Friday, December 30, 2011

PAGLILIRIP SA PAGDARAAN NG PANAHON

ni Wilhelmina S. Orozco



Bakit maninimdim sa pagpapalit ng taon
Ano't nawawala ang makinang na kinabukasang
Natatanaw tuwing magbibihis ng kalendaryo

Saan napupunta ang pag-asa na ang darating
na mga araw ay mapupuno ng saya, ligaya, kasaganaan
at kapayapaan?

Mahirap bang asamin ang mga ito? Kaya ba nating
maabot ang bawa't mithiin, lalo't higit
magkasama-sama ang magkakapamilya, sa halip na
binubuwag ng distancia at lumilipas panahon?

Ano ang papel ng bayan sa panahon ng pagtanda
ng daigdig?

Ano ang papel ng bawa't nilalang sa pag-ikot ng
mundo?

Ay, mga hiling na kay hirap marating.

Anumang pagpapagod, anumang pagbabasa at paghihimaymay
ng bawa't kaisipan, hindi nabubuksan ang
pintuan ng paglahok, bintana ng pagkakataon
upang maging ganap na mamamayan.

Saan tayo susuling? Kaliwa? Kanan? Gitna?

Dumarating na ang pagtatasa ng mga hibang na
nakinabang sa mga nakaraang panahon.

Dumarating na ang panahon ng pagtitimbang
kung tama ba ang ating nagampanang papel sa
nakaraan -- kung saan binulag tayo ng mga
naghari-harian, nagreyna-reynahan.

Oo, tayo ay mulat na, handa nang humarap
kung anumang unos na darating.

Handa na tayo upang usigin ang dapat usigin.

Isang dekada, dalawang dekada. Mga paglalambong
ng katotohanan. Pagtatakip upang hindi makita ang
pagpupuslit, pagkakamkam, pagsasabotahe ng ating
mga kabang yaman ng bayan, pagyurak ng
ating mga karapatan, pagyurak ng ating karangalan.

Tama na. Tama na. Tapusin na ang pagbabaliktad ng
ating mga pinahahalagahan. Tapusin na ang pagsira
ng pagiging Pilipino at Pilipina. Ibigay na ang
wasto at tapat na larawan at dalisay na budhi ng
ating lahi.

Mabuhay kayong mga nagsusumigasig upang mabuhay ng
marangal. Mabuhay ang mga nagpupursiging ibangon
ang kanilang kabuhayan. Mabuhay ang lahat ng mga
nagpapagod maisakatuparan lamang ang kanilang mga
pangarap.

Mabuhay tayong lahat! Manigong Bagong Taon mga Kababayan!

Manigong Bagong Taon, mga Kadaigdig!

Saturday, December 24, 2011

DEVELOPMENT, A MATTER OF WHAT? -- PART II

by Wilhelmina S. Orozco




Because of that provision in the Philippine Constitution that there should be separation of the Church and State, it seems that some sectors - local officials- have viewed their powers as "infallible" as the pope. They think that they are equal to the priests who have moral clout and economic but not political power. In fact, they view themselves as even higher than the priests. This is why they act like kings and queens with territories of their own to govern.

I met a barangay official after I reported to the police the sighting of a family burning firewood inside a cave on a hill of a Manila locality. I told the police that the culprits are violating the right of the people to breathe fresh air.

By the way, I had to make this initiative because the community volunteers I was dealing with were so afraid to act on the matter. So I called up through my celfone 117, the hotline of the Department of Interior and Local Government.

The week past, I had a debate with a barangay tanod over the same problem. "E wala ho tayong magagawa. Mahirap lang sila at kailangan nilang mabuhay. Kung hindi sila magsusunog, wala silang kita, wala silang kakainin."

"Bakit kailangang magsunog ng kable para makakuha ng tanso? (But why that particular business -- of burning to get "tanso?" I asked?

"E yun ho ang gusto nila."

"Aba, nagnenegosyo sila at our expense. (Oops, Ingles yun, I had to shift gears) Nagnenegosyo sila habang sinisira naman nila ang kapaligiran at niyuyurakan nila ang karapatan nating makahinga ng malinis na hangin."

"E wala ho tayong magagawa ( he repeated this ad nauseam)."

