UPLB Perspective Nostalgia

I think it has almost been a year since the release of the first and only regular issue of UPLB Perspective SY 2009-10. Student funds were not collected, paralyzing the publication but never its dissent against repressive administration policies. I'd keep this entry short--still had things to do. A lot. Sigh. Anyway. Download the pdf file here. I just had the urge to post this entry for Tisa. Salamat. Because I remain unemployed, I've been doing projects that shall be posted on this site.

(Note: This blog isn't ready yet. The posts here are old imported entries from the microeigengrau carcosite. For more old entries that wouldn't help anybody's miserable life, please do go there instead and die.)

RIGHTS v.3 / QBCCC Plug

This is only a preview for the entry of Tilde and Mikel Mozo. Here's the original intro lifted from the call for submission of Artists' Arrest:

"The Southern Tagalog Exposure and ARTISTS’ ARREST “Artists Response to the Call for Social Change and Transformation,” in cooperation with KARAPATAN-Southern Tagalog and the FREE JONAS BURGOS MOVEMENT is now organizing the third installment of the “RIGHTS” project - a compendium of short videos intended to increase awareness and rally support behind the respect for human rights. RIGHTS was designed as a continuing project. It has successfully produced 2 volumes containing the works of budding and established filmmakers alike."

The FACTSHEET 43 Art exhibit left One Caldi Place, UPLB. I think it is in Sagada this week, then it shall later rest in Baguio City for another week. Please visit the UPLB Zoom Out Multimedia Collective Page for further details about these activities. Along with the premiere of RIGHTS v.3 shall be the opening of another FACTSHEET in December. These films and artworks shall also be brought to UPLB soon. Abangan!

Got the image here. The fanpage here. The preview here. More info here. The Quarterly Bathroom Companion Comics Compendium, available at the November 13 Komikon. Starmall. Tickets at 80php [?].

The Ouracle [ii] at the Sunday Times

The last of the two parts of the walanghiyang shameless plug last week. Read the previous entry here. Read the part ii here. Go directly to part i without reading the blog entry here. I hope I could watch Juan Isip at the park later, so I could then have a side trip at the Manila Times office somewhere in Manila. The problem is, I've no cash left. The elbi trip two days ago was a miracle of the gods. Anyway, it is 10.10.10, and I do not have any copy of the stories: Killing Disease and The Ouracle yet. During the recent elbi visit, I saw the copy at the Department of Humanities in UPLB though. I think that is more than enough. Thanks again, Sir Ordonez and Sir D. * yearn for the US vs John Lennon * sigh * publish post * Good sunday morning.

Factsheet 43 and Sigwa @ UPLB

The Factsheet 43 art exhibit, for the benefit of the Morong 43 healthworkers would be showcased at the University of the Philippines Los Banos, in One Caldi Place on September 13 2010. While on September 21, there would be a film showing of “SIGWA” (Rage…of Perils and Hopes), a film by Joel Lamangan and written by Boni Ilagan--an "Official entry to the Cinemalaya 2010, a Top Grosser of the Cinemalaya 2010, a film Graded “A” by Cinema Evaluation Board-MTRCB." Attached herein, from UPLB Zoomout Multimedia collective, are the press releases and related images of the mentioned events:

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Art imitates life, particularly that of the illegally arrested health workers, in Fact Sheet 43: 43 Artists for the 43 Health Workers. Fact Sheet derives its title from the document prepared by paralegal and human rights volunteers in relation to reported cases of human right violations. The exhibit reflects the artist's interpretation of what is contained in the real fact sheets, which are otherwise unaccounted or discounted by state forces.

For two consecutive years, Fact Sheet has regularly been exhibited every December in time for the commemoration ofthe International Human Rights month. However in 2010, the group saw the urgency to mount the exhibit early in the year following the illegal and arbitrary arrest of 43 health workers, composed of professional and volunteer doctors, nurses and paramedics, in the middle of their health training in Morong, Rizal. Collectively known as 'Morong 43', the health workers were arrested allegedly for their affiliation with progressive groups. Based on the victims' accounts,they were subjected to various type of mental and physical torture in the hands of the military while in Camp Capinpin.

