A Le Ko Kau Forum

By Fuana Tmarsel —-

During the two years in Palau, he has participated in a lot of customary events and concludes that Palau is a society of pay backs. “You keep records of people who give money at your customs so that when it is their turn, you go to give back what they have given to you. The giving is not out of the heart to help, but it obligates you to return the favor someday. In this way, it becomes a burden for many. It is wrong attitude for giving.” I sat there silently nodding to his observations of our customs and thinking to myself- he is right, giving should proceed from a desire to alleviate a burden, to provide for a need, to quench a longing, to offer friendship, but most of all to communicate love to others. So why do practice obligatory giving? Is it out of insecurity, control, or what?

By Fuana Tmarsel —-

There are so many words and still they are being coined in every discovery, recovery or accidentally. Do you ever wonder why some words are pronounced the way they are spelled while some don’t; like spelling, cat, bowl, kitchen, greetings and silly sally etc?  Other words contain some letters which pronunciations are not permissible. I am talking about tongue, harangue, fatigue, and dialogue.  Yet words like barbecue, and queue need an e to permit the sound of u.

By Fuana Tmarsel —-

Klio is now a young man, and recently had a baby of his own. He has no money, education, and his family does not participate much in his life, so his baby lives with the mother while he visits regularly. He used to attend school when he was a young boy, but eventually dropped out and his parents didn’t care to walk him back to school. Instead they scolded him and withheld food from him so he began to steal to fill his stomach. First he grabbed little things here and there, but when his appetite developed, he snatched wallets and purses. Eventually, the law caught on and he has been in and out of jail. In many ways, Klio has been invisible to his family – they know that he exist, but they just don’t care to see him. And his young child,…….well….

By Fuana Tmarsel —-

“Politicians are expected to fashion a positive public image, burnishing it to a lustrous shine through self-serving press releases and adroit spin-doctoring, but their real character often gets revealed through their private choices far from the spotlight. Certainly a person’s behind-the-scene moral decisions – their marital fidelity and fundamental honesty in their relationships – are relevant to how they will conduct the business of the people. After all, they unmask the true individual.” This is an observation of Lee Strobel in his book, The Case for Faith (2000).

By Fuana Tmarsel —-  

First things first, it is pronounced (pa twa). One of those Americanized French words meaning dialect of a certain social group. Dog lovers may contend for canine patois, but I’m not sure. At any rate, one of the most entertaining aspects of election is the campaign slogan. To me, it unveils the candidate’s frame of mind and reveals his aspirations for office while displaying his campaign’s esprit de corps. I can still remember 2 presidential slogans which swayed my votes.

By Fuana Tmarsel —-

Que Sera Sera – Spanish meaning Whatever will be, will be is a song made famous in the 60’s by Doris Day. I first heard this song sung by one of Palau’s famous alto voice, and it instantly became my favorite. I’m not quite sure which diverted me, whether it was the voice, the melody or the lyrics? But it was not until college when I realized the flippancy of the song and its playful melody and wondered what life was like in those days in America.

By Fuana Tmarsel —-  

Opportunities of new discoveries and concepts to explore are laid at my door daily. They come from everywhere, newspapers, television, and conversations with friends, neighbors and acquaintances. Every one has an idea about life; some good, some not so very good, but all are very interesting and worth exploring further except my focus is often interrupted by other concerns like stopping for a short exchange with my sister and nephew who live next door yet we seldom cross paths. We have to make the effort.

By Fuana Tmarsel —-

I turned to the local channel in time to hear Senator Paul Ueki giving a brief description of a bill he supposedly introduced – he said something like, tirkang e president a bai dungil er tir engdi tek mal di melekoi a mekngit el kirel tial government, me tial bill a mo merrob er tir me ngdiak lou radio ma lechub el lou TV broadcasting er a beluad. Roughly he was saying that his bill will revoke licenses of foreign-owned and operated television and radio boraodcasters, thus banning  them from the Republic. Simply, he wants OTV and Radio Australia to close because as he puts it, they say “bad things” about our government.

By Fuana Tmarsel —-

Palau welcomed her 100,000 visitor in December 2011. This was an all-time high. Some suggest that the tourism boost may in part be due to the Presidential declaration of Palau as Shark’s Sanctuary. I like to think of it as God’s little nod for a Casino-free Palau. Well, at least we know that they are not coming because we build it. Instead they come because Palau offers one of the world’s most pristine waters within which swims some of the world’s potentially menacing creatures. And a land of lush tropical vegetation unspoiled by man’s intervention.

By Fuana Tmarsel —-

“Sex, sex, sex on the beach”, l wanna have sex, sex, sex on the beach, are the words of a song sung by my friend’s 8^th grade son while setting up the table in their dining room. She had asked him to set the table and he joyfully proceeded while singing and swaying to the music from his MP3. Of course with earphone, he was oblivious to his mother’s reaction.  The mother tells me, “well I stood there in disbelief at the words coming out of his mouth, and then he turns to me and with a smile unwittingly continued to sing “ I wanna have sex on the beach”.  “I put my hand on his wrist”, the mother continued, “and pulled out his earphone then said, “what are you saying, do you know what you are saying? He looked at me questioningly, but then soon realized the salacity of his tune and apologized.”

