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!

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.

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.

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."

ON INTELLECTUAL COPYRIGHT

By Wilhelmina S. Orozco

Folks, sometime in 2007, our organization, Diwata Society of Women in Philosophy and Education put up a seminar-workshop for inventors, containing topics about tapping their creativity, ideas about marketing and distributing as well as promoting their products. It was very successful as it was funded by the TAPI of the Department of Science and Technology.

This year, I was asked by one of the participants to repeat that seminar-workshop and so I proposed the same project to TAPI. After evaluation, the committee wrote me to say that they have a similar program. Where did they get that except from our own project?

Now I am wondering if the Intellectual Property Office should step in and say that this is a case of intellectual piracy. Who will protect us from the government when it appropriates ideas of the NGOs, allowing the staff to use the same ideas and methods of imparting knowledge.

This is a ticklish issue but I am bringing it up because it seems that as we in the non-government movement think of new ideas, suddenly, the government is appropriating them and then leaving us in the cold to look for funds abroad.

My goodness! Lawyers help!!!

Generosity During Christmas, (edited)

(Folks sorry for the mistakes below. I have edited them, though. Thanks for your patience.)
by Wilhelmina S. Orozco

Christmas is a very important event in the lives of the Filipino people. It's a time for gathering all relatives, related directly and indirectly; a time for children to enjoy being hugged and kissed like the baby Jesus in the manger. No where else do we get our sense of family ties than in the idea of Christmas.

The humble beginnings of Christ make us look towards Christmas as a time for caring for those who have less in life. We find ways to bring them gifts, no matter how cheap just so they could feel special. Although some poor people would dare ask, "Nasaan ang regalo ko?" rather brazenly, we always take it in stride. It is a given, an obligation on the part of those who have been lucky to have been born with parents who looked after their future, to to those who are conscientized to show their generosity, no matter what the costs.

Of course, as the years have passed, our idea of Christmas has become rather commercial, which I really rue very much. I do think that we should have more concerts at shopping malls, and Santa Clauses greeting children without necessarily asking them what you want for Christmas. Santas should ask children, "How will you spend Christmas? Would you like to give something to the poor children? Do you have poor friends? How will you make them happy?"

I do think that inculcating nurturing feelings start at home and in our surroundings. Children must be taught not only to take and take during Christmas but also give and give, not really to the point of hurting.

This morning, I heard over the radio that there is a flux of arrivals at the airport -- our OFWs, mga kababayan who will spend Christmas here. I am trying to stop my tears from falling because I know how difficult it is for them to be separated from their families. I spent Christmas in London, twice, in LA once and in New York once and I felt the pangs of loneliness, except when I went with friends to hear mass at some Catholic Churches. Otherwise, it is quite lonely because Christmas does not seem to be popular in the west, except Thanksgiving. Greeting someone "Merry Christmas!" sounds very perfunctory there and I can feel that Christianity -- although friends are very generous -- is not really a key word. Generosity is practiced but to attribute it to Christ does not seem to be followed at all.

Anyway, let us make this Christmas the happiest for all our kababayan coming home. Every home window let us decorate with welcome home banners to signify to them that we miss them a lot, and wish this administration could make the return of all OFWs to our homecountry be realized within its term -- providing them decent jobs with salaries that could equal if not approximate what they are now earning abroad.

I also heard over the radio that government employees will be receiving their Christmas bonuses, 13th month pay, amounting to P10,000 ++. That is a lot of money for buying food to be eaten on Christmas day. Maybe the government could suspend the imposition of the VAT and EVAT this December so that all prices of goods, especially food and travel, would go down and allow our kababayan to enjoy Christmas gastronomically.

But to really make the Christmas season meaningful, I do think that PNoy could really touch the hearts of the people if he gives us a reprieve from the skyrocketing prices of utilities, oil and basic necessities. We deserve that don't we? After all we have been singing Hallelujiah to the administration ever since it assumed power. We have been very peaceful and caring of each other, except some recalcitrants in Mindanao.

We must realize heaven on earth, not just by looking at the pictures and exhibits of the Nativity everywhere. everyone to enjoy the season.

So help us God.

WHEN WRITINGS BECOME OPPRESSIVE

Wilhelmina S. Orozco

NEWS ORGANIZATIONS had a heyday when Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was photographed by the police as a record of her arrest for Philippine electoral sabotage in 2007. What particularly caught my attention though was the mentioning of former President Estrada’s incarceration, a parallel narration of his past record, and complete with a mugshot in one newspaper, side by side with GMA's case. A TV news broadcaster reported the same topic heavily.

History of Philippine Journalism
Journalists in our country have a long history dating back to the Spanish era when the revolutionaries were printing their own newspaper questioning the colonial policies in the country. Then during the American period, the journalism field flourished especially in the English writing sector. Many columnists and writers learned the craft easily as their were printed liberally by English newspapers. It was only during martial law that the journalistic field in our country found itself in a quandary: whether to accept or reject the administration. Accepting it was allowing itself to be told, and/or be paid handsomely, by the powers-that-be. Rejecting it was facing the consequences of censorship by the newspaper owners, or arrest and incarceration by the military under Marcos orders.

As some media practitioners pondered over their fate, others, however, were showing their bravery, writing for the underground press or putting out papers that were highly critical of that administration, never mind if they were just mimeographed. Malaya newspaper under Jose Burgos was a prime example of brave journalism at that time. Later on when Cory came into the picture, the mosquito press came about like the Mr. and Ms. which gave the true picture of the country fearlessly. However, when Cory defeated Marcos who then had fled and was flown to Hawaii by the Americans, Philippine newspaper history changed altogether – the mosquito press which flourished during the anti-dictatorship campaigns were able to strengthen their foothold in our shores while those who catered to the previous administration became more open about printing the various sides of issues. The latter was able to exist during martial law and afterwards, showing the business acumen of their publishers. "Know when to ride with the tide."

By the way, the role of media during martial law was particularly acute -- I myself had to postpone my academic pursuits in Masters in Communication in Ateneo at that time. I had asked myself then -- what is more important, studying to get a diploma or practicing communication truthfully?

Today, we are faced again with questions about the role of media in history, in society. Will media continue to be brave in reporting issues? What are the boundaries of being brave? Should being sensationalist in the treatment of issues be part of that principle to make courageous writings?

Victim Questions: Does a person who has served his/her sentence and released already have any right to protection of his/her reputation, that is his/her record no longer being mentioned at all? Does such a person have any right to question this enumeration or renarration ad nauseam again of his/her past record, including the printing of his/her police photo appearing as if he/she were a criminal who has just been arrested?

Media Questions: Are media objectives to uphold the truth, accuracy and objectivity boundless? When is a news report biased against the subject instead of being principled?

I think that there is a world of difference in treating the case of GMA and that of Pres. Estrada. The case of GMA is ongoing, and therefore the readers are entitled to know fresh events happening. However, to run that parallel to a narration of the past, does not look objective anymore. Using parallelism is a reporter's and/or editor's bias.

