Typhoons and Hazards, Risk and Society: Act of God or Act of Man?

Philippine military, a critical partner in relief operations

Two typhoons in two weeks have made searching, recovering, and burying the bodies of over 600 people killed, missing, and presumed dead as well as providing relief goods, evacuation sites, and services to half of Luzon Island in the Philippines unenviable tasks. Typhoon Ondoy’s rainfall and the flooding it caused were the worst according to PAGASA (Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration). Floods of up to 20 feet damaged public and private property, as well as crops and incurred lost revenue. All these cost an estimated PhP15 billion. Metro Manila and 25 other provinces were placed under a state of calamity. Typhoon Parma/Pepang followed after interacting with Typhoon Melchor and slammed into northern Luzon last week causing extensive landslides, mudslides, flooding, and bridge destruction in many provinces. Hundreds were killed and extensive areas isolated.

A week after Typhoon Ondoy, Napindan, Tauguig was still flooded

Eighteen years ago in 1991, an estimated 5,000 people died because of mudslides, landslides, and flashfloods. In the past fifteen years, more than 4,000 been killed, over 7,000, and at least three million people rendered homeless by typhoons. Damage to private and public property and crops have soared to at least PhP70 Billion.

Of the 11 worst typhoons to hit the Philippines since 1946, seven of them have occurred in the last 25 years during the period 1984-2009. The 2009 Pacific Typhoon season is considered one of the worst in decades.

The government says it was nature that caused it- too much rain, consecutive typhoons. The newsreels and photos show otherwise. In past calamities, legally and illegally cut logs rampaged down bare mountain slopes demolishing homes, farmland, roads, and even bridges. Today, mushrooming housing subdivisions have encroached into ecologically critical wetlands or watershed areas.

The years after Marcos was overthrown was a politically tense with right-wing military rebels staging failed coup de t’ats. On the environmental front, debates on environmental conservation, protection, and rehabilitation (E-CPR) were likewise intense, specifically whether the Philippines should adopt a total or selective logging ban. Academics, forestry specialists, environmental activists, politicians, and government officials all mobilized to support one or the other side of the argument. Nearly two dozen years later the debate still rages on. Various logging ban bills, including those filed as long as 20 years ago, have languished in Congressional committees by design and neglect. In the meantime, the human, environmental, and property toll rises as 20-25 typhoons visit the Philippines yearly to exacerbate an already degraded and fragile environment.

Shanty in a wetland

Back then and up to today at times, my framework for explaining all these was the historical and socio-economic-political structure of Philippine society. Development and social justice were difficult to achieve because of the asymmetrical power distribution within socio-economic and political classes nationwide. The argument remains valid, but after so many years, the argument has acquired a taken-for-granted and reductionist perspective. Logging companies have moved out. There is a partial log ban in some areas. Rebels, secessionists, and lost commands have entered into unholy alliances with illegal loggers. Migration has increased not only to urban areas but into the uplands as well. With a nationwide 2.3% annual population growth rate, population movement into hazardous areas complicates the search for sustainable environmental and development strategies.

In these days of hazards, man-made or natural, understanding risks in its various dimensions vis-à-vis a societal context can provide a nuanced understanding of what is happening. Societal problems have decidedly political origins, but there are also system issues in organizational and institutional settings. While politics plays a significant part in these settings, recognizing and then understanding how parts of a system or institution are coupled and interact with one another in ways that are both expected and unexpected, as the sociologist Charles Perrow emphasized, is a very important perspective.

Because the concept of risk is pervasive in daily life and public discourse, leaders need to understand why the present western, industrialized societies, including those in developing countries, are considered risk societies.

Risk is commonly thought of as a potential threat or harm. Its etymology is either from the Arabic word risq (good fortune or wealth acquisition) or the Latin word risco, the term used by sailors entering unchartered, dangerous waters. Risk pervades everyday life. Awareness of and heightened interest on the concept and nature of risk are evident in various discourses in many disciplines as well as in the public and private sectors.

Accounting for a risk society is necessary because the industrialized world of the 20^th century, especially its latter half, has been characterized as a century of significant and rapid socio-economic change, flux, and uncertainty. Perrow notes that a risk society basically is a preoccupation of individuals, groups, and organizations in the private and public sectors with the various risks posed by daily life within a highly coupled and interactive capitalist system. Sociologists and anthropologists have observed that transformations of political, economic, social, and even cultural institutions have had profound impacts on individual, familial, and societal concerns, i.e. changing employment patterns, gender roles, shake up of family relations and social identities, redefinition of class boundaries, rise of states, immigration, environmental issues, and so on.

The effects of globalization have yet to be fully understood as the world entered the 21^st century. Nine years into the new century, geopolitics and security issues have taken center stage along with environmental degradation.

Modern society has an organizational base to it. In order for organizations to survive, it needs to be effective. Organizational effectiveness means accomplishing two objectives, namely, continued access to resources and meeting the needs and demands of multiple constituents or stakeholders. It is in the various ways of meeting these two objectives that risk and hazards arise for various parties, be they first, second, third, or fourth party “stakeholders”. Over time, changes to the organizational field or environment are brought about by transformations of political, economic, social, and even cultural institutions that have profound impacts on individual, familial, organizational, and societal concerns.

These issues of economic and social-political flux, multiculturalism, explosion of information and communication flows, environmental hazards, and security/ military concerns recognize no geopolitical, class or socio-cultural boundaries and are not easily resolved. What is significant and is especially true in the Philippines is that institutions established to provide safety nets to citizens, i.e. public policy, economic regulation, industrial relations, insurance and social security, industry, food and drug oversight agencies, media, etc., have been found wanting and maladaptive to rapidly changing conditions. As the past two weeks has shown, the government and politicians’ response have been wanting if not absent. Even its media attempts of showing government relief efforts have been rendered inept and politically opportunistic.

Media, communication and information technologies have made feasible public access to information and resources on economic, political environmental, public health, and etc. issues; which have heightened, public interest, concern, and knowledge of contentious and risk issues. With floods reaching second floor ceiling levels and cars sinking into floods, it seems that Filipinos are left to their own devices and the heroism of fellow Filipinos. In this instance, it is media that has been the source of disaster information and by extension, relief efforts management. As Luis Teodoro wrote, “in these corrupt times, credibility is everything.”

Coupled with the individuation of information and communication flows is the increasing intrusion of the market logic in organizational fields that were once not directly influenced by it. This is seen in efforts to privatize as much as possible government services such as military logistics handling, national capacity building, and possibly even social security services. In the United States, for example, radical tax reform is also being pushed to support this privatization effort, the creation of an “ownership society”, and commodification of all possible transactional relations. Non-profit organizations engaged in various social movements are expected to be even more sophisticated as they incorporate a market logic to their operations.

On the other hand, the pervasiveness of the market logic has a counterpoint to it. The development of a moral economy social movement is burgeoning in response to globalization, workplace anomie, homogenizing pressures, abuses by industry and big business, environmental degradation, etc. Different sectors of society are engaging in what the sociologist Ulrich Beck (1992) labels the “third way” of direct politics.

Although the concept of risk has a long historical development, the risk society perspective is generally attributed to German sociologist Ulrich Beck’s landmark book Risk and Society. Beck’s theses are: (a) The nature of risk has mutated over time, from one that was natural hazards-focused, to that of man-made or manufactured risks, some having catastrophic potential, (b) Industrialized nations have entered a risk society in which institutions previously established to address risks fail to do so causing systemic crises of confidence and accountability; and, (c) A risk society amplifies these uncertainties, with risk-regulating institutions being rendered ineffectual by public cynicism. Individuals are left to fend for themselves, determining what is risky, how risky, and how to address these risks. Thus, the phenomenon is individualized and called risk modernization. In effect, risk becomes even more socially constructed, both on individual and societal levels.

Many criticize Beck for not providing empirical data, his preoccupation with environmental risks (the “bads”) to the exclusion of other types of risk, his call to go beyond Marxist historical materialism and class conflicts, universalizing of risk, negation of “positive” risks, and absence of cross-cultural comparisons, among others. Nevertheless, his thesis has engendered public risk consciousness and concern with man-made risks, discussion on the individualization of risk, heightened scrutiny of risk-regulating institutions, and mobilized political action.

A risk society is one that has or is becoming conscious of: (a) the need to determine the extent of interdependence, coupling, and interactiveness of these further evolving economic, political, social, and cultural systems, (b) the power, legitimacy, and urgency attributes of these systems, and, (c) whether or not and how relevant stakeholders will mobilize to address specific risks. Managers who appreciate the sociocultural dimensions of risk as discussed above are in a position to better identify, comprehend, and attend to the issues of power, legitimacy, urgency, and mobilization in relation to stakeholders and within the context of a changing social, cultural, political, economic and legal landscape.

Understanding risk in its many dimensions inevitably leads to an assessment of power relationships on individual and systemic levels according to Perrow. Modern manufactured risks are both visible and non-visible, especially for the physics, chemistry, and biological-genetic fields, and are primarily based on industrial overproduction. Economic activities concerned with maximizing profit and resource use tend to take more production and operations risks. Significantly, these man-made risks are temporally distributed across society, where in some cases, parties that do not have a direct influence on the proponent-firm carry the largest risk, i.e. border communities being asked to recycle industrial wastes or in the Philippine case, residential villages in hazardous areas.

Stakeholders are not static entities doomed to fear, inaction, and extreme skepticism of risk-regulating institutions. Researchers, in contrast to Beck and Giddens, have noted that risk management has agency. By agency, individuals and groups seek information and knowledge about the current situation and risks. They then act on these risks based on information gathered from family, friends, colleagues, media, the Web, and a multitude other sources. People and communities display resilience in the face of risks, hazards, and “normal accidents”, accidents which are inevitable because of the operation’s tight coupling, high interactiveness, and little room for flexibility.

Beck normatively calls for “subpolitics” or direct, individual action from below to address both global and local (the “glocal”) issues, by-passing discredited representative and responsible institutions, to eventually shape society. The struggle against genetically modified (GM) food, the mad cow (BSE) disease crisis, nuclear and biological weapons, the problems of the nuclear industry, the war of terrorism, the efforts on global warming and others show agency on the part of various stakeholders on “glocal” issues, which originate from business and industry.

What does this mean for the Philippines?

The typhoons and the responses of the individuals and institutions were revealing. Government and politicians, including presidentiables, were exposed as to their incompetence, ineptness, unpreparedness, and callous politicking in what the PCIJ wrote as the politics of relief. In contrast, civil society has stepped up and sought to fill in the gap of government. The exception is the Philippine military. Gawad Kalinga for example, distributed over 200,000 food packs in 10 days of relief work. Over 6,000 volunteers helped them. GK’s Gawad Kalusugan or health program team also conducted medical missions. Three important aspects surface from GK’s relief effort.

6,000 food bags and 15 military trucks to Taytay, Rizal

First is that GK had on the ground information from its 400 villages in Metro Manila. Through text messages, phone calls, and even social networking sites such as Facebook, timely and critical information was transmitted. This enabled GK to organize and tailor-fit relief efforts.

Second, GK beneficiaries in these villages, because of their social transformation, community empowerment and solidarity, and relative safety of their homes, were able to be the first on-the-ground rescue and relief volunteers. GK’s Tony Meloto writes of numerous and first stories of heroism by GK beneficiaries, now heroes.

Third, GK was able to effectively mass mobilize individual and institutional volunteers. Six thousand registered volunteers and scores of unregistered ones, dozens of corporations, and donors from abroad enabled GK to collect and repack the over 200,000 food packs. Andok’s Sandy Javier alone donated 90,000 chicken eggs and was bowled over by the organizational efficiency of GK’s relief efforts. GK’s Tony Meloto recounted that 50 homes in a plush Ayala village opened their kitchens and commenced food preparations for typhoon victims. “Walang Iwanan” (No is left behind) became a rallying cry of GK volunteers and supporters who felt they needed to mobilize when government help was inadequate or too slow.

Gawad Kalinga and the military partner up to help Ondoy victims

The power and potential of GK’s emphasis on community-based development and organizing has borne fruit amidst some of the crumbling institutions of Philippine society.

Importantly, GK was able to coordinate and act in unison with the Philippine military. All branches of the military provided the necessary security and trucks to brave both the floodwaters and sea of humanity desperate for food, water, medical help, clothing, and encouragement. GK penetrated areas in Rizal, Pasig, Marikina, and Taguig that were inaccessible and dangerous because of the Philippine military.

I think that the Philippine military’s partnership with civil society, notably Gawad Kalinga, Red Cross, and ABS-CBN, among others has restored to a significant degree its credibility and reliability. The soldiers were strong, patient, and disciplined. They not only lent an air of security to the numerous relief volunteers, but including those who needed help.

With regards to the environmental situation in the Philippines, a few weeks prior to the typhoons, Manila hosted the Asian ministerial meetings on climate change that resulted in the Manila Declaration. What was clear from that conference attended by over 600 participants was that the effects of climate change do not recognize borders or social class. Depressingly, while the industrialized world caused much of the global warming, it is the developing world, including the Philippines, which will reap the consequences. Further, Asia is being forced to leapfrog into a cleaner production AND address the poverty gap at the same time, which no country has done on a massive scale. It will take the best brains and the shared resources between rich and poor countries to achieve this.

Third, who will suffer indicates vulnerability. Who is vulnerable in this age of risk and hazards? While the typhoons showed that rich and poor were affected, it is still the poor that are the most vulnerable. They have neither the resources nor network to avoid hazardous areas, access timely and relevant information, and after the disaster has struck, rebuild and move on. Poverty is not only the lack of resources; it is the lack of options and choices. They suffer from the quadruple whammy of poverty, social inequity, poor governance, and the external shocks of environmental degradation and calamities. They are caught between their flooded shanty and a rampaging swollen river, with only their wits and determination to survive guiding them.

Choose your boat

The great ship that is Metro Manila is leaking. The leaks are caused by unsustainable urbanization patterns of a fast population growth rate, environmental degradation, unequal power and income, lack of access to suitable and unaffordable housing, lack of fair wages and employment opportunities.

Disasters of a calamitous nature have a social underbelly.

The question is how will you act?

Walang Iwanan. Ano ang taya mo?

Walang Iwanan! Ano ang Taya Mo?

President: Servant-leader or Warrior-Datu? (On Noynoy Aquino as President)

President: Servant-leader or Warrior-Datu?

The debate over whether Benigno “Noynoy” Cojuangco-Aquino Jr. is of presidential timber or not is also a debate on what kind of president we want for the Philippines.

Do we want a strong arm, macho leader of the “Datu” mold? In pre-Spanish colonial Philippines, a datu was a warrior who led his clan or village into battle, either in defense or in raiding other villages. In between battles, he would ensure that his people would have enough land, fishing grounds, and hunting areas to feed themselves and reproduce socially. Thus, a datu kept his people secure; kept them full; and kept the peace.

Since the advent of American-style democratic politics, Philippine presidents have always been from the elite class. They were educated or were exposed to elite culture. They were well-off and well connected. They projected an aura of strength, vigor, courage, decisiveness, and breeding (however you define these terms). Besides, they had the resources to build up a private army if political violence was necessary. They kept their constituents happy with largesse.

Picture Datu Rajah Sulayman confronting the Spanish colonizers or an Erap eating lechon at Camp Abubakar.

However, a reading of leadership from the masses’ point of view reveals that their leader had not only Datu-qualities, but more. I’ve written before that in the Philippines, there is actually a strong culture of servant-leadership. Scholars like V. Enriquez, K. de Guia, R. Ileto, V. Rafael, M. Ramirez, among others, write of leaders that were effective because they led by serving others—like Christ. The Gawad Kalinga social movement easily comes into mind.

Tony Meloto's Builder of Dreams

In humility, in service, in providing a deep wellspring of empathy, understanding, healing of self and other, and commitment to the welfare of others, these servant-leaders developed a flock of loyal, committed, ardent, and energized followers. Embodied in the Filipino term, Kapwa, the servant-leader recognizes that Filipino personhood of self is bound up and shared with the OTHER. This is the basis for bayani, bayanihan, bayan- hero, community solidarity, nation.

In Philippine historiography, social movement leaders were infused with kapwa and its characteristics of caring, sharing, a sense of community, family, “an expanded sense of shared humanity” or kagandahang loob, katwiran (straightness), kalayaan (freedom, independence, and free will), talinhaga (imagery and vision), and lakaran (pilgrimage, sometimes for a cause).

Combined with values that are societal in nature such as karangalan (dignity), katarungan (justice), and kalayaan (freedom), these enabled a leader to mobilize, organize, and act. The results were not always favorable, but the country is not short of revolutionary heroes.

Funeral cortege for Pres. Cory Aquino in Makati City

What makes Noynoy a compelling presidential candidate is not that he is the only son of two national heroes of the Philippines who are well loved. Nelson Mandela was said to quote though to Noynoy; “So you are the son. You know how to choose your parents.” If inheritance of the Aquino mantle was the norm, then Kris Aquino, the most high profile of the Aquino siblings; possibly the richest; and the most charismatic would be the logical choice. Nevertheless, she is not acceptable at present.

Noynoy’s eulogy of his mother to his speech during the book launch of Tony Meloto’s “A Builder of Dreams” a few days ago shows not a Datu-leader, but a potential servant leader. He speaks from the heart. He is articulate. He can communicate with all sorts of folks. His low profile and humble persona is actually appealing to many of us fed up with the macho ineptness of our politicians. He is well read, well exposed, and experienced. Afterall, military rebels tried to kill him.

Noynoy Aquino speaking at the book launch of Tony Meloto's Builder of Dreams

What the country needs is a servant-leader that will let Filipinos be the best they can be. That means giving Filipinos the space, the level playing field, the dignity, and minimally, the resources to develop themselves and thereafter, the country. Filipinos are not stupid. They are survivors. They can adapt. They are innovative and creative. All they need is a political and economic space defined by meritocracy and honesty.

Can a datu-president provide this or should it be a servant-leader?

I say that Noynoy is potentially a servant-leader. I would encourage him to go on his personal lakaran (pilgrimage) to determine how he would become an effective, efficient, servant-leader, and president of the Philippines.

Develop a discipline of deep prayer and meditation.

Go on a nationwide listening and consultative tour with both leaders and the masa.

Consult with the best and brightest, but forge your own vision of what the country should be.

Learn the successes, difficulties, potentials, and dangers of social movements like Gawad Kalinga. Afterall, your campaign will be waged on a social movement platform similar to that of Barack Obama.

Marj D., a Gawad Kalinga worker, described it best when she said Noynoy running and possibly winning is “palpable.” I agree. Social movements, which Ninoy and Cory Aquino recognized as part and parcel of resistance and eventually People Power, form the basis of a strong civil society. Gawad Kalinga’s social movement of servant-leadership infused with heroism is a model that Noynoy Aquino can easily relate to. Afterall, his mother once said that “People Power is Gawad Kalinga and Gawad Kalinga is People Power.”

Noynoy running changes the tone of the elections. Will it still be guns, goons, gold, and girls? Or, will it be bayani, bayanihan, at bayan?

As the founder of the servant-leadership school of thought in the U.S., Robert Greenleaf wrote;
“THIS IS MY THESIS: caring for persons, the more able and the less able serving each other, is the rock upon which a good society is built. Whereas, recently, caring was largely person to person, now most of it is mediated through institutions—often large, complex, powerful, impersonal; not always competent; sometimes corrupt. If a better society is to be built, one that is more just and more loving, one that provides greater creative opportunity for its people, then the most open course is to raise both capacity to serve and the very performance as servant of existing major institutions by new regenerative forces operating within them.”

All 85 GK: Ito mismo ang taya ng 85ers

All 85ers from various schools. Photo by Tonette Mendoza

The late U.S. President John F. Kennedy once said that, “One person can make a difference and every person should try.” But why struggle alone when you can achieve your dreams as a group or as a team? Thus, the eminent anthropologist Margaret Mead’s famous quote appeals more to me. She said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

Mead was proven correct last Saturday, 23 May 2009, when the All 85 Gawad Kalinga Village broke ground at Sitio Pajo, Bgy. Baesa, Quezon City. Participating member schools of high school Batch 85 pledged to fund 26 homes for the residents thereat. As long-time informal dwellers on land that was not theirs, they organized themselves and sought the help of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the QC local government to purchase the land they were squatting on. It took years, but working together, they finally gained ownership of the land.

