Implements of culture

I was raised to eat in the Western manner, and I continue to do so in my own home, even when I eat Filipino food, except when certain dishes are on the table. Kare-kare, menudo, adobo, for example, can be eaten using a knife and fork, but it seems an additional effort that detracts from efficient and enjoyable eating, since using a spoon and fork to eat these dishes is so much more sensible. Crispy pata, on the other hand, involves a multicultural use of implements: a knife is more efficient for slicing my favorite part (the skin) but a spoon and fork are essential for the accompanying rice.

Outside the home, I adapt. If I am eating Western food, I use Western implements, because it is equally inefficient to use a spoon and fork to eat most Western dishes: the texture, consistency, and so forth of the dishes, even when accompanied by rice, makes the use of a knife and fork more sensible. When eating Chinese, Japanese, or Korean food, I’ve learned to manage to use chopsticks, and three different kinds at that: the Chinese prefer ivory (or nowadays, plastic) chopsticks that are the most difficult to use; the Japanese prefer wooden chopsticks; the Koreans, stainless steel ones and a spoon. Regardless of the cuisine, if one is with people who prefer a particular set of implements (or none at all) over another, one uses what is given you, and does not make a fuss, particularly in someone else’s home, in which one is a guest.

It is perhaps old-fashioned of me to believe that one eats as one’s companions eat, as the food one is eating should be eaten by those who habitually eat that food, and according to the norms of the place in which one is eating. I was raised believing this is a sign of culture, and culture is about respecting the norms of those one has decided to associate with, whether as a tourist, a visitor to their home, or a patron of their restaurant, which is also a vehicle and repository for the civilization that created a particular kind of cuisine. This always requires the effort of learning, and not a little comedy (generation after generation of Filipinos have funny stories about the challenges and mysteries of finger-bowls during formal dinner overseas, mostly involving a curious compulsion to pick them up and drink their contents).

An anonymous commenter has left a couple of links to news articles that are something of a cause célèbre among Filipinos all over the world. The case involves a Filipino child in Canada. The case, to my mind, can be broken up into several parts, which leaves no one blameless but also goes to show how expectations have (and should) change concerning how cultures meet and overlap.

The child, apparently, insists on eating with a spoon and fork in school, in which the dominant culture is a Western one. The child was reprimanded, and punished by being isolated from other students during mealtimes. The child’s parents were concerned, and according to the press accounts, were told by a school official that the child  ate “like a pig.” That’s what the parents say; the school itself has countered by claiming the child was a messy eater and it was the child’s hard-headedness, and tendency to make a mess (and allegedly, make a fuss) that merited punishment. Filipinos all over the world have taken up the incident as a case of bigotry, cultural imperialism, and even persecution, and ruffled feelings of national pride are being made as a result.

It could have all been avoided, of course, if both sides did the following:

1. The child ate according to his culture at home, and was taught to respect the culture of his new country by eating as the others do, in school;
2. The school, operating in a country that proclaims its multicultural nature as a virtue, had talked to the parents first, instead of punishing the child and then talking to the parents, only to castigate them for something that should not be considered a fault: teaching their child their culture;
3. Had the school official been a person of genuine culture and learning, he would never have said what he did to the parents concerning their child; the school should never have excused, much less defended what the official said;
4. The claim the child was a messy eater, and fussy to one extent or another, is a measurable and provable claim, and attending to that problem is not a matter of culture, but of discipline, in which both school and parents could surely have found common ground.

So now there’s a mess, and I don’t have sympathy for the school, and am happy for the child that his parents raised hell. Whether as a result the child will go through life thinking he can make a mess and eating any way he pleases, is another thing but irrelevant to the larger public. No parent should have to hear their child insulted by anyone, particularly school officials; no Filipino family should have to endure their culture being slighted, particularly since we tend to be a very reasonable, and accommodating people, if only we are engaged in dialogue first.

Personally, I don’t see how eating much of Western food with a spoon and fork makes for either enjoyable or efficient eating. But that’s me. Which is why I also personally find the furious counter-argument made by many Filipinos -”but the Chinese eat with chopsticks!”- slightly devoid of sense. Chinese food is eminently designed to be eaten with chopsticks, but try eating Western food with chopsticks and it would be an exercise in culinary futility. The Chinese, except perhaps at a state banquet, are pragmatic enough to permit (what they might view as barbaric Westerners and non-Chinese) foreigners to eat with Western implements at Chinese restaurants; Western restaurants as a rule don’t even have chopsticks to provide Chinese, Japanese, or Korean clients who, as a matter of culture, avidly learn how to enjoy foreign food on its own terms. We should be as pragmatic, I think, and if you want to indulge in cultural chauvinism as so many cultures do, then you are welcome to do so in your own home, where your culture or variation thereof is king.

Fussing over numbers

In the news today, the Inquirer reports El Shaddai mobilized vs signature campaign. Apropos of administration claims of the economic advantages of parliamentary government, Rene Azurin disagrees: More graft seen under parliamentary system.

the Manila Standard-Today says  Palace approves measures to ease oil price crunch (though the Philippine Star, which alas, is useless to link to, says “It’s final: VAT on oil stays”). The Business Mirror clarifies: OUT OF MENU: SUSPENSION OF E-VAT AND CLEAN AIR ACT, 4-DAY WORKWEEK: Cabinet OKs oil-tariff cuts.

So government thunders: Rallies face stricter PNP: Policemen to follow ‘no permit, no rally’ provision of Marcos era BP 880 (Manila Times) and ‘Dangerous’ protests will still be dispersed (Manila Standard-Today). What protests are those? Malaya says, Moment of truth on May 1 : Palace, protesters seen headed for confrontation despite SC ruling

In the Business Mirror: 63% of local companies think they will do better this year: Filipino SMEs feel optimistic.

