RUNNING AFTER THE MUSES

RUNNING AFTER THE MUSES
by Wilhelmina S. Orozco 

Folks, I am the chair of the Ethics Committee of the UP Cooperative and it is such a very enlightening experience having to study the cooperative movement its principles and values, and its historical background. I maintain now that the saving grace of the Philippines would be a strong cooperative movement. 

In the first place, a cooperative is collectively formed and run by a group of people with like-minded objectives -- that is to uplift                  themselves from poverty -- whether of resources, or access to resources. Its earnings are supposed to redound to the betterment of the members and not of a few. The members can run as officers of the cooperative, unlike in a capitalist enterprise, where the owners, or those who own the bigger stocks are the only ones who can. 

Many more differences there are between a coop and a corporation. With the proliferation of non-government organizations here in our country, we could readily introduce the idea of cooperativism, educate the people on why it is a viable vehicle for answering economic problems, foremost of which having one that will insure that we get cheap fuel and oil. 

I think that we are in the doldrums economically, although Moody's has raised the investment capability of the country, is because the government is only fixing its sights on traditional areas of exploration. It does not look into the human resource assets -- the people -- who have such great creativity, resiliency, and strong family connections, among other things. 

Let me cite here that our cultural institutions are not working as much to lift the people from a traditional and feudal culture at all. The granting of project proposals still rests on who you know, and not what you know. For examples: 1. I submitted a puppet theatrical project to create productions for Noli and Fili for high school and elementary schools. It was rejected by the National Commission on Culture and the Arts under the Theater committee headed by Lutgardo Labad. 2. I  submitted an animation storyboard, script on how an agricultural land has been transformed into a golf course. The NCCA again rejected it. The film committee evaluator said that it is more like "a film." I really do not understand that kind of assessment and until now, Mr. Felipe de Leon Jr, a good friend has not answered my queries why my film proposal has been rejected. Jun has the terrible tendency to throw to his staff replies to queries. And so we get toothless replies -- bureaucratic responses leading nowhere but flat rejection. 3. I submitted a film project to Cinemalaya about Tondo women who worked in Japan and got exploited sexually. It was rejected without reason by the staff, under Laurice Guillen and Mr. Robbie Tan. 
4. I submitted a cultural project, Celebrating Our Asianness , a musical-drama concert held at Paco Park. It was rejected for funding by the NCCA, because according to Frances, it was submitted late, although I had informed her earlier about it. Gusto niya, one month in advance. 

I can only cite one time when I got funding from NCCA, when Malou Jacob was still Executive Director. Now she has resigned over the pressures for her to kowtow to the powers that be. 


By the way, I also get published in the Ani Journal almost yearly. That is print medium, Folks. Audio-visual, theatre and film heads marginalize me. 

So how do we make out how we will work under this set -up? 

Thus, i would like very much to have the Freedom of Information Act because I want to know who gets the cultural funds, for what projects, and for how many times have they have been recipients. Let us bring out the facts and find out, who are the elite artists who can corner the funds for themselves all the time. 

It really seems that the powers-that-be do not want culture to get enlightened, and so they are using the funds only for a coterie of individuals who can bow down to them all the time. 

Come on now, it is 2012 and the tactics for managing cultural funds is still very backward. 

In UK, cooperatives of artists exist and all funding agencies give them equal chances to the kitty. They have film coops that showcase independent films, artists coops, film production cooperatives, textile coops that make their own designs on cloth, and many more. The UK cultural sector is well taken care of and run very democratically. 

How many millenia do we need in order to rise up from the murky waters of palakasan and bulung-bulungan style of management in the cultural scene? 

 (Minerva among the muses, painting http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendrik_van_Balen_der_%C3%84ltere)