Despite growing clamor by the local and international communities to release the health workers, the 43 remained incarcerated and are facing non-bailable and dubious case of illegal possession of explosives. In particular, the artists, together with the family of the health workers appeal to the new administration to immediately release the 43and litigate those responsible for the violations against them.

Fact Sheet 43, which has already been exhibited invarious galleries and public areas in Manila, will attempt to sow creative and emotional revelation about the human rights situation in the country through visual arts.

Martial Law has ended almost three decades ago but gross human rights violations have persisted to this day. In fact, violations of civil and political rights have even worsened now than the Martial Law era.

The human rights group KARAPATAN has accounted more than 1,000 victims of extrajudicial killings, 207 victims of enforced disappearances, and 217 political detainees during the nine-year regime of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Alongside these direct assaults are growing cases of torture, hamletting, and violence against women and children among many other forms of human rights atrocities. Many of the victims are members and leaders of progressive and militant organizations, which are critical to the Arroyoregime. Even artists and filmmakers were not spared from this.

This pattern of impunity against progressive groups has extended to the new regime,wherein a total of 6 victims of extra-judicial killings have been accounted in less than a month under President Noynoy Aquino.

In light with the commemoration of Martial Law this September, various groups and cultural workers will have the nationwide screening of 'Sigwa', a Cinemalaya 2010 film directed by Joel Lamangan; written by Bonifacio Ilagan; and starred by Dawn Zulueta, Zsa Zsa Padilla, and Tirso Cruz III among others. In theSouthern Tagalog region, the 'Sigwa' screening is slated on September 21 at theNCAS Auditorium, UP Los Banos; a forum-discussion will follow shortly after the screening. Sigwa hopes to educate students on the human rights situation,especially during Martial Law.

As a regional event, the proponents are sounding the call to all institutions, organizations, and schools in the region to support the activity by attending and publicizing the film screening. As a pioneering activity, this is an open and continuing call to all youth, filmmakers, and members in the academe to defend and uphold human rights. Recognizing the power and reach of films, weare optimistic that in one-way or another, we can sow resistance among the public against attempts to curtail their human rights.

Two National Artists on the Revolution

Found this while attempting to write something. Nope, I do not think the true revolution begins in the imagination--as I have read somewhere. I think, it began on the material condition of a colonized country--a particular class of the colony, where a certain Andres Bonifacio led an armed revolution. Anyway, I am not really into writing something lengthy. I just want to share this exchange of ideas between two national artists for literature. The first attachment is Dr. Lumbera's response to the speech delivered by F. Sionil Jose, when I was still a University n00b--or er.. a freshman, rather.

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‘Nagsimula na ang rebolusyon’ (a transcription)

Professor Emeritus Bienvenido Lumbera [source]

Nang matanggap ko ang kay Frankie na abstract, ang una kong reaksyon ay bakit sa kanyang pagsasabi na ang kanyang papaksain ay ang University of the Philippines and the Revolution, tila nakalimutan niya na nagsimula na ang rebolusyon na kanyang hinahanap, na sa mga huling taon ng Dekada ‘70 ay lumitaw ang isang kilusan na ang layunin ay agawin ang kapangyarihan mula sa kamay ng mga naghaharing uri upang mabigyan ang mga Pilipino ng tunay na kalayaan at ng demokrasya. Para bang ang hinihingi niya ay for UP to reinvent the revolution dahil sa kanya ang rebolusyon ay tinawag niyang nationalist, at sa kanyang pagpapaliwanag kanina, binanggit niya ang pangalan ni Bonifacio at kanyang sinabi na tila pagkakamali ni Jose Maria Sison na siya ay tumanaw sa Tsina upang humango ng ideolohiya na magiging tuntungan ng rebolusyon na kanyang nilalayon.

