May

13

Pinoy Place

Filed Under Consumer Concerns, Food & Drinks, In the News, Migrant Life, The Philippines | 8 Comments



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Saw this news feature clip on the GMA News website in February, and featured it on e-Notebook, my side blog. It’s great to know that there’s a big Filipino eatery-cum-grocery store in Zurich.

Golden Asian Store, which opened in 2000, is a meeting point for Filipinos (Pinoys), who are craving for Pinoy food specialties like adobo, pancit, or kare kare. It’s owned and managed by Zurich-based Filipino entrepreneur Eppie Balagasay-Escopete.

In the TV interview, Escopete said that her regular customers (mostly Filipino women) visit her store to buy — and cook — tuyo and daing (dried fish), food items that the latter can’t really cook in their Swiss homes because of restrictions imposed by their Swiss husbands and/or neighbors (read: something to do with fishy odor).

The eatery-cum-store serves not only as a haven for Switzerland-based Filipinos, where they can have fresh servings of their favorite Filipino food, or where they can scour for Pinoy brands (e.g. canned/bottled goods, packs of instant noodles, green mangoes, and even Pinoy beer). It’s also a meeting place where members of various Filipino groups converge and discuss plans to raise funds for special projects of kababayans back home.

There are reportedly 43 Filipino groups in Switzerland. These groups aim to “preserve Filipino culture and traditions” while striving to “integrate in the Swiss community.”

On top of being an eatery, mini grocery store, and an all-purpose meeting hall, the Golden Asian Store is also a refuge of sorts for Filipinos, who need to discuss personal issues with their compatriots in an environment of love and trust. It’s here where these problem-laden Pinoys find a piece of home away from home.

May

7

Israel’s 60th

Filed Under In the News, Israel/Jews, Politics, Special Events | 6 Comments

Israel celebrates the 60th year of its founding as a nation this month.

While Israeli President Shimon Peres has invited heads of state, ministers, scientists, philosophers, and artists — among them, US President George Bush, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, former Czech President Vaclav Havel, and former Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid — for a three-day conference to mark the Jewish state’s 60th birthday on May 14, Switzerland’s Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey has not received an invitation, and has voiced out her disappointment. Apparently, no one from the Swiss government has been invited to Israel’s 60th anniversary celebrations.

According to the news portal Swissinfo.ch, Switzerland will be represented in Israeli’s Diamond Jubilee festivities through its ambassador in Tel Aviv. The slighted Calmy-Rey was quoted by the Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung as saying, “Personally, I am disappointed that our country was not invited at government level.”

The non-invitation may have been caused by Calmy-Rey’s recent visit to Iran to witness the signing of a multi-billion-dollar natural gas supply contract between Swiss company EGL and Iran’s state-owned National Iranian Gas Export Company.

Reports have it that the deal “prompted angry reactions from Jewish groups because Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has often called for the destruction of Israel.” Alfred Donath, president of the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities, said that “by signing the gas deal Switzerland sent the wrong message at the wrong time.”

Calmy-Rey reportedly defended the deal by saying that every state had the right to pursue its economic interests, and that Switzerland was not the only country buying Iranian oil and gas.

The Foreign Minister said that Switzerland, being a neutral state, “talks to everyone.” She added that Switzerland will “continue to condemn breaches of international humanitarian law.”

A minority of Swiss citizens, who are staunch pro-Israel advocates, have often said how Calmy-Rey has compromised the supposedly neutral position of Switzerland by taking sides and not supporting Israel’s right to defend its constituents. “She doesn’t seem to know what she is doing,” said one Swiss businessman, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

In March, Switzerland was the only European member of the 47-nation UN Human Rights Council to vote in favor of a resolution condemning Israeli military action in Gaza that resulted in the death of more than 120 Palestinians, many of them civilians. The military raids were prompted by Palestinian militant groups escalating their rocket fire into Israel. (Video courtesy of Aish.com)

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