By Fuana Tmarsel —-

Pain is one of life’s essential gifts. It signals to us that something is wrong and need to be fixed.  Pain and suffering are synonymous experiences in that the person undergoes hardships, difficulties and trauma, depending on the injury or loss. Nonetheless, pain and suffering are familiar and widely understood concept because all of us have experienced it in some form or another even before we were able to coherently utter our experience with it. Remember those Baby Check-ups that required a shot to prevent this and a shot to prevent that. The nurse/doctor took no time in explaining to us the benefits of the shots. They stuck that needle right where it hurts and when we screamed, they stuck the cotton ball over it and sent us out of there without words of sweetness etc. We were just a job to them, and sometimes, well, they seemed so callous, you’d wonder why parents kept handing their babies into their care.

By Fuana Tmarsel —-

They say that there are three fastest methods of communication. On a personal level, many of us communicate by telephone or cell phones via text. Text messages are cheap and written so the transmitter can always check to make sure the message is correct before it is sent. And the receiver, can always re-read the message to make sure it is understood the way the transmitter had intended. The danger is sending the message to the wrong person. This can happen when the transmitter misdial the number. I have had occasions where people called my number and tried to convince me that I was somebody else, other than myself. I remember one woman who called my phone and asked to talk to my husband. I responded with, “I am sorry, but you have the wrong number.” She was sure I was lying and turned to her husband and told him what I said to which the husband got the phone and insisted that I put my husband on the line. Since it was a cell phone, I decided to save air time and hang up the phone. Consequent calls by the same couple came via different phone numbers continued for a couple of days until they were convinced that they had the wrong number.

By Fuana Tmarsel —-

The festive mood around the house has wound down; Christmas decorations are packed and back in storage.  The new expensive gift is now too familiar to arouse any warmth or delightful excitement. The children are back to school and the family has resumed the monotonous routine – 6am – the house rises, out by 7:30 – stare in the traffic to school, then to work – 8 hours of more or less the same thing – homebound at 5pm, dinner, Arirang and then a snore before the same day returns with a different name.   For a vast majority of people in the world, life is repetition of routines, a replay of programs, until a new idea surfaces and alters the schedule, a new encounter occurs and adds to the collection of yesterday.

By Fuana Tmarsel —-

Mark Twain once said, why waste your money looking up your family tree? Just go into politics and your opponents will do it for you. In the United States, dirty politics is acceptable. Often political opponents take archeological excursions in hope of digging up enough dirt on their rival to destroy them.

By Fuana Tmarsel —-

It was battered and scarred, and the auctioneer thought it scarcely worth his while to waste match time on the old violin.

But he held it up with a smile.

“What am I bid, good folks?” he cried.

By Fuana Tmarsel —-

Every event in every man’s life plants something in his soul which grows and shapes the events he organizes for others. Simply, it means we are the product of events that took place in our lives and we are now shaping the future of those whose lives we effect. Some of these events make a lot of sense, while others appear to be just superstitious habits tagged with traditional license.

By Fuana Tmarsel —-

Time does fly and it flies quickly. Just a few weeks ago we were joyfully anticipating Christmas. And now it is Boxing Day. Our Christmas message was inspired from Isaiah 7 where the birth of Jesus was prophesied: Then Isaiah said, …. Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign; the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel. This pronouncement by the prophet would not take place for another 700 years. Then Jesus was born, crucified and then Rose Again. Today, more than 2,000 years later, we stand in awe of His Greatness and Mercy.

By Fuana Tmarsel —-

there were shepherds living out in the fields near by, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ, the Lord.

By Fuana Tmarsel —-

The word gossip originates from a bedroom at times of childbirth.  Back in the 16th to 18^th century England, childbirth was a social event attended by the ladies. Normally the female relatives and neighbors of the expectant mother would gather together and chat as they await the birth of the baby.  The chattering was not only about trivial things in the community, but also about other people, especially those who were not present. Overtime, this term has come to mean talks about a person’s affairs or behaviors by someone who was not present at the event.

By Fuana Tmarsel —-           

Arirang is defined as Korean Folk Song. In 1926 a black and white film of the same name was made. It depicts the life of Korean student who was imprisoned for protesting against the Japanese colonial rule. Due to torture and abuse in prison, the young man became mentally ill and was eventually released. He went back to the village of his father, and lived there with his family. He was able to regain his sanity back but a tragedy befallen him again and he was later wrongly accused of murder and was sent back to prison.  According to Wikipedia, the film was either lost in Korean War (50-53) or in possession of people or person who may not want to see its released to the general public. There is no certainty of it’s whereabouts, but perhaps we may never get the opportunity to see it as reproduction may be unlikely for many reasons, but also for its anti-Japanese overtones.