Ngayon, kung ating babalikan ang kasaysayan ng UP at ang relasyon nito sa rebolusyon, makikita natin na ‘yung tinatawag na First Quarter Storm ay isang panimulang hakbang ng mga kabataang nasa Unibersidad ng Pilipinas kaugnay ang iba pang kabataan sa iba pang unibersidad na simulan ang pag-agaw ng kapangyarihan mula sa kamay ng naghaharing uri, na sa pananalita ni Frankie ay ang elite ng Pilipinas. Sa hanay ng mga estudyante na naging bahagi ng FQS, totoo na mayroong mga lider na bumaliktad at ito ay isang bagay na hindi kataka-taka, dahil sa kasaysayan ng anumang rebolusyonaryong kilusan, habang tumatakbo ang panahon at kilusan, mayroong mga lider na tunay na bumabaliktad, pero ating pakasusuriin ang mga taong naging bahagi ng FQS. Marami sa kanila ang nagpatuloy at hanggang ngayon ay nasa kilusang pambansang demokrasya, na ang kanilang pinanghahawakang mga prinsipyo ay mga prinsipyo na kanilang natutunan sa Unibersidad ng Pilipinas bukod pa sa kanilang pag-aaral ng iba pang kaisipan mula sa ibang bansa.

So, hirap kong tanggapin na may bagong rebolusyon na dapat harapin ang Unibersidad ng Pilipinas. At ito ay tinatawag niyang nationalist revolution.

Ang isa pang okasyon na ipinamalas ng UP ang kanyang rebolusyonaryong orientasyon ay ang Diliman Commune. Totoo na ang Diliman Commune ay naging tampulan ng maraming puna ng mga intelektwal, ng mga lider ng bansa, dahil sa mga kalabisan o pagmamalabis na nangyari noong panahon ng Diliman Commune. Pero iyon ay isang matatawag nating necessary step, necessary preparation for stepping up a revolutionary movement.

Matatandaan din natin na noong panahon ng martial law, isang panahon na ang media ay kontrolado ng estado, sa Unibersidad ng Pilipinas lamang nanatiling buhay ang tinatawag nating freedom of the press, dahil sa pamamagitan ng Collegian at Diliman Review ay napaabot sa mga tao ang mga kaisipan na hindi pinapayagang malathala sa mga medyang kontrolado ng gobyerno.

Ang tatlong bagay na ito ay pagpapatunay na mayroon nang rebolusyon na nasimulan at nilahukan ang Unibersidad ng Pilipinas at hindi na kailangan na umibento tayong muli ng isa pang rebolusyon upang maganap ang pagbabagong hinahangad ng mga Pilipino. Sa pananalita ni Frankie—na medyo hindi kapani-paniwala para sa akin—‘yung kanyang pagsasabi na hindi siya naniniwala na kailanman ay magtatagumpay ang isang rebolusyong pinamumunuan ng mga komunista, dahil aniya, ang mga komunista ay katulad din ng mga liderato natin na may ego at paghahangad na itampok ang sarili sa halip na ang pag-ukulan ng pansin ay ang kalagayan ng masa.

Sa palagay ko, mahirap nating tuunan na mayroon na kaagad na parameters na ang isang revolutionary movement ay kinakailangang obserbahan. Ang tunay na rebolusyonaryo ay laging handang baguhin ang pagkilos, baguhin ang mga panukala, upang umangkop sa kalagayan at mapagtagumpayan ang lahat ng balakid sa rebolusyon. Kaya ‘yung inherent prejudice ni Frankie sa kilusan na pinamumunuan ng Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas ay hindi dapat maging pananaw ng lahat ng mga taong naghahangad ng pagbabago sa Pilipinas.