PCIJ blog reports on the Palace testing its political messages through polling. The Social Weather Stations explains why it could disclose it’s having been commissioned to do the test:

In the punditocracy, my column for today is  Lambino’s lapse. Relevant to my column are the following: Philippine Commentary’s blog entry which I quoted from in my column, as well as this comment by jumper in this blog, as well as Erwin Rafael’s draft of a letter to the editor, which I also quoted from. Actually the comments to my entry yesterday are quite interesting on the subject of claimed hits/visits.

Juan Mercado takes a pointed look at government efforts to reach a settlement with the Marcoses. Tony Abaya damns the Supreme Court with faint praise.

Connie Veneracion wonders if government is really serious about promoting healthy lifestyles: it could much more to target junk food, but isn’t. Certainly, although any government would balk at attacking fast food companies that provide jobs and contribute to the economy, there is plenty of room for official intervention through providing incentives for companies and schools that substitute nutritious food for junk food, or which orders a ban on soft drinks and sugar drinks in all schools.

Ma. Ceres Doyo looks at Filipino media-sponsored climbers of Mount Everest.

Overseas, in Slate, commentary by John Dickerson: Shooting an Elephant: Why Republicans are screwed. Republicans are in a kind of panic that only a third of Americans approve of Bush. Our President should be so lucky.

An interesting set of speeches by the King of Thailand, addressed to the Supreme Court and other judges: HM the King suggests a solution: Now, there was an election in order to ensure democracy. But if Parliament lacks a quorum, it is not democratic. There’s something ironic, of course, in a King having to insist he has no powers and tell judges they have to understand what democracy means. Most eloquent, though, is the King’s call for judges to realize the country should not sink first, before rescue attempts are made.

In the blogosphere, Edwin Lacierda thinks the Chief Justice is too talkative. Vincula says the Supreme Court’s decisions might require more decisions. Atty-at-work says verifying signatures risks Comelec officials being charged with contempt.

Carlos Celdran is foursquare for Charter change. Bunker Chronicles presents a biblical reason why heckling presidents is a no-no. Demosthenes’ Game with a further riposte to Manuel Buencamino’s low opinion of the middle class.

Torn and Frayed on plagiarism’s perils. Kerry Collison notices an Inquirer editorial.

Ellen Tordesillas on the Binirayan festival in Antique Province.

Coffee with Amee on what it means to be an American migrant.

Tech stuff: Village Idiot Savant preaches computer networking (and Linux!) in Davao. notes from the peanut gallery on how literary contests have thoroughly entered the information age.

Nostalgia trips: Wendell Capili waxes nostalgic upon hearing the news Chat Silayan’s passed away. May topak recalls Bataan propaganda during the New Society. Four-eyed Journal recalls the Chernobyl disaster (remember when people were nervous to buy powdered milk from Holland, based on the rumor of Chernobyl radiation raining down on the pastures munched on by European cows?).

Curiosities: Filipino Librarian is puzzled by an apparently popular Google fetish for library hanky-panky. crash pad has social commentary: Pinoy Big Brother Teen Edition: the players symbolize the future of the Philippines. The Rocketboy Chronicles points to a great collection: 18 or 19 Movie Monologues We Think Are Really Neat!

Technorati Tags: Blogging, constitution, law, people’s initiative, Philippines, politics

Pushing the envelope

News today:

Cha-Cha proponents claim victory in GenSan, SouthCot (MindaNews)

Chief Justice believes death penalty unconstitutional (Inquirer): can he say that?

Ex-Philippine president named in spy plot (San Jose Mercury News, through AP): see Coffee with Amee’s commentary.

People Power in Nepal hailed: A democratic triumph in Nepal says Thailand’s Nation in its editorial, This Is No Rah-Rah Revolt writes Tariq Ali in The Guardian (via the Arab News).

The Inquirer editorial examines the President’s hostility towards the Philippine Senate; the Daily Business Mirror editorializes on the reexamination of gasoline VAT policy sending the wrong message. Go Figure has some challenging thoughts questioning the wisdom of arguments made in favor of official intervention in gas prices.

The Supreme Court’s decision (SC rules Palace ban on rallies is illegal: Decision is unanimous: 13-0) on the policy of “Calibrated, Pre-emptive, Response  (with yet another decision, this time on the proclamation of a state of national emergency expected very soon) results in official defiance: Police will still disperse illegal street protests–PNP.

The PCIJ blog has a roundup of the decision, reactions, and what led to the policy. Edwin Lacierda says the decision raises some troubling questions, including, what happens to those arrested and charged due to invoking a policy that’s now declared unconstitutional?

My view is that while the Supreme Court’s decisions are pretty comforting, they do lay out the possibility for conflicting interpretations that will require more cases. Yet the most troubling question which will never be answered is, why did resolving the cases take so long? Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to look up how long it took other landmark cases to be resolved, though my suspicion is, it didn’t take six to seven months as in these cases involving EO 464 and CPR. The aggressiveness with which the decisions have been met by officials in the Executive Branch, also suggests that the administration will continue pushing the envelope -just as its opponents will, too.

After All is exasperated over Red Tide alerts -and non-alerts. Now What, Cat? is infuriated (and rightly so) over ordinary people being bilked by their higher-ups, and how such behavior can be contagious and even held by people you’d normally consider unlikely to give employees the shaft.

caffeine-sparks on bilingualism, the dominance of one language in intellectual discourse, and language prejudice. Taking off from recent cases over agonizing over language, baratillo books cinema @ cubao eloquently explains why he reads (and alas, why is it too few do).

A series of highly interesting entries on blogging: big mango with an overview, an analysis, and a summation, on the purposes served by blogs in public and political discourse in the Philippines: specifically, their role in constructing solutions for a troubled country (ours). Via Barako Cafe: from BuzzMachine, Guilt by association (continuing newspaper hostility to blogs) and Press in peace (do we need newspapers? Specifically, newspapers on paper?); and kottke.org on there being two kinds of bloggers: “referential and experiential” -

The referential blogger uses the link as his fundamental unit of currency, building posts around ideas and experiences spawned elsewhere: Look at this. Referential bloggers are reporters, delivering pointers to and snippets of information, insight or entertainment happening out there, on the Intraweb. They can, and do, add their own information, insight and entertainment to the links they unearth — extrapolations, juxtapositions, even lengthy and personal anecdotes — but the outward direction of their focus remains their distinguishing feature.

