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.
Saturday, October 29, 2011
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.
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.
Monday, October 17, 2011
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.
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.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
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
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.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
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.
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.
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