That parallelism is meant to lump the cases of the two as both criminals. The first is still being tried, while the other has already served his sentence, been pardoned and released, and is leading a private life.
Question: Doesn’t anyone who has served sentence no longer deserve respect in the media? Is it necessary to harp on Pres. Estrada’s past record despite the fact that he served already his sentence?

Knowledge and bias
A newspaper report can produce two things: knowledge and bias. Knowledge is that which a reader gets – the who, what, why, where, how and why of issues and events. Bias is that attitude produced from a write-up which is slanted, lacking in facts or shortcutting of facts. A biased attitude can result in distorted opinions, and for the public to hold such is to make them a fertile ground for dictatorship again, in this case, media dictatorship.

The Society of Professional Journalists has a Preamble to its Code of Ethics which states:
...public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. The duty of the journalist is to further those ends by seeking truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues. Conscientious journalists from all media and specialties strive to serve the public with thoroughness and honesty. Professional integrity is the cornerstone of a journalist's credibility.

I am really wondering where fairness and honesty exist in the case above-mentioned. Putting a parallelism between the case of GMA and that of Pres. Estrada is definitely a reporter’s bias. In fact, it is highly questionable why the need to reiterate the charges against him, or why reprint his police photo.

Anyway, is there room for biased reporting in media? None of course. GMA committed a political misbehavior, a negative political practice which robbed the people of votes and that great chance to choose our own leaders. Pres. Estrada’s was economic in nature, and the funds involved were not even public money. GMA is about to serve her sentence, if ever she will be sentenced, whereas Pres. Estrada is already through with that.

Corollary to the above questions: Can an ex-prisoner not become an ordinary person upon release, possessing his/her human rights without being reminded, and the public being told of his past again and again?

Where lies compassion in our society?

Where lies media objectivity now? I do think that if Philippine journalism has to prosper, it must adhere sensitively to media principles, constantly conduct self-introspection, and be always alert to not using media for self-aggrandizement, nor for subtly oppressing people , but rather to use media for educating the readers to ethical political directions and considerations, thus empowering them as human rights literate activists.

ON SHADOW GOVERNMENTS

by Wilhelmina S. Orozco


What is the purpose of a government? A GOVERNMENT EXISTS TO PROTECT
THE PEOPLE, THEIR HUMAN RIGHTS, AND EXISTING SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT.

The run of political events in our country shows that there are
several groups attempting to create their own worlds of power to run
their own principles for existence,.

The worst are the underground governments wanting to co-exist with the
existing administration of PNoy. They even have military power
challenging the capacity of the state to protect itself from sabotage
and political destabilization.

The Philippines is entering a new era after more than a decade of
manipulation of elite groups out to make an economic killing out of
being in positions of political power.

Our people have grown politically mature by the strong and fierce
debates on many issues which have a bearing on our ability to choose
our own leaders electorally, on the women’s right to decide on when to
get pregnant, on when to allow the elctions to occur in Mindanao ARMM,
and even minor issues like texting taxes and increase of toll fees in
super highways.

The existing administration cannot ignore the people’s demand now to
hear the call for the clearing of the real issues on what happened in
the 2004 and 2007 ewlections. It is saddled with the responsibility to
look after the past, the present and the future of the country. It is
not true that it should only concern itself with creating jobs,
increasing the taxes collected, and making the peso rise in purchasing
power. It has that larger role to show to the people that past errors
and manipulation to capture electoral powers are unpardonable crimes
that have to be rectified. This is the only way for the country to
move forward.

However, we need to be vigilant against shadow governments that seek
to return to or maintain the power of ill elements in our society.
They are out to destabilize the present administration and eventually
install or reinstall their corrupt leaders.

OF DREAMS AND DESTINIES

OF DREAMS AND DESTINIES
By Wilhelmina S. Orozco

Why do we suffer from the same problems all the time: poverty, violence, and apathy to what is going on around us?

I think that these problems stem from our lack of will power or inherent weakness of our will power to solve our problems now. By now I mean with greater resolve to solve them today and everyday.

Now why do we lack that will power? Actually so many factors are impinging on our minds, affecting our hearts and behavior, which weaken, slow down, and even deaden our minds all the time. These are brought about by institutional, environmental and violent forces in our country.

As we know, will power is that capacity to volunteer, to act on our life, the realities around us with great decisiveness. But we are not given the opportunity to that all the time. Instead we are made to kowtow, to use other people, to depend on others in order to get what we want, to get the necessary changes that we need in our lives.

There is so much power-wielding in our society that the people lose that inertia, to initiate changes themselves. Power-wielders either have political or economic clout.

What are the examples of these?

Hence the so-called people power is being weakened by these power-wielders and thus has become a relic of our past.

Thus the minds of our people are slowly being attuned to the idea that initiating changes, making moves to rise above the current realities is a losing proposition, “suntok sa buwan” or a product of the imagination not worthy of being pursued at all. People begin to think that corrupt or evil ways are “normal” occurrences and that they form part of life.

People who occupy high places in society, although crooked in their ways, are called “maabilidad,” or “wa-is,” or “pana-panahon lang yan,” meaning each one, whether good or evil will have their own chance in being victorious in whatever manner. In other words, the people have gotten so used to corrupt ways that they now view them as part of living in our society.

So much losses have occurred already in our society – lives, our natural resources, and our greatest resource – the intellectual products put out by inventors, authors, and all creative people.

Lives have been lost due to gangsterism, literally and figuratively. Gang violence is rampant causing the loss of human lives. Political gangsterism has made installing “fake officials” official. Drug taking has created a toll on the minds of the young people, making them lose their directions in life.

Our natural resources are being depleted with nary any benefit to our people. We are losing our trees as a consequence of which floods occur that cause in turn loss of lives and properties. Our air is polluted causing illnesses which our people cannot even afford to cure by themselves. Our seas, which are great sources of marine life, are not well-taken care of. Other nations are even entering our archipelagic boundaries depleting our marine resources for their own gains.

On the other hand, the creative outputs of our people – literary, artistic, philosophical, technological-- are not being given immediate and strong attention. What about the intellectual writings? We seem to lack philosophical writings that will address our status as a people, writings that will point to us the way to living a fulfilled life. Instead we have pragmatic discourses, all devoted to analyzing and proffering solutions to problems which occur and recur all the time. How many Filipino inventions have been sold abroad thus benefiting other people instead of ours? Can’t we have the minds of Steve Jobs and bring about technological innovations ourselves? Our literary output are read by writers themselves, not by the ordinary folks. (I have been thinking, the Ani Journal should be put out, after being produced as a journal, as segregated sections printed in newsprint to make them accessible to the people at a cheap price. The CCP has to make its output available at popular prices and not be a counterpart of the MOMA in NYCor the Louvre Museum in Paris, France the products of which are affordable to the rich tourists.)

Actually, we need philosophy in life; we need to philosophize in order to make us abstract lessons from what is occurring in our daily lives. We should not even be afraid to philosophize, to look at our lives from a distance.

