philippines allow civil sharia laws only for Muslims (as long as they do not go against the Constitution). And those laws allow divorce. Still expensive and quite unethical.More and more people support divorce however. But the Catholic Church vehemently opposes it and they are politically powerful.Every city, town, and village has a festivalEvery last one has at least one festival day. They’re called fiestas. It’s usually religious and based on the feast day of the patron saint of the village church. In some cases it is cultural or both, especially in large cities.They occur throughout the year. During fiestas people prepare food and feed visitors from their homes, even complete strangers. There are usually also celebrations, parades, street dancing, and contests.Among Muslim Filipinos, they also have Islamic festivals, the largest of which are the two Eid celebrations (called Hari Raya in the local languages).Here are some of the larger examples:Kaamulan, a festival in Malaybalay City, Mindanao Island, celebrating the seven tribes of the province of Bukidnon.Lanzones Festival in Camiguin Island, celebrating the Lanzones fruits for which the island is famous.Sinulog Festival in Cebu City, Cebu Island, celebrating the conversion of the Cebuanos to ChristianityMasskara Festival in Bacolod City, Negros Island, celebrating… well.. masks.We regularly mix two or even three languages in everyday speechIt’s called code-switching. We’ll use Tagalog and English and whatever your native language is (the Philippines has dozens of regional languages distinct from Tagalog) in a single sentence. It’s apparently so weird that monolingual foreigners immediately comment on it when they hear it. However, it’s also common in other polyglot countries.It should not be confused with loanwords. Code-switching means you can speak all of the languages used fluently on their own, and so does the listener.We get an average of twenty typhoons every year. Five of which will be destructive. We also give typhoons unique names, different from the international designation.Taiwan, Japan, and the Philippines are the typhoon shields of Asia. We get regularly hit by typhoons doing a staggering amount of damage each year, not only to lives and infrastructure, but also crops, fishing, and so on. And they can occur at any time of the year.Out of the three, we arguably get the worst of the lot. We have more supertyphoons than the other two. The deadliest storm in modern history is 2013’s Typhoon Haiyan when it struck the Philippines, causing a tsunami-like storm surge in one of our islands that flattened a major city (Tacloban) and several coastal towns and villages. I’m talking total devastation. Massive container ships were thrown into houses like toys. At least 6,300 people died.Speaking of Haiyan, naming storms started in the Philippines in 1963, following the lead of the typhoon warning center in Hawaii in 1945. There were no international naming standards then. This has persisted into today, and our national meteorological agency PAGASA still assigns unique names to storms that enter our area of responsibility. We are the only country to do this.Typhoon Haiyan for example became known as Typhoon Yolanda to us when it entered our area of responsibility.The frequency of typhoons has actually shaped our national identity. It’s the reason why we are fatalistic to a fault, highly resilient, and more laidback compared to our neighbors. Even mere days after disasters like Haiyan, you can see people laughing and smiling. Our informal national motto is basically “Bahala na” (“What will be, will be”). We don’t stress when things fall apart, we move on and try to focus on the good things. Sadly this also makes us more tolerant of government corruption as well, including the utterly shameless corruption and incompetence that befell the international aid meant for Haiyan victims. Speaking of which…Politicians take credit for tax-funded public infrastructure, sometimes naming it after themselvesIn government projects or infrastructure, politicians will put up large streamers or posters proclaiming that “This project was made by Mayor So-and-So”, usually with their grinning fat faces plastered on it.The finished buildings themselves will often have painted signs, plaques, or even permanent tracings into the concrete of which politicians were in power when it was built. And finally, if they were totally shameless enough, they will sometimes name the buildings after themselves. Like “Governor Shameless Integrated Bus Terminal” or “Councilor Greedypig Waiting Shed”.Nothing was sacred. Police cars have them. Ambulances, hospitals, fire trucks, roads, street lights, tourism posters, bridges, holiday signs, vaccination drives, and so on. Even something as small as a garbage can have these signs. All of them.And it’s not one or two politicians as well. Everyone does it. From lowly village officials to presidents. These posters clutter virtually every available surface in cities, contributing immensely to the visual noise and to literal garbage.And the thing is, all of them are funded by the taxpayers, not their own pockets. They are basically using public funds to advertise themselves for the next election. These are derisively called “epal” (slang for someone who intrudes into a conversation or a situation uninvited). These are extremely common and are one of many public faces of political corruption in the Philippines.Several senators have proposed bills to the Congress to ban them before. But to date none have succeeded. The latest attempt was in August 2017 by Senator Manny Pacquiao (yes the Manny Pacquiao), but it is still pending.We apologize to trees and rocksIt’s one of the few surviving aspects of our precolonial animist religions. Before the arrival of Christianity and Islam, we believed in nature spirits called anito (later also called “diwata”, after contact with India). This belief in spirits is remarkably similar to the elves and fairies of European folklore, the yokai and kami of Shintoism in Japan, as well as the animist beliefs of most other tribal societies all over the world.Ancient Filipinos did not worship them technically. The mostly benevolent ones were asked for help from time to time by the shamans (babaylan), but usually the average person did their best to avoid them because they were considered dangerous. While most are not considered malevolent, being disrespectful or even walking into one of them unknowingly is believed to anger them and cause damage to your own spirit resulting in misfortune and sickness. Which is why great pains is taken not to insult them in any way.Certain places are regarded as being their homes or are gateways to the spirit world. Especially during twilight when the veil between the spirit world and the material world is said to be at its thinnest. These places include large banyan trees (called balete), secluded forests, caves, or places with strange rock formations or natural phenomena.When passing by these