Practising Reflexivity

I keep coming across women/men who ask me where I am from, I tell them that I am from Ateneo de Manila University. Ateneo has campuses all over Philippines, the closest being Davao. When I mention to them that I am attached to the one in Manila. I usually get blank stares which could mean two things:-
(a) That I was privileged enough to buy a ticket and fly to Southern Philippines. Many of them probably never been to Manila which is a 2 hour plane ride from where they live. They are outside the confluence of power, at the periphery.
(b) Philippines is enormous physically and you realize a lot of people may never have traveled outside their region even though they may have traveled all over the world. There are also many harmful stereotypes being perpetuated about a number of things especially of the southern region, poverty and violence. Many people from Manila have no idea how people in Tacurong City for example live. I can see many parallels between Malaysia and the Philippines in that sense. Certain states in Malaysia have benefited from progress due to the federal level investment but others have not.
It really depends where you are born, I am fortunate to have been born in Selangor which is closer to the seat of power and thus my access to opportunities. We have not even started talking about class privilege.

Comments

MAPARBEMPCO

During the 1970's, a land dispute between First Southern Land and the residents of Barangay Mapantig occurred. First Southern Land occupied all available tracts of land to the consternation of the residents of the area. People were driven away from their farms and some were even taken to court and imprisoned. Upon facing serious resistance from the company, the villagers gave up and some even moved to different locales in order to survive when the land was taken from them. When the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform programme was implemented during the presidency of Corazon Aquino, the villagers saw an opportunity arising to get back their land. However, the company applied for a deferment of 10 years which delayed further the implementation of the land reform programme. Finally in 1998, the Department of Agriculture decreed that the land being occupied by the Kenram Estate (the name of the plantation) would be subjected to agrarian reform. The residents who w...

A Library for Kampung Tering

Murni Bte Liga of Kampung Tering, an idyllic village in the outskirts of Kuala Pilah, has a burning desire. She is passionate about improving access to quality education for her community. She has often raised her concerns about quality education for Orang Asli children in meetings with authorities or civil society organizations. One of the issues that she finds problematic is the high attrition among Orang Asli children at primary and secondary school levels. In order to address the issue at her village, she decided to set up a functioning library which could be used by the children. Women from the village organizing the reading material for the library She noted the interest of mothers' in the village who want their children to improve their English language skills. She expressed her interest in running workshops on a monthly basis for her community. The workshops would focus on improving the language skills of the children who participate. Essay writing activities ...

Day One: Household Interviews

Meeting Mrs Panaso We reached our final respondent for the day, Mrs Panaso at almost 1 pm. Her house was a typical traditional house. It had no rooms, some wooden shelves inside and a lot of bundles. The walls were made of kalakat which is woven oil palm fronds. The fronds are woven and painted over with shellac to make it water proof. Oil palm the fronds are dried until they turn yellow and then used for kalakat. Mrs Panaso was a very slim woman of 60 with a shock of dyed brown hair. She is cheerful by nature and very accomodating. She was about to start her lunch of small dried fish, rice and fluffy brown dish of something I did not recognize. Mrs Panaso's deep well Her house had an open air kitchen which was a cheerful and warm place. She used fire wood for her cooking. She also had a deep well from which she obtained her water supply. The metal pump looked unwieldy to manoeuvre and I wondered how she managed. Mrs Panaso's open stove ...

Unseen Faces, Unheard Voices

Search This Blog