[Note:What follows is the official press release of the Literary Division of the Cultural Center of the Philippines on this year's issue of Ani.]

CCP launches 35th issue of Ani publication

11 November 2009, Pasay City – The Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) Literary Arts Division will launch Ani 35, The Pinoy as Asian issue, on November 26, 2009, 6:00 p.m., at the CCP Ramp with some of the featured authors reading from their works.

“Ani 35 is devoted to writings by Filipinos on their interaction with other Asian peoples and cultures. This may be interpreted as a response to the call of Dr. Bienvenido Lumbera, National Artist, on the need to reconnect with Southeast Asian literary tradition if we are to survive in this age of globalization,” Herminio S. Beltran, Jr., Literary Arts Division chief and editor of the publication, wrote in the Introduction. “We hope this will inspire the birthing of mechanisms and eventually practices in the Philippine literary/publishing world that will start off a more dynamic interaction among Filipino writers and their counterparts in the Asian continent,” Beltran continued.

Ani 35 features 54 authors who contributed for three sections: poetry; prose (essay and fiction) based on the The Pinoy as Asian theme and; Malayang Haraya for poetry and prose contributions outside the theme.

The 54 authors included in Ani 35 are Mark Angeles, Lilia F. Antonio, G. Mae Aquino, Genevieve L. Asenjo, Abdon M. Balde, Jr., Janet Tauro Batuigas, Gil Beltran, Herminio S. Beltran, Jr., Kristoffer Berse, Jaime Jesus Borlagdan, Raymond Calbay, Catherine Candano, Nonon V. Carandang, Christoffer Mitch Cerda, Joey Stephanie Chua, Kristian S. Cordero, Genaro R. Gojo Cruz, Carlomar Arcangel Daoana, Arvin Tiong Ello, Dennis Espada, Rogerick Fontanilla Fernandez, Reparado Galos III, Dr. Luis Gatmaitan, Joscephine Gomez, Malou Jacob, Ferdinand Pisigan Jarin, Karla Javier, Phillip Kimpo, Jr., Ed Nelson R. Labao, Gexter Ocampo Lacambra, Erwin C. Lareza, Jeffrey A. Lubang, Glenn Sevilla Mas, Perry C. Mangilaya, Noahlyn Maranan, Francisco Arias Monteseña, Ruth V. Mostrales, Victor Emmanuel Nadera, Jose Velando Ogatis-I, Wilhelmina S. Orozco, H. Francisco V. Peñones, Jr., Scott Magkachi Sabóy, Judith Balares Salamat, Edgar Calabia Samar, Louie Jon A. Sanchez, Soliman Agulto Santos, Dinah Roma-Sianturi, Rakki E. Sison-Buban, Jason Tabinas, Vincent Lester G. Tan, Dolores R. Taylan, Rosario Torres-Yu, Betty Uy-Regala, and Camilo M. Villanueva, Jr.

For issues of Ani, please contact the CCP Marketing Department at 551-7930 or 832-11-25 locals 1800 to 1808. For authors who want to contribute for the next issue of Ani, please contact the CCP Literary Arts Division at 832-11-25 locals 1706 and 1707, or email aniyearbook@yahoo.com.

Related Posts: “Attacking Other Religions,” “A Proselyter’s Zeal“

My wife and I were commenting on how well-maintained his Avanza taxi was.  He said his boss bought it early this year.  We could tell he  was a careful driver — no sudden lurches, no reckless swerves, no racing with other cars. And he was neat–looking.

Just as we thought our conversation had ended, he handed out two calling cards bearing the name of his church with its weekly Bible study or worship schedules.  Then came his five–minute sermon which, judging from his smooth delivery of it, he must have shared countless times to his passengers and just about anyone he met.  He is from this so and so church, he says, and, as I remembered it, he preached in a mix of Tagalog and English which went  something like this:

This [his church] is not a religion, it is a relationship. I am a born-again [sic]. And as a born­–again Christian I am responsible for preaching the gospel.  The gospel is simply a three-point message: Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection.  We are saved by the gospel. How do we get saved by the gospel?  Well, three things ­­ actually — three keys to the Kingdom. The first key is repentance. This corresponds to the first part of the gospel message, the death of Jesus Christ. The second key is baptism in the name of Jesus, which corresponds to the second part of the gospel message, the burial of Jesus. And the third key is Gift of the Holy Spirit, which corresponds to the resurrection of Jesus.

