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One thing my mum reminds me of is that I need to keep working so hard because the space I hold as a racialized woman in academia is a space that wasn't available to generations of women before me. So this is a picture of Ruby Bridges, the first Black girl to go to a desegregated school. She's younger than my mum today and as she walked to school with 4 U.S. Marshals, that walk paved the way for other women who look like her, who look like me, to hold space in academia. 

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One thing my mum reminds me of is that I need to keep working so hard because the space I hold as a racialized woman in academia is a space that wasn't available to generations of women before me. So this is a picture of Ruby Bridges, the first Black girl to go to a desegregated school. She's younger than my mum today and as she walked to school with 4 U.S. Marshals, that walk paved the way for other women who look like her, who look like me, to hold space in academia. 

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immigrating to Canada as a south Asian

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Every day, Joy Tajanlangit sees people come through the doors of her store, looking to send money to people they care for in the Philippines.

"They just received their salary; they won't even see it pass through their hands. Just go straight to our store and send it back to the Philippines," said the owner of the Manila Convenience Store in Calgary.

The Cost of Living ❤s money - how it makes (or breaks) us.
Catch us Sundays on CBC Radio One at 12:00 p.m. (12:30 p.m. NT).
We also repeat the following Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. in most provinces.

Tajanlangit's customers are not alone. They are among thousands of people who send money overseas to the Philippines from Canada.

The amount of remittances sent from Canada to the Philippines was largely unchanged in 2020 compared to the year before, suggesting that Filipino-Canadians and expats alike are striving to continue financial support for families and friends back home during the pandemic. This bucks the trend of global remittances, which saw a dramatic decline in 2020 including an 11 per cent drop in East Asia, according to the World Bank.

According to the latest data from the Government of the Philippines, as supplied to CBC News through the consul general's office in Calgary, people in Canada sent $1.08 billion to the Philippines from January to October of 2019.

Remittances over the same period in 2020 were almost identical: $1.079 billion.

Tajanlangit witnesses the community's unwavering dedication up close at her store.

"I would give advice to them to take care of yourself as well," Tajanlangit said about her customers in an interview with CBC Calgary's Filipino pop-up bureau. "They've been working here so hard, and sometimes they don't even have a break in the whole week."

Overseas remittance is common in Canada

Sending remittances is common for many cultures in Canada, including those with Middle Eastern, Asian, Latin American and African roots.

It involves sending a sum of cash to relatives or friends in another country through a bank or an international service such as Western Union.

And for some countries - including the Philippines - those remittances are integral to the local economy.

In 2019, the Philippines saw remittances of more than $42.8 billion from Filipinos living overseas, according to Zaldy Patron, consul general for the Government of the Philippines.

"This accounts for about 10 per cent of our country's gross domestic product," said Patron.

Many foreign temporary workers, immigrants, students and even Canada-born citizens feel compelled to help family and friends who still live abroad, despite their own financial uncertainties during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Sometimes it would be like $200 every two weeks, to as much as about $2,000 every two weeks," said Tajanlangit.

"That could either save [family and friends] from hunger or sometimes hospitalization, their kids being in school. You know, without that, it would be really hard for them to live."

Financial ties aren't always familial

Tajanlangit sends about $1,000 a year to Frtzy Jaleco in Iloilo City, Philippines. Jaleco, a 28-year-old call centre agent, said the money helped pay for her education.

"Without Joy's help and support of sending me remittance money, I wouldn't have finished college yet, most probably," she said. "This is the reality that I and many students who come from low-income families face."

Jaleco and Tajanlangit are not related. She's the daughter of an old friend of Tajanlangit's.

After sponsoring members of her own family to immigrate to Canada, Tajanlangit said she felt compelled to continue supporting others back in her home country.

WATCH | This app was inspired by home-based Filipino convenience stores:

Remittances result in joy, but resentment, too

While many in the Filipino community make these financial contributions gladly, a feeling of resentment can also bubble up from time to time, according to Ernie Alama, a scholar with St. Mary's University in Calgary who has studied the sociology of the Filipino diaspora.

It's kind of a mixed feeling that's actually haunting us maybe... until the end of our lives. - Ernie Alama, expert in the sociology of the Filipino diaspora

"There is no point of end. So when, for instance, parents or siblings are already economically stable, you have nieces and nephews and it goes on down the line," he said.

"There's a mixed feeling, resentment, because you don't want to be doing it over and over for the rest of your life. At the same time, there is joy when you see your family being happy with what you have done to support them. And it's kind of a mixed feeling that's actually haunting us ... until the end of our lives."

Technology and changing attitudes

Looming trends have the potential to disrupt the culture behind sending remittances, beyond the current COVID-19 pandemic.

New apps and the tech companies behind them are finding ways to bypass service fees and commissions charged for the conventional methods of sending money abroad.

Tajanlangit said she's already starting to see these startups eat into her business of facilitating remittances.