Several months ago, mayroon akong ginawang pag-aaral sa isang nobela ni Frankie, ‘yung nobela niyang Ermita. Ang Ermita ay isang nobela tungkol sa isang babaeng naging puta dahil gusto niyang maghiganti sa mga elite na nagtulak sa kanya upang mapabilang sa mga mahirap, ‘yung pamilya ng driver noong mayamang pamilya. Doon sa nobelang iyon, isang pagkakataon, minor plot point pero mayroong isang kabataang babae, anak ng isang dating puta, ang pangalan ay Lily, na bigla na lamang nawala. At ‘yung nanay ng kabataan ay nag-usisa, nagtanong sa maraming tao, pagkatapos ay inireport doon sa pangunahing tauhan na si Ermita, na nawawala ang kanyang anak. Ngayon, alam na noong si Ermita na ang anak ng babaeng ito ay namundok at sumali sa NPA. Ang sabi ng pangunahing tauhan ni Frankie, si Ermita, doon sa nanay, “Alam mo, dapat mong ipagmalaki ang iyong anak kasi ang ginawa niya ay isang bagay na dapat ay ginawa ko rin noong ako ay bata-bata pa.” So, wari, sa tingin ko, nandoon sa likod ng consciousness ni Frankie na mayroong magagawa ang isang rebolusyon na sinapian ni Lily. Ang nobela ay naganap noong martial law—ang lahat ng mga aksyon ay nangyari noong martial law—at ang kabataang ito ay nagsimula bilang aktibista, inililihim sa kanyang magulang ang kanyang pagiging aktibista hanggang magsuspetsa ang nanay na marahil ang kanyang anak ay nagpuputa na rin. Kaya nabahala masyado ang nanay at inireport doon kay Ermita. At si Ermita ang nagsiyasat kung ano ang talagang nangyari sa bata. Natuklasan nga niya na naging aktibista ang bata. Nag-usap sila, sinabi ng bata na siya ay natutong magsinungaling sa kanyang ina dahil alam niya na di siya mauunawaan ng kanyang nanay sa kanyang pagpapasya na sumali sa mga demonstrasyon at mga rally. Ngayon, nang mamundok si Lily, doon nga sinabi ni Ermita na ‘yon ay dapat ginawa na rin niya. Kaya tila sa tingin ko mayroon ding pagkilala sa nobela ni Frankie na mayroong maibubungang mabuti itong pagsali ni Lily sa kilusang rebolusyonaryo.

Ngayon, sa Unibersidad ng Pilipinas, bagama’t binanggit ko ang tatlong pangyayari na nagpapakita ng kaugnayan ng UP at ng rebolusyon, makikita natin na pagkaraan ng Edsa, nagkaroon ng paghupa ng revolutionary fervor sa hanay ng mga estudyante at ‘di lamang ng mga estudyante kundi pati sa hanay ng mga guro. Ang pinakahuling manipestasyon nito, at palagay ko isang bagay ito na dapat ungkatin dahil may kinalaman ito sa nationalist revolution: Nang magkaroon ng muling pagsisiyasat sa general education curriculum, ang isang kapansin-pansin ay ang pagtatanggal ng mga kurso na siyang pinaka-votive power ng nationalism sa ating Unibersidad, at ito ay ang pag-aaral ng kasaysayan ng Pilipinas at ang pag-uukol ng pansin sa mga usapin na may kaugnayan sa kalagayan ng Pilipinas. ‘Yung RGEP sa tingin ko ay isang manipestasyon—hindi siya mismo ang dahilan ng paghupa ng fervor kundi manipestasyon na nagkaroon na ng pagbabago sa hanay ng mga namumuno sa Unibersidad tungkol sa mga pangangailangan ng isang tunay na makabayang edukasyon. Kaya binanggit ko ito ay sa kadahilanang kung ang hinihingi natin sa Unibersidad ng Pilipinas ay isang nationalist revolution, sa kasalukuyang takbo ng mga patakaran sa ating Unibersidad, tila hindi na mangyayari iyon. Inaasahan natin na magkakaroon ng muling pagsusuri sa kalagayan ng Unibersidad ng Pilipinas at sa mga darating na araw ay maibabalik ang pagkilala sa kasaysayan ng Pilipinas bilang isang susing aralin sa Unibersidad upang mapatingkad ang nasyonalismo sa ating bansa.

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REVOLUTION & UP [source]

(Speech delivered by the F. Sionil Jose at UP Diliman on Nov 23, 2004)

What is an old man like myself doing here, talking about revolution? Hindsight is the lowest form of wisdom. I can tell you what it was like when your campus was nothing but cogon waste, when all those trees that line your streets were just saplings.

I can tell you also, why we were left behind by all our neighbors when in the Fifties and the Sixties we were the richest, most progressive country in the region, when Seoul and Tokyo were ravaged by war; Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta were mere kampongs; when Bangkok was a sleepy town crisscrossed by canals. I never

was in China till 1979, but I know in the Forties that country was always threatened by famine. It had a population then of only half a billion. Now, with more than a billion people famine is no longer a threat, although hunger still lurks in some of its distant regions.

Hunger has always been with some of us, too, but not as much as it now when so many poor Filipinos eat only once a day. Altanghap, I wonder how many of you know what that word means.