Despite being interrupted several times by my wife’s instructions for him to turn here and there, he plowed on with his soul–winning sermonette right to where we got off, confident perhaps that he could get a quick harvest out of the “Seed” he earnestly sought to sow in our fertile heart.

Frankly, the last thing we wanted after a whole day’s  work is to listen to a sermon at night in a taxi. But we had to be polite, so we just responded to his fervent speech with ah-huh, okay, hmm while wishing we’d get to our destination in a jiffy.

“You were once like that,” my wife kidded after we got off his taxi and were out of earshot. I looked back and saw the taxi still not backing up. “Oh yes, and perhaps much more so,” I replied. “And he is probably pausing for a five–minute prayer beseeching God to touch our hearts so we could finally feel the need to be saved from our terrible, terrible sins — just like I used to do after giving out tracts in the streets and preaching in classrooms or to strangers in a bus.”

Years ago as a new convert to a new religion (depending on which church doctrine one uses refers to, I was actually “saved”  four times — when I was christened a Catholic in preschool, when I prayed the sinner’s prayer in Grade six, when I prayed another sinner’s prayer in a more conservative Baptist church in college, and when I was baptized specifically “for the remission of sins” into the Stone–Campbell Church of Christ).  I had such a “fire in my bones” that every occasion became an opportunity for my “New  Christian” testimony, and everyone outside my church was a “prospect” for evangelism.  For after all, we had a unique message of salvation, we were the right church, and we better be busy before the Day of Judgment comes to damn people who did not get to hear our message. “…No one has the right to hear the gospel twice until everyone has had the opportunity to hear it at least once,” we’d chant with Peter Barnes as we marched on under the Star–Spangled Banner of the Baptistic/Restorationist Cross.

In reality though, we were simply proselyting most of the time — converting people to our church, our particular theology, out pet doctrines, and not to the Jesus who would have nothing to do with our misguided zeal and sectarian bent.

Still, I can say my stay with fanatical Christian groups was not a waste at all. It was simply a leg of this lifetime journey towards maturity.  When we truly commit ourselves to political, social, and religious ideologies, we will have to go through the passage from Cloud 9 Idealism to Ground Zero Realism during which we initially, like the boy in James Joyce’s Araby, “Gaz(e) up into the darkness [and see ourselves as creatures]  driven and derided by vanity… [with] eyes burn[ing] with anguish and anger.”  It was also a time to witness how the message of the Cross can change a person for the better.

And, back to riding a taxi, I think I prefer being preached to by the driver than having to wildly scramble for a missing seatbelt and to choke to death in a taxi driven by one whose closest experience to being spiritually high is enveloping the car with his cigar smoke while racing along the city’s narrow streets like a man possessed by legions of demons who, moments before,  had just driven thousands of pigs into the sea.

Baguio old–timers often pine for the pine–scented Baguio they used to know.   It is indeed sad that the Baguio we smell now is a mix of a whiff of pine scent and the lingering stink from mounds of uncollected garbage and the suffocating fart of jeepneys.

But along with all these depressing sights and smells is the often overlooked toil of our street sweepers like manang Josie of Salud Mitra barangay, shown in the photos above.  Manang Josie continues to make the piles of garbage near UBLES look “presentable” even though many residents do not take the time to fix the trash they dump in the area every night. Manang Josie has been in this thankless job for eight years now and says that it is only this year that she has had difficulty keeping streets in her area clean.

The familiar tinkling of bells sounding off from government dump trucks has not been heard in Salud Mitra for weeks now.  And the ticks of our city’s garbage “bomb” are getting louder.  When it explodes, everyone will surely get  bowls  of stinking goo for Christmas.

28 elementary, high school, and college students from “Little Kibungan” may not be able to continue their studies this year.  They are among the hundreds of residents who lost their loved ones or homes and now live in tents after being temporarily housed at the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) building in Wangal, La Trinidad, Benguet.  Should you wish to help these kids , please get in touch with the President of Benguet State University, or the Chancellor of  UP Baguio through Professor Faye Abalos (fayestamaria@yahoo.com).