The experiential blogger is inwardly directed, drawing entries from personal experience and opinion: How about this. They are storytellers (and/or bores), drawing whatever they have to offer from their own perspective. They can, and do, add links to supporting or explanatory information, even unique and undercited external sources. But their motivation, their impetus, comes from a desire to supply narrative, not reference it.

Or we can both! One thing’s sure: everyone is, by nature, a Linnaeus. We like to categorize, organize, define, the world to make sense of it.

And from Slate: This Is My Last Entry: Why I shut down my blog.

My Arab News column for this week is Will the Philippines Be Able to Use Ethanol? History Suggests Not.

Technorati Tags: constitution, journalism, people power, people’s initiative, Philippines, politics

Marching orders

Update (3:18 p.m.): Preemptive, Calibrated Response declared unconstitutional.

Yesterday, the President apparently held a command conference of sorts to look into the progress of the Charter change campaign. Apparently, according to scuttlebutt,  she gave everyone a tongue-lashing, frustrated by what she is said to have described as the lack of progress of the people’s initiative, which isn’t gathering enough momentum. She was said to have been quite irked by the manner in which opposition to the initiative has been reported and more importantly, manifested.

No coincidence that yesterday, too, began a tremendous (and quite obviously, hugely expensive) “information” campaign on all media: television, radio, the broadsheets and in the tabloids, to push forward the administration arguments. The President is said to be quite adamant that the Senate be painted as the enemy. And destroyed. Billy Esposo explains why the Philippine Information Agency seems the wrong agency to mount such a drive.

The timeline seems endangered: Palace functionaries are said to be nervous because the maximum deadline for achieving Charter change is September (see how much time’s been wasted in this timeline). By October-November, all the political parties, including the administration coalition, will have to form and begin campaigning for their senatorial and congressional candidates, with elections scheduled in May of next year. Privately-commissioned surveys, on which the political strategists of all sides are heavily dependent, indicate that the administration won’t be able to elect any senators, and congressmen throughout the country, starting with the Speaker, are anxious over challenges being mounted even in previously “safe” districts.

The Speaker himself has tried to revive the Constituent Assembly solution, and party operatives are abuzz over what has become a three-track strategy:

1. People’s initiative calling for a shift to unicameralism, resulting in a referendum
2. People’s initiative calling for Congress to convene as a Constituent Assembly, propose amendments, and then call for a referendum
3. The House and the Senate to pass a “bullet amendment” calling for the immediate shift to a unicameral parliament, resulting in a referendum (the “bullet amendment” idea was borrowed from certain opposition quarters that wanted to propose cutting short the terms of the president and vice-president, thus paving the way for presidential elections in 2007).

The Speaker, formerly marginalized by the people’s initiative steamroller, can now say, seeing it’s getting bogged down, that signatures already gathered can be recycled with a new objective: to force the Senate’s hand, instead of bypassing Congress altogether. A Constituent Assembly is ultimately more manageable, politically, rather than putting out fires throughout the length and breadth of the country.

With these marching orders from the President, no wonder that  the Manila Standard-Today goes great guns for unicameralism: Unicameral shift to save P250b annually is an example.

Would unicameralism save us money? One one point, as this article says, definitely: no more rentals for a Senate that should have moved its premises to Quezon City a long time ago. But otherwise?

If we take the computation of the probable seats in a unicameral parliament made by Winnie Monsod, that’s 400+ seats with pork barrel for each; there are allowances; would MP’s holding cabinet portfolios give up double salaries? I doubt it. if we add the current pork barrel of the President (which she would retain, and after her, devolve to the Prime Minister, or be split between them), including the following: the Intelligence Fund, the Social Fund, and unfettered access to the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes and the PAGCOR: I don’t see where savings would come from. What’s more probable is that if the Senate spends 250 billion annually, that amount will be carved up by the members of parliament. Anyway, this is one question that deserves some serious number-crunching.

In other news…

The Inquirer says Lifting of VAT on oil mulled: Plan draws bipartisan support in House but the Manila Times says Ermita, Finance trash Defensor’s RVAT idea. The Inquirer editorial supports lowering VAT on gas and says alternative energy sources besides ethanol need to be explored, too -and goads the Senate committee on energy to speed up deliberations on the ethanol bill sent by the House to the Senate last November.

Funny, ha-ha: Impersonator sends cops scurrying after ‘Gringo’
Not funny: Armed Forces braces for another overthrow attempt set May 1

In the punditocracy, Bel Cunanan quotes the Sigaw ng Bayan people as claiming their website has received nine million hits since it was launched three weeks ago. Truly, as both Sigaw and Cunanan say, a phenomenal number, amounting to “almost 20 percent of the total number of registered voters.”

So for the more technologically-savvy out there, how can the media and the public verify such claims? Is there an objective way of doing so? Because I’m curious:

1. Are there 20 million Filipinos online as Cunanan suggests? Or is the figure misleading?
2. Can the claim of 9 million hits (unique?) within three weeks be verified? If so, how? If not, why not?
3. Does their error message -”Due to the huge volume of visitors, this site has exceeded its bandwidth limit and is temporarily shut down. To the Administrator, please contact service provider. Thank you.”- look and read like a genuine bandwidth exceeded message? Or could it be a propaganda trick? Here’s a screenshot:

Two op-ed pieces focus on development outside Metro Manila. Juan Mercado spotlights the water problems of Cebu City exacerbated by difficulties faced by potential investors in water projects; John Mangun looks at the disparity in the prices of basic commodities in and outside Metro Manila, which he says is due to a dependence on importation (which requires fuel for transportation and storage) to the metropolis:

In fact, the Philippines has two economies: that of the National Capital Region and everywhere else.