Right now, many religious and spiritual beliefs are competing for the attention of the people. Many use the various books to give an explanation to what is occurring in our midst. Actually all these beliefs give the people hope. Not one is teaching how to be a nihilist or someone destructive of one’s own life. (Unfortunately, those committing suicides have not heard or refuse to listen to them, which is a sad thing, really.) Instead they promise everlasting life, an enlightened life, nirvana or problem-free life, and many more. The most important thought in learning these beliefs is how to connect them to our realities and give justification for us to seek our dreams and destinies.

Hence, for those who are into advocacies, we need to rethink how to alter the minds of the people, how to make them conquer such thoughts, how to make them hold themselves up as a people whose destinies and dreams must be respected and allowed to be fulfilled. How do we do that?

First of all, the people must erase in their minds that other people should think for them. It is good to refer, confer, and seek advice from other people but ultimately it is they who should make the decisions. This means removing patriarchal mindsets that uphold power for power’s sake.

Secondly, the existence of certain institutions that foster obeisance or strengthen images of authoritarians must be challenged. Who are these authorities, by what right do they wield power – is it legitimate or il? Who held them up as authorities – by tradition, or by democratic choice? Are their powers directed to the good life of the people, or their own, and their families and relatives?

Thirdly, what are the methods, the ways by which we ourselves can influence the people so that they will take up the cudgels for their own destinies, make decisions major and minor as to where their lives will be leading to?

The mind of the people must be attuned to their own dreams and destinies. We must take care of their minds because otherwise they would be slaves forever to the forces who seek a hold on them and maintain their dominant positions forever, for good or ill.

Dreams and destinies are inherent in and are the rights of every individual. Those who deny others of these are being cruel; in fact those who kill people have already killed their right to take hold of their own lives.

Dreams contain our wishes of what we want to become, what we want to be in life. They provide us that impetus to go on living so that we may attain them. Once a person stops dreaming then he or she is a slave to the material life already. But so long as everyone dreams – wishing for attaining something that will fulfill their talents and skills and be of service in turn to the majority of the people – then they are living healthy lives.

Now destiny is that point where the individual has already done everything to be what he or she is, meaning to say, that is the summum bonum or that peak in one’s life whereby one can already say “I have attained it.”

Jose Rizal, our national hero attained the peak of his life, his dream of awakening the people through his writings, the Noli Me Tangere and the El Filibusterismo. It was his destiny to reveal to the world how the Filipino people lived under that period and so directed our history as a people to a life of independence. In the same way, when Miguel de Cervantes wrote Don Quijote de la Mancha, he also was saying something about the Spanish period in the 16th century. He was asking the readers to question the aristocracy and knighthood for their rational contributions to society. So also did Dostoyevsky write his novels, Crime and Punishment in Russia, in order to expose his society. Harriet Tubbman in the 18th century also wrote about slavery in the United States in order to expose it as inhuman and to make the government ban it forever.

Each of the authors above rose above their plain lives in order to create a dent on then hearts and minds of the people. They fulfilled their destinies maybe even without their meaning to, and so look at those societies and ours now.

Ninoy and Cory Cojuangco Aquino have already written their lives. Ninoy’s destiny was ended abruptly and thus was not able to see the obliteration of dictatorship in our country. Cory had the same vision of Ninoy and so was able to carry it out to fruition. However, side by side with her vision were the various collectives of people who had also a vision of where to go and how to attain it – by action together in unison to remove all vestiges of one-man military rule.

Unfortunately, our destiny to recover from that nightmarish period was cut short by the series of administrations which deflected the minds of the people from their own destinies. Here we see how certain individuals can do harm to the attainment of the people’s destiny.

So under PNoy, we need to be vigilant and see what he can do – as he said in his earliest speeches – “Puwede na tayong mangarap muli.” Six years is his term. And let us see what he can do to help shape the people’s destiny.

ON PEACE NEGOTIATIONS

Sometimes earning a diploma is not enough for us to know how to negotiate our way through society. My own degree, AB Speech and Drama was not enough for me to know how to work my way through life -- like how to face interviews at work, how to run a drama club and make it earn so that you could have funds for the next production, how to reach out to the public so that they would buy the tickets to the show, and most of all, how to psychologize the actors and actresses so that they would stick to the production till its final presentation, among other things. Instead, I learned this along the way -- when I had been producing shows myself,.

To negotiate should be an important part of knowledge in college, and possibly high school. Sometimes the young people could be misguided and think that to achieve they have to trade off something -- money, chastity -- or perhaps use "konek" in order to get by. Actually this happens only when the rules of acceptance in a job are not clear at all and the applicant is highly desperate to find a job.

Actually learning to negotiate is very important whether inside the family or the larger society, especially in the latter. Being in government most of all, requires knowing how to negotiate -- not just within the office, but also outside, when there are tasks to be done, like pacifying groups of people who want to get answers to their needs rather quickly.

Neither can one learn how to negotiate in the office, unless the "boss" initiates the employees to it.

But negotiating with the armed groups in our country requires greatest tact and diplomacy, i surmise. Tact is important so as not to hurt the feelings of the people one is facing to negotiate with. On the other hand, "diplomacy is the employment of tact to gain strategic advantage or to find mutually acceptable solutions to a common challenge, one set of tools being the phrasing of statements in a non-confrontational, or polite manner."

Of all the people I have heard talk about the problem in Mindanao, it was only Sen. Nene Pimentel who called the MILF and all other groups there, "our brothers." A brother is one we are related with by blood. By calling them "brothers," Sen. Pimentel is already considering them as his relatives, not strangers in our land.

I think that is a good way of starting any peace talks with the MILF and all other groups at war with the government. Let us call them "brothers" even if they had killed a number of our soldiers, simply because to call them otherwise is to deepen that schism between us and them.

The problem with negotiating however is that the people you are faced with on the table may not be the right ones who can make the final say on any agreement. And that is where the problem starts. Those behind the scenes could be a lot more radical and unwavering in sticking to their guns. That is where the problem begins. No one can invoke "palabra de honor" from any of those in the negotiating panel; instead there would only be "verbal exchanges," meaningful or not, it will depend on those at the back in the long run.

Say, everyone by the table are honorable and would honor whatever would be said there, what is the next? I think that as a citizen of the country, I would like to know the minutes of such discussions. I would like to know how the government panel is answering or responding to the questions of the Muslim groups. Here is where I think that the media should really get into. We must know how the government panel is facing them and then we would know why the discussions are bogging down all the time.

This much I would grant our Muslim brothers and sisters at this time: media space. All radio stations should have at least one hour daily program devoted solely to their concerns. All newspapers should also have Muslim opinion makers -- women and men -- so that we would know what they want and need. When writers talk of women and children, they must include them as well, including all other indigenous groups.Cultural programs must include the arts of the indigenous groups. Write-ups about food, about fashion, could also include those that would make the Islamic shine side by side with the "Christian" or western ideas of products and designs.

