Bumalik: returning, there and here

despite the current incompleteness of yet another blog! please check out the third series of my wild adventures and see what i'm up too! all my travels in the philippines were and are now culminating to an event back in philadelphia on march 7, 2008. for info go to: http://bumalik.blogspot.com/

art for the people

the best part of my day today was hanging out with this person CJ, she's is on staff with one of the congressman. She is also an artist and her last job was working for the organization, Sining na Naglilingkod sa Bayan (Art for the People). Which, is absolutely up my ally. It's a member organization, with a staff of organizers, that work with "cultural workers" (basically me, artist who work with communities) around activism. Amazing huh. They basically have programs with workshops, putting on productions and events that is in essence, art for social change! I couldn't ask for this trip to be any better. I can't believe it really.

http://www.geocities.com/sinagbayan

"business as usual"

i had the best day. . . inspiring, motivating, and satisfying . . . today i went to the house of representatives and attended a congressional session hearing. a congressman today gave a "privilege speech" on behalf of all those people who were relocated in laguna. he was calling congress to action. being there today at was exactly where I needed to be. i wanted to be a witness. this is where the majority of the dirty work happens, it is the hot bed of corruption. here decisions are made where the people are not first. and what is absolutely bizarre. it wasn't all that much of a circus as I thought it was going to be, but strangely enough, a series of polished executed actions that smelled of normality. the scene didn't phase anyone, everything was "business as usual."

origami for peace

this is bani and he met us in laguna. after the long day of seeing everything and hearing all the stories. it wasn't hard to feel terrible inside. . . bani went into his bag and pulled our a brightly colored pump and some balloons. he then proceeded to make many balloon poodles. he said, "there is nothing like the smile a child gets when you give them this." it then made sense to me. later her told me his other hobby, origami. which is an short for: Organized Resistance Involving Grassroots Against Militarism

a trip to laguna

yesterday, I spent the day in laguna. my friend laurice, invited me to participate in "an inspection" of an area that has been under served. it's a long story . .

basically 15,000 people have been relocated to an abandoned development with 9,000 homes. the government bought these homes for very cheap, probably considering it was a companies unfinished project. they were tiny one room row homes of just cinder block and cement. no roofs or windows, with dirt floors, non-functioning toilets, limited access to water, and so on. For all these families, there is one health center with 4 volunteer nurses only open monday through friday, no market nearby to buy food, a tiny elementary school with an average of 90 kids per class (the national average is between 40-60), no police or fire station, barely a sewage/drainage system and so on.

So why? All these people lived right next to an old railway that the government is planning to reopen and rebuild. All these people were moved to a new location that had no jobs for them waiting, hours away from their last one. There is little money to buy food or even to fix up the houses to be livable. And can you believe it? All these people are renting to own these desolate lots and they're not even sure if they will own them in the end, because of red tape. They were promised money when they were relocated and many have not seen any of it. And it's not enough to even fairly compensate their needs. This whole process has also brought along other struggles for the people, not mention quality of living. In the end, all these people will be moved to a even worse situation and it is rumored that the railway won't even be built, because of corruption of the government and the pocketing of the allocated funds secured by another country.

This sad happenstance in the world is a result of a system that not only doesn't look out for theses people, but simply does not care. We went on behalf of a congressman who will be making a speech this tuesday about the tragedies that have fallen on these people, in hopes to make a difference.

Later in the evening we went to a meeting with a room full of people who were about to be relocated as well to this same area in laguna. they were told what really they were about to face and by the end, they were all inspired to fight for their rights from the lessons learned. it was beautiful. one woman said in tagalog, "I can't do much and I don't know what to do, but I know how to cook pancit and will cook for everyone, whenever it is needed." i felt the energy in the room surging, you could even feel that change could happen.

it felt good to not just be an observer but to help, it happened that they needed a better working camera for documentation pruposes, so I took many photos on their behalf. above is one picture that I took. this women is holding her 2 year old daughter who is sick with Degue Fever. the women had no more money left to pay for the hospital bills, so she had to bring her daughter back home who continues to get sick.

walk this way

today, I went on this walking tour, recommended by lonely planet, and it was incredible! really. his name is carlos and I think he is an incredibly brilliant storyteller, smart, ingenious, funny, informative, critical and completely entertaining! I believe anyone who comes to Manila has to check out one, if not more of his tours.

He just has this remarkable wealth of knowledge about Philippine history that he tells and in a way that I absolutely appreciate. He is critical about the different people in power, multi-cultural influences, economics and so forth. He clearly and fantastically explains these multi-layered histories and how it links to why the Philippines (focusing particularly on Manila) is in the crisis it currently is. Totally up my ally! It left me absolutely inspired and filled to the brim with ideas.

his mission is to be "A man who is trying to change the way you look at Manila - one step at a time. " amazing. . .

http://celdrantours.blogspot.com/

Jose Rizal

After the museum I went to Rizal park and wandered into this curious sculpture garden. One being a-larger-then-life-size recreation of the execution of the Philippines great hero, Jose Rizal. It was also on the same land where it actually happened over a hundred years ago. He died at 7:03AM on December 30, 1896.

One of the plaques read "Rizal's martyrdom fanned the flames of the Filipino Revolution of 1896 and inspired Filipinos in their resolute and epic fight for freedom."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Rizal

Welcome back!

Well! Here I am again, back in the Philippines! I left beautiful Bangkok at 2AM this morning and arrived around 7AM. I slept terribly on the plane, the turbulence was pretty bad. (But granted that's because there is typhoon is coming) I felt utterly disgusting in that red-eye-flight kind of gross. Then, the long trek to the hostel with the big back pack didn't help. But alas! The super nice hostel was happy to let me check in early and I settled in, took a shower and the was the best thing ever.


burial jars

Somehow I had the energy to wonder around. I went to the National Museum of Filipino People. It has lots to offer. My favorites were the totally bizarre burial jars that were found Palawan. They are so curious and detailed. Also there was this contemporary artist Roberto Feleo had an installation and other works in contrast to the "Basi Revolt Series" by Esteban Villanova in 1820s, which is apart of the museums collections. I really like his work.

http://members.tripod.com/philmuseum/index

It was nice on Thanksgiving Day here to feel thankful the entire day for this trip and appreciate what a gift it is!

goodbye beautiful bangkok

so, i met this new friend in Bangkok, her name is Beer, really. She is probably one of the nicest people i've met on this trip. She's been so lovely to show me around. tonight she took me to Kao Shan road, which is the "backpackers" road, it feels like South Street but for people age 20-30. (Pictured above) I said to her, "what's you favorite thing here?" "Oh, I love to drink beer outside, it's the best." I laughed at her, because I had a feeling of why she wanted to take me there. So we sat outside, talked and watched people go by. afterwards, we left for a delicious traditional thai restaurant that played live traditional music. the place was near her house AND near the airport. 3 draft beers later and tons of food in my belly, she took me to the airport and I said good bye to Thailand. I am so sad to leave it. It's a remarkable place, I hope I get to go back again one day.

elephant ride

today was incredible. my dream came true, i shared space with an elephant, in fact, I sat on top of an elephant. the sweet massive creature walked us through the Kho Yai mountain and up a little stream. it was magnificant. today was another beautiful day where I thought to myself, "I am so lucky to be alive."

To check out more photos of the my day in Thailand's National Park:
http://s181.photobucket.com/albums/x313/michelleposadas/elephants/