places (or if we needed to interact with these places for any reason), we apologize and ask for permission by saying “Tabi apo” (literally “Excuse [us], elder” or “Pardon [us], elder”).This has survived into the modern-day. People will also actively refuse to cut these trees down. And you’ll invariably hear stories of supernatural events near these trees, or some person falling sick or dying after harming the trees. In some places, people still leave offerings at their roots.The example below is a locally famous gigantic balete in Negros Island, estimated to be around 1,300 years old.We have the highest gender equality rank in all of AsiaAnd we score higher than most western countries too in the Global Gender Gap Report of the World Economic Forum (including the US, UK, France, and Germany). We are consistently within the top 10 countries in the index since the report was started in 2010. This is something most people outside the Philippines don’t seem to know.There are no barriers to women in most professions (the only exceptions I can think of are religious professions). Gender equality is enshrined in our Constitution. Women have the same or higher educational attainment and life expectancy as men. It is not uncommon to see female security guards, cops, or soldiers. Female CEOs and politicians are also very common. We were one of the first Asian countries to have universal suffrage for women (1937). We’ve already had two female presidents, and our current vice president is female. No one bats an eye.Not saying it’s perfect equality, of course. Men still dominate in politics and economics, but the gap is lower than most countries. There is still chauvinism left over from the Spanish period, but it mostly relates to archaic laws (like adultery still being a crime, abortion being illegal, etc.). There are also some traditional separation between professions considered masculine and feminine, but they are not hard barriers. There are still also problems with domestic violence (though at rates equal to Japan’s, still lower than most Asian nations). This is being addressed recently through legislation.We have a lot of brilliantly purple dessertsAnd it’s natural. It’s derived from one of the most beloved root crops in the Philippines - the purple yam, more popularly known as ube (pronounced “oo-beh”). They are naturally purple from anthocyanins, the same pigment that colors blueberries and grapes. It is commonly confused with the Okinawan purple sweet potato (which also exist in the Philippines), but they are completely different plants. They do taste similar though the ube has a mild lavender-like aroma.They are usually eaten boiled and mashed with condensed milk, the dish known as ube halaya (or by its English equivalent: “ube jam”). But they’re widely used in other desserts, including halo-halo, hopia, pies, ice cream, smoothies, pancakes, waffles, cookies, cake, cupcakes, bread, rolls, jellies, doughnuts, and so on.They became a food trend recently. The most expensive doughnut in New York (the Golden Cristal Ube) uses ube frosting with champagne underneath the golden foil.As a bonus, we also have radioactive green desserts. And again, the color is natural. They’re colored and flavored from pandan leaves, which have a very fragrant vanilla-like aroma. Pandan are palm-like trees which only grow in sandy beaches in the Indo-Pacific.Our caves are full of bats… and birdsSwiftlets (locally called balinsasayaw, literally “tumbling dancer”, or just sayaw, “dancer”) are small very fast birds only found in tropical Australasia and in some Pacific Islands. They nest in caves and have developed echolocation abilities like bats. They do shifts with bats. Bats leave the caves at night and sleep in them during the day. Swiftlets leave the caves during the day and sleep in them during the night.They make small nests against the wall with their saliva, which was one of the goods traded by Southeast Asian countries to China, since they are the main ingredient of bird’s nest soup. The tourist town of El Nido (literally “The Nest” in Spanish) is named after them.They can become a pest, however, as they will also nest in any indoor large concrete structures like churches and houses.Our national dress are see-through and were traditionally made with banana or pineappleFibers that is. Called the baro (or barong, literally “clothing”) and terno (also traje de mestiza or ‘Maria Clara’, butterfly-sleeved dress for women). Those worn by the aristocratic class were made from jusi (pronounced “hoo-see”) - fine silk-like fibers extracted from banana, abaca (a banana relative), or pineapple leaves. They can also be made from real silk. They are based on the pre-Hispanic native vests/jackets (still worn today by some tribal groups). But they acquired a Spanish flair later on. They are partially sheer or lace-like to keep people cool in the tropical heat. There are peasant versions made with cotton and other fabrics of course.Our ketchup is made from bananasAside from tomato ketchup, a common household condiment is the banana ketchup. It’s made from bananas, vinegar, sugar, and spices. It tastes similar to tomato ketchup but is sweeter. It was originally made as a substitute for tomato ketchup during supply shortages in World War 2. Its invention is credited to the food technologist and war hero Maria Orosa.At almost every meal you are provided with miniature oranges and chilisThese “oranges” are called calamansi. They are our equivalent to the lime or lemon and are used similarly. They are actually a hybrid of kumquats and mandarin oranges (both are also native to the Philippines), hence they are slightly sweeter than limes. We also make our version of lemonade from them (squeeze several into a glass, add water, add sugar to taste).The miniature chilis on the other hand, is the labuyo (commonly confused with bird’s eye chilis). These are small chili cultivars native to the Philippines. They are related to the tabasco chili. They are small, but be warned, they are very hot.If you are eating at a Filipino restaurant you are almost always provided with these two. You are supposed to make a dipping sauce from them. First pour soy sauce into a platter, add a dash of vinegar or fish sauce, then squeeze calamansi into it. This is called a toyomansi, a portmanteau of toyo (soy sauce) and calamansi.If you want it spicier, crush a labuyo into it. This version of the dip is called silimansi (sili means “chili”).The use of calamansi has spread to parts of Indonesia and Malaysia, but it isn’t as ubiquitous there as it is in the Philippines.We have an informal holiday where everyone throws water balloons at complete strangersAnd it’s a Christian one. It’s called “San Juan” and it falls on June 24. As the name implies, it celebrates St. John the Baptist.It’s not really a festival or even a national holiday, but everyone celebrates it anyhow. The city of San Juan even turned it into an official holiday after the fact.People will wear raincoats on this day even