I recall now that in every production that the Kalipunan ng Malalayang Pilipina women in media theatre group, we have always included Prof. Kanapi Kalanduyan, his kulintang ensemble and lately even a dancer. Last January 8, 2011 during the centennial celebration of the creation of the UP Department of Biology, we present the ensemble in the beginning and during the program itself. They provided the kulintant music during the breaks. Then at our show with Paco Park Presents, last March 4, 2011, coordinated by National Parks Development Committee Gie Villasor-Arnold, we presented the dancer while an elderly Muslim woman, wearing a turban, played the agong.

By culturally integrating our Mindanao kababayan, we are giving them due recognition and respect of their culture; as a consequence, we would be erasing the idea that the Philippines is run by imperial Manilenos and Manilenas or metroManilans.

I think we have been able to cleanse many government institutions, especially the executive department, in our country simply because it has been easy for the media to get the right facts and information from them. Hence, scandals, scams and corruption do not go unnoticed. However, in the military scenery, all we get are second hand information -- from spokespersons, from this and that individual who could be indirectly connected only to the actual negotiations.

How else should we integrate them into our society -- as I believe we should not have a separate state for them- ?

Cultural integration is the key to winning their hearts and minds not merely money and never through bullets and bombs.

ON BEING A STATE OFFICIAL

Rising to power in a country is a very difficult challenge especially if the population runs into millions and hundreds of millions. Then once elected, the next phase is how to maintain that power well onto its legal termination, and not by some kind of people power. Of course some leader choose to retain that power without end, just like Marcos and Khaddafy, with the latter reaching his ignominious end in the long run.

Crucial to this run for power are those institutions like the Commission on Elections which has that implicit and explicit role to check and approve who can run and who cannot run. During the time of GMA, many people parties, individuals, and party-list groups had their applications denied without any reason at all. I was told by an operator -- There's no way you can run, no way your application can be approved. So I wondered why he could say that with finality. Then I remembered him asking me, "Can you not raise P300,000?" No I don't have that much money, I said. "Can you not mortgage your house?" he asked further. I was too intimidated to ask him for whom that money was supposed to be; all along I had thought it would be for the printing of flyers, for going around the country to campaign. Then a fellow applicant told me, "he is a Comelec operator," someone who operates outside of the law to get funds to be shared with Comelec officials.

So with the turn of events in our country, I am still amazed that PNoy has won the elections -- what without greasing the palms of those guys? With the current moves to charge those who were responsible for stealing the people's votes in 2004 I now see that PNoy did not bribe any of those officials.

You see, you can know a crooked official by the way he smiles. He has that smirk as if to say, "You don't know me but I can put one over you." I saw that in the face of one of those commissioners who faced me when I was arguing my way to become a senatorial candidate in front of the Comelec en banc way back in 2009. He had that greedy look and kept on shaking his head -- probably he could not fathom why this individual and those individuals could be so naive to think that just by simply presenting pieces of paper, their credentials, no matter how pristine or how involved they had been in advocacies, could readily have their applications approved.

Yes, I wholeheartedly agree that those people should be charged with sabotage of the people's right to suffrage, the people's right to elect our own leaders. Let us feel the wrath of history on them. And they should not be allowed to leave the country at all until they have cleared their names of misdeeds and crimes against the people.

To steal the people's votes is to steal history -- the present and the future of generations of people. No purportedly Christian nation should ever allow that to pass at all without punishment.

Stealing is against the Ten Commandments. Stealing the people's right to choose leaders is an act against Christian principles. And those priests who condoned the stealing should also be punished, for they were wearing two hats then -- that of being the shepherd of God, and another, that of Al Capone.

Why the priests? Those who connived with that administration misused the words of the Bible to misguide the people. Worse yet, they enjoyed manna from it. By penalizing them, we are adhering to the tenets of Christ and strengthening our own value systems so that the next elections will not find any one cheating to get elected anymore.

Let the eyes of the people be opened to the stark realities and for us to look for proper and peaceful solutions without using armed struggle.

OF ROAD LANES, SIDEWALKS AND CITYSCAPES

At long last, a separte lane for motorcycles is being implemented starting today, after hundreds of lives have been lost in road accidents. Isn't that great? Sometime this year, when the bicyclists were crossing my path at Gilmore Avenue on my way to a computer store, I kept shouting at the cyclists, "Ask for separate lane," and the cyclists were just too deaf to what I had been saying. One even sneered at me. A fellow pedestrian told me, "Mababaw ang tingin sa environment issue, ano?"

But did you know friends that along Quiapo Boulevard,on the side of Quiapo Church are rows and rows of motorcycles every Friday? I was told that the cyclists pray there everyday for a safe journey everyday.

Why am I so het up about this separate lane for cyclists? Why because my own sister, Evangeline died in a motorcycle accident way back 1977. She was riding at the back with her husband driving at 3 a.m. when a jeepney owned by a business person sideswiped her. Her body got slammed on the sidewalk and the doctors said that even if she would be revived she would lived a vegetable life.

Since then I have cursed cycling in the streets because there has not been any body protection for them. Hopefully the new road procedure would bring about a safer street for them.

Yet, this is just one of the woes of using the roads in MetroManila. Pedestrians suffer a lot more. I have been commuting and using the sidewalks since this new millennium when the gas prices started skyrocketing. What have I discovered?

1. Along Katipunan, corner Aurora Boulev

ard is a one foot pedestrian sidewalk;

2. Along the streets of MetroManila are many sidewalks unevenly paved;

3. Vehicles are parked along them so that you have to walk through the street opening yourself to accident in order to reach your destination;

4. There are many road projects which are done almost yearly. One road I know used to be paved very well, but every year it is overhauled. First year, the MWSS opens the pipes then cements it. The next year, the DPWH digs the same place and lays down new pipes; the third year, the MM
DA digs some more and widens the street.This is why along Kamuning road in QC, you will find sidewalks that are two feet wide.


5. Along EDSA, at corner Ortigas, when you get off from the EDSA bus, you come into a sidewalk that is barred on left and right and that you cannot go to the other side of Ortigas unless you climb up the steel staircase.

It seems that during the heyday of BFernando, he gloated over seeing steel overpasses all over MetroManila regardless of whether the pedestrians and commuters were inconvenienced or not.

I could cite many more but what does this say of the government's treatment of pedestrians and commuters? We are the last in their priorities.

By the way, I would say, as a pedestrian, I would like to experience shady trees along the way and possibly breathe fresh air. Unfortunately, it is only when passing by the Quezon Institute, along E. Rodriguez that I experience that. You see the QI has a broad expanse of green on its frontage. Its buildings are located about nearly a kilometer away, probably to screen off the breath of the tubercular patients in its hospital.

Lately, the lot was bought by a developer. I wonder if the same fresh air would still waft the atmosphere. I hope so, after all these developments are pushed through.

One development I rue very much is this: I used to look at the skies every 6pm to watch how they change colors as the sun sets. The scenery is always breathtaking Folks especially when the Welcome Rotonda pillars are in silhouette and the skies turn orange,pink, blue and green. But then, one time, while looking back, the other day, I saw that the skies were nowhere to be found. Instead I saw big rectangular blocks and the Welcome Rotonda sign could not be seen anymore; this is from the E. Rodriguez avenue going towards Cubao.

