Thanks Vicky for your kind and generous comments.
Vicky and I have never met in person. It was just yesterday that I learned she is BikolFilipino. Our paths crossed when I responded to my alma mater's call for journal articles (was it in 20005?). Vicky was editor then of that homecoming project. My piece,I was informed, graced the cover page.
In one of our email exchanges, she mentioned her choice for federalism, but didn't include reasons for that partiality. Perhaps it was merely a reflex to Portia's letter that picked against federalism as one of those things the Pilipinas national government is "forcing" on Filipinos.
Anyway, Bikol Republika (BR) site will have brief urulay or conversations on federalism, bioregionalism, or other political systems that you come up with - sometime this end of May. Bikol Republika will be a proper place to deal with this subject. So please don't hesitate to share your thoughts or ideas at URULAY.
Mabalos!
Showing posts with label bioregionalism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bioregionalism. Show all posts
05 May 2008
11 April 2008
Change A-howlin'
A recent email from a friend expresses frustration with the general situation in the Philippines. Her exasperation did not singled out endemic corruption by people in power or the 'brain-draining' economy, but the whole social system. She also mentioned suggestions (which are not detailed here since available in print). Let me share half of her letter.
How do we change a disintegrating social system? Do we wait for a complete breakdown? It’s only after a breakdown that there can be break through. Einstein said we do not need a new line of thinking; we have to think along new lines -- especially in our political system. A new condition calls for a change in thought and nature.
Our naïve politicians call it autonomy or federation. But it should go beyond this. We need your “Pobolusion” to attain a state of Bioregionalism. Remember my article on Bicol Bioregion. Each bioregion should be self-sufficient, self-sustaining, self-reliant, self-educating, self-propagating, self-healing self-regulating and self-governing.
We are dwellers of our lands. We have to go back to basic human scale; the small is beautiful concept of small nations, small communities and small problems which we humans can solve. A centralized giant political system is top heavy so it topples down.
What we can try is your Bikol Republika or an Ilocandia, or Tagalog Bioregion, Visayan Feudalism, or ARMM. What our political system is doing is to force ourselves to be Filipinos. Harmony does not come through likeness. Harmony comes from a balancing of diversities Discord comes from any effort to make harmony by force.
Within this bioregional concept, we study our own interiority our subjectivity, our language, our culture in our bioregional schools. After knowing who we are after establishing our identity, we can have a moral recovery.
We need a radical solution. One that goes back to the roots of the problem. But this will take time. Maybe a hundred years? Bioregionalism will not be accepted by the present generation. Every radical change is a heresy. We have to wait for the evolution of consciousness to have a change of attitude.
There is a Bikol youth’s clamor for (what he calls) real-change, but without particulars. You can also view similar opinions on change from Filipinos abroad at goBicol.com
So what do you think?
[Pobolusion is changing your belief to change the world. This change goes together with Bikol po or respect. For po is spirit in each of us - the transformative 'essence' - stirring us to alter, amend, to transcend. Approaches then would be inclusive instead of partial. Change, for example, may incorporate Bikol aspects of reality such as ako (I/me) signifies subjective identity, ini (this/these)as behaviour, kita (we/us) for cultural worldview, ito (that/those) for social organizations, to iyan (that/those) that represents nature. pobolusion believes people can change now, from within. Pobolusion ideas are discussed in the book Pobolusion & Bikol Republika (2007).
How do we change a disintegrating social system? Do we wait for a complete breakdown? It’s only after a breakdown that there can be break through. Einstein said we do not need a new line of thinking; we have to think along new lines -- especially in our political system. A new condition calls for a change in thought and nature.
Our naïve politicians call it autonomy or federation. But it should go beyond this. We need your “Pobolusion” to attain a state of Bioregionalism. Remember my article on Bicol Bioregion. Each bioregion should be self-sufficient, self-sustaining, self-reliant, self-educating, self-propagating, self-healing self-regulating and self-governing.
We are dwellers of our lands. We have to go back to basic human scale; the small is beautiful concept of small nations, small communities and small problems which we humans can solve. A centralized giant political system is top heavy so it topples down.
What we can try is your Bikol Republika or an Ilocandia, or Tagalog Bioregion, Visayan Feudalism, or ARMM. What our political system is doing is to force ourselves to be Filipinos. Harmony does not come through likeness. Harmony comes from a balancing of diversities Discord comes from any effort to make harmony by force.
Within this bioregional concept, we study our own interiority our subjectivity, our language, our culture in our bioregional schools. After knowing who we are after establishing our identity, we can have a moral recovery.
We need a radical solution. One that goes back to the roots of the problem. But this will take time. Maybe a hundred years? Bioregionalism will not be accepted by the present generation. Every radical change is a heresy. We have to wait for the evolution of consciousness to have a change of attitude.
There is a Bikol youth’s clamor for (what he calls) real-change, but without particulars. You can also view similar opinions on change from Filipinos abroad at goBicol.com
So what do you think?
[Pobolusion is changing your belief to change the world. This change goes together with Bikol po or respect. For po is spirit in each of us - the transformative 'essence' - stirring us to alter, amend, to transcend. Approaches then would be inclusive instead of partial. Change, for example, may incorporate Bikol aspects of reality such as ako (I/me) signifies subjective identity, ini (this/these)as behaviour, kita (we/us) for cultural worldview, ito (that/those) for social organizations, to iyan (that/those) that represents nature. pobolusion believes people can change now, from within. Pobolusion ideas are discussed in the book Pobolusion & Bikol Republika (2007).
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