if it’s sunny because of how it is celebrated. Basically, everyone tries to wet everyone else. By pouring water on them, spraying them with a water hose or a water gun, throwing water balloons at them, and so on.The results are what you’d expect. Lots of angry people, especially from those who managed to forget what day it was.Most people circumvent this by going to the beach or a local water resort with the family.It can get dangerous. Because kids (and some idiots) will sometimes target passing vehicles. Sometimes using water balloons weighted with stones. A bus I was traveling in when I was a teenager got hit by one of those missiles and it broke the windshield while we were traveling quite fast on a national highway. Thankfully, we didn’t die in a fiery road accident. Then there are situations like below.When you have new shoes, your friends will step on it.We call it a bunyag (“baptism”). They’ll get dirty anyway, the first dirt is special and will bring good luck. Or so we tell them as they angrily chase us for ruining their shoes.A common childhood pastime is making spiders fightYep. Spiders. Similar to how Japanese kids made beetles fight. We had way too much fun with them when we were kids. Spiders (the web-building kind) would be caught during the early morning or at dusk, then made to fight other spiders on a twig. It was usually to the death. Look away, PETA.It’s in decline and mostly banned in schools and by local ordinances now, because it became a gateway to gambling. And besides, in the internet age, most kids don’t really spend much time outdoors anymore.Our favorite sports to watch on TV are basketball, boxing… and beauty pageantsYes, including (straight) male viewers. Entire families would watch international pageants when they happen.This national fascination with pageants is actually pretty old in origin. It started from the Manila Carnival (also known as the Philippine Exposition), an annual festival in Manila during the American colonial period, first started in 1908.The highlight of this event was La Reina del Oriente (“Queen of the Orient”) pageant. This was where our love for pageants came from.The carnival was discontinued in 1939. It was never revived, although its legacy continues in the national beauty pageants. The winner of the latter gets crowned Miss Philippines and gets to represent the country in the Miss Universe pageant.Nowadays, it can get vicious online when it comes to defending the Filipino contenders from supporters of other countries. It’s partly because of a burning sense of nationalism (sometimes too much) and partly a desire to be recognized at something… even if it’s downright silly.We have mandatory military training… in high schoolCalled the CAT (Citizenship Advancement Training, previously Citizen Army Training). It teaches high school students military drills, military terminology, how to hold rifles, how to salute, and so on; as well as hold regular physical training like jogging or hiking on weekends and training in the native martial arts (arnis). We wore fake military uniforms, including boots and headgear, had a wooden rifle and a ceremonial blunt sword. Most importantly, it taught us discipline and it was a lot of fun pretending to be soldiers.Since our high school ages previously started at age 12 and ended at 16, children can start as young as 12. Though it doesn’t become mandatory until Senior year, children who started early become officers later on. I started at 12 for example, and by the time we were seniors, I was a Captain. Everyone was required to do it, unless you have physical disabilities preventing it. Girls, boys, openly gay students, everyone. The only way you can somewhat avoid it is if you join the marching band.This was followed later on by ROTC in college (with real guns), which though mandatory in the past has now become optional since 2001.We have uniquely-shaped traditional bladed weapons, from wavy swords to giant anime swords to claw-like daggersA few of the examples are:kalis - a wavy sword. It is related to the Malaysian and Indonesian kris or keris. But the kalis is much larger, since it’s a sword not a dagger. It’s the traditional armament of the Muslim Filipinos (the Moros).kampilan - usually a large two-handed sword. It has a distinctive shape with a handle carved into the shape of a mythical dragon or tiger creature. The tip has a small bladelet giving it an appearance of being forkedlaring - A variant of the common sundang or itak sword with a deep fork halfway up the blade.ligua - the battle-axe of the Ifugao highlander tribes in northern Luzon. They have a characteristic crescent shape. They were specialized for cutting off heads during the ritualistic head-hunting wars of the Ifugao. Their design can vary by tribe.panabas. A large battle-axe which can be up to 4 feet long with a unique bent or curving shape similar to the Gurkha kukri. But it’s unrelated and is an axe, not a knife.karambit - a sickle-like dagger derived from a farming tool. Uniquely held and is meant as a gouging weapon. Also exists in Malaysia and Indonesia.And so on.When you say “switchblade”, our version is a folding oneMade popular recently by Hollywood movies, the balisong (also called the “butterfly knife”) is one of the most unique blades of the Philippines. It originated as a pocket knife. Probably indigenous in design (though some claim it’s based on a long-forgotten French pocket knife in the 19th century). Regardless, it quickly became very popular in the Philippines, with its primary manufacturing area being the province of Batangas. Particularly as a weapon for criminals and wannabe gangsters, with the same reputation as switchblades in the west. They became much larger, with the average size being about 29 centimeters (around 11 inches, hence the other name for them: viente y nueve). Filipinos also developed a mesmerizing way of quickly flicking them open and shut which caught on in the west and is now a weird hobby. Like fidget spinners with the risk of losing a finger.We’ve turned mountains into rice fieldsThe rice terraces of the northern Philippines are UNESCO world heritage sites. They’re centuries-old and they’re stunning. There are similar terraces in other countries but none on this scale and steepness, and/or are not rice fields.When you come across strangers eating, they will invite you to eat with them.And unless you can see there’s enough food for all of you (i.e. it’s a party), or you’re genuinely starving to death, the polite response is to say “I’m full, thanks.”A similar invitation is when you come across people drinking alcohol in private settings (which paradoxically enough, might mean in a public place like a street or a beach). You will always be offered a tagay (a shot). You can agree to drink just a glass, join in and get drunk, or decline. Decline politely, however. Like everywhere else, some people are nasty drunks and can get offended.We don’t have a word for “cheers!” because we drink alcohol from one cupAs in