By J. Irving

There was a not-so-old lady from Manila who arrived at the YVR-Vancouver Airport. She successfully passed the immigration already by scanning her Permanent Residency Card (PRC) at the kiosk and then, by showing her receipt at the Immigration Officer at the end of the exit line that led to the baggage carousel area. She was already waiting for her second luggage when a K-9, on a leash held by a Custom Police, sniffed her first luggage beside her and the dog sat down. The Custom Police took the receipt from the old lady that she was holding and wrote something. She was instructed to show the receipt to the Custom Police at the Exit Door of the Baggage Retrieval Area. There, the lady was accosted and brought inside to the baggage inspection area and told to open her two luggages. When the first bag was opened, the Inspecting Officer found assorted kinds of food in different packaging. He opened a large transparent ziplock showing something wrapped by an old newspaper. When the Custom Police opened it, he smelled a whiff of an odd odor and exclaiming, “What’s that smell?” The old lady nervously replied, “It’s DAING!”; then, the inspector said, “What do you mean it-is-dying? They are dead!” while staring at the dried fish . . .

People in the Health Care are now prohibited to speak their own native language at hospitals, beside English. There was an incident during the COVID-19 pandemic that caused extreme anxiety to families of victims. There were two Visayan nurses at the COVID ward when the outgoing duty nurse greeted her relief whispering, “Kumusta ka na, Day?” Then, a non-Filipino patient who overheard their conversation started to cry. The other patient in the next bed asked, “Why are you crying?” She answered, “Haven’t you heard? The nurse just said: She’s -gonna-die!”

At the park when you have your small mischievous children with you, please be conscious at what you say, especially this time when there are rampant Asian-hate sentiments among races. There was a Filipina mother who kept on shouting at her hyper-active toddler: “MADAPA KA!”; then, a black mean-looking man confronted the mother, “Hey Lady, why you keep on calling your kid – MOTHERFUCKER!”