Homes at Sitio Pajo, Bgy. Baesa, Quezon City

Sitio Pajo is a high-density slum with narrow streets, poor drainage, lack of access to basic services, and a high risk fire area. It borders middle class exclusive villages including the nearby Quezon City General Hospital. Last February 25, 2009, about 195 families were affected by a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) explosion that ignited a fire. About 99 families completely lost their homes. It was the second fire that occurred in Bgy. Baesa within the last 12 months. It looked hopeless to many residents burdened by poverty and disaster, but their indomitable spirit and Gawad Kalinga provided hope for a new beginning.

Homes by whatever means and materials

Gawad Kalinga is the path breaking faith-based movement on community development and nation-building seeking to build 700,000 homes in 7,000 communities in seven years. It has been helping the residents of Sitio Pajo build not only new, brightly colored and to-code homes, but also meaningful lives through community solidarity and empowerment. With dedicated Couples for Christ (CFC) caretaker-volunteers and the generous support of Colgate-Palmolive Corp. and their employees, both active and retired, they’re transforming this former slum area into a community filled with “Bright Smiles.” All 85 GK will now follow what Colgate started.

Sitio Pajo community leaders

For All 85, it can’t be a more fulfilling moment from that day in July 2008 when a few of us were toying with the idea of making our 25th anniversary high school homecoming celebration a more meaningful one. After all, how many parties and dinners can you have to celebrate one’s homecoming? We wondered how we could align our respective homecoming celebrations to that of giving back to our communities and to our country in a way that modeled solidarity or bayanihan.

Bagong bahay, bagong buhay, bagong bayan

Our inspiration was Gawad Kalinga. Gawad Kalinga enabled us to work as one united Batch 85. The Gawad Kalinga movement and its activities have always modeled audacious goals, persistence based on faith, and padugo—bleeding for the cause and modeling heroic action of loving the poor. GK espoused unity of the family, of the community, and of the nation.

It took eight months to get to here. Each school representative had to convince their own batchmates that sponsoring an All 85 GK Village on top of the respective batch’s commitment to their alma mater, their school’s chosen civic project, and their own homecoming activities and expenses still made sense and were feasible. Each school sought to commit at least one home, ideally two.

The next hurdle was the time commitment. All had to get to know one another and to align each other batch’s capacities, capabilities, and constraints in order to get the village going. Despite work, family, and other responsibilities, the monthly meetings were well attended. ANCOP-GK’s Rose Cabrera, Batch 85 of St. Therese College and her husband, Bong, Lourdes 85, were able to get Tony Meloto and Dylan Wilk to meet and inspire the group. Rose was also able to arrange for monthly All 85 GK activities in different GK villages as a way to familiarize All 85ers with the GK work and the “GK Way” of doing community development and nation building.

GK All 85 groundbreaking. Photo by Cindy Solano Medina

Apparently, the meetings, talks, and activities were transformational. Assumption’s Emily M.-Y. and Judy C. got things started with Assumption 85’s full commitment to All 85. Emily also got some sizable pledges. A get together of Maryknoll 85ers in the United States led to enough donations for one home. John-John T. of La Salle Zobel, according to CSA’s Nilo T., thought it was just a matter of raising funds for the village. But visiting the GK villages, talking and meeting with GK residents, and helping in community builds have transformed him. John-John has willingly taken on the leadership role along for All 85 and his leadership has been inspirational.

All 85 at GK Bagong Silang. Photo by Marivic Poblador-Pineda

The transformational aspect of GK was also not lost on someone who wrote:

“I’ve always heard about GK but never had the opportunity to visit GK sites or to learn about the true spirit of GK. As you know, anyone who graduated in high school in 1985 is about to celebrate their ‘25th year’ and the village we could build would be in tribute to our 25th year. But this is not all that GK ALL’85 will accomplish. It was an eye opener, to say the least, to actually visit a GK community. Learning that GK is not just about donating funds gave me a perspective on what the ‘big picture’ really is. GK is about community building. It is about bringing our high school graduating class and other batch ‘85 alumni together. We can help build a community by donating not only our funds but our time and our talent/skills…”

Working together works! Photo by Tonette Mendoza

It does help that many school representatives knew one another from high school or from college. A number went to University of the Philippines (U.P.) Diliman so it was natural to leverage the U.P. network. In U.P., there was also a corner nook called A.S. 101 where 85ers hung out and friendships were made. Thus, it was easy for those hanging out there, or in the A.S. lobby, or were part of the various UP organizations and clubs to get together in All 85.

Marriage was also a key network link. A number of 85ers from different high schools are married to one another. Couple Raul and Celine P., Ateneo 85 and STC 85 respectively, were not aware of All 85 GK, but met up with Rose Cabrera to discuss donating a home to GK. This serendipitous moment worked well for All 85. CFC is another awesome link with Assumption’s Emily M.-Y., Rose C., Povedan 85er Marivic P.-P. as members and All 85 movers. They even got a fellow CFCer and non-85er to contribute to the All 85 GK village!

We're also not complaining that QC Vice-Mayor Herbert Bautista along with his fellow batchmate Ricky H., are both of San Beda 85. San Beda is coming in with a vegetable gardening program with the QC government and a home.

All 85 GK is composed of the following schools: Assumption, Ateneo, Colegio San Agustin, Immaculate Conception Academy, La Salle Zobel, La Salle Greenhills, Lourdes, Philippine Science High School, Poveda Learning Center, Maryknoll, Xavier, San Beda, School of the Holy Spirit, St. Paul’s Pasig, St. Therese College, Southridge, and Woodrose. We welcome the participation of other schools and hope they will eventually join us.

Nation building means building strong and empowered communities. The residents of Sitio Pajo have shown us that despite all their adversities they continue to work for a life of dignity. We can reciprocate. Like them we can work together. We model solidarity and bayanihan by working as a united Batch 85 in improving the lives of our less fortunate brothers and sisters.

As the Dalai Lama noted, “It is not enough to be compassionate – you must act.” All 85 GK is our little contribution to the GK Way of rediscovering our roots, empowering people, and inspiring change.

For more information, visit us at our Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=83112765474) or

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GK_All85/.

Earth Day: Environmentalism is now LOHAS

One-Environment Philippines Portal (www.one-environment.ph)

Barack Obama’s election as the 44th President of the United States has dramatically changed the discourse on the environment for the country and the world. As religious studies Prof. Ira Chenus noted in his three part article, a sitting president can set what topics are discussed, can prioritize the issues to be addressed, can choose what symbols to highlight, and can set the tone for the country. Prof. Chernus prophetically wrote a week before Obama was elected; “… the President of the United States does a lot more than make decisions about specific policies. He (or she) is an immensely powerful symbol, doing more than any other person to set the mood and tone of political life for the whole nation, as well as signaling to the whole world what the USA is really all about. Symbolism and mood-setting are a huge, though often overlooked, part of the president’s role…”

In just 100 days of office Barack Obama has radically changed the national discussion on the economy, scientific integrity, foreign policy on Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Cuba, among others, alternative energy, global warming, and climate change. Whether one agrees with his actions and policies or not, he has been inspirational to say the least.

For the environment, Obama is the welcome rain after an eight year drought.

Do remember that during the Bush years, vapid denials of climate change, an assault on scientific research and integrity, support for pollutive corporations, and environmental discrimination were the norm. Afterall, Bush and the Republicans were pro-business with their eyes closed. Further, corporations, legal and man-made creations, argued forcefully in court numerous times that they had the same rights as human beings and citizens of the United States. It is no surprise then that greed and profit-taking no matter what were virtues during the Reagan and Bush years.

For environmentalists, the years after the 1992 U.N. Conference of Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro were a steady decline in their influence and effectiveness. There was a lot of hand-wringing and introspection, best summarized in the article Death of Environmentalism.

Today, it seems we are hopeful. The economic and environmental crises have forced all of us to rethink how we do business, consume, and live our lives. It is simply more costly in terms of money, health, safety, and security to continue on a path of unsustainable energy and conspicuous consumption. In the United States, some of the biggest companies have disappeared because of a lack of foresight. Auto companies, for example, have long used their Washington connections and paid lobbyists to delay the updating of emissions standards and auto efficiency. They look pathetic these days begging for money just to survive. Agrochemical companies look like corporate bullies trying to pressure Michelle Obama to use agrochemicals in the White House organic garden she recently established.

With scientific paper after scientific paper coming out warning us of the dire effects of greenhouse gases and climate change, the climate change denialists have returned to their villages or rather caves and have wisely decided to keep quiet. Has their funding run out?

As a participant and witness to the surge of environmentalism in the 1980s and early 1990s, only to watch it wane with the rise of the go-go neoliberal years worldwide, I am amazed at the comeback of the global environmental movement. I look back at the hand wringing of the environmental activists and debate whether the analysis in Death of an Environmentalist was correct. There are differences and the following show why this time around, environmentalism is here to stay.

1. Mainstreaming of environmentalism

Environmental issues are now part of everyday language and debate. It is now neither esoteric nor the domain of specialists. Environmentalists are no longer the highly educated, snooty, and condescending experts they were perceived to be. Today, the urban gardener, the cancer survivor, the worried mother, the last of the farmers, and the fisherman are all environmentalists and rightly so. Protecting the environment and conserving our finite natural resources are a concern and responsibility of all. More people are now conversant and understand environmental issues. Public education and the mass media, of course, had important roles to play in the mainstreaming of the environment.

Take Earth Day for example. Celebrated every April 22, first held in 1970, and founded by then U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson and Denis Hayes, and separately by peace activist John McConnell, the Earth Day Network has more than 17,000 partners and organizations in 174 countries. They estimate that over a billion people participated in Earth Day activities, possibly the largest non-religious event in the world. For 2009, Earth Day celebrations include the launch of the two-year Green Generation Campaign on carbon footprint reduction and the creation of a new green economy.

2. Rise of LOHAS

LOHAS

Affluence, access to better medical facilities and services, better nutrition, and hygiene have extended lifespans and improved quality of life indicators. Accessible information on the deleterious effects of unhealthy lifestyles such as smoking, chemical drug use, and alcohol as well as that of industrial pollution have forced individuals and communities to confront these challenges.

Today, demographic shifts are towards an increasing number of people have chosen lifestyles of health and sustainability (LOHAS). Not only is this healthy, but in many cases, cheaper and gentler on the environment. The LOHAS sector is a fast expanding market estimated at $209-400 billion.

Lastly, I am also of the view that most people, deep down, have values that are environmentally conscious and consistent with a sustainable, socially responsible, and/or healthier lifestyle.

3. Legislation and litigation have reigned in excesses

In the past 40 years, very public and decisive legal cases in numerous countries, both developing and developed, have forced legislatures to pass environmental laws. In the United States, there is the NEPA, Endangered Species, Clean Air Act, among many others. In the Philippines, which has similar a environmental regulatory framework, the EIA, air and water pollution control, mining, and wildlife laws among others have provided regulatory guidance to officials, corporations, and communities.

Civil society has been proactive and innovative in environmental actions. Governments, corporations, and civil society have been at the forefront and receiving end of legal action on environmental issues.

Thus, pollution and environmental degradation are now perpetrated by outliers. The first outliers are the very rich and powerful sectors, mostly corporations, who bribe and corrupt their way into exploiting natural resources and public goods. The second would be the very poor with limited options and access to environmental, social, and economic services and resources. For the former, their actions are illegal, criminal, and immoral and can be addressed with law enforcement. They can also be societally ostracized.  For the latter, it is addressing poverty and making them partners in development.  

4. Environmental and economic crises are pushing for a green economy.

As noted earlier, energy and fuel consumption has increased significantly worldwide. However, fossil fuels are a finite resource. With greater demand and limited supplies, fuel prices are bound to increase at worse, and fluctuate at best. Also, fossil fuels contribute to global warming with disastrous consequences. As New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said recently, it makes economic sense to invest in green technology, a green economy, and a green lifestyle.

A green economy that generates green jobs is what will start the economic recovery caused by an unregulated FIRE (finance, insurance, and real estate) economy.

FIRE economy (Figure from www.fireeconomy.com)

Obama has pledged $10-15 billion a year for the next decade to fund the green economy. This will have multiplier effects worldwide as other countries follow suit.

5. The environmental-LOHAS revolution will be digital

Information and communication technologies (ICT) and social networking media will support and expand the above four phenomena. ICT will facilitate information exchange and importantly, mobilizing and organizing for the environment- LOHAS. For those in the green economy, ICT will be important in not only branding and marketing, but in service provision. ICT will open up new opportunities and vistas for environmentalists.

Like the United States, the Philippines is in a unique position to ride this green wave. We have the demographics, a young, educated, and literate population that can harness the opportunities and technologies. We can organize and mobilize to the community level-Gawad Kalinga has shown this- to become environmental and green economy leaders.

The Philippines can leapfrog into a green economy uplifting itself from the morass of poverty, inequality, and social exclusion.

The dawn of LOHAS and the green economy has arrived.  What will you be doing?

The Filipino-American Students Association (FASA) of the University of Arizona celebrated their annual FIESTA last Saturday, 18 April 2009. They held a raffle to benefit Gawad Kalinga. FASA is a strong supporter of GK Arizona.

Maraming salamat FASA at mabuhay!

Gawad Kalinga: “The Filipino is worth living for”

Twenty-eight years ago, a man was shot on the tarmac of the Manila International Airport. Being the most prominent dissident to the Marcos regime, they warned him that he risked death should he return. Unfazed, he said; “The Filipino is worth dying for…” On August 21, 1983, Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino was shot upon arrival from the U.S. Nearly three years later, People Power led to the ouster of Marcos after 21 years in power.

Seventeen years after Marcos’ overthrow, People Power was mobilized to address another of the country’s scourge—poverty and social exclusion. Supported by former President Corazon Aquino, Ninoy’s widow, People Power for nation building is what characterizes Gawad Kalinga.

Gawad Kalinga seeks to build 700,000 homes in 7,000 communities in seven years for the poorest of the poor. In a country of nearly 90 million people and close to half living below the poverty line, GK seeks to address poverty from a grounds up, self-reliance, and sharing and caring model. Gawad means to give or award. Kalinga means “care”—Gawad Kalinga is “to give care." Since then, it has established at least 30,000 homes in about 2,000 communities.

Only a holistic program that develops the individual, family, and community will succeed in building strong institutions in the Philippines. Only organized, principled, and economically and environmentally sustainable communities can survive and withstand the vagaries of Philippine politics, poverty, inequality, and social exclusion.

More needs to be done and more poor Filipinos need to be helped. Why wait for an armed revolution or a breakdown in society to change, when there is an alternative way based on love, sharing and caring, and padugo- bleeding for the cause?

Gawad Kalinga is building God’s Kingdom here on earth. GK can be a global template for development. The Filipino is definitely worth dying for. GK shows us that the Filipino is also worth living for. Mabuhay po kayo!

The GK Way

Gawad Kalinga photoset

Last March 17 - 21, 2009, during Spring Break, I drove to Santa Fe, New Mexico to speak at a two part- panel I organized for the Society of Applied Anthropology (SFAA) annual conference. This year’s conference theme was entitled: Global Challenge, Local Action: Ethical Engagement, Partnerships, and Practice. My panel, on the other hand, was entitled: The Possibilities of Doing Good, Social Movements in an age of Neoliberalism. My panel sought to discuss how social change can be pursued sustainably. We were attracted to the perspective of political scientist Karol Soltan looked at social changes as large scale, requiring either revolution or extensive institutional reform, have consequences that are pervasive in society, and have long term effects. My fellow panelists presented on a number of social movements worldwide, from Mexico to Italy to my own presentation on Gawad Kalinga. All noted that working with the bottom of the pyramid and/or the poorest of the poor enabled social change. Many of these have been replicated elsewhere and are “scalable” globally.

When we think of social movements, environmental, nuclear, civil rights, peace, feminist, pro-life, and gun-rights movements quickly come to mind. Common to these groups are a penchant to protest or advocate for their respective causes. They mass mobilize, communicate their message, and seek resources to push their agenda. Lastly, they confront either the state or prevailing cultural codes in the hope of engendering change. Social movements in this sense operate in a conflict environment.

Civil society in America is undoubtedly tied to the Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville’s (1835) writings on American democracy and civil society. He highlighted the check and balance role played by civil society in ensuring that power does not centralize toward the state. Traveling across the United States, he cited several examples of how diverse civic, professional, religious, secular, and ordinary groups of citizens engage in varied activities to promote democracy, transparency and accountability, public commerce, public safety, morality, and so on. He contrasted what he observed in America with France’s ancient regime, which failed to channel social pressures and dissent into institutions of politics and social justice designed to address these issues. Tocqueville emphasized the necessity of civil society as a countervailing force to despotism and state’s tendency to centralize power and undermine democracy.

Modernization theorists in the 1950 and 1960s built on Tocqueville’s writings to reiterate the importance of civil society especially in mediating social conflicts brought about social change, economic development, socio-economic mobilization, and political competition. In the 60s, 70s, and 80s, resistance to dictators and authoritarian rule, civil and human rights, as well as environmental, feminist, and cultural issues reignited interest in civil society, praxis, social movements. Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa were arenas of contention as U.S-backed dictatorships as well as communist-states crumbled amidst poverty, inflation, and the weight of their respective despotism. In Asia, the Philippines is one of the first countries that mobilized people power in the pursuit of democracy and governance.

Gawad Kalinga is different in that it seeks to present another side of social movements.



Simply, GK seeks to solve societal problems. While some GK advocates and volunteers may still be involved in protest and advocacy personally, GK activities are primarily focused on problem solving, capacity building, and empowerment. GK even works with those others would consider adversaries to solve problems of poverty, lack of social services, urban blight, environmental degradation, social exclusion, and lack of public education facilities, among others. They will agree to disagree so that urgent problems can be addressed.

From the very home they repaired and the very first they built in Bagong Silang, Kalookan City, there are now up to 2,000 GK communities in various stages of development all over the country. GK continues to replicate and scale up because of the selflessness of the CFC core of volunteers and partnerships with the national government, over 300 mayors, over a 100 corporations, over 150 schools and universities, the Filipino diaspora and their foreign friends, the tri-media, and on-line communities. GK has entered Indonesia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea, Cambodia, India and has Africa in its eyesight. GK has established a decentralized GK Builders Institute (GKBI) nestled in various universities to “converge” their organizational and technical expertise at the most local level—the GK village. This is the hoped for melding of the ‘science and spirit’ of community development.

What is enabling GK’s success? From a social movement perspective, it is passion that drives the movement. In GK, it is passion shared by many who are willing to sacrifice or in GK’s case, padugo. Padugo enables initial success as when GK build the first communities with its resources. Padugo builds character, provides leeway for experimentation and recoverable failure, and importantly, generates credibility. Credibility borne out of padugo attracts partners. Once partnerships reach a critical mass the movement snowballs. It is then nurtured by creativity and innovation in its organizational and mobilization aspects. Gawad Kalinga, at its essence, has always been a movement based on holistic human development that is being upscaled.

What happened to politics and governance? What happened to fighting corruption, which is endemic in the Philippines, some would say? Our answer is: does politics need to be verbalized? Are conflict and confrontation the only tactics and strategies available? How about engagement? How about leading by example, by padugo? How about tapping our cultural values of bayani, bayanihan, and pagbabalik-loob to spur change, reform, and nation building? Heroism especially by martyrdom may spur a revolution, but making the revolution a success needs the heroism of those alive and working day after day at social change.

Thus, in Gawad Kalinga’s perspective, fundamental change in society is possible by making the poor our partners in development. Only when they can provide for themselves and their families; only when they can live in dignity and have their “pagkatao” back, can they participate meaningfully in democracy and make informed choices on national development. The model of what is now known as Gawad Kalinga had started with home building. Providing homes that were comfortable and secure (tenancy-wise) enabled families to save, invest, regain their dignity, and rebuild their lives. From the few homes that they fixed, the results were dramatic. Yet these youth and their families struggled to renew themselves in a slum community. The scale of renewal needed to be enlarged. Stable families could build stable communities.

GK facilitates this process by rebuilding poor communities, make available housing, health and nutrition, education, values transformation, organization at the community level, and productivity and livelihood. This is transformation that is comprehensive and holistic. When people are not hungry and sick, then they can vote in the right politicians or they can demand reform. Political participation requires resources, time, and effort. Citizens must be able to “afford it.” Gawad Kalinga fits into what the late Jesuit historian, Horacio dela Costa outlined for Philippine development. The Filipino people must do three things, namely: (a) build and strengthen communities; (b) link the communities with common goals-ideally national goals; and, (c) recapture the bureaucracy.