The NCR is oil dependant for transportation to get around the NCR and to bring goods to us in the Greater Metro Manila region.

Outside of this area, the fuel component of prices is much less for the goods that people need. We in the NCR pay a much higher price for vegetable and fruits than elsewhere. In fact, we pay double the price for tomatoes in Manila than in Dipolog. Outside of the NCR, fish is one-third to one-quarter of our palengke price. Premium rice is as much as 20 percent cheaper.

The 75 percent of the Filipinos who live outside NCR have not been affected as much by the effect of higher crude oil.

We, who inhabit the area, may be feeling the pinch of higher oil prices. However, the overall effect is reduced by the massive influx of new earnings primarily due to the 100,000 or so employees in the growing BPO business. The multiplier effect of all those call-center and transcription jobs is immense and notable.

Makati and Eastwood are now 24/7 areas with a tremendous amount of money flowing where it never existed before. High oil prices? It is not even part of the economic equation when you consider all the new jobs created in the last couple of years. If there are 50,000 new BPO employees in Makati since 2002, there are probably another 25,000 new jobs just to support those employees with food, transportation and other services.

The greater potential of negative impact as oil pushes higher is with the government’s budget deficit and debt serving programs. As oil goes higher, the risk of a depreciating peso increases as dollars are needed to buy oil. The Philippines will manage with $75 oil; the government may not.

Lito Gagni presents a  rather frightening catalog of the defects of the NAIA Terminal 3:

The expert, Richard Francis Klenk, an American engineer who is an independent consultant in the areas of aviation, highways and marine, raised several safety issues and cited, in particular, “serious issues with respect to the structural integrity of the terminal structures.”

There were five areas that were found grossly defective: cracks in the concrete slabs, deflections in the beams, questionable pile installation, car-park structural problems and structural integrity problems of the roadways. It is no wonder then that the Naia 3 ceiling crashed down just because of the vibration from the switching on of the air-con unit.

Tony Abaya bats for the national ID card (I’m for it, too -preventing its abuse will just require vigilance). And an eloquent letter to the editor: Dissent has value. Also, Connie Veneracion takes up the cudgels for mall visitors.

Technorati Tags: constitution, people’s initiative, Philippines, politics

Hecklers and officials

Scuttlebutt is that the Supreme Court reached a decision on the challenge to Proclamation 1017 over the weekend, and will use today up to Wednesday writing its decision. Meanwhile, both the Palace and Senate continue to try to come to grips with the recent Supreme Court ruling on Executive Order 464: Palace likely to invoke 464 while under review (Malaya); and Senate ready to use power vs gov’t execs: ‘No blanket claim of executive privilege’ (Inquirer).

(Update) I find myself subscribing to the arguments propounded by Philippine Commentary, who says the Supreme Court has made the Executive Department’s definition of the things covered by “executive privilege” part of the law of the land. He shows how the scope and nature of the things covered could potentially make a wider, and more iron-clad argument for holding back information from the public than ever previously attempted.

From the Manila Times: Farmers fear expiration of  CARP, appeal for extension.

From an Angolan newspaper (!): Philippine military alerted against new moves of mutinous group: Spokesman

Overseas, it’s interesting to read the editorial of the Thai newspaper The Nation, and its take on the challenges posed by the rise in oil prices: Many dangers to economy ahead -Stronger currency may partially offset rising oil prices, but vigilance against inflation is crucial.

The same newspaper also discusses what has long been a complaint in foreign policy circles: the indifference in American official circles to South East Asia and ASEAN. Now, however, US changes tone and approach on Asean policies: The United States has finally recognised Asean as a collective political entity that it has to deal with in a more discreet and gentle way. The acknowledgement comes at a time when Washington, DC wants to keep up with China.A shift in US policy was hoped for, and recommended by, among others, the Challenges to Democracy in Southeast Asia: Rethinking US Policy conference sponsored by the Stanley Foundation, which I attended last year. But instead of focusing purely on trade, a shared emphasis on democracy and democracy-building engagement was recommended.

Culinary question: ‘Haob na Odong’ and the Rediscovery of Davao Cuisine

In the punditocracy, my column for today is Generation gap. This is part of my efforts to continue refining a thesis I first brought forward in Circle to Circle.

Leandro Coronel says the President had better get used to heckling until -and unless- she actively moves to resolve the questions surrounding her legitimacy. Indeed. But our politicians pushing for parliamentary government had better get used to heckling as a matter of course. Have you ever watched the British parliament during debates? Heckling is par for the course. I remember in high school, participation in the debate team gave me a case of culture shock when we had to train for two kinds of debate: the normal kind we in the Philippines are used to, policy debate, and another kind, totally alien to us, called parliamentary debate, in which you gained points not only for what you said, but also (at least in my experience) for your ability to trip up your opponent by heckling and jeering the other side as they presented their arguments. The British parliamentary style is more fun -but harder to win.

An uncle, recalling the Baler of his youth in the 1920s, told me a feature of the political culture of the town was the open and frank manner in which politicians on the stump would be heckled, jeered, and questioned by the electorate: and he mused that any politician able to hold his own in the face of such fearless behavior of the electorate gained a notable advantage in campaigning elsewhere (he also recounted how Jose P. Laurel, campaigning in Baler, was completely taken aback by the lack of diffidence of the people in the town plaza).

Amando Doronila tackles the Palace and Senate tussle sure to come in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling on Executive Order 464: how broadly, or narrowly, will “executive privilege” be defined? The Inquirer editorial says that Senators had better learn how to behave when conducting investigations, otherwise important democratic opportunities will be lost.