"Ang daming taong mahihirap, nagnenegosyo ng marangal -- nagtitinda ng dyaryo, ng gulay, hindi nakakaperhuwisyo," I insisted.

But this official seemed bent on protecting the violator of that environmental ordinance on no burning in the community. So the following week, when I saw that it was going on again, I decided to call the police because the barangay could no longer act on the problem.

Suddenly, when the police came, three of them, all the high officials of the barangay came, and the last, the barangay captain himself who looked angry because the police came without his knowledge. Perhaps he was thinking, "This place is my territory, hence anything occurring there should be made known to me prior to any major action of calling other authorities.Who is this woman who has the temerity to call the police?"

Luckily, the police sided with my contention that there should not be any type of such activity in the area. In fact, they even made sure that water was poured over the live coals being burnt.

After another week, I came back and found the air clean. But the community volunteers looked eerily at me. They said that they felt fear when the police came.

"Ano? Bakit kayo matatakot? Mabuti nga nagtatrabaho sila sa halip na paupu-upo lang sa estasyon. Hindi ako natatakot sa mga pulis. Matutuwa pa silang umalis ng estasyon para lumiit ang mga tiyan nila." And we all had a good laugh. After that, we were able to continue our vocal rehearsals of Christmas and folk songs for the celebration of the season that we were about to hold in a matter of days. You see folks, the women singers had great difficulty singing because of the soot, and so I had to act on the matter pronto.

Now I can imagine the people of Bayug feeling so afraid that any time Mother Nature could ravage their land which really happened. But the attitude of their local officials could have made them more afraid to raise the issue lest revenge be exacted against them. The amor propio of barangay officials is very sensitive to criticism, and more than 80% that I have met, have that aberrant attitude similar to a "casique," an aristocratic bent as if he or she owns the people and the resources of the barangay.

Hence, if there should be any change at all, I do think that the Department of Interior and Local Government must institute measures so that the people's voice will also be heard and not just that of the barangay officials'. For example, a sign at the local hall should include a notice: "Are you satisfied with the performance of your barangay? If so or if not, please do not hesitate to report to this number ----- Secretary of DILG number ---. Anonymous reports shall be entertained."

Then the DILG must have troubleshooting teams which will attend with dispatch on the complaints of the people.

With regard to those illegal loggers, I propose also that all countries importing logs of the Philippines should desist from this trading activity. We must curb the demands for Philippine wood until such time that we have a surplus that we can really let go of.

Those importing countries have as much participation in the disaster as those local officials who became negligent, or witting or unwitting accomplices to the denudation of our forests.

After all we are all earthlings. We need to take care of Mother Earth, not just of one part but all of her -- all of the people, the air, land, and sea.

So next time we think or act on development issues, we must always think, not of statistics, not only of ourselves, but of Mother Earth and the many, many generations to come.

A Soulful Merry Christmas to all of you.

DEVELOPMENT, A MATTER OF WHAT?

By Wilhelmina S. Orozco
(miravera2010@gmail.com)



From the descriptions of Bayug Island in the papers, one of the hardest hit by Sendong, a typhoon which rendered countless hundreds of families homeless and thousands dead in many other parts of Mindanao, I could almost imagine an idyllic place before the disaster. The people before could have enjoyed the beautiful views of the sun rising at dawn and then the sunset by the sea at eventide. They had an unpolluted atmosphere, in fact plain sea air which must have strengthened their lungs and stamina so much that many had actually survived the onslaught of Sendong very easily just by embracing a banana stalk, or by floating on wood.

Bayug Island could have been another Boracay Island in the south except that it does not look habitable at the moment because of the heavy siltation brought about by the rampaging waters from the mountains made bald by illegal loggers. Thus it must really be very hard not only physically but emotionally and mentally for the inhabitants of Bayug Island to have lost their habitat so easily due to the typhoon.

The situation really makes us question now, how do we really define development? We see in the case of Bayug island that the people had homes, and means of livelihood there, yet it looked like the local officials only saw the physical aspects in a narrow way. Beyond Bayug Island were hordes of opportunists taking advantage of the naivete of the people by raping the forests and ignoring the consequences of their illegal activities. Then, the local officials who had the authority to say "No!" might have just looked the other way while their hands were stuffing their pockets with lots of grease money.