I have a particular affinity for what some call the soft aspects of development, the culture so to speak. The anthropologist Oscar Lewis (1959) spoke of a culture of poverty, while James Fallows (1987) spoke of the Philippine’s damaged culture. But a clearer understanding and appreciation of the potentialities of the poor, their resilience, their inner strength, despite what Dominican priest and anthropologist Miguel Rolland said was the “absurdity and impossibility of their situation and existence” holds many lessons for us. It is a window to the resilience of the poor and our own culture. It is also the basis for nation building. Are the patterns emerging for a truly global model of human development and nation building that is a synthesis of family and faith-based human development complemented by capacity building and attention to the needs and aspirations of the household?

U.S. Ambassador Kristie Kenney at GK BASECO with GK kids learning ESCRIMA/KALI

A good society has shared traits that promote the common good. Human liberty, at its core, is about freedom and responsibility. Responsibility implies social interaction and community. Community development denotes collective desire, want, and action to change a political-economic and social situation deemed unjust and unsatisfactory. Social movements are dynamic form of collective action. Their emergence result from the intermingling of individual experience and motivation, framing of the issues and societal structure that give rise to opportunities for mobilization. A complementary rather than competitive approach incorporates the various strands of social movement theorizing. Social movements generate mechanisms for articulating and asserting collective interests that are unmet by established institutions such as political parties, the bureaucracy, and the market. Unlike established institutions, social movements are porous, have high structural flexibility, are adaptive, have broad repertoire of actions including disruptive tactics. It is less bound by the organizational logic. As Melucci (1984:830) noted, “the movement is the message.”

The literature on engendering change and community development, from anthropology to sociology, social psychology, and social economics, among others, call for a values-based paradigm that is creative, transparent, engaging, and participatory. In other words, revolutionary/ disruptive change is really through culture work that is creative, positive, optimistic, and charismatic. The search is for a transformational social movement. In the GK model, we can see discern this “culture work”

The Gawad Kalinga model points to the burgeoning anthropological study of “successful outcomes of civically engaged communities” as the anthropologist David Stoll (2002) noted. Gawad Kalinga shows the inherent value of convergence, of not only individuals, organizations, and communities, but that of the art, science, system, and faith of community development and nation building.

GK’s Boy Montelibano articulates this best when he says that GK is successful when the “GK Way” of community and town development is adopted by communities and cities. The transformation of Bagong Silang, Kalookan and the quest of Taguig to become a “Designer City” are concrete examples of the “GK Way.”

When Satire Fails, Chip Tsao and his defenders

HK Magazine/Asia City apology

Based on web postings, Tsao has apologized twice. His magazine pulled the article and apologized. Nevertheless, a handful of Manila pundits continue to defend Tsao on the grounds that it was: (a) a satire, (b) the country’s political-economic policies and situation have led to the export of Philippine labor as commodities, and (c) Louisa is not real.

The three reasons are not acceptable reasons for insulting people, worse, a nation, worst, a vulnerable population.

Tsao’s cheap satire failed because:

1. It wasn’t funny at all;
2. It did not create an exaggerated view or a dissonance or unbelievable scene of what is real and what he wrote about—that is what satire is suppose to do;
3. It can and was interpreted in different ways by different readers and audiences;
4. The target audience, what blogger Kenneth Maclean calls the “teachable audience”, in this case, will take some time and more explaining to appreciate/understand Tsao’s piece;
5. It can and will reinforce racist and elitist stereotypes of Filipinos, OFWs, and the working poor. The rule of thumb in lampooning OTHERS is first to be part of that community;
6. Those who appreciated Tsao’s piece are a narrow swath of the readers;
7. The dynamics for ONLINE satire include greater chance for misinterpretation, reaction, including emotional reaction, diverse readership, diverse cultural interpretation of the written word, and the possibility of instant fact-checking, including background checking to establish the credibility of the satirist. These require a greater sensitivity, skill, and nuance, which Tsao obviously does not have.

Thus, Tsao’s intended goal of his piece (satire of HK politics) is vastly different from what Filipino Tsao defenders cite (critic of Philippine government) and from what many Filipinos interpret (racist and elitist).

Contrary to what a few have said, facts do matter. This is especially so when attempting a satire concerning an emotionally and politically charged issue such as OFWs or even the Spratlys. See the Seven Rules of Satire.

When satire goes wrong, the consequences are personal to the author. Rough examples include:

• Don Imus’ “nappy headed hoes” comment;
• Malu Fernandez’s OFW comments;
• The New Yorker caricature of the Obama couple;
• Racist radio skits in the United States and England; and,
• The Desperate Housewives saga.

A good discussion on satire and when it goes wrong can be seen in the articles The Carnival Mirror: Political Satire and How it Does, or Doesn’t ‘Work’ and Satire is hard to write, not for everyone. The satire scholar is Paul Simpson and his On Discourse of Satire.

The question is: who would you allow to control the discourse on fundamental issues?

Recent history and events show that insulting and maltreating OFWs is bound to cause conflict. The Flor Contemplacion case, the Desperate Housewives saga, the beheadings in the Middle East, etc. In the US, Google Philip Vera Cruz. In all these, the common theme is OFWs striving for dignity or pagkatao.

When Filipinos post articles related to and supporting Tsao’s satire or actually write and defend Tsao, I interpret it to mean that they support Tsao’s satire, which many of us find insulting. Where does that leave us? I think they are pushing a political or ideological agenda at the expense of the dignity and pagkatao of the OFW. If one doesn’t understand what I’m trying to say, read up on Vicente Rafael and Reynaldo Ileto.

I will be the first to admit my thoughts on not talking ill of the vulnerable are not original. My dissertation research on Gawad Kalinga these past few years made me realize that work with the poor programs start with trying to understand how the poor feel, think about, and experience their situation. The books of Reynaldo Ileto and Vicente Rafael practically rewrote the groundbreaking work of T. Agoncillo and R. Constantino. Katrin de Guia’s Kapwa is another must read. What I realized from them is that when we, “educated, modern,urban, middle class, even western trained” people, look at the emotional or even juramentado acts of the masses as only that we totally miss the point and their worldview. These emotional outbursts were actually a search for “kalooban” and “pagkatao”. In other words the poor are constantly in search of human and personal dignity. The last chapter of anthropologist Fenella Cannell’s dissertation and book on a Bicol community, Power and Intimacy in Christian Philippines, is a great summary of this perspective. In Brazil it is Paulo Freire and his Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

Tsao and his Filipino defenders need to be “transformed” by this realization that the poor need emotional nurturing. As Gawad Kalinga’s Tony Meloto likes to say, “We must treat the poor as if they were our own children.” Filipino pundits and intellectuals, especially those from the University of the Philippines, know this somewhat already, hence the risk of taking it all for granted. They along with other Filipinos “factor in” the poor in their/our lives. So the comment is “alam na natin yan” (We know that already). We risk looking beyond the poor…until the next insult.

Second, migration is caused by both push and pull factors. Corrupt officials and politicians, economic difficulties, environmental crises, etc. push people to migrate. Pull factors include demand for labor, better opportunities, personal ties and networks in receiving areas, an urge for travel, risk, and exploration, etc. The OFW phenomenon is dynamic. Indeed, they have been abused and exploited at both ends. However, OFW are humans, therefore they have agency. They are not passive. In case you have not noticed, they are mobilizing, online and offline. They are making demands. And one thing they will not tolerate is being insulted by a satirist who is then backed up by pundits. Tsao’s article was not funny to them.

My last point about OFWs. Every day abroad is a learning experience. It is experiential, thus they grow everyday. The loneliness and the lonely nights alone, away from their families allow them to reflect on their situation and their lives, i.e. reflexivity. They are more observant, more thoughtful. This is their re-education. They protested with their feet. When they return, they will take with them a more assertive voice, resources to spur change, and the skills and outlook needed in national development. Manila’s intellectual pundits have failed to account for these.

If anyone wants to change Philippine society and promote an ideological agenda, that person should not support and rationalize acts that insult the Filipino identity and insult a vulnerable segment of the Filipino population, the OFWs.

Change starts with identity formation.

BNPP-Bataan Nuclear Power Plant: Buy Nuclear, Poor Perish

NO to the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (from http://notobnpp.wordpress.com/resources/)

Once again, there are talks about operating the Marcos white elephant Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) with Pangasinan Rep. Mark Cojuangco filing a revised House Bill no. 4631 calling for the “rehabilitation, commissioning and commercial operation of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP)” after immediate and widespread opposition to the first draft of the bill. Rep. Cojuangco and the few pushing for nuclear power state that the country needs a cheap, reliable source of electricity before the energy shortage that is expected to occur in 2012.

Others have implied that nuclear power safety has improved in industrialized countries, including Japan as Inquirer columnist and economics professor Solita Collas-Monsod wrote recently. Therefore, the same standards can be applied to the Philippines. Third, having spent more than $2 billion dollars on initial investments and debt servicing, the BNPP should be put to good use to recoup these investments as Department of Energy Angelo Reyes was quoted earlier. These reasons are, to this writer, not enough to risk operating the BNPP. I have very, very strong reservations AGAINST nuclear power as a source of electricity.

Mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, Philippines (photo by I. Rotaru at IAEA website)

The research field of risk and society posits that the nuclear power sector is a “very tightly coupled” sector. That means that the operations are complex, require a very high degree of coordination and communication, and are very “unforgiving of error” as L.M Lidsky and M. M. Miller write in Science and Global Security. Nuclear power plants have catastrophic consequences when things go wrong. This is because of their complex, tightly coupled, and highly interactive systems of operation. Charles Perrow wrote about this in his best selling book Normal Accidents where he analyzed the Three Mile nuclear plant accident from a risk perspective.

Nuclear plants in particular require a high level of redundant safety and operating systems and procedures, highly trained operators, and up-to-date technology. It is interactive because all these need to be simply in sync with one another. Linear systems are best represented by an assembly line that is relatively loosely organized/coupled. Breakdowns are easily managed and the losses are in monetary and time parameters. Nuclear plants are complex systems and tightly coupled with varying and multiple consequences.

Coupling is a engineering concept wherein loosely coupled systems are flexible enough to address “shocks, failures, and pressure for change without destabilization”(Pickard 2005). Tightly coupled systems are more sensitive to changes and the response could be catastrophic if not handled properly. Nuclear power plants are time and sequential-dependent and leave little room for error because of the chemical reaction processes and safety procedures involved. There is little room for slack, error, and delay. Accidents and incidents occur not only in linear (cause-effect) but in complex ways (multiple causes-multiple effects and consequences over time and space). While redundant systems are possible, this is very expensive and does not fully address the human-error, human neglect, and human laziness aspects.

Assessing the risks, impacts, and costs of nuclear power has to include the nuclear fuel cycle. This includes uranium ore deposit exploration; mining of uranium ores; refining; enriching; processing and fabricating of fuel; construction of nuclear power plant; operation of reactor; re-processing of used fuel; fabricating new fuel; treatment of radioactive wastes; long-term storage of the wastes; and de-commissioning the reactor after its end-life. Emeritus professor at the University of Illinois and adjunct geology professor at the University of the Philippines Kelvin S. Rodolfo recently wrote a position paper on the risks of operating the BNPP.

Specifically for nuclear power, you will also have to create an institution similar to the church with its long lasting existence to take care of the wastes, which degrade only after thousands of years. All these have implications on cost, time, and effort, which make nuclear power generation a very expensive endeavor.

Is this the legacy we want to leave future generations?

Prof. Monsod raised the good nuclear safety record of Japan. On the contrary, Japan of recent times has had serious issues about its safety record. These are easily accessible on the Web. We found a number of serious accidents (systemic and involves multiple parts and processes of the operating system), incidents (localized accidents), including deaths and injuries. Further, Japan has entered an era of increased seismic activity as noted in Ishibashi Katsuhiko’s article.

Steam from the 2004 Mihama nuclear plant accident. Photo from Japan Focus website

Lastly, a significant number of Japan’s nuclear power plants are up for rehabilitation or decommissioning because of their age. While this presents a significant opportunity for new investments in nuclear technology in Japan, which is poor in natural resources; the investment and depreciation costs for operating a nuclear power plant for 40 years is prohibitive as it is risky. Apparently, there is no consensus in Japan on nuclear power.

One of the nuclear power boosters campaign pledges will be to maintain developed country standards in operating the BNPP. This has cost implications. In the United States, a new nuclear power plant will cost from $14 to $24 billion. The proposed Yucca Mountain radioactive waste storage has a projected cost as of August 2008 of $96.2 billion if ever the project overcomes opposition and pushes through.

Lastly, any elementary economist will state that the $2 billion (mis)spent on the BNPP is considered sunk costs. Sunk costs are unrecoverable. Only variable costs determine whether to continue investing or not in a business activity. As sunk costs, it has no bearing on whether we operate the BNPP even though we are spending PhP40 million annually to maintain it. The variable costs behoove us to decide on dismantling the BNPP and converting it to a safe and alternative energy power plant. It is NOT rational as the economists would say to consider sunk costs in deciding whether to continue a project or not.

These days of economic crisis and climate change present an opportunity for the Philippines to enter an era of sustainability. The investment cost for opening the BNPP can be better put to good use make the Philippines a global leader in alternative energy.

Re-opening the Bataan nuclear power plan is a step back to the stone age…after the mushroom cloud that can happen.

The BNPP is unBearable Nuclear Pain and Plight.

Forty from 25, homecoming celebration benefits Gawad Kalinga

Dylan and Anna Wilk meet with CSA 85 in July 2008

When I was in Manila last year, I met with my batchmates from Colegio San Agustin High School Batch 85, who were planning our silver (25th year) homecoming activities. The concept of celebration is the act of recognizing something either individually or a group. This “something” could be an achievement, the passage of time and phases of life (anniversary), and most importantly, the recognition that one has grown and learned something. The act of recognition could be spontaneous or highly organized. The point though should be that the celebration does not signify the end of this “something”, but the continuation of achievement, ageing with grace, and continued learning and growth. Somehow the talk moved from not only celebrating more than 30 years of friendship and memories, but how to leverage the celebrations to give back to our community and country. We began to discuss how to make our homecoming not only social, but socially relevant. The proposed partner in this endeavor, by default, became Gawad Kalinga.

In July 2008, Dylan and Anna Wilk presented to us the GK model and how our batch could play a role. Right after Dylan gave his inspirational spiel, four of my batchmates pledged to fund a home. Others pledged to build homes in honor of our six batchmates who had gone ahead. By the end of the week, my batch committed to initiate two GK projects. The first is to jumpstart the establishment of the Colegio San Agustin GK Village in a pre-identified site in Taguig City, near the C-6 highway to be completed by the shores of Laguna de Bay. The second is to encourage Batch 85ers of other high schools to contribute GK homes in honor of their school to a proposed All 85 GK Village.

Gawad Kalinga (GK- “to give care”) is an ambitious community development movement scaling up into a nation building movement seeking to address poverty in Philippine urban slums. In 2003, it initiated “GK777” to build 700,000 homes in 7,000 communities, in seven years through sharing of time and resources, massive mobilization of volunteers and “padugo”- “bleeding for the cause” and modeling “patriotism in action”. Since then, it has built over 30,000 homes in over 2,000 communities of varying stages of development for the poorest the poor and initiated activities in several other countries, with intentions of going global.

Gawad Kalinga was an attractive partner to us because:

1. GK is about spirituality;
2. GK promotes family values;
3. GK promotes Philippine culture and international cooperation;
4. GK initiates community organization and development;
5. GK promotes economic productivity, sufficiency, and a moral economy;
6. GK inculcates environmental values and environmental programs;
7. GK seeks to improve/spur education, values transformation, and capacity building; and,
   
8. GK is changing the nature of politics in the Philippines.

GK777 culminates in year 2010, which is our 25th anniversary year. As we can see it, GK still has a long way to go, inspite of the fact that more than 300 mayors, 150 schools and universities, over 400 corporations, and tens of thousands of volunteers have mobilized and acted. We think that as Filipinos (or those in love with the Philippines), we need to fully support this Philippine creation and initiative. Gawad Kalinga’s model will eventually become the brand name of the Philippines and it is something to be proud of as Filipinos, as Christians, as members of society. This is the most holistic, comprehensive, and equitable model for solving poverty and inequality in Philippine society.

2010 also is the Philippines’ national elections. In fact, many other countries will have their own elections. The global economic crisis will either improve or worsen by then. Thus, the year is both critical as it is auspicious. Our task then is to prime the social environment in such a way that it encourages good citizenship, caring, sharing, and responsible action. We would like to model these traits collectively.

GK Tony Meloto and Taguig Mayor Freddie Tinga with CSA priests and teachers at the CSA GK Village groundbreaking. Photo by Monchot Ongsiako

When our school, Colegio San Agustin (CSA), heard about our initiative they got excited and wanted to participate. Eventually, the project progressed from a CSA85 GK project to a CSA GK Vilage endeavor. CSA signed a memorandum of agreement with GK last February 6, 2009. By 16 February 2009, the CSA GK Village broke ground at the GK site in Purok 5, Barangay Napindan, Taguig City. Forty homes will be built complete with community facilities. The beneficiaries are informal dwellers relocated from the former AFPOVAI site in Fort Bonifacio. Close to 200 families were affected in the relocation. About 176 families agreed to be relocated to this site. Thus, eleven two-storey buildings, composed of 16 units each need to be constructed for them. CSA Batch 85ers both in the Philippines and abroad committed 10 homes/units and community development support, including two homes to the All 85 GK Village, which I’ll write about in another article.

GK Tony Meloto with CSA85ers. Photo by Monchot Ongsiako

GK inspired us. We dreamt of a CSA GK Village. We dared to build and hoped that the CSA community would join us. They did as inspiring hope is contagious. We yearn to celebrate more than 30 years of friendship by giving back to community and country. We honor our six batchmates who’ve died by giving hope and a dignified life to our less fortunate brothers and sisters.

As St. Agustine said, “What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.”

Tagging The Obama Generation (TOG)

Project Age-Population Pyramid from the New Politics Institute

“Change is the only constant;” so said Heraclitus, Isaac Asimov, Disraeli, Crosby, and many others. The only exception is from vending machines as R.C. Gallagher noted. Change, the transition from one state to something different, is no more evident than in the election of a person of color to the presidency of the world’s most powerful nation. What are the implications for his generation and for Filipinos?

First is that the United States and the whole world are in flux. While Tom Brokaw’s “Greatest Generation” was involved in a horrific war and its aftermath, Generation X dealt with issues of relevance, meaning, and identity. Today, there is a third generation, Generation Y or the Millennials; those born 1982 and after. All three generations number in the tens to hundreds of millions (worldwide) and have different ways of looking at the world, its problems and opportunities, and how to move forward. When one adds to this the diversity in terms of race and ethnicity, class, education, experience, skills, worldviews, health, and access to opportunities; the differences and tensions are quite significant. How do we communicate and relate with each other in ways that support and validate one another’s uniqueness and potentials? This was what Brokaw was probably referring to when he said something like, “With Obama’s election, we are in a post-modern era and I don’t know what post-modern means…”

Second, the U.S. and the world faces a “long-tail” of problems and challenges, which are products of change. Peace, order, and security are problematic in many areas of the world. These range from the nebulous Al Qaeda to African fratricides, secessionist movements, failed states, drug wars, piracy, human smuggling, etc. Also, after years of stalling and obfuscation, the environmental issues of climate change, deforestation, and habitat degradation have now come back to haunt us. Coupled with disasters of biblical scale in both developed and developing countries, we, the human species, will have to make difficult decisions on how we do business and conduct our own lifestyles. As Gandhi said, “Live simply, so others may simply live.”

The third serious challenge is the train wreck of the American economy that is on course to derail the world economy. Look at it as the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the 1998 Brazilian and Russian meltdown, the 2001 Argentinian crisis, Mexico in 1984 and 1994, among others, all rolled into one in the United States. Contrarian economic gurus such as Eric Janzen and Columbia professor Nouriel Roubini generally predict a two-step deflation-inflation, severe and L-type unemployment, recession, and depression era for the next few years. They’re looking at a minimum 10M unemployed in the U.S. alone in the coming months. Welcome to a world of constant economic crises. Will corporations still look and operate the same way as last month? Will they have to drastically modify their structures, practices, and outlook? Will we see mergers or a splintering to smaller, more manageable units?