In the blogosphere, Sheila Coronel reproduces her speech before the Economics graduating class of the University of the Philippines. Titled “forging a new social contract,” she puts in perspective the call of the times. Incidentally, barako cafe has a very kind -and sharp- thing to say about journalists:

I believe it takes courage to be a journalist. Journalists risk everything from their reputations to their lives. They face bad news everyday. As a reader, I can tune out, and you can see from my blog that I often do. Journalists don’t. The news, good or bad, constitutes their lives, impinges upon their beings. Everyday they face death, calamity, criminality, corruption, manipulation, lies. Everyday they confront and deal with conflict. This takes phenomenal mental and emotional fortitude and a firm belief in the possibility that their work will have a positive and real impact on people’s lives.

Ignatian Perspective puts forward a kind of homily for bloggers, asking for humility in blogging.

Atty-at-Work tackles the Supreme Court decision on Executive Order 464.

Red’s Herring tackles the ideas behind Congressional oversight -and defends it.

Bong Austero writes a nuanced entry on how older people should cut the young and perhaps intemperate some slack; and also appeals for self-control on the part of Senators rumbling they will fight it out with the Palace. He is right, of course: there are some senators who ask questions very well (Serge Osmeña is usually one) and some who make you want to strangle them (Jinggoy Estrada is one).

An OFW Living in Hong Kong describes meeting three Filipino doctors turned nurses, and challenges the conventional wisdom concerning why Filipinos decide to work abroad. He says, the real reasons. he says.

Pay is usually pointed as the main reason for migration. I disagree though. I believe that the main reason is a combination of things. (1) Deteriorating peace and order situation in the provinces, (2) Deteriorating standard of education, (3) Perception that the country is not going to improve anytime soon, (4) Unwieldy pay structure that do not change with the times. There might be other reasons, but look at these four reasons and you will see that these doctors are trying to provide for their children, not for themselves. They are relatively content with what they are doing now, but they think that they will not be able to take care of their children and not assure a better future for the same children if they stay.

Time and again, talking to people from the middle class, it’s the future that justifies their decision to leave now. They themselves are OK, and will be OK: but they don’t think their children will be OK.  The problems of the middle class -and criticisms of its fundamental attitudes- leads baratillo books cinema @ cubao to ponder how, exactly, to go about winning hearts and minds (in an earlier entry, Bong Austero has similar points to make).

Blurry Brain explains why we should pay attention to the Asian Development Bank’s report on growing poverty in the Philippines -and the proper solutions.

The Citizen on Mars lists the potential dangers inherent in a national identification card system.

Pinoy Solutions with some suggestions on handling rampaging buses.

Laitera asks: what is the fine line that divides the sexy from the lewd?

From Global Voices: things in Mexico that originated in the Philippines (coconuts, nipa, tuba, cock fighting, ceviche, the Philippine mango, tamarind, rambutan, acacia trees, papayas…) . From Rebecca MacKinnon, doyenne of Global Voices: videos of the heckling of Chinese President Hu; the Washington Note on the rather incongruous use of the word democracy several times in President’s Hu’s speech. Go Figure on China being the fall guy for global economic trends.

Blogging from Agoo: World of Antonate. Provincial blogging’s tribe increases.

Fifty-eight years ago tomorrow, President Manuel Roxas was buried. The Philippines Free Press blog republishes its requiem editorial.

More recent passages: an email from an American on July 18 informed me that Lt. Commander Julius C.C. Edelstein  passed away in New York City a few months ago. His obituary makes no mention of his work as a press and public relations man which made his name familar to an older generation of Filipinos, Edelstein gained notoriety as a close aide of President Roxas, to the extent that the late historian of all things America-in-the-Philippines related, Lew Gleek, recounted press criticism over Edelstein’s being given a bedroom in Malacañan Palace. This summary of his life, however, mentions his closeness to Roxas and others.

Also just the other day, American academic Daniel Boone Schirmer passed away. He was passionate advocate of the anti-war movement during the Vietnam era, and was active in pro-democracy circles supporting the opposition to Ferdinand Marcos. Among his notable works was “The Philippines Reader : A History of Colonialism, Neocolonialism, Dictatorship, and Resistance” (South End Press).

Technorati Tags: Blogging, constitution, journalism, media, military, Philippines, politics

Planters and millers

The rise in the price of oil throws the spotlight again on efforts to kick start ethanol production. Ethanol comes from sugar, and when you mention sugar, you can’t help but think of the sugar barons of old, their enormous estates, and enormous spending habits.

As for me, I’m trying to digest “Barons, Brokers, and Buyers: The Institutions and Cultures of Philippine Sugar” (Michael S. Billig). I got the book last year but it was on my to-read shelf until the other day. Here’s a striking passage from the book (Chapter 1: The Rise of Urban Elites):

...Many in the sugar industry persist in the belief that they are among the most powerful political forces in the nation. But those with real power consider that claim laughable in today’s Philippine sugar economy. More political capital can be gained from disparaging the “sugar barons” than from advancing their interests.

And yet, in their efforts to portray the Philippines as a neo-colonized, exploited, and “feudal” cog on the periphery of the global world capitalist system, many Philippine scholars have missed or understated this important trend… scholars have conveyed the impression that the old rural oligarchs have preserved their preeminence in unabated form, or at least that all Philippine elites are pretty much alike in how they relate to the state. Journalistic accounts… are even more stark in their portrayals. For them the Philippines is a “changeless land” and a “land of broken promises,” dominated by fabulously rich rural elites able to direct political life unfettered by competition from other elites with other values and unconcerned with the greater national good…

I am not claiming that those perspectives are entirely mistaken, only that today’s Philippine reality is far more complex. Where rural elite families have managed to maintain their status and power, they have done so by adapting to radically different circumstances, by making new alliances, and by using their wealth and influence to pursue different strategies of gain. Those oligarchic families who have clung to the older methods of wielding influence have largely ceded ground to the nouveau riche. Most important, urban businessmen and financial wizards have increasingly become the dominant reference groups for ambitious young people. One would be hard-pressed today -even in Negros- to find a young member of a planter family who would admit to aspiring to a life of rural leisure and inherited “success”…

Although patrimonial capitalism endures in the Philippines, I argue that the shift from landlord dominance to the dominance of urban businessmen is critically important as a harbinger of future change in politics, economy, and culture. While it may appear at first that all Philippine elites are alike, that elites from different sectors pursue different strategies of domination and advocate different sorts of policies has consequential implications.