Any disrespect of Mother Nature to my mind is a sign of lack of moral governance, or of viewing development from a spiritual and moral viewpoint. Instead governance is viewed as a given -- after winning the elections, the officials merely serve to show to the people how they spend the budget of the locality, regardless of whether their projects were truly beneficial to the people on a holistic level or not. And the people, sorely distant from the stronger seats of power in MetroManila are held captive by these local officials whose view of development could be just a matter of material benefits, a matter of statistics, instead of a humane undertaking that looks at development of the people from womb to tomb and of the environment as one which will be able to sustain several generations.

I think that is what is lacking in the common view of development -- that it is not just a matter of figures but rather of existence of the people and the environment. Questions about development must go like these: Am I undertaking this development project considering the history and its environmental consequences? Am I showing respect for God's creations -- human beings and Mother Nature when undertaking this project? Will this project benefit the people for many, many years and not just for a year or two? Will the people be happy with this project?

The two big factors to consider, therefore when undertaking any development are: the moral motive of the developer in terms of promoting, preserving, protecting, shaping and improving (synonymnous with development) the lives of the people and their happiness.

Akin to moral motive is that of being spiritual. Why moral and spiritual, we ask? In turn I ask, why not? When we talk of moral motive, we are asking if the development project is considering the positive and the negative consequences, the good and evil that can result from it. We ask if there is respect of the people's rights and protection of the sustainability of the environment, for without the latter, the people will not be able to exist humanely.

Why spiritual? I believe that every living thing has a soul, that which propels it to exist on earth. Even a plant, as it exhales oxygen, is capable of feeling if it is hurt or tenderly touched by a gardener. One example is what happened to the trees in front and at the back of our house. To be continued.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

BRIDGING THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

WHEN BEING INVOLVED IN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, VOLUNTEERS WILL ALWAYS FIND THEIR EDUCATIONAL AND SOCIAL BACKGROUNDS WOULD CLASH WITH THOSE OF THE PEOPLE'S ESPECIALLY FROM THE URBAN POOR.



Somehow, having a broader view of development and having seen different types of societies, volunteers would like to approximate if not pattern that development with the societies about to be changed, altered or improved. The development is not economic alone. It is both historical and social as well. Otherwise, the people will find themselves purely as wheels working only for income and profit most of the time.

In the 80's up to the 90's I was involved with the women of Magsaysay Village, under the Makamasa organization. Makamasa used to hold literacy classes for the women there, teaching them how to read and write. But the contents of the book, Halina Magbasa Kabaro contained empowering questions for the readers to fathom their relationships and their status in life -- as a mother, a wife, a daughter, and a sister. The classes were successful. We were financed by the Laubach Literacy International then with Lynn Curtis, the vice president coming over now and then to photograph what we were doing and where. He posted the pictures for viewing of international audiences who would possibly be sponsors of our projects then.

I saw how the place changed from a scenery of huts on stilts over murky waters to a kind of residential subdivision, complete with concrete roads and houses that could shelter two and three families no matter how small the area. The lives of the people changed in terms of shelter but their economic livelihood stayed the same. Governance did not change much as could be gleaned from the way the community looks. Hordes of children play on the streets and many "tambays" could be found at corners having a drink in the daytime.

I did not think much of how the development in Magsaysay Village would go then as we were immersed in dismantling the martial law dictatorship centered in Malacanang. Volunteering in MV was a way of connecting with the marginalized sectors of society so that we could strengthen our stand against the elite dictatorship.

However, this time, in Smokey Mountain, I find myself in a dilemma.

I saw Smokey Mountain at the time when it was a huge mountain of garbage, where trucks would unload piles and piles of wastes of MetroManila, and scavengers rushing, competing with each other for searching "gold" in them. The stench did not matter; it was the opportunity to better one's life with free goods to be had, no matter if they were waste materials -- from plastic, to newspapers, wood, glass, styrofoam, foil, and whatever object could be found in that mountain.

I also saw it also rise from that pile of garbage to now a 29 building residential area, with four to five floors per building housing the former residents of Smokey Mountain and new settlers as well. The whole area was levelled down to give way to the buildings except for a small mountain, a seeming symbol of what it was before.