one cup is used for a group of people. Passed from person to person. Each shot is called a tagay. This is an ancient tradition going back to precolonial times, and the Spaniards mentioned it in their description of traditional practices. It is related to the precolonial Filipino ritual of the blood compact (sandugo). Drinking from one cup is seen as symbolic of camaraderie and trust.Hence why we don’t have a word for “cheers”, because you can’t exactly raise your cups when only one person has it. Tagay is sometimes used for “cheers!” though, but it’s inaccurate, as it really just means “[let’s] drink!”This is also why bars (as in the counter-and-stool kind) is not that popular in the Philippines. Our version of a bar is one where you get a table with a group of friends, then you are given the drinks, some ice cubes, some food (pulutan), and a single glass. More commonly however, you do these drinking sessions at a friend’s house, a beach, a backyard, the street, the bed of a truck, or wherever it is you can get away with being drunk and loud.One of you becomes the “gunner”, the guy (or gal) who pours the drink into the glass (usually the one who stays sober the longest). Then you take turns drinking from the glass. It is easier to moderate as well as you can simply “pass” if you’ve had enough.All through this, you simply enjoy each other’s company and talk about everything and nothing. This is the main reason why people do this. For the company and conversation, not for the alcohol. Which is why in our culture, the main indication of an alcoholic is someone who drinks… alone.These drinking sesssions are called tagayan or inuman, and they are an important cornerstone of Filipino social interactions.We traditionally made window panes from… oystersThey’re called windowpane oysters (duh!). They have round and flat shells and are abundant in the Philippines, particularly in the province of Capiz. The shells (called Capiz shells) were traditionally used as a substitute for glass during the Spanish colonial period because of their translucency, beauty, and durability. This use later spread to Goa in India via the Portuguese. They are still found in the windows of old Spanish-Filipino architecture. They are now also used to make lamps, chandeliers, wind chimes, and other decorative items for export.It is common to see cats with tails that seem to have been bent and cut offEspecially among strays or semi-feral cats. Westerners (and even some locals) often think these were deliberate mutilation or were the result of accidents or fights with dogs. There are even stories about how their owners supposedly cut them off then buried their tails under the house front doors to make sure the cats return at night (which is ridiculous… you can’t tell cats what to do!).All of these are false. It’s genetic. The dominant native breed of cats of in most of Asia has the bobtail gene. They tend to have tails that are short, kinked, or seemingly cut off.Commenting about your weight or looks is normal and isn’t rudeTelling you to your face that you’re getting fatter or are way too thin or should sleep more and so on is completely normal. Usually followed by advice on what you should eat, encouragement for exercise, or an offering of food.This usually infuriates the hypersensitive PC culture of most westerners, leading to rants online about how Filipinos are sooo rude! OMG.It’s not an insult, however. It’s meant as friendly teasing or motherly advice. If they really wanted to insult you, they’d have kept quiet and told someone else.Avocado is a dessert fruitUnlike most other countries, avocado in the Philippines is traditionally treated as a dessert from way back in the colonial period. The standard way of eating it is to mash it up (finely or into small chunks) and mix it with condensed milk or sugar. Rarely, peanuts or even chocolate can also be added. It can also be blended with ice chips into a shake. Until recently, we never use it for savory dishes like salads, sushi, or guacamole like in the west.We stay with our parents until we either get married or get a job away from our hometownsRegardless of how old you are. This is common enough in most Asian, Latin American, and some European countries.Families will also continue supporting each other, even long after they have children of their own. The family culture is very collectivist. It is considered shameful to be wealthy, while having parents or siblings that are struggling. And it is the duty of the most successful member of the family to try and bring everyone else up to a reasonable extent, with the goal being comfortable self-sufficiency for everyone. Especially if that success is because of the sacrifices of other family members. Failing to do so can cause permanent rifts in family relationships and ruin your reputation to most of your peers.An old Filipino proverb that summarizes this is: Ang hindi marunong lumingon sa pinanggalingan ay hindi makararating sa pinaroroonan, roughly “one who does not know how to look back to their beginnings will never reach their destination.” The closest English saying would be “never forget where you came from.”A lobster dinner in a 5-star restaurant doesn’t taste as good when you know your family back home is still eating the same old meal of rice and dried fish in your childhood village. If you ask kids what they want to be when they grow up, the answer will almost always end with “…so I can help my parents/family.”The up-side is that family in the Philippines is everything. Kinship ties are very strong. You can always rely on family in times of need.The down-side is the built-in culture of nepotism. As well as some members of the family abusing the support at times.It is often the cause of friction in Filipinos who marry foreigners, as westerners usually can not understand why their spouses will still continue sending money to their family back home for things like building their parents a new house, investing in a family business, or helping their siblings find jobs or get an education.Our desserts have various jelly-like components, and they’re all derived from plantsJelly desserts in the Philippines (and Southeast Asia) are predominantly made from gulaman (agar) which is derived from seaweed. Other jelly-like desserts are harvested from plant starch or palm fruits, including sago, kaong, nata de coco, macapuno, and tapioca pearls.Unlike in the west where jellies are usually made gelatin which is derived from animal collagen (usually pork or beef), they’re all perfectly fine for vegetarians and those with religious dietary restrictions (Muslims, Jews, Hindus, etc.).It is common to see two or more of these jellies as part of the various mixed fruit desserts in the Philippines (including halo-halo), as well as chilled beverages (the traditional samalamig refreshments).Christmas starts in SeptemberInformally called the “ber” months. September is taken as a signal to bring out the Christmas tree and Christmas decorations. By October, malls and shops will start playing Christmas music and selling Christmas food and merchandise. By mid-November, yards and streets will already be decorated with Christmas lights, especially the gorgeous handcrafted traditional star lanterns (the paról), which symbolize the star of Bethlehem. Local governments will start putting up the public belén (Christmas dioramas) in community parks. By late November and early December, children and adults will start caroling for money in establishments and houses. In the past this also usually meant children will start playing with firecrackers, but that has been banned.

