When ordinary pinoys who are relatively untrained can compete this way amidst the lack of a strong learning culture in the nation…doesn’t it tell you something? If we can do it, even with odds against us, why don’t we bring this to higher and larger realms of battle. If we have so much raw potential, why do we stop with the raw and never bring this potential further. Imagine if this raw human capital is harnessed for the good of the country. Imagine the possibilities.

DAMBISA MOYO AND DEAD AID

The first time I heard about Dambisa Moyo was in June last year. The June 27 issue of Newsweek featured her book, Dead Aid. This woman had guts, I thought. Even the flak from Bono and his One Foundation and the rest of the world did not impede her.  The book was revolutionary as it advanced the view that multilateral aid has worsened Africa’s underdevelopment trap over the decades. Dambisa’s message could cut through diamonds. But it was months after this, during the Ondoy aftermath, that I went back to what she had written and realized its importance with regard to the circumstances of the Philippines.  I underscored the essence of her book as an example of self-respect on a personal level and ownership and stakeholding from a policy perspective amidst the aid-addicted Filipino psyche and the policies derived from that.

FOX Business – Dambisa Moyo says Aid to Africa isn’t working

From a Brown Raise viewpoint, Dambisa Moyo became a figure to watch not just for her being a champion for African ownership of its own development goals but more so for being a breathing example of “Black Raise.”  Her book begins with a personal quest of attempting to find out why Africa is in a desperate situation and how this can be reversed. Her questions are motivated by a heart for her roots, nation and continent.  The preface of Dead Aid reads:

“For me, finding a sustainable solution to Africa’s woes is a personal quest. Having been raised in one of the poorest countries in the world, I feel a strong desire to help families like my own, who continue to suffer the consequences of economic failure every day of their lives. Throughout my professional and academic life as a student of economics I have pondered the question of development. I have often wondered, while other emerging regions have ostensibly turned the corner towards economic prosperity, why my continent has failed. This book is a consequence of my thoughts and deliberations over the years.”

NEIL TUROK AND THE NEXT EINSTEIN INITIATIVE

This year, another “Black Raise” example came to light.  In the course of my research, I came across The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS). This is the brainchild of theoretical physicist Dr. Neil Turok. It shamelessly aims to produce a band of passionate people who will change Africa. How? It has this simple conviction: The next Einstein will be African. Hence the birth of the Next Einstein Initiative. The latter’s homepage says:

What is NextEinstein?

A vision: Only Africans can solve Africa’s problems.
A solution: Mathematics and Science lead to peace and prosperity.
An opportunity: The Next Einstein can be African.

How did Dr. Turok’s views begin?

Dr. Turok grew up in special circumstances. Born in South Africa, he grew up in his parents convictions as anti-apartheid advocates. His parents were not only imprisoned for their beliefs but the family had to live as refugees. Fast forward to Neil Turok’s teenage years. When he reached the age of 17, he went back to Africa and volunteered as a teacher. In that experience, his own convictions came to their own. He saw that African children are intelligent and full of potential if only they can be given a chance. What he got from this experience was a broken heart for Africa. And that is the best beginning. He was armed with the belief that African talent must be discovered, nurtured and cultivated. In one word it was empowerment towards self-sufficiency. After many years of establishing himself in theoretical physics, having been appointed Chair of Mathematical Physics at Cambridge University in 1997 and the current Chair of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Canada, his road map was formed.

Neil Turok: 2008 TED Prize wish: An African Einstein

When Dr. Turok won the Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) Prize in 2008, he again shared his vision for equipping Africans through the AIMS, which was established in 2003.  African solutions by Africans, he said in his speech. His vision was so compelling that it produced an elite graduate program of world class rigorous academic training, after which, the students are equipped to cross swords with any academic giant in the world. In one interview, Dr. Turok shared that some critics see the endeavor as a waste of resources since only a few Africans will devote themselves to such a track, notwithstanding the full scholarship.  Is this the best way to help Africa? Can math and science stop famine and ethnic cleansing? But there is wisdom in what Dr. Turok undauntingly says: if these students, though few in number, can be inspired, they will change Africa. Dr. Turok may not have the monopoly of answers but what is important is that he indeed carries an answer. He made the best use of what he had–math and science–for the good of Africa.