We’ve discussed changing demographics and waves of crises and challenges. The flip side of this pessimistic aspect of this sea of change in the TOG era is the opportunities inherent. Obama’s landslide win proved that that there is a body out there that resonates with his vision of authentic change and progressive politics. Whether his administration will deliver on his rhetoric or not, major segments of the boomer, X, and most especially the millennial generations have been mobilized over the last 18 months on his plans for the environment, social justice, health care, peace, business reform, and human rights. It will be difficult to return the genie of “new politics” and social movements to her bottle. I expect these generations and individuals to be more proactive in extending the social energy generated to push forth their change agenda.

Because of his decisive electoral victory, Obama has set the tone and standard in two specific areas. The first is how he waged his campaign. By 2010, there will be many countries, including the Philippines, which will have national elections or political transitions. Expect politicians of every stripe from the national down to the local level and in democratic countries to study closely, adopt, and implement his strategy of movement style mobilization with a well-oiled and efficient organization. Look at more costly but more sophisticated mobilizations and campaigns in the Web 2.0/online and real worlds.

Along with electoral movements, expect to see and hear more initiatives from the following sectors: women, health, energy, environment, hunger, housing/shelter, mental health, prison, drugs, sustainability, animal rights, habitat protection, voting and campaign finance, pro-life/pro-choice, race relations, role of Church social action, LGBT, indigenous peoples, employment, social security, etc. sectors. Who will be able to best organize and mobilize the most? Which sector/movement will be able to articulate best their agenda and interest? It will be noisy as it will combative, but participation is essential if power is to be redistributed and social justice implemented.

Obviously, there are profitable solutions to today’s problems. Changing demographics indicate new needs. An aging population, many of whom are unhealthy, will require care giving, medical attention, a change in diet and lifestyle. I do not posit an increase in costs due to an aging population, as changing demographics will have to account for migration, fertility rates, and a greater push for a healthy lifestyle. The important thing to note is that there are needed services, products, and faciliteis. Aside from the government, civil society will increasingly be tasked to provide these services and products at cost and for profit.

The same goes for environmental rehabilitation. Climate change and habitat destruction are forcing us to develop new technologies, specifically renewable energy, new modes of transportation, and materials. Human society will have to fundamentally retool its resource and energy bases. The race is on for new technologies, new services, and new ways of thinking about these issues. Vision, initiative, perspective, knowledge, information, skills, and creativity will be needed. Who will be the technical, social, moral entrepreneurs of the TOG era? Green innovation is expected to be a $1,370 to $2040 BILLION sector by the years 2020 if the right policies and incentives are in place.

Solar Panels at the Vatican (from CatholicNews.com)

In the U.S. alone, the TriplePundit blog quoted a UC Berkeley study, which highlighted that for every $100 million invested in the renewable sector 2,700 new jobs are created. With Obama intending to invest $15Billion a year for the next 10 years, at least 400,000 new jobs will be created just in the renewable energy sector alone.

Electric car retrofit by ElectraDrive (Photo by ElectraDrive.com)

For developing countries, such as the Philippines, we have a golden opportunity to do three things. The first is to leapfrog into green technology and industrialization. Scientists and researchers in developing countries, hampered by lack of resources, have been creative and persistent in addressing energy and water shortages, inadequate infrastructure, and the need sewerage. The poorest of the poor or those in the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) will need and are willing to pay for these services and infrastructure if the price is right. This is a large market and coupled with the other income classes may be able to create the second important aspect of a sustainable economy: a domestic market built on green innovation. The third aspect is the tremendously profitable area of retrofitting. By retrofitting, I mean, modifying what we use today to make it greener and more efficient. Retrofitting is a good alternative if capital is scarce and expensive to access.

From EnviroFit.org\'s tricycle retrofitting project

Imagine a nascent auto sector fueled by biofuels and alternative fuels. I wrote previously of vegetable fuels and CNG powering vehicles in the Philippines. Check out the Colorado State University-EnviroFit.org’s initiative of retrofitting millions of polluting 2-stroke tricycles in the Philippines. They recently won the Rolex Award for environmental innovation, which will enable them to fund retrofitting of these tricycles at $300/unit. Other sources of funding will come from the monetization of carbon credits.

Imagine deforested mountains reforested for habitat restoration, biofuels, ecotourism, materials, and biotechnology. Imagine rehabilitated marine areas for ecotourism and sustainable fishing. Dare to use bamboo for a variety of things from clothing, to food, to bikes, skateboards, building materials, and furniture? How will developing countries transform wastes into resources? How do we make money out of hot air?

Grow Your Own Bike (from PedalPushersOnline.com)

Check out Eng Chan’s cutting edge furniture using recycled automotive engine parts.

Eng Chan's Transmission Table (engchan.multiply.com)

Metro Manila alone, a megalopolis of an estimated 20M, is in need of an infrastructure, housing, communication, transportation, and environmental quality upgrade if it is to compete in a multi-polar world of the new millennium.

There are lessons to be learned and perspectives to be gleaned from Obama’s election. Filipinos need to go beyond what neoconservative and progressive pundits have been spouting and forge a vision and roadmap for FilAm and Filipino progress.

Congratulations America!

Hecky is OBAMALICIOUS. People Power, American style. Multicolor and multicultural never looked so good!

Sorry folks. Following this WEB 2.0 election, that's my status message on Facebook :-)

Kenya and Jakarta celebrate.

What an historic and watershed moment.

Barack Obama on the cusp of history

Historic duo

With less than two days left before the elections for the 44th president of the United States, Senators Barack Obama and Joe Biden are about to enter a new and historic era for the country. What does their election mean to Americans in general and Fil-Americans and Filipinos as well as the rest of the world in particular?

First, to reiterate what many have already written, this campaign period has been marked by a number of firsts and of new ways of doing things. The first person of color, of humble beginnings, but blessed with a recipe of success- a loving family, excellent education, able mentors, and a cultural sophistication honed by travel, training, and trials, is about to become president of the most powerful nation in the world. If not him, it could have been the first woman president.

On the other hand, the incumbent political party nominated a team that was not only ill-qualified, but wracked by controversy, blunder, and internal wrangling. All these, as the pundits say, reflect on the competence and temperament of the candidate.

Second, the Obama campaign made a radical break with traditional campaign strategies and tactics in three fundamental ways. The first is that true to his community organizing background, Obama understood the potential and power of social movements to win elections. He melded a competently directed and well-funded campaign with a decentralized and ground up election movement powered by diverse, creative, and energized people and organizations that were willing to take initiative, sacrifice, and bleed for the Obama cause.

www.fivthirtyeight.com election projection as of Nov. 2, 2008

This successful melding of a broad based election movement with competent campaign strategies was enabled by the wholehearted adoption of Web 2.0 as I wrote previously. Think 3.1 million volunteer supporters, 25,000 Obama bloggers, and a campaign kitty of $600M.

Lastly, Obama’s campaign message of hope and change anchored by specific proposals indicate his capability and competence to lead the country. McCain’s platform was clearly deficient and would most likely lead to further economic decline, continuing wars, and environmental degradation. Americans are not a stupid people.

Because Obama mobilized a movement in this election, he has in the process energized diverse sectors ranging from the youth, ethnic groups, women’s groups, environmentalists, scientists, activists, and the previously apolitical, among others. The challenge now is to sustain this political enthusiasm and energy and channel it, as activists would say, into initiatives on reform and restructuring.

The backdrop though of this historic election is an economic and financial meltdown wrought by a generation of neoliberal economic and social policies that weakened oversight and excessively deregulated; implemented monetary and tax policies that benefited vested interests; underinvested in public education, social services, and infrastructure; exploited the environment, and ventured into costly and illegitimate invasions. If the course is not changed, the very future of the USA may be irretrievably compromised.

The challenges facing Obama on day one are both multifaceted as they are difficult. Thus, there are huge expectations on Obama to initiate not only radical reform, but formulate new and innovative ways of doing things. Because reform and restructuring are on the agenda, this presents opportunities for Fil-Ams to participate. One, because the Obama-for-President movement was broad based in terms of sectors supporting him, and with Obama himself being of mixed color, his election sets the emotional tone of the country.

That emotional tone is a positive one of hope and genuine change. As he has repeatedly stated, America is a land of opportunity. With a loving and supportive family, access to good education, and public services, anyone can reach their potential. It is about equalizing opportunities, regardless of skin color or class. Following Benjamin Pimentel’s article, acceptance in white America need not be based on bashing Blacks anymore.

The change part, as others have noted, is that America has shown time and again that it can correct its mistakes and even engage in cathartic change. America launched the Washington Consensus of neoliberal economic and social policies that proved disastrous for developing countries. It has now returned home and the damage is unimaginable. Obama will have an historic opportunity to right the excesses of market fundamentalism, international unilateralism, crony capitalism, and U.S. contribution to global warming. If successful, he will steer America into a new era replete with a peace dividend and new technological breakthroughs in alternative energy and environmental technologies and services. Those who deeply understand these changes are in a position to benefit from these currents of change.

Scott Hansen's Progress poster

An insightful analysis by someone who wishes to remain anonymous noted that Obama will lead the nation at a time of intense change. His policies and actions will fundamentally remake the institutions that shape the economy, social relations, politics, foreign policy, environmental management, science and technology, among others. It is Thomas Kuhn’s paradigm shift of, as he wrote, from the “Old guard” that is tired and unimaginative and its replacement by the “Emergent New” generation. I put emphasis, just as he does, on “emergent” because it is evolutionary as it is contingent. There is latent energy that desires release, development, and effervescence. Obama has correctly sensed this. A McCain presidency according to him would only limit the “Emergent New” generation.

I have told others that as I look at the Obama election movement through the lens of the Gawad Kalinga social movement, the parallels are uncannily similar. Both share a message of hope, change, and healing of relationships. Both subsume conflict in favor of looking for common ground to work out problems. Thus, both are inclusive. Both prioritize the health of families, of communities, of the environment. Both seek to remake society in fundamental ways. It is about revolution, but a revolution not of the fighting kind that McCain espouses. Gawad Kalinga’s revolution is about healing relationships between rich and poor, powerful and powerless, among a family members and neighbors. Obama’s revolution is built on opportunities for all. Both have tapped into the energy and resources of civil society. They have the support of the youth who are color blind, the feminists, the laborers, the environmentalists, the scientists, heck, even plumbers!

Lastly, both have leveraged Web 2.0 and the creativity of all. Both have been skillful and artful in tapping into the political opportunities that presented itself, strategically accessed and utilized resources, and framed their message and platform in ways that attracted supporters and kept them for the long haul. Future elections will be run on a framework of social movements. I hope it will be of the genuine kind.

A Replication Guide for Building LGU-Initiated Gawad Kalinga Communities, 2005 Philippines-Canada Local Government Support Program

The Obama and Gawad Kalinga movement reflect changes in society in general. Because of persistent widespread inequality and poverty, as well as the environmental challenges, movements of poverty alleviation, health, sustainability, and social inclusion are present worldwide. The need for creativity and innovation in addressing these challenges has attracted some of the best and brightest to these movements. It will come as no surprise why social entrepreneurs are supporters of Obama and of Gawad Kalinga.

The future is exciting and challenging for Americans. The world looks forward to the new stage the United States of America will be performing on.

What will the contribution of FilAms be?

Online is the straight line to the White House: LANDSLIDE win expected for Barack “Web 2.0” Obama

from the 1M strong for Barack Obama Facebook page

Barack “Web 2.0” Obama will win the 2008 U.S. presidential elections by a landslide.

A week ago, after writing an article on why Catholics could vote for Obama, I was intrigued at the wealth of information I found on the topic on the Web. Then after watching the endorsement of Colin Powell of Obama, I was further intrigued. I Googled keywords one wouldn’t expect to be related such as “Republicans supporting Obama,” “conservatives for Obama,” “Joe the Plumber supports Obama,” or “Joe Six-packer for Obama,” and so on. The Google results were overwhelming. The articles were likewise witty and humorous. I thought there was something going on here. The blizzard of favorable endorsements of Obama and Obama’s sticky presence online seemed to point to what Malcolm Gladwell has famously labeled as the tipping point. The other phenomena that seemed to be jumping out was Chris Anderson’s long tail, wherein, to stretch his definition further, many people were writing about different aspects of Obama. Importantly, Obama supporters were doing the research on issues and counterpunching for him.

Notwithstanding the tsunami of polls indicating a surge for Obama, Web 2.0 analyses also indicate this observation. In fact, one internet marketing website predicted as early as June 2008 that Obama would win. An Irish bookie has even started paying out bets on an Obama win to the tune of $1.5M.

Web 2.0, coined by Tim O'Reilly and John Battelle, generally refers to how we think of and use the worldwide web and the internet as a platform of activities such as communications, information generation and dissemination, education, social networking, social media, and marketing, among others. Web 2.0 harnesses community and collective intelligence and enables a “richer user-experience.” It encourages the user to innovate. It is powerfully egalitarian because diversity and uniqueness are appreciated and valued

It becomes even more powerful when online activity translates into real world action in creative ways.

The Obama campaign has achieved this.

Here are some crude numbers and observations.

Obama has a significant online presence. Google his name and you will get 79M page results. Google John McCain and you have 18.9M page results only or 4x less. Obama’s slogan “Change we can believe in” resulted in an even larger 97.4M page results. “Sarah Palin” returned 43.7M page results compared to “Joe Biden” with 20M. However, the first two pages summarizing the results had websites that weren’t favorable to her.

Obama has a significant online community. In the rapidly expanding social networking site Facebook, Obama has nearly 4x more supporters at 2.24M compared to McCain’s 595,167 supporters. In the older MySpace, Obama again has 4x more friends at 771,493 compared to McCain’s 195,017. In comparing what goes on in their respective Facebook pages, Obama’s page again is more active with 463,890 wall posts and 1,664 notes compared to 118,199 wall posts and 125 notes for McCain. McCain though has a discussion section containing 6,108 discussion topics, while Obama has no such section.

However, there is a parallel Facebook group and website called Barack Obama (One Million Million Strong for Barack) with 835,271 members, 54,783 discussion topics, and even 4,221 pictures posted.

Obama is sticky online. By sticky, we mean content online either gets us to return to the website or it gets our attention. Obama is not only sticky but his online reputation is positive. On the widely successful video sharing website YouTube for example Obama video results numbered 571,000 to McCain’s 176,000. Palin video results numbered 90,700 compared to Joe Biden’s 32,100. If one takes the negative aspect, anti-Obama videos have 410 compared to McCain’s 229. Anti-Palin resulted in 95, while anti-Biden resulted in two videos. However, there are anti -Republican groups that consistently upload informative and critical GOP videos. One active group is Brave New Films which has 880 video results. “Joe the plumber” had video results 3,430 of various slants. “Joe six pack” had video results 740, again of various slants.

The Tech President website, which provides some of the most useful Web 2.0 analyses of the election campaign notes that Obama has a whopping 85,082,123 YouTube views compared to McCain’s 22,598,936. In addition, Obama racked up a humongous 14,548,809.05 viewing hours compared to McCain’s 488,093.01 hours. PCWorld has noted that YouTube videos are ‘kinder’ to Obama .

“Blog mentions” as measured by Technorati shows Obama leading McCain 4,624 to 3,928. Gov. Palin had a huge increase to 3,257, probably due to her numerous gaffes.

Obama’s website according to Hitwise, an internet research company, has a 67.19% market share compared to McCain’s 32.81%.

Obama is even the "Brand of the Year" awardee as declared by Advertising Age/Ad age.

In what online cave is McCain living in these days?

from Underconsideration.com

Online to real line

Obama has better leveraged Web 2.0 in myriad ways.

The Obama movement. Obama supporters from Facebook to Myspace to those who registered at MyObama have demonstrated their support with the best indicator, money. David Plouffer, the Obama campaign manager reported that 632,000 new donors donated quite a big part of the $150M raised during the month of September 2008, bringing the total number of those who have donated to more than 3.1 million. According to him, the average amount of the donations is $86. Two significant observations are; many are repeat donors and many are probably doing more than just donating. Take a look at the MyObama website . Not only does it ask for donations, it provides the online tools to do other campaign related actions in the real world including networking through its Neighbor-to-Neighbor initiative . Thus, unlike McCain’s or even earlier, Clinton’s, Obama’s campaign is highly interactive, not only online, but offline as well. The creativity is astounding. Can someone email this Obama tax-calculator to Joe the plumber and Republican supporters to see how much taxes they’ll be paying? Community organizing, derided by Giuliani and Palin, is coming back to haunt the GOP. Obama directly has at least 1.5 million active volunteers that generate 400,000 voter contacts a day.

Obama the counterpuncher movement. The movement that the Obama campaign has spawned is engaged in a variety of activities. One overlooked activity is counterpunching . By counterpunching, I refer to how Obama supporters are responding to and proactively strategizing in quad-media (radio, TV, press, Web) the Rovian sleaze, smear, scare tactics.

Nancy Scola writes about how the internet is killing the Rovian tactic of robocalls

Obama leaning websites have documented and MAPPED interactively the hows, whys, and number of McCain's negative attacks. They’ve deconstructed and showed what’s wrong with this tactic and have generated an increasingly negative view of the McCain strategy. The 4.2M member political movement MoveOn.org has played a tremendous, creative, fundraising, networking and so important part in the get-the-vote out and organizing for Obama. For its final push it has at least 100,000 volunteers organizing parties wherein the attendees will do campaign calls and other related actions. Peter Daou has documented the rise of what is popularly called netroots and how the sector has influenced the narratives of the traditional media, especially in painting a favorable image of Obama.

Go for the heart and the wallet will follow. Reminiscent of Gawad Kalinga’s message of hope, faith-based, heroic, and servant action, the fundraising power of Obama reflects the resonance that Americans have for the message of hope and change that Obama espouses. As David Brooks noted, the fundamentals are there for Obama. The debacle of the Bush administration, the indiscretions of Republicans, the rising wealth gap, the slide into poverty of many Americans, and the environmental crisis are realities that need to be addressed. Obama’s campaign seeks to address these issues. McCain insists on fighting and continuing a destructive economic program with environmental consequences. Even his pro-life platform is contested. Fundamentally, Obama presents an even tempered, dedicated, and passionate president-to-be similar to the David Palmer character in the hugely successful 24 Fox tv series. McCain comes out as McNasty. The message of positive change and hope will most often resonate with people. That is how humans are wired. Lastly, favorable stories generate favorable stories. All these has resulted in Obama raising $600M.

Mobilize-organize, organize-mobilize. The Obama rallies from the primaries, overseas, to the Democratic convention, to the massive, massive rallies in red states are very impressive. It reminds me of much earlier political mobilizations. The Cory Aquino campaign, People Power I, and People II, which I witnessed all had the same energy, mobilization, and level of organization ultimately led to the ousting of Marcos first and Erap Estrada second. The same dynamics are unfolding and I am confident that McCain will lose this elections. People resonate with Obama and his campaign messages. Everyday people are getting more comfortable with him. His big ears and his awk-awful-ward dance steps are endearing him to people. He is surrounded with a bevy of competent and articulate campaign workers and backstopped by decentralized, but passionate and skillful netroots.

Plus, what social scientists call elite cleavages have transformed into a gushing rush to the Obama campaign. Big donors and bigwigs in a number of sectors have publicly supported him. Google, Buffet, Oprah, the onslaught of newspaper endorsements, the Clinton power couple, the Kennedy clan, George Soros, and the Republican defections, signal wide top societal support of Obama.

Numbers in. The online world has given us the opportunity to look at trends and polling on the election. All reflect a rout of McCain. The polling blog FiveThirtyEight.com which simulates the election 10,000 times a day using different polls asserts an Obama win. Website owner Nate Silver says that early voting is trending Obama. New registrants will most like vote and will vote Obama. Enthusiasm levels are higher for Democrats then Republicans. Minority groups of various stripes-remember the immigrant scapegoating and gay-bashing?- are turning up for Obama. Heck, even kids mock-voted for Obama.

Another website, 3BlueDudes, albeit leaning Democrat, lists and presents the various polls and projections on the election . Again, most are favoring Obama.

Since the 2004 campaigns and elections, the internet and Web have played an increasingly critical role. Obama, following Dean’s lead, has fully embraced it. McCain’s campaign hasn’t and it reflects the wide gulf separating them, not only on the power of the internet, but on fundamental issues of character, temperament, economic and social policies, as well as foreign policies.