That small mountain is now green all over, but on closer look, one will find plastic strips jutting out, leftovers of what it used to be -- a garbage dump of consumerist MetroManila.

Now I have asked the community organizers there if they could request the local officials to donate that mountain so that they could convert it into a kind of rice terraces -- or an herbal nursery retaining its greenery and the memory of what the place was as before. My inspiration for this is Solvang in California which was transformed by the Danish people who settled in America to look like their home countries' farms.

Here is a description of Solvang.

"Solvang (English pronunciation: /ˈsɒlvæŋ/, Danish pronunciation: [ˈsoːlʋɑŋˀ]) (Danish for "sunny fields"[2]) is a city in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. It is one of the communities that make up the Santa Ynez Valley. The population was 5,245 at the 2010 census, down from 5,332 at the 2000 census. Once just a village, Solvang was incorporated as a city on May 1, 1985.[3]

Solvang was founded in 1911 on almost 9,000 acres (3,600 ha) of the Rancho San Carlos de Jonata Mexican land grant, by a group of Danes who traveled west to establish a Danish colony far from the midwestern winters. The city is home to a number of bakeries, restaurants, and merchants offering a taste of Denmark in California. The architecture of many of the facades and buildings reflects traditional Danish style. There is a copy of the famous Little Mermaid statue from Copenhagen, as well as one featuring the bust of famed Danish fable writer Hans Christian Andersen. A replica of Copenhagen's Round Tower or Rundetårn in the scale 1:3 was finished in 1991 and can be seen in the city centre."

Unfortunately, the community deems it more viable to level it down and make more housing tenements for the poor.

This is where my dilemma comes in. Should I insist that preservation of that mountain can produce a healthy outlook and make the people feel proud of their past which they have overcome? Or should I just flow with the tide and let them decide on what is best for their area?

I think there is a limit to that race for economic prosperity in our country. We must still have the heart for what has shaped us as a people, and that is not necessarily money. We need to inculcate among the people the need for looking back as important as looking forward. Life should not be just a pragmatic look at how to stuff our stomachs with food -- by the way, a pig was donated for the celebration of Christmas, and one woman said that her husband and child cannot stand animals -- chickens and pigs, being slaughtered. Somehow, we need to make the people understand that history is an important subject of our existence. Without any view of history, without any historical consciousness, we will just be robots, moving about and not knowing our own identity as a people.

Our identity is based on our past. And looking at that mountain is looking at how the people's strength as a collective made them go forward to have a more decent housing structure, so much better than before.

(Although that is still debatable according to a community leader. The walls of the buildings in SM have been covered with roofing materials to hide the cracks. They were also not consulted by the NHA when those buildings were made. Hence, we can see here that topdown idea of development, marginalizing the very people from what should be called their own kind of change. Worse yet, the mortgage fees they are paying to own their units are too high for them to pay. A great number have sold out their rights to the place because they could no longer pay the fees.)

I hope that more people from the fields of sociology and history would come and discuss this among the people -- that need for a more solid foundation of our existence based on a noble sense of history and social justice.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

FORM OR SUBSTANCE

BY WILHELMINA S. OROZCO

."

When we listen to a song, we hear the melody which sounds so good but the lyrics are off, meaning to say, the melody -- the form is nice, but the sense of the lyrics, the substance or the message of the composer/and or singer is not significant at all. This is a case of form versus substance.

Say, when we look at a painting and find it beautiful -- the colors, the shapes, the fine techniques of the painter, we say hurrah. It is an obra maestra. But when we stare longer, we see that it is pornographic or has a message of death. Then we now know that we have been misled by the form -- the real message is not really healthy for our mind, our emotions and our spirit.

Then we also say, "Maporma yang taong yan." What do we really mean? "Ma-porma" means being artificial. Veneer only and deep inside, the individual is full of "kaplastikan."

In much the same way when we look at politics -- we see, hear and encounter politicians who are all air and stand-offish, but they are not really saying anything meaningful to the people; they are not sensitive to the people's needs for meaningful reforms, meaningful investigation of corruption.

What then do we do? We just trust our intuition; open our third eye and say, "God let me discern who the real leaders are of this country. Let me be able to distinguish between form and substance. Amen."