For background reports on the “Little Kibungan” disaster, see the following articles:

♥ “Little Kibungan Takes Comfort in Faith” by Maurice Malanes

♥ “A Benguet Story: Little Kibungan Landslide” by Kat Palasi

Thanks to Rotary International, several families displaced by the “Little Kibungan” landslide are temporarily housed in white “shelter boxes” set up at the Veterans Federation of the Philippines (VFP) headquarters in La Trinidad, Benguet.  Hopefully, these victims of typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng will soon find permanent  resettlement areas where they can have access to suitable livelihood sources.

Almost four weeks after a landslide along the Dominican Hill–Quirino Magsaysay (QM) border ravaged three houses and killed four people, the disaster area looks like a junkyard with wreckage, household garbage, dozens of discarded tires, and at least three fallen pine trees strewn all over the place.

Call them “Epoy,” with a sneer.  Tell them they have the most laughable helicopters in the world (certainly not because our government cannot afford to buy the most sophisticated ones, but because funds meant for our armed forces’ modernization plans have been misused for decades).

But the Filipino military pilots have become legendary for their flying skills especially as they snake along narrow valleys  and maneuver somewhere in the hinterlands whether during combat  operations or disaster relief missions.   Their  “A1″ ingenuity in making the most out of their Vietnam War vintage UH–1H (Huey) helicopters is also laudable.

During the recent typhoon disasters, they have provided countless logistical support to chiefly civilian relief efforts.  In Benguet, the ever–proactive Governor Nestor Fongwan has been coordinating with the military on the delivery of sacks of rice and other goods needed by hundreds of typhoon victims in the province.

Below are photos of two of our military helicopters taken on 20 October 2009 at the Benguet State University (BSU) grounds.

Posted in Baguio City, Benguet, CORDILLERA/IGOROTS, Military, SOCIO-POLITICAL ISSUES ]]> http://magkachi.wordpress.com/2009/10/30/a-snappy-salute-to-our-pilots/feed/ 0 popoy BSU2 sms photo BSU7 sms photo BSU7 sms photo BSU3 sms photo BSU9 sms photo BSU8 sms photo BSU10 sms photo BSU 1 sms photo http://magkachi.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/tani-ato-twin-peaks-landslide/ http://magkachi.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/tani-ato-twin-peaks-landslide/#comments Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:28:01 +0000 scott saboy http://magkachi.wordpress.com/?p=3307 ]]>

If Tani Ato were a celebrity, his tragic story would have  merited a running news story in the national papers.  But he is not, so his grief will have to be immediately lost  in the nation’s  frenzy for the most explosive showbiz scandal and the next presidential polls.

If Tani Ato were a writer, he would have told of how he metaphorically wrote 30 at 73, when the recent typhoon conspired with tons of earth to bury six of his kins at Twin Peaks.  He would have graphically  described how his tears raged as he frantically dug up his dead, how he washed them clean, and how he buried them in a row of tombs close to his house. But he is not, and all he could do is tell the nosy in unadorned speech about how he lost  Ambrosio, 49 ; Oliver, 27; Patricia, 30;  Gloria, 27; Keithley, 4; and Jamaica, 9 (mos.).

If Tani Ato were a preacher, he would have waxed eloquent on theodicy and eschatology exhorting people that the disaster is simply the will of God, and all he must do is to have a deeper  faith in the inscrutable wisdom of Divine Providence and to be forewarned of Armageddon and be assured of Heaven. But he is not, and he is still probably wondering why he had to bury his own children and grandchildren and if in his remaining years on earth he will have to bury too his other surviving relatives, with none left to bury him.

He didn’t have to lecture me about coping with tragedy.  I could see how, after being battered by a storm, he has striven to get on with his life: I could see it in the deep lines of his face, in the unpracticed way he pointed at the encased photos of his dead loved ones; I could hear it in his simple retelling of a nightmare that, from hereon, would haunt him during every heavy downpour at night.

He is just one of those hundreds of residents in Tuba, Benguet who will have to nurse a wound in the heart for the rest of their lives.  He is just one of those thousands of voiceless, faceless victims of calamities across the country whose harrowing struggles with the random changes in life must be shared with the rest of the world if only to make us more humble, sensitive, compassionate, generous,  just, thankful.

♥♥♥

The road to Twin Peaks…

Five years ago, I covered the inauguration of this new modular bridge in Tuba, Benguet for DILG–CAR’s official publication, Gongs and Drums.  Everyone was jubilant then, for the bridge primarily meant easier transport of goods from the vegetable farms  to the market.  Now, the bridge was used by grief−stricken villagers to transport their muddy dead.