What are these blocks but the SM residences being built very near the Rotonda.Sometime last year, I complained to the staff of Mayor Alfredo Lim that the monument which is the welcoming sign to Quezon City should not be covered by any structure and should be at least 1,000 meters away. Unfortunately, my letter seems to have fallen on deaf ears. The residences are being built without any regard on how the landmark was going to look like afterwards.

What are landmarks? They are structures in our cities and rural sites that make us feel proud of our identity as members of the Filipino race. Built to enhance cityscapes, they give identity to our places in contrast with foreign places. They also remind us that we all belong to one another, that we have a common history, culture, language, and civilization. Rizal, Bonifacio, Ninoy and Gabriela's monuments give us the feeling that they are responsible for the country's independence and redirection to democratic rule. But this does not seem to be the idea behind the constructions going on in our midst.

Maybe the architects and civil engineers of the country should get together and have a thorough discussion, and ask themselves: what is our ultimate goal in our country?

I hope that their answers would be reflective of aesthetic, humane and culturally aware perspectives and considerations.

FEEDBACK: FROM FELICIANO, GABUNA AND VILLAN

ON QUALITY OF LIFE


AMEN! I wholeheartedly agree.

Filipino Feliciano
Valenzuela City
2771620

Emma, hi!

To be upfront about it, I wonder why I cannot engage discussing this controversial RH Bill.

My mind and heart is not into it.

The rest of your piece is a heartwarming read.



-Bob Gabuna

Dear Ms Orozco,

The only thing that MATTERS for my personal understanding of BRINGING THE CHILD HERE ON EARTH IS BEING A RESPONSIBLE PARENT.

I HATE (a) MOTHER THAT ABORT A CHILD! A woman can have PLEASURE OF SEX WITHOUT CREATING ANOTHER HUMAN BEING. THE SAME THING WITH THE MAN. HE CAN HAVE ALL THE MEANS IN THIS WORLD THE PLEASURE OF SEX, " WITHOUT BRINGING A HUMAN BEING HERE ON EARTH".

What is the Real Meaning of Responsible Parenthood? Should I Personally be EDUCATED, BE INFORMED, BE CONCERNED that As Parents the Responsibility start from Parents.

Tony Villan

PAM YAN-SANTOS EXHIBIT: THEY ARE BIRDS IF THEY FLY

By Wilhelmina S. Orozco

What defines a woman’s art? It’s her consciousness. No other reason exists for a woman to paint but to put out into the open what her mind conceives of society, what she feels about the people around her, and what she needs to assert is her view of her own world.

Pamela Yan’s art exhibit, They are Birds if They Fly strikes me as a very well conceived exhibit, showing her view of a domestic life, delimited within the views of her own child, Juno, and of her home. She paints with great realism – the people, every nook and corner of her home, the scenes that she sees through her son’s eyes and her own, She expresses her views in paintings that evoke a quiet surrender, a complacent and comfortable yet meditative existence in the hearth that she has built with her family.

Look for 10 Seconds shows four faucets possibly dripping and which attracts the attention of her child so much that reportedly she has to delimit him into ten seconds. But then those ten seconds could also mean a whole lot of drops dripping that could be very significant to many a waterless homes. So what comes out as a captured attention of her child screams at that defect in society, the lack of water, the need for attention to this problem – the scarcity of water – from the authorities.

Actually, this painting could very well be a very catchy propaganda for the current campaign of Congresswoman Bernardita Herrera-Dy to bring down the price of water services in the country.

Then the series of bird cages are highly conceived implicit potshots at those women liberationists who think the home is confining, restricting of women’s movements. Inside them, Pamela has painted and installed different scenes. Supervised Play has several plastic balls inside the birdcage depicting the toys of a child. Comfort Zone is a declaration of sexual liberation as inside the cage lies a very inviting bed, made of polystyrene foam, and with a pillow. Stuffed Chicken of sewn canvas stuffed with cotton and coconut husk signifies how a home can be a setting for a delicious meal. Sanctuary has a garden with plants – acrylic, felt powder and synthetic fibers on polystyrene foam—implying that having earth even in a small corner, is as important as having a home, a soft commentary on the lack of greenery in most condominium units. Then of course, A Piece of Heaven shows us that – the sky in great azure blue with clouds passing by on canvas. The home is a piece of heaven that we can build anytime.

The More You___ The More You Will Not Go Up is a painting of a staircase from below and looking up to a window in the ceiling showing piece of the sky. Why this title? It is not a command but a hint that when you fill in the blank, then the conclusion will be true. The more you procrastinate, or the more you become overly ambitious, or the more you corrupt the people, and so forth and so on, then the more you will not go up. “Up” could mean heaven; hence the painting hints at the need for spirituality to enter every act of our lives. Pam seems to ask, aren’t we lacking something, a drawing in into our souls? Where are we heading to in this ascent to anything – career or business or love? Will it bring us to heaven?

Rest Room seems like two paintings brought together as one side shows a door painted with light coming from above and then the other, a room with a man seated and watching a small toy house with glass windows. The door is too realistic, highly inviting us to open it and then it could reveal something significant to us. But it is closed. Should we open it or not? If we do, where will it lead us?

But then Pam gives the answer – the door opens to a room where a man seems to be contemplating the house –Who could fit into this house? Will this be a home or just a structure to put a roof over people? Who would inhabit this house? What kind of people are they? Will I build a home or a house?
Yes, the painting looks mundane but it makes us view life together with the man. It makes us ask questions which otherwise probably we would be too busy to ask. No, the room is not a place for resting.

_________ will wear a dress is a painting of women. Only the woman at the center is painted realistically wearinga dress made of colorful patches of cloths while the rest are all in gray. Why is she colorful? I have been told that Pam’s son, Juno, a special child, always says when she is going to stay at home and not leave the house, “Mommy will wear a dress.” And so in the eyes of Juno, mommy’s presence shall lend color to his life, and everything else is dull without her. Mom is everything to the child as he is still too small and vulnerable to protect himself from the outside world.

The piece de resistance of the exhibit is Please Handle With Care, a wooden cabinet with tiers for holding chinaware on its upper half, and many smaller cabinets containing various kitchen items in the lower half. The cabinet is filled with plates, glasses, cups, saucers, silverware, a knife, a pitcher, and many, many more things that we use in the kitchen and the dining room.

What moves us very much is that all of these, in this huge wooden cabinet, 213.35 x 213.35 x 50.8 centimeters, are covered with yellow paper containing words, millions of words, repeated and repeated without end.

This seemingly suggests that the kitchen and the dining room are places for conversations between and among people. The word or words are highly important in the connections that we make with and among our loved ones; they could be repetitious but then what is life without repetition?

We could very well repeat a word, to give emphasis to an idea. We could say a word again to make the other listen to us; we could ask and ask again until we get that needed response to a problem, an idea that confuses us; a feeling that is unresolved, unexpressed; a dream that needs fulfillment.

Or we could also be repeating the words and phrases to ourselves, speaking aloud as to why we are here on earth.