Barack Obama will be the 44^th president of the United States on November 5, 2008.

As Dr. Noel Flores of Chicago noted; "IT will be historic."

Why Catholics can go for Obama

Poor and low-income women account for more than half of U.S. abortions

slide from Guttmacher Institute presentation

FilAms/Filipinos should not fall into the myth that electing McCain will miraculously lead to the banning of abortion. The GOP uses the abortion issue for politics. Since 1973, their efforts, if ever any significant action was initiated, have proven ineffectual especially with Roe vs. Wade. It's a zarzuela. I have yet to see any movement or program launched by the GOP or their supporters to help the mostly poor and poorly educated women of COLOR (mostly Protestant and/or Catholic) who undergo most of the abortions.

figure from Guttmacher Institute

Also, abortion rates generally went down during the Democratic administrations compared to GOP administrations. Lastly, for those who think Obama is the devil incarnate on abortion, what have they done to help the over 40 million women who committed abortion? Probably none, because most were poor, of color, and not within their social circle.

Everyone condemns abortion, but who is doing anything to prevent it and help the poor mother of color?

As the study Reducing Abortion in America: The Effect of Economic and Social Supports concludes...

"The findings of this study indicate that increased economic assistance is strongly correlated with reductions in the abortion rate and suggest that effective pro-life public policies should address the socioeconomic well being of pregnant women and working families. As public attention during this election season turns to economic health of our nation, elected officials should consider the prolife benefits of using economic assistance and employment policy to reduce abortions in America..."

A focus on reality and faith-based action in loving the poor and helping them out of poverty, inequality, and social exclusion are the best ways to reduce abortion.

Anything less is religous smokescreen for greed ala Rizal's Padre Damaso.

See the article below.

A Catholic Brief for Obama

Why the faithful can in good conscience back the Democrat

Nicholas P. Cafardi, M. Cathleen Kaveny and Douglas W. Kmiec

Newsweek Web Exclusive

This article is a rebuttal to a previously published essay by George Weigel arguing that Barack Obama ' s views on abortion are fundamentally at odds with Catholic doctrine.

What your favorite McCain and Palin supporter forgot to forward to you

Design from

http://www.designforobama.org

What your favorite McCain and Palin supporter forgot to forward to you…

 Colin Powell endorses Barack Obama

 http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/19/america/19powell.php

 Republicans for Obama

http://www.republicansforobama.org/?q=node/3341

 

Obama conservatives/ ObamaCONS
http://www.tnr.com/story_print.html?id=46a816dc-f843-41ec-9fe4-fbeac17bcfca
http://www.tnr.com/story_print.html?id=46a816dc-f843-41ec-9fe4-fbeac17bcfca
http://www.amconmag.com/article/2008/mar/24/0002/
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/declarations.html

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/07/conservatives_for_obama.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/17/conservative-talk-radio-h_n_135684.html

 

Military families supporting Obama

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/378794_bluestar12.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diane-tucker/younger-military-families_b_133183.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diane-tucker/younger-military-families_b_133183.html

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-08-14-military-donations_N.htm

http://www.nhinsider.com/press-releases/2008/9/27/obama-biden-campaign-highlights-military-support-around-nati.html

http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/obama-outscores-mccain-in--veterans-groups-report-card-2008-10-06.html

 

Veterans supporting Obama

http://www.newsweek.com/id/164516

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec08/military_08-27.html

http://vetsforobama.org/

http://electioncenter.military.com/2008/09/why-veterans-su.html

http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=320506&paper=67&cat=104

http://www.mlive.com/grpress/news/index.ssf/2008/09/veteran_speaks_in_support_of_o.html

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=12287

http://www.vetpac.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=105&Itemid=31

 

Pro-lifers and Catholics supporting Obama

http://www.newsweek.com/id/163896/page/1

http://www.americamagazine.org/blog/entry.cfm?blog_id=2&id=ABDB92F1-1321-AEAA-D3E92E4E2EBB6B7A

http://sigmundcarlandalfred.wordpress.com/2008/09/12/below-the-radar-the-obama-pro-lifers/

http://spectator.org/archives/2008/09/12/meet-the-obama-pro-lifers

http://www.spiritual-politics.org/2008/06/prolifers_for_obama.html

www.romancatholicsforobama.com/ 

http://209.157.64.201/focus/f-news/2095534/posts

http://www.prolifeproobama.com

http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=13871 - 45k

http://freerepublic.info/focus/f-news/2095534/posts

http://www.lohud.com/article/20080927/OPINION/809270316/1351/NEWS0204

http://www.kendallharmon.net/t19/index.php/t19/article/17055/#comments

 

Being pro-life is 1 percent talk, 99 percent action

http://www.catholics-united.org/

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Will-Catholics-Move-On-or-by-Olga-Bonfiglio-081019-475.html

http://www.catholicsinalliance.org/

http://www.catholicsinalliance.org/node/20218

www.usccb.org/faithfulcitizenship/bishopStatement.html

http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=10984

http://insidecatholic.com/Joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4584&Itemid=100

http://blog.nj.com/njv_ray_schroth/2008/09/why_this_priest_votes_for_obam.html

 

 

Republican states in play

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/WireStory?id=6054151&page=3

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/v-print/story/729055.html

http://www.theage.com.au/world/us-election-2008/economic-woes-redraw-the-states-in-play-20081005-4uaa.html?skin=text-only

http://news.stv.tv/world/34778-obama-aims-at-republican-turf/

 

Reasons for Republican collapse

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=8759

http://www.thetimes.co.za/SpecialReports/USElections/Article.aspx?id=866069

 

100,000 in St. Louis, 75,000 in Kansas City  rallies for Obama

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/54408.html

 

Republican vote lags in N.C. early voting

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/54396.html

 

More newspaper endorsements for Obama in N.C.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/100/story/54415.html

 

Obama-wins-backing-from-three-major-metropolitan-newspapers/

http://www.republicansforobama.org/?q=node/3341

 

More Obama Endorsements IV: Sacramento, Katie Couric, Malaysia, Houston Chronicle, Detroit, Waco Tx (sort of) by Stephen Fox

http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/More-Obama-Endorsements-IV-by-Stephen-Fox-081019-492.html

 

Poll: Obama ahead in critical counties

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/10/obama_swept_debates_gallup_pol.html


Summary of various polls show Obama leading
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/18/73414/589/773/633837

Obama swept debates
http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/10/obama_swept_debates_gallup_pol.html

 

Hockey moms for Obama

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/09/hockey_moms_against_palin.html

http://www.eandppub.com/2008/10/hockey-mom-pali.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTyCtESbfxA

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/98939/%27hockey_moms_for_truth%27_wage_swift_boat_campaign_against_palin_/

http://alaskahockeymomsforobama.com/?p=444

http://hockeymomforobama.wordpress.com/2008/10/09/reason-27-because-palin-scares-the-bejeezus-out-of-us/

 

Soccer moms for Obama

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/nyregion/07moms.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin

http://alexanderchee.net/2008/09/06/the-economist-soccer-moms-are-not-voting-for-creationist-anti-abortion-44-year-old-hockey-grandmother-and-neither-will-we/

http://www.fox23news.com/mostpopular/story.aspx?content_id=8868d717-b1ae-4cd4-aabf-645f93b95590

 

Women against Palin

http://media.www.leprovoc.com/media/storage/paper453/news/2008/10/01/Viewpoint/Feminist.Refuses.To.Support.Palin-3467064.shtml

http://www.cnsnews.com/public/Content/article.aspx?RsrcID=35811

http://news.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view/2008_10_16_All_lipstick__no_pitbull/srvc=home&position=1

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-steinem4-2008sep04,0,1290251.story

http://open.salon.com/content.php?cid=29553 (staffer resigns)

http://www.divasblueoasis.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=A444B8EFF666AFA796A5B524A3898F7E?diaryId=186

http://shannynmoore.wordpress.com/2008/10/15/losing-civility/

http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/east_king/iss/opinion/letters/28591024.html

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003844485

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MDZiMDhjYTU1NmI5Y2MwZjg2MWNiMWMyYTUxZDkwNTE=

http://kimchimamas.typepad.com/kimchi_mamas/2008/09/korean-american.html

http://www.canow.org/canoworg/2008/09/why-sarah-palin.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/hillarys-women-reject-mccains-vp-choice-933050.html

 

Women dropping Palin

http://pollingreport.com/P.htm

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/questioning_their_motives-2/

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122370058766625819.html

http://www.pollster.com/blogs/omero_the_palin_effectits_rise.php

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/09/24/1439689.aspx

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/20/AR2008012002389.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/01/AR2008100103600_pf.html

 

Troopergate

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/editorials/stories/DN-trooper_14edi.State.Edition1.24f8dd2.html

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/10/11/sarah_palin_alaska/index.html

http://www.adn.com/sarah-palin/story/556346.html

 

Women for Obama

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1846065,00.html

http://www.newser.com/story/39686/blue-collar-white-women-shift-to-obama.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/20/AR2008012002389.html

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/10/gendergap_favoring_obama_exper.html

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/10/07/20081007gender-gap1007-ON.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marcia-g-yerman/women-leaders-hold-press_b_127277.html

http://feministmajoritypac.org/

http://www.bpwusa.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=5602

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/09/29/1462828.aspx

http://www.now.org/press/09-08/09-16.html

http://www.asianamericansforobama.com/women-back-obama-biden-on-the-issues

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/amandascott/gG5qPy (list of women for obama)

http://blondesforobama.com/about/

 

Women for  Biden

http://www.catholicsforchoice.org/news/inthenews/2008/WomenTakethePlatformatDemConvention.asp

http://www.srbi.com/time_poll.html

http://www.now.org/press/08-08/08-23.html

http://www.womenwiredin.com/2008/09/womens-pacs-endorse-obamabiden-ticket/

http://www.minnpost.com/kayharvey/2008/10/01/3714/minnesota_womens_press_makes_a_surprise_endorsement

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2008/oct/08/joe.biden.sarah.palin.women

http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=685a4524-9702-49c0-b062-7d9ecd21a854

 

Plumbers for Obama

http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/31112804.html

http://current.com/items/89412966_united_association_of_plumbers_endorses_obama

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/10/plumbers_disavo.html

http://www.ua.org/ua_endorses.asp

http://www.barackobama.com/2008/01/09/plumbers_and_pipefitters_inter.php

http://www.plumbersandgasfitterslocal12.org/

 

Plumbers for Biden

http://www.midatlanticlabor.com/appiesnet/wordpress/?p=113

 

Joe Six-pack for Obama

http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/diarypage.php?did=10218

http://worldwide-sawdust.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2723

http://jonathanturley.org/2008/10/03/the-ultimate-joe-six-pack-vote-obama-endorsed-by-homer-simpson/

http://rebellenation.blogspot.com/2008/10/joe-sixpack-for-obama-obama-jumps-ahead.html

http://jointeffort.wordpress.com/2008/10/07/homer-simpson-tries-to-vote-for-obama-in-the-08-election/

http://blog.mlive.com/capitolchronicles/2008/10/joe_sixpack_snubs_sarah_palin.html

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/politics/2008/10/joe-sixpack-supports-barack-obama.html

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/joe-six-pack-speaks-out-second/story.aspx?guid={02CA8254-785D-4438-A7A0-351BFE4682DA}&dist=hppr

 

A blizzard of….Obama endorsements

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/18/obama_leads_mccain_in_newspape.html?hpid=topnews

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obama_endorsements

http://bucknakedpolitics.typepad.com/buck_naked_politics/2008/10/more-media-endo.html

http://www.politicalbase.com/profile/jnail/blog/&blogId=4956

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/10/17/obama-pulling-away-newspaper-endorsement-race/

http://polfeeds.com/item/Two-Major-Newspaper-Endorsements-for-Obama-in-New-Hampshire

Chronicle endorses Obama for president, Biden for vice president http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/recommendations/6065490.html

Sun-Times endorses Barack Obama for president - Chicago Sun-Times - 34 related articles »

Denver Post Endorses Barack Obama - TalkLeft: The Politics Of Crime http://www.denverpost.com/politics/ci_10741576

Washington Post Endorses Obama http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/16/emwashington-postem-endor_n_135443.html

Obama for president - The Boston Globe http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2008/10/14/obama_for_president/

SUNDAY ENDORSEMENTS: Houston and Austin Papers--Former Bush ... http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003875523

Digg - LA Times Endorses Obama http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-dem3feb02,0,3530861.story

Editorials & Opinion | Obama for the Democrats | Seattle Times ...  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/2004145661_obamaed27.html

Barack Obama: Our choice for President - Las Vegas Sun  http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/oct/19/barack-obama-our-choice-president/

http://www.opednews.com/articles/ENDORSEMENTS-6-College-St-by-Stephen-Fox-081020-511.html

http://www.opednews.com/articles/ENDORSEMENTS-5-Cleveland-by-Stephen-Fox-081019-341.html

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Conservative-Radio-Host-Pu-by-Rob-Kall-081019-526.html

http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=2593&updaterx=2008-10-20+03:02:00

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Fareed_Zakaria_endorses_Obama_1019.html

http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=11332147

http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlDC/online_media/this_wapo_endorsement_of_barack_obama_has_been_brought_to_you_by_barack_obama_97857.asp

 

Diplomats, Nobel laureates, economists, Oprah for Obama

200 former U.S. diplomats endorse Obama : politics  http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/09/28/200_former_US_diplomats_endorse_Obama/UPI-58941222655586

All 2008 US Nobel Laureates in Science Endorse Obama! - Scientists ... http://sefora.org/2008/10/14/all-2008-us-nobel-laureates-in-science-endorse-obama/

Burning Cane: Largest Asian-American PAC Endorses Obama

Oprah Endorses Obama - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/05/03/oprah-endorses-obama-2/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/08/the-oprah-effect-one-mill_n_117685.html

http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=nobel-winners-other-scientists-advi-2008-09-18

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/04/obama-picks-up.html

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2008/01/31/volcker-i-endorse-obama/

http://sefora.org/2008/09/25/61-nobel-laureates-in-science-endorse-obama/

http://mnpublius.com/2008/10/economists-back-obama-overwhelmingly/

http://uncultured.wordpress.com/2008/09/23/influential-conservative-republican-economist-endorses-obama/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obama_Republican

 

Political scientists, bookies think Obama will win

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Survey_6_out_of_9_early_1016.html

http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2008/08/barack-obama-will-win-the-presidency-political-scientists-forecast/

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95829729

http://www.watoday.com.au/world/bookies-preempt-obama-win-with-payouts-20081017-52mx.html

http://www.paddypower.com/bet?action=go_type&category=SPECIALS&disp_cat_id=31&ev_class_id=33&ev_type_id=5142&ev_oc_grp_ids=87201&bir_index=&promo=bet_NoHoldsBared&crea=lnk

http://v4.sportnetwork.net/main/s522/st134898.htm

 

Unions for Obama

http://atu.bluestatedigital.com/content/pages/atu_endorses_barack_obama

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS293996+14-Feb-2008+BW20080214

AFL-CIO endorses Obama for president

 

Community organizers endorse Obama

ACORN: Obama Gets It

http://blogs.thestate.com/bradwarthensblog/2008/09/community-organ.html

 

Racist attacks against Obama and supporters

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/story/730941.html

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2008/10/obama-backers-receive-death-threats.html

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95594725

http://www.alternet.org/election08/103670/?page=entire

http://allspinzone.com/wp/2008/10/17/endorsements-for-obama-lynchings-and-assaults-for-mccain/

 

Flipping ACORN, flipping votes for…the GOP

http://wvgazette.com/News/200810180251

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Secretary-of-State-Debra-B-by-Press-Release-081020-216.html

http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/newsmlmmd.8b966db6c021deb5267baf79f97aa45e.21.html

Could The US Election Be Stolen (Again)? 
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/10/20-1

Michael Winship | A Mighty Hoax from ACORN Grows
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/10/20

Common Cause: This Election: Deceptive Practices 2.0? 
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2008/10/20-1

FairVote: New Study: Lack of Planning in Virginia May Cause Election Day Problem 
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2008/10/20

 

Veterans against McCain

http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnmccain.com/

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/election08/92681/veterans_against_mccain/

http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,164859_1,00.html

http://themoderatevoice.com/at-tmv/newsweek-blogitics/23020/mccain-on-veterans-fact-check/

http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-96933

http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2008/05/mccain-on-veter.html (on veterans’ benefits)

http://ivaw.org/node/4135

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-nickolas/the-media-created-myth-th_b_118235.html

http://www.iava.org/full-ratings-list

http://www.vetvoice.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1743

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/aug/10/mccains-attacks-rival-fall-flat-vets-group/

 

McCain’s relatives (some) support Obama

http://michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=12401

http://www.sfltimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2041&Itemid=42

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/28/cindy-mccains-half-sister_n_122134.html

http://www.usmagazine.com/news/cindy-mccains-half-sister-im-voting-for-obama

http://www.usmagazine.com/news/cindy-mccain-half-sister-she-makes-me-feel-like-a-non-person

 

 

Epidemic of abuse of women in Alaska

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5804581&page=1

Obama brand

http://www.blog.newsweek.com/blogs/stumper/archive/2008/02/27/how-obama-s-branding-is-working-on-you.aspx

http://www.designforobama.org/index.php?page=2&p=303

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/04/arts/design7.php

http://www.dwell.com/daily/blog/27667894.html

http://www.obamaartreport.com/

 

 

 

Fil-Ams, the U.S. elections, abortion, and Barack Obama

Filipinos-for-Obama pin from FilipinosforObama.org

Fil-Am communities, especially those online, are debating heatedly the coming U.S. elections. Supporters for Obama and McCain bombard each other with comments, responses, articles, and other materials in the hope of convincing the other to vote for one’s candidate. In a recent survey of Asian-Americans including Fil-Ams, 35% indicated a preference for Obama compared to 29% for McCain. Significantly, 34% were undecided with the remaining 1% indicating another candidate.

Photo of Fil-Am and Asian-American supporters of Sen. John McCain. Photo taken by Charito Benipayo, Co-Chair, CAPACforMcCain from the AsianAmericansforMcCain.org website

If the online exchanges are a crude indicator of rising political participation of FilAms, we may hazard a premise that a number of FilAms support the Republican ticket of Senator John McCain and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, simply because of the Republican’s pro-life/anti-abortion stance vis-à-vis the Roe vs. Wade 1973 Supreme Court decision. Filipinos are considered socially conservative in light of the value place on family solidarity and Catholic upbringing. Thus, the framing of the pro-choice vs. pro-life debate must shift if Obama supporters are to convince Republican Fil-Ams to change their voting patterns.

It seems like Fil-Ams’ support for Republicans is based on the abortion issue to the exclusion of all other issues. As a Catholic myself, abortion is horrible. I am a pro-lifer from the moment of conception to adulthood. Shouldn’t we all be? I understand this point of view for Fil-Am’s support of Republicans, but I think this should be expanded. Fil-Ams supporting the Republican party because of its pro-life stance need to be convinced that abortion can be avoided by a change of hearts and an enabling environment. Basically, when women are respected more, supported, and have more access to life’s opportunities, they will choose to be pro-life. It is about spreading love, not fear and hate, or scare mongering. The data support this assertion. The excerpt below is from the Guttmacher Institute which has long conducted research on the issue of abortion.

WHO HAS ABORTIONS?

• Fifty percent of U.S. women obtaining abortions are younger than 25: Women aged 20–24 obtain 33% of all abortions, and teenagers obtain 17%.
• Thirty-seven percent of abortions occur to black women, 34% to non-Hispanic white women, 22% to Hispanic women and 8% to women of other races.
• Forty-three percent of women obtaining abortions identify themselves as Protestant, and 27% as Catholic.
• Women who have never married obtain two-thirds of all abortions.
• About 60% of abortions are obtained by women who have one or more children.
• The abortion rate among women living below the federal poverty level ($9,570 for a single woman with no children) is more than four times that of women above 300% of the poverty level (44 vs. 10 abortions per 1,000 women). This is partly because the rate of unintended pregnancies among poor women (below 100% of poverty) is nearly four times that of women above 200% of poverty (112 vs. 29 per 1,000 women
• The reasons women give for having an abortion underscore their understanding of the responsibilities of parenthood and family life. Three-fourths of women cite concern for or responsibility to other individuals; three-fourths say they cannot afford a child; three-fourths say that having a baby would interfere with work, school or the ability to care for dependents; and half say they do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband or partner.

