Reading About the Philippines

Island of Tears, Island of Hope offers multiple insights into the Philippines, and it is non-fiction and non-war, although there is fighting.  I learned about the country's sugar-cane industry, something I had known about but not explored before.  According to the author, Niall O'Brian, "Ninety percent of that rich plain [the western side of the tall island] is covered with sugar cane.  When you say Negros you say sugar" (p. 4).  I also was reminded of the Marcos years, specifically the period of the violent clashes between President Marcos' dictatorial  regime and the NPR (New Peeoples' Army) from the mid 1970s until 1986.  The NPR was trying to radicalize the farmers and under-employed workers on the sugar cane plantations.  The Marcos government reacted with repressive measures; the NPR made repraisals; matters spiralled.  What impressed me most about the book was how these first two insights paved the way for the most penetrating of the themes, the conflict within the church and among the peasant farmers between violent and non-violent means of opposing the regime and working for justice.  This conflict makes for some of the most fascinating reading, examining the different paths chosen by individuals, often those in the same family, and by different priests and religious, not a few of whom chose to take up arms.  The violent versus non-violent solution that troubled so many is at the heart of the book and leads to one of the central issues of non-violent resistance and the theology underlying base Christian communities.  To crown these achievements, the book is written with the eloquence of simplicity.  Read it.