So then, why are we poor? Why do women flee to foreign cities to work as housemaids, as prostitutes?

We are poor because we have lost our ethical moorings, despite of those massive religious rallies of El Shaddai, those neo-gothic churches of the Iglesia ni Kristo sprouting all over the country, in spite of the nearly 400 years of Catholic evangelization.

How can we build an ethical society? We must remember that so-called values are neutral -- that so much depends on how people use them. James Fallows' thesis on our damaged culture, which many of us understand, is neither permanent nor inherent.

Ramon Magsaysay infused public life in the Fifties with discipline and morality, Arsenio Lacson as mayor of Manila cleaned up City Hall. Even today, shining examples of honesty among in our public officials exist, but they are few and far between and they are not institutionalized.

And it is precisely here where the university comes in with its courses in the humanities.

Of all the arts, only literature teaches us ethics. Literature presents us with problems, complex equations that deal with the human spirit and how often the choice between right and wrong is made. In this process, we are compelled to use our conscience, to validate the choices we make, and render the meaning, the

pith of our existence.

The university then is the real cathedral of a nation, and its humanities, particularly its literature department, the altar. But how many possess this sense of worth and mission?

To know ourselves, to make good and proper use of our consciences, we must know our own history. So few of us do, in fact, we nurture no sense of the past.

If our teachers know our history, if they soak it in their bones, then it follows that they also impart this very same marrow to their students.

If this is so, how come that when Bongbong Marcos visited Diliman sometime ago, he was mobbed by students who wanted his autograph? How come that in La Salle, business students cited Marcos as the best President this country ever had?

Not too long ago, I spoke before freshmen at the Ateneo and was told that since so many practice bribery, it must be right, or how could anyone get things done if palms are not greased?

In this university are professors who served Marcos. Have they ever been asked what their role was?

We are poor because we are not moral. Can this immorality as evidenced by widespread corruption be quantified? Yes, about P23 billion a year is lost, according to NGO estimates.

We are poor because we have no sense of history, and therefore, no sense of nation. The nationalism that was preached to my generation by Claro M. Recto and Lorenzo Tanada was phony; how could they have convinced so many intellectuals to analyze that inward, socially meaningless nationalism.

Recto and Tanada opposed agrarian reform, the single most important political act that could have lifted this country then from poverty and released the peasantry from its centuries-old bondage.

We are poor because our elite from way back had no sense of nation -- they collaborated with whoever ruled the Spaniards, the Japanese, the Americans and in recent times, Marcos. Our elite imbibed the values of the colonizer.

And worst of all, these wealthy Filipinos did not modernize this country - they sent abroad their wealth distilled from the blood and sweat of our poor. The rich Chinese to China, to Taiwan, to Hong Kong, the rich mestizos to Europe and the rich Indios like Marcos to Switzerland and the United States -- money that

could have developed this nation.

How do we end this shameless domestic colonialism? The ballot failed; the bullet then ? How else but through the cleansing power of revolution. Make no mistake about it -- revolution means the transfer of power from the decadent upper classes to the lower classes. Revolution is class war whose objective is justice

and freedom.

Who will form the vanguard of change? Who else but the very people who will benefit from it.

Listen, when I was researching for my novel POON at the New York Public Library, I came across photographs of our soldiers of the 1896 revolution felled in their trenches by American guns. I looked closely and found that most of them were barefoot. They were peasants.

The peasant is the truest nationalist. He works the land with his hands, he knows instinctively what the term Motherland means. He loves this earth, even worships it. The Ilocano farmer calls it Apo Daga.

But never romanticize the poor. Once, a group of PhDs lamented the futility of their efforts in organizing and motivating them. When the elections came that year, the poor sold their votes or voted for Erap.

Understand why they are often lazy, contemptible, fawning, cheating and stealing. Imagine yourself not having a centavo in your pocket now, and you don't know if you will eat tonight. There is nothing honorable about poverty -- it is totally dehumanizing and degrading. But once the very poor are roused from

their stupor, they become the bravest, the most steadfast. Remember, those Watawat ng Lahi followers felled by Constabulary guns on Taft Avenue in 1965? They believed that with their faith they were invincible.

It is with such faith and righteousness that our peasants rebelled in living memory, the Colorums in 1931, the Sakdals in 1935, and the Huks in 1949-53.

