Living in the Rainbow

Four centuries in the convent, forty years in Hollywood, and four years in hell make the Filipino nation. That's the summary of our colonization - our journey as a people from the Spanish rule of Christianity (370 years) to the American regime - the “modern West” (40 years) to the Japanese invasion in World War II (4 years).

We had no name to begin with. Our history as a nation dates back to the aborigines who came all the way from mainland China and India through land bridges millions of years ago. Migrants from neighboring Indonesia and Malaysia found their way to this archipelago of 7,106 islands and Chinese traders engaged my ancestors to commerce … until a Portuguese “discovered” my country and offered it to Spain as a colony. Spain took hold of this part of the Southeast Asia and called it the “Philippines”. We have gone a long way from there ... but until now we Filipino women resent how our history books are written. There is not much recognition of the women who made our history more meaningful! And no, I'm not keen on the fame or the name ... it's more on role modeling, something worth emulating.

Maybe it’s hard to imagine an amalgamation of races and cultures in one single person, a Filipino. And it’s harder still to conceive a whole womanhood in one single girl, myself. How much harder is it for me to bring myself into a much more complex identity – my own community, or a community of women all across the globe - Web 2.0? Change is a long, difficult and painful process. Although it is constant, no one gets used to it. Yet change goes on and on because it fuels growth and progress. And growth always happens in our most inconvenient moments. How do I bring change to the community? The answer is as simple as an old song – let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me. We don’t blame government or mass media for the social ills around us. I can light a candle in the dark and when my neighbor sees it she will do the same. I can write about or speak up on a shared sentiment and I know somehow someone will echo my voice and we will end up in a powerful chorus. I can take the lead and I can reach out … the important thing is what good I can do, I will do it. This is how I know things work. It will not be for a name or a fame ... it will be a legacy of women empowerment.

Now as I browse through the PulseWire directory, I find names I cannot pronounce, of people living in places I know nothing about. But I look at the Pulsewire community as a beautiful rainbow spread out across the globe. I can’t be watching it until it fades … I will be in that rainbow, sharing the hope, speaking the voice, and living the dream of a durable, genuine, and equitable global womanhood. I will be sharing my struggles, pains, sentiments, hopes, triumphs and ideals with all the other women out there through Web 2.0. We will be exchanging notes until we find our oneness. We will discover our distinctions and uniqueness and we will end up in a bonding of different colors and creeds - a community where our plural awareness, sensitivities and motivations are delicately interwoven, designed to blend into mutual respect and acceptance. I see PulseWire as the rainbow that the women of the world can hold fast and hold on to. Together in PulseWire we will embrace humanity - in one beautiful and powerful rainbow across the skies connecting both ends of the world. I love this rainbow ... I live in it!