What jumps out here? One, those seeking abortions are young, women of color, probably poor and lacking education, mostly Protestant and nearly one-third Catholic. The reasons cited for abortion reflect a lack of a network of support and isolation/exclusion.

Clearly we have a situation of poverty, minimal education, minimal opportunities, a breakdown of family, and no support network. Social scientists call this structural violence. The structure of society, i.e. politics, education, inequality, etc. lead to the deaths of the most vulnerable. Yet, the framing of the abortion issue at present hinges on the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision. The abortion issue has been used by neoconservatives as a cultural wedge issue to distract voters from the main issues that drive abortion, namely; poverty, inequality, social exclusion (PIE).

Bring down poverty, inequality, and social exclusion. Work to support minorities in their human development. Provide universal health care. Be more loving and compassionate like the Catholic Church and provide more facilities for supporting single moms, troubled teenagers. Support programs to strengthen a loving family conscious and committed to SOCIAL JUSTICE. Evangelize to the poor, lost souls. These are the best ways of driving down abortion rates, which will render Roe vs. Wade irrelevant.

On another level, this is not to say that there are no Catholics supporting Barack Obama. The website Roman Catholics for Obama notes that Obama promotes a culture of life. Note that his rock solid family is an example of the importance of a good family in creating a good society. In the website, Obama says;

“I don’t know anybody who is pro-abortion. I think it’s very important to start with that premise. I think people recognize what a wrenching, difficult issue it is. I do think that those who diminish the moral elements of the decision aren’t expressing the full reality of it. But what I believe is that women do not make these decisions casually, and that they struggle with it fervently with their pastors, with their spouses, with their doctors….Our goal should be to make abortion less common, that we should be discouraging unwanted pregnancies, that we should encourage adoption wherever possible. There is a range of ways that we can educate our young people about the sacredness of sex and we should not be promoting the sort of casual activities that end up resulting in so many unwanted pregnancies…Ultimately, women are in the best position to make a decision at the end of the day about these issues. With significant constraints…”

For Catholics, the Roman Catholic Church issued a document on the elections. In the statement, the Church also emphasizes that any politician engaging/ supporting in a culture of death, torture, racism, neglecting to address poverty and social inequality, among others, should not be supported. In other words, the Church calls everyone to support those who support a culture of life based on social justice. In addition, being pro-life is not only about killing the unborn, it is also about not killing men, women, and children in war. It is also about providing health care to nearly 46 million people without insurance. It is about taking care of the environment. It is about putting people first before profits. It is about doing things today that will not adversely impact future generations.

Even prominent conservatives are beginning to see the bigger picture of abortion in the United States. Frank Schaeffer, is the author of Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back. He is also the son of the late evangelist Francis Schaeffer. In an interview with Amy Goodman of the Democracy Now! Radio program, he said;

“And so, I think there’s a choice for Americans interested in this issue who are like me, pro-life, and that is, do you want to choose ideological purity attached to a party that will so destroy our economy and all the social programs that there will be more abortions, i.e. as there have been through the Republican-controlled years, when they’ve been talking about this issue for thirty years and done nothing about it for actually helping women and children, or would you rather have a president like Barack Obama, who you disagree with on this one ideological point, in terms of what you might call the theology of the issue, but whose program would practically result in a more conducive environment for families to prosper, for people to have children, for kids to go to school, for women to be taken care of? And I would rather vote for a person who’s going to do the job rather than just have the correct ideology.”

The confluence of the economic crisis, debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan, high oil prices, environmental degradation, corporate excesses, racism, fear mongering, and immigrant scapegoating, among others, has damaged the country in many ways, including its global standing. The problems are indeed monumental, yet this provides an opportunity to restructure American society based on social justice and preferential option of the poor and excluded. Fil-Ams because of the historical experience of the Philippines vis-à-vis poverty, inequality, and social exclusion, can meaningfully contribute to this restructuring. They can do so when the abortion issue is analyzed in a comprehensive and societal manner.

CITIZENS’ ACT: WALANG IWANAN! ANO ANG TAYA MO PARA SA BAYAN?

Walang Iwanan! Ano ang Taya mo para sa bayan?

Social changes per political scientist Karol Soltan (1996) are large scale, require revolution or extensive institutional reform, and have pervasive and long term societal consequences. Several social movements worldwide, working with the bottom of the pyramid or the poorest of the poor, claim success in social change. Some social movements are spurring social change by inspiring it, and addressing poverty via massive mobilization of people, resources, technology, and skills, as well as developing strong community relationships. Many have replicated and are “scalable” globally.

Social movements are commonly associated with contestations against the state, the powerful, and dominant cultural codes. The focus of analysis on their effectiveness has been on the strategic use of conflict of varying degrees. However, modeling best practices, social justice, and transformational engagement with power holders in housing, environment, livelihood, education, and human rights sectors, among others, are strategies and core principles of a number of social movements that have replicated and scaled up. One such movement is Gawad Kalinga, which seems to be reconceptualizing social movements beyond collective action in conflict settings.

Before Gawad Kalinga, the Catholic charismatic movement called Couples for Christ (CFC) began ministering to out-of-school youth and gang members in the mid-1990s. As an evangelistic and missionary movement, CFC’s work with the youth was one of several initiatives in conjunction with its Seven Pillars, namely; evangelization and missionary work, pastoral support, strengthening of the family, promotion of social justice and human development, Gawad Kalinga, promoting and defending life, and special ministries.

It was not easy. CFC’s Tony Meloto, the public face and spiritual founder of Gawad Kalinga, and his then young daughters were rudely greeted and threatened when they first sought to start the youth program in the slum relocation site of Bagong Silang, Caloocan City. It took a lot of prayers, effort, and time spent in Bagong Silang before they could establish a relationship based on friendship, trust, and mutual assistance. Bagong Silang is a failed government-initiated relocation site. In fact, it is the biggest relocation site and barangay in the country with at least one million resident-relocatees. Because of practically non-existent government relocation assistance and social services, poor infrastructure, high rates of poverty and unemployment, and general apathy from society, there were very low trust levels, rampant criminality, and unsafe and poor living conditions. Bagong Silang was exactly the opposite of its name (new birth).

Globe TM Village, Bagong Silang, Caloocan City

CFC volunteers realized early on that while these troubled youth were improving when they were with CFC, they would revert to their old ways when they returned to their homes and slum environment. It finally dawned on them that the environment needed to be changed. The swamp needed to be drained of poverty, inequality, and social exclusion. These youth needed another chance in life. At its most basic, these children needed a home they could feel safe in, live in comfortably, and reestablish their family relationships. They needed both a physical and spiritual environment to heal.

From the few homes that they fixed, the results were dramatic. Yet these youth and their families struggled to renew themselves in a slum community. The scale of renewal needed to be enlarged. Stable families could build stable communities. CFC’s Seven Pillars provided a holistic approach to family and community development. The model of what is now known as Gawad Kalinga had at its entry point in home building. Providing homes that were comfortable and secure (tenancy-wise) enabled families to save, invest, regain their dignity, and rebuild their lives. Supporting these families and eventually their communities with education, health, values transformation, community organizing, livelihood/productive opportunities, and spiritual ministry provided for individual and community empowerment. In Bagong Silang, the first family they helped is a continuing testament to the viability of this model.

This family was squeezed into a tiny, run-down home. The parents had intermittent, very low paying jobs. All the children were drop-outs. Two of them were gang members. One was a run-away. CFC-GK worked with them, repainted, and eventually rebuilt their 20 sq meter home. The transformation has been dramatic as it is miraculous. Today, their home is a two-storey, concrete, and 60 sq. meter home that is a symbol of faith at work and community self-help. Today, the mother heads their community’s GK Micro-lending program. The father is active in the gardening and feeding programs of GK. Five of the six children finished college and are either working or helping out with GK. They paid a high price though. One of the sons was knifed dead when he tried to help a friend-neighbor attacked by gang members. In growing GK, advocates heed the call of padugo or bleeding for the cause. In Bagong Silang, GK volunteers and beneficiaries have literally paid in blood with Tony Meloto burying six youth killed in gang-related violence.

Globe GK Village in Bagong Silang

From this one home, there are now 1,700 GK communities in various stages of establishment all over the country. GK has started in several other countries as well, with Africa in its eyesight. It has replicated and scaled up with the sacrifices of its CFC core of volunteers and partnerships with the national government, over 300 mayors, over a 100 corporations, over 150 schools and universities, overseas Filipinos and their foreign friends, the tri-media, and on-line communities. It has established a decentralized GK Builders Institute nestled in various universities to tap into their organizational and technical expertise and meld the ‘science and spirit’ of community development.

It has ramped up its partnership with towns and town officials. In the process GK is helping local officials become better governors of their resources as they address poverty and homelessness. Last August 8, 2008, it launched the Taguig Designer City (TDC) initiative, wherein the City of Taguig with the help of GK seeks to unsquat the whole of Taguig using the GK model. It will provide city-owned land, manpower, and resources in this endeavor. The TDC shows how modeling best practices in community development can attract the support, if not wholesale adoption, of a community development model by local officials and power holders.

The successes, experiences, and knowledge gained by GK in the past six years enabled it to replicate and scale up. There are many ways of explaining this, but the simplest is this. A movement emerges out of a passion for something. It grows because this passion is shared by many who are willing to sacrifice or in GK’s case, padugo. Padugo enables initial success, builds character, provides leeway for experimentation and recoverable failure, and importantly, generates credibility. Credibility borne out of padugo attracts partners. Once partnerships reach a critical mass the movement snowballs. It is then nurtured by creativity and innovation in its organizational and mobilization aspects. Gawad Kalinga, at its essence, has always been a movement based on holistic human development that is being upscaled.

GK community meeting at Bagong Silang

Make no doubt about it; GK’s vision is to build a new Philippines based on love of God, country, family, and neighbor. On October 11, 2008, it will launch its most ambitious program to achieve its goal of 700,000 homes in 7,000 communities in seven years (GK777). GK will launch the CITIZENS’ ACT: WALANG IWANAN! ANO ANG TAYA MO PARA SA BAYAN? At the Fort, Taguig City. This will be a year long campaign to inspire the Philippine Congress to allocate P500 billion for housing, community development, productivity, and other human development programs for the country’s five million poorest families for the next 10 years.

As counterpart or padugo to this allocation for the poor, GK will likewise launch the “Tao Po! Campaign” to tap at least five million Filipinos nationwide and all over the world to promote this Citizen’s Act and to volunteer in ensuring that the funds are used wisely. The campaign will also tap colleges and universities, civic organizations, NGOs, corporations and their employees, and local government units. This national grassroots campaign is consistent with the view of GK that the problems of poverty are so massive that neither government nor the private sector can address it in isolation. It must be national and international mobilization of people power, resources, and skills. This is collective action on national and transnational scales that will morally pressure, if not encourage, the Philippine Congress and government to act.

GK para sa Bayan

In the Citizen’s Act, we see even more clearly the fusing of bayani, bayanihan, and bayan.

Walang iwanan, ano ang taya mo bayani?

Entrepreneurship opportunities, both capitalist and social, in the Philippines

Escaping the scorching Arizona heat, visiting family and friends, and continuing my research on Gawad Kalinga, led me to Manila during the summer. Being the nosy applied anthropologist, I didn’t refuse any invitation to visit GK sites, do consulting research, revisit the great outdoors, and eat and drink with some of the most fascinating people there. In the process, I got updated on what’s going in the country.

The Philippines and the United States have serious economic and environmental challenges. Both have a rapidly widening gap between the rich and the poor. The middle class is being gutted. Migration rates are intense; out of the country for Filipinos and from the rural to urban areas and within urban areas for Americans. As one columnist wrote; “at the rate Filipinos are migrating, we will be left with the poor and the corrupt.” The ecological footprint of Americans due to internal migration, on the other hand, is one of if not the highest in the world. The financial, insurance, real estate (FIRE) sectors characterize both economies. In the United States however, the sub-prime mortgage debacle is threatening its, and possibly the global, financial system. For the Philippines the OFW remittances, which is fueling the real estate boom and the import-laden semiconductor sector are keeping the economy afloat. Foreign investment in the mining sector and illegal mining are also helping the rural economy in complex ways.

The negatives though are not what I want to dwell on. My conversations with myriad peoples from farmers to miners to bankers, engineers, and yes, even community organizers in both countries, as well as my observations, lead me to believe that there are opportunities for entrepreneurship, both capitalist and social, in the Philippines.

At the outset, let me state that the strength of both countries rests on its human resource. Despite numerous corrupt politicians and bureaucrats and the political-economic crisis, there are many more creative, educated, disciplined, innovative, and energized people and groups that inspire and can convert one into an optimist. Civil society remains strong in both countries. This important resource is the presence of creative and innovative people and groups. One example that I’ve written about are the U.P. Mountaineers who organized Padyak.org, the P500/bike/semester “rental” scheme for U.P. Diliman students that is promoting biking and a healthy-environmental lifestyle.

Media attention and social acceptance are leading to corporate sponsorship, more bikes for students, possible replication in other campuses, rising popularity of biking and increased bike sales. What gets me excited too is that by the second semester, they hope to launch a bamboo bike in partnership with Carolina’s Bamboo Farm. If it passes the trials, we will look for corporate sponsors for at least 100 bamboo bikes. That will highlight the possibilities of bamboo and increase demand for bamboo woodworkers, bike designers, and builders. Do you see the link between social entrepreneurship and the economy?

Outside of Manila, I did some short term applied research on a mining firm and was taken aback at the quadruple shocks that upland, agricultural, mining communities are experiencing. These are; (a) the fuel price increases have increased product transportation costs with resulting inflation; (b) petrochemical fertilizers have increased 300% in the last five years; (c) logging, mining, and extensive upland farming have degraded soil fertility increasing dependence on petrochemical fertilizers leading to a downward spiral; and, (d) lack of irrigation and underinvestment in irrigation facilities make rural farms underproductive. Because of these shocks, upland farmers, at least in this mining area, have abandoned farming and gotten into small scale mining increasing tensions with big mining firms. Local and foreign buyers have entered mining areas and prefer buying from small scale miners, rather than engage in capital-intensive mining.

While these external shocks are indeed shocking, there are underlying opportunities. First, probable high permanent oil prices are increasing demand for alternative fuels and energy sources. AltEnergy Systems Inc. of Chips Guevara reverse engineered and adapted to Philippine driving conditions conversion kits that enable diesel vehicles to run on used cooking oil. The conversion kits cost P40,000 each and cut by more than half the daily fuel cost of, for example, a jeepney driver. He is also setting up the fuel supply chain by buying used cooking oil and filtering it, while establishing pilot jatropha farms.

For gasoline vehicles, GreenFuel is a newly established LPG conversion company. For also about P40,000, ANY gasoline vehicle can be converted to run on gas and LPG. LPG is cleaner and better for gasoline engines. It is also roughly half the price per liter of gasoline. LPG refilling stations are beginning to sprout.

Note that in 2006, there were 5.33 million registered vehicles in the country.

LPG kit on a late model Toyota Camry

While we discussed technology at the retail level, the question of fuel supply needs to be addressed. Now is a good time to invest in farming and/or reforestation that produces alternative fuels. These include coconut oil, jatropha-sourced biofuels, and other indigenous plants and trees that can produce biofuels. The barriers are land, capital, and labor. A people’s association (PA) in northern Luzon showed me how to do it. It took them years to apply, but they were successfully awarded a 1,000 hectare community-based forest stewardship agreement (CFSA) by the DENR. DENR then linked them up with a foreign technical investor (FTI) that trained them on how to establish a jatropha farm. It is paying the salaries of the farm laborers,. It commits to bring in the harvesting and fuel processing equipment. Lastly, it will give at least 10% of the biofuel sales to the people’s association. A nursery has been established and planting is proceeding. It’s a win-win for the FTI, the PA, the environment as denuded slopes are being replanted, and the upland economy. This should be the model for an agroindustrial-environment entrepreneurial program.

Many more CFSAs exist. What are you waiting for?

The third is food security. The government, private sector, and civil society need to invest in irrigation and fertilizer production, preferably organic. One model I saw involved a carbon credit company I’m involved with. Hog farms are constrained by pollution charges, high power costs, high feeds, and high waste management costs. This company provides the technology and financing that will capture the greenhouses gases, which it sells as carbon credits. Everyone wins. The hog farms gets a biodigester without capital investment, 30% cheaper electricity from the steam produced, a cleaner operation, and up to 10% of the carbon credits. A biodigester system produces fertilizer that farms need and which this company hopes to sell and distribute nationwide. Wastewater is treated and can be reused.

There are at least 30 million hogs in the Philippines and carbon credits sell from $7-30 per metric ton. This is literally making money out of hot air.

There are other initiatives that I can discuss, but I’d like to end this article by discussing the opportunities arising from Gawad Kalinga villages. From an entrepreneurial perspective, GK villages present a labor force and market. GK supporters, partners, volunteers, and beneficiaries are all being educated (in different areas), appreciating various aspects of discipline, organized, and have high levels of communication and coordination (EDOC). Thus, ALL participants can be tapped to be productive. GK villages are an emerging market, especially if the 700,000 homes / 7,000 villages in seven years materialize.

Since one component of the seven-point component of GK is productivity and livelihood, the opportunities are boundless. A productivity program is required of all GK villages. Rural GK sites also have to allot one hectare of the two hectare site for productivity initiatives. A GK village in Taguig has two internet cafes, one sponsored by SMART, the other by Rotary International, an alumni UP class, and an e-commerce start up. Another GK village in Bagong Silang started its own purified water bottling business. A GK village in Quezon is known for its wood carving. Other Taguig GK villages will be tapped to provide the landscaping and waste management services to the rich Ayala villages. A GK village cum relocation site has a working wastewater treatment plant using reed plants that can be replicated elsewhere. The recycled water is pumped into an overhead tank used for firefighting and designed as a welcome arch. A GK village in Rizal borrowed a plot of land from the parish and established an urban organic pick-and-pay farm and fishpond. GK BASECO has a coffee shop using donated Starbucks chairs and tables. GK Reunion Village has an organic farm and nursery, a hotel, guest villas, and a retirement village for GK supporters who want to retire and live near a GK village. The carbon credit company I mentioned earlier is donating a biodigester system to a GK village that will treat kitchen wastes and sewage. The steam generated can power a bakery. The village will now also be able to raise hogs and not worry about waste management. GK and a business school have also sponsored an entrepreneurship competition among its classes in partnership with GK sites. The list of examples goes on. GK has also started to ramp up its productivity and livelihood component with big names in business and finance volunteering their talent, time, and resources. Merchandising is emerging as a feasible productivity sector. A big announcement will be made this October.

GK Reunion Village guest villas

What are the lessons gleaned here, aside from standard business school pointers of market, leadership, drive, financing, strategy, etc.?

One, we need to focus on the needs of the people. There is strong demand for basic household needs of food, water, energy, housing, infrastructure, education, and livelihood. Government and the private sector are not up to par so there are opportunities. Financing needs to be creative to meet these needs.

Second, in working with the poor, provide capital not only for the business, but also to meet the worker’s basic needs. Chips Guevara subsidized the jeepney conversion. He is willing to partner up with anyone, especially jeepney drivers groups, in setting up the supply chain of used cooking oil. The jatropha FTI paid for the training with stipend, hired PA members to do the farming, is funding the establishment of the jatropha farm, and is willing to share profits with the PA in exchange for access to their 1,000 has. CFSA area. The carbon credit company is willing to provide 100% funding, technology, and a build-operate-transfer (BOT) arrangement in exchange for the carbon credits. Gawad Kalinga is promoting entrepreneurship at the village level. It is also inviting entrepreneurs to do business with GK villages and split the profits. When partnering up with the poor or tapping their labor, presence, or time, you need to provide for their basic needs, since the next meal of their family is always in flux.

The poor can be an economic engine and a market. Why not make them a partner in development?

Third, business opportunities, even in a country with dysfunctional politics and political leadership, can arise if the micro-environment encourages a convergence of capital, labor, and technology in a setting of mutual trust and benefit. GK villages provide this setting. The partnership between the CFSA holder and FTI is another. The model of the carbon credit company is further proof. Affordable and equitable provision of financial services including “banking the unbanked” and “providing the last mile of financial services” to the rural poor are needed.