Sisters who ran Magdalene laundries are being treated unjustlyOver the last several decades, awareness of the severity of pedophilia and sexual abuse of children within the Catholic Church has become widespread.After years of revelations of sexual predation by priests upon children and the growing public attention paid to the #MeToo movement, Pope Francis and the Church are being forced to address persistent reports of abuse of members of its own hierarchy: the nuns who serve the Church in a secondary capacity to men.[1]In June 2019, Pope Francis’ Motu proprio, "Vos estis lux mundi", established new procedures for reporting abuse and violence, and ensuring that Bishops and Religious Superiors are held accountable for their actions, while whistle- blowers are shielded.[2] The Pope’s definition of sexual abuse is expansive enough to cover children, seminarians, nuns and women in religious orders, as well as those with mental disabilities—all of whom have been victimized by Church leaders.[3] (It also condemns the possession or production of child pornography.) Perhaps most important, it demands that alleged victims are offered support services ranging from therapy to spiritual counseling, and promises to protect their confidentiality.[4]Yet there still remain several communities whose claims of prolonged and continuous abuse by church representatives continue to be ignored and denied. When Peter Mullan's The Magdalene Sisters was released in 2002, it exposed a diabolical truth the Roman Catholic Church had long tried to keep under wraps: the horrific reality of Irish "Magdalene" laundries.[5] Though advertised as charitable safehouses where socieities fallen women could find guidance and good cheer (along with employment as laundresses), these institutions were actually rife with cruelity, deprivation and human right's abusers.[6] As the Oscar-nominated 2013 film Philomena portrays, their destructive legacy went on well into 20th century, long after the western world had supposedly emerged from the veil of religious superstition and ignorance.[7]Development property sold by Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of Refuge, Dublin, Ireland (Irish Laundries Tortured Women And Separated Families, But The Church Denies It)Twenty years ago, shock washed over Ireland. In 1993, a mass grave was found on land owned by the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of Refuge in Dublin that had been recently sold to commercial developers.[8] Inside were the remains of hundreds of "penitents" who had once been inmates at High Park, the largest laundry in Ireland. The final body count was 155.[9]All the corpses were cremated and reinterred in a different cemetery, but most of the deaths had not even been officially logged or certified, so it wasn't possible to notify relatives or provide closure of any kind.[10] The general consensus, though, was that the bodies represented women or girls who had been neglected to death, mistreated to death, or some combination of both.To be sure, the horror stories of Magdalene laundry survivors are legion. Few things are black and white, and there are a few individuals who take issue with the brutality the insitutions and nuns are charged with.[11] Worked to the bone, beaten and abused, the experiences of women held in the 'care' of the nuns in Ireland's notorious Magdalene Laundries, is the stuff of nightmares.Labelled the "Maggies", the women and girls were stripped of their names and dumped in Irish Catholic church-run laundries where nuns treated them as slaves, simply because they were unmarried mothers, orphans or regarded as somehow morally wayward.[12] Mary Norris was committed to a laundry for taking "a forbidden night off" from her job as a servant. She spent two years in Hell before her aunt finally tracked her down and negotiated her release.[13]They were women who didn’t know their place in a ruthless Catholic hierarchy. Over 74 years, 10,000 women were put to work in de facto detention, mostly in laundries run by nuns. At least, 988 of the women who were buried in laundry grounds are thought to have spent most of their lives inside the institutions.[14]Marina Gambold was orphaned when she was eight years old after both her parents died.[15] She lived with her grandmother for a couple of years, but, when she was 16, she found she had nowhere to go."I walked up the steps that day and the nun came out and said your name is changed, you are Fidelma, I went in and I was told I had to keep my silence. I was working in the laundry from eight in the morning until about six in the evening. I was starving with the hunger, I was given bread and dripping for my breakfast every morning,”[16]Eerie photos from the Magdalene Laundries show ‘fallen women’ put to work and grim-faced nuns watching over crowds of kidsThe young woman scrubbed corridors, acquiring housemaids' knees, from working all day in the laundry, doing the white coats and the pleating.[17]"One day I broke a cup, and the nun said, 'I'll teach you to be careful'. She got a thick string, and she tied it round my neck for three days and three nights, and I had to eat off the floor every morning. Then I had to get down on my knees, and I had to say, 'I beg almighty God's pardon, Our Lady's pardon, my companion's pardon for the bad example I have shown."[18]Ms Gambold was in the laundries for about three years. She left Ireland when she was 19."When I came out of the convent, I was determined to get out of Ireland. I was 19 years of age then and had a nervous breakdown. I lived in England for almost 30 years before I moved back with my husband. "Most of the time I have cried bitter tears, especially when I had nobody, pain never goes away."[19]Another survivor, Kathleen Legg, now 80, recollects:"Every morning you would wake to the sound of a bell. You operated like a robot, and you did not dare question a nun. We bathed once a week, and I remember the lice from our hair used to float around the top of the water, so if you were one of the last ones to get washed, it was horrific."[20]Magdalene Asylum Dublin, Ireland (Eerie photos from the Magdalene Laundries show ‘fallen women’ put to work and grim-faced nuns watching over crowds of kids)The sordid history of laundries is an extraordinarily long one; the first Irish foundation accepted only Protestant womem, founded by philanthropist Lady Arabella Denny, opened in 1765.