Interesting is the placing of the wooden cabinet, at the back of the gallery, but facing the door. Our eyes get glued on it because it seems to be wrapped diagonally by a yellow plastic ribbon with the word, “fragile” repeated several times. Coming close to it, I found that the ribbon is just painted over the small doors of the little cabinets. Now, the word “fragile” means delicate; so then it should be handled with care. What should be handled with care are not only the items inside the cabinet but the way they are used by people.

Hence, Pam gives us the feeling that the kitchen and the dining rooms are the most important areas in the home. These are the places where – in the kitchen, we prepare the food that will nourish our lives; and in the dining room, we dine and drink to sustain our bodies, and when with other members whether family or friends – where we could converse and talk about what has happened to us during the day and more deeply, what we still want from life.

Pam is telling us another idea: we must take care of those areas in the home where we could speak to one another. No it does not matter if we repeat words and phrases. What is important is for us to keep the conversation running because that is what normal people do – we talk to express our feelings, our desires and our dreams.

The exhibit evokes a lot of questions about existence from inside a home yet these are not commanding, screaming, nor making us feel guilty about harboring certain non-traditional conceptions of what a house, a home should be. Rather, the art pieces make us contemplate, reflect and even meditate on what we have made of our homes.

I have been told that the exhibit was largely influenced by Pam’s interaction with Juno. But then, seeing life through him, Pam could very well be telling us that special children have a big role to play in the larger society as they see things that many of us do not in our haste to live, to enrich ourselves, to acquire status or to reach for power.

Thus, Pam’s eyes as a painter are very keen in perceiving relationships of people, and of people to things around them. She actually renders truth to what Marion Woodman, a psychoanalyst from Canada, in that interview by a Sounds True producer that artists are the shamans of the world.

What are shamans? Shamans, who could be women or men, are spiritual guides who connect us with our inner and outer worlds. They tell or hint at what we are facing at present and then show us the possibilities and probabilities of an event, an idea, a solution, a cause or even just a plain feeling.

Pam is a shaman as she makes us feel that in every part of our existence there is life pulsating and we just need be sensitive – feel and look -- and then we will find the answer or probably, the possible answers to what we are looking and asking for whether in our personal or social lives.

I particularly like the lay-out of the exhibit. From the outside, our eyes are drawn to the wooden cabinet right away. Then as we enter the gallery, to the right are the birdcages, a seeming introduction to what we can have in a home; from there, the series of paintings begins.

The lay-out also allows us to quietly contemplate each artwork regaling us with lessons in looking at our existence.

Pam’s exhibit runs from 23 September to 8 October 2011 at the Tin-Aw Gallery located at upper g/f, Somerset Olympia Makati, Makati Ave. corner Sto. Tomas St. Makati City. Gallery hours are from Monday – Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Phone: 632 892 7522. www.tin-aw.com.


PS Juno, some birds are called birds even if they don't fly. What is important is that they have wings for flying if they want to.

QUALITY OF LIFE

by Wilhelmina S. Orozco

We are nearing a hundred million people and yet the way things are going on, it does not seem to matter at all to those who are anti-RH bill. Where will the government get the money to feed, clothe, shelter, educate and get employment for all those people? Just go to Tondo and as soon as you enter the area of Pritil market, readily you will see a proliferation of children, teenagers. The age there is really young and very young. I saw three kids playing -- by sinking themselves inside a wooden crate. Why these children do not even have a decent toy.

If you go to Tondo actually, you will find people are eating good food -- fresh vegetables as the place is very near Divisoria, bagsakan ng gulay araw-araw. However they lack the cash to pay for their utilities, for their children's education, and for many other things. I remember one family which lost two laptops one day. The following week they were able to purchase two new sets. But in Tondo, if they lose say a tv set, they would probably be able to buy another the following year yet.

Which then brings us to the question of quality of life. What is the quality of the Filipino people? Clothing-wise, many rely on the ukay-ukay which could contain clothes that have not been worn but are just surplus from factories. But then you have to scour through many stores in order to find that. Never mind you say because in those stores, you will be able to find signature clothes which otherwise would be priced in the thousands there in Rustan's or any other Greenbelt fashion stores.

What about the commuters quality of life? How is life on the road for us, pedestrians who cannot afford a car, or even to take a cab everyday? We have to jostle our way through crowds of people who want to cross the streets everyday. The quality of life in the streets is terrible, especially in Manila. Here in Quezon City, there are still spots where you could go promenading without bumping to someone. But in Manila, my goodness, you turn left, or right or go forward, you are bound to hit either another pedestrian, a tricycle, a traysikad (padyak, no engine), a vendor, children playing around, or even the vendors' wares.

No, this is not the quality of city life that I conceive for us. I am looking for a kind of life that is laid back not always in a rush for something.

Now I have been watching these skyscrapers in our midst. In Sta. Mesa, there are those four very very tall residential buildings. I meet some of the residents, some seemingly of Arabic origin and schooling in nearby colleges, and others, young college students whose parents probably have a lot of moolah to spare for their children's housing even if they are just schooling yet. Then I tripped into an idea -- supposing these students have a fight with their boyfriends or girlfriends and the latter walk out of the room. The tension, the emotions brought about by a failed relationship, won't that push the individual to jump out of the window? When I was in Berlin, I asked my host-guide, Rex Hexamer of the German Democratic Republic then, what is the frequent problem of those living in tenement buildings. He replied by putting up his right index finger and then bringing it down, meaning to say suicides. If that happens in a country whereby (this was before the unification of Germany) the State could take care of the individual from womb to tomb, how much more in our country, where poverty stares you everyday? Now don't say that the rich who occupy those condos would be immune to such an urge to meet their Creator when their social lives go awry?

Hence, the quality of life I am really looking for is one that is nurturant of human lives, not always the physical, but the emotional, the mental and spiritual make-up of people.

I am totally against high rise buildings. It is nice to make them as offices but not as residence because that view of seeing the world from a high vantage point, makes flying through so very easy to do. And if one has a lot of emotional problems then most probably he or she would not really mind going down to the grounds the fastest way.

I read in the newspapers way back in the 90's that a woman who had just given birth committed suicide in a building of a bank. She was suffering from a post-partum depression and decided to end her life. Here we see that it is not only economic problems that bring about depression but also the physical illnesses we go through, which then could lead to ending one'
s life.

I suggest that a think-tank group be created to plan how the lives and the environment of the Filipino people should look like in five, or even twenty years time. What quality life are we going to talk about? Are we just going to accept the idea that citylife means overcrowding, or that anyone may do anything that pleases him or her with regard to their real property? It is high time that we know already where we are going; let us not rely on what each executive department thinks but rather, let us put up the plan and discuss with the people per barangay.

RIZAL X, HEALING OR PURGATIVE?

By Wilhelmina S. Orozco

When dealing with the life of a super hero like Rizal, how should a play look like? Should it inspire the audience by highlighting his works, or should it comment on how irrelevant his ideas are now considering the people’s lives and how they have been shaped by socio-political events? Would it heal anxieties about life in this world or would it be a detoxifier of all its impurities?