FRESH HOPE FOR AFRICA

In the March 1, 2010 issue of Newsweek, Jerry Guo writes that while China and India receive all the airtime for their economic rise, the oft overlooked Africa looms as global growth story. “In 2007 and 2008, southern Africa, the Great Lakes region of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, and even the drought-stricken Horn of Africa had GDP growth rates on par with Asia’s two powerhouses.”  It is exciting to hear that entrepreneurship has increased, thanks to the start of an unmistakeable brain gain in Africa’s most robust economies. A country’s rise still goes back to the story of people.

AIMS in South Africa

Through all the seeming brain work in Dr. Turok’s endeavors, what is really behind the vision is a simple story of fire. Change begins with a personal broken heart for the things we want to change. We must be the first answers to the wrong we want to right. Second, it’s all about empowerment. Solutions for Africa must primarily come from Africans. It is very fitting for Dr. Turok to teach this. The person who begins as a solution is the best person to teach others to become solutions themselves. Last, the story is about inspiration. Great movements in the world always begin with movements within an individual’s heart where convictions, principles and dreams are decided. Indeed, as Emerson and Carlyle put it, there is no such thing as history, only biography. History begins with a personal renaissance in heart spilling over to the mind, moving the hands to turn the world upside down. As Dr. Turok said, if these few Africans are inspired, they can change Africa. Indeed and beyond.

Welcome to the Black Raise.

~ Apolinariang Binibini

Banned books

Rather than seeing this as an opportunity to build the nation by building its greatest resource—the citizens themselves, the Philippine government decided lately to be different. It goes without saying that it is laudable to make a stand in principles of good government. Why not be a crusader against the trafficking of Filipinas? Or why not clamp down on the continued smuggling of natural resources to foreign countries? Or enforce environmental regulations on factories dumping wastes on our seas. Etcetera, etcetera ad infinitum! And to think the laws in these cases do not need reinterpretation. They just simply have to be enforced.

Land smuggling in the Philippines

But it appears that we have not reached our self-imposed quota of stupid law enforcement. The Philippines is a proud maverick among nations in the view that book imports should be a source of government revenue. Never mind if there are a plethora of sensible ways to raise government revenue.  The finance officials just had to choose the restriction of books! Is it because book business owners are not militant and won’t cause a flying fig to affect popular opinion? Of all opportunities to make a stand and be Frodo-the-Ringbearer in the international community, MALI PA!

In short, the Department of Finance decided to re-interpret the Florence Agreement.  Basically, this reinterpretation calls for the following: a 1% duty for books that are educational, technical, scientific, historical or cultural and a 5% duty for books other than educational, technical, scientific, historical or cultural and those books or raw materials are not to be used for book publishing but are intended for sale, barter or hire. Books belonging to the first class that are for non-profit purposes can supposedly be brought in duty-free.

What if you imported books and you insist that the books you got are educational and for non-profit purposes? The DOF is very proficient in turning the verification process into an obstacle course so that frustration stops you from pursuing the issue. So you are now in the most exciting part–you have to go through the DepEd and CHED and argue your case because determining the classification of your books depends on them! For some reason, I will not be surprised if in the event you prevail upon DepEd and CHED, your next stop will be the DENR—the reason is still being invented at the moment because of an ongoing reinterpretation of the law. This is your cue to laugh uncontrollably.

HOW THE LAW WORKS: UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

Last April, a teacher-friend of mine bought some books abroad and sent them to the Philippines in advance, even before she herself flew back to the country. One shipment was delivered at the school she works for while the other one was strangely held in customs.  So she sent a messenger to pick it up and found out that customs wants duties paid for the books. Upon getting this feedback from the messenger, she talked to the customs official over the phone and quizzically asked about this so-called new rule.

Now the customs official burst into a tirade, expressing her displeasure of being doubted by my teacher-friend. In short, ayaw ng opisyal na pinaghihinalaan siya. If you ask me, it will always remain an enigma that the unscrupulous are the ones who want to be known for the most scruples.  My teacher-friend, being the law abiding person that she is, told the customs official that she does not mind paying what is due because this is the law. She said that she just wanted clarification because this was the first time she heard about the suspension of duty-free status of imported books.