[21] Known as Magdalene Asylums (after the "redeemed" Biblical prostitute Mary Magdalene), the homes purported to be sanctuaries for "fallen" women... i.e., unwed mothers, abused girls, girls who had been cast out by their families, and your run-of-the-mill free-thinking feminists who were too eccentric, original, and "troublesome" to fit into the structures of their communities.[22]In the late 18th century, the term "fallen women" primarily referred to prostitutes, but by the end of the 19th century, Magdalene laundries were filled with many different kinds of women, including girls who were "not prostitutes at all," but either "seduced women" or women who had yet to engage in sexual activity. Missionaries were required to approach prostitutes and distribute religious tracts, designed to be read in 'sober' moments and divert women from their vicious lives.[23] Furthermore, the consignment even of genuine prostitutes" to these laundries seldom reduced their numbers on the streets, any more than did an individual prostitute's death. So long as poverty continued, and the demand for public women remained, such losses were easily replaced.[24]When the Magdalene Movement first took hold in the mid-18th century, the campaign to put “fallen women” to work was supported by both the Catholic and Protestant churches, with women serving short terms inside the asylums with the goal of rehabilitation. Over the years, however, the Magdalene laundries, became primarily Catholic institutions, and the stints grew longer and longer[25]. Women sent there were often charged with redeeming themselves through lace-making, needlework or doing laundry.Though most residents had not been convicted of any crime, conditions inside were prison-like. Redemption might sometimes involve a variety of coercive measures, including shaven heads, institutional uniforms, bread and water diets, restricted visiting, supervised correspondence, solitary confinement and even flogging.[26]The institutions failed to achieve their supposed objective: they had little impact on prostitution over the period, and yet they were continuing to multiply and expand due to their self-supporting free labour.[27]Laundries & SchoolsSeveral religious institutes established even more Irish laundries, reformatories and industrial schools, sometimes all together on the same plot of land, with the aim to "save the souls primarily of women and children".[28]The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of Refuge and the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy ran the largest laundries in Dublin.[29]These large complexes became a massive interlocking system, carefully and painstakingly built up over a number of decades. Consequently, Magdalene laundries became part of Ireland's superseding system for the control of children and women. Women and illegitimate children were both incarcerated for transgressing the narrow moral code of the time and the same religious congregations managed the orphanages, reformatory schools and laundries.[30] Thus, these facilities all helped to sustain each other – girls from the reformatory and industrial schools often ended up working their entire lives in the Magdalen laundries.Almost all the institutions were run by female religious congregations, i.e. sisters, and were scattered throughout the country in prominent locations in towns and cities.[31] They were powerful and pervasive, able to effectively control the lives of women and children from all classes. This second incarnation of Magdalene laundries vastly differed from the first incarnation, due to their longevity and their diverse community of female inmates, including hopeless cases, mental defective and transfers from industrial and reformatory schools.[32]These particular institutions intentionally shared overriding characteristics, including a regime of prayer, silence, work in a laundry, and a preference for permanent inmates which contradicts the religious congregations' stated mission to protect, reform, and rehabilitate.[33]As this expansion was taking place and these laundries were becoming a part of a large network of institutions, the treatment of the girls was becoming increasingly violent and abusive.[34]The asylums became particularly cruel, more secretive in nature and emphatically more punitive.Though these women had committed no crime and had never been put on trial, their indefinite incarceration was enforced by locked doors, iron gates and prison guards in the form of apathetic sisters.[35]The condition of female laundry workers in Ireland 1922-1996: A cas...By 1920, Magdalene laundries had almost entirely abandoned claims of rehabilitation and instead, were seamlessly incorporated into the state's architecture of containment.[36]In the beginning of these asylums' existence, because many of the women had a background as prostitutes, the women (who were called "children") were regarded as "in need of penitence", and until the 1970s were required to address all staff members as "mother" regardless of age.[37]To enforce order and maintain a monastic atmosphere, the inmates were required to observe strict silence for much of the day.As the phenomenon became more widespread, it extended beyond prostitution to petty criminals, orphans, mentally disabled women and abused girls. Even young girls who were considered too promiscuous and flirtatious, or too beautiful, were sent to an asylum by their families.[38]This paralleled the practice in state-run mental asylums in Britain and Ireland in the same period, where many people with alleged social dysfunction were committed to asylums.[39]Without a family member on the outside who could vouch for them, many incarcerated individuals stayed in the asylums for the rest of their lives, many taking religious vows. Mary Norris was committed to a laundry for taking "a forbidden night off" from her job as a servant. She spent two years in Hell before her aunt finally tracked her down and negotiated her release.[40]Given Ireland's historically conservative sexual mores, Magdalene asylums were a generally accepted social institution until well into the second half of the twentieth century.[41]They disappeared with changes in sexual mores as they ceased to be profitable.[42] .[43]Ex-Magdalene Lauren Sullivan recalled:"I had my hair chopped off and my name changed, and, when I was put into that Magdalene laundry all I remember was the door being locked. They beat, punched and tortured me."[44]Incredibly, the laundries continued to operate, in various stages of utilitarian bleakness (at best) and cruelty (at worst) until 1996. It's been estimated that over 30,000 women passed through the asylums, some staying a month and some remaining for a lifetime.[45] Even that seems to be a conservative figure, though, when you consider that the time period in question spans over two centuries.Many of the deaths that occurred at Irish laundries (which mostly came about through medical negligence) were not reported, according to sources citing 2013's McAleese Report.