Abigail Daculan, also a former Local Government Operations Officer (LGOO)  and now our school nurse at UP Baguio, was back to her usual Community Organizing stance as she helped distribute relief goods  (thanks to the UP Baguio Community and Café by the Ruins) directly to the affected families.

Posted in Baguio City, CORDILLERA/IGOROTS, Environment, SOCIO-POLITICAL ISSUES ]]> http://magkachi.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/tani-ato-twin-peaks-landslide/feed/ 3 popoy Tano Ato, sms Twin Peaks 8 sms photo Twin Peaks 9 sms photo Twin Peaks 1 sms photo Twin Peaks 2, sms photo Twin Peaks 3, sms photo Twin Peaks 5 sms photo Twin Peaks 4 sms photo Twin Peaks 6 sms photo Twin Peaks 13 sms photo Twin Peaks 14 sms photo Twin Peaks 15 sms photo Twin Peaks 16 sms photo Twin Peaks 18 sms photo Twin Peaks 19 sms photo Twin Peaks 20 sms photo Twin Peaks 21 sms photo Twin Peaks 22 sms photo Twin Peaks 23 sms photo http://magkachi.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/pgma-forest-park/ http://magkachi.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/pgma-forest-park/#comments Tue, 27 Oct 2009 01:22:33 +0000 scott saboy http://magkachi.wordpress.com/?p=3297 ]]>

This large "thank you" note and at least 10 other similar streamers now decorate the contested forest park beside the Baguio Convention Center (BCC). PGMA's order barring any plan to plant high-rise buildings in the area should finally make GSIS and SM redirect their joint business interests elsewhere. sms photo

Related Article: “Kids Thank PGMA for Saving Forest Park”

PAKAAMMO

Siasino? AMIN DAGITI YKALINGA NGA YOUNG PROFESSIONALS DITOY BAGUIO KEN BENGUET ["Young" ka no saan ka pay nga agtawen iti 46, ken "professional" ka basta naggraduarka iti Voc/Tech nga kurso wenno College degree, adda man trabahom wenno awan].

Apay aya? BAKA MET ADDA ORASYO KAKABSAT PARA ITI MAYSA NGA EXPLORATORY MEETING MAIPANGGEP ITI PANNAKABUANGAY ITI MAYSA NGA ASOSASYON TAYO.

Kasano ngay diay KALPRA? Makitinnulong tayo a iti KALPRA, it being the de facto umbrella organization of all Kalinga groups in Baguio and Benguet. Mayat koma no mapabileg tay pay ti panagkakaduatayo babaen iti kastoy nga organisasyon. Adu ti mabalin tay  nga maaramidan karkaro ta kas kuna ni mam Lucia Ruiz ken Annielyn Pucking, adda nasurok nga 10,000 nga Kalinga young professionals ditoy Baguio ken Benguet.

Kaanu ngay ngarud ken sadinno? 5pm, 30 October 2009, Lin–awa Center for Culture and Arts, 203 Lopez Building, Session Road, Baguio City

Bernadette Balway, Froilan Calsiyao, Ma. Teresa Ganongan, Annielyn Pucking, and I initially met yesterday night (23 October ‘09)  at the Lin–awa Center to discuss the prospects of organizing a group as this.  The result of the discussion will be shared with those attending the 30 October meeting.

Umaykayo kakabsat!

♦♦♦

LIN–AWA

I had never heard of Lin–awa until last week when I attended the wake of William Dannang at the Cathedral of the Resurrection where I met Mrs. Ruiz, Bernadette and Annielyn.  (It was then that they broached the idea of forming an organization for all young Kalinga professionals in Baguio and Benguet.) I discovered that we shared the same passion for the enrichment of Kalinga indigenous knowledge systems and practices, and that they have long been active in promoting Kalinga, or Igorot culture in general, here and abroad.  More importantly, I learned that  this NCCA–accredited institution has been conducting workshops  on Kalinga dances and instruments, aside from providing scholarship assistance to members of  its group of peformers and helping document of  indigenous knowledge.  For me, a teacher who needs to re–learn the intricacies of his culture and a father anxious about his children forgetting their indigenous roots in the concrete jungle of the city, finding Lin–awa is truly exhilarating.

Related article: “Three Cordi youth to join ‘First Voices’ in Canada“

EXTRA! EXTRA! Erap to Run in 2010 Polls!!!