Fourth, investing in lifestyles of health and sustainability (environment) or LOHAS makes good business sense. The market is growing in proportion to the need and demand. Organic food, alternative energy, alternative transportation, urban renewal, ecotourism, etc. are fast growing sectors. An aging population in the United States and the Philippines, coupled with high medical and insurance costs, present the country with retirement and health services that can be at par, yet cheaper than in developed countries. We are looking at least 70 million retiring Americans and at least 300,000 Fil-Ams. Where will they live? What will they be doing in the next ten years?

Fifth, creativity will enable entrepreneurial initiatives that have multiple benefits. The examples above show how organizing the poor address poverty and environmental problems, while contributing to capacity development and empowerment. Creativity, a focus on LOHAS and needs of the people, and convergence zones and situations of capital, labor, technology, spur sustainable development.

Per the insightful economist E.F. Schumacher, initiatives that increase levels of EDOC (education, discipline, organization, and communication) leads to sustainable development as a critical mass stirs the reservoirs of creativity and innovation. The EDOC process itself is an entrepreneurial opportunity. Imbibe culture in it and the opportunities multiply. Padyak.org is a good example. The booming Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) sector in the United States is another one that involves paid teaching, seminars, tournaments, “pilgrimages” to the Philippines, interest in all things Filipino, FMA equipment, t-shirts, videos, etc. The advertising giant McCann-Erickson reported that there are 2.3 million bloggers in the Philippines, at least three million Filipino internet users, most of whom are very active users of social networking sites such as Facebook and Friendster. What does this say about information, communication technologies (ICT) and its opportunities? The call-center, medical transcription, and other business process outsourcing (BPO) business have yet to be fully exploited.

If we can lift the five million poorest of the poor to moderate poverty and assist them to enter even just the lower middle class, we will see a resurgent Philippines.

Profit with honor exists. Try it.

Walking in their shoes: The 3rd Annual Gawad Kalinga Walk

"I got you on my back"

Walking is one trait that distinguishes man from other species. By standing upright and walking on our two feet we are able to see farther, travel longer distances, interact, use our hands for other things, discover, and learn new things. Human society is based on language (the ability to communicate and think) and, as the late French anthropologist André Leroi-Gourhan observed, the ability to walk. We walk to get around, stay fit, and relax.

For Gawad Kalinga, walking is one way of being one with the poor.

Last September 6, 2008, 28 cities in the United States and Canada participated simultaneously in the 3rd Annual Gawad Kalinga Walk led by GK’s Maggie Villanueva. This five kilometer walk sought to bring together Fil-Am communities in North America in a solidarity walk for the poor. The GK Walk generated greater awareness of the community development and nation building model of Gawad Kalinga (GK). GK provides Fil-Am communities with a meaningfully way to take up the cause of nation building via loving, sharing, and caring for the poor.

GK Walk also sought to inculcate the uniquely Filipino cultural trait of “bayanihan”- family and friends getting together to achieve something. This entails a foundation of friendship, trust, and cooperation. Walking with one another and for the poor enabled us to make new friends, spend time with each other, and get the family together in something noble and patriotic.

GK Walk Tucson

In Tucson, Arizona, with barely a month of preparation, the Fil-Am community got together for Gawad Kalinga for the first time. Close to 80 persons got up early on a Saturday morning and headed out to the beautiful Gene S. Reid Park in central Tucson to walk for the poor and for friendship. The successful walk in Tucson is significant, because it is quite difficult to get Fil-Ams together on an early Saturday morning to walk five kilometers in this high desert city of 350-sunny-days a year, during a scorching summer. Since Tucson is sprawling, it is also hard to get an agreement on where to hold community activities.

Philippine Mabuhay Cultural Foundation

They came for Gawad Kalinga however. Fil-Am groups such as the Philippine Mabuhay Cultural Foundation , the Filipino-American Sampaguita Club of Tucson (FASCOT), the Fil-Am Club of Southern Arizona (FILAMCSAZ), and the Filipino-American Students Association of the University of Arizona (FASA) came together for the first time in a very long time for the GK Walk. We had representatives from at least two charismatic prayer groups and a Filipino priest to bless the participants. FILAMCSAZ members drove 80 miles just to join the walk. A picnic followed the walk with Pinoy Fast Food providing the pancit bihon.

Fil-Am Club of Southern Arizona

Jessica Cox, a FASA alumnus, the first woman without arms to fly a plane solo, and motivational speaker, led the walk on her recumbent bike. Dr. Avelino Leal of FASCOT escorted her. When you have someone like Jessica and a health buff doctor leading, you end up walking more than five kilometers. I think they were training the participants for the GK Hero's Run (a marathon event)!

Jessica Cox leads the GK Walk in Tucson, Az

In other participating cities, GK Chicago stalwarts Robby and Donna Reyes reported 82 registered walkers and about 150 total attendees. They along with the GK folks in central Illinois led by the indefatigable Dr. Charlie Capati raised a significant amount of money for the GK programs. Panera Bread provided breakfast. They also had another six major sponsors.

Chicago GK Walk. Photo by Dr. C. Capati

In New Jersey, Beth Macaraeg reported that the inclement weather did not deter the walkers. In Tampa, Florida, GK lead Jess Roa noted that the gorgeous weather brought out more than 150 participants including the Associated Filipino Students of University of South Florida. In Boston, Eugene and Evita Florendo reported close to 200 walkers along the beautiful Charles River. They even had an ati-atihan group. They were blessed because their prayers for a stop to the rains and good weather materialized. They were also quite successful in their fundraising.

GK Walk, New Jersey. Photo by Joseph V. Tieng

The Oregon and Seattle GK Walks were well attended. They even had a multimedia presentation on GK and breakfast before the walk. In Milipitas, San Jose, GK point person Alfred Keen reported over 300 total participants despite the 100F temperature.

GK Walk, Seattle. Photo by Melissa

I estimate from 2,800-5,600 joined the GK Walk in the 28 cities in the United States and Canada. Also, quite a significant amount of money was raised. The unquantifiable benefits though, which are priceless, are the conversations held and the friendships newly forged. Fil-Ams are a busy people. A lot of them work at least two jobs, with many doing overtime. Doctors and nurses do extra shifts and are on-call. Most are truly devoted to their families and are active in church and prayer groups. Fil-Am students are busy themselves. Nearly all of them have a full-time school load and work at the same time. On top of this busy schedule are their club and socio-civic activities.

Holy Redeemer Charistmatic Prayer Group

All were happy with the turn out, the diversity of the participants, and the opportunity to socialize with fellow Fil-Ams. The GK Walk showed that Fil-Am groups can get together for the country and for the poor. Already, the walk has led to further networking. The four Filipino priests in Tucson led by Fr. Miguel Mariano and Fr. Les Niez have gotten the Fil-Am groups together to a organize big Christmas dinner of at least 600 Fil-Ams, their families, and friends with the intended beneficiaries being Gawad Kalinga and a seminary in the Philippines. FASCOT wants FASA to help them in manning the Filipino booth in the annual and wildly successful get-to-know-your-neighbor festival, Tucson Meet Yourself.

Filipino-American Students Association, University of Arizona

The GK Walk preparations enabled me to meet the different Fil-Am groups in Tucson. The FASA students were a joy to talk to and work with because of their energy. It’s hard not to be proud that many of them are in cutting edge studies such as biosystems engineering, microbiology, and optical sciences among others. Rev. Virgilio "Jojo" Tabo, Jr. of Our Mother of Sorrows Parish walked the Walk with us and gave the blessings. I even attended a few prayer meetings. In one prayer meeting, I got to meet and hear the insightful talk of new Filipino priest Rev. Mario V. "Ricky" Ordoñez.

Mrs. Inez Cox and Fr. Jojo Tabo

It was Fr. Ricky who inspired us with his advice on prayer;

“Make every breath, a prayer of thanksgiving.”

IMAGES IN STONE: Art in Fossils from the Larry Gotuaco Collection

Ayala Museum website banner
Images in Stone-Art in Fossils from the Larry Gotuaco Collection

Tucson, Arizona is known for a lot of things, but every third week of January until the second week of February, it plays host to the “Greatest Show on Earth” in the mineral world (Wilson 2004). This is the annual Tucson Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Showcase, going on its 55th year. Popularly known as the Gem and Mineral Show, the Tucson Show, or simply “The Show,” the Tucson Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Showcase has all the elements of commerce, earth sciences, paleontology, archaeology, technology, art, curating, culture, and crafts. Many of the world’s top private collections and public museums have exhibited here. The fellowship, networking and learning experiences generate so much social and cultural energy amidst the high desert scenery of Tucson. To Bob Jones who has attended it more than 40 times and who wrote about its 50 year history in 2004; “it is the “single most important gem and mineral event in the world.”

The Tucson Show is simultaneously a show, museum tour, exhibition, market, bazaar, swap meet, convention, conference, workshop, party, fiesta, pow-wow, food-fest, and tourist destination that brings together over 50,000 unique visitors, collectors, curators, dealers, buyers, scholars, enthusiasts, tourists, students, artists, even hippies to this three-week event. In 1969, then curator Paul Desautels of the Smithsonian Institution and one of the most active supporters of the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show called it “The New York Stock Exchange of the (mineral) world”. Bob Jones quoted him saying “the price of mineral specimens for the world is more or less set at this show.”

From Tucson Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show 2008 Feb. 3

If you want to see the latest mineral find, some of the most exquisite gems, or newly unearth mammoths, the Tucson Show is where you should be. Do fossilized dinosaur molars or coprolite (dung) pique your interest? How about petrified wood? Have you seen a meteorite weighing more than 600 kgs.? How much exotic seashells and corals are from the Philippines? Do you want to know and see what ammonites, crinoids, or trilobites are? There is no other showcase like the Tucson Show and it is something an enthusiast should experience even once.

Colorful Kentucky agates from Tucson Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show 2008 Feb. 3"

The recent 2007 Tucson Show had 5,079 exhibitors in 49 individual shows, the most ever not counting the unofficial ones. This year the numbers dipped because of the U.S. recession and the housing meltdown that hit Arizona hard. Nevertheless, these shows were scattered all over the city in banquet halls, foyers, and bedrooms/ suites of hotels, convention centers, parking lots, warehouses, or any available space, security permitting. Most shows are open to the public. An economic impact survey-assessment of the Tucson Show by FMR Associates (2007) estimated total gate attendance at 362,816 buyers, each of whom attended an average 6.6 shows. They estimated unique persons attendance at 55,056, the highest ever and 59% more than the 2000 estimated figure of 34,618 persons. Exhibitors came from 42 states of the United States and 38 countries, while buyers came from 43 different states and 24 different countries. If you want to see globalization localized, the Tucson Show will make for a good study.

Economic Impact

The FMR study (2007) noted that the Tucson Show is an economic juggernaut conservatively contributing over $100 million in direct expenditures to the local economy, up from $76.4 million in 2000. Lodging, food/beverage and in-town transportation expenditures alone amounted to $49,549,718. The estimated tax revenue from the show was $9,057,217 in local taxes paid on $90,206,326 of taxable expenditures. This is an increase of 51.2% from the year 2000 figures. In terms of likelihood of return to Tucson, majority of the majority of exhibitors (63%) and out-of-town buyers (78%) indicated that they will return and/or attend the 2008 Tucson Gem Show. These figures do not include the sales and trades made during the three week period. Further, as many of these sales are wholesale, the multiplier effect of retail sales as well as conversion into artistic pieces or jewelry for sale worldwide are not accounted in this study.

The Tucson Gem and Mineral Society itself has long been active in community affairs, which also helps the local economy and education sector. Proceeds from the Show have assisted the Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona Mineral Museum, the Southern Arizona Regional Science Fair, the Southern Arizona Rescue Association, the American Federation Scholarship Fund, the Tucson Special Olympics, the Arizona Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs, the Arthur I. Flagg Memorial Foundation, the Smithsonian Institution, Mineralogical Record magazine and Rocks and Minerals magazine. Significant amounts of money have funded scholarships to the Advanced Studies Earth Science Programs at the University of Arizona according to Bob Jones.

Tucson show in Manila!

From Downright with Ammonites

For the last five years, we’ve been fortunate enough to host our godparents who are avid collectors of fossils, petrified wood, and minerals. This couple, Larry and Pat Gotuaco, of San Francisco and Manila, are well-known and highly regarded in the seashells, Chinese blue and white ceramics, and now minerals and fossils collecting worlds. Tito Larry along with Rita Tan and Allison I. Diem are the authors of the much sought after coffee table book, Chinese and Vietnamese Blue and White Wares Found in the Philippines (1997). After assembling a fantastic collection of seashells and Chinese ceramic, he has now focused his attention on the what he calls “God’s Art.” Afterall, he says, “in Chinese blue and white ceramics you can endlessly debate on the age of a ceramic piece, which is of a time period of a few decades to a few hundred years, but in fossils and petrified wood, we’re talking tens to hundreds of millions of years ago.”

Exquisite ammolite up close from Downright with Ammonites"

What really caught the eye of the Gotuacos on their worldwide search and collection of fossils, minerals, and petrified wood is the natural color and beauty of these specimens. No artist, living or dead, can surpass the color combination, structure, and composition of each piece, whether it is a mammoth’s tusk, fossilized dinosaur dung, or the most colorful Arizona petrified wood. Indeed there is beauty in nature that is simply breath taking. Even the processes of fossilization and petrification, wherein organic matter such as bones, felled trees, or even dinosaur dung get buried in sediment for millions of years, with their organic material eventually being replaced by minerals and silica/minerals respectively, are short of awe inspiring.

These specimens though give you another surprise. Get a camera and take a “macro” or close up shot of a small part of the piece and you see the complexity of colors and structure. It is even more beautiful and majestic.

Mexican Desert Rose. From Tucson Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show 2008 Feb. 3

Words, however, will never be able to describe the fiesta atmosphere of the Tucson Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show. Worse, words do not let you see and feel what these tens of millions of years-old specimens are.

The Gotuacos though are a very generous couple. They are also stalwarts of experiential learning. Since they started collecting, they’ve always dreamed of bringing the Tucson Show to Manila. They saw the value of an exhibit engendering interest in geology, paleontology, archaeology, astronomy (yes, meteors!), and the natural sciences. Filipinos need and deserve these kinds of learning experiences. Thus, despite, initial setbacks, they managed to convince Ayala Museum to exhibit part of their collection.

Images In Stone

Entitled IMAGES IN STONE: Art in Fossils from the Larry Gotuaco Collection, the exhibit opened on 16 September 2008 at the Third Floor Glass Lane, Ayala Museum and will run until November 30. Workshops are being scheduled for macro photographers and even a kids session on collecting this coming September 27. This is a precursor to the book he is writing on petrified wood.

This is one exhibit the family should not miss.

Give yourself an hour or two for the exhibit. Better yet, give yourself half a day to explore the other exhibits and collections at the new Ayala Museum. The Crossroads of Civilization is a must see. For the politically inclined there is the I am Ninoy exhibit.

Bring the family, learn something new, and learn more about your country.

Jesus Christ was a community organizer, Pontius Pilate was a governor...

Country First! But, whose country and who first?

The Republican National Convention (RNC) held last week did not fail to intrigue and pique the interest of Americans and the worldwide audience. They certainly did catch our attention. After the resounding debut of Barack Obama and Joe Biden at the Democratic National Convention (DNC), the RNC scuttled their first day because of Hurricane Gustav. The announcement of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as the vice-presidential nominee the Friday before carried them through though. Gov. Palin was a new and pretty face, a hockey mom, feisty, and charming. Pending further vetting of her, she is a fresh face for the Republicans beset by the chaos in Iraq and Afghanistan, the lingering tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, the housing implosion, the economic recession and accompanying “mental depression”, and the health crisis. Republicans, observed the New York Times’ columnist David Brooks, entered the RNC practically morose.

The Republicans, like the Democrats, promised change and reform. This they hope to accomplish via three primary strategies.

The first is a change of Republican and, hopefully, national leadership anchored on the man once called the “most trusted man in America” and now a “maverick,” Arizona Sen. John McCain. He will be backstopped by the charming, full of energy, and emerging symbol of the Republican woman, Gov. Sarah Palin.

The second is that, with a focus on the track record and character of both candidates, they will reform Washington and overhaul how politics is practiced.

The third is a renewed emphasis on patriotism and increased security. It is about confronting perceived American enemies anywhere in the world to ensure the country’s security from terrorism. In other words, the “war on terror” will continue.

If the objective of the RNC was to re-energize and rally its base (of supporters), this they accomplished. Sen. McCain attracts the security-conscious voter, while Gov. Palin brings to the table interest, intrigue, and an appeal to the woman vote. What we will see is a United States that will vote on the fault lines of race, gender, class, and socio-economic issues.

In deconstructing the Republican message and their policies based on the speeches over several days, the elements were similar. My comments and that of others follow below.

The focus on the biography and heroism of McCain was smart, because it detracts from the failings of the Bush administration of the last eight years. The goal was to put enough distance between him and the Bush administration. To further emphasize this gulf, they pulled a surprise in presenting a VP candidate out from literally nowhere, Wasilla, Alaska that is. It was a risky move characteristic of McCain the maverick.

After this spectacle of surprises, what comes next? Their message was that character and a track record of heroism is needed to reform Washington. I find this hard to believe, since the base of supporters and funders of the Republicans espouse policies that will ultimately and literally, fry all of us.

Rudy Giuliani’s “Drill baby drill”, his roguish laughter, and his cheerleading of the RNC participants as they repeated the chant were chilling. He, other speakers, Gov. Palin, and finally, Sen. McCain followed this up with a commitment to re-start the nuclear power program. They actually believe that the road to energy independence includes drilling for more oil and nuclear power.

I foresee global warming and a mushroom cloud.

Drilling for oil in the U.S. is full of myths and disinformation. See “Four offshore-drilling myths” by Eoin O’Carroll. Basically, there isn’t much oil left and what’s left is too deep and expensive to drill. Oil is a finite resource. In finance, oil is the equivalent to capital . You shouldn’t be using up the capital, just the interest. Where is energy and fuel conservation? Raising vehicle fuel standards? Where is government, in Thomas Friedman’s words, in reshaping the market to encourage renewable energy and alternative fuels?

The issue with nuclear power is nuclear wastes have a lifetime of thousands of years. Except for the Church, no institution has survived thousands of years to manage these nuclear wastes. Who would be reckless enough to leave to future generations the responsibility of taking care of wastes that can cause the extinction of the human species? All that for the privilege of consuming more, making the nuclear power industry rich, and avoiding conservation measures? Lastly, there are embedded risks in nuclear energy because of its complexity and life cycle (from mining to processing, use, and waste disposal) that have been expertly dissected in Charles Perrow’s classic Normal Accidents .

In a RNC dubbed “Country First” with an emphasis on veterans, McCain’s heroic war record,and patriotism, fighting was the code word. McCain himself used the word “fight” at least 25 times in his acceptance speech. Either his statements will vault him to the presidency or condemn him as the proponent of a culture of death and conflict. As he said; “Fight with me…Fight for what’s right for our country…Fight for the ideals and character of a free people…Fight for our children’s future….Fight for justice and opportunity for all…Stand up, stand up, stand up, and fight.”

Apparently, the police and authorities took his exhortation to fight literally. While there were anarchists who caused trouble, police brutality against varied protest groups were extensively documented. At least 400 were arrested for the flimsiest of reasons, journalists hurt, and scores of protesters maced and clubbed. The mainstream media hardly covered it, but the gory details can be found on-line. See Vital Source for a round up on the violence during the RNC. Photographers documented and wrote about police abuses. Journalist Amy Goodman, herself arrested and manhandled, recorded the Ramsey County Sheriff using infiltrators in the protest marches.

The last is on security and the never-ending “war on terrorism.” Despite the debacle in Iraq and Afghanistan with hundreds of thousands dead, including innocent civilians, thousands of dead and wounded American soldiers, a monthly $10 billion bill, what has the United States accomplished? Two failed states and millions of angry relatives of the dead and tortured. An American economy that is being bled dry because of military over-reach. The question still remains, who is the terrorist? If the terrorist is STATELESS, why engage in a conventional war?

This “war on terrorism” has proven profitable for those engaged in what former President Ike Eisenhower called the military-industrial complex. Only a few companies actually benefit, with the nation taking on a terrible burden. Growing the economy through endless conflicts doesn’t seem like good business sense.

