‘Wasay’

 

 “Violence is the language of the unheard.”

—Martin Luther King III

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

WHAT happened to the 51-year-old man inside a Lower Manhattan bank ATM August 15 afternoon could happen to anyone, including me who is a regular visitor in the vicinity.

And this will confirm my assertion that mad men in New York target not only Asians but also other races.

Violence aimed at anyone in New York and in other states happens with or without the pandemic.

It’s actually a case of being at the wrong place in the wrong time or a “to-whom-it-may-concern” type of assault.

This will further prove my hypothesis that self-dense or confronting our attacker or attackers physically may not be a wise move, especially for the women and elderly victims as suggested by some wisecracks in the Philippine Consulate New York.

The Philippine Consulate here has made a suggestion to train Pinoys in New York with self defense amid reports of the upsurge these past months of hate crimes that victimized many Filipinos and other Asians.

I don’t believe it would save us if beasts in this urban jungle harassed and physically harmed us “for being Asians.”

When we were attacked, we could only fend for ourselves. 

The police, like in the movies, will arrive only after the action.

We are lucky if we survive.

 

-o0o-

 

A senior male friend once reminded us: “Bawal ang pa tanga tanga. Dapat laging handa at may presence of mind tayo habang naglalakad sa kalye dito sa New York.” 

Many of us may have now seen the video of the gruesome attack on

Spanish-speaking Miguel Solorzana, 51, who luckily survived and was recovering at Bellevue Hospital from the horrific madness that distracted many ATM users.

The attacker was seen on video casually walking into the facility with a bank of ATMs, holding a “wasay” or hatchet in his right hand — and then suddenly lunging at Solorzana, alone inside the bank ATM and who seemed not to even notice the attacker until he was under siege.

The assailant, a black man believed to be mentally and emotionally disturbed, repeatedly hacked the defenseless, man who was withdrawing money in the ATM, in the head and leg in what New York Police Department described as a shocking caught-on-camera ambush.

A suspect in the terrifying assault was taken into police custody late August 17, or two days after the assault, and reportedly taken to Bellevue Hospital for evaluation. 

No further information about him was immediately available, according to reports here.

 

-o0o-

 

Reports said the victim had been at an ATM at the Chase bank on Broadway near Morris St. about 5:20 p.m. when the assailant, who wore a black mask over his face, initially walked behind him—but then suddenly turned around and swung the hatchet at the man’s leg.

“The Queens resident, clutching his backpack in front of him, valiantly tries to defend himself, but the attacker shoves and grabs him, swinging the hatchet at his head as the overpowered victim tries to wrest it away, the video shows,” reported New York City’s Daily News.

“After the attack, the suspect is seen angrily stomping over to each of the bank’s ATMs, smashing the screens with his hatchet, before dropping the weapon and walking away, the video shows.”

Solorzana, who lives in Corona, reportedly needed two surgeries after the bloody attack, his friend Manny told The News.

“The whole family is in Mexico,” Manny said. “I didn’t ask him about what happened, i just wanted to make sure he’s okay.”

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Give her P100 million

  

“Gold medals aren't really made of gold. They're made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find alloy called guts.”

—Dan Gable

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

WHAT a shame that the Philippine government gave 2020 Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz “only” P10 million.

She deserves more than that; Diaz should get P100 million.

All Pinoy Olympians who did not win a medal should get P2 million each, not just P500,000.

Our sports coffer is awash with oodles of cash. 

The money is only being stolen by crocodiles masquerading as sports officials.

The cash incentives for athletes who gave the country so much glory and pride are peanuts compared to the billions of pesos being ripped away by thieves in the Bureau of Customs and the Department of Public Works and Highways, among other graft-ridden agencies.

We can never tell if we can bring home again another gold in the future Olympic Games; we aren’t sure if we can surpass the 1-2-1 (gold-silver-bronze) 2020 Tokyo Olympics haul in the 2024 Paris Olympics, 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, and the Olympic Games thereafter.

If this should be a once-in-a-lifetime cash bonanza, let’s make it a big bang. 

The increase in cash incentives for deserving athletes like weightlifter Diaz, woman boxer Nesty Petecio, and men boxers Carlo Paalam and Eumir Marcial should be done through a legislation.

No politician should grandstand and claim credit for the success of our Olympians.

 

-o0o-

 

When he gave Thailand its first-ever gold medal in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, boxer Somluck Kamsing or Somrak Kamsing was awarded 50 million baht or almost equivalent to 50 million in Philippine money.

And that was six Olympic Games ago.

Thai Olympic gold medalists now reportedly get approximately 200 million baht each, aside from the cash incentives from private donors.

For giving her country its first-ever gold medal since the Philippines joined the Olympic Games in Paris in 1924, Diaz, 30, should get more than P10 million from the government on top of the financial and material windfall from the private sector.

But we have no choice. It’s not the fault of our sports officials; we can’t blame even President Rodrigo Duterte.