The Moro rebellion, the New People's Army -- the cadres of both are from our very poor, just like it was in 1896. And now, here is the most tragic contradiction in our country. Our Armed Forces -- its officers corps -- many come from the lower classes, too; they go to their exalted positions through public examinations and entry to the Philippine Military Academy. Our Armed Forces enlisted men -- most of them come from the very poor.

When the poor kill the poor, who profits?

THE IDEOLOGY OF THE REVOLUTIONS

Revolution starts in the mind and heart. It alters attitudes to enable us to think beyond ourselves, family and ethnicity to encompass the whole nation. If the communists win, and I don't think they ever will, they will rule just as badly because they are Filipinos unable to go beyond barnacled habits of mind, hostage as they always are to friends and family and to towering egos. The same egos aborted the revolution in 1896, the EDSA revolution in 1986, and now, we see the same egos wrecking havoc on the Communist Party. We see these egos eroding our already rotten political system.

The core belief that should guide us in redeeming our unhappy country is in our history, in our peasantry. It is not in textbooks, in foreign intellectual idols, in Marx. And what is this ideology which Bonifacio believed in? Which those barefoot soldiers killed by the Americans believed in? Pedro Close, the peasant leader who led the Colored uprising in Taut, Parnassian in 1931, said is this: "God resides in every man. God created earth, water and air for all men. It is against God's laws for one family or one group to own them."

God and country; translate this belief into your own words and there you have it in its simplest terms the creed with which the unfulfilled revolution of 1896 was based, and which should be the same creed that should forge unity among us.

Who will lead the revolution?

Certainly, not the masa, but one from the masa who understands them, who will not betray them the way our leaders betrayed the masa. Estrada is the most shameful example of that leadership that betrayed.

The leaders of the revolution could be in this university who have the education, but who are not shackled by alien concepts, or the attitudes of superiority that destroy leadership. Such leaders, like Ho Chi Minh, must lead by sterling example, with integrity, courage, compassion and willingness to sacrifice, who know that when the revolution is won, it is time to change from conspirators to even better administrators, remembering that they must now work even harder to produce better and cheaper products. And this massive work of modernization can be achieved in one generation. The Koreans, Taiwanese and the Japanese did it. It is not the Confucian ethic that enabled them to do this; they understood simply the logic of government, which is service, and that of commerce, which is profit.

By what right do I have to urge revolution upon our people who will suffer it? What right do I have to urge the young to sacrifice, the poor to get even poorer, if they embrace the revolutionary creed?

I have no such right, nor will I call it such. I call it duty, duty, duty. Duty for all of us rooted in our soil, who believe that our destiny is freedom.

Not everyone can bear arms, or have the physical strength to stand up, to shout loudly about the injustices that prevail around us.

Those who cannot do these, who cannot be part of this radical movement, must not help those who enslave us. Do not give them legitimacy as so many gave legitimacy to Marcos. Recognize, identify our enemies and oppose them with all your means.

This will then test integrity, commitment.

Nobody need tell us the exorbitant cost of revolution, the lives that will be lost, senselessly even as when Pol Pot massacred thousands of his own countrymen in Cambodia. We who lived through the Japanese Occupation know what hunger, fear and flight mean.

Joseph Conrad, Albert Camus and Jose Rizal -- writers I admire deeply, all warned against revolution because it breeds tyrants, becaust it does not always bring change. But look around us, at the thousands of Filipinos who are debased and hungry, who are denied justice. Be shamed if you don't act. And as Salud Algabre, the Sakdal general said in 1935, "No rebellion fails. Each is a step in the right direction."

Revolution need not even have to be bloody. How many lives were lost at Edsa 1? Not even 20. So Cory goes around telling the world that she had restored democracy in the Philippines. Sure enough, we know have free elections, free speech, free assembly but these are the empty shells of democratic institutions because the real essence of democracy does not exist here. And that real essence is in the stomach -- as when the taxi driver in Tokyo eats the same sashimi as the Japanese emperor, or the bus driver in Washington who can eat the same steak as President Bush in the White House. Contrast these with that jobless Cavite laborer whose two children died because he fed them garbage. No, Cory Aquino's EDSA revolution could not even have our garbage properly collected. Worse, 19 farmer demonstrators were killed near Malacanang because she refused to see

them. True to her oligarchic class, she declared a revolutionary government without doing anything revolutionary; instead, she turned Edsa 1 into a restoration of the old oligarchy. So today, we are reaping the results of her negligence, ignorance and folly.

