LCHS
SPECTRUM
Weekly Internet Newsletter of the Alumni of Lanao Chung Hua School, Iligan City, Philippines |
Vol. I - No. 38, January 19, 1998 |
IN
THIS ISSUE:
NEWS
STAFF:
Correspondents:
Igdono U. Caracho, Cebu Peter C. Dy, Canada
Leonardo Tan, Australia Ernesto L. Yu, U.S.A.
Email address:
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LCHS
Alumni Association Election set May 1998
By Johnny T. Chen (Batch '83) In what, by sheer coincidence, is well timed to add more colors to the forthcoming national election, the LCHS Alumni Association will also hold its election of new officers in May this year. The two-year term of the current set of alumni officers headed by Dy Sio Te expires this year. Eligible LCHS alumni, who wish to render service to the Association, are encouraged to signify their interest to the Association. All nominees will be listed on a ballot, from which voting members can choose their candidates. Qualified for election are those who are (a) alumni of LCHS; (b) bona fide members of the LCHS-AA; and (c) currently residing in Iligan City. Rod Ngo Raps Banks in Business Forum LCHS alumnus Roderick Ngo (Batch '70) is on the war path these days. In a "Businessmen in Crisis" forum organized by the Cebu Jaycees in Cebu City last Jan. 10, Rod Ngo criticized commercial banks for resorting to a credit squeeze and "profiteering" in the midst of the current economic crisis. The forum, attended by business leaders, had Rod Ngo as one of the speakers along with Solita Monsod, former NEDA director, and Joel Mari Yu, former assistant secretary of the Department of Trade and Industry. Rod Ngo also lashed at businessmen and entrepreneurs for their timidity to apply collective pressures against the banks for sticking to their wide interest spread to the detriment of clients. Rod, president of Hammercon, Inc., is a contractor and developer. He recently completed a housing project with 150 units low-cost town homes in Cavite, Metro Manila. He is a past national president of the Philippine Jaycees. RJ to Run for Iligan Congressional Seat Ramon "RJ" Jacinto is seeking the first congressional seat of Lanao del Norte and Iligan City in the May 1998 elections. "Wala nang atrasan ito!" he announced in a recent press conference in Iligan. Jacinto is a scion of the family who owned the former Iligan Integrated Steel Mill (IISMI) and a popular musician who heads the band "RJ and the Riots". The other aspirants are lawyers Alipio Badelles and Franco Badelles, and businessman Jojo Borja. |
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I would like to congratulate all the officers of LCHS Alumni Association for the success of another Christmas party. Five thumbs up for the excellent job! A round of applause, too, to my buddy Igdono Caracho for his detailed coverage of the affair. Too bad I missed the party. Now I believe we should start planning for the Big Millennium LCHS Reunion in July 2000. At least we should include some articles regarding this big event in every issue onward.
Peter C. Dy (Batch '66), Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
pdy@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca
Loloy's Comeback and Dexter's Dexterity
Mon, 12 Jan 1998 13:48:49 +0800
It came as a big and pleasant surprise to see Loloy Tan's column in the latest Spectrum issue. Good that he is putting his colors once again in the newsletter. A big welcome back to the man from down under! Ernie Yu is right. Derwin Dexter Sy deserves a pat on the shoulder for a fine job with the Spectrum. Next time, when I visit Cebu again, I have got to meet him. In fact, why not give him a treat...How about a sumptuous serving of halo-halo at SM City? My special regards to the 10 year old wizard. He can play "Red Alert" with me anytime! But only when he plays to lose. :-]
Rene Tio (Batch '70), Cagayan de Oro, Philippines
fishers@cdo.weblinq.com
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Ernestyu49@aol.com |
Karaoke in the Tropical Sun
It must be a case of an anomalous strand along the sociobiological metamorphosis of American voice culture. It could be that the ticker to warm the cockles of Caucasian hearts encompasses everything other than being requested to dish out a refreshing chord, especially from laryngeal boxes that are primarily trained for verbal communication and combat. Or plainly, just being devoid of the Asians' stage-aggressiveness trait (Tsinoys tag it as "lakas loob") is ample vindication to send our blond brethren into a fit of breathy, beet red-faced giggle when begged to harmonize with the karaoke machine.