SO?

♦♦♦

Erap: “This is the last performance of my life.”

Great.  Politics is showbiz after all.  The next presidential election is his “last full show” where he, the beleaguered silver screen hero, gets to rise from the ashes of his incinerated foes thus immortalizing his iconic existence in the hearts of his adoring fans. [Background Music:   Charles Tindley's "(I) Shall Overcome"]

♦♦♦

The point in Erap’s Arthro ad: He could barely run.

♦♦♦

Erap and most other presidentiables are experts at generalizations.  They hear the rah–rah–rah siz–bom–bah from their bailiwicks  (or their bootlicking minions), and think it’s the whole nation cheering them on.

♦♦♦

Some think Erap is the country’s last best hope. Ay apo met, agpanunot tay met ah kakabsat.  Neh, buyaen tay kadi daytoy barbareng adda mapili tayo a natartaraki pay nga artista kas next President op da Shubisripablik hehe:

Dào shénme shān shàng, Chàng shénme gē. (“When you go climbing up their mountain, you’ve got to learn to sing their songs.” – Bryan Todd’s translation)

40 Chinese and non–Chinese individuals took their first Mandarin/Putonghua (pinyin) lessons at Hotel Supreme on 17 October 2009  from 3:00 –5:00 pm. They are expected to continue their language classes over the next seven Saturdays.

Hosted by the Baguio Filipino–Cantonese Association (BFCA) under the leadership of Hotel Supreme manager Peter Ng, the free crash course is into its second batch of learners.  The first batch was offered only to Filipino–Chinese learners, and had 15 enrollees only four of whom eventually finished the course.  The four graduates –– including CPA–Lawyer Cristeta Leung and Marlyn Ramos Galera–– are among those now teaching the second batch. 

The first session introduced Chinese numbers and personal pronouns using the inductive approach to language learning in which  the participants were first given a “feel” of the target language and allowed to figure out Mandarin grammar, phonetics and syntax minus the usual standard classroom lecture. To reinforce the learning points for the day, kiddie songs were taught to the learners toward the end of the session.

Session 1 Songs

1. Shige Xiao Pengyou (“10 Little Friends,” round song sang to the tune of  “10 Little Indian Boys”)

yīge, liăng ge, sānge péngyou

sìge, wŭge, lìuge péngyou

qīge, bāge, jiŭge péngyou

shíge xiăo péngyou

2. Wode Pengyou Zai Nali (“Where is My Friend?”; sang to the tune of  “Where is Thumbman?”)

yī, èr, sān, sì, wŭ, liù qī…

wŏde péngyou zài nălĭ?

zài zhèlĭ!

zài nălĭ?

wŏde péngyou zài zhèlĭ!

Learn Putonghua online @ mandarintube.com . Get helpful L2 learning tips from Bryan Todd @ languageexpert.com.

Two weeks ago, my wife and I took our two kids to watch the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP)–Baguio’s musicale, “Joseph the Dreamer” at the Saint Louis University (SLU) Center for Culture and the Arts (CCA).

It was a delightful treat with all its 17 songs rendered in an enthralling mix of pop, rap and praise — the serious and the comic,  the classical and the contemporary, the liturgical and the spontaneous.  Its creative appropriation of a foreign theme for a Pinoy audience connects with today’s generation for whom a Charles Heston–era retelling of ancient Hebrew stories has become soporific.

All performers virtually form a cross section of the Baguio community — teens and elderlies, students and professionals, academics and business folk, private individuals and government officials.  This demonstrates how Christian ministry can effectively meld with social involvement or public service.

What is most impressive to me about this musicale is the willingness of two distinct Christian institutions — a CICM–run school and an Evangelical church — to work together in packaging a gift to our 100–year old city and its multiethnic denizens.

May we continue to see more interdenominational work among Christians in the city.

♥♥♥

HISTORICAL NOTES

The Congregatio Immaculati Cordis Mariae (CICM) began its work in the Philippines in 1908.  It recently produced a docu, “The CICM Legacy in the Philippines,” a mini–version of which can be viewed @ cicmphil100.  Among the CICM priests who have helped enrich Igorot ethnography and Cordillera Studies in general  were Fr.  Francis Lambrecht and Fr. Francisco Billiet whose  works, Kalinga Ullalim and Ifugao Orthography, “immensely contributed to the growing repertoire of Cordillera folk songs”  (Saboy 1997, 7).