Yet, even capitalism can be very helpful. South Korea is a very good example of how capital was formed by corruption, and how a single-minded general lifted that nation from the ashes of the Koren War, into the thriving economy, which Korea is today.

Remember the slogans of American capitalism -- a chicken in every pot, a Ford in every garage. Money is like fertilizer -- to do any good it must be spread around. Those robber barons at the turn of the 19th century were rapacious, they exploited their worker, but they built industries, railroads, banks, the sinews

of American capitalism. And the most important thing - they kept their money home to develop America. Unlike our rich Chinese, our rich mestizos and the likes of Marcos who sent their money abroad to keep us poor. They are the enemy.

It has been said again and again that we are, indeed, a young nation compared with other Asian countries whose august civilizations date back to 2,000 years or more. Indeed, so are the Filipinos who shaped this nation --- those who led the revolution against Spain -- they were all young, like you are, in their 20s

or early 30s. Rizal was 34 when he was martyred.

How then do we keep young without having to grow old only to see the fire in our having to grow old only to see the fire in our minds and hearts die? How does the nation's leading university maintain its vitality, its youth against the ravages of consumerism, of globalism?

How else but to keep the mind ever healthy, ever alive by empowering it with those ideas that nurture change and revolution itself, by ingesting the technological age so that we can use technology for realizing our ideals.

How else but to embrace the ideas that make us doubt technology, society, even revolution itself, but never, never about who we are, what we should do and hope to be.

We cannot be beholden to any other nation. Jose Maria Sison doomed his revolution when he turned to China for assistance; he ignored the "objective reality" -- the latent anti-Chinese feeling among Filipinos, in fact among all Southeast Asians who fear a Chinese hegemony.

We must mold our own destiny, infusing it with the strength of a sovereign people. The Americans, the English, French, Russians, Cubans, Chinese, and Vietnamese -- all achieved their unique revolutions. We must have our very own, defined only by us.

How to build it, direct it, use it for the betterment of our lives, the flowering of liberty -- I see all these as the major function of the university which, after all, shapes our leaders. I pray that UP will graduate the best

doctors, the best engineers, the best teachers, the best bureaucrats. The revolution needs them all. But most of all, let this university of the people produce the ultimate modernizer, the heroic nationalist revolutionary -- we need him most of all.

Tubuhan

*Workshop Blues Poster of the 10th Iyas Creative Writing Workshop. Courtesy of Jordan Carnice (Yung Poster), and Paul Gumanao (Yung pag-coin ng term na "workshop blues". Para iwas plagiarism.)

Tapos na ang ika-sampung palihan ng IYAS para sa malikhaing pagsulat. Isang linggo ng palitan ng kuru-kuro ukol sa likha ng mga may akda sa dalawang kategorya sa limang wika, pagkilala sa mga kapwa manunulat / mga matatandang manunulat na mula sa iba't ibang bahagi ng Pilipinas, at pagpapaunlad ng kaalaman sa panitikan. Sabi ng press release sa panitikan.com.ph:

"The IYAS Creative Writing Workshop proudly announces its roster of Fellows for 2010.

The Fellows for Fiction in English are: Fred Jordan Carnice, Roselle Jimeno, Vernan Jagunap, Francis Dizon and Anne Carly Abad (English), and Arbeen Acuña (Filipino). (Si Chiva o Jes, yung fellow pa in Hiligaynon.)

The Fellows for Poetry are: Gian-Paolo Lao, Alyza Mary Taguilaso, Charmaine Carreon (English), Arbeen Acuña, Noel Fortun, Rogerick Fernandez (Filipino), Paul Randy Gumanao, Glenn Muñez (Cebuano), Elsed Togonon (Kinaray-a) and Simplicio Gadugdug (Boholano).

The panelists for this year are Dr. Dinah Roma-Sianturi, Dr. Elsie Coscolluela, Dr. Genevieve Asenjo, Dr. Danilo M. Reyes, Dr. Anthony Tan and Prof. John Iremil Teodoro.

