Status Updates From The Singing Detainee and th...

The lengths the Philippine government will take to eliminate political enemies just goes to show how corrupt and rotten the entire system is — it’s worse knowing that this book was released post-mortem of Joma’s death and that we continue to live in a world that is still wrought with terror and destruction.

It was also interesting how Beltran compares the CCP as a dynamic living organism, as well.

Faith and the responsibility to do what is right being interchangeable, especially when facing the insurmountable wall that was Martial Law in the Philippines

Seeking asylum is such a deeply inhumane and humiliating process. One quote I liked about Dennis’s account is how he and his family may have seemingly evaded the previous crackdown of communists in the Philippines, only to be blacklisted in the Netherlands and facing a new war of Terror.

Some things I liked from Luningning and Jun’s story:
- Missing the Philippines being compared to the pain of a phantom limb
- The association of smells to memory

Being Filipino and wishing for a home away from the Philippines is horrifically, painfully human, that it's easy to forget that some can forget to see you as people just because of a difference in political belief and ideology.

There is a unique longing that both Joma and Julie face as refugees that can no longer enter the Philippines -- they will never be able to taste a Filipino mango, they are forever resigned to the Netherlands until their death and it's either prolonged imprisonment in Europe or torture in the Philippines.

One of my favorite quotes ever (abridged): There is great pleasure that can be derived when an imperialist power like America considers you a threat. Joma's existence outside of the terrorist list of the United States after fighting to be removed proves one thing: revolution is not terrorism.