I watched Rizal X at UP Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero Theatre and found a spectacular play that oozed with that highly energetic chutzpah but at times, anger of the youth which sad to say only briefly touched on the life of Rizal. Dulaang UP, a university theatre organization produced, while Derek Santos directed it, with financing coming from the cultural funds of the State University, among others.

The play was similar to an essay, skipping and hopping from one topic or issue to another. Its structure is reversible and convertible from any part, and its ending could be the beginning or vice-versa. It was also episodic, featuring scenes and slices of lives of gangters at Monumento circle, the plight of overseas Filipino workers – nurses, entertainers, construction workers – as well as teachers and students. It commented on the lack of values of the youth, and the discouraging state of love relationships turning into pragmatic liaisons among the OFWs.

Sad to say, Rizal’s life became footnotes or scene breakers, except for the Rikepedia which rattled off the events in his brief stay on earth.

Rizal X had a huge cast, twenty plus composed of students and some faculty members of the UP Speech and Drama providing technical support. The show was replete with action after action with singing, dancing, gyrating, screaming, hugging, kissing and oh, yes, killing but not so gruesome, all occurring in that small stage of the theatre which could be about 20 feet by 10 feet?

What is memorable was the lighting of the play which at one point had lasers streaking across the audience and reaching up to the wall at the back probably the latest lighting technologies in the country. These were truly appropriate to the hyper treatment of the play as the lights danced, circled around and about, moving from the ceiling to the background of the stage and on to the audience. Ohm David, a faculty member and the technical director must have used almost all of his skills to give that play the best exposure. By the way, the program reveals that Ohm was at one time the resident technical director, scenery and lighting designer for Altera Pars Theatre Company in Athens, Greece where he designed for numerous plays and also did the technical direction at a performance of the music group Arpiyes, as well as the 2006 Athens Video Art Festival. Truly he could be deemed that lighting icon of the country.

Well, a musical play needs good microphones. Sad to say, the mikes used here did not deliver clear words and dialogues making it difficult for the audience to understand the lyrics of the songs. I had to refer later to the program for these songs to understand what was being said. Moreover, it was disturbing to see plasters on the faces hiding supposedly the lapel mikes of the actors. I wonder they did not use headphones instead.

Some of the songs, especially the rapping of the life of Rizal were appealing to the taste of the young audience who were mainly high school students of a religious school the audience. Majority seemed mesmerized by the visual effects and all the acrobatic stances of the actors.

Costuming the characters was typical of the youth crowd nowadays. This was what I would call “ewan’ style – typical “patong dito, patong duon” corto, sando, jacket, and what have you.

Nonetheless, actors delivering the songs was a delight to hear as they could hit their notes well and sing in rhythm all throughout. For this, we should commend Janine Santos for musical direction and William Elvin Manzano for the music and lyrics as well as Happy Days Ahead for Musical Arrangement.

Sometimes though, some of the male actors had the tendency to shout their voices hoarse and could not pronounce their vowels well. I had to sit forward to hear what they were singing and get the message.

However, it was a surprise to find that the rock band accompanying the singers were merely up there playing along, too . Initially, I kept wondering where they were as the sounds had been coming from the stage. I could not believe that they could possibly be positioned in such a small stage nor even at the back of it. However, at the end of the show, suddenly they were visible – at the backstage, where a plank had been built up to carry the band. That was truly a skillful way of using the stage to the hilt.

Presenting the lives of heroes on stage is a tall order. Rizal x just skimmed through the life of our hero and concentrated more on the current problems of the country. Although that is laudable, in the end, the question is: will the young audience embrace Rizal as their hero after watching the show? It is difficult to answer in the affirmative because the show tended to focus on the writers, not Rizal per se whose life could have been a veritable source of many scenes in the play – his agricultural Laguna versus European backgrounds; his relationship with his sisters and mother versus the kinds of women he related with abroad, and his marrying Josephine Bracken, a British woman; and his relationship with the revolutionaries and his desire for a peaceful transition of the country from being a colony, among others.

It is true that in the academic we must respect that freedom to let the imagination of the students run the way they want them to run, but still they need guidance on what is writing apropos and in-depth especially about the life of a national hero recognized not only here but internationally as well. We owe that much to the succeeding generations of students, to make them know what is true heroism, what is being a hero or heroine, and to understand, appreciate and respect heroes and heroines who had died for our country.

To paraphrase Seneca, "if people know not what harbor they seek, any wind is the right wind."

WHEN TRAVELLING BECOMES A BORE

by Wilhelmina S. Orozco

Taking the train from Espana to Bicutan, I passed by Sta. Mesa, Pandacan, Paco, PedroGil, VitoCruz, Buendia, Pasay Road, then Magallanes.The houses were sparse here but in general the places along the railroad were eeky -- shanties, kangkungan, pool of stagnant brackish water, plastic cups and foils scattered about. Then we reach Taguig, and Bicutan where along the way also, were shacks, tagpi-tagpi, men with bare chests drinking at 2 pm, people vending vegetables, newspapers, and all sorts of kakanin. The scenes are boring, to say the least.

What do you call poverty? Are these poor people, or are these scenes to be called places of poverty? What is an affluent site but -- paved roads, well-lit streets, 24-hour streetsweepers, etc. I took the train right after the elections and visited a friend in Ayala Alabang. The sites have not changed, still the same and the morose faces of the people probably waiting when things will make a big change in their surroundings, in their daily lives.

We need not feel depressed when travelling and contradictions in lifestyles appear here and there. Perhaps the Philippine National Railways can put up a contest among the barangays lining the railroad tracks as to which one can spruce up and make it worthwhile looking at their environment as the trains pass by. Reward of P150,000 per barangay would suffice to motivate the chairs to move their constituents to have that aesthetic eye at least to please the travellers with scenes of their barangay - like flowering plants, street paintings, and huts that are well constructed, no longer rusty roofs and flat panels of different sizes.

I don't really think the people there are poor. They have funds for appliances but not for making their homes look beautiful because they think their stay there is just temporary. Allowing them to nurture that kind of thinking is like pushing them to a wall -- "wala kayong maaasahan dito sa Kamaynilaan kundi kunsumisyon."

I do think that governance must be focused not only on economic but also aesthetic matters which should really begin at home.

LISTENING TO MUSIC FOR NON-MUSICIANS

By Wilhelmina S. Orozco

Is the Philippines capable of producing world class pianists apart from the present crop some of whom are in the United States? It is difficult to answer that given the circumstances we are in economically. All our attention seems to be on how to make both ends meet. But at the latest piano competition of the Piano Teachers Guild of the Philippines, Inc. or PTGP, over 36 students aged 8 to 18, of 21 piano teachers competed playing pieces of different musical styles of the 20th century. There we could see that we are not limited at all in terms of talents.

The PTGP was founded a few months after the declaration of martial law, on November 2, 1972. The president was Milagros de Ocampo together with Lucrecia Kasilag or Tita King as Honorary President, until her death on August 16, 2008. Tita King was truly a dedicated artist. She was also one of the founders of the Filipino Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers or Filscap which now runs after those establishments and institutions that play Philippine compositions to make them pay royalties for the composers.