Click here to find more stories from CBC Calgary's Filipino Pop-Up Bureau.

But what is also coming, regardless of technology, is generational change.

Second and third generation Filipino Canadians are less connected to their parents' or grandparents' birth country, according to Alama. So those people are likely to feel the social pressures around remittances.

"I can see that in my children. Questions, for instance, 'Well, why should I be sending money there, dad?'" said Alama.

"So what would happen if you just stopped? You're actually breaking up relationships. They expect your support," he added.

Written by Falice Chin and produced by Paul Karchut, with files from the CBC Calgary Filipino bureau.
Click "listen" at the top of the page to hear this segment, or download the Cost of Living podcast.
The Cost of Living airs every week on CBC Radio One, Sundays at 12:00 p.m. (12:30 NT).

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Canada's Filipino communities sent $1B to family and friends in the Philippines last year despite COVID-19 | CBC Radio

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Every day, Joy Tajanlangit sees people come through the doors of her store, looking to send money to people they care for in the Philippines. "They just received their salary; they won't even see it pass through their hands.

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A very famous Punjabi folk song I grew up listening to in my home. Music has been vital to my upbringing and a huge part of my early memories.

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My memory is tied to scents. The dabqaad (Somali for "fire raiser"), also known as unnsi is an incense burner, or censer.

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I forgot to say you could add wikipedia pages!

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Maclean's "Too Asian" controversy is a controversy around an article published by in 2010. Initially titled "Too Asian: Some frosh don't want to study at an Asian university", later re-titled with an added question mark "Too Asian? [...]", and then finally "The enrollment controversy: Worries that efforts in the U.S. to limit enrollment of Asian students in top universities may migrate to Canada," this article was written by Nicholas Kohler and Stephanie Findlay, and published in the 2010 edition of the Maclean's Guide to Canadian Universities. The article was publicly criticized and condemned by various community organizations, universities and levels of government as an example of anti- Asian racism and xenophobia. To date, Maclean's magazine and its parent company, Rogers Communications, have declined to offer an apology for the article.

The article begins by introducing Alexandra and Rachel, two recently graduated white students from Havergal College, an elite all-girl's private school located in Toronto. Kohler and Findlay explain that these students made a choice that is common among North America's white youth: opting not to attend a university with the reputation of being "too Asian". The term, Kohler and Findlay continue to explain, indicates a university that is intellectually rigorous with an unbalanced campus social climate, brought upon by the presence of academically focused Asian students. The article concludes with a note that Alexandra left Western University, a school considered to be attended by "white students" in the article, for University of Toronto, which is considered to be "too Asian".

Many critics argued that the article's subsequent attempts to provide a debate about the role of race on Canadian university campuses, and the "over-representation" of Asian students on elite university campuses, was highly offensive: it framed "Asian" students as single-minded and socially inept hard-workers, spurred by their tradition and culture, while "white" students are more concerned with the social aspect of universities, such as drinking and partying. Many critiques also took issue with the article's conflation of " Asian" with Chinese, quoting a number of Chinese students in their article, while never addressing how "Asian" itself is a category that subsumes many different ethnic groups. Moreover, no distinction between international students and Canadian-born "Asians" was made (an important distinction that was completely disregarded in the survey). Critics were also shocked by the article's reference to debates in American universities regarding the initiation of race-based quotas to "balance" their campuses because of the over-representation of Asian students.

Response to the article was immediate, widespread and disfavourable. Critics - ranging from journalist bloggers to academics - decried the article for being racist, stereotypical and reductive. The article was criticized for recalling stereotypes of Asians as unbalanced foreigners, with the aim of overthrowing white Canadians from power.

Further criticism followed from the fact that the article depicted Asians as a homogeneous group, without attention to the fact that people from various groups can be classified as "Asian". Another commentator argued that the article inaccurately perpetuated the myth that universities functioned as meritocracies, without taking into account that minorities have to overcome social hurdles, such as racial discrimination and prejudice. It was also argued that the article justified the idea that whites are entitled to attend university, because it never explicitly condemns, and therefore indirectly condones, Alexandra and Rachel's belief that certain universities were "too Asian".

Coupled with the critiques of the piece was activism and action from grassroots, academic, governmental, university, and youth sectors. The activism protesting the piece manifested in a number of different forms, ranging from humorous (but critical) videos, to community web pages and gatherings. A coalition of over one hundred organizations composed and submitted an open letter calling for an end to anti-Asian racism for those responsible for the piece. Universities across the nation held a series of public educational events, organized by both faculty and students, to debate the article and its implications. The University of Victoria Students' Society went so far as to ban sales of the magazine from their student building.