Many on the Philippine left see signs that the next “ruling class” will consist of former peasants or proletariat. But it seems far more plausible, given current trends, that what is evolving is the more typical historical progression: replacement of an old elite class by a newer one with different interests and sources of power, even though many of the individuals and families are the same. Despite the many works decrying the static composition of Philippine elites, and the bipolarity of Philippine society, I argue that this shift is affording an unprecedented amount of upward mobility and the rapid growth of a Filipino “middle class.”

This passage reminded me of an experience I had last year with, ironically, one of the heirs of an established sugar fortune in Negros Oriental. He was proudly showing me around rather forward-thinking developments in their former sugar lands: an industrial and technological park, efforts aimed at growing other crops other than sugar, and all sorts of exciting infrastructure (a modern port, an airport in the works). One of the projects was a gated community in which some new houses had already begun to sprout. I asked him who were putting up the new homes. “Oh,” he said matter-of-factly, “there’s the home of a seaman, and here, the house of a Filipina married to a Swiss, and there, a home built by a Nanny in London…” All fairly large, solid structures pointing to definite bourgeois aspirations. I like to use that development as an example of what Billig puts forward in his book. The social consequences of a person who, as a sailor, gets to build a home in a gated community, in a province in which, up to twenty years ago, people like that sailor groveled before people like the developer’s parents, can only be profound. And it is taking place all over the country. Its true effects are only beginning to be felt, but are being felt enough to frighten those before whom our emerging middle class once groveled. Not least because the fright is caused by unfamiliarity.

The old middle class that has practically gone extinct was molded by the old upper class to share its values, culture, and learning. The new middle class is rawer, brasher, unculturated in the old ways and thus, possibly less predictable.

Anyway, a question I’m curious about: will pushing ethanol production serve as a boon to big estates? Will it serve to give haciendas a new lease on life? And is this an intended, or an unintended consequence, of pending legislation? Will ethanol production result in a temporary resuscitation of the old planter culture to which, for example, the President’s husband belongs, or will it hasten its demise?

My mind has wheels has a heartening entry on the joys of tutoring. As someone who had to undergo tutoring many times in the past, I’m all for tutoring and programs that encourage tutorials.

Technorati Tags: history, Philippines, politics

Premature celebration

The big news of course is what is being called a nuanced decision by the Supreme Court on Executive Order 464. What struck me was that news began to circulate at around noon yesterday, and within a few minutes the Palace had a statement -on a decision it technically hadn’t had an opportunity to review, much less properly comment on.Portions of the Executive Order were declared unconstitutional.

As I understand it, the Supreme Court’s decision mandates the following:

1. In terms of the “Question Hour,” which has hardly been used by Congress, the President must approve any appearance by members of the cabinet.

2. For purposes of hearings in aid of legislation, the President can forbid the appearance of heads of department if she asserts and explains that for the heads of department to appear would violate executive privilege or endanger national security. Of course this brings up some interesting possible disputes: not all cabinet members are heads of department, so for non-department heads in the cabinet, can they be required to testify before Congress regardless? Also, the concept of executive privilege has been strengthened by the Court’s decision, even though it’s something vague, not written in the laws, or mentioned in the Constitution.

3. The Court says all other inferior positions, and members of the armed forces, cannot be covered by the Executive Order and therefore, no limits can be imposed by the executive on these officials and government workers appearing before Congress.

4. Some members of Congress are less than satisfied because the decision emphasizes inquiries in aid of legislation but not the oversight powers of Congress, which are even more important.

The decision is definitely a setback for the administration, but leaves room for further fights over interpretation.

In other news:

The Inquirer editorial sums up the Justice Secretary’s recent statement and behavior concerning American servicemen accused of rape: “Loathsome.”

Also, Palace orders implementation of ID system. I’m not against a national ID per se, but the manner in which it is utilized will require vigilance.

My day will be spent in the third and final day of Free Expression in Asian Cyberspace (the blog has comprehensive updates on what was discussed in the various sessions). You can read more in Teeth Maestro, a participant from Pakistan, and PCIJ: session 4 (Great Firewall of China!), and 5 (Sedition, sedition!), and 6 (JV Rufino of Inq7.net explains pressures of the financial kind for online news media), and 7 (Melinda de Jesus’ magnificent remarks).

Spillover from iBlog2 continues from Philippine Commentary and  Ellen Tordesillas.

Over the weekend you can catch replays of my interviewing Roby Alampay of SEAPA, Ethan Zuckerman, and the head of Malaysiakini.com, Malaysia’s leading online news source.

Technorati Tags: Blogging, constitution, journalism, media, Philippines, politics

The patriotism of the family

Imagine if you were arrested for trying to attend iBlog2: you would then discover that besides the joys of blogging as described by Susan Ople, there are perils to blogging.

Newsstand describes the vicarious discovery of the perils of blogging, in a sense. Two Vietnamese delegates to the Free Expression in Asian Cyberspace conference were arrested and detained when they tried to get a flight to Manila. Experiences like that, plus other cases of official hostility to blogs and online media in Malaysia, Singapore, and the People’s Republic of China makes me glad I’m a Filipino blogger.

The conference enters its second day today. My heart’s in Accra gives a good overview of who’s involved and what’s at stake (plus impressions on Shiela Coronel’s keynote address).Incidentally, Rconversations  points readers to My heart’s in Accra for capsule digests of what the speakers said and other conference highlights,  while video highlights are at Asia 0900. Also, Leon Kilat blogs for the tech-oriented among us. Jove Francisco has managed to concentrate on blog-oriented matters this week.