Meanwhile, the UCCP was established in 1948 as an “organic union” mainly of the following denominations: Presbyterian Church, the Philippine Methodist Church, the Evangelical United Brethren, the Congregational Church, and the Christian Church/Church of Christ (Disciples of Christ).  For a backgrounder on this nationalistic church, see “The United Church of Christ in the Philippines: Historical Locations, Theological Roots, and Spiritual Commitment” and “Unity in Diversity: The Birth of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines” respectively written by Mariano C. Apilado and Isagani V. Deslate (see Kwantes 2001, 335– 358;  2002,  28–56). Among their more prominent members today are  the likeable Juan Flavier, the venerable Jovito Salonga, and the indefatigable Fidel Ramos.

♥♥♥

THE JOSEPH STORY RETOLD

Joseph is such an  intriguing Biblical character that one Hexateuch (Genesis–Joshua) expert has this patriarch pictured as an icon of forgiveness in contrast with the image of a God who needed gradual “moral education” by his own creatures  (Segal 2007).  The very idea surely raises eyebrows especially among the more conservative wings of  Islam, Judaism and Christianity, but this scholar’s work as a whole is an interesting read for those  who wish to have a peek into how different interpretive communities struggle with sacred texts.

Andrew Bard Schmookler probes into Segal’s speculation @ nonesoblind.org, and Rabbi Mier Kahane engages Segal in a debate the first part of which is shown below:

The Joseph story is about love and jealousy, and crime and guilt, about loss and pain, and transformation and forgiveness.  In contrast to the Cain and Abel account, what is dramatically different in the Joseph story is that Joseph is both the long–suffering victim and the powerful figure who, remembering his own victimization, must decide whether to punish or forgive.

Joseph never seriously considers retribution. Rather, acting almost as a drama therapist, he leads them into a symbolically related journey that changes them. Theirs is not a total transformation, but as Judah’s actions demonstrate, it is one of significance.  And in this depiction of the sinner and his capability of change, there is important validation of the place of forgiveness within the moral order, even when justice would have indicated punishment. (Segal 2007, 23)

Works Cited:

Kwantes, Anne C., ed. Chapters in Philippine Church History. Manila: OMF Literature Inc., 2001.

__________________ . Supplement to Chapters in Philippine Church History. Manila: OMF Literature Inc., 2002.

Saboy, Anatalia M. Indigenous Ethnic Songs of the Cordilleras. Manila: NCCA, 1997.

Segal, Jerome M. Joseph’s Bones: Understanding the Struggle Between God and Mankind in the Bible. New York: Riverhead Books, 2007.

Ilokana teacher and writer Monica Supnet Macansantos notes in her paper, “Crossing Geographic Boundaries: Transporting the Ilokano Homeland,” that for the diasporic Ilokano “moving away… is not an act of abandoning one’s home, one’s heritage, but… a way of adding to the community’s history, by grabbing, like the Ilokano epic hero Lam-ang, the chance to become heroic…”¹

This is true for Efrenia Fé A. Maclean, an Ilokana from Bacarra, Ilocos Norte who was at UP Baguio on 05 October 2009 to share insights from her successful teaching career abroad in a lecture on “Language, Culture, and Identity.”

She has made a name for herself in the U.S.A as a teacher and educator for over thirty years now. Three of the awards she recently received are the Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship, Fullbright Memorial Fund Teacher Program (Japan), and Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. She is also featured, along with two American teachers,  in The Learning Classroom: From Theory to Practice, a  documentary film cum multimedia instructional material jointly produced by  the Annenberg Foundation and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).

Starting out in Grand Rapids, Michigan as a highly effective kindergarten teacher in the early ‘70s, she went on to build a distinguished career being a curriculum developer for the bilingual/bicultural education program in Hawaii, gradeschool teacher in Michigan, National Science Foundation (NSF) fellow, Reading First facilitator with the Michigan Department of Education, and presently an associate member of the Washington-based  Teacher Advisory Council under the aegis of The National Academies.