[46]Though the asylums officially recorded 879 deaths, a group called "Justice for Magdalenes" interviewed survivors and collected testimonies about death and burials, gravestones, electoral registers, exhumation orders, and newspaper archives.[47] Eventually, from all of this research, they determined the number of un-reported deaths to be closer to 1,663... though this figure remains controversial.[48]reland's Magdalen Laundries and the Nation's Architecture of Containment.Because so many women and girls were destitute and pregnant by the time they arrived at the laundries, many babies ended up being born in convent hospitals, where they were quickly spirited away by nuns, lest they be contaminated by their "unclean" mothers. Up to 2,000 children were illegally exported from Magdalene laundries in Ireland to adoptive parents in the U.S., mainly wealthy families.[49]Margaret Bullen had been forced by nuns to give her three daughters up for adoption; two of whom finally tracked her down in 1995. At that time, Bullen was still institutionalized as she had been for most of her life. According to one daughter's account:"Margaret [spent] her childhood and puberty in these institutions, without the chance to grow up. At age 16, she was transferred to the Gloucester Street Magdalene Laundry... there she toiled, unpaid for the rest of her life.”[50]Margaret Bullen and twin daughters Samantha and Etta 1995 (https://www.google.com/amp/www.thejournal.ie/margaret-bullen-liveline-callback-3456386-Jun2017/%3famp=1)Samantha Long and her twin sister Etta were just seven weeks old in 1972 when Margaret visited them at the St Patrick’s Mother and Baby Home in Dublin where they had been born and found them gone.[51] Eventually, Margaret was entrusted to the care of the Irish state, who promptly sub-contracted that duty back to the Catholic Church.Margaret, who had blocked out many of her traumatic experiences, claimed to have no memory of having given birth at all,[52]though she did manage to enjoy a relationship with her daughters for a couple of years. She died at the age of 51 by Goodpeace Syndrome, end-stage kidney and liver failure brought on by the chemicals she'd inhaled while working in the laundries.[53]People who smoke or use hair dyes appear to be at increased risk for this condition. Exposure to hydrocarbon fumes, metallic dust, and certain drugs, such as cocaine, may also raise a person’s risk.[54]The Magdalene laundries were not without their courageous heroines. Numerous inmates tried to escape or run away, and some even made it out to a better life. One survivor, Elizabeth Coppin, remembered that:"One of the nuns came down and accused me of stealing someone's sweets. Two of the women dragged me up to a dark cell. I stayed [there] for three days and three nights, and... that was when I realized two things: no one was coming to help me, and what they were doing was wrong. I decided to run away. There were no bars on the windows at the front of the building, so me and another girl decided to jump out one of them when the nuns weren't looking. We ran into the city. We had nothing... but we were good workers, so we managed to get a job working in a hospital that trained nurses. I was 17 by then. We were happy."[55]However, things didn't end well for Coppin:"One day a man came. He was from the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children... [he] brought me to another laundry. When he left, he said: 'you run away from this place and we'll put you someplace you'll never get out of.'"[56]Coppin eventually left the Magdalene laundry in Waterford in 1968 and within days she emigrated to England. During her 16 years in institutions Coppin alleges she was subjected to arbitrary detention, beatings, forced labour without pay, human trafficking, humiliation, denial of education, denial of identity, denial of a family life, neglect, starvation and religious denigration.[57] IIn a landmark decision, the United Nations Tribunal on Torture has permitted Coppin to present her case and request for restitution, despite exhausting all appeals in Irish Courts.UN to hear Magdalene Laundries caseIrish society has begun to acknowledge the women after “State and society were complicit in terms of what happened” to them in the past.[58] In 2011, the United Nations Committee Against Torture launched a lengthy investigation into the laundries and found that their "management teams" had indeed likely been guilty of exploitation and abuse.[59] It criticised the Irish government for refusing to acknowledge the pain and abuse suffered by women incarcerated in the laundries, the last of which closed in 1996, and called for a thorough investigation and compensation scheme.While many Magdalene survivors have already gone on record and become activists, many more are still coming out of the woodwork. Many of the adult children of Maggies have begun demanding justice for their birth mothers and requesting official state apologies.[60]They represent a generation displaced by the corruption of the Magdalene asylums, even though most of them went on to lead far better lives than the slings and arrows of church-sponsored child labor could have offered.A formal state apology was issued in 2013, and a £50 million compensation scheme for survivors was set up by the Irish Government.[61]The religious orders which operated the laundries have rejected activist demands that they financially contribute to this programme.[62]Wikimedia Commons/Public DomainNevertheless, while some religious orders did offer up condolences for past evils, many of the culpable organizations have refused to acknowledge that said brutalities ever took place. Moreover, officials from the group JFM (Justice for Magdalenes) aren't convinced that even the apologetic sentiments were sincere, claiming that:"Rather than apologies, they used phrases such as 'it was regrettable that the Magdalene homes had to exist at all’ and claimed the laundries were 'part of the system and culture of the time.'"[63]The culture of the time- a get-out-of-laundry-free card, whether the issue at hand is routine lobotomies, medieval torture devices, or just run-of-the-mill witch burning continues to be offensive to the Maggies and their offspring.But what is to be considered adequate recognition and compendation for women whose lives were destroyed- physically, mentally and emotionally during their time in the Magdalene laundries? What is to be done for the more than 2000 children who were sold as part of an adoption trade between the laundries and Irish Catholic families in the United States? Is the 53 million dollars earmarked as resitution adequate, without a formal recognition of the atrocities expreienced within the Magdalene laundries?The Gloucester Street Magdalene laundry on Sean McDermott Street, Dublin 1996 (“Nuns took my childhood”: This Irish woman escaped from a Magdalene Laundry as a teen in 1993 | IrishCentral.com)In 2018, Japanese Hotel chain Toyoko Inn offered Dublin City Council €14.5 million for the former Magdalene Laundry site on Sean McDermott Street, which closed in October 1996. The chain plans to build a hotel with 350 rooms, 55 one-bedroom apartments for social housing, a supermarket and other retail outlets, and a cultural centre, as well as a laundry memorial.