Tidbits

An human rights worker named Reina Mae Nasino was jailed and wrongfully accused for owning firearms. She was pregnant by the time she was jailed and gave birth in prison.

At this point, Reina Mae Nasino wasn’t given proper care in prison and was only given one medical visit. Reina gave birth to a girl named River but the lack of prenatal care caused the child to have a low weight and skin discoloration. Nasino also had difficulty breastfeeding her and wasn’t getting any assistance for her child. The counsels asked for the baby to be transferred to a hospital for her care but it was denied by the court.

On October 9, River died due to acute respiratory distress syndrome. She was only 3 months old.

Reina Mae Nasino was supposed to have 3 days to say goodbye but the Court Judge revised it and made it 6 hours, 3 hours for the wake and 3 hours for the funeral. She wasn’t allowed a peaceful grieving as dozens of police and jail guards swarmed the area. On October 14, Reina Mae attended River’s wake in full PPE and handcuffs, surrounded by guards because she was labelled a high profile criminal. The guards tried to cut her time with her child short as they tried to drag her away 2 hours before the visiting time was up. She was also not allowed to take off her handcuffs.

October 16, the day River was to be buried. The funeral wasn’t peaceful or respectful as the police swarmed and guarded the area. The car carrying River sped to the cemetery, not giving time for her family and supporters to catch up. The relatives begged on their knees for the guards to remove Reina’s handcuffs so she can hold her child one last time but they refused.

She wasn’t allowed a peaceful goodbye to her child.

She never even heard her child laugh once.

Reina Mae Nasino is not a criminal. She is a political prisoner and an activist who was treated terribly by the police and the justice system.

They killed her child.

There are over 600+ political prisoners like her in the Philippines that are subject to inhumane treatment due to the Duterte Administration and its disregard for the poor and disenfranchised. Baby River is not the only child who died due to the lack of care by the government.

Activists in the Philippines are getting killed, red tagged and treated as terrorists.

How to see whether a Chinese handmade teapot is well done or not - quality of the spout is an important standard. 

(Actually spent a good few months thinking I was genetically unlucky and researching ancient family curses with my grandma.) 

So today I don’t know what I was hoping for - nothing, really?

(I mean, that part of me that’s still twelve was probably expecting this sweet old woman to have a set of glitter stickers in her purse and just go ‘You know what, you’re right - I’ve been saving this one for you all these years, here you go’ but I’m a solidly rational person and I know that’s stupid.)

No, I thought we’d just laugh and it would be a good shared memory and that would be it. Instead, my teacher got flustered and a bit embarrassed and explained the game was rigged. It was never about learning French at all. She’d just noticed some kids couldn’t afford even basic stationery, so she’d buy a few half-fancy items every month with her own money just for them. She didn’t want them to feel different or left out. And obviously the way she used to walk around in the classroom, looking over our shoulders - it wasn’t to prevent cheating. It was because she was cheating herself, wanting to see which number a particular child needed to get a Minnie Mouse pencil case.

Guys - the world is fucked up, but so many people out there are just good and kind and humbly heroic it honestly gives me hope.