Maclean’s professional track record bears imprints of her Ilokano identity. Her early exposure to a multiethnic society, for instance, enabled her to treat her Black, Hispanic  and White students fairly at a time when racial discrimination was rife in America.  And at a time when teaching “Culture” in America was tantamount to stereotyping other cultures, she offered a “horizontal” approach for studying culture – “there’s just one race, only different ways of life.”  One way she instilled this concept in class was through a “family tree” project in which her students learned lessons on cultural commonality and diversity.  Of course, it was natural then for her to teach her students a traditional boardgame called sungka, the Philippine version of the African mancala or the Indonesian congklat.  Coming from a very “musical culture,” she also had the chance to introduce songs from the Philippines to first graders who at the time were not really expected nor taught in school to sing “with the right tune,” a skill which was supposed to be developed in higher grades.

Growing up in a rural school where students regularly and successfully competed with those in the urban centers also helped, for her first teaching assignment was in a rural school where most lived below the poverty line. Here, she had the chance to help boost the learning competence of students normally not expected to excel academically, thus proving that poor children could compete with their more privileged peers.

Her being kuripot (frugal) paid both material and non-material dividends too: discardable things became award-winning teaching materials that proved more durable and practical than the commercialized ones; recycled papers which a nearby factory deemed useless became valuable scrap books showcasing children’s creative works; neglected stacks of wood were turned into sturdy benches and desks through a parent-child-teacher cooperative project, which instilled pride and a sense of ownership among “Section 2″  gradeschoolers who did not get enough furniture as those in “Section 1” did. Owing to a sound training at the Philippine Normal College, she was averse to the idea of segregating “smart and not-so-smart students” into different classes, and did her best to provide avenues of learning to all regardless of the section they belonged.

“When one always buys things, when one always depends on others, he becomes lazy,” she would remind her pupils. Her class learned to be productive, economizing on the use of available resources and optimizing time. Guided by one who walked her talk, the children developed the habit of saving used or throw-away things for some projects and doing things without being told.  Here, she would inject the Ilocano concept of being manakem (sense of responsibility, precociousness; from nakem = roughly, “conscience”).

In these and other snapshots of her teaching career, Fé Maclean concretizes the fact that, as she put it, a Filipino’s “American experience… is a product of what he brings and the circumstances he encounters in the United States.  He uses language to participate in the immediate culture he finds himself in and chooses his own identity.”

No doubt, the identity she had as a top Philippine Normal College graduate about 40 years ago is far different from the “Filipino-American” that she is now.  But there is no doubt that  a diasporic Ilokano like her continues to extend abroad the reach of an identity commonly and chiefly characterized by frugality, self-reliance, resourcefulness, and productivity.

So she is home even when far from home. For America may be in her name, but Ilocos is always in her heart.

***

¹ Aurelio Solver Agcaoili, et al., eds., Sukimat: Proceedings of the 2007–2008 Nakem Conferences (Batac, Ilocos Norte: Nakem Philippines, 2009), 88.

Posted in Baguio City, CORDILLERA/IGOROTS, Identity, Language & Literature, Ilokandia ]]> http://magkachi.wordpress.com/2009/10/14/efrenia-fe-a-maclean/feed/ 0 popoy maclean http://magkachi.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/dominican-qm-landslide-baguio-city/ http://magkachi.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/dominican-qm-landslide-baguio-city/#comments Tue, 13 Oct 2009 08:17:34 +0000 scott saboy http://magkachi.wordpress.com/?p=3183 ]]>

A midnight landslide last Friday (09 Oct 09) crumpled three houses along the Dominican Hill-QM border in Baguio City, killing four  people  [not five as earlier posted, see comment] and displacing four families.

smsaboy photo

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“Language, Culture, and Identity:

A Perspective from a Fil-Am Educator”

(Lecture)

by Ms. Efrenia Fe A. Maclean

Visiting Educator from the U.S.

05 October 2009

2 P.M.

UP Baguio Multi-Purpose Hall

Hosted by UPB’s

Graduate Committee/Sentro ng Wikang Filipino

of the College of Arts and Communication

OBLATION, UP BAGUIO (sms photo, 28 Sept09)

Markus Balázs Göransson has just completed his thesis for his MA in Conflict Studies and Human Rights.  The title of his research is “The Power of Peace Pacts in Struggle: The role of the bodong system in the Kalingas’ mobilisation against the Chico River Dam project in the Cordillera Mountains, the Philippines.”

Meanwhile, Tom Kips is delivering a public lecture on the decline of Kalinga tattooing tradition on 8 October 2009 at the CSC Research Laboratory (see below). Tom  is pursuing his MA in Cultural Anthropology.