A maze of books

While the messenger was already waiting for the receipt for the amount paid, the customs official somehow found out that my teacher-friend is the wife of a high ranking worker in another government institution. So she sheepishly said, “ikaw naman, bakit hindi mo naman sinabi kaagad. Eh gobyerno din pala kayo. Pero sorry… nagawa na yung resibo.”

What budget allocation can cure this malady of the soul that stops us from seeing that learning is important?! While neighboring countries are fighting, tooth and nail, to give their citizens an edge in learning and education, we are lost in the duty-free debate of book imports!

RESTRICT RIZAL?

Here’s another interesting implication of violating the Florence Agreement. Aside from making us more stupid and exceeding even the expectations of Jagor and Foreman, the Department Order has the potential to restrict the Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo!

According to the blog of Manuel L. Quezon III, Since the Noli and Fili are considered “imported novels” when published by international publication houses, the novels get the classification of non-educational.

Banned Noli Me Tangere

DUH!!! And double DUH!!! If you want to join the DOF, you must sharpen your skills of reinterpreting the law because this is going to be the hippest finance strategy in town! This is again an example of the systematic effort to keep us slaves by encouraging a culture of non-reading and non-thinking people. As of late, the teaching of the life and works of Rizal is getting battered. College students are made to trivialize the greater picture to focus on his love life or his alleged siring of German and Japanese fascists.

Recently, one student shared that her college professor taught that the title, Noli Me Tangere, was just simply a reverse psychology marketing ploy—because of the meaning “touch me not”—to sell the novel and hence that is why Rizal must be appreciated for his entrepreneurial genius!  The classmates of this student actually finished the subject with sentiments of derision towards our national hero.

Given this picture, can you imagine what happens if publications on Rizal are restricted in the country just because of the brilliant reinterpretation of our finance officials?

Conclusion

A society’s culture regarding books, reading and learning, is a very good indicator of its future.

If books are sick, absent and banned, our future will be in the same direction. No country ever rose without a desire for the wisdom to live right in life. But no country ever had wisdom without a path of learning. In turn, there would be no path of learning, without good books. Good books would be impossible if there were no decisions towards discovery of identity, no reformation of the soul, no inspiration of the heart and lastly, no love for fellow man. Babalik nanaman tayo sa salitang, malasakit.  The country’s leaders may not have it. But we, the people can start a new journey. Let us start from the very beginning. Someday, this country will have an explosion of books, bookstores, and libraries as a reflection of a new generation that made decisions towards discovery of identity, love for country, and plain malasakit for fellow Filipinos.

~Apolinariang Binibini

The self-confessed so-called Sick Book crusader, Antonio Calipjo Go, reported among other things, that 383 million pesos was used to purchase Sick Books from the publisher, Book Wise (June 2, 2009 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer). Our school children are systematically stupefied by reading not just sick books but books that are terminally ill. The fact the Mr. Go’s reports keep coming up, this means that the issues were never addressed.  The deplorable lessons on language and grammar are themselves discomfiting. I wouldn’t have expected much if the book were entitled English Langgwaydz by Jimmy Santos and edited by Melanie Marquez. But more than grammar, just wait until you see the content. The latter is either extremely senseless (there is no apt word to describe it) or culturally damaging. The following example is from a language textbook for the 6th grade.

If you know how to swim
How to try and dream
Then you can be a big whale
In the city or the sea.

The Enamored Whale (Illustration by Alberto+Cerriteño)

No wonder Filipinos grow up neither here nor there! In short, super lutang! Imagine going through school believing that this is education! In a reading textbook for the 4th grade, you have the following example.

Juan Luna’s painting Spoliarium represents several circus slaves dragging dead bodies.

Now one can always be a pilosopo and argue that in some parallel universe, the dead gladiators are circus slaves and that’s it. But what is really really disturbing is teaching the lack of regard for the cultural achievements of the Filipino race. In other countries, children are taught to look up to heroes, admire the excellence and achievements of cultural icons and mark historical events that contributed to nation-building. Give us a few years and this country will lose its soul and we won’t know what hit us. Ang ending nito ay, wala nang kaluluwang matitira sa mga Pilipino.

The Spoliarium By Juan Luna

As a response to this malaise, the government has some ideas up its sleeve. The following programs epitomize the kind of vision that we have for education that has manifestations on the national attitude towards books—(1) Donate a Book and (2) Violate the Florence Agreement.

“ABSENT BOOKS”

The observations of Jagor and Foreman on the culture of learning in the Philippines are correct. They paint a picture of a stagnant intellectual life in the Philippines, no readable books, and publications that are devoted to talking about inconsequential things. These observations referred to conditions during the Spanish times. But what is sad is that we are worse today. Kaya lalong nakakagalit ang mga politiko dahil hanggang ngayon ang palatuntunan pa rin nila ay ang walang kamatayang DONATE A BOOK! You would think that after a century of donating books, there would already be a library in every neighborhood as well as a national library with 14 floors just like in Singapore. But NO siree! We have a National Library that is only partially true to its name. Yes it is a national institution hence the word “National” but whether it is a library remains to be seen.

The sad National Library of the Philippines

Another indication of our sad reading culture is seen in the lack of bookstores in the Philippines.  Just check this out. In Korea, as described by Andrei Lankov in the book, Dawn of Modern Korea (2007), “in the 1970s and early 1980s, Korean publishing was growing at a breathtaking speed. From the early 1960s, Korea experienced an education boom and the newly educated youth took up reading. In 1972 Korean companies published 4469 titles. By 1975 this figure had doubled to 9225 titles. Over the next five years it doubled once again, and by the mid-1980s Korean publishers produced some 30,000 titles annually.”

The Kyobo bookstores of Korea (Seoul branches in the photo Photos by Urijamjari and JasonUnbound)

But the following is the best part for me because there’s a so-called “panic.”

“The number of bookstores in Korea has been decreasing at an alarming speed. In 1996 the country boasted 5,378 bookstores of all sizes, but by 2000 their number had almost halved to 3,459.”

That’s still about 3,500 bookstores!!! In the Philippines you only have two relatively large bookstores: Powerbooks and Fully Booked. I did not include National Bookstore because in some places it is a bookstore but in most, a school supplies store.

The only large bookstore in the Philippines – Fully Booked in Serendra, Taguig City in Manila (Photos by Zer Cabatuan)

Given the sick books and worse, no books, the Government thought of adding one more thing—the restricting of books! Absolutely brilliant. There is consistency and uniformity. We have found the perfect formula to produce more slaves that people like Chip Tsao can denigrate.

(To be Continued)

~Apolinariang Binibini

–Rizal’s letter to Blumentritt, Brussels, March 31, 1890

University of the Philippines in Diliman QC

If you’re looking for a yardstick of any country’s future, you can’t get a better one than the state and direction of the country’s education.  Recently, the Philippine Business for Education put up an event called “Chefs for the Future,” which raised funds to encourage the best Pinoy students to enter the teaching profession.  Dinner tables in the event fetched PhP 100,000 each. It may have been a great gastronomic treat but as to affecting even an iota of the education issues, well it is at best irrelevant. Uplifting education can be the best cause but often times, our chosen remedies—from lavish fund raisings to lowering the number of schools hours to address overcrowding in schools—sadly miss the birthday piñata.

“O.G.C.T. (ONLY GOD CAN TELL)”

When I went to Cagayan de Oro weeks ago, I had a conversation with a public school teacher. Gusto niyang tumulong sa bansa pero ano ang gagawin niya kung kaliwa’t kanan ang katiwalian. When her students fail, she gets asked by the school administration to change the grades of the kids. Low school scores imply lower ratings and in turn, lower government budget. But the problem is not only in public schools.

Someone working in a private school related a pervading culture. When exam time comes and grades have to be prepared, teachers begin to utter an expression. “Only God Can Tell!” It sounds like a secret code like “The Eagles Have Landed.” It simply means, one does not know the final grades of the students until they have been doctored!  Talking about the gory details of an appendectomy would have been a better thought exercise. But NO, this is a different kind of doctoring! It is uncanny to hear this anecdote in the wake of an issue about the DepEd lowering the passing grade in the National Achievement Test. It’s not a problem as long as we rename it as National Non-Achievement Test. Or better yet, National Mediocrity Test.  Apt labeling will always get my vote. The DepEd ofcourse denies to high heavens but you only need to look at the entire culture towards education to know that you don’t need an expose to ascertain that we are indeed providing schools to seal the future of the Filipinos as slaves.

As if I have not had a generous helping of torture from these stories, here’s another one. Some years back, I visited my old school, which is a private school. I was so shocked to hear from the principal that the school discouraged certain students to take the UPCAT because if they fail, it will pull down the passing rate of the school. The whole view towards taking entrance exams is just plain defeatist!!! In short, hindi ilalaban ang studyante para manalo sa buhay dahil masmahalaga ang reputasyon ng eskwelahan.

“WALANG BUDGET EH”

Ask any Filipino teacher the question, “How can schools be improved?” The teacher will tell you that the answer will always be about the budget. No matter how many fund raising dinners you come up with or how many schools you set up, or if you put up a million IRRIs and agricultural research centers, or if in the greatest fantasy sequence of all—the DepEd is abolished, things will not change unless education is borne of a vision for the country’s future.

Poverty or lack of budget will always be the convenient excuse. But it becomes more difficult to use as a cop out, knowing that there are such schools as the Ramanujan School of Mathematics in Bihar, India which was established by visionary citizens to teach the poorest of the poor in India (Kishore Mahbubani, The New Asian Hemisphere: The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East, 2008).  The students of the school were called the SUPER 30 because two years after the school was established in 2004, all 30 students passed the prestigious entrance exam in the Indian Institute of Technology—the Indian version of MIT.

Ramanujan School of Mathematics

The students are not only academically excellent, but they are also extremely patriotic! One of the students, Santosh Kumar, got in IIT and set his sights on a doctorate in chemistry and become an inventor. His hero is former President Kalam (president until July 2007), a newspaper boy who became an aeronautical engineer. President Kalam made it his mission to raise his country to glory through science. He traveled from school to school, telling students to bury themselves in books and excel at science. If they do, he promised, India will be a fully developed nation by 2020. His motto was simple but powerful: dream, dream, dream (August 21/28, 2006 Newseek issue).

“A PATH TO A DREAM”

Tuskegee Institute was built around a dream for the Negroes in America. Booker T. Washington established the school to improve the conditions of the Negro and took on the challenges of a statesman (Monroe N. Work, Tuskegee Institute More Than an Educational Institute, Journal of Educational Sociology, Vol. 7, No.3, November 1933). He wanted education to first teach his people how to be human beings then equip his people to be contributors to society. That was what being “free” meant. Education meant the passing on of civilization to the individuals who shall not progress by waiting for dole outs. They were taught to till the land as if writing poetry!

Tuskegee Institute in 1916, 35 years after it’s founding.

Singapore’s first university was put up because the people agreed upon themselves to sacrifice a day’s wage—it did not matter if their wage was 1 Singaporean dollar or 10,000 Singaporean dollars. The point is each person must have a stake in building something great. Budget did not become the driving force. It was and is about a personal stake and a great vision.

In contrast, our students do not study to build a dream that matters. You don’t have to memorize the statistics from the UN, ADB and PHDR. Just ask where our students go for field trips. There you have it—Wowowee and other noontime television drivel, which form the epitome of the curriculum of slaves. Stupidity is an everyday celebration.

The University Hall of NUS.

Schools are important but only as a result of a vision of a race that wants to equip its next generation to bring the country into the hall of nations.  This is why poverty is not the problem and neither is prosperity the answer. Rizal only saw liberty in the context of right education that taught the essence of being free. Free people are contributions to the world, they have the ability to invent and re-invent new paths, and most of all, they have the power to live excellent lives.

Education must be a path to a dream.

~Apolinariang Binibini

I really had no opinion about the Department from personal experience. But after my five hour adventure last week, let me just say that the Survivor and Amazing Race series pale in comparison.

The Department of Foreign Affairs in Roxas Boulevard.

The price for being naive

I suddenly realized that my passport was going to expire in the next few months. Knowing the 6-month rule (passports are supposed to be renewed 6 months before it actually expires), I was in a semi-panic due to the fact that I was scheduled to travel out of the country in 9 days. Keeping my cool, I resolved to go to DFA first thing in the morning. After double checking the requirements in the website in addition to some friendly advice, I made some photocopies, brought passport-size photos, brought supporting documents for identification, and of course the passport itself. As the car was nearing DFA, the driver said, “Maam, nandito na tayo.” So I got out and couldn’t find the building that I imagined. I said to myself…. “NASAAN ANG DFA?” This naïve first-timer question officially kicks-off the adventure. I was staring at a row of shops that provided multiple services. I told myself, “This couldn’t be DFA!” My attempt to not look like a first-timer failed. In a matter of minutes, I was hauled into one of the shops and the questions started.

May application form ka na? Bigyan kita, libre ‘to. May picture ka na? Blue ba ang background? Ay kailangan blue yan. Mag pa picture ka na. Pakitanggal ang earrings. May thumb-mark ka na? Xerox ng identification page, back page, and last stamping?

Twelve Pesos Lang

After a while, I had all these things. In the midst of being meshed with one another in the absence of queues, there was this lady who ever so politely drilled into the middle of our sardine pack saying, “Excuse me. Pasensya na, kasi meron akong tinutulungan na babae…” To the people in the shop, she then said, “Paki-una ito.” I was in the strange situation of witnessing a kolorum within what I just realized was a kolorum! Mental note: is it possible to have a mafia within a mafia? I found myself in the front of the station, facing the picture-cutter and the picture-paster. I handed my form, then the picture-cutter gave me the passport size pictures while the paster pasted one picture on the form while the rest were stapled. She said, “Twelve pesos lang.” One person at the back blurted out… “para saan ang twelve pesos?” to which the paster replied confidently, “para sa pag-paste ng picture at sa thumb mark.”

Profitable Business

Realizing that this was a racket, it was too late! Holding the form with the pasted picture and thumb marks—fruits of my naïve participation in the racket shop—I officially entered DFA and tried to find the place where the passport renewal was going to be processed. Now, signs don’t work here. You have to ask around. I ended up in a basketball court of sorts where the real queue was. Perhaps a sea of 500 people at 7:00 in the morning. Office hours begin at 8am. I thought of coming early but everyone had the same idea. Lo and behold, there were a string of shops with no lines, where we could have our pictures taken and thumb marks made and a host of other services. I just realized that the shops outside were quite effective in making naïve people like me believe that there are no services available inside. Now it seems that the website conspicuously contains partial information so that there could be a big opportunity for business.

Adjust, Compress, Adjust!

While lining up, we had to pass through a table where two people were seated beside each other. Each had his own stamp and they stamped on our forms. I concluded that it was like a 2-man Pre-Verification station that consists of the all too important tasks of pre-stamping! After an eternity, I got near the first window of the actual Documents Verification section. The lady stamped on my form. Then I lined up in the next window to have my form stamped on again. All in all there were three different stations for stamping!!! As I was lining up for the second window, there was this lady with a stick—similar to the one that security guards use in malls to poke on our bags. She was very serious in watching the line. “Dito po tayo! Adjust, compress, adjust lang po tayo!” First, there was no other line to transfer to but that. Second, I was wondering how we could adjust and compress and adjust even more when we were packed like sardines to begin with. My heart was pained. The Filipinos are not served, the workers do senseless things, opportunists are created, and everybody is corrupted. I remembered that when Japan transitioned into a modern economy, the first civil servants were descendants of the Samurais. It was in their nature to serve purposely and this applied regardless of position.

Inside the Department of Foreign Affairs.

“Mga Pilipino Talaga”

After another eternity, I found myself in a room with many windows. There was this lady who was grumbling beside me. “Ano ba yan! Hay nako Pilipino talaga. Hindi makapaghintay!” And so I asked what the problem was. She complained that a woman cut in line in front of them. So I said, “bakit hindi ninyo sinabihan,” to which she replied, “sabi nya, makikiupo lang sya tapos biglang pumunta na sya sa harap.” This sentiment of frustration, captured by the words, “Haay, mga Pilipino talaga” is quite difficult to explain. First, it is always a source of frustration but it is ironically, widely accepted among Pinoys. Why do you think? Is it because “ganoon talaga ang buhay?” I strongly believe that it is simply because those who want change must in themselves have that change too. And that is too much sacrifice for most. Second, some Pinoys say it as frustrated victims of fellow Pinoys. Third, others say it as a sub-race of enlightened Pinoys who refer to their less enlightened kababayans with a tinge of derision. Fourth, others say it with a hope that we need NOT stay like this forever if we choose not to. I hope we can be in this last group, those who will begin the change in themselves.

The Director

I told the lady in the window that I had to get my passport before my flight out of the country. She then said, “makipagusap nalang kayo sa Director. Pumunta kayo sa auditorium at hanapin nyo si Director ____.” I could not make out the name she was saying but I proceeded to the auditorium. There was a man whose only task was to announce every 10 seconds, “Dito po ang auditorium!” When I got there, I told the guard that I was looking for the Director. I tried to approximate the pronunciation of her name. The guard squinted and out of an epiphany, said, “Ahhh! Hinihanap nyo si Director _____!” I still could not get the name! It was beginning to look like a funny prank. In the auditorium which was turned into a processing station, I and some others attempted to find the director. Some asked those seated “kayo ba ang Director?” I scanned the room and tried to observe who was the most different of all of them. Then I saw a lady—the only person who was facing the wall, rather than the people. She was in a corner and there were several people lined up in a distance from her.

Too bad if you’re pilay

One of the people waiting asked me why I didn’t try the fixers. He said, “alam mo kasi dito sa Pilipinas, masmabilis kapag meron kang kakilala.” He then shared that he is going to request that the processing of his passport be faster than the 8 working days specified for expedited processing. Although the 6 month rule will be on effect in January 2010, he wanted to get the processing done since he is leaving and will be out of the country when that time comes. Another who had the same predicament as him, was turned down. And the logic? There was no reason to expedite it. Never mind that it’s absolute self-torture to drop by the DFA for no important reason!!! Now there was this OFW who was leaving soon. He approached the Director and even apologized that he could not sit down on the chair due to an injury. The Director started talking in a tone and facial expression that were full of contempt. She turned down the request of the man who was simply asking if the passport can be released the day before his departure, eight working days away. She then said, “tingnan mo nga sarili mo. Pi-pilay-pilay ka. Dapat ang una mong ginawa ay magpa-X-ray! Paano ka makakatrabaho ng mabuti. Dapat healthy body KA…. Basta hindi pwede…” After this, he was dismissed without dignity. She told those of us who started listening in, “wag kayong makialam sa mga pinaguusapan namin!”

The new maroon passport.

Bagong Bayani

I was so pained! Is it so difficult to treat a “Bagong Bayani” with dignity and respect? The more basic question is, is it so difficult to treat a fellow Filipino with dignity? We send these hapless fathers abroad to eke out a living at the expense of a fatherless generation and a looming social time bomb! We work in a bureaucracy that stays afloat precisely because of the remittances of these OFW fathers and we have the temerity to talk to them with such indignity!!! Get this, the decision for expedited processing seems arbitrary. Some friends of mine got their passports renewed in 4 days. Others were turned down. The pilay OFW father was turned down. I got mine in 5 days. This whole adventure showed me the different faces of who we’ve allowed ourselves to be. Are you the Director? Or the woman who cut in the line just to get ahead? Or the guy who would go for a fixer if he could afford the service? Or the workers who won’t strive to better themselves so that they can make a better contribution? Or the shops outside who simply wanted to make a living? The DFA may be a microcosm of the Filipino race that continues to perplex the world—all the signs of failure in spite of every reason to flourish. But as long as there is today, we can make a step towards a different future. A Brown Raise future.

~Apolinariang Binibini

The National Library of  Australia by stage88

The National Library—found in Canberra—allows Australians to trace their convict lineage! In short, this country began with terrible conditions. How did the country go from convict colony to a nation with a legacy to the world?

A unique beginning

Last December, I visited the Hyde Park Barracks museum. Not the usual tourist fare. It used to be one of the convict barracks. And it sure depicted the kind of life they lived through the personal items they had, the lodging, and the kind of routine they kept.

Hyde Park  Barracks in Sydney, Australia

The museum had an ingenious replica of the convicts log, which documented each prisoner’s name, crime, sentence, and hometown in Britain. There were murderers but a lot committed petty crimes. One was sentenced to 7 years in prison for stealing a hair-brush. Regardless of the severity of the crime, the point is, these people were unwanted by society. Some early settlers were survivors of the Irish famine while some were orphans. To tell you the truth, it was heart-wrenching for me to go through the entire museum all because I realized that Filipinos did not start out as convicts. I remember that the Spanish were shocked to find the early Filipinos clad in gold!!!