PCIJ has been live blogging the event: see their coverage of Session 1, and Session 2, and Session 3 of yesterday’s conference proceedings (I gave a talk during Session 3).

The conference itself is being thoroughly documented over at its official blog, Free Expression in Asian Cyberspace.

Tonight, I’ll be substituting for Ricky Carandang on his 9-10 p.m. show on ANC. Guests will be (hopefully) Rebecca MacKinnon and Roby Alampay of SEAPA to discuss online media, free speech issues, and blogging.

The great concentration of regional bloggers who spend the time after each session or at the end of the day’s activities concentrating on their blogging, has allowed me to simply concentrate on being a spectator over the last few days, which have been very tiring. Today, it’s more of being in observer mode. So I’ll leave you with readings for today.

My column for today is Executive clemency. I’d like to point to one more opinion piece: Manuel Buencamino’s explanation on how the middle class is politically overrated. The real movers, politically, he says are the very wealthy or the very poor.

In “The Italians” (Luigi Barzini), the passages that strike the most familiar chords are these, from Chapter Eleven, “The power of the family”:

The first source of power is the family. The Italian family is a stronghold in a hostile land: within its walls and among its members, the individual finds consolation, help, advice, provisions, loans, weapons, allies and accomplices to aid him in his pursuits. No Italian who has a family is ever alone… Scholars have always recognized the Italian family as the only fundamental institution in the country, a spontaneous creation of the national genius, adapted through the centuries to changing conditions, the real foundation of whichever social order prevails. In fact, the law, the State and society function only if they do not directly interfere with the family’s supreme interests.

Italy has often been defined, with only slight exaggeration, as nothing more than a mosaic of millions of families, sticking together by blind instinct, like colonies of insects, an organic formation rather than a rational construction of written statutes and moral imperatives…

This is, of course, nothing new, surprising, or unique. In many countries and among many people, past and present, where legal authority is weak and the law is resented and resisted, the safety and welfare of the individual are mainly assured by the family. The Chinese, for instance, in their imperial days held the the cult of the family more praiseworthy than the love of country and the love of good. This is why the Communist regime of Ma Tse-tung tried to stamp out the family, recognizing it as its most powerful opponent. Similarly, wherever the Jews were allowed to settle in Europe, they outwardly conformed to the local laws and impositions, but in their hearts obeyed only their religious rules and the immemorial code of their family life, which allowed them precariously to survive persecutions.

It is therefore not surprising that the Italians, living, as they have always done, in the insecurity and dangers of an unruly and unpredictable society, are among those who found their main refuge behind the walls of their houses, among their blood-relatives. Italians have, after all, many points of contact with the Chinese: the Chinese, too, love ceremonies, feasts, elaborate rites, deafening noise, fireworks, and good food; love children and produce many of them; their art is also highly decorative and ingenious but not always deep; they fashion lovely things by hand, and are astute negotiators and subtle merchants. The Italians are also, in many ways, similar to the Jews: the Jews have the same disenchanted and practical outlook; are among the few people who laugh at their own foibles; they entertain a wary diffidence for other people’s noble intentions and always look for the concrete motives hiding behind them.

There is, however, this fundamental difference between the Italians and most other people who use the family as their private lifeboat in the stormy seas of anarchy. Anarchy in Italy is not simply a way of life, a spontaneous creation of society, a natural development: it is also the deliberate product of man’s will, the fruit of his choice; it has been assiduously cultivated and strengthened down the centuries. The strength of the family is not only, therefore, the bulwark against disorder, but, at the same time, one of its principal causes. It has actively fomented chaos in many ways especially by rendering useless the development of strong political institutions. This, of course, brings up a complex problem: do political institutions flourish only where the family is weak, or is it the other way around? Does the family become self-sufficient only where the political institutions are not strong enough? However it may be, political institutions never had much of a chance in Italy. The people gave birth to but a few of them: they had to import most of them ready-made from abroad, from time to time…the constitution, the bi-cameral system, liberalism, democracy…

The family extracts everybody’s first loyalty. It must be defended, enriched, made powerful, respected and feared by the use of whatever means are necessary, legitimate means, if at all possible, or illegitimate…

There’s another passage from the chapter above, which strikes close to home:

One fundamental point which escapes most foreigners must be understood and remembered. Most Italians still obey a double standard. There is one code valid within the family circle, with relatives and honorary relatives, intimate friends and close associates, and there is another code regulating life outside. Within, they assiduously demonstrate all the qualities which are not usually attributed them by superficial observers: they are relatively reliable, honest, truthful, just, obedient, generous, disciplined, brave, and capable of self-sacrifices. They practice what virtues other men usually dedicate to the welfare of their country at large; the Italians’ family loyalty is their true patriotism. In the outside world, amidst the chaos and disorder of society, they often feel compelled to emply the wiles of underground fighters in enemy-occupied territory. All official and legal authority is considered hostile by them until proven friendly or harmless: if it cannot be ignored, it should be neutralized or deceived if need be.

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Hello Garci, journalism, Philippines, politics

Showmanship as rebellion

Free Expression in Asian Cyberspace: A Conference of Asian Bloggers, Podcasters and Online Media begins today.

Here’s my powerpoint presented at iBlog2:

iblog2.ppt

Accounts of the summit are at Filipino Librarian, at Jove Francisco’s, good old Punzi’s Corner Blog and at RConversation. Also, Ajay’s Writings on the Wall, and Quare Verum. There are surely more who’ve posted, but have to run!

Subservience of Philippine Congress Is Nothing New is my Arab News column for this week.

And so, on to today’s reading.

