amsterdam 1

My travel guru Cierlene Benipayo- Justice B.'s sister and Ogie's aunt- had been insisting these past two years that I visit Amsterdam.

Why Amsterdam? I would ask.

To smoke pot legally, see the Red Light District...

Ho-hum.

I thought I'd already seen it all, but after I tried the hemp hand lotion of The Body Shop in the Amsterdam train station (which I haven't smelled in Manila- attention The Body Shop Philippines!) and later saw the city's tall, improbably thin 17th century townhouses (which presaged New York's vertical architecture), I felt, if not love, then something close to it: a bond, a connection. 

Here is the actual embodiment of the ideals of my college years: a place with the highest respect for freedom and human rights, the town of Anne Frank in the country of "Big Brother" where people can see what others are doing and yet follow the principle, "Live and let live." No wonder Joma Sison chose to live in exile in this country.

And I remembered I. who, during one lazy afternoon in the green fields of Ateneo when we decided to give it a try, disclosed that she actually stayed with Joma here in the Netherlands. I was captivated by her description of the colorful flowers and gardens of Europe which she read from her diary- in a way, she colored my perception of the continent. She said those flowers were so beautiful, they made her cry- as an activist, because she remembered the faces of poverty back home, but I suspect also as an artist, because they awakened her senses and touched her core.

Though I'm not visiting Joma- my politics and sympathies are much too different now- the faces of his two brothers are very much with me, especially Tito Mon, who succumbed to lung cancer recently. The picture above shows them in Tito Mon's Beverly Hills home, where I stayed during my trip to Los Angeles in the U.S. I miss Tito Mon (you remember him: he's the man on the left)- his stories of Cary Grant and Nora Aunor, his show tunes, his joie de vivre.

It's ironic how close we were to each other- lovers and brothers- yet be politically oceans apart. 

In the microcosm of these relationships, I feel hope and am able to envision unity for our country: we may disagree today, we may have fought each other yesterday, but ultimately we're just one family.

...

Topping my playlist on the plane, something witty, not to mention politically relevant: