As I was able to hear our discussions about migration, I realized the different pros and cons of this activity as people. One advantage on making countries more porous is that it would help in reducing overpopulation of a certain country. It would also surely help in regulating and providing ease for allocating their resources. However, one negative thing on the other hand is that, if countries would be made porous, there are a lot of dangers or risks that would arise given that it would be hard also for the government to watch out for the welfare of their citizens outside their territory moreover protect their cultural identities. Another would be the danger as well of the protection of the national territory of course. This process may also give a bit of leeway for terrorists and other illegal transactions that may threat a nation’s defenses and people. Having weighed in all possible effects of this, I just realized what globalization has been aiming for; a society for all humanity by being a help for one another. It entices interdependence of every country. However, even though it is quite ideal for all of us, the thought of being dominated by hegemonic cultures and practices would certainly make me become skeptic with all the ideas and the bargain of the development. I’ve always been an admirer of my own heritage and I would certainly be able to survive even by just maximizing what I have in my resources. However, trend now is way too far compared to what we used to have before. For me, my view on living by my culture and tradition is too good to be true.
Monday, November 29, 2010
A reflection on the movie ang pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros
I would want to share what I have found out in a very good movie which perfectly depicts gender inequality in our nation and that’s Ang pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros. In this movie, I was able to ask several questions regarding gender inequality in our country and I may say that true indeed that our society is still in the midst of struggling on how to view gender. In the movie, it made me ponder on what gender would really mean since, in the film it was implicitly projecting to us that our society has been looking at gender in two faces: first, the differences between the sexual organs and two, the roles that they are giving to an individual. If we are going to take things biologically, true that there are only 2. However, still, when we dig on to the sciences, it was also proven that there are other bases aside from merely looking at what your sexual organ is. The problem with most society is that, we tend to label and decide on how an individual should behave given that he/she has that kind of genital. What if, like in the case of Maxine, ‘she’ is a ‘he’ but the role that ‘she’ has to perform is that of a girl. Now there has been a conflict in how to label him/her. Maxine feels that ‘he’ is a ‘she’. But the society wouldn’t allow ‘him’/’her’ to be. Just a piece of thought on this film, it’s indeed hard for us to determine one’s gender if we’ll only refer to his/her action and role as the bases for it. Because, if we’ll scrutinize all the cultures of the world, it would only goes to show that all of us has no specific gender and that the only moment that we’ll be able to have one is when our culture and society will label us on one.
Epekto ng globalisasyon sa kultura ng ating bayan
Una sa lahat, mas pinili kong isulat ang blog na ito gamit ang sarili kong wika upang mas maipahayag ko ang mahahalagang kaisipang Pilipino na nabuo ko mula sa aking mga pananaliksik. Ang mga kaisipang ito ay mahirap na isulat sa wikang dayuhan sapagkat maaaring maiba ang pagkakaintindi ng mga ito.
Nais kong ibahagi ngayon ang isa sa mga tago sa ating ulirat na epekto ng globalisasyon. Totoo na ang globalisasyon ay nagbukas ng isang daan para sa ating bansa na makaahon kahit papaano mula sa pagkakabaon ng ating ekonomiya lalo na noong panahon ni Marcos. Subalit marami itong hininging kapalit. Isa sa gusto kong bigyang pokus ay ang epekto ng globalisasyon sa sistemang industriyal at edukasyon na siyang bingiyang daan ng panukalang batas noon tungkol sa wika.
Batid natin na ang bansa natin ay nabubuo ng mga dayuhang industriya at ang mga industriyang ito ay siyang isa sa mga pangunahing pinagkukunan natin n gating kabuhayan. At upang makapasok tayo o makakuha tayo ng ating trabaho sa mga kompanya o industriyang ito, kinakailangan nating umayon sa mga patakaran at makibagay sa galaw ng sistema nila. Isa sa pangunahing hinahanap nila ay ang mga mangagagawa na marunong magsalita ng inggles sapagkat ang mga amo nila ay pawang mga dayuhan. Kung kayat, may mga isinabatas noon sa administrasyong Arroyo na gawing medyum ng panturo ang wikang Inggles. Ano nga ba ang epekto nito sa atin?
Tinalakay sa “The Miseducation of the Filipinos” ni Profesor Renato Constantino at “Nanganganib na nga ba ang Sikolohiyang Pilipino dahil sa Wikang Inggles?” ni Dr. Virgilio Enriquez. Katulad ng punto ni Prof. Lumbrera, Ipinupunto ni Prof. Constantino at maging ni Dr. Enriquez sa kanilang mga sulatin na ang wika ay ginagamit upang baguhin ang ating kamalayan at ito’y nagaganap at magaganap sa sistemang pang edukasyon ng mga tao.[1] Matapos ang pananakop ng mga Kastila sa ating wika, ang pananakop naman ng Amerikano’y paggamit ng kanilang wika sa edukasyon o pagkatuto ng mga Pilipino. Sinabi ni Constantino sa kanyang sulatin na, “The molding of men’s mind is the best means of conquest. Education, therefore, serves as a weapon in wars of colonial conquest.” Ang pananaw ng mga Amerikano’y masasabi nating buhay pa rin sa ating sosyedad hanggang ngayon. Hindi pa rin nawawala dahil patuloy pa rin nating ginagamit bilang medyum ng pagtuturo sa kahit na saan mang paaralan. Mukha ngang nagkakatotoo ang mga nasabi ni Prof. Constantino gaya ng “Young minds has to be shaped to conform to American ideas” at “Education served to attract the people to the new masters and at the same time to dilute their nationalism which had just succeeded in overthrowing a foreign power”. Sinasabi rin ng mga Amerikano noon na ang ginawa nilang “educational system” ay upang palayain tayo sa katangahan at pagiging ignorante. Gagamitin raw ang wikang ingles pangturo upang palayuin na tayo sa ating nakaraan. Ang nakaraan nga bang tinutukoy nila na dapat nating limutin ay ang nakaraan sa pananakop ng Espanya o nakaraan kung saan tayo ang namumuno sa ating sariling lupain at tayo ang mas nakakaalam sa kung ano ang dapat nating gawin upang mamuhay dahil tayo ay tao at likas sa ating umayon sa galaw at pangangailangan ng ating sosyedad? Sa konklusyon, nais ko pa ring gamitin ang sinabi ni prof. Constantino: “As long as feelings of resistance remain in the hearts of the vanquished, no conqueror is secure. Education must both be seen not as an aquisition of information but as the making of man so that he may function affectively and usefully within his own society”. Ang wika natin ay proteksyon at kapangyarihan nating mga Pilipino. Dahil sa edukasyon nalaman natin ang problemang ito ng ating bayan. Obligasyon na nating ituwid ang mga binaluktot ng mga dayuhang mananakop dahil wala na sila. Masisimulan natin ito sa paggamit at pagiging hindi dayuhan sa ating sariling wika.
Sana mula rin sa mga nalakap na mga pagaaral, nawa’y kahit kultura na lang natin ang ating isagip sa mga panahon ngayon na nagpapaubaya tayo sa mga dayuhan pagdating sa pamamalakad ng ating ekonomiya.
Gender inequality
Last Wednesday we tackled about inequalities and we were able to touch the issue on gender inequality. I was captured by the topic since I consider gender inequality as one of my most favorite issues to analyze since in my own opinion, the issue about it is very mind bothering and it indeed challenges our beliefs as a culture in a way that they silently plead for attention. We’ve been seeing a lot of LGBTQ’s (Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals, and Queers) around. True that they do not have the capacity to reproduce in the sense that they are not attracted to people who have different genitals as theirs, but, the thing here we are seeing a lot of them every now then as if they are becoming normal in our everyday sight. Although there have been scientific studies which would prove that these LGBTQ’s are not abnormal, we could still see the different discriminations against them. So I asked myself, is gender an identity that I myself, as a person thinks I am or my identity as what my society dictates me to be? Is this a role which I should play? I have a friend who admitted that “he” is a gay. I asked “him” before to describe to me the feeling of being a gay. “He” answered me in reply: “I know what I have here (pointing at ‘his’ genital) is that of a boy. But I also know exactly what I feel. I am uncomfortable and irritated acting according to what and how I should behave. My feelings are as important as any logic that those damn people dictated me to be. Napapagod na ko sa kakasunod. Dati kasi sumusunod pa ko sa sinasabi ng ibang tao e. lalo nang parents ko. Sasabihin nila sa akin dapat ganito yung pananamit mo, dapat magkagusto ka sa girls blah blah. Friend, wala talaga e. ito na talaga ako. Bat ayaw nila akong tanggapin? Tapos pagtatawanan pa kasi bading ako? Alam ko sa sarili ko na Normal ako dahil wala akong sakit. At wala akong nasasagasaang tao. Kala ko ba gusto nila magpakatotoo na lang ako? Ano ba mas madaling gawin? Ang tanggapin ang sarili bilang ako o di tanggapin ng ibang tao dahil sa ganito lang ako?” after our conversation then, what “he” has said to me triggered me to delve on this inequality more. I conducted some little research – thanks to my Genders class before – Even APA has proven that being LGBTQ is not psychologically ill. They are normal. Actually, our notion of abnormal and the word normal are quite political on this issue. How do we define what is normal and abnormal? Why is it so hard for cultures to accept these people and stop treating them as if they are contagious despite the scientific proofs? At some point in this generation, there have been quite few improvements on treating these people. However, this idea of gender inequality still continues now as I can still see dividers in the LRT trains separating only 2 genders – males and females. Where should we put gays and lesbians then? I’ve heard a lot of stories on men being raped by gays. Now gender segregations are seen in 2 ways. One, the feeling of a person and two, what the society has been dictated us to be. Lesbians should be considered as males in the sense that that’s how they feel they are and so they are manifesting them. Same case should be for the gays. Because as how I am seeing these things, the government seemed to acknowledge only 2 genders and the criteria on which depends on the kind of genital do you have. How would this hamper our progression as a nation? This social belief affects and hampers equality in our society as well as in access to services from the government. Moreover, the laws in our country don’t sanction the needs of protection of these people. This wouldn’t end so long as we’d be able to really dug into the roots of this stigma and fix the problem.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Economy and Globalization
Our economic status has always been playing a great role in determining the capacity of our country to produce the commodities that we need in our day to day survival as well as in international arena. Countries who are involve in globalization such as our country, we certainly need to know what can we give and have if we’d participate in the international trading society without having the scarcity in our own resources to provide for our own. True that globalization shares a lot of positive outcomes for third world countries such as ours which are in need for support of other stable countries but why did it seem to aggravate our situation? Must the globalization itself be blamed for this scarcity of our resources or is it our government who should take the accountability for all the shortages and inflations of our goods for the more or less past 6 years?
I chose to include in my discussion the importance of the roles of globalization and government because they play major roles in manipulating the economic status of our country. On one hand, globalization, in my own opinion, is the opening of countries to establish interdependence and so to maintain equilibrium of states. There are exchanges of exported goods to provide for everyone. State’s government on the other hand is our primary representative in the international arena as well as in the position to control the laws as well as to establish the rights of households. Provided the roles of each actors, we can now address well the economic crisis of our country. One of the major economic crises that our country has faced for the past administration is the rice shortage in the year 2008 which inflation on rice’ price soared up to estimated 40 pesos per kilo from the normal estimated 25 pesos per kilo. This news has shocked our entire agricultural country because we’ve been always known to be one of the top countries which export rice and now we are the one who are importing these from Vietnam and Thailand. This is a crisis where we Filipinos have no choice but to deal with this since it seemed that the government were the one who dictates and manipulates the market equilibrium since rice is a staple food to us and it is not just an ordinary commodity that we can live without. It is a good that we need and we consume the most. I think of the reason that our government wants to secure and further provide our demands that’s why they signed a contract with Vietnam and Thailand of rice import – of course through the loan in US – is kind of illogical because so long that there are enough lands that we could plant on I don’t think that rice would become scarce. In my own analysis, there is an imbalance in the system in handling our natural resources. Of course, we can’t guarantee that we could supply all the demands of the population of our nation given that it do increase if not everyday at least every year and our lands would still produce the same amount of rice, however, we need to reach a certain equilibrium of our supply and therefore there’s a need of an expansion or an addition of lands where we could plant more of the crops that we need to feed all of us. As of now the prices of rice were normalized but it is indeed true that there’s a need for us to know how to deal and analyze our economy as well as the different pros and cons of globalization because in here we’ll be able to manage our natural resources with great knowledge and protection moreover especially to all the households who are the main actors of economic movement.
References:
Farmers Warn Philippines Faces Rice Shortage. Associated Press. March 28, 2008. From
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=11119.
A rice shortage? Philippine Daily Inquirer. February 25, 2008. From
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/editorial/view/20080325-126227/A-rice-shortage.
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