The cities of Victoria, Vancouver, Toronto, Markham, and Richmond Hill successively passed motions condemning the article and calling for those responsible for the article to issue a public apology. Olivia Chow, a Member of Parliament and member of the New Democratic Party, put forth a motion in the House of Commons of Canada calling for the censure of Maclean's, arguing that the article "is offensive, divisive and suggests that Canadian students of Asian heritage may be limiting opportunities for non-Asian students at certain universities". Senator Vivienne Poy, former Chancellor Emerita of the University of Toronto, argued that the offensive content of the piece makes the magazine unsuitable as a beneficiary of the Canadian government's periodical fund - which identifies it as "material that is denigrating to an identifiable group". The periodical fund annually subsidizes the magazine's publication with $1.8 million of federal funding.

No apology has been offered by either Maclean's or Rogers Communications. Negotiations between Maclean's and Rogers Communications, and the Chinese Canadian National Council and the Chinese Canadian National Council Toronto Chapter were held, but those failed to yield an apology, as the magazine refused to acknowledge that the article was offensive. The magazine instead initially revised the piece's content. It then issued a clarification about the piece's content, changed the article's title twice, and issued an additional statement with the online version of the piece, stating that some of the content could be interpreted as offensive. Maclean's stated that they do not advocate race as a criterion in university admissions, and commended Asians in Canada for succeeding in universities on the basis of merit. Journalists Margaret Wente and Barbara Kay respectively sided with the magazine, stating that it initiated an important conversation that Canadians were afraid to have, and that the magazine, rather than those aggrieved, deserved an apology.

In response, Professor Henry Yu of the University of British Columbia labelled Maclean's actions as a non-apology. John Miller, a former Professor of Journalism at Ryerson University, argued that the article was an example of poor journalism and Maclean's reply indicated that "the publication just doesn't seem to get it." Journalist Jeet Heer articulated that, in dealing with the ordeal in the way that they did, both Maclean's and its supporters reflected Canada's inability to constructively talk about the reality of racism. Heer further noted that those who argued in favor of the article evaded acknowledging that it was evocative of racist stereotypes.

Kenneth Whyte, then publisher of Maclean's, has since been promoted as the Head of Rogers' Publications. Nicholas Kohler, one of the authors of the article, is no longer on staff with the magazine.[citation needed ] Stephanie Findlay, the second author and then an intern with the publication, moved on to an internship with the Toronto Star.[citation needed ] The decision to hire Findlay by the Star was criticized by some, prompting doubt[citation needed ] as to whether or not the Star was sincere in issuing an apology for a similar themed and timed article. Findlay is no longer with the Star. Dr. Susan R. Grosbeck, the Principal of Havergal College, publicly stated that Maclean's never confirmed that Alexandra and Rachel actually attended the school. Furthermore, a number of people interviewed by the authors expressed that they had either been misquoted, or that the authors were dishonest in their explanation of their opinions.

To commemorate the year of activism that resulted from the article's publication, an event organized by the Solidarity Committee Against Anti-Asian Racism was held at the University of Toronto on November 17, 2011.

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Maclean's "Too Asian" controversy is a controversy around an article published by in 2010. Initially titled "Too Asian: Some frosh don't want to study at an Asian university", later re-titled with an added question mark "Too Asian? [...]", and then finally "The enrollment controversy: Worries that efforts in the U.S.

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The Migration to Abyssinia (Arabic: الهجرة إلى الحبشة‎, al-hijra ʾilā al-habaša), also known as the First Hegira (Arabic: هِجْرَة‎ hijrah), was an episode in the early history of Islam, where Muhammad's first followers (the Sahabah) fled from the persecution of the ruling Quraysh tribe of Mecca.

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The Migration to Abyssinia (Arabic: الهجرة إلى الحبشة‎, al-hijra ʾilā al-habaša), also known as the First Hegira (Arabic: هِجْرَة‎ hijrah), was an episode in the early history of Islam, where Muhammad's first followers (the Sahabah) fled from the persecution of the ruling Quraysh tribe of Mecca.

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One of my earliest memories is my sitti (grandmother) taking my outside to see the Northern Lights. I'm still always floored by their beauty!

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My first early childhood memory was a trip to the pumpkin match with my mom and classmates. Still have a photo of that day

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I remember one specific instance of catching butterflies on a school trip, I didn't actually catch any, but thinking about that day brings so much light

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Use the hyperlink button below for all embeds. An easy way is to search for something on google image and add "gif" and then just copy and paste after right clicking the image and selecting "copy image address"

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STREEEEEEETCH

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Here's Audre Lorde - Your Silence Will Not Protect You

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Audre Lorde - Your Silence Will Not Protect You

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Audio files, powerpoints, spreadsheets, videos, just drag and drop into the board!

Here's a classic South Korean protest song from the 80s.

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노래를 찾는 사람들 - 솔아 솔아 푸르른 솔아 (1989)

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Double click anywhere or click the + sign in the bottom right!

You can also click and drag around your posts as well to position where you prefer!

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1. Use either google images or anywhere on the internet. Try right-clicking and select "copy image" and then you can paste it anywhere on the board!
2. Alternatively you can upload an image file from your own computer.