Lastly, are Americans really being threatened by other nations? Iran, North Korea, Venezuela are touted as rising threats. This shows little faith in diplomacy and the American military. Did you know, the United States has 761 military bases across the planet? Really, is there a country willing to take on the vast American imperial military? If terrorism is a problem, use counter-intelligence, diplomacy, and police work. Development, not warfare, is the best strategy of “draining the swamp” of terrorism.

My observation is that all candidates have the character, integrity, and dedication to lead the nation. What separate the chaff from the grain are the policies.

Who presents a vision of the future of investments in renewable energy, education for all, affordable health care, safety nets for the poor, rebuilding of the economy, and those espousing sharing, caring, peace, and a concern for the environment? Who presents a vision of the USA as a moral leader, quoting Bill Clinton again, leveraging “…the power of our example than by the example of our power?”

The American people will be voting for their future this coming November. What kind of change will it be? Will it be one based on hope and values or one based on more of the same?

For Fil-Ams, they need to seriously reflect on who they support. Like the DNC, they were invisible. Worse the RNC was a pale affair. How can RNC hope to reform and change the course of this complex country with only one race? See Washington Post’s article on the lack of diversity in the RNC.

Many Fil-Ams or their parents fled the Philippines mainly because of the lack of economic opportunities. They need to support candidates who are sympathetic to economic migrants. Importantly, they need to support candidates who work for the reduction of income inequality, strengthening of the middle class, and engage minorities. To support candidates that DO NOT support these initiatives, Fil-Am voters only become like the politicians and caciques that they escaped from.

The future is in your hands.

Yes we can! at Mile High

Last 28th August, St. Agustine’s Day, was historic not only for the United States, but possibly for the world. Barack Obama, son of a Kenyan scholar father and a white anthropologist mother from Kansas, became the first nominated person of color to run for the presidency of the United States. He accepted the nomination in front of over 80,000 people and tens of millions of TV viewers at Invesco Field in Denver, Colorado. His 45-minute acceptance speech capped a nearly week-long Democratic National Convention that featured some of the best political speeches in recent times. If these speeches, tinged with wit, emotion, passion, common sense, and filled with hope, dreams, and determination, were made in 2004, the course of U.S. affairs since then may have been vastly different.



But as with the United States, the American people are a resilient people. This year they have another chance to change their state of affairs. I believe that they will in a fundamental and historic way with the election of Barack Obama. Indeed, to use the overused cliché, these are going to be very interesting times.

Nearly 200 people spoke during the four-day convention. Many if not most of the speeches were emotional, if not passionate. A few themes ran across the speeches. The first and most important, which was capped by Obama, is that America is about dreams and the fulfillment of dreams. To the speakers, that is what America is all about. That is why migrants risk everything to go the United States. America is about a new start, where the impossible is possible, where hope can become real. In America, your family name and origin are not liabilities. You can be the best you can be. Work hard and you can achieve your dreams. Ted Kennedy stressed it best; "The work begins anew. The hope shall rise again. And the dream lives on."

The second is that in a world of constant change and at many times, conflict, America needs to exercise a leadership that is not unilateralist. Bill Clinton highlighted this in stressing why Obama is the right choice. Unilateralism is really a code word for bullying and in recent years, the United States has been anything but unilateral. The result is that the country has lost worldwide influence and prestige; engaged in a disastrous occupation of two countries; caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and injuries; and made more enemies. It is oxymoronic for the last remaining superpower in the world to use force, when diplomacy, development work, and police-intelligence/ counter intelligence work are the better options in addressing terrorism or combating STATELESS adversaries. Bill Clinton said perfectly; “People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power.”

The third theme was about change. The change that the speakers spoke of was change based on family and the values of honesty, hard work, principles, ethics, sharing, and caring, and faith. Michelle Obama, Ted Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy-Schlossberg, Hilary Clinton, Beau Biden, and Joe Biden, among many others stressed this. The powerful must be grounded on what the people are experiencing; what families are going through. Because it is in spending time with Americans all over, importantly those struggling, can leaders know what needs to be changed. As Obama said, “Change doesn’t come from Washington . . . it comes to Washington.”

The differences between the parties are striking. Obama comes from a multicultural background, which is indicative of tolerance. He knows poverty from personal experiences of growing up and from working on it. Michelle Obama’s message was clear; "We want our children and all children in this nation, to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work hard for them."

Biden’s personal tragedies and his commitment to his family and community keep him grounded, with a commitment of no cronyism. As Biden said; “For every American who is trying to do the right thing, for all those people in government who are honoring the pledge to uphold the law and honor the Constitution, no longer will you hear the eight most dreaded words in the English language: The Vice President's Office is on the phone.".

Democrats favor research and investment in renewable energy, while the other party favors drilling in ecologically sensitive areas. They look at the immigration issue as a wedge issue that detracts from its economic causes, which need fixing. Obama’s “Yes We Can” parallel’s Cesar Chavez’s “Sí, se puede.” Social justice and compassion are what are lacking in the immigration debate. They favor talking and negotiating, rather than force as a blunt tool of negotiation.



Lastly, the Democrats’ message is one of HOPE. Hope energizes. It is about optimism. It is about faith and the virtues of sharing and sacrificing. The byline of fear and scare mongering, I believe, has run it last course. You can only scare people for so long to stay in power. After that, the game is up. Hope will prevail.

The Republican National Convention started with the stark reminder of Hurricane Katrina and the incompetence of the political and executive leadership three years ago. They should have consulted a feng shui expert as Hurricane Gustav hurtles toward Louisiana and New Orleans. This has forced them to reorganize the convention and cancel the speaking engagements of Pres. Bush and VP Cheney. This may bade them well, but it only highlights the reactionary actions and nervousness that abound.

There are reasons for optimism for Democrat supporters after the DNC, but the road to the White House will be narrow, rocky, and full of landmines. It will entail hard work, dedication, sacrifice, consistency, and importantly, integrity. Democrats are running on a message of CHANGE and HOPE based on VALUES and ETHICS. They must live it everyday.

For Fil-Ams, why where they invisible in DNC? Why no speakers? The interests of the Fil-Am, if not Asian-American communities, lie with the Democrats. There are initiatives such as Filipinos for Obama, but the silence and invisibility of Fil-Ams are troubling.

Saan Ka Nakatira? Ano ang ginagawa mo?

GK Pandi homes, June 2008

Saan Ka Nakatira? Ano ang ginagawa mo? Where do you live? What do you do?

These two questions define who you are and what your identity is. These two questions either bring you confidence or shame, hope or despondency, contentment or anger. “I live in (fill in the blanks) and I am the father/mother/brother/sister/son/daughter of (fill in the blanks). I am a (fill in the blanks)” define who you are on so many levels, be it gender, class, status, or other cultural markers of age education, and, work. As E. F. Schumacher noted, work enables man to develop and use his talents to meet his needs in a way that builds community and solidarity. The poor though have neither a voice nor a stake in society because they don’t have meaningful work that meets their needs.

Imagine if you were an informal dweller, derisively called a squatter, living a hand-to-mouth existence, with many children, little or no education, no job or underemployed, and in debt. What are your chances of improving your family’s situation in this lifetime? What can you do? Who can you run to for help? Who can actually help you?

A home in the garbage dump of Payatas

What if there at least 2.5 million of you in a metropolitan area? What kinds of conditions do you and your family live in? How do you cope and survive? What options do you have? Multiply this with numerous cities in a country and in every country and you have what sociologist Mike Davis calls the making of a “planet of slums.”

The twin problems of poverty and homelessness, according to Gawad Kalinga’s Tony Meloto, are so massive that neither government nor the private sector can solve it alone. Government and the private sector must come together, along with each and every Filipino, to discover new ways of addressing the causes of poverty in ways that are sustainable, equitable, and which build solidarity.

ANCOP GK\'s Be Part of the Miracle poster

Unsquatting “squatters” is a good entry point in this endeavor. By building homes for them, we rebuild the lives of the poorest of the poor. The dignity of the homeless is restored and he and his family have a secure place to improve the family situation. “Squatters” pay more for basic utilities because of the legal uncertainty they are in. Helping slum dwellers with housing, values transformation, community organizing, health, education, environment, and productivity programs empower them and make them productive members of society. This is what Gawad Kalinga is about.

Coming together requires a setting where friendships can be made. These friendships form the basis for a long-term relationship built on trust, cooperation, sharing, and caring. This context is important because if it is conducive to friendship, then hurts can be healed, faults acknowledged, wrongs forgiven, and changes made. If the rich and poor, powerful and powerless, come together in friendship, then change is possible in the context of “less for self, more for others, enough for all.” This enabling environment for community development is what we all desire.

Many Filipinos and Fil-Ams made the great escape from poverty, graft, corruption, and a generation-long dictatorship in the Philippines to become successful. Either they migrated and made it or they bunkered down and succeeded in a harsh environment. They now need to come together if they want to see a Philippines that is progressive and equitable; a Philippines that is secure, prosperous, and opportunity-laden for their children. They can make it happen. As Gawad Kalinga has been able to provide this enabling environment, Fil-Ams and Fil-Canadians have been coming together and have so far funded 323 of the over 1,000 GK Villages in the Philippines.

On September 6, 2008, Saturday, 26 cities in the United States and Canada will hold the 3^rd Annual GK Walk with a theme of ONE Continent, ONE Cause, ONE step closer to eradicating poverty. The GK Walk seeks to generate greater awareness of the GK movement of caring for the poorest of the poor. It seeks to build solidarity and community among the estimated four million Fil-Ams, Fil-Canadians and their American and Canadian friends and relatives. It also seeks to encourage participation in the GK One Million Bayani (GK1MB) and GK Village Builder corps of volunteers/partners.

ANCOP GK Walk poster

To be able to help the poor, we must first become friends to one another.

What better way to start it than through a healthy walk followed by a fiesta picnic?

Check out http://www.ancopusa.org/gkwalk/ for participating cities.

Kicking Back with Padyak

What is a creative solution to society’s problems? VirtualSalt’s Robert Harris lists the elegant evaluation criteria, summarized as SENC. It should be SUCCESSFUL in solving the problem, overcomes constraints and is acceptable to users or beneficiaries. It is EFFECTIVE in that it is practical, economical, and reliable. It is NEW in that it is original, surprising, and seminal for its further possibilities. It is COHERENT because it is organic, holistic, of high-quality, well-designed and executed, refined, tested, improved, and aesthetic/beautiful.

I would add IBLE to the acronym. The IMPACT is significant in the societal sense. It BUILDS CARING COMMUNITIES. It presents opportunities for individual LEARNING and LEADERSHIP development. Lastly, it creates an ENABLING ENVIRONMENT for all of the above. Thus, a creative solution is Successful, Effective, New, Coherent, produces significant positive Impact, Builds Caring Communities that Learn, as well as Leaders, for an Enabling Environment (SENCIBLE).

Colorful Padyak bikes and artistic discs

The Philippines, being a center of innovation vis-à-vis civil society, has many examples. The Gawad Kalinga GK777 movement easily comes to mind. GK is not alone. In my recent visit to Manila, the Padyak initiative of the University of the Philippines Mountaineers (UPM) is one such SENCIBLE solution to the difficulties of seemingly permanent high fuel prices and a degraded urban environment. The UP Padyak Project was started by UP Mountaineers members and alumni to give back to the University of the Philippines during its centennial celebration. The project is an environmental advocacy that promotes biking as a means of transportation, which helps reduce air pollution, lessens dependence on fossil fuels, and promotes a healthy lifestyle in the UP Diliman campus. As the Padyak-ers advocate, “BIKE FOR U.P. BIKE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT.”

Since the summer of 2008, through funding support of several UP Mountaineers and using the principle of padugo, bikes were purchased and provided to students for a minimal donation of P500 per semester. These bikes are reconditioned, one-speed, have a step-through frame, and are designed for utility and safety and not for speed. About 43 bikes have been purchased, spruced up with lively colors, Padyak bike discs, bike baskets for books, and bike horns. Bike users must have helmets, a bike lock, and participate in a Padyak-sponsored bike clinic. Bike pumps are strategically located within the campus. UPM members and friends have spent at least P200,000 on the bikes, racks, and incidentals.

Padyak bike clinic for bike users

The creativity abounds. UPMers from the College of Fine Arts helped in designing creative bike disks and sculptural bike racks that allow all bike commuters to park their bikes and enliven the campus through public art. Talented artist and UPMer Eng Chan designed and constructed the Pencil, Kalabaw, and Tuyo bike racks which were strategically placed within the campus. Each rack can hold 12 bikes, and occupies the equivalent of one car parking slot. Other members connected with RAADesign, and StrayInteractive designed the colorful bike discs.

Eng Chan's Kalabaw rack

A core group led by Eng Chan and UPMer architect Gerry Ramos is spearheading the creation of a bamboo bike in partnership with Carolina’s Bamboo Garden. The bikes will be tagged and named after birds, starting with birds found within the UP campus, per the suggestion of UPMer and philosophy professor, Gerry de Villa.

UPMers Gerry Ramos and Eng Chan with ANOS bamboo at Carolina's Bamboo Garden

Padyak has resonated with many sectors of UP and beyond. Media has covered Padyak with nearly all the major TV stations and newspapers featuring it. The UP administration has fully supported Padyak. In fact, over the summer, it made the academic oval road, not only one way, but one half reserved permanently for bikers, joggers, and walkers only. Padyak has been able to help the security brigade in UP with a commitment to help them fix their broken down bikes. Padyak has opened up opportunities. The bike racks are such a hit that one vendor said that the racks attract more customers to his cart. Bike enthusiasts have volunteered to help repair Padyak bikes that break down.

Several companies are interested in an advocacy and social marketing partnership. The partnership comes with a commitment on their part to donate bikes, while UPM counterparts the bike donation with tree planting activities. The running activist priest and my fellow anthropologist, Fr. Robert Reyes, has bought into the program, donated bikes, and is recruiting fellow UP alumni in Hongkong, where he is stationed now, to support the project.

Padyak is fast evolving. It has grown beyond a UPM Batch 88 anniversary project, with batch members graciously allowing it to become a UP Mountaineers project. Its initial success has generated high demand for Padyak bikes. Padyak organizer, UPMer, and architect Jojo Gutierrez reported that there is now a waitlist of at least 85 students, with more requesting. UP has a student population of around 20,000. Fellow UPMer and sociology professor, Dr. Ging Candaliza-Gutierrez said that even non-teaching staff have been asking her if they can avail of the Padyak bikes.

"Pencil" bike rack

The request is understandable. I never realized how much an IKOT jeepney ride (used to get from one school building to another within the UP campus) costs these days. From a low of 50 centavos in the 1980s, a ride now costs seven pesos. A UP student, on a typical school day, will take 2-4 rides to get to classes in different buildings. Because of its fixed route, an IKOT ride will also take 15-30 minutes each way. Imagine the costs and time wasted by the Iskolar ng Bayan. Padyak doesn’t want to put IKOT jeepneys out of business, but Padyak complements IKOT and will hopefully encourage IKOT jeepney drivers to evolve.

Mt. Everest summiteer and UPMer, Romy Garduce, posing for Padyak

Padyak hopes to encourage other groups, especially corporations and schools/universities to start their own Padyak programs. Padyak afterall promotes the use of the most efficient self-powered alternative means of transportation man has ever invented. This is because moderate biking uses the same energy as walking. It encourages more civic interaction in a campus or office setting. It promotes a healthy lifestyle. It saves on fuel costs. It encourages partnerships across a wide swath of sectors. Lastly, it creates possibilities for expansion and further iteration in creative solutions.

Kicking back with Padyak is indeed SENCIBL

People helping people, the Gawad Kalinga way

“In the United States, no Filipino became homeless or a beggar. Filipinos did not build squatter communities here,” so said Gawad Kalinga’s Tony Meloto.

Behind these two statements is the development and prosperity key that enabled Filipinos in the United States to have the second highest per capita income of all Asian-American groups. Fil-Ams are the largest source of remittances to the Philippines. They are, in essence, the embodiment of the American dream.

How did they do this?

Simply, they live and progressed in the right environment.

GK Poveda Village, Taguig City 2007

Filipinos need an environment where they can meet their basic physical needs, live in security and dignity, and become the best they can be. Anthropologists call this the household livelihood security framework. It is about having the resources to make the right choices.

In the United States, despite the country’s historical problems with discrimination, Filipinos have prospered because their talents and hard work are appreciated. They are paid well enough to buy a house, support their families, invest, and earn more.

The good infrastructure facilitates moving around, doing business, and enhances communication, and information gathering. In the United States you can make things happen faster and hence, get results quicker.

In general, the law is straightforward and followed. Among ordinary Americans, a handshake agreement is kept because one’s name is sacred. This makes business relatively safe and secure.

In the United States, if you’ve fallen into hard times or need a start in life, you can access educational, health, job support, even monetary assistance. People and institutions are there to help. All you have to do is ask.

The strategy looks simple, but it took decades of discussion, conflict, trial and error, painful experiences, and deep reflection. Today, the United States is the most prosperous country in the world (despite current difficulties).

The poorest of the poor are just like you and me. They have dreams and aspirations for a better life for themselves and their families. They are survivors. With the right environment, they can blossom, like any Filipino or American. They have an innate potential to do good, become even better persons, and can be an asset to the Philippines.

All they need is the right environment.

Again Gawad Kalinga’s Tony Meloto:

“The saying,’Give someone fish and he will continue to ask for fish; but teach someone to fish and he will fish for himself’ is not true in the Philippine setting. The poor know already how to fish, but they ain’t fishing! We need to change the environment for the poor to become God’s perfect creation.”

We need an environment where institutions work, things are predictable, and where hard work, talent, and persistence are rewarded. Sharing and caring are also needed in smoothing out the rough edges of capitalism and competition. A sustainable economy is one where people can be the best they can be, while the vulnerable are protected and nurtured to independence. Freedom and responsibility form the two sides of the development coin.

Gawad Kalinga is shortcutting the U.S. development model. By building 700,000 homes in 7,000 communities, in seven years, Gawad Kalinga seeks to spur five million of the poorest Filipinos out of extreme poverty. The massive and ambitious home building goal generates the economies of scale to tackle the seemingly insurmountable problem of poverty. It creates an environment of on-the-job training, cooperation, sharing and caring, and an economic multiplier effect. It channels resources to fighting poverty without the draining effects of corruption, graft, and red tape.

To spur institution building, Gawad Kalinga communities are supported by a seven point ON-SITE community development program that includes: (1) site and shelter development, (2) community organization/Kapitbahayan and values transformation, (3) community-based health program, (4) child and youth development, (5) economic productivity, (6) environment, and (7) a Mabuhay/ welcome program.

Only a holistic program that develops the individual, family, and community will succeed in building strong institutions in the Philippines. Only organized, principled, and economically and environmentally sustainable communities can survive and withstand the vagaries of Philippine politics, poverty, inequality, and social exclusion.

With 1,700 communities established since its launching in 2003, more than half a million poor Filipinos are enjoying their own colorfully painted homes amidst a safe, secure, and happy community. They are beginning to access education, health, training, livelihood, and capacity-building services.

More needs to be done and more poor Filipinos need to be helped. Why wait for an armed revolution or a breakdown in society to change, when there is an alternative way based on love, sharing and caring, and padugo- bleeding for the cause literally in blood, sweat, and tears?

Gawad Kalinga, meaning to give care, is building God’s Kingdom here on earth.

Join us in this journey.

See www.gawadkalinga.org or www.ancopusa.org for more details.

Gawad Kalinga reshaping the global development landscape

Hope and expectations are high among supporters of Gawad Kalinga (GK) that GK is the way to a kinder, gentler, and more loving world. Conflict and violence, even for a good cause, will not lead to peace and prosperity in the long run. The hurts, suffering, and pains must be overcome. A new way must be forged, one founded on forgiveness and the heroic and sacrificial love, service, and leadership of Jesus Christ. This is the model that Gawad Kalinga espouses and is showing to be viable.

A week since the GK1World activities, I continue to marvel at how organizers and Gawad Kalinga workers were able to gather some of the best and brightest to strategize on how to make this vision a reality. Neither the cold, windy, and unpredictable weather nor the long-hours failed in dampening the spirits and energy of the participants to the Highway of Hope caravan, the ONE Celebration at Kimball Park, National City, and the two-day GK Builders Summit at the Marriot Del Mar. This GK1World celebration is a preview of what Gawad Kalinga aims to initiate and accomplish in the coming years.