Both are graduate students of Utrecht University and research affiliates of UP Baguio’s Cordillera Studies Center (CSC).

Short reviews of their works will be posted on this blog later.

REVIEW
Not just a source of historical trivia
By Scott Saboy

Philippine Daily Inquirer [http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/]

First Posted 00:57:00 09/02/2009
Filed Under: history, Books

A myth is a kind of story told in pulic, which people tell one another; they wear an air of ancient wisdom, but that is part of their seductive charm.  Not all antiques are better than a modern design — especially if they’re needed in ordinary, daily use… myths aren’t writ in stone, they’re not fixed, but often, telling the story of the same figures — of Medea or of dinosaurs — change dramatically both in content and meaning. Myths offer a lens which can be used to see human identity in its social and cultural context — they can lock us up in stock reactions, bigotry and fear, but they’re not immutable, and by unpicking them, the stories can lead to others.  Myths convey values and expectations which are always evolving, in the process of being formed, but — and this is fortunate — never set so hard they cannot be changed again, and newly told stories can be more helpful than repeating old ones.

♣ Marina Warner, Six Myths of Our Time: Little Angels, Little Monsters, Beautiful Beasts, and More (New York: Vintage Books, 1994), 19.

Donna Rosenberg defines myth as “a sacred story from the past” that “may explain the origin of the universe and of life, or… express its culture’s moral values in human terms” (1997: xxiv). It involves the interplay of the human and the superhuman, the natural and the supernatural.

As myth, in the words of Daniel Pinchbeck (2007:10),  “imparts a structure to space and time” and “weaves a world into being,” it creates an identity around which its believers unite.  Exploring the myth of a particular culture, then , means understanding its worldview.

Many dismiss myths today simply as vestiges of a primitive (i.e., unenlightened, irrational,  irrelevant,  worthless) past, finding neither sense nor redemptive value in attempting to understand a worldview that seems so “out of this world.”  To these people, myths are useful only to the hopelessly superstitious or to the hard–nosed academician armed to the teeth with theories used to tear apart ideologies.

But there are still many of us who agree with Rosenberg who noted that myths are

the source of our most important attitudes and values, the principles by which we live, and the ideals for which we sacrifice our lives.  They create meaning out of nothingness, sense out of nonsense, order out of chaos, and purpose out of aimlessness.  Myths meet genuine psychological needs.  They make a culture’s spiritual beliefs and values concrete and understandable.  They are a spiritual compass that guides us along life’s journey. [1997: xxvi]

In this light, we laud a new work on Bontoc mythology by an yFontok, Antonina “Toni” Magkachi Manochon.  She has just successfully defended her masters thesis, “Interpreting Selected Myths and Folktales as Expression of Bontoc Worldview,” at the University of the Philippines Baguio. Operating on the theoretical grids of Psychoanalysis (Freud & Jung), Structuralism (Strauss) and Functionalism (Bascom), she unravels the mythological fabric of Bontok culture and gives us an accurate perspective of an often misunderstood indigenous concept of being and becoming.

According to Toni’s adviser, Prof. Delfin L. Tolentino, this work is significant for its informed analysis of Igorot myths.  Works on indigenous myths, he explained, have usually been geared towards some pedagogical or didactic end, often neglecting a critical and creative treatment of the subject.

Reading the work reminds one of Marina Warner’s words:

…myths are not always delusions, that deconstructing them does not necessarily mean wiping them, but that they represent ways of making sense of universal matters, like sexual identity and family relations, and that they enjoy a more vigorous life than we perhaps acknowledge, and exert more of an inspiration and influence than we think.  (1994: xix)

I share the hope of Prof. Tolentino and Dr. Elinora Peralta−Imson, thesis reader, of seeing more  Igorots engaging in similar researches in order to help preserve and/or develop indigenous culture.

We look forward to seeing Toni’s work in book form as the governor of Mt. Province himself, Atty. Max Dalog, was heard to have exuberantly vowed to publish the work soon.

Works cited: Pinchbeck, Daniel. 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2007; Rosenberg, Donna. Folklore, Myths, and Legends. Lincolnwood, IL: NTC Publishing Group, 1997; Warner, Marina. Six Myths of Our Time: Little Angels, Little Monsters, Beautiful Beasts, and More. New York: Vintage Books, 1994.

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