Classical versus pop music
Now, what does it take to listen to classical piano music now when all around us are radios TV, and karaoke blaring pop music played by rock bands? It is really difficult to cultivate love for classical music under the circumstances we are in, especially when the favorite TV programs always play pop through song and dance. Luckily we still have DZFE a station that plays classical music, Euro-Amerocentric I must say, all the time.

But there are households where classical piano music is really the standard listening piece. These are where the parents themselves are appreciative of the music and the children imbibe their love for it. The home of former UP Prof. Carmencita Guanzon-Arambulo is one example. It is always buzzing with different kinds of piano music (and violin as her son, Ariel, is a violinist and teacher) because her school is located beside her home, the Children’s Talent Education Center which is geared towards cultivating musicians from toddlers’ age. At the competition, all 6 of her Suzuki method students won as finalists to the final competition to be held this month of September at the St. Scholastica’s College. They are Miguel Lorenzo Q. Panagsagan, Jannina Eliana G. Pena, Patrick Allen Q. Sy, and Warren Albert C. Garrido.

Okay supposing we are not musicians, and still we are interested in dealing with piano music, how should we start? First we must make our ears “acclimatize” to the keyboard which can play single notes, double notes, harmonized notes, and so forth and so on. We must be able to distinguish the music that the right and the left hands play. Then, we just allow our hearts to feel as we listen. Feelings? Are we capable of feeling while listening?

Feeling or non-feeling music?
Of course. A good musician is able to touch the heart and mind of the listener while playing. If not, then he or she is not a good musician. They could arouse feelings like being happy, sad, melancholy, angry, and blasé too, among others. Or they can instill moods like being serious, light, or comic, depending on the piece being played.

But at this competition, hardly could we distinguish the feelings or moods. Rather, the types of music exuded a rational and logical effect so that our attention was focused on the style of music, and the performance of the pianist. Twentieth century music is truly different from those of the romantic era like the compositions of Liszt and Chopin to which most of us are attuned I suppose. The kind of music of the last part of the century, and this millennium can hardly be called romantic, but rather avant-garde, (a term dropped to me by piano teacher Letty Sarte, thanks Letty), which is characterized by non-conformity to rules, unpredictability, and an expressiveness that is brought about by the composers’ feeling their way through every bar of the piece, meaning to say, they let their hearts lead the way to the end of the composition.

Beyond par performances
It is truly great that all of the participants, winners and non-winners were all able to perform their pieces credibly, as if they were speaking for the composers themselves. I guess that is another way of saying their interpreting the pieces of the composers. And so, what did we observe during their performances?

Fingers were caressing, pounding, slapping the keys. Their hands were either jumping or sliding on the notes, racing or sailing against each other. Sometimes the hands were running on top of each other. Another time, only the left hand’s forefinger and middle finger and the right hand’s thumb were playing seemingly without end. One pianist even made his fingers run from the lower to the higher notes as if ready to fly out of the piano itself.

Truly the contest pieces were very difficult to play but the young pianists imbibed the feeling of the composers, completely. They were able to interpret those non-melodious music which exhibit an overt desire to break its predictability. One piece sounded like revolutionary tones seething with anger, as if in a hurry to rise up for whatever cause. Another made me recall tinkling bells; and another time, sonorous gongs tolling for the burial of a corpse.

All the while, the performers played the 20th century music as if their own lives had been scored by the composers themselves. Why are these young people so attuned to this type of music? Is it possible that the games they play in the computer, if they are into such, have similar background music and so they could readily empathize with their piano pieces?

Also, I hope that their familiarity and ability to give life to these pieces do not make them forever too rational and logical, forgetting that emotions are important components of being human, also.

Good memory
Another thing that we have to credit the children is that no one forgot his or her piece. They were able to play from memory very easily. I found out that everyone prepared three pieces to play but at the venue, they were told to play only one. At this time where there are too many distractions for anyone to stay focused on anything, most of the pianists were able to hurdle all the barriers in order to deliver highly above average performances. We must credit all the teachers of these students for such great performance.

Objectivity to the hilt
Chairperson of the judges was Dean Erlinda Fule, of the University of Santo Tomas. She and her committee were inside an enclosed structure where they would not be able to see who was playing what piece. Then the competitors were called by numbers, not by their names in order to seal the objectivity of the contest. No favoritism, no nepotism, nothing at all, till the end. The winners were called by their numbers, not by their names. Not even the titles of the pieces were given in the souvenir program nor were they announced. Hence, the composers can forget being recognized at all save by those musicians who are fully in the know about the history of music. By the way, the pictures of the students in the program did not match their faces, as those were taken two years back.

Isn’t the PTGP taking the “objectivity standard” of the contest over seriously? Why couldn’t they name the winners, give the titles of the pieces, and then let every one hear them play their pieces again? In this manner, they would be educating the audience further and make them appreciate why these students deserved winning. Furthermore, the students who did not win could know why the winners won, their style of playing could be observed more closely and then they could pattern their performance, or make it better than these winners later on.

As the PTGP is a closed association – meaning “magkakakilala” then such procedures could have been instituted in order not to ruffle the feelings of those teachers whose students did not meet the criteria of the judges. But then, the whole point of a competition is to inculcate the idea that there are better performers. We must learn the distinction between good, better and best performances from truly human faces, or fingers, and not just numbers. Now the teachers should not feel aggrieved if the winners are named and not their proteges. By watching the winners in person play their pieces, their students would be able to see other techniques in playing the piano.

Not so spacious venue
The cool venue, the long auditorium of the Lyric Piano company, was freely given for the event with a piano de cola near the stage. The piano was beside other covered pianos with only two to three feet distance. Perhaps next time, the venue could be made more spacious, the other pianos removed and only one for the event to be placed there. I like the venue because it is accessible from my home. I was wondering though why the UP Abelardo Hall music administrators did not offer it for free, considering that PTGP is a child-nurturing institution. The government should not always be making money and provide such venues for free especially to non-government organizations like the PTGP.

Although piano music suffers very much from competition in the larger society against other genres, mainly rock, pop and R and B, still the parents and their relatives came and eagerly waited till the end of the event. Such belief in the talents of their children is just amazing; a father dutifully recorded his son’s performance on video; the other parents photographed theirs for documentation purposes.

Simple listening
Listening to piano music for non-musicians need not be burdensome. In fact, anyone who tries it, could just sit down, no matter how unfamiliar the pieces are to our ears. We could just run parallel natural scenes in our minds – when the notes are rushing, we could imagine traffic in the city; when high notes predominate, we can imagine small bells tinkling, or when one note after another note are played, up and down the keyboard, we can still imagine a kangaroo jumping up and down.

Hence, listening to music is all a matter of using our imagination. Later on, if we ever get the time to study the rudiments and theories of music, then we can probably all become “geeks,” listening to music for music’s sake and having a deeper love for the music of composers from Bach to Beatles. Hey Becky Demetillo, when will you have your concert again?