From personal glimpses, a finite number of regular-seeming Joes and Carols in Buffalo easily exhibit psychosomatic rashes, tic and other neurological cues of uneasiness when summoned to touch base with the Orientals' national affinity to crooning in front of TV-projected lyrics that are enhanced by video clips and grand orchestral surround sound. I can recall having several blue-eyed colleagues for cocktail and hors d'oeuvre when, out of the blue, I punctured the festive air with a thrust of my throaty baritone to Frank Sinatra's velvety vibrato on laser disc. To my bewilderment, nobody emitted a yaup of deranged pleasure to my (believe me, it was!) shimmer of melody and feeling. Instead, my perennially tanned guests displayed bemused looks as if I flipped in a cordless bungee jump or my solo flight made dentist drills sound like musical! They were dumbfounded by how, bolstered by alcohol stupor, I retreaded Elvis Presley’s classic hits into moans of Pygmies’ mating rites that can frighten the livestock. Furthermore, they shuddered to think how tiny Ernie could trade choral slug for slug with Elton John’s pop A-sharps and B-minors without coming off icily stiff.
For an Iliganon, to realize that majority of Americans don't possess the circuitry to master the love of Karaoke with a sort of manic intensity is astoundingly weird since they are generally strong-willed and distinctly articulate troops. By contrast, Asians have an inner gift for eroticizing humility and self-deprecating wit, and are fairly subdued in all categories of social behavior. Until they, drooling in anticipation, cross the line of reason when in possession of the almighty sing-along microphone. At this beastly transformation, the difference between professional tonal outburst and torturing amateurish squeak is mere spellings and semantics. Hence, karaoke bars may be glibly hip to park your flanks and may be next step to heaven in the Philippines, but in the States, they are so-so fun houses flushed with a cool as a cucumber treatment and populated by - you guess it right - transplanted inhabitants from the planet of the tropical sun who settle in such recreation with the sort of benumbed fascination.
Incidentally, I have a conservative Chinese neighbor - innately mellow,
a dynamo of simple hello-and-goodbye phrases - whose personality maneuvers
a 180 degrees U-turn when in sight of a karaoke virus. In fact,
with his hot wire-intensity, he can mimic the Beatles by himself (visualize
that if you can). The negative spin? He has not mastered the
proven knack to sink his teeth back to his emotional lethargy once engrossed
in echoing his "toxic voodoo". And I have to exist by this adjacent
plague.
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Call it any way you like: the alphabet memories (as in alphabet soup), or arranged alphabetically (as when the teacher makes a roll call), or simply memories from A to Z. But the fact remains that these are the wonderful memories which made up the first sixteen years (1952-1968) of my life as a resident of Iligan City. So, let me just share with you some of these as they come at random into my 45-year-old gracefully growing memory bank...
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Being an exchange student is a privilege for young people. Many are given the opportunity but only very few are strong enough to accept it. It is a way of getting to know other things in life, be educated and meet new people. It is also a way of being independent and holding on to one's self in taking challenges to a new and different world.
When I first got here in the United States, I was amused to be in a different community with different people. I found it very interesting that I wasn't missing my country yet. A few days after I got here, I went to school and found out how big the school seemed with a population of five thousand students. It wasn't easy at all with all the sudden changes and big difference.
I began to feel a sudden sort of homesickness starting on the second to the third month I was here. I would call my parents every weekend or even my friends. I missed all my friends and my family so much and I even missed all the things in my country that I never thought I would miss before I left. I started to realize that there is just no place like home and that no matter how you despise some things in your country, you would learn to love them when they're not there.
Being alone in a different country is not exactly my idea of fun. Sometimes it's just not very easy to live with a different family. Misunderstandings with them could get you in trouble unless both parties compromise. One of the hardest parts is when you want to tell them something to make them understand but you just couldn't say it.
It's not even all that easy to find new friends for a lot of times being alone means to also trust just one's self which sometimes is hard to do too.
I have kept in my mind that being an exchange student also means to
learn a different culture and have always kept in my heart that just because
cultures are different, doesn't exactly mean they're wrong. They're
just different and that's how I can see the uniqueness of different countries.
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