Ancient Filipinos clad in Gold from the Boxer Codex

The early Filipinos were learned people. The big question is, while the convicts made a nation for themselves, what happened to the Philippines?

Kangaroos with a vision

The kangaroo and the emu—animals native to Australia—are conspicuously found in the nation’s emblem.

The Coat of Arms of Australia

This is for the reason that these animals have the inability to walk backward, thanks to their physiology. Come to think of it, it would be really funny to see kangaroos hop backwards. But seriously, these animals symbolize the forward-looking spirit of a people who began in the worst beginnings. For instance, in Parramatta, Sydney, you’ll find The Experiment Farm.

The Experiment Farm, Parramatta, Sydney, Australia

Farming was developed here and this made Parramatta the bread basket of the country. There was an urgent need to develop agriculture due to the impending starvation of the colony—since the site where the colony settled was not suitable for planting. The convict, James Ruse, began the experiment and the rest is history!

Even a rock has a story

One by one, the settlers came to love the country. They didn’t see it anymore as a place where the unwanted lived. It became a place where a new life could begin. I’ve been to the amazing places of Australia but what really amazes me is that in present-day Sydney, practically every corner has a story. I would sometimes just shake my head, thinking that it’s already exaggeration. I would often reflect that the Philippines should have more stories to tell because the early Filipinos were ancient! But it’s not really about whether Australia has many stories or not. I realized that stories abound because when people have love for country, even a piece of rock will have a story. I was brought to what is called the Blow Hole. So many people were eagerly waiting for something to happen. And I was wondering what it was, only to find out that they were waiting for the water from the crashing waves to go through the hole in the rocks and shoot up into the air! Well nothing happened that time because it was low-tide—it didn’t dampen their excitement though! Another time I was brought to a cliff. It was called a Look Out. Well, it literally looked out into the sea because it was a cliff!!! And in my heart I wept for the Philippines. We have the most beautiful sunset in the world, the best beaches, the most diverse flora and fauna and we can go on forever. But we will be story-less all because there is no love for country.

Restoring history

Last March, I visited the Old Governor’s House. And there was this sweet old lady who was a volunteer tour guide.

The Old Governor’s House, Parramatta, Sydney, Australia

We spent 30 minutes just talking about a particular tree in the heritage site. By the end of the tour, she asked if there were also many historical houses being restored in Manila. I said that there are some but things could be better. I will never forget her reply. She said, we can only restore when we have come to terms with our history. She was referring to restoring heritage sites but I was thinking about the heritage of the Filipinos as a people.

I dropped by Kinokuniya bookstore in the CBD. Malaysia, Indonesia, Laos and Cambodia have their own sections. The one book I found on the Philippines was in the PACIFIC ISLANDERS section. Why should our identity matter to the world when it does not matter to us? Again I wanted to cry because the world treats us according to how we treat ourselves. The Australians became proud of their accent, which was deplored as un-British, while Filipinos want to have the accent of Beverly Hills and worse, we deplore our own color!

We need not stay convicts

The history of Australia is full of people of vision. James Cook, the founding father, was one of the greatest explorers of the world. Richard Johnson, the first chaplain, took care of the convicts and saw a future in the change of their character. The governor-generals were people of character, learning and discovery. The War Museum in Canberra is a very beautiful testament to the valor of the soldiers who happily died for principle, even in a heart-breaking losing battle!

The Australian War Museum, Canberra, Australia

But what I love the most about the history of Australia is the fact that the country was transformed by the choices of the individuals who considered Australia not anymore as the largest prison in the world but as a place of hope and new beginnings. It is ironic to hear that Australia is now the safest country in the world. A penal colony! The transformation of the country is due to the realization of people that they too can be a legacy to the world. After everything, the trips to the Land Down Under became a message about my beloved country—the Philippines. The real prison sentence is not done by any court but by the kind of actions we choose to take, the kind of life we choose to live and the kind of love we choose to bestow on our country. Nation of Servants is a sentence. Basket Case of Asia is a sentence. But just like the early Australians, we need not stay convicts. Let us choose not to. We too can be a legacy to the world. When our love for country has grown up, the time will come that every alitaptap in the Philippines will have its own story to tell.