The big news this morning is Southern food maven Paula Deen’s announcement on the Today Show that she has type 2 diabetes. She’s had it for a while, apparently, and now she’s also come out as a spokesperson for a diabetes drug.
The media and everywhere online have been giving her a lot of flack about it. Some even go as far as to insinuate that she somehow deserves it given all the “un-healthy” food she promotes.
I feel bad for her. Truthfully, I enjoy watching her show! Some of her recipes, especially the extreme ones like the cheesburger on Krispy Kreme donut leave that queasy, sick feeling in my throat just watching it, but hey, it’s amusing in a morbid kind of way. That’s why I watch it. It’s like all you rubber neckers who clog up the highways whenever there’s a wreck. We all slow down to take a look even if it makes us cringe. Admit it.
I liked watching Paula Deen because she seemed to genuinely love food. Relished it! You can see it in her body. At least she’s not matchstick skinny and pretending to enjoy all the rich, calorie laden food she cooks. You can tell the woman eats what she cooks! No crime in that.
I do, however, don’t agree with this new venture she’s going into as a paid spokesperson for the diabetes drug company. She will also be promoting ways to manage diabetes through healthier diet and exercise on a website sponsored by the drug company. It’s all and good, I suppose. Maybe someone will see it, take heed and make a difference in their lifestyle.
Personally though, I would probably have had more respect for Paula if she had just told everyone to “Kiss my grits!” Read the rest of this entry »
There has been a whole lot of Filipino bashing online the past week and most of them have been from Filipinos. I haven’t written about the hostage crisis nor Miss Universe because… well, I just had no strong opinion for either event. I didn’t feel that either event really defined MY or anyone else’s Filipino-ness. They were simply unfortunate events that became bigger that they would ever have been had it not been for the ease of communication provided by the internet and social networking medias. I mean no disrespect for the people who lost their lives during the botched hostage crises, the tragedy touched me immensely. But I also think that neither event reflects or represents the whole country, its people nor its culture.
The vultures can’t resist jeering and insulting. Stupid media. Stupid cops. Stupid Mendoza. Stupid by-standers. The Filipino nation is stupid.
Excuse me?
Our ancestors believed in the concept of an afterlife when many other peoples of the world were still figuring out how to make stone tools. Our forebears crossed the Pacific years before the Vikings crossed the Atlantic. They cultivated rice when many others were still living in caves. They had the first revolution in Asia that united no less than three disparate linguistic groups through a leader named Diego Silang whose wife became his successor. This nation produced women leaders and warriors when much of Europe still considered the female gender as mere chattel. My country abolished slavery two hundred years ahead of the so called New World. My country, whose history and treasures remain mysteries to its own children, cannot and should not be defined by the mistakes of yesterday’s events
And we will not be defined by this tragedy. But we must learn from it. And the first lesson should and ought to be not to add any more hurt to a nation prostate with grief. So much blood ignites so much passion. But we can either flagellate ourselves until there is nothing left of our self esteem. Or we can turn this into an impetus for change. Real change.
So, I will mourn today. I will grieve for all the victims, yes Mendoza included. I will mourn for all the ignorance that makes an embarassing display of itself in times of crisis. I will mourn for the good men and women of the PNP who feel the brunt of the national outrage, but who will go to work tomorrow and still go after the bad guys, still keep us safe. I will mourn for media persons who must live with the effects of their live broadcasts.
But after that, I will choose hope and faith in my countrymen.
Senator Edward M. Kennedy died yesterday, as most of you have probably heard already. Like most people, famous or not, rich or poor, there people who didn’t like him or didn’t think much of his accomplishments. However, there are more who see his accomplishments as being worthy of recognition and admiration.
I, for one, have always admired his advocacy of ‘regular people’s’ causes like health care, gay rights and environmental protection. You will see various tributes to the senator online today and let me share this one because health care is something that holds great interest and concern for me. In this video, he talks about his personal experience with the health care system in this country and how important it is that everyone should have the right to to quality health care.
This is the cause of my life. It is a key reason that I defied my illness last summer to speak at the Democratic convention in Denver—to support Barack Obama, but also to make sure, as I said, “that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American…will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not just a privilege.” For four decades I have carried this cause—from the floor of the United States Senate to every part of this country. It has never been merely a question of policy; it goes to the heart of my belief in a just society. Now the issue has more meaning for me—and more urgency—than ever before. But it’s always been deeply personal, because the importance of health care has been a recurrent lesson throughout most of my 77 years.
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