The amount that Diaz will get from the government is actually stipulated in the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Incentives Act RA 10699 also known as the National Athletes and Coaches Benefits and Incentives Act. 

Under RA 10699, Olympic gold, silver, and bronze medalists are entitled to P10 million, P5 million, and P2 million, respectively

Approved by the late former president Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III on November 13, 2015, the law reportedly expanded the coverage of incentives granted to national athletes and coaches.

It repealed RA 9064 or the National Athletes, Coaches and Trainers Benefits and Incentives Act of 2001. 

Under this old law, gold medalists for the Olympic Games were only entitled to P5 million, while silver and bronze medalists for Olympic Games were entitled to P2.5 million and P1 million, respectively.

 

-o0o-

 

We Filipinos are not the only ones being assaulted by mad men in the New York City subway train and other public places.

As I have written in the past, as long as the pandemic is here some racist characters in America will continue to terrorize those who they believed were responsible for bringing the deadly infectious virus called COVID-19 in the United States; and they have been targeting mostly the Asians.

Because we Asians almost look the same in the shape of our eyes, we are all potential targets.

Every now and then we can hear incidents of harassments and assaults—physical and verbal. And the New York City government, as well as the New York Police Department, can’t stop this violence. 

The case of Filipina Potri Ranka Manis, a nurse and cultural artist who sustained bruises in different parts of her body and had to be brought to an emergency room following the incident last Aug. 10, was the latest racially motivated attack in connection with the pandemic.

The only way to “fight” hate crimes is to be vigilant, stay away from characters who are emotionally and mentally unstable while inside the subway train station, travel with one or two companions if possible, don’t sleep inside the train, bus, and their stations, and refrain from traveling at night.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo)

 

 

 

 

#StopAsianHate

 

#StopAsianHate

 

Never-ending harassment

“If bigots behave like bigots, it's not a huge surprise.”

—Salman Rushdie

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

AFTER hurriedly disembarking from the Queens-bound F subway train in the Delancey Street-Essex Street Station past 2 o’clock in the afternoon March 18, I approached the two New York Police Department (NYPD) cops as they entered the main door of the subway turnstile, used in subway systems and other mass-transit systems to check patrons' tickets.

I told them “I needed help” and narrated I experienced another harassment (my second in six days) from an emotionally distraught man minutes earlier inside the train while on my way to Queens from Brooklyn.

“Are you hurt? Do you need a medical attention?” asked one of them.

“No, I’m OK,” I quickly retorted. “I’m just worried that the man might attack me again if he sees me before I reach my destination.”

I told them the incident happened when the train had just passed by the York Station and there were two other passengers aside from me and the assailant.

I said I wasn’t supposed to be in that station but I needed to avoid the  unidentified toughie; my final destination would be at the 74^th Station on Roosevelt Avenue, Queens. 

“You mean it happened in Brooklyn?” asked the same cop. “I would advise you to stay here (he pointed to the small office outside the turnstile) and wait for the next train. There’s nothing we can do now as we can’t chase him if he’s on the train that left and where you just came from.”

I knew that York Station was part of Brooklyn, but I had no idea that Delancey Street-Essex Street Station was already part of Manhattan.

I waited for about eight to 10 minutes for the next F train and followed the cop’s advice.

 

-o0o-

 

After taking the incoming F train, which had more than 20 passengers, I managed to reach the 74^th Station unscathed. 

As of this writing, I was planning to write anew NYPD Commissioner Dermot Francis Shea regarding the incident.

On March 12 evening, or several hours after I experienced a scary verbal harassment from an angry man who mistook me for “a Chinese” on board the F train bound for Coney Island in Brooklyn, I e-mailed Commissioner Shea to report what happened.  

After several minutes, I received this reply: “Your City of New York Correspondence Number is  #1-1-9742727. Thank you for contacting the City of New York. Your message has been forwarded to the appropriate agency for review and handling.”

It seems it’s no longer safe to take the subway train as long as there is a pandemic. 

Some ignorant and hateful individuals think the Chinese brought the coronavirus in the United States.

Every now and then, stories of harassment and acts of violence have been reported these past weeks. Most of the victims were Asian Americans, and the hatred toward the “China Virus” has gone from bad to worse that some people seemed no longer interested to openly tackle the subject matter.

The subway system is the main public transportation system in New York. It is one of the oldest and largest public transportation systems in the world (in terms of number of stations). 

With some 5.5 million riders on a given weekday, it is one of the primary modes of transportation for the majority of New Yorkers and tourists. 

The system is operated by a subsidiary of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).

When will the harassment and bigotry stop? No one knows.

Let’s continue to protect ourselves at all times, as I used to counsel the two prizefighters inside the ring before the bout.

 

-o0o-

 

In the lengthy introductory essay of For the New Intellectual, Ayn Rand argues that America and Western civilization are bankrupt, and that the cause of the bankruptcy is the failure of philosophy: specifically, the failure of philosophers and intellectuals to define and advocate a philosophy of reason.

