"Philippine Gold" at Asia Society

The October 5, 2015 New Yorker (16) recommends a visit to the Asia Society (725 Park Ave) to see the "Philippine Gold" exhibit (through January 3).  I second the recommendation, having seen at least some of the pieces in the Ayala Museum in Manila a few years ago.  The items (more than 100) in the exhibit date from between "the tenth and the thirteenth centuries."  As the reviewer notes they demonstrate a sophisticated metallurgy and a population, at least a part of it, of wealth and artistic appreciation.  As is true of modern Filipinos, they also had a sense of humor.  Perhaps our Chinese Mainland friends in the area would also enjoy visiting the exhibit to become better acquainted with the achievements of earlier Philippine culture.  China and the Philippines were great trading partners back then when they already both plied what is now known as the South China Sea.

rhb

Hague Court Decision Favors Philippines

          Favorable news for the Philippines regarding its confrontation with China over the South China Sea appeared recently in The New York Times, twice no less.  One of the Times' editorials of Friday 30 October noted that "Finding a solution that protects freedom of navigation and avoids a military clash is essential.  One path is the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.  On Thursday, the court ruled against China and asserted its right to hear a case brought by the Philippines, which has competing claims to islands and reefs in the South China Sea."

          The very next issue of the Times contained a prominent article (31 October, p. A8) that went into further detail.  "The ruling [of The Hague] was a blow to China which had hoped the court would reject jurisdiction, allowing Beijing to continue making a case that its claims in the South China Sea are based on history rather than legal precedent." 

          The second Times article quoted a Maritime Affairs expert from the University of the Philippines who said that the ruling would help "other countries that oppose China's actions in the South China Sea."  China provided its own Nanjing University authority to the contrary.  This authority, however, also said he hoped that Beijing could more actively "participate in all forums and respond to the international ruling at the tribunal."  A rather a-typical response.

          Perhaps unintentionally, the USS Lassen, a destroyer that deliberately challenged the Chinese by entering waters in a part of the disputed area in recent days, may have complimented the decision by The Hague.

rhb

 

Calendar Changes at UP Diliman

            Recently I met with a friend and colleague, Joel Mann, who had spent the spring semester as an Exchange Professor at the University of the Philippines Diliman, the main UP system campus.  In the fifteen or so years that our institution, Saint Norbert College, has had an exchange program with UPD, the differing academic calendars have presented some challenging logistics.  The academic calendar in the Philippines has been sensibly based on climate conditions.  That has changed, along with another major change.  I found these of considerable interest. 

            I was not surprised when Joel told me that the new academic calendar had gone into effect at UP.  I had heard that they were moving to adopt the calendar used in the US.  What I hadn’t thought about was that the secondary and primary schools kept the old system.  Basically what this meant was that UP students were still in class until late May, while their younger siblings (and families) were enjoying their vacations in the nice March and April weather.   And “it was brutally hot in May” said Joel.  Some of the students, he added, simply joined their families on holiday for a week or more.

            The other bit of news involving school calendars in Manila and presumably throughout the country, is that instead of graduating from High School at age 16, students now will graduate at age 18.  That is the norm in the US, but not, I know in the UK, and I’m guessing much of Europe as well, where it is 16.  I must confess, however, that I smiled when Joel told me this news.  I had taught in a classroom at UPD right next to a class full of sixteen-year-olds, the noisiest group I encountered the entire semester.  Still that's a big change to keep the noise down.

rhb

Philippine History: An Eclectic Chronology Slightly Expanded

           I wrote a slightly longer version of this entry back in April.  A Filipina friend was kind enough to say I should present the whole piece.  So here is my complete eclectic chronology, fittingly on  Philippine Independence Day, June 12.  Congratulations to the Philippines,
                                                    "!Mabuhay Ang Pilipinas!"
         Much of the factual detail comes from the “Philippine Inquirer” of June 12, 1998, the Centennial of Philippine Independence Edition.  The eclectic part comes from my selection, wording and interpretation.   

Early Days:  Sometime before the fourteenth century, Polynesian peoples settle in the islands.  Various indigenous tribes already inhabit about 800 of the more than 7000 islands.  No one seems to know where they came from or how long they have been there.  By the 1390s Islam becomes the predominant religion, thanks to the Arabs who establish an extensive overland trade route from the west (present-day Middle East, North Africa, and Spain).  Some decide to stay.  Small sultanates spring up and spread from south (Mindanao) to north (Luzon). 