Have you ever watched a Balagtasan? And more importantly, watched the audience watch one, and watch the poets in the joust interacting with each other and the audience, to whom they always turn to score points against their rival-poets? To watch a Balagtasan is to understand our politics, the roles imposed -because expected- of politicians by the voters, and see voters’ behavior in the context of what they demand and expect. The Balagtasan, according to Virgilio Almario’s fascinating paper (linked above, which you should download or read online) was born during the period when our present politics was itself maturing; it is as much a link to the political mores of those times as it is a means of gaining an insight to our traditional attitudes towards the performance aspect of politics.

In the same chapter (Chapter Five, quoted from previously), Barzini, in his book “The Italians” (Luigi Barzini), goes on to explain the Italian love for spectacle, for the pleasures of participating in attempts to impress:

[These] are not always animated by ther ignoble desire to deceive and bedazzle observers. Often, to put up a show becomes the only pathetic way to revolt against destiny, to face life’s injustices with one of the few weapons available to a brave and desperate people, their imagination. To be powerful and rich, of course, is, for an individual as well as a nation, more desirable and satisfactory than to be weak and poor. Italians know it as well as anybody else. For some reason, it has always been extremely difficult for them, individually and nationally, to conquer power and wealth. What were they to do? They staged an almost perfect imitation of the real thing. In normal times, after all, when there are no conflicts, power and the show of power can be considered equivalent. The mere shadow of power, if convincingly projected, can be as frightening as power itself. By its use, one may gain a few years or decades of tranquility, and that is all one wants. In a crisis, of course, only real power can defend one. But crises are rare, seldom come unannounced, and can be delayed or avoided by a tactful change of policy. This is a risky game. It may last a certain length of time, perhaps a very long time, but not forever. At some point, real power destroys make-believe power and everything ends in catastrophe. But the show is better than nothing, better than the supine acceptance of immediate defeat…

…In other parts of the world substance always takes precedence and its external aspect is considered useful but secondary. Here [in Italy], on the other hand, the show is as important as, many times more important than, reality.This is perhaps due to the fact that the climate has allowed Italians to live mostly outside their houses…the result is that at all times form and substance are considered one and the same thing. One cannot exist without the other. The expression is the thing expressed.

This reliance on symbols and spectacles… is the fundamental trait of the national character. It helps people to solve most of their problems. It governs public and private life. It shapes policy and political designs. It is, incidentally, one of the reasons why the Italians have always excelled in all activities in which the appearance is predominant: architecture, decoration…

Inevitably, Italians are tempted to applaud more those performances which stray dangerously furthest from reality, those which make do with the scantiest of materials, those which do not even pretend to imitate existing materials…

I’ve heard more than one foreign observer say that it seems to take a herculean effort for Filipinos to be able to carry out a spectacle, but when we do it, we do it with charm. But reading the above, and the Italian interest in simulating power even if it isn’t there, in living their lives outside the home, and attention to appearances to the extent it stimulates the decorative and artistic abilities of an entire people -is there an echo of ourselves there?

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Philippines, politics

Flattery for self-preservation

Today will be spent at iBlog2, and then advancing work because the next few days will also be devoted to Free Expression in Asian Cyberspace: A Conference of Asian Bloggers, Podcasters and Online Media. So for this week, I won’t be able to do the usual roundups. I’ll focus on putting forward some extracts from a book for discussion, instead.

Among my holiday reading was “The Italians” (Luigi Barzini), which together with “Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong: Why We Love France but Not the French” (Jean-Benoit Nadeau, Julie Barlow), makes me wish someone would undertake a similar book about Filipinos.

One of the unintended benefits of the Filipino diaspora, I always try to suggest to others, is that the exposure of so many Filipinos both to democracies and undemocratic countries abroad, serves to banish one of the dangers of living in an island nation: the tendency to be insular and unaware and unappreciative of what is going on elsewhere.

Most of all, to examine others is to examine ourselves. To study other peoples is to make possible seeing ourselves in others -the delight, or horror, of discovered similarities. It is also to see how similar problems entail solutions that differ from our own, that may be superior, or prove inferior to solutions we’ve devised.

From Barzini’s book, these passages (from Chapter Five, “Illusion and Cagliostro”):

Polite lies and flattery can be utilitarian on occasion but, most of the time, must be honestly classified among the devices disinterestedly designed to make life decorous and agreeable. They are the lubricants that make human relations run more smoothly… Almost imperceptibly flattery is in the eagerness with which your orders are obeyed, or the obsequiousness with which your advice is sought in matters in which you have no particular experience. It is in the use of academic and other titles; people affix it to your name, as if to prove that you so visibly deserve such honors that it is impossible you have not been awarded them…

Most polite lies, like flattery, are too transparent really to further the liar’s interest. When the shoemaker convincingly says, one hand on his heart, “of course, sir, you will have your new shoes on Thursday, without fail. Do not worry!” he is aware that he cannot fulfill his promise. The shoes will not be ready on time. But he is lying not for himself. He is lying for you. He wants you to feel at peace until Thursday, at least, warmed by the hope that your shoes will arrive…

Even instruments of precision like speedometers and clocks are made to lie in Italy for your happiness. The instrument in your car always marks a figure which is between ten and twenty per cent above the actual speed at which you are traveling. It is meant to make you feel proud of your automobile and your driving skill, but also to make you slow down sooner than you would otherwise and possibly save your life. The clocks on railway stations are all five minutes fast; everybody knows it, of course; and yet travelers, who would arrive on time even if they walked, are stupidly encouraged to quicken their step. Only foreigners are sometimes discouraged sooner than necessary and miss their trains. The electric clocks on the trains themselves, on the other hand, are often a few minutes slow, to give passengers the illusion they arrive on time when they are late, or a little ahead.

“FIlipino time” -it seems less surprising in the light of Italian Time; just as the frustrations of the Westernized Filipino and the Westerner over the honeyed but meaningless words of those who promise, but don’t deliver on time, seem echoed in Barzini’s description of the Italian propensity for making soothing promises.

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Philippines

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