[64]Despite an outpouring of outrage and over 100,000 signatures demanding the laundry be converted into a museum and living memorial to those who suffered within, both the Church and developers have moved forward with the construction of the hotel and entertainment complex.[65] This time, the government is siding with the Maggies and their descendants, ordering a temporary halt on construction until the courts can determine the fate of the old laundry.Footnotes[1] Pope Francis Acknowledges, For First Time, Sexual Abuse Of Nuns By Priests[2] New norms for the whole Church against those who abuse or cover up - Vatican News[3] Pope Francis Stops Hiding From the Church’s Sexual-Abuse Epidemic[4] Bishops OK plan to implement 'motu proprio' on addressing abuse[5] The Magdalene Sisters (2002) - IMDb[6] Horrible Torture Methods That Have Been Used Primarily on Women[7] Philomena (film) - Wikipedia[8] Ireland's Magdalene laundries scandal must be laid to rest | Mary Raftery[9] Ireland finally admits state collusion in Magdalene Laundry system[10] The Magdalen Asylum, Cork[11] Sisters who ran Magdalene laundries are being treated unjustly[12] Report of the Board of Trustees[13] Ireland's Magdalene laundries scandal must be laid to rest | Mary Raftery[14] Ireland finally admits state collusion in Magdalene Laundry system[15] https://www.hachette.com.au/marina-gambold/[16] Magdalene Laundries: Survivor stories[17] Housemaid's Knee (Prepatellar Bursitis) | Health[18] Magdalene Laundries: Survivor stories[19] Magdalene Laundries: Survivor stories[20] 'It will be with me until I die': Woman haunted by Magdalene laundry[21] 18 March 1792: Lady Arabella Denny, Founder of the Magdalene Asylums died on this day[22] Lady Arbella Denny, 1707-1792[23] http://Finnegan, Frances (2001). Do Penance or Perish: A Study of Magdalene Asylums in Ireland. Piltown, Co. Kilkenny: Congrave Press. I[24] http://Finnegan, Frances (2001). Do Penance or Perish: A Study of Magdalene Asylums in Ireland. Piltown, Co. Kilkenny: Congrave Press. I[25] https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.history.com/.amp/news/magdalene-laundry-ireland-asylum-abuse[26] Doing compassion or doing discipline? Power relations and the Magdalene Laundries[27] Origins of the Magdalene Laundries[28] http://Pogatchnik, Shawn (2013-02-05). "Report: Ireland oversaw harsh Catholic laundries". Associated Press.[29] Laundries & Schools[30] New Magdalene research presents complex picture[31] Map of Magdalene Laundries & Graves[32] Ireland's Magdalen laundries and the nation's architecture of containment : Smith, James M., 1966- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive[33] Ireland's Magdalen laundries and the nation's architecture of containment : Smith, James M., 1966- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive[34] https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi%3Farticle%3D1043%26context%3Djiass&ved=2ahUKEwi9ytaWy6_oAhVDWs0KHXbIAi04ChAWMAB6BAgDEAE&usg=AOvVaw1_FkG5ehDmePsTrIOout7O[35] https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi%3Farticle%3D1043%26context%3Djiass&ved=2ahUKEwiEwJTDqrHoAhWRcc0KHRngDt8QFjAKegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw1_FkG5ehDmePsTrIOout7O[36] Ireland's Magdalen laundries and the nation's architecture of containment : Smith, James M., 1966- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive[37] http://Raftery, Mary; Eoin O'Sullivan (1999). Suffer the Little Children: The Inside Story of Ireland's Industrial Schools. Dublin: New Island[38] The condition of female laundry workers in Ireland 1922-1996: A cas...[39] Misery in Ireland's 'massive mausoleums of madness'[40] Ireland's Magdalene laundries scandal must be laid to rest | Mary Raftery[41] https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www2.bc.edu/james-smith-2/Politicsofsexualknowledge.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjuiuvxya_oAhWCUs0KHaLQA-0QFjABegQIBhAB&usg=AOvVaw3stwJK2sufQ0yFwW5CrKPf[42] https://www.google.com/amp/www.thejournal.ie/magdalene-laundries-report-783760-Feb2013/%3famp=1[43] http://Finnegan, Frances (2001). Do Penance or Perish: A Study of Magdalene Asylums in Ireland. Piltown, Co. Kilkenny: Congrave Press[44] Irish Laundries Tortured Women And Separated Families, But The Church Denies It[45] Magdalene Asylums[46] 1,663 Irish women died in Magdalene laundries, correct researchers | IrishCentral.com[47] A resource for people affected by and interested in Ireland's Magdalene institutions[48] https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.bishop-accountability.org/reports/2011_05_Justice_for_Magdalenes_Submission_to_UN_Committee_against_Torture.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjSuqqoqq_oAhXdAp0JHZ5tDdgQFjADegQIBBAB&usg=AOvVaw0wR9y3MX052beT5RurdiMi&cshid=1584923102385[49] 2,000 Irish children were illegally adopted in US from Magdalene Laundries | IrishCentral.com[50] ‘Mother did not remember having us ... only being hurt’[51] https://www.google.com/amp/www.thejournal.ie/margaret-bullen-liveline-callback-3456386-Jun2017/%3famp=1[52] ‘Mother did not remember having us ... only being hurt’[53] Goodpasture Syndrome | NIDDK[54] Goodpasture Syndrome[55] Survivors remember Ireland's Magdalene laundries[56] Survivors remember Ireland's Magdalene laundries[57] Magdalene survivor’s UN case of key importance, lawyer says[58] State failed in ‘duty of care’ to Magdalene women - Flanagan[59] http://Survivors remember Ireland's Magdalene laundries [60] Ireland agrees compensation for Magdalene Laundries survivors[61] The Lost Children of Tuam[62] Magdalene compensation snub is ‘rejection of Laundry women’ | The Irish Post[63] In full: Enda Kenny’s State apology to the Magdalene women[64] The last Magdalene Laundry should be ‘museum not memorial’ - The Irish Catholic[65] Attempts to stop Magdalene Laundry sale

Here are President Obama's top 50 accomplishments The comprehensive legacy of the 44th President. by Paul Glastris and Nancy LeTourneau MAGAZINE In March 2012, we compiled a list of what were, at the time, President Barack Obama’s greatest achievements, to accompany our cover story, “The Incomplete Greatness of Barack Obama.” Today, at the end of his second term, Obama’s legacy is far more complete. Indeed, items from the original list—such as increasing national service opportunities, creating the Race to the Top education reform program, and expanding stem cell research—fell off in order to make room for new ones. But his legacy is also under threat. Donald Trump and the new Republican-dominated Congress have pledged to undo much of what the president has achieved, including repealing the Af(more)