1521:  Magellan claims the islands for Spain.  In about 1543 Legazpi establishes Spanish rule and names the Islands for King Philip of Spain (Islas Filipeños).  Legazpi makes Manila the capital in 1571.  The Galleon trade thrives for over 200 years, enriching Spanish coffers.  The country becomes predominantly Catholic with the notable exception of the southwestern part of Mindanao, which remains Muslim.  With the Church and a clerical class of Filipinos (Ilustrados) as allies, the Spanish maintain control for well over 300 years, despite periodic uprisings.

1896:  Filipino rebels, called Katipuneros, begin what becomes the Philippine Revolution against Spain.  Now the chronology gets sticky as the Philippine Revolution and the Spanish-American War (1898) intersect.  The Filipinos expect the Americans to help them gain independence.  On June 12, 1898, expecting the capitulation of Spanish forces, representatives of eight Philippine provinces (the eight stars on the flag) sign the constitution establishing the Republic of the Philippines.  American ground forces arrive to support Admiral Dewey whose fleet has sunk the Spanish navy and blockaded Manila from the sea.  The Filipinos, who have cut off the city on the landward side, welcome the U.S. ground forces as allies. 

They are mistaken.  The Spanish, with U.S. concurrence, agree to surrender to the Americans on condition that the Americans keep the Philippine army from taking over the city.  This agreement goes into effect on August 14.  The formal surrender of Spain to the U.S. occurs on December 12 (The Treaty of Paris).  Spain cedes the Philippines to the U.S. for $20,000,000.  President McKinley, decides to colonize the Philippines in order to Christianize the people, although it has been predominantly Catholic for over three centuries.

1899-1901:  The Philippine-American War.  By February of 1899, the Filipinos realize that the Americans do not intend to leave.  They fight the Americans.  McKinley calls it an “insurrection” that will be quickly put down.  It takes three years and 75,000 troops.

1901:  The approximately 500 ‘Thomasites’ arrive in Manila aboard  the U.S.S Thomas on August 23 and begin to teach English and other subjects, with amazing results.  The “Americanization of the Philippines” commences and proceeds rapidly as a majority of the population that was illiterate and never learned Spanish becomes literate in (American) English.

1935:  The Commonwealth Period begins in anticipation of independence.  The official move to independence, however, comes only after World War II, in which the U.S. and the Philippines fight as allies against Japan, at first unsuccessfully.  Japan occupies the country.  Philippine guerrillas resist throughout the occupation.  The Americans return after three years.  

1946:  The U.S. recognizes Philippine independence on July 4, which is celebrated as Independence Day in the Philippines until 1964, when June 12 becomes Independence Day.      

Present Days:  The Philippines is the staunchest ally of the U.S. in Asia and perhaps in the world.

I still have my copy of the Centennial Edition of the “Philippine Inquirer.”  It is a cornucopia of fascinating facts and narratives about the founding of the Republic of the Philippines.  It is not for sale, but you can look at it when you visit.
                                                                                          

Philippine History: An Eclectic Chronology

                                         Philippine History: An Eclectic Chronology

“Discover the Philippines” is the title of a lecture I gave a couple of months back at The UW-Green Bay Learning In Retirement Program.  Part of that lecture was supposed to have been this “Eclectic Chronology” or history of the Philippines.  At the last minute, I sort of threw away the script and emphasized my personal experiences and my love of the country and people over the past 22 years..  More recently I decided to use the lecture as the basis for my monthly column in the VIA Times Newsmagazine for March, 2015.  After writing the column, I decided that I still liked my original lecture material that I sort of threw away.  Here are some excerpts you might enjoy.   

1896:  Filipino rebels, called Katipuneros, begin what becomes the Philippine Revolution against Spain.  Now the chronology gets sticky as the Philippine Revolution and the Spanish-American War (1898) intersect.  The Filipinos expect the Americans to help them gain independence.  On June 12, 1898, anticipating the capitulation of Spanish forces, representatives of eight Philippine provinces (the eight stars on the flag) sign the constitution establishing the Republic of the Philippines.  American ground forces arrive to support Admiral Dewey whose fleet has sunk the Spanish navy and blockaded Manila from the sea.  The Filipinos, who have cut off the city on the landward side, welcome the U.S. ground forces as allies. 

They are mistaken.  The Spanish, with U.S. concurrence, agree to surrender to the Americans on condition that the Americans keep the Philippine army from taking over the city.  This agreement goes into effect on August 14.  The formal surrender of Spain to the U.S. occurs on December 12 (The Treaty of Paris).  Spain cedes the Philippines to the U.S. for $20,000,000.  President McKinley, decides to colonize the Philippines in order to Christianize the people, although it has been predominantly Catholic for over three centuries.

