Babaylan Germany Celebrates IWD 2007 with Film Bata, Bata Paano Ka Ginawa?

(photo Elda Weiss, ML)
In celebration of this year's International Women's Day,
Philippine Women's Forum e.V./Babaylan Germany
and Babaylanes Internationales sponsored a private
showing of Lualhati Bautista's story "Bata, Bata
Paano Ka Ginawa?" starring Vilma Santos,
Albert Martinez, Ariel Rivera, Raymond Bagatsing,
Carlo Aquino and Serena Dalrymple with Chito
Rono as director on March 09, 2007 at the
International Center Stolzestrasse in Köln.
The all women's gathering was also the start of
a series of planned activities of Babaylan Germany
in celebration of the 15th anniversary of Babaylan,
The Philippine Women's Network in Europe with
the theme: Gender, Migration and Development.
Part of the program was the announcement of the
official launching of the website of Babaylan Europe
www.babaylan-europe.org on March 8, 2007.
A brief exchange of comments about the film followed
with the women agreeing to set an extra gathering to
discuss on the role of women as mother and the importance
of her own identity as individual. It was followed
by a small salosalo and the welcoming of new full
pledged members of philippine women`s forum.

Some inspiring one liners in the film as said by Lea,
the main character in the story played by Vilma Santos:
* What is important is what one has in mind and heart
and not his/her appearance.
* Hindi ikinakahiya ang katotohanan. One should not
feel embarrassed to tell the truth.
* Pag ikinakahiya, hindi dapat ginagawa. If one feels
shame about doing something, then one should
not do it at all.
* Bakit ang dalawang babae ng isang lalake, pag
nagkaharap, nag-aaway? Pag hindi sila nag-away,
parang hindi normal? Pero bakit yun dalawang
asawa kong lalake, nang nagkaharap sila, ako
ang inaway? Nagkampihan sila, inaway ako?
(When two women of a man meet, they claw
each other? if they don´t fight each other, it
does not look normal? When my two husbands
met each other, they ganged up on me!)
* Sa kanilang pagtatalik, nasusudsud sana ng
ari ng lalake ang kaluluwa ng babae. Makita
niya yun lihim ng babae na hindi nasasabi ng bibig.
*If I clung on you forever, I would have lost
myself. How could you live with someone
who has no identity? How could that woman
be a good mother if she herself has no identity?
* The most important question is how would
parents raise their children for them to grow up
to become just, decent and humane beings. For if
they were molded as such, then we would have by
now, a just, decent humane society that we could
proudly pass on to you all.

* Let us reach for the stars and make our collective
dreams come true.

Our thanks and appreciate go to Hans and Vanessa
Zarm for lending us their beamer and cd player for
our film evening.

My deep gratitude to my girlfriend Cecilia Rubio
Apolinario for giving me this CD film Bata, Bata Paano
Ka Ginawa. It has touched many women like she has
touched many lives of migrant women in Italy.
She will be dearly missed by her friends. We will always
keep the beautiful memories we had together as childhood
friends and as migrant women working abroad for the love
of their children.