The IYAS Creative Writing Workshop is sponsored by the University of St. La Salle and the Bienvenido N. Santos Creative Writing Center of De La Salle University and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.

The 10th IYAS Creative Writing Workshop is set on April 25- May 1, 2010."

Ang "iyas" nga pala ay "binhi." Kung nagkakamali ako, bukas ako sa puna, tulad ng pagiging bukas ng lahat ng fellows sa mga komento ng panelists--maging ng kapwa fellow. At dahil ako ang unang hiningan ng "synthesis" noong huling araw ng palihan, at parang ang sabog lang ng pinagsasabi ko, dito na lang sa blog entry na ito ako magtatangkang bumawi.

Una, kahit pa ang gasgas na, yung madami pang dapat matutunan at subukan. Isa dito ang pagbabasa ng mga babasahing hindi lamang nagtatapos sa paglilibang. Oo, marapat lang basahin ng manunulat ang gusto niyang basahin. Pero, para sa akin, mas makabubuti kung may maitutulong ito sa paglilinang at pagpapayaman ng kaalaman sa pagsusulat ng isang akdang papasa sa panlasa ng masa at matatanggap ng mga "cultural managers" (terminong narinig ko noon kay Amang Jun Cruz Reyes sa Philippine PEN conference). Yung mga tipong Neruda o Lacaba. Yung tipong ililimbag nang paulit-ulit makalipas ang ilan pang taon matapos magpaalam sa pisikal na daigdig ang makata.

Pangalawa, isa pang gasgas, yung pagtitiwala sa sarili--na iba sa pagiging arogante. Tiwala na rin sa tinatahak na landas habang pinagbubuti ang pagluluwal ng makabuluhang akda. Siguro, ang unang dalawa ang buod ng natutunan ko sa group session.

Ikatlong gasgas na natutunan, yung disiplina sa wika at pagpili ng idadaldal at hindi. Bagamat madalas na tahimik sa totoong buhay, napagtanto kong madaldal nga ako sa pagsusulat. Tipong pwede ko namang paiksiin, pinaliligoy pa. At tipong pwede ko namang tuldukan na ang tula o kwento, pero magkokomento pa sa dulo para magpaliwanag.

Huli na sigurong leksyon ng palihan, yung muling pagkumpirma ng kung ano ang gusto kong gawin sa buhay. Bagamat palaging walang katiyakan dahil buhay ang internal na kontradiksyon sa pang araw araw, alam kong gusto ko pa ring magsulat. Pagsusulat na para sa nakararami, bilang taga-dokumento ng pakikibaka para sa panlipunang pagbabago--at hindi bilang kristong magdudulot nito. Itinampok ng palihan ang iba't ibang paraan (form) at dahilan (content) ng pagsusulat, ngunit ang dati kong paraan at dahilan pa rin ang nais kong ipagpatuloy--nang may karagdagang pagwawari mula sa IYAS. Sa katunayan, nahahati ang nararamdaman ko, na parang nakakahibang, kahapon--Mayo Uno. Gustong gusto kong maging bahagi ng pagtitipon sa lansangan para sa araw ng mga manggagawa, pero nasa Bacolod ako at nagpapahinga habang napapapagod sa kakaisip kung ano nang nangyayari sa Timog Katagalugan at sa Maynila.

Bilang pagwawakas, bagamat maraming karagdagang kaalamang biyaya ang palihan ng iyas (o binhing handog, ika nga, ng panelists at fellows sa isa't isa), ubos-lakas ko pa ring patutubuin at payayabungin ang mga natutunan hanggang maabot ang pamantayang magsisilbi sa sambayanan, ngunit yayanig din sa mga haligi ng naghaharing sistema. Makikipag-gitgitan at makikipag-gasgasan pa rin ako, sa mga kadahilanang binanggit. Mananatiling handa at bukas sa pakikipagtubuhan, sa pamamagitan ng diskurso at panitikan, laban sa mga umaastang panginoon ng estado poder. Sa madaling salita, magsusulong pa rin ng mapagpalayang panitikang mangangahas pa ring makipagwasakan at makipagbasagan ng paninindigan at ideolohiya.