1899-1901:  The Philippine-American War.  By February of 1899, the Filipinos realize that the Americans do not intend to leave.  They fight the Americans.  McKinley calls it an “insurrection” that will be quickly put down.  It takes three years and a build-up of 75,000 U.S. troops.

1946:  The U.S. recognizes Philippine independence on July 4, which is celebrated as Independence Day in the Philippines until 1964, when June 12 becomes Independence Day.      

Present Day:  The Philippines is the staunchest ally of the U.S. in Asia and perhaps in the world.

          Check out the full article at the VIA Times Newsmagazine web site in a month or two.

Contact Bob Boyer at Robert.boyer@snc.edu or www.anamericaninmanila.com.

 

Upside&Downside Jobs in the Philippines

Two articles about two dramatically contrasting jobs appeared this month (February, 2015). 

Upside Article:  The Philippines has become the call-center capital of the world

The first article, which appeared initially in the Los Angeles Times, was picked up by my local paper, the Green Bay Press Gazette on Sunday, February 22.  I was surprised because the Philippines does not get a lot of attention in Northeastern Wisconsin, so I was pleased to see it. 

It has probably been at least a year now that the Philippines has passed India as the call-center capital of the world.  The accent you now probably hear sounds a bit more American than Anglo-Indian.  That's because the Philippines was a U.S. colony when English became an established language there.  When I call about my cable bill, I personally find it much easier now to understand the speaker's English, not that that helps change the amount I have to pay.  The article shows how a young woman, Joahnna Horca now earns about $700 a month as a call-answerer.  That salary is more than "many general physicians earn in the Philippines."  And it is way more than she would make as a social worker, the area in which she received her college degree.  Bottom line for the country: $25 billion in revenue, accounting for about 10 percent" of the economy.  Still I suspect that Ms. Horca might rather be a social worker, if she could afford it.  The next article shows a dire need for social workers.

Downside Article:  Chronic poverty is fueling child labor in the Philippines     

The second article appeared in a source that is new to me, ucanews.com.  The web site promotes itself as "Asia's most trusted independent Catholic news source."  I found this article just about the same time that I read the one above.  It had appeared originally on February 2, 2015 and was picked up more recently by the on-line news source, CathNews. com. I have greatly condensed the article, which certainly merits a fuller reading. 

As the title suggests, this article reminds us of the huge economic gulf between groups in the Philippines, between someone like Ms. Horca and one of the article's featured individuals, Geraldine Aboy.  Ms. Aboy is "a 14-yr-old child laborer from the Manobo Pulangiyen tribe," who works "on a sugarcane plantation in Mindanao."  To be more specific, Ms. Aboy works on a sugar plantation in the Province of Bukidnon in north central Mindanao, quite a distance from the sometimes more dangerous far-western part of Mindanao where an uneasy truce currently exists between the government and the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao.  Politically stable and a province that should attract lots of tourists, to judge by the "More Fun in the Philippines" pictures, Bukidnon nonetheless suffers "chronic poverty."  Children, such as Ms. Aboy, leave their villages and go to camps away from home while the cane is being harvested.  They work literally from dawn to dusk for about $2.70 per day.  Schooling is, of course, no longer a prospect.  In short, a formula for chronic poverty. 
  

Immigration, Yes, But Climate Control Too?

These two Philippines stories are too good to miss.

First, I was pleasantly surprised by a recent front-page article in the Sunday, January 4, 2015 Washington Post about U.S. recognition (or lack thereof) of the contributions of Filipinos who served in the U.S. Army in World War Two.  The article is entitled "Final Compensation" and deals with the unfortunate feet dragging by the U.S. in properly rewarding the Filipino veterans and their families.  The article uses this prominent and telling sub-heading: "Filipinos who aided U.S. forces in World War II received citizenship in 1990--but a green-card backlog keeps them apart from grown kids."

Secondly, while I was surprised to see the "Final Compensation" article as front-page news in the Washington Post, I had been even more surprised by an article a few weeks earlier in the New York Times (Tuesday, December 9, 2014) entitled "Philippines Pushes Developing Countries to Cut Their Emissions."  This news was totally new.  In fact it basically announced a reversal of the country's environmental direction.  Instead of largely ignoring climate change due to human causes (the "use of fossil fuels"), Filipinos were now urging major reductions in these emissions (by themselves and others).  Typhoons and rising water levels have finally gotten Filipinos' attention.  There is even a new organization called "Philly" to promote awareness of the problem, and they are delighted with Pope Francis' visit (starting today, January 16, 2015).  Francis recently declared that Climate Change could no longer be morally ignored.

Going back to the first story, and speaking of morality, Francis also praised the U.S., or at least President Obama, for policies that would help keep immigrant parents and their U.S. children together.

RHB