In the subsequent selections, culled from her novels, Rand presents the outline of her philosophy of reason, which she calls Objectivism. 

These excerpts cover major topics in philosophy--from Objectivism’s basic axioms to its new theory of free will to its radical ethics of rational egoism to its moral-philosophic case for laissez-faire capitalism.

For the New Intellectual contains some of Rand’s most important passages on other philosophers, including Aristotle, Plato, Hume, Kant, Hegel and Nietzsche. 

Many of its selections also develop Rand’s unprecedented critique of altruism—the notion that our basic moral obligation is to live for others.

Why do Rand’s novels contain often-lengthy philosophic speeches?

Because the speeches are crucial to the story: to advancing its plot and capturing the characters’ motivations. 

Rand’s goal as a fiction writer was to present her conception of the ideal man. 

But her view of good and evil differed so radically from others that she had to originate her own philosophy.

“I had to do it, because my basic view of man and of existence was in conflict with most of the existing philosophical theories. In order to define, explain and present my concept of man, I had to become a philosopher . . . .”

The speeches are “necessarily condensed summaries, because the full statement of the subjects involved is presented, in each novel, by means of the story. The events are the concretes and the particulars, of which the speeches are the abstract summations.”

Both together are needed to make her vision of the ideal real.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo)

I’m ‘luckier’ than those killed

“Toward no crimes have men shown themselves so cold-bloodedly cruel as in punishing differences of belief.”

—James Russell Lowell

 

By Alex P. Vidal 

 

I STILL consider myself “luckier” compared to those members of Asian community murdered in Atlanta on March 17 in another wave of hate crime perpetrated against Asian Americans amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.

The massacre in Atlanta occurred five days after a lunatic man verbally abused me on F train bound for the Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York City at 11 am on March 12 for being “a Chinese.”

The bloody carnage in Atlanta happened almost a month after another Filipino-American, Noel Quintana, 61, was slashed across the face from cheek to cheek inside the L subway train while on his way to his job in Manhattan.

It’s not safe to be an Asian nowadays while there is still a pandemic. We still need to be extra careful in public and shouldn’t lower our guards down.

Quintana, who had been in a confrontation with another man while the two were riding on the train, claimed the emotionally disturbed man was kicking his backpack and when he asked him to stop, the suspect attacked him and fled when the train stopped at First Avenue and 14th Street.

Unlike Quintana, I wasn’t harmed but was a little bit frightened visibly.

I didn’t react violently and, thank God, I managed to “escape” unscathed physically.

I realized maintaining a calm mind amid difficulties was one way of surviving an imminent danger inside a public transportation.

The New York Police Department (NYPD) has finally beefed up its presence in Asian-American communities in the wake of an Atlanta shooting spree that targeted Asian massage parlors and left several dead.

Mayor Bill de Blasio labeled the attacks an act of “domestic terrorism” on March 17 and said the victims were murdered “simply because of their ethnicity.”

 

-o0o-

 

“Beyond education and beyond speaking out, we also need to use the strength of the NYPD to protect our Asian-American communities,” de Blasio said. 

“There is today a major deployment of NYPD counterterrorism forces in communities around the city.”

The suspect in the Atlanta shootings that killed eight people at Atlanta-area spas, Robert Aaron Long, has denied having a racial motive for the attacks and blamed an “addiction to sex.”

Long has been charged with eight counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault.

Cherokee County officials announced on March 17 afternoon that Long, 21, has been charged with four counts of murder and one count of assault in the shooting involving three women and two men at Young's Asian Massage. 

He has also been charged with murder in Atlanta, where four other women were killed in two separate attacks.

Police said the suspect has confessed to the crime and told officials about a "temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate." 

They said it is too early to determine if he'll be charged with a hate crime.

Six women of Asian descent are among the dead, raising suspicions of a hate crime. 

Long claimed race did not play a role in his decision to target the businesses, police said, relaying details from questioning the gunman.

Long is believed to have "frequented these places, and he may have been lashing out," Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds said, after noting that the suspect indicated to investigators that he has a sexual addiction.

 

-o0o-

 

The group Stop AAPI Hate said it has received nearly 3,800 reports of what it describes as hate incidents—including verbal harassment and physical assault—since the COVID-19 pandemic began last March. 

In the aftermath of the Atlanta-area attacks, officials in cities such as New York and Seattle said they would boost law enforcement's presence in Asian American communities.

On March 17, Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta issued a statement saying that although details are still emerging, the broader context of racial tension in the U.S. cannot be ignored.

"While anti-Asian violence is woven throughout our nation's history, the Trump administration's relentless scapegoating of Asians for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has increased" those incidents, said the advocacy group, which is an affiliate of a national organization.

"We're calling on our allies across communities of color to stand with us in grief and solidarity against racist violence in all its forms," said Stephanie Cho, the Atlanta group's executive director.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo)