Jonathan

Academia at its Finest

2011-01-15T02:20:00.000-08:00

Part 1: the initial paper as published in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis

See here

Part 2: a follow-up paper by multiple authors, later published in the same journal

See here

Don't worry, they don't take long to check out.

Book: Myself and Other More Important Matters

2011-01-07T19:47:00.000-08:00

by Charles Handy

Myself and Other More Important Matters is an autobiographical book by British business and management guru and author Charles Handy.

Handy's impressive CV includes co-founding and teaching at the London School of Business, a stint as Warden of St George's House, Windsor Castle, nine years working in Shell Oil Asia and many years of writing, broadcasting and speaking.

One of the things that makes this book impressive is the humility with which Handy paints the events of his life, to the point where the reader might wonder exactly how he achieved some of these accomplishments. Moreover such humility allows Handy to tell the stories of both failures and successes, times of great enjoyment and times of immense frustration, and his own path to finding enjoying, fulfillment and a sense of vocation in what he does.

In an entertaining example of failure, during his time working for Shell Oil in Borneo Handy had the great idea to install large petrol tanks at busy locations along the sides of a major river in order to reduce the inefficiencies caused by numerous small boat runs delivering small amounts of fuel. A great idea, but Handy later found he had failed to account for two things:

He was first investigating the river during the tropical rainy season, when levels were very high, and
Local suppliers would certainly not point out problems that made this a bad idea if it meant losing business.

Come dry season, the large tanks were stranded high and dry, well away from the river waters and any ability to replenish them. River commerce carried on further down the river banks, well away from the tanks, as it had for many dry seasons before and after. The tanks were a write-off.

On satisfaction and frustration in work, Handy offers valuable insight when describing several crossroads in his life: the decision to leave Shell Oil after nine years, spending time at MIT followed by the move into education and writing, and his time spent as Warden of St George's House. Frustrated and dissatisfied at Shell Oil despite excellent income, Handy instead moved into economics, then business studies at MIT, then co-founded the London School of Business upon seeing the lack of any equivalent education in Britain.

Increasingly focussed on communication and education, the move to St George's House meant minimal monetary gains but the opportunity to lead a place "where serious people - from all walks of life and holding diverse opinions - can come together to discuss serious issues seriously."

One of Handy's ideas that has become very commonplace these days is the Portfolio Lifestyle, a mixture of consulting, speaking, writing, or other such components a person might use to replace their full-time career. The autobiography is interesting in charting Handy's own road to such a lifestyle, including some of the potential pitfalls and difficulties.

Overall, Myself and Other More Important Matters an enjoyable, human and though-provoking book. Perhaps Handy's tendency to focus a lot on other more important matters at the expense of himself means this is not so much a book for anyone wanting a "how to be like x" book such that fill many a business section; rather, this is more a case of seeing the world through Handy's eyes.

Back to School: MBA Studies

2011-01-04T01:49:00.000-08:00

It seems my blog has fallen into disrepair and dishevelment through neglect.

I have been doing a lot of writing, however very little of it has been in any way designed for posting on a blog; most of it has been because I have gone back to school.

Doing an MBA had been on my to-do list since the moment I returned to New Zealand, but everyday life, work and procrastination meant I only began this degree in July 2010. Yes, July - the last six months have seen many a busy night spent immersed in fascinating books, academic journals, group work, and ABInform and EBSCO business databases (not to mention Google Scholar, another good idea from Google).

Papers finished so far are:

Managing Organisations and People
Quantitative Analysis
Supply Chain Management
Financial Reporting and Control

The study experience has been even more enjoyable than my previous foray into the business school (Graduate Diploma in Business in IS Management) in two ways: firstly, the material is deeper and the expectations of research and work higher, and secondly, the business school has moved since my earlier time to a far nicer place to study, the Owen Glen Building, a few pictures of which follow:

I have seen the end

2010-05-06T04:08:00.000-07:00

Oops, shouldn't forget the flying dogs...

Answering the Cry of the Poor

2010-03-23T03:16:00.000-07:00

For the past year or so I've been assisting on the board of ANCOP New Zealand. ANCOP (or ANswering the Cry Of the Poor) is the original work out of which the Gawad Kalinga movement grew. The following is an article I wrote for the Auckland Filipino newspaper Pasa Pinoy.

It was a new-year article (now safely out of moratorium), hence the new year theme.

Answering the Cry of the Poor

On the 12th of May 1787 the persistent call of God culminated in a far-reaching decision in the heart of a wealthy Englishman. He would use his position and privilege to help those who completely lacked either. He would move beyond his own personal faith and spiritual practice to work in a cause that would set millions free, most of whom he would never meet. It would mean giving the rest of his life to help fulfill God's plan for uplifting the poor and oppressed.

Battling heavy opposition at every turn and many heart-breaking failures, it was twenty years later that the man - William Wilberforce - stood in the British Parliament with tears streaming down his face, as the British Parliament at last passed his law that would ban the buying and selling of human slaves. It would take another thirty years of fighting and striving before existing slaves were too set free. William Wilberforce heard the news from his deathbed, and died three days after hearing that slaves would be set free. His work was complete.

In the Philippines today, helping the poor and exploited is becoming less about one's own spiritual practice - "giving alms" per se - and more and more totally about ANswering the Cry Of the Poor. Giving alms has been changing to Padugo, giving oneself.

Filipinos (and increasing numbers of non-Filipinos) are pouring out their hearts, time and resources for their downtrodden kababayans - evidence of hearts that have heard the cry of the poor and listened. Filipinos are building a country that more closely models the Christ depicted on millions of tricycles, jeepneys and paintings. The cry of Malachi is being heard: "Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly with your God."

The call that many received in the first few years of the millennium is being held closely to hearts around the world.

With 2010 here, a new year lets us dwell on the successes of the past year, as well as reflect on the huge challenges and opportunities of the coming year. 2009 was a year of remarkable highs and lows, refining by fire, and gaining of new strength through great adversity. It was a reminder of magnitude of difficulties we face, as well as a celebration of how much transformation the love and padugo of caretakers, volunteers, supporters and full-time workers has wrought.

Tremendous successes were had, such as an invitation to GK advocate Tony Meloto to address the APEC summit in Singapore - the only NGO invited to present to the event. The remarkable success stories emanating from the work of caretakers and volunteers on the ground were bearing fruit in increasing international approbation, it seemed. It was also a year of expanding vision, as GK unveiled GK2024, the vision of bringing five million families out of poverty by 2024.

It was a year that ended with a massacre that broke hearts and threatened to undermine hope. GK mourned as SIBOL teacher Pinky Balayman Edsing and GK advocate Bai Genalyn "Gigi" Mangudadatu were massacred along with 57 others. Some wondered, can things ever really change in the Philippines? Is the change we’ve seen so far truly even real?

But it was also a year when the devastation of Typhoon Ondoy showcased the residents of GK villages as pillars of strength in the surrounding areas. Former slum-dwellers now GK residents became leaders and rescuers, providers of refuge as floodwaters ravaged the slums and left hundreds of thousands without food or shelter.

Sitio Ruby, a former slum of 5,000 near the Sta Mesa dam in Quezon City - now a GK village - was one such rock in the midst of turmoil. Thanks to quick action the village sustained no casualties. The village chapel became a relief centre for neighbouring communities. GK Caretakers led by Gerry and Willy left their exclusive subdivisions to be at Sitio Ruby at the crack of dawn, there to help the villagers. With Sitio Ruby as a hub for relief efforts, the village residents’ priority became the welfare of the less fortunate around them.

GK Brookside also sustained no casualties. Courageous members of the GK Kapitbahayan worked for seven hours to save the lives of over a hundred women and children from neighbouring shanties, using the rooftops of GK houses as a bridge to safety. Using rafts and ropes to reach the wall of the neighbouring affluent village, GK residents and rescued neighbours were welcomed with open arms and given food, water and dry clothes. In the words of Tony Meloto, "it took a calamity to cross the wall of mistrust that separated the haves and the have-nots for years".

With GK initiating Operation Walang Iwanan, thousands of volunteers answered the call, pouring in from rich subdivisions and GK communities alike. In six days, six thousand volunteers processed 182,000 food packs out to thousands more volunteers in the field. The Philippine armed forces provided seven trucks for GK to distribute aid from.

At the same time, Filipinos around the world gave generously from the heart, equipping and encouraging those in the Philippines.

So as 2010 begins the next fifteen years of Gawad Kalinga, it is a time of celebration as well as sober reflection. There are trials, pains and joys. There is always padugo.

In New Zealand, Filipinos are reconnecting with the Philippines more than ever. The upcoming YGAT tour will immerse more young Kiwi-Filipinos in GK life, an experience that has already for many changed the Philippines from being “the country my parents are from” to “my country!”

And we are looking ahead to the next fifteen years, just as we remember the example of others called to answer the cry of the poor and oppressed. Freeing the slaves began with a few people who heard the call. Gawad Kalinga began with a handful of CFC volunteers building a single house.

The vision has grown as more have heard the call, and as we seek to uplift five million families through GK2024 it will demand the love, padugo and generosity of many. The call has grown for the Philippines to be a place where justice and mercy abounds, a testimony to the world.

It’s not about us. It never has been. It’s about ANswering the Cry Of the Poor.

"The work of Gawad Kalinga stems from genuine conviction of the heart and can never be imposed. It is a choice inspired by a concrete experience of transformation, hope and love. Many will enlist but not all will endure; many more will be invited, but only those hearts willing to embrace the poor without counting the cost will glue this backbone organization together." –Luis Oquinena , GK Executive Director

Embrace Life

2010-02-07T01:48:00.000-08:00

Excellent new advertisement. Surely one of the most effective in its field.

Ukraine's Suffering, depicted in a Sand Animation by Kseniya Simonova

2009-09-25T21:42:00.000-07:00

The winner of Ukraine's Got Talent is someone remarkably different from many of the national talent TV shows around the world. Kseniya Simonova moves the audience to tears as she tells the story of Ukraine's World War 2 sufferings using sand:

The final text Kseniya Simonova writes at the end of the piece is in Russian, translated "you are always near" or "you are always close".

And for some background information on Ukraine's suffering:

Nazi Germany’s greatest war crime is the Holocaust, of course, but the genocides against Ukrainians and Belarusians constitute a close second. And yet, while the Holocaust is common knowledge, few know much about the extermination of Ukrainians and Belarusians — and Germans may know about this least of all. The tragedy of these peoples’ suffering in the war has been compounded by the world’s almost complete ignorance and indifference.

That lamentable condition may be about to change, if only among professional historians. In a ground-breaking article that was published in the July 16 issue of The New York Review of Books, Yale University historian Timothy Snyder describes in excruciating detail just how Nazi policy was directed at exterminating first the Jews and then the Slavs. Since Belarus and Ukraine were occupied for almost four years, they suffered enormous population losses.

According to Snyder: “Half of the population of Soviet Belarus was either killed or forcibly displaced during World War II: nothing of the kind can be said of any other European country. … The peoples of Ukraine and Belarus, Jews above all but not only, suffered the most, since these lands were both part of the Soviet Union during the terrible 1930s and subject to the worst of the German repressions in the 1940s. If Europe was, as Mark Mazower put it, a dark continent, Ukraine and Belarus were the heart of darkness.”

The devastation that affected both countries is even greater when one considers their experiences in the Stalinist 1930s and in World War I. Ukraine lost at least 3 million people in the genocidal famine of 1933. Both countries also served as the main killing fields of the Eastern Front during World War I (1914-18), the Civil War in Russia (1918-21) and the Polish-Russian War (1919-21).

Ukraine and Belarus experienced nearly 40 consecutive years of relentless death and destruction, starting in 1914 and ending with Stalin’s death in 1953.

Although Soviet Russia bears a great deal of responsibility for the killing, the lion’s share falls on Germany.

And yet Germany, which so assiduously remembers its crimes during the Holocaust, has still to build one monument to the millions of Belarusians and Ukrainians its armies killed in the 20th century.

How can this blindness be explained?

Read the full article here

GK Caretakers Giving Care

2009-09-04T13:25:00.000-07:00

Baseco lies at the mouth of the Pasig River, squeezed between the river the heavy industry of Manila's ports. The river flows first through bustling Manila, collecting industrial waste, human waste and the muddy run-off of rain from thousands of dusty streets, bringing it all to Baseco.

Row upon row of crowded pole-houses line the river, and children swim in the river or row their Kankong rafts up and down the filthy waterway.

Baseco is a neighborhood known in the past more for its gangs and violence than anything good; a place where men care more for their fighting roosters than their children. A place where Police fear to tread and taxis will not venture.

However, in recent years a Gawad Kalinga village has made Baseco famous for different reasons. Both in the Philippines and around the world GK Baseco has become known for its transformation hopelessness to hope, from despair to dignity.

Visitors from diverse backgrounds have graced the village from the President of Singapore and American Ambassador, to students from Manila's universities, to employees and executives from multinational corporations and government departments. Even scare and precious land was secured, signed over to the GK village by President Macapagal-Arroyo herself.

In turn, the beneficiaries of Baseco’s transformation can often be found building houses for others in remote areas of the Philippines as part of GK's Bayani Challenges.

Such are the manifold success stories of Baseco that it's easy to forget how difficult transformation is to achieve. For Project Director Jun Valbuena and his Caretaker Team, the struggle has been a labor of love forged over the last four plus years of their lives. Many of them have worked alongside the villagers in Baseco since the start - when GK Baseco was resurrected from the ashes of a fire in the Baseco slum in 2004.

And given the many obvious changes, Tito Jun Valbuena is startlingly circumspect.

"After 4 years we've seen a little change," Jun says, surprising those who witness firsthand the incredible before-after contrast. "Not really big change - you cannot change the people overnight,” he remarks. “But we're experiencing some changes, some transformation in the people."

Habits of a lifetime can be hard to change, Jun says, especially for adults who have their entire life in a slum. But the GK team works hard to prevent their village slipping back into a slum, and over the four years things have progressed significantly.

"The place is clean in the morning," Jun describes, a big change from the past slum. "The children learn to take care of the environment, to maintain the cleanliness of their surroundings."

And like the environment, people are also being renewed daily.

"Little by little we're transforming the people," Jun says. "Each Monday for the last four years, we have a prayer and worship session at 8am. I'm here each Monday at 8am and people are already waiting to pray and meet, and talk about their problems and challenges."

And the community is developing momentum. Where in the past GK provided leadership to a community struggling to face life’s trials, many residents are now forging their own way forward. "Nowadays they're the ones bringing the solutions (to problems)," Jun describes. "We just talk it over with them."

When asked what makes the biggest difference in Baseco’s ongoing transformation, Valbuena answers without hesitation.

"It's the presence of caretakers!" he exclaims. GK's strength over the years has been the presence of couples, singles and youth from Couples For Christ, working alongside the residents and witnessing to them with their hands, not just their words. The caretaker teams work to change attitudes and life perspective, mentoring the communities with values formations programs and constant support.

"It's showing them the love that we share with them," Jun notes, sounding a word of caution. "I would say that whenever we see a GK site that is deteriorating in any way, it's because of an absence of caretakers."

Conversely, the most significant transformations have come about as a result of doors opened by the work of addressing poverty. "We're able to invite people into our community - to witness to them - because they see something good in us." The transformation and hospitality of GK Baseco’s residents has inspired many a heart over the years, from corporate leaders to diplomats to long-term foreign GK volunteers inspired to move to the Philippines to help.

Tito Isaac and Tita Baby Santos are part of Baseco’s Caretaker Team. "We are running the Christian Life Program (a program of Christian teaching) here right now, because we want the GK residents to be protected,” Tito Isaac says. “Because if there is no one to take care of them, to mentor them, they will go back to being in a slum again.”

“The survival mode is very hard to leave!" Tito Isaac emphasizes.

For Jun Valbuena and his team, commitment to the residents of Baseco arose from positive change in their own lives. "I've been in our community (CFC) for the last twenty-four years. There was a big change in my life since I joined and I want to share it with the people, with the couples here. "

Likewise, his greatest encouragement is seeing such change in Baseco residents. "It's seeing the transformation, the little transformation that we have done," he says. The small encouraging changes made the effort all worthwhile. "I was encouraged by that, that maybe I could do even more to show them our love.”

Jun says the change among the children is the most inspiring.

"I was really struck the first time we came here. You would ask a little girl 'what do you want to be when you grow up?' and she would answer 'I want to be a dancer in Japan'," Jun describes. "Because they would see that families with children going abroad to Japan could buy everything they wanted. They have television, videoke and beautiful dresses."

"But now, because of GK and the partners and visiting students, when you ask the little girl she says 'I want to be like my Ate, she's a nurse!'"

"And the little boy, before, he wanted to be a pedicab driver because his dad was a pedicab driver." Jun says. "Now if you ask him: "I want to be a doctor like kuya, an architect like kuya, an engineer like kuya!'
And it’s a positive thing that we see in every GK site not only in Baseco. We see it in Smokey Mountain and in all the different GK sites that I've been to. I've seen the transformation that has come in!"

He smiles and says, “I think for every GK worker it is like this. That's why we stay, it's because of love! We want to share the love that we're experiencing in every GK site."

"It's bringing glad tidings to the poor," He says, looking out over the village through eyes reflecting great fulfillment.

And walking around Baseco meeting children with a future brighter than ever before, visitors can see the legacy of the caretakers’ love taking shape day after day, step by lovingly nurtured step.

Kobe Bryant visits Gawad Kalinga

2009-07-22T17:35:00.001-07:00

Credit to Carlo Cecilio for these photos of the NBA's Most Valuable Player Kobe Bryant visiting Gawad Kalinga.

"Gawad Kalinga's (GK) Sagip kids were going to receive a gift from Kobe, and were the only ones who got close to Kobe and were able to get autographs."

Great GK Article: Local execs into politics of caring GK way

2009-07-21T22:38:00.000-07:00

By Chelo Banal-Formoso
Philippine Daily Inquirer, first posted 02:49:00 07/19/2009

MANILA, Philippines—When Filipinos migrate to America, Canada, Australia or some other country reputed to be a zone of prosperity, it is usually because the government is negligent, the economy is in shambles, the society is crumbling, and they cannot see the good in staying.

And when Filipinos mobilize themselves and leave their zone of comfort to provide their countrymen a basic necessity like shelter, it is usually because the government is negligent, the economy is in shambles, the society is crumbling, and they cannot see the good in staying put.

So being a government official/politician is perhaps the worst credential to present at any gathering attended by these two groups of people. But at the recent GK 2024 Summit held in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States, Camarines Sur Gov. Luis Raymund (LRay) Villafuerte Jr. proved there is no such thing as a tough crowd when you are a Gawad Kalinga partner.

Originally a church ministry founded by Tony Meloto and his colleagues in Couples for Christ, Gawad Kalinga has become a multisectoral movement with a tweaked Robin Hood complex. Its mantra—the best for the least—means those who have shall give so those who have not may have houses and communities where they can live as decent human beings and strive for a better future.

With the support of local and global donors and volunteers, there are now over 2,300 GK villages in 400 towns in the Philippines, according to Meloto.

“We can’t keep track of the number of houses but that should be over 150,000,” he said, adding that GK had enough land saved for 550,000.

Marketing man

Immigrants, those hyphenated Filipinos who have made something of themselves in the new country, are responsible for a good number of the existing GK villages (Meloto calls it patriotic philanthropy).

Their faith in GK has as much to do with the kind of leader Meloto is not—he is not a flash-in-the-pan activist, a scoundrel in government, or a slimy politician—as with the kind he is.

For one, he is a brilliant marketing man out “to engage every sector of the society, to bridge social gaps, [and] to transcend partisan politics, business rivalries and parochial interests” in the GK mission of nation-building.

Toward that end, Meloto organized the Boston summit and balanced the presentations from the private sector with show-and-tell from the national, provincial and local governments.

“I wanted to show that GK has broken the trust barrier,” he said.

Meloto couldn’t have done better than pick LRay Villafuerte to talk about Camarines Sur. On the second day of the powwow, before an audience of overseas Filipinos and international CEOs who least expected to be wowed by a third-generation politician and his disaster-prone province, Villafuerte proceeded to deliver the kapow!—complete with a slide show and a video.

For many years, the dream for Camarines Sur was to overcome crippling poverty,” said the governor, disarmingly young at 41.

He talked about a province that was beset by insurgency, as if getting hit by one typhoon after another was not debilitating enough.

It was, he said, a province that could not “come within reach of progress.”

Brand change

The first thing he and his team did, Villafuerte said, was to get rid of a poor image. They dropped the rather lengthy and stodgy name of the province and nicknamed it with something hip, something beckoning and something blue: CamSur.

The minute he said it, the stateside crowd must have thought of the ocean, or the waves a la Big Sur. Quite a hook.

After the brand change, Villafuerte worked with a rough-and-ready determination to turn his hugely ignored province into a global tourist destination. In so doing, he attracted investments.

Three years ago, they built the CamSur Water Complex (CWC) for wakeboarding, water skiing and other extreme water sports. Two years ago, they developed the Caramoan Peninsula; just last year, they opened the Lago del Ray Park.

Early reviews of the CWC have been good, with international publications hailing it among the best in the world. In fact, it was the venue for the 2,000 participants of the 2008 World Wakeboarding Championships.

Endowed with beaches, lakes, cliffs, caves and other natural wonders, the Caramoan Peninsula whetted the appetite for the tropics of some 12 million TV viewers in Europe when it was chosen as location for the reality TV show “Survivor France” 2008 series. More recently, the tide brought in the “Survivor Israel” cast and crew.

Lago del Ray Park, envisioned as the biggest water sports and recreational facility in the country, offers water slides, aqua wall climbing, sailing, jet skiing, kayaking and many other water sports.

Because of these world-class resorts—and here Villafuerte paused to give his audience time to catch its breath—tourist arrivals in CamSur have risen by more than 300 percent!

Build it and they will come, indeed.

“We are now the country’s No. 3 tourist destination, next to Boracay and Cebu,” CamSur’s governor announced, his bright eyes matching his ardor. The audience cheered.

Bigger business

In a subsequent interview, Villafuerte proudly pointed out that “we are the only province [featured in] the front page photo of the Inquirer four times in two months!”

He said he and his team had put up a website that resulted in an astonishing volume of business.

Also, they made their rates affordable so as not to exclude the local market. Pinoy tourists check in from March to June, Australians fly in during their winter (June to September) and Europeans arrive during their cold months (October to March).

Villafuerte said there was no reason CamSur could not beat Cebu and Boracay in tourist arrivals once it had an international airport. “Everything is cheaper in CamSur,” he declared. “We also have the advantage of being accessible by land. The drive from Manila to Bicol is beautiful.”

CamSur has lured not only travelers but also investors.

Villafuerte ticked off a list before his audience—an animation center, the first and only one in the Philippines to make an all-digital animation film (“Dayo”); a 2,000-seat call center, the first and only one in Bicol; an English, Japanese and Korean Language Institute, also the first and only one in the region; an information and technology park, the first in Bicol with Peza approval; and so on.

“From being the 39th poorest province, we are now the 10th richest in terms of income,” he announced. “From being No. 12 in rice production, we are now the country’s fifth largest rice producer.”

Answer to the question

These inspired changes should have been enough to impress any crowd, but as this was a GK meet, the question remained: What have you done for the least of your brethren?

Villafuerte had an answer. Through land banking, CamSur allocated 12,000 lots for its landless and homeless constituents so that now there is a GK Village in each of its municipalities. Upon his election, without actually having met Meloto, he gave full support to GK and soon the number of GK villages in the province grew to 44.

CamSur pioneered the GK Bed & Breakfast Inns to accommodate donors and volunteers visiting GK sites, foreign observers studying the GK model of community-building, as well as tourists tired of the usual sightseeing and eager to plant trees, milk a carabao and get to know the locals in the countryside (what is called “volunteer vacation” in the travel industry).

In October 2008, at the launch of the GK B&B Inns in the towns of Iriga and Libmanan, Meloto and his merry band of builders declared CamSur the GK Designer Province.

The B&Bs are now a livelihood source for the GK villagers who are paid for cleaning, cooking and other hospitality services. All profits go to the GK Fund.

(Offstage, the governor disclosed another future source of income for his GK villagers: bus stop cafés to be put up along the highway where there are GK communities.)

CEO mentality

“I discovered genuine public service through Gawad Kalinga,” the multiawarded Villafuerte told his audience.

After his talk, people approached him to commend him, some saying they had made donations to GK villages in CamSur. This was confirmed by Meloto, who said that among the provinces, CamSur had drawn the most number of donors for GK communities.

“Because people can see immediate results, we get more volunteers, corporate donors and partners from abroad who want to invest in CamSur,” Meloto told the Inquirer. “LRay gets things done because he has the CEO mentality. We need young leaders like him who are visionaries and will be able to get the project off the ground.”

A business graduate of De La Salle University, Villafuerte was running a flourishing export business with his wife Lara before he ran for governor and took over from his father, Luis Sr. (with whom he has had a publicly known feud).

Villafuerte is only one of 28 governors who have teamed up with GK. Meloto welcomes help from elected and Cabinet officials “without judgment, as long as they adhere to our standards of integrity, transparency and accountability.”

Besides donating land, government leaders help solve problems relating to taxes, road access and water supply for the developments.

Mayors et al.

Over 400 mayors have joined GK, some of whom were invited to Boston to showcase the transformations of their towns and cities.

Parañaque Mayor Jun Bernabe is only on his second term but already has 26 GK villages in his city. Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay, who is relocating 300 families from his turf to a 3.2-hectare property in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan, promised free college education to their children. Freddy Tinga, Taguig’s young mayor, presented slides showing GK communities with lofts and landscaping. If CamSur is the GK Designer Province, Taguig, with 20 GK villages, is the GK Designer City.

Even national officials showed up in Boston.

Vice President Noli de Castro, who keynoted the GK Summit, is responsible for the government’s housing agencies and has partnered with GK for the relocation of “informal settlers” along railroad tracks and in six provinces.

Sen. Francis Pangilinan, a GK partner since 2001, is the first senator to donate GK villages in 16 provinces through his countryside development fund. Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri, head of the Senate’s housing committee, has continued to work with GK alongside his father, Bukidnon Gov. Joe Zubiri, so that today there are GK villages in 16 towns in their province.

The audience did not scoff but soaked in the good news, took note of the good deeds, and trusted in the wisdom of Meloto’s words: “When the private sector gets to engage government in an honest way for the benefit of our citizens, we call it kalinga politics—the politics of caring.”

As Villafuerte himself said, “Gawad Kalinga is good politics.”

United Breaks Guitars

2009-07-08T03:46:00.000-07:00

Following the Rickard/Palmer clan's assessment of airline and airport customer service experienced in the USA in recent months (especially compared to Asia), I thought some might appreciate this little tune that's getting quite a bit of coverage right now.

In spring 2008, Dave Carroll and his band Sons of Maxwell flew from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Omaha, by way of (shudder now, frequent fliers) Chicago. Just after landing at O’Hare airport, says Carroll, one of his bandmates and another passenger looked out their windows and saw baggage handlers heaving around guitars with wanton disregard.

Carroll says he complained immediately to three flight attendants, but was met with indifference.

Things never got any better and Carroll never had any luck getting United Airlines to help fix or replace the US$3,500 Taylor guitar broken by the baggage handlers...

So Dave Carroll decided to tell his story in song, this being the first song of an anticipated three-part "thank you" to United Airlines.

It's entertaining and worth a watch. It seems to be picking up quite a lot of traffic, so it may be that United will look to address the situation soon.

The full story can be read at Dave's website.

Three Cups of Tea

2009-07-07T03:54:00.001-07:00

Just watching the video now, I was most intrigued to hear the term "sweat equity"...exactly what we talked about all the time in Gawad Kalinga...

Anyway...

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time

Definitely one of the most inspiring books I have purchased recently, Three Cups of Tea chronicles one man's failure when attempting one of the great feats of the modern world - climbing K2, the slightly shorter but rather more difficult to climb cousin of Mt Everest.

Fortunately though, it doesn't stop there. It also chronicles the magnificent success born out of Greg Mortensen's failure to stand atop K2.

Wandering deliriously down the mountainsides, Mortensen became lost, only to find himself rescued by the hospitality of the residents of a small and impoverished mountain village in Pakistan. In a fit of gratitude, he promised to return and build a school for the village, so their children might be educated.

Three Cups of Tea is a wonderful tale of how this first initial promise grew into a long but ultimately fruitful struggle to build schools for poor children in the mountainous northern regions of Pakistan. Greg Mortensen spent many months of each year working as an ER nurse to raise funds, returning to Pakistan to build schools with his own money and - for quite a few years - a small amount of funding from other sponsors.

The striving worked, though. Mortensen's work gathered momentum, albeit eventually. Years down the track he would be invited on talk shows, interviewed in Vanity Fair and even sell books to far-flung antipodeans.

And one of the most exciting things is that Mortensen's work in bringing areligious schooling to impoverished children in northern Pakistan works strongly against the rise of the Taliban in Pakistan today. Taliban recruits come from madrassas, Saudi-funded conservative (often militantly so) religious schools...the children who go through Mortensen's schools are not cannon fodder for terror organisations. Rather, these kids have real opportunity...

More next time then...

The book on Amazon

An interview on Youtube

Three Cups of Tea

1st GK Global Summit a historic success!

2009-06-18T17:06:00.000-07:00

In case my last post seemed at all overly negative to the rich and powerful in the Philippines (at least, historically), I thought I'd do a roll call of credit for a few of the many in power now working hand in hand with GK.

These are in a post by one of the excellent leaders at GK, Issa Cuevas-Santos, on the Boston GK summit:

1st GK Global Summit a historic success!

Wed at 6:57pm
The almost 700 delegates from the US, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Columbia and the Philippines once again made history as they joined the historic gathering of Gawad Kalinga patriots, partners and friends last June 12-14, 2009 in Massachusetts for the first ever Gawad Kalinga 2024 Global Summit.

Boston was the only choice for the event, as the Summit was designed to be Gawad Kalinga’s coming out party, a unique opportunity to present the Gawad Kalinga template for community development and poverty eradication in the most prestigious academic setting in the world.

The choice of date was also of national significance, as the Event was also a celebration of the 111th anniversary of Philippine Independence. The Summit began with a flag raising ceremony outside the Marriott Cambridge Hotel, with no less than Philippine Vice President Noli de Castro in attendance, together with Philippine Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, and governors and mayors from the various provinces and towns of the Philippines. Cambridge Vice Mayor Sam Sneidel personally welcomed the delegates, and reiterated the significance of the friendship between the US and the Philippines, and the role of Filipino-Americans in shaping the future not just of America but the whole world.

It was followed by a Barrio Fiesta in the plaza right outside the hotel, one of the busiest train stations, and enticed guests and friends from New England to have a taste of Filipino food, culture and heritage. Led by Former Tourism Secretary Tony Gonzalez, the GK Exchange at the Marriott Grand Ballroom meanwhile became a venue for mayors and governors to showcase the beauty of their towns and cities, and highlighted tourism and investment opportunities. Mayors and Governors shared their vision for their town, and invited the guests to visit the Philippines.

GK Founder Tony Meloto also signed his book, Builder of Dreams, and delegates went around the room asking the significant people who shared their GK journey to also sign their personal copy. 7 special books were signed by all the Summit guests and VIPs, which were later auctioned and fetched a price of as high as USD 420, proceeds of which would go to Gawad Kalinga.

The evening was an opportunity for the delegates to show the world how Filipinos celebrate – truly world class entertainment led by Maestro Ryan Cayabyab and serenaded by world-renowed Filipino talents like Joey Albert, Stephanie Reese, Danny Javier and Louie Reyes. GK volunteers and partners came in their best Filipiniana attire, and expressed their deep love for the country through song.

Kabayan Noli de Castro honored the delegates with his presence, and thanked all the patriots from around the world who had not forgotten the Motherland. He also reiterated government’s commitment to support all GK initiatives, and even personally committed to continue being a friend to GK and to all who love the country.

Day 2

Despite the festivities of the night before, delegates were up and early the following day to attend the Breakfast Forum. At 7 AM, selected delegates were given an opportunity to have an intimate conversation with Summit speakers and guests to get their thoughts and exchange ideas on key local and global issues.

GK Executive Director opened the first plenary session, and provided the road map to 2024. He highlighted key points on building hope, leadership, heroism and peace as the pillars for the work ahead. Makati Mayor Jojo Binay spoke of transcending differences to build one nation, and US businessman Tony Olaes shared his journey as a second-generation Filipino American and GK’s important role in giving back identity and pride in our heritage. Former Agriculture Secretary Cito Lorenzo shared the key qualities of a transforming leader, and Philippine Marines Deputy Commandant Gen. Boing Ecarma presented the new model for peace and development through GK in Sulu.

Shell Country Chairman Ed Chua led the second plenary session entitled Creating Impact, Expanding Influence. He was supported by power presentors from the business sector like Keith Peterson and Pidoy Pacis of Saladmaster and PLDT-Smart president Butch Meilly, who outlined the reasons why Gawad Kalinga is the partner of choice of both local and multinational companies. Camarines Sur Governor LRay Villafuerte and Taguig Mayor Freddie Tinga presented the radical initiatives that they were starting in their own areas with Gawad Kalinga, and thanked GK for helping restore faith in government and promote a culture of transparency and accountability.

The key points during the morning were made concrete through the workshops in Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which highlighted GK’s best practices and the wholistic model for community development.

Renowned architect Bong Recio, United Nations Champion of the Earth awardee and Former Environment Secretary Bebet Gozun and award-winning developer Gerry Choa are part of GK’s powerhouse team for shelter and environment that presented the evolution of the GK model and its thrust towards building beautiful, cost-efficient and environmentally friendly communities that restore dignity to the residents but also uphold the integrity of creation. Meralco Vice President Leony dela Llana reiterated the commitment of Meralco led by Manolo Lopez to continue building Sibol schools, and Governors Victor Yap of Tarlac and Sally Lee of Sorsogon showed that political will at the provincial level could help leverage resources from private sector partners.

In Harvard, GK’s academic partners look center stage, as UP NCPAG Dean Alex Brillantes presented GK as the Philippines’ response to the Millennium Development Goals, and Former UP President Jose Abueva (through video) highlighted the role of GK in introducing social artistry in its communities. In the other room, Former Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz and best-selling author Alex Lacson showed the role of both government and private sector in helping the Philippines rise from Third-World poverty. Panelists in Harvard included Paranaque Mayor Jun Bernabe, Iloilo Mayor Jerry Trenas, Murcia Mayor Sonny Coscolluela, St. Bernard Mayor Rico Rentuza, San Isidro Mayor Sonia Lorenzo, and Daet Mayor Tito Sarion – all of them openly declaring that they were building slum free and squatter free towns and cities following the GK Way.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap wowed the delegates at the Marriott with his presentation of the Philippine government’s initiative to connect farms to the market, and help ensure food security for all Filipinos. Bayan-anihan’s Mike Dimagiba introduced GK’s farming program, and called on Mayor Dennis Go of Tarlac to show the multi-sectoral partnerships. Dr. Boy Abay and Dr. Elen Solis presented GK’s initiatives for health through Gawad Kalusugan.

Dean Laurence Simon of Brandeis University, a reactor for the Food and Health workshop, lauded Gawad Kalinga for its “outstanding achievements despite it being a young organization,” and for its faith based approach to community development. He was so inspired by what he saw that he committed to give one full scholarship to Brandeis University for Gawad Kalinga!

These declarations of commitment for GK’s work was more than enough reason to celebrate, and the delegates danced the night away during the Builders Ball. That night, village builders from North America and around the world were honored by GK’s Dylan Wilk and ANCOP USA’s Ricky Cuenca and Rick Munda. Delegates from the various regions and countries also took turns showing off their talents in dancing and singing, making the evening a truly festive celebration after a day of hard work.

Day 3

The day started with delegates giving their declarations for the poor and for the country. Congressman Rufus Rodriguez from Misamis Oriental started the ball rolling, by committing Php 2.5 Million for houses and another P2.5M Million for a road network for GK! Incoming BLD-GK Coordinator Bong Encarnacion reiterated BLD’s commitment to serve as caretakers and continue building villages. UCLA CFO Josie Castro pledged to do everything to get UCLA involved in GK, and also pledged to build one house every year in honor of her son’s birthday. ANCOP USA’s Ricky Cuenca spoke of their resolve to intensify even more on helping build up the GK movement, and St. Bernard Mayor Rico Rentuza spoke of every local chief executive’s commitment to continue building up their towns and cities the GK way. GK fulltimer Felice Caringal symbolized the students who are giving the best years of their life for the mission, and the session was capped by the Del Rosario family from Singapore, who committed their whole family not just to complete their GK village in the Philippines but also gladly accepted the challenge to host the next GK Global Summit in Singapore in behalf of GK Hi (Hope Initiative).

GK Founder Tony Meloto then presented Vision 2024, which was brought to life through the presentations of his panelists. CFC Global Director Joe Tale affirmed the delegates that there is no split between CFC and GK, and reiterated CFC's commitment to continue the mission with GK while allowing other work with the poor ministries of CFC to also grow. Globe’s Gerry Ablaza flew in just to be with the summit delegates for the Summit, and gave a heartwarming speech about his love for the country and his belief in the GK spirit. Archie King reiterated his desire to continue building multipurpose centers where GK residents could come together, and thanked GK for being a trustworthy partner of their foundation. Sen. Kiko Pangilinan reiterated his desire to keep building with Gawad Kalinga, and Sen. Migz Zubiri committed to build 10,000 homes by 2012 in Bukidnon. Sec. Arthur Yap praised Gawad Kalinga for being able to transcend all differences, and put various kinds of people and personalities in one room because a single cause to rebuild the nation.

Tito Tony then called to the stage all the other nationalities that were now helping bring GK to the global arena by getting training to build GK in their respective countries. Representatives from India and Columbia went up the stage, and spoke from the heart about how GK had inspired them to also help the poor in their own motherland, and how the GK spirit was now being embraced by the world.

The whole event was capped by GK1MB Head Mari Oquinena, who reminded the delegates to value friendships built in GK, and to not be afraid to raise the next generation of leaders that will continue the legacy that was started.

The 2024 Summit ended with Ryan Cayabyab leading the guests in singing “Ako ay Pilipino,” a fitting ending to a truly historic and life-changing event.

GK Global Summit in Boston: RP out of 3rd world status by 2024

2009-06-18T16:46:00.001-07:00

An article from the Asian Journal on the recent GK Global Summit in Boston. It is an exciting time for the Philippines as it seems after 400 years of exploitation tolerated by those in power that the Philippines may actually have a chance to improve...

The call of Micah to match religious practice with justice for the poor may finally come to fruition. If the crabs aren't allowed to win, that is.

The Philippines has its own version of New Zealand's Tall Poppy Syndrome, called the 'crab mentality':

Crab mentality (sometimes also described as "crab in a bucket syndrome") describes a way of thinking best described by the phrase "if I can't have it, neither can you." The metaphor refers to a pot of crabs. Singly, the crabs could easily escape from the pot, but instead, they grab at each other in a useless "king of the hill" competition which prevents any from escaping and ensures their collective demise. The analogy in human behavior is that of a group that will attempt "pull down" (negate or diminish the importance of) any member who achieves success beyond the others, out of jealousy or competitive feelings.

Will those who are jealous of GK's success - either because of a loss of personal power or because it highlights their own failure to use the power they have to address injustice - attempt to destroy the work regardless of the consequences for the poor of the Philippines, or will GK prevail in its fight to make the Philippines a more Christian environment for its poor?

I certainly hope and pray for the second. Out of all the Spanish or Portuguese colonies throughout the world, one now has the chance to offer a uniquely Christian answer to poverty, to stand out among these colonies historically plagued by corruption in both state and church.

Followers of Christ played a great role in changing the lot of the poor in England. Is this about to happen for the first time in a nation with a heritage of Spanish Catholic colonialism?

There remain many challenges. The English rich only had to look across the sea to the guillotines of France to see that the benefits of allowing Christian justice for the poor. The former Dons and Doñas in power in the Philippines (who removed 40% of the land up for land reform in the original law's first sessions, years back) do not have a similar stick to complement the carrot of GK's modeled true Christianity...but as the poor of the Philippines become more empowered, perhaps a mixture of generosity and need can sustain and increase the momentum for change.

On with the article then:

GK Global Summit in Boston: RP out of 3rd world status by 2024

BOSTON – "It is our dream at Gawad Kalinga to bring the Philippines out of the third world by 2024 through the collaborative effort of all sectors of the Philippine society in the Philippines and abroad," Gawad Kalinga (GK) founder Tony Meloto announced to the media before the formal unveiling of the organization’s first global summit in this city.

The GK 2024 vision is a 21-year timeline to end the poverty of five million Filipinos and build a First World Philippines through community development and people empowerment with engaged multi-sectoral and trans border partnerships."We are all here because Boston plays a great role in America’s history, and it will play a great role again in our history as a
Filipino people. GK as an Asian model of development is now capturing global attention," Meloto told the Asian Journal in a chat moments after the reception which also celebrated the 111th Philippine Independence Day.

Vice President Noli de Castro delivered the keynote during the reception, and welcomed patriots from all over who have not forgotten to help the motherland. De Castro even managed to sing Wonderful World, the Louis Armstrong classic. "Para sa GK, itataya ko ang reputasyon ko," (For GK, I will bet my repu tation) he remarked.

The historic event also gathered a veritable who’s who in the worlds of Philippine politics, business and civil society.

Senators Francis Pangilinan and Miguel Zubiri, Agriculture Sec. Arthur Yap, Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay, Taguig Mayor Freddie Tinga, Parañaque Mayor Jun Bernabe, Cagayan de Oro 2nd District Congressman Rufus Rodriguez, Camarines Sur Governor LRay Villafuerte, former Globe President Gerry Ablaza, Pilipinas Shell President Ed Chua, Seafood City’s Steve Go and other personalities mingled with the almost 700 delegates who trooped to Boston to attend this three-day summit.

Former Cabinet secretaries Avelino Cruz (Defense), Elisea Gozun (Environment and Natural Resources) and Cito Lorenzo (Agriculture) also participated.

"GK has become a testament to what our future will be as a nation. We will not allow despair to triumph over genuine change. Through the synergy of the government and private sector, we will be able to change the quality of life of our people," Sen. Pangilinan told the audience during the last plenary.

For about six hours on Friday, June 12, Kendall Square in Cambridge was transformed into a small Filipino town fiesta, with colorful performance arts, exhibitions and culinary samplings. Earlier in the morning, Vice President Noli de Castro, Philippine public officials and leaders of Fil-Am organizations raised the Philippine flag and sang Lupang Hinirang, the Philippine national anthem.

Article in Asian Journal

Philippines: The Declining Standard of English

2009-06-17T21:19:00.000-07:00

The Economist's June 6th edition included a feature on the apparent declining standard of English in the Philippines. The Philippines has generally be know for having the highest standard of English in Asia, and is still today full of TESOL schools attended by predominantly Korean and Japanese students.

According to Economist, however, English has been in decline in recent years. As the article highlights, textbooks used to teach English in schools are of a low standard, putting kids on the wrong foot right from the start. I recall an article that appeared in one of the national newspapers while I was living in Manila, wherein an advocate for the rights of children was decrying the low quality of school textbooks and the alleged role of corruption in the awarding of contracts for the textbook supply. Not sure the word alleged is really necessary there...wherever you have procurement you have the opportunity for making money far in excess of your otherwise fairly low salary, a fairly typical state of play in Manila...

In one friend's experience, the head of the Department of Education for a particular province seemed to have a huge, mysterious source of wealth, while the children in schools coincidentally lacked text books.

So then, the Economist article:

E for English

ONCE it claimed to have more English speakers than all but two other countries, and it has exported millions of them. But these days Filipinos are less boastful. Three decades of decline in the share of Filipinos who speak the language, and the deteriorating proficiency of those who can manage some English, have eroded one of the country’s advantages in the global economy.

This week children trooped back to school for the new academic year. The government-approved textbooks they will study illustrate the problem. A passage in one for eight-year-olds reads: “The dog rolled on the floor so fast and fell on the ground. There he laid yelling louder than ever. The dog yelled on top of his voice.” A book for 11-year-olds advises, mysteriously: “Just remember this acronym—DOCSiShQACNMN—to make it easy for you to remember the order of adjectives in a series.”

Never mind the pupils, teachers have been flunking English for years. In 2004 only one in five teachers passed the English-proficiency test. The effect on pupils is plain to hear. Last year the country winced when the 17-year-old winner of the Miss Philippines World beauty contest failed spectacularly to answer in English the usual questions posed by judges in such events.

Call-centres complain that they reject nine-tenths of otherwise qualified job applicants, mostly college graduates, because of their poor command of English. This is lowering the chances that the outsourcing industry will succeed in its effort to employ close to 1m people, account for 8.5% of GDP and have 10% of the world market by the end of 2010.

America, as the colonial power, brought English and universal public education to the Philippines a century ago. But English as a subject has suffered from lack of money, along with public education as a whole. Some Filipinos also blame the introduction in the 1970s of Filipino, an artificial national language, as the medium of instruction.

The government is tackling the problem by throwing money at remedial English-language instruction for teachers and making greater use of English as the medium of instruction. It says these measures are working. A recent opinion poll suggests Filipinos believe their own ability to speak English is improving. Call-centre bosses are not convinced.

The article

Rich Man, Poor Man - the Conclusion

2009-06-16T14:34:00.000-07:00

By Conrado de Quiros, Philippine Daily Inquirer, First Posted 01:43:00 06/16/2009

(Conclusion)

It takes humility to be able to talk to the poor. It takes looking at the world from the eyes of the poor to be able to talk to the poor. It takes experiencing the lot of the poor to not believe yourself so above the poor that the only way you can talk to them is by “stooping down to their level,” which is what the candidates do during elections to separate fools from their votes.

But it takes pride as well to talk to the poor. It takes looking at the poor not in their abject state but in their possibilities to be able to talk to the poor. It takes seeing the poor not as objects desperate for gratuity but as subjects who can raise themselves up by their own strength, and demand to do so, to be able to talk to the poor.

Tony Meloto has both in equal measure. He does not romanticize the poor, investing them with a wisdom or heroism that does not spring naturally from deprivation, even if it does so copiously from someone like Josephine. He knows the violence that comes from desperate lives, he knows the brutishness that comes from brutish lives. But he knows as well, having come from the poor as he has, and continuing to live the life of the poor as he does, that the poor are capable of living dignified lives, if not indeed heroic ones, given the means to do so, given the opportunities to do so.

But he does not patronize the poor either, investing them with bodies that allow only for exploitation and souls that, emptied of feeling, allow only for grasping need. Certainly he does not romanticize himself, posing as the savior who will pluck the same poor from the wilderness, like Moses, even if what he does shines so resplendently it often makes him look that way. To the eternal envy of those who see themselves in that role. A devout Christian, Tony believes that God helps only those who help themselves. A decent human being, Tony believes that only the poor can save the poor.

One cannot find a truer measure of how far he has gone here than the indictment of him by the other side of Couples of Christ (Jonny - note, Couples For Christ, the original parent organisation of GK, remains in an interdependent partnership with GK. Most GK workers are CFC. The organisation referred to here is a breakaway faction led by a previous leader of CFC). That side will never be rich in spirit, even if they manage to get to be so in body. Or that side will ever be poor in life, in every sense of the word “poor,” in every sense of the word “life.”

Their accusation, which Tony Meloto might wish to frame and hang on his wall as the highest honor conferred upon him by anyone, was that his project, Gawad Kalinga, was drawing the energies of Couples for Christ which could have been better spent in spiritual guidance rather than physical uplift, in otherworldly concerns rather than in secular ones. An astonishing charge given that Jesus Christ was known to have told his disciples before he left, “Whatever you do for the least of your brethren, you do for me.”

But truly his detractors have reason to fear. Because Gawad Kalinga has done the most subversive thing of all, not unlike its source of inspiration, Jesus Christ, who once subverted the conventions of his time and place. It has made the weak strong. It has made the dead living. It has made the poor rich—in spirit as much as in body. It has done the unthinkable, which is to make the poor believe in themselves. It has done the atrocious, which is to make the poor see themselves not as lucky beneficiaries—or bovine victims—of gratuity, forever grateful, forever needy, forever prostrate, but as their own saviors, their own deliverers, their own liberators.

It has empowered them.

That simple statement takes on spectacular realities in the Gawad Kalinga settlements. We do not lack for housing projects. We do not lack for low-cost housing from the SSS and GSIS and whatever other institutions using other letters of the alphabet are offering it. We do not lack for low-cost housing from the private sector, some of whose projects, like the ill-fated Cherry Hills Subdivision, were built with the best of intentions but fell victim to the vicissitudes of nature. Even Imelda Marcos had her Ministry of Human Settlements, which produced the BLISS projects which have benefited the lower middle class.

If that were all Gawad Kalinga is, a housing program, then it would be no better than them. As all the economic studies show, housing doesn’t really push back poverty to any great extent. That is not the poor’s greatest need.

But Gawad Kalinga is more than that. Much, much more.

It does build, but not just in physical space, in the rough and tumble of impoverished neighborhoods, also in spiritual space, in the rough and tumble of impoverished minds. It does build, but not just houses, not just a roof and four walls to drag beaten carcasses into from the glare of sun and the lash of rain, also deep wells, where burst out like springs tapped from vast pools of water the poor’s confidence and dignity and pride in their accomplishment.

It is empowering.

The rest of the book outlines the experiences gained from the various settlements. How those settlements rose like a phoenix from moribund surroundings, wretched places home only to vice and violence, and became model communities, patrolled by the very same people who used to be thugs and addicts, held together and kept habitable by the very same people who used to prey on others.

The transformation is astonishing. The transformation is inspiring.

That is where Gawad Kalinga’s true significance lies. It is a project dedicated to building. But it has built more than dwelling places, it has built more than neighborhoods, it has built more than communities even. It has built foundations in the heart, it has raised beams in the mind, it has sprung out arches and gables and turrets in the soul.

If you build it, said the famous line in “Field of Dreams,” they will come.

Tony Meloto has built it. They have come.

Rich man, poor man

2009-06-15T14:12:00.000-07:00

At the recent GK summit I attended in Melbourne we heard that Gawad Kalinga is one of the 13 finalists for the annual Conrad Hilton Humanitarian Prize, a sort of younger brother (though more well endowed financially) of the Nobel Prize.

This sort of exposure can only be good for the poor of the Philippines, who have their greatest chance in four hundred years of having last change that might free them from exploitation and poverty. People are finally standing up for justice for the Philippine poor, finally answering Micah's call to match the abundant religiosity with a regard for justice and mercy.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer has posted the following inspirational article about the man who has led GK in vision since its inception. He was the executive director of GK for around half the time I was in the Philippines, until he passed that responsibility to the excellent Luis Oquinena so he could concentrate full-time on promoting GK to others.

Rich man, poor man
By Conrado de Quiros, Philippine Daily Inquirer, First Posted 00:56:00 06/15/2009

By the time this comes out, I’ll be in the US, having just attended the Gawad Kalinga Global Summit in Boston. I’ll have some things to say about it next week. Meanwhile I’ve got a couple of pieces to share with you. The first is something I wrote for Tony Meloto’s book on the story of GK. Tony deserves every bit of the effusive praise. The second is the Rizal Lecture I delivered before the Philippine Medical Association last month. Lest you miss me too much.

IN 1998, a 12-year-old girl named Josephine faced the presidential candidates during the presidential debate. She was the Mang Pandoy of that year’s elections. The debate, which really offered more of an opportunity for the candidates to orate than to debate, began with Josephine telling her story.

Josephine was an elementary school pupil who lived beside the mountain of garbage in Payatas. The third of seven children by a construction worker and a housewife, Josephine trekked several kilometers to and from school every day, wounding her way through the tambakan. Every day as well, after she packed up her textbooks, she picked through the refuse looking for scraps to sell. Plastics and wires particularly fetched good money. On a good day, she was able to earn P100, which helped to put food on their table.

The candidates were then asked what they would do for her if they became president. Without hesitation, the candidates promised all sorts of things to pluck Josephine from her abject lot.

No one said he or she was speechless before this wisp of a girl who had just given them an awe-inspiring demonstration of the indomitability of the human spirit. No one said he or she had no advice to impart to this girl, given that she in fact had just given them a lesson in keeping dignity amid adversity, in showing courage in the din of battle.

If the same presidential debate were held today, I know one person who would answer in that very way.

Unfortunately he is not a candidate. He is a simple man. He is a poor man. He is a rich man.

He is Tony Meloto.

The rich, F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, are different from you and me. By which he meant that the rich do not just have more money than we do, the rich have more eccentricities than we do. Eccentricities born of different sensibilities, different mindsets, different ways of doing things. These are differences that often boggle our minds, used as we are to other ways, other needs, other lives. It takes imagination to understand the rich.

I’ve always thought the same thing was true of the poor. The poor are different from you and me. They do not just have less money than we do, they have a sense of lesser possibilities than we do (Jonny - as described by Amartya Sen in Development as Freedom). A sense of lesser possibilities internalized from different adversities, different deprivations, different levels of powerlessness. These are differences that boggle the mind, particularly when you see 12 people trying to fit into a hovel little bigger than a confessional, when you see a man poison himself, his wife and his six kids to spare them the pangs of hunger. It takes imagination to understand the poor.

Tony has that imagination.

Tony is the one person I know who has truly listened to the poor. Tony is the person I know who has truly done something for the poor.

He has done so without calling attention to it. It is others who have called attention to it, refusing to let virtue go unnoticed. It is others who have spoken about how Tony would take the bus to his appointments, counting his coins to pay for the bus fare like the rest of us bedraggled commuters of a bedraggled city.

His reasoning is as simple as it is forceful, brimming with a truth everyone who has poured himself into the thick of the masa knows: You do not live the life of the poor, you will not understand the poor. You do not live the life of the poor, you will not do something for the poor.

It is the easiest thing to say you are pro-poor or you listen to the poor. That’s what the candidates in the 1998 elections told Josephine then. And that’s what the candidates tell Josephine today. It is the hardest thing in the world to actually do it.

The difficulty does not just lie in the will or intention to deceive. The difficulty, even for the well-intentioned, also lies in the wit or vision to know how to. That is to say, it’s not just that people do not listen to the poor because they do not want to, it is also that people do not listen to the poor because they do not know how to. Listening is the hardest art of all to master. Listening to the poor even more so.

We do not lack for populists or demagogues who do so.

We do not lack for candidates who sing and dance on the stage because they think that is all the poor know, that is all the poor want. We do not lack for Erap-types, including Erap himself, who can eat with their hands in some hovel in the slums but who can bury those same hands in the cookie jar, or the national treasury, without pausing to think that quite literally that is a case of what one hand giveth, the other taketh away.

We do not lack for self-proclaimed prophets who gather the poor unto their bosom, inveigling them to give all that they have, whatever they give will come back to them tenfold, without bothering to explain why if that were so they themselves like only to receive and not give. We do not lack for television hosts who lavish the poor with princely sums while making old women and ragged men run through hoops, who give the rest of the teeming poor to hope they too can find deliverance in luck and gratuity, if only they would brave stampedes from crowds that wind around them like snakes.

All of them talk to the poor. But all of them leave the poor poorer than when they found them.

(To be concluded)

Strange: 2 Japanese carrying $134 bil worth of U.S. bonds detained in Italy

2009-06-11T17:08:00.000-07:00

2 Japanese carrying $134 bil worth of U.S. bonds detained in Italy
Thursday 11th June, 06:18 AM JST ROME

Two Japanese nationals were detained by Italian financial police last week after trying to enter Switzerland with $134 billion worth of undeclared U.S. bonds, mostly Treasury bonds, an Italian daily said Wednesday. The Japanese consulate general in Milan confirmed that the detention had taken place and said it was trying to confirm with Italian authorities whether the two were indeed Japanese nationals and their identities.

According to the report in il Giornale, two unidentified Japanese in their 50s concealed the bonds, including 249 U.S. Treasury bonds each worth $500 million, in a suitcase with a false bottom that was searched by the Italian authorities June 3 when they were in Chiasso, at the border with Switzerland, about 50 kilometers north of Milan. The daily did not say on what charges they have been detained, but the two may have been detained on suspicion of attempting to take a large amount of securities out of Italy without declaring it because the paper said they had not declared the bonds.

From commentary on the internet it seems furthermore:

1. The two Japanese came to the border by train
2. They were in possession of two different kinds of bonds: 249 x $500m in Treasury Bonds and 10 x $1bn 'Kennedy Bonds'
3. They also had in their possession some form of Japanese banking documents.
4. If the bonds are genuine then the Italian Customs may be able to fine them 40% of the value.

So, what's going on? Is the Bank of Japan attempting to covertly unload US treasury bonds? Some on the internet are guessing at all sorts of things including North Korean spies pretending to be Japanese. Alternatively, as one internet commentator describes:

"This was probably a deal between two countries. So Japan could've sold them to the Saudis for 50% of face combined with some agreement for the Saudis to keep supplying oil at $50/barrel for the next 5 years (or whatever).

My point is that with some sort of deal as big as this, there were probably numerous things going on all that the same time.

One thing that we can most certainly say is it definitely wasn't "two businessmen" that just happen to be in possession of $140B."

Article on Japan Today

Edit 1: Japan's Finance Minister has now come out proclaiming Japan's trust in US Treasuries is unshakable. Maybe having two Japanese caught carrying around the GDP of New Zealand plus a sixth or so in a hidden compartment of a suitcase wasn't the best look for Japan...

Edit 2: Some other news sources are suggesting this may be the work of a couple of Filipino con artists. Explanation here.

June 4th 1989

2009-06-04T05:26:00.001-07:00

Free Market Faith - Globalisation is Leading to More Belief, Not Less

2009-05-31T17:27:00.001-07:00

I stumbled upon an interesting article on the website New Humanist, a magazine describing itself as being for free thinkers. While some comments seem a mite snarky and their portrayal of The Economist as right-wing doesn't seem particularly in line with most other opinions, the article presents an interesting interview with two Economist staffers on their recent book God is Back: How the Recent Revival of Faith is Changing the World.

To the seeming initial chagrin of the New Humanist interviewer, the authors - while being atheists themselves - argue that the apparent increase rather than decrease of religion around the world today is not a bad thing but rather requires a better response than Hitchens, Dawkins and others have advocated. Religion is here to stay, they argue, and modern / post-modern society needs to partner with it rather than seek to eliminate it.

They also argue that religion provides a lot of good (in addition to the negative nuttery of extremists on the fringes) and that the best results are achieved in situations where religion is not mixed up with governance - keeping the Church and State separate results in the religious being the best they can be, addressing injustice, exploitation and poverty instead of enforcing policy and issuing edicts that must be obeyed.

Having lived in both New Zealand (a highly secular country) and the Philippines (a place where politicians of necessity kowtow to the Church lest they risk losing votes) I find myself agreeing that separation of Church and State is a good thing, and that Christians are at their best when addressing the lot of society's most unfortunate (as the Christ of Christianity did before them).

Rather than attempting to make and enforce laws on morality that all - including the rich, with all the options open to them - must obey, the best results seem to be achieved when addressing needs and justice. Think of the Prophet Micah's challenge - God wasn't happy with mere religion when justice for the poor was neglected in Israel.

I'm reminded also of Mark Strom's book 'Reframing Paul: Conversations in Grace and Community' and his Wineskins lectures, where Strom presented a vision of leadership much more humble and servant-like than requiring recognition or esteem.

A couple of quotes from the article:

I began by pressing him on his objections to the well-known secularisation thesis. Were he and his co-author really saying that Durkheim, Weber, Marx, Freud and generations of sociologists had got it wrong?

"Well, I'm not sure we are the first people to say it - after all the distinguished sociologist Peter Berger changed his mind about it a while ago, which was a pretty seismic event, and sociologists have been arguing about it ever since. The difference is that as reporters we have gone out into the world and seen the evidence. We have seen that religion is not going away, that it is in many ways a partner with modernity and not in conflict with it. Many people in Europe, ourselves included, missed the signs that religion was coming back. It took 9/11 for us to take notice, but as a phenomenon it started well before. Even as a Catholic I grew up in an environment which completely accepted the notion that modernity and religion are incompatible - we all thought that if religion did survive it would be a kind of subtle Anglicanism, some version of a doubting Graham Greeneish religion. The evidence shows we were wrong."

On justice and providing care

Wooldridge took up the question of what we can learn from American religious pluralism: "European secularists assume that the church is on the side of the ancien régime, of the establishment, that it's against reason and democracy and liberal emancipation, and there is a lot of evidence for that in Europe. But in America the evangelical movement advanced alongside democracy and liberal enlightened values. They were not oppositional forces but comrades in arms. If you give people more freedom and more democracy they will talk about what they want to talk about and obviously for many people that is God. Religion itself has also been important for advancing democracy - it's an example of the little platoons of civil society. Churches nurture certain civic values, that's why the Chinese government, and all totalitarian governments, have been very suspicious of them and have tried to crush them."

But wasn't there some traditional Economist bias against the welfare state here? Weren't the churches in the US merely compensating for the fact that US welfare is so threadbare? Wouldn't it be preferable if such care was provided by the state and not delivered in the context of faith? Wooldridge, the atheist, was having none of that. "Care is actually better if it is provided in a faith context. If you look at social services you have to fill in forms, people are antagonistic or they do it because they have to, whereas if you go to church for help you know you are talking to another human being who actually cares. Its not just in the US - the same is true in China or Russia and part of the Middle East. If you look around the world you have weak welfare states that don't provide, and it is unlikely that they will provide in the future. Most people who become welfare-dependent do so because of lack of skills, lack of opportunities, but also because of a lack of self-worth or a lack of a sense of meaning or purpose. These are things that religion is very good at, that bureaucratic welfare systems can't do. So yes, I think they are a good in themselves."

On Church and State separation

"We disagree with European secularists in the idea that God is dead or unimportant, or that modernity and religion are incompatible," says Wooldridge. "Where we strongly agree with them is with the idea that religion can be dangerous, and we think that this happens when you get a fusion between political power and religion".

Also, second article at the New Statesman

More on 'Small Wars Permitting' - Why is Brazil Killing its Street-Children?

2009-05-26T22:54:00.000-07:00

The book I mentioned in my last blog post (a scandalous three months ago) is a mixture of narrative of Christina Lamb's adventures and articles she wrote during those years. Each chapter contains the story of her life at the time along with an interesting article or two that came out of that time.

One of the particularly mind-boggling articles came from her time in Brazil, where her vividly entertaining writing of her life in Brazil is juxtaposed with a disturbing article detailing the Brazilian authorities penchant for cleaning up their streets by killing street children.

I've been searching for the article online but haven't yet found it. I have, however, found this excerpt from an ABC interview I'm reading my way through currently:

Ramona Koval: In Brazil one of the major stories you reported on is the systematic murder of hundreds of homeless children by police. It's very difficult material to read, it must be difficult to write, to observe.

Christina Lamb: Yes, it's funny really, I absolutely loved living in Rio, it is the most seductive place, it's the most beautiful place I'd ever been to, and this sort of hedonistic lifestyle where pleasure is the most important thing, it seems to be, for many people there, and the music is so beautiful and the beaches. So that's all very seductive. But there's this sort of horrible underside to Rio in particular. One part of that was the street children. There were thousands of kids living on the street, and the Brazilians just used to literally step over them. They way they talked about them as vermin, as though they weren't human beings...and my office was in the centre of downtown, so I used to walk past several groups of these street kids every day and so started speaking to them quite a lot about their lives. It was really horrific. At that time some of the Brazilian police were actually running these exterminating gangs that would go round and kill the street kids, and there was a horrible massacre just outside a church while I was there when about 17 street kids were gunned down.

Ramona Koval: Why do they do that?

Christina Lamb: Because they feel that they are dirtying the streets. It's as simple as that. And also blame them for...which is often the case because they have no other way to live, but for petty crime in the city centre, although some of the street kids told me that they were actually working for police, that they were being sent out to steal things and having to give the money to the police. So it was a very mixed up kind of city, and I felt quite strongly that part of that was that Brazil under the years of military regime, unlike other countries such as Argentina, had never had any kind of truth and reconciliation or anything like that afterwards and had never removed any of the people from the secret police who'd been responsible for repression during the military years. So it seemed to turn out that often the people that were responsible for shooting the street kids were the very people who'd been running torture chambers during the military years.

Here's a link to the full interview transcript

Book: Small Wars Permitting

2009-02-24T03:26:00.000-08:00

I happened to be in Wellington on business last week. Wandering down Lambton Quay from one customer's offices to another on Wakefield Street, I passed a bookstore with a sale. Well, passed is probably not the term. Given the long flight home that night (45 minutes, but an excuse) I grabbed a book that looked very interesting, even more so given the reasonable price tag.

Small Wars Permitting

Small Wars Permitting is the story of Christina Lamb's career as foreign correspondent for the Financial Times, amongst others. As the blurb describes:

"An extraordinary collection of reportage that tells the story of some of the most important world events of the past 16 years, from one of the most talented and intrepid female journalists at work today. Since leaving England aged 21 with an invitation to a Karachi wedding and a yearning for adventure, Christina Lamb has spent 20 years living out of suitcases, reporting from around the world and becoming one of Britain's most highly regarded journalists. She has won numerous awards, including being named Foreign Correspondent of the Year a remarkable four times. 'Small Wars Permitting' is a collection of her best reportage, following the principal events of the last two decades everywhere from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. But Lamb's main interest has always been in the untold stories, the people and places others don't visit. Undaunted by danger, disease or despots, she has travelled by canoe through the Amazon rainforest in search of un-contacted Indians, joined a Rio samba school to infiltrate crime rackets behind Carnival and survived a terrifying ambush by Taliban.No less remarkable are the characters that Lamb meets along the way, from Marsh Arabs who covet Play Stations instead of buffaloes to an Armenian compere for performing dolphins with whom she travelled during the war in Iraq. Lamb's writing is passionate, powerful and poetic, transforming reportage into literature. Through the stories she tells -- and her own development from a self-confessed 'war junkie' to a devoted mother -- Lamb attempts to comprehend the human consequences of conflict in the countries she has come to know."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I'm so far only about a third of the way through this book but I must admit it's a rather enjoyable read, especially given my own experiences in the Philippines. Both Lamb and myself spent most of our time working to be at home and comfortable in the local cultures, which is perhaps a part of why I find this book entertaining. However, her adventures alone are incredibly fascinating and her ability to capture interesting facets of the situations she was part of seems highly competent.

I relate to Christina Lamb's writing most strongly as a comparatively pampered junior to a highly adventurous senior. This is someone who scooped field reporters much more senior to her when she was in her early twenties, simply by putting herself in the line of fire to the extent of riding into an eighties Afghan war zone dressed as an Afghan resistance fighter.

That reminds me...in a matter of weeks volunteers from around the Philippines and possibly abroad will be going to 2009's Bayani (Heroes') Challenge. Last year is was in the former conflict zone of Muslim Mindanao - Lanao Del Norte. Hey, that seemed pretty cool...but this year it's to Sulu, a part of the Philippines much more prone to extremist violence than most of Lanao has ever been. What will hopefully keep everyone perfectly safe is the fact GK is going there at the request of the top Muslim leaders of the area - and they hold their people's respect. I don't have any idea how likely it is that militants from surrounding areas could try to disrupt things...probably not too likely if they know GK will be helping the Muslim poor.

Anyway, small wars permitting...this year's GK Bayani Challenge would be awesome to be at.

Read More About It (NZ) | On Amazon

Dylan Wilk introducing GK in Mississauga, Canada

2009-02-05T05:29:00.000-08:00

In this video Dylan describes a family in Bagong Silang, including one daughter Joy Adduru, with whom I worked in the GK office for almost two years. You'd never guess at the circumstances she came out from.

Book: Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It?

2009-02-04T02:38:00.000-08:00

A very good book, like a couple of others recommended to me by the young Joshua Brookes.

Two things I enjoyed about this book:

1. The depth of information and analysis on the Holocaust, a subject I've never really read about before, having learned about it mostly from television or movies (though I can hardly complain in the case of Schindler's List).

2. The central thesis - that Holocaust Deniers' methods and reasoning by implication demolish all of human historical study by undermining its foundation: that a large confluence of evidence supporting the same version of events is a sound base on which to understand history.

The authors go through many cases of Holocaust Denial, pointing out how deniers select one or two pieces of odd or unexplainable 'evidence' that seem to contradict the idea of the Holocaust, and use it as the basis for denying the events. For example, an eyewitness account that is obviously wrong (due to incorrect dates, describing buildings wrongly etc), a part of a building that doesn't seem to fit a description of an operation etc. However, as the authors point out, the deniers ignore the problem that while the odd piece of historical evidence might point to something different, by far the vast majority of pieces point in a common direction, toward a certain rough version of events.

Essentially, deniers discount history based on an odd piece here or there that don't seem to fit while ignoring a myriad of pieces that do fit. Bundle together ten or twenty of these odd pieces in a book or lecture and you have a case that makes many a person begin to doubt - because they are not shown the vast majority of evidence that support generally-accepted historical accounts.

Therefore, as they note, the whole of historical study falls apart when approached in the way deniers approach the Holocaust. There are always little oddities, so we can never know what happened in history.

Hence the title: Denying History

Here's the book on Amazon

Settling back in to New Zealand

2009-02-04T02:28:00.001-08:00

It's been a couple of months since I left Manila, hence the title change for the blog.

Last night I finished transcribing a sound file of an interview I conducted with GK Baseco's Project Director of five years, who has seen the village grow from the ashes left after the fire of 2004 to what it is now. It was a revealing interview, showing just how hard some of the challenges are for Jun and his small team, and just how incredibly committed they are. Imagine investing five years of your life to guide hundreds of impoverished slum families into living in a different way. Not just the building of houses, but learning a whole new approach to life.

As for me, I've been settling back in here. There were a few surreal and slightly depressing moments, first-times-back in different places inducing a sinking feeling that time had flown too quickly, a "Was I ever actually there?" sensation...

I'm still involved with helping out, so that's nice to be able to do. Also still have to write up an article on the aforementioned interview - and by this Friday! Eeek.

Getting back into a paid job has been interesting. More regular tasks and hours, although we're rather busy so the hours aren't really regular in everyday sense. Still, the work is challenging and enjoyable, and keeps me busy.

I'm working essentially as a combination Project Manager / Business Analyst, once again in the ICT sector. My official title is Service Delivery Manager / Project Manager, but there's a lot of business analysis in there, including mapping and managing data migrations, harking back to my years as a data analyst in CRM environments.

I've moved back into my previous flat (once again, "Did the two years in Manila really happen?"), which is rather a lot nicer now after Daryl and Sharon's efforts in the kitchen and the parents' repainting and carpeting.

...and New Zealand finally has a more positive and less oppressive government. Fortunate, or I would've had to move out again already.

Book: Confessions of an Economic Hitman

2009-01-30T14:39:00.000-08:00

I'd seen this book on the shelf several times over the months in A Different Bookstore in High Street, Fort Bonifacio, and was intrigued to grab it and read it at some stage. As per the title, the book is ostensibly the story of an American economic hitman, a person entrusted with the task of bringing foreign countries under the control of American and international governmental and banking powers through creating debt obligations.

Given such a premise, how could the book be anything but exciting and enthralling? Despite the odds, the author has somehow managed to make it otherwise.

Confessions describes how the old ways of empire - military conquest and domination - have been replaced by-and-large with debt obligations, money that often never leaves the lending country. As the publishers explain,

John Perkins tells the gripping tale of the years he spent working for an international consulting firm where his job was to convince underdeveloped countries to accept enormous loans, much bigger than they really needed, for infrastructure development — and to make sure that the development projects were contracted to U. S. multinationals. Once these countries were saddled with huge debts, the American government and the international aid agencies allied with it were able, by dictating repayment terms, to essentially control their economies. It was not unlike the way a loan shark operates — and Perkins and his colleagues didn't shun this kind of unsavory association. They referred to themselves as "economic hit men."

The main problems with the book, problems that serve to keep it far away from my Books I've Enjoyed list in the right column, are:

The book is very thin on detail. With all the exotic locations mentioned, author Perkins never seems to have much specific information about any, nor the events that took place in each. Time and again a chapter will start with promises of revelations then simply devolve into self-concious ideological ranting.
Specifics of economic hitman operations are equally hard to come by.
Perkins describes having spent three years with the Peace Corps in the Amazon, prior to his career. Generally you might expect such in-depth exposure to another culture to remove the rose-coloured tines that often affect us humans when we're first exposed to exotic cultures. However, Perkins seems through the rest of the book to constantly equate foreign cultures with beauty, elegance, perfection etc, in stark comparison to horrid Western/American culture. Indonesian men and women are "so much more elegant than loud bustling Americans" and the like (paraphrased from memory). In my personal experience this sort of blind cultural admiration is something that hits people very early in the piece, typically replaced by a more realistic 'good and bad points' view in the longer term. The self-loathing attitude towards all things American/Western seems a trifle unrealistic and too affecting of the quality of the book, for my liking.

The central thesis may well be true, at least as far as I've seen. Development loans from First World countries often do come back to the same countries' contractors (money is transferred from one bank account in the country to another, while the developing country receives a debt obligation).

However on the other side of the coin, it's hard to say definitively that in all circumstances such an arrangement would be deliberately exploitative. Does the developing country have the right expertise to build a hydrodam, for instance? If not, where should that assistance come from? Or in other cases, should the money be entrusted to those who would funnel it through nepotic channels, largely into Swiss or Cayman bank accounts rather than projects for the country's people?

I recall a specific example in the Philippines of a Danish engineer who advised people to only give to private charities. Why? Because he was working on a project sponsored by the Danish government, a project that, on the ground, only received 20% of the budget originally provided by the Danish government after all the hands along the way had appropriated their share.

Certainly powerful politicians and dictators have been known to squirrel away development funding into Swiss bank accounts, perhaps to further their own personal development.

Overall

However, apart from these points, I didn't enjoy this book because despite the potential of the subject matter it wasn't a good read, it didn't go into enough depth, and it too often devolved into ideological self-concious diatribe. I don't normally post such critiques - preferring to say nothing if I can't say something nice - but this was a case of great disappointment, given how much I'd been looking forward to reading this book.

The topic is interesting. I'd bet there are some good books about it out there.

According to some reviews:

Publishers Weekly: "Perkins spent the 1970s working as an economic planner for an international consulting firm, a job that took him to exotic locales like Indonesia and Panama, helping wealthy corporations exploit developing nations as, he claims, a not entirely unwitting front for the National Security Agency. He says he was trained early in his career by a glamorous older woman as one of many 'economic hit men' advancing the cause of corporate hegemony. He also says he has wanted to tell his story for the last two decades, but his shadowy masters have either bought him off or threatened him until now. The story as presented is implausible to say the least, offering so few details that Perkins often seems paranoid, and the simplistic political analysis doesn't enhance his credibility. Despite the claim that his work left him wracked with guilt, the artless prose is emotionally flat and generally comes across as a personal crisis of conscience blown up to monstrous proportions, casting Perkins as a victim not only of his own neuroses over class and money but of dark forces beyond his control. His claim to have assisted the House of Saud in strengthening its ties to American power brokers may be timely enough to attract some attention, but the yarn he spins is ultimately unconvincing, except perhaps to conspiracy buffs."

David C. Korten, Dragonfly Review: "John Perkins was for 10 years a player in a high-stakes game of global empire. Confessions of an Economic Hit Manis his very personal account of the events that forced him to choose between conscience and a glamorous life of power, luxury and beautiful women. It is also an adventure thriller worthy of Graham Green or John Le Carré (J - couldn't agree less) that connects the dots between corporate globalization, American Empire, and the dynasty of the House of Bush."

Another take on the book's problems here.

Leaving Manila Behind

2008-12-09T00:35:00.000-08:00

Well, so it has come to pass that I am now no longer in Manila. The almost two years that I spent there have seemed to fly by. Of course, time always does seem like that, when events conclude.

I spent a couple of days packing up the contents of my Makati studio, compressing as much as I could into my suitcase, other essentials into a balikbayan box, and figuring out how I could give away whatever else was left. The last few days spent in a time and place that significant feel like days of "lasts"; the last meal at Amici restaurant, run by the brothers of Don Bosco (church and school), Pasong Tamo; the last quiz night with expats and Filipinos at Murphy's Irish Pub in Legaspi Village; the last trip to the bustling, chaotic Divisoria markets to grab gifts for folk back home; the last time with friends having a meal and a drink in the leafy and stylish Greenbelt inside-outside mall; the last time standing on a friend's balcony looking over the city to the Manila Bay sunset.

And of course, the last times seeing colleagues in the Gawad Kalinga offices. Almost two years (around 20 months I guess) were spent working with Gawad Kalinga, being surrounded by incredibly inspirational people. A foreign volunteer like myself always has the ability to leave Manila with relative ease and return to a much more lucrative working situation in their own rich Western country, a luxury most of the Filipino workers at GK don't have.

As I've written about in other posts, many of them have left good, well-paid jobs to contribute to the betterment of their country, whether out of spiritual calling, a deep and sincere love for the poor, or a burning desire to see the justice aspect of the Bible ("act justly, love mercy, walk humbly with your God") better represented in their country so marked by injustice, exploitation, and corruption. For them, the great commission of going and making disciples of all nations does not mean merely making converts, but truly making disciples, disciples characterised by the same sort of care for others shown by the disciples in the early church.

So I leave Manila retaining the sense of admiration I came with, but devoid of any illusions I might have held. If at work I would see my colleagues who have given up much to serve the poor, in some friends' work-lives I would see the effects of rampant dishonesty and corruption in every-day business, and the incredible difficulty and frustration it creates in trying to earn a decent living while remaining honest.

Certainly, you realise just how easy it is to do business in New Zealand, by comparison. No wonder my Filipino friends in New Zealand display an aspect of liberation in their ability to work hard, get ahead, and make a great life - without having to deal with the corruption that drags people down. (This, by the way, is why it matters a great deal that a New Zealand Prime Minister though nothing of signing a painting she did not paint. A lack of corruption is something worth fiercely protecting.)

So anyway, I locked the condo door, walked through the building one last time, and took my taxi to the airport. I know I will be back again, but I'm not sure when.

Lunch with Joey Velasco

2008-10-31T04:28:00.000-07:00

Having lunch at Amici with Joey Velasco and Ateneo basketball player Joe (fine arts major, hence accompanying Joey), a nice and reasonably-priced Italian restaurant run by the brothers of Don Bosco church / school, Makati.

Joey had an exhibit of his new paintings on display in the Glorietta mall. As usual, they were very impressive artworks with moving subject matter.

The centrepiece of the exhibition was a painting seeming to recreate a nativity scene based in a Smoky Mountain-like garbage dump slum setting. It must have measured 4 or 5 metres across - a very large painting indeed!

Also quite remarkable was a new work featuring Jesus painting a picture of Joey, an interesting statement on Joey's own life journey, from being fully in control to being used in completely new ways he had never imagined.

Visiting Baseco One More Time

2008-10-24T21:14:00.000-07:00

It's been a month since I have updated this blog, so I've got a bit of catching up to do.

A few weeks back I took a trip down to Baseco in the Manila port area of Tondo in order to interview Baseco Project Director Jun Valbuena, and caretaker team leader Eric.

Jun Valbuena has been part of the Baseco development effort since the beginning. He was there when the shanties of the community had burned down following a fiery domestic incident (literally and figuratively) and saw first hand the adults and children of the area searching through the post-fire wreckage to salvage whatever they could. He was there for the preliminary stages of the Baseco development, through the land-awarding process and groundbreaking ceremony, and remains present years later.

Jun, who with his wife owns a musical instrument store in the likewise fairly depressed Caloocan area, has been responsible for coordinating and managing much of the day-to-day process of redeveloping Baseco from a surly slum built on poles over filthy bubbling muck into a visitor-friendly community that it is today.

When visitors come to the village of Baseco it's hard to judge who give the more enthusiastic welcome - the cheerful smiling children or Jun himself. He is always eager to describe the how the village changed (as in the picture, left), show guests around and introduce them to village residents, and tell the stories of village.

Tito Eric is the head of the caretaker team, a small team of CFC members - also from Tondo, though a different part - who takes responsibility for mentoring the community members, helping them on the road to a new life. Over the years CFC and Gawad Kalinga have found that changing people's attitudes, expectations, and preparedness for life's challenges is the most difficult part of renewing a community, making the caretaker team's long-term presence alongside community members invaluable.

In the absence of any article or interview snippets, I've provided some photos of Baseco and the surrounding areas still in a slum condition (money is available, GK just needs local authorities to agree to the land being built on formally).

Before:

After:

The Muslim, My Brother - Interreligious Peacebuilding in Mindanao

2008-09-23T02:19:00.000-07:00

Now that my article written earlier this year has come out from print embargoes - that is, the magazines it has been published in have hit the stands and sold - I thought I'd post the full article on this blog:

The Muslim, My Brother - Interreligious Peacebuilding in Mindanao

The place is Wao, Lanao Del Sur, the heart of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, Philippines.

As leaders share from the stage at Gawad Kalinga's (GK) Highway of Peace event, a GK worker’s heart skips a beat when an active rebel commander approaches, declaring “I will speak next.”

Not knowing the man, the workers are apprehensive – but choose to trust the spirit of those participating in the event. And as expected, the rebel commander’s words echo across the land’s strife-torn history.

“The last time I was here in this spot, we were meeting to plan an attack,” the commander says. “But now, I see how Christian and Muslim have been able to build peace here together.”

Land of Beauty, Land of Conflict

The beautiful, fallow lands of Mindanao have been rent by bitter conflicts. As mid-20th-century government-sponsored migration schemes brought colonists from around the Philippines, a legacy of struggle between Filipinos of different faiths was created. Rival militias became instruments that devastated families and terrorized towns. Many suffered the loss of loved ones, estrangement from ancestral land, or both.

Comparatively few winners now hold large tracts of land. Many of today’s young are afflicted with a legacy of wounds which began with their parents and grandparents before them. Divorced from ancestral land they once tilled, the landless poor hold little in their hands with which they might build a better future.

The Challenge: To Build Peace Together

As Bishop of Malaybalay Msgr. Honesto Pacana shared during GK’s Highway of Peace event, in the past Muslims regarded Christians only as oppressors and land grabbers, while Christians saw Muslims as traitors. However since 1996 Catholic bishops and Muslim ulamas have met regularly to work towards peace and collaboration in the wider Wao area. Two years ago they and the community decided to embrace Gawad Kalinga as a peace initiative. In a peaceful counter-point to the region’s history of conflict, they elected to build houses for Muslim rebel returnees who have no homes.

Sultan Acraman Saripada – the Muslim leader of Wao – first learned of GK through Exec. Director Luis Oquinena. After seeing GK in Mindanao and Manila he was eager to bring the same benefits to his own poor.

"The difference between GK and many other groups that have wanted to help here is that with GK everyone is equal," the Sultan says. "It doesn't matter what your religion is, whether you're poor or rich."

Gawad Kalinga’s Bayani Challenge brought volunteers from all around the Philippines and abroad to Lanao and Bukidnon, to build for both Muslim and Christian poor. In Wao, volunteers built houses for 130 poor Muslim families. And despite lacking financial resources, Muslim and Christian volunteers achieved much through bayanihan (cooperation), constructing the GK Darussalam and GK Maranao villages.

For the Muslim people, the Filipino values embodied in Gawad Kalinga were appreciated. "You build the houses together, you work together," the Sultan describes. "The Muslim community embraced Gawad Kalinga through the bayanihan way of working."

This Time Around

In the past the arrival of Christians marked the start of bitter conflicts. This time things were different. Christians and Muslims built side by side, not only houses of concrete and steel but a peace forged in friendship and cooperation.

And Sultan Saripada sees the presence of volunteers having a tremendous affect on his Muslim poor. "They're very thankful to Gawad Kalinga that - even though they're Christians - they have come here to help the Muslim community," he says. "Before, in Wao, it was Muslims and Christians fighting. Now with Christians coming in to help the Muslims, it's a way of educating the closed Muslims that there is a solution: Even though they're Christians they're still helping the Muslim community."

"That's why we selected the poor and uneducated Muslims to become GK beneficiaries, so that they will learn GK and accept GK, and learn that the intentions of Gawad Kalinga are good,” he says. “For the most uneducated Muslims, GK is a way to educate the community - not only the houses but also the education programs. GK opens the minds of the closed minded Muslims."

And despite the obvious differences in faith, unexpected common ground has been found. Through the GK programs such as education and values formation the Muslim community is being strengthened.

"The Muslim community considers Gawad Kalinga as a third level for living life." Sultan Saripada describes. "Because on the first level is God, Allah, Almighty God; the second level is the religion of Islam and their people; and the third level is Gawad Kalinga. Those are the things that are helping our people live and work as a Muslims.”

Seventy Times Seven

The spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation needed for building peace is embodied by one extraordinary local family. Tomas "Tam" Carumba lost a close cousin, killed by a Maranao during a Muslim-Christian conflict between families. To prevent further bloodshed, the warring factions negotiated for 'blood money' - a peace offering.

But the grieving Carumba family decided against using the blood money themselves, choosing instead to build ten GK homes for poor Muslim families.

"This blood money was given, but was used to build GK houses for our Muslim brothers," Carumba relates. And despite the many years of negative Christian examples, the family found their offering taking on great significance.

"Our Muslim brothers have been so deprived - most of their lands have been sold to Christians. But when they saw the sincerity of Christians, (it) encouraged them to also work for peace," Carumba affirms. "GK's presence here has made a big contribution to the peace initiative. They (Muslims) see the brotherhood here and even if you don't invite them, they call - everyone wants to join GK."

Carumba recounts how his kababayans (countrymen) in Wao were formerly paranoid and suspicious, with most residents going about their business fully armed. Today, "The fear is gone, the doubts are gone. The trust is here. The strength of Wao is unity - they see GK and are so proud to be part of it. The place is very peaceful because the people have been given opportunity, dignity has been restored!"

And former victims of conflict have now become friends. "You are very much welcome into the houses of our Muslim brothers," Calumba says.

No One-Way Love

In working to bring peace, GK workers have found that "loving our Muslim brothers" is no one-way flow of good deeds, where Christians go to Muslims and create peace, but a mutual reconciliation between Filipinos long-divided. Peace has not been wrought not through glossing over past conflicts, but through the more difficult renunciation of hostility, suspicion, and vengeance in favor of forgiveness and friendship.

Not merely Christians building for Muslims, but Muslim and Christian brothers and sisters building together. Not merely Christians praying for Muslims, but Muslim and Christian praying for each other.

"Guide the people who are helping to love the poor. Save my brother Muslim and Christian from any kind of harm," prays Muslim GK Darussalam Kapitbahayan President Ibrahim Balabagan. Likewise, GK leaders prayed for God's blessings on their Muslim brothers.

Standing in the heart of formerly war-torn Muslim Mindanao, full-time Muslim GK worker and erstwhile rebel commander Bailinda Eman is moved to tears. "This was the first time in all my years that I heard a Muslim pray for a Christian," she says.

Sultan Saripada and his Muslim community are eager for Wao to be known in the future not for conflict, but for Muslims and Christians demonstrating they can live in peaceful coexistence and friendship.

“We want for people to say that, even though they're Muslim and Christian, they can work together," Saripada says, "We're praying for peace and unity in Wao. GK is a legacy for me, because it brings love and peace back to the community.”

GK Executive Director Luis Oquinena holds the same dream, saying, “It is not easy to build peace. To my brother Moslems, thank you for accepting us in Wao. We don't know all the ways to build peace, this is why we need to help each other, teach each other the way towards peace - let us be united!”

And as Christians prayed for peace, so did kapitbahayan (neighbourhood) president Ibrahim Balabagan pray to Allah, "We ask for your help that the love, cooperation and unity among Muslims and Christians may return, for our country."

For Bishop Pacana, the long process of working for peace is bearing fruit. He affirms that GK is development with a soul, "a development concerned about building up a relationship that will lead to true peace through good relationship between Muslims and Christians."

"Gawad Kalinga is showing us that there is another highway to peace and it is very hopeful. It is a dialogue of life in order to attain the common good," Bishop Pacana says. "So let us hope that we will relate to one another as the same sons and daughters of the same Allah, of the same God, who is the common Father of us all.”

When People are Asked to Give Without Cost

2008-09-17T18:52:00.001-07:00

A website I am a member of asked its members to vote on five charitable causes, to determine how a donation of $1 million would be shared. I was interested to see how people voted, given that they were not being personally asked to assist financially. In this case, the vote was simply an indication of what they place the most value on in terms of immediate assistance - principally in three main areas:

1. conservation of natural resources
2. relief of human suffering (illness)
3. relief of human suffering (hunger, poverty)

Results as below:

Twelve Books that Changed the World

2008-09-17T18:52:00.000-07:00

I bought the hardcover edition of this book a while back in a bargain bookstore here, for only $3.50 - not bad for a hardcover! Due to other reading, I only finished this one recently.

Some reviewers on Amazon have decried the fact the book doesn't contain specific books of their liking, but another wisely pointed out that the title is not THE SOLE 12 Books that Changed the World...there obviously are many others.

This book is broken into twelve chapters covering the books (loosely defined in some cases) the author Melvyn Bragg selected.

The 12 books included are:

Principia Mathematica (1687) — Isaac Newton
Married Love (1918) — Marie Stopes
Magna Carta (1215)
Book of Rules of Association Football (1863)
On the Origin of Species (1859) — Charles Darwin
On the Abolition of the Slave Trade (1789) — William Wilberforce in Parliament, immediately printed in several versions
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) — Mary Wollstonecraft
Experimental Researches in Electricity (three volumes, 1839, 1844, 1855) by Michael Faraday
Patent Specification for Arkwright’s Spinning Machine (1769) — Richard Arkwright
The King James Bible (1611) — William Tyndale and 54 scholars appointed by the king
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776) — Adam Smith
The First Folio (1623) — William Shakespeare

Impressions

The book is quite enjoyable as an introduction to the works mentioned. The fact that the chapters are completely independent from each other also means there is no pressure to read the whole thing at once.

The chapters on Principa Mathematica was interesting in that it also described a lot of Newton's personality, character, and work ethic, as well as the effect Newton's work had on many who followed him.

I had never specifically read the history of the Magna Carta before (so I didn't know the effect it had on American civic institutions), nor On the Origin of Species or Experimental Researches in Electricity, so it was interesting to fill out some historical knowledge and background in those (and other) books here.

I felt in the chapter 'On the Origin of Species' that Bragg spent a little too much time venting his modern-day spleen at Southern State fundamentalists for teaching young-earth creationism, rather than concentrating on the historical narrative that seemed more relevant, to the point where I began to wonder where such antipathy comes from in the British Lord Bragg.

However, to his credit, the chapter on 'On the Abolition of the Slave Trade' would have any rabid anti-Christians (as opposed to reasonable agnostics /atheists) seething, thanks to Bragg's exposition of the far-reaching effects of Wilberforce's fight against slavery, including on the growth of the modern human rights movement in general. In fact, I never realised until reading this book that the first entirely Black-American university in the USA is in fact the William Wilberforce University. I know that the role Wilberforce, Shaftesbury and others played in changing the UK (and thereby making a guillotine-based revolution unnecessary) has provided some inspiration to people here in the Philippines hoping to change their own country for the better...

Similarly, my high-school history classes, somewhat surprisingly for a country where women were first granted the vote, never educated me on Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Women, so this was a very interesting read for me, especially in regards to some of the battles Wollstonecraft faced in achieving change. I expect she and William Wilberforce - despite their manifold differences - would have found interesting common ground to discuss over tea.

I found the chapter on Faraday most fascinating of the remaining chapters, mainly because I had no idea how pervasive Faraday's ideas have been, how tremendous an effect they've had on so many areas of our modern lives.

As other reviewers have noted, the author's own thoughts and discussion (particularly on word usage) occasionally seem to take up too much of the chapter on the King James Bible, but to be fair he does make some interesting points while comparing different translations.

Well, that's that then. The book was interesting and generally easy to read. Perhaps a good way to decide whether you want to read the whole book featured in a chapter, and also research its history. In the meantime, the book allows you to catch up on parts of our society's history that you may not be too familiar with - important in that many of these speak to why things are the way they are today, and how the society of our future may be molded.

This book on Amazon.com

From Blood Diamonds to Mindanao's Pearls

2008-09-16T04:28:00.002-07:00

A few thoughts from an interesting character met a few weeks back....

At first glance Jim is one more American soldier posted in the Philippines, on leave from his provincial assignment for a few days rest in Manila. He is an African-American in his late twenties, specialising in technological work in the military.

As we sat and shared a drink Jim described some of his past. Born and raised in Sierra Leone, a country many today know only from the movie 'Blood Diamond', Jim moved to the USA at age 12, where he later completed completed four years of university.

Jim's life is a bit more exceptional than I'm used to hearing about from foreigners. For one, after coming from a place such as Sierra Leone, he has since been deployed to Afghanistan and now the Philippines. He is also planning on volunteering for further work in the Middle East conflict situations.

"It's like any job," he says. "If you want to get ahead you have to be seen putting your hand up."

But isn't it hard to go to places like Afghanistan and the current conflict zones in Mindanao (sorry, I neglected to tell my readers that Mindanao is currently experiencing military conflict - I forget people back home don't get the news we do).

"Not really," says Jim. But then…when you've come from the country of Blood Diamond, moved economic hemispheres at age 12, achieved an excellent education…what's one more adventure?

Jim pretty much agrees. There really wasn't any barrier for him, and big fear of stepping out that prevents so many others from taking adventurous steps in life.

He plans to go back to Sierra Leone to visit family at sometime. Like many places in the developing world, if you have a first world salary life can be quite an experience. And Jim still speaks Krio, the lingua franca of Sierra Leone, important in a country that has many languages despite its small size.

I can remember when I first began thinking of moving to the Philippines, feeling a sense of trepidation at stepping out to come here. Would I manage? Wouldn't it be incredibly difficult?

Well, it hasn't been too difficult. Some things perhaps, but much more would I have missed out if I had stayed home. I'm similarly grateful for the two years of living in Papua New Guinea I experienced from age three to five, thanks to my parents' decision to step out in adventure.

Perhaps with someone like Jim, life prepared him early by circumventing the need for such consideration of whether to step out and try something adventurous. Now, anything's worth consideration…When I think of others I know who have experienced some of life's greater travails and adventures, I can see how ready they are to step out in new directions. They've learned not to fear the unknown so much, perhaps...

Readers, consider reading "Yes Man" - it's very funny. I'm not necessarily so good at the idea yet, but I have a year and a half of lessons showing me the great value of saying yes to adventure...

The Importance of Connecting

2008-09-15T06:28:00.001-07:00

I wanted to share with my readers an article by my esteemed colleague Marj Duterte. Marj has been my work-mate over the last 18 months, and is a published writer in local magazines including tourism-based publications and Entrepeneur Magazine. She has been a GK worker for a few years now, and as you'll see below is very passionate for the cause, and more importantly, for the people impacted.

I chose to label her article 'The Importance of Connecting' because I feel it really does represent the importance of breaking down the social barriers that poverty causes. For example, the social inaccessibility that a person from Remuera feels when venturing into Otara (a colleague of mine in a former workplace had never met a polynesian, for instance).

Discovering a Hidden Treasure: GK Libmanan Village, Camarines Sur

(Edit: the pictures are random images of Libmanan, not specific to this story)

The province of Camarines Sur, Bicol, is a hidden beauty discovered recently by adventure-seekers. Development in the area is taking off – including the CamSur Water Sports Facility in Pili, known for its world-class wakeboarding, the pristine beaches of Caramoan Peninsula (setting of Survivor Philippines), and Sorsogon’s whale sharks.

But one of CamSur’s real treasures is found in the quaint rural town of Libmanan, a place that buses en route to the Bicol region’s attractions must inevitably visit. And nowadays, travelers don’t merely pass through on the way to Bicol’s natural wonders - they’re also drawn to GK Libmanan, a beautiful haven for weary travelers like me.

I discovered this GK village one sunny afternoon, just a hundred meters along the highway. Tired as I was, walking into the wide open field behind the village energized my body, and talking to GK residents sitting alongside a native hut refreshed my soul.

Here I met Mang Bienvenido Nierves, an 80-year old farmer who has been tilling the land of various tenants all his life. “Magaan ang buhay dito,” he said. “Life is easier here”, he says of life as a caretaker on the GK village’s farm.

It’s hard to imagine how life is any easier now! He works under the scorching sun, is the first to rise in the morning, and the last to leave the farm, just as the sun is going down. But taking in the sight of freshly sprouting greens of chili, eggplant, monggo, and various root crops, I can almost feel the years of burden being lifted up from Mang Bien as he quietly inhales the fresh air.

I admire his patience and perseverance - most urban dwellers his age would take a much needed vacation after so many years of hard work! But Mang Bien is content, knowing his labor is not in vain. He is feeding not only his family, but the whole village. Though his province is regularly struck by typhoons and heavy rain, sometimes destroying the crops, he simply plants again. And every Saturday, the whole community joins him to help in a “grand bayanihan,” where village residents plant and tend their designated patch of land, which Mang Bien has lovingly cared for the week before.

Mang Bien does not have to worry about keeping the community clean as others manage this task: clean-up of GK village pathways, maintaining the beautiful flower beds, and keeping homes clean and orderly. The kapitbahayan (neighborhood) is well organized, working as a team with a common vision.

Such joyful energy permeates the whole village as the residents take care of their environment, retaining a sense of peace knowing they will have what they need, with food from their well tended vegetable gardens beside their homes.

Village residents are genuinely happy and their joy is simply contagious. As a city-dweller used to multi-tasking - doing a hundred things at once - I was amazed. What is the secret to this thriving GK community, I wondered? It was everything I envisioned a GK community could be. Indeed, perhaps Mang Bien does not wish for a vacation because being in GK Libmanan feels like a vacation!

I discovered the secret when talking to the kapitbahayan president at the village sari-sari store (where they sell rice and household items at an affordable price).

“Ang daming nagbago sa akin, ugali, yung pakikisalamuha ko sa tao, nawala ang aking bisyo, para bang nakalapit ako sa mahal na Diyos,” shared Ariel Sael. (A lot of things changed in me, my character, the way I related to people. My vices were removed, it’s like I drew closer to a loving God.)

Kuya Ariel was a former drunkard and admits he did not care about the plight of his family and five children - only himself. “Para bang lumiwanag ang isip ko simula ng makarating ako dito sa Gawad Kalinga,” he shared. (It was as if my mind was enlightened since I came to GK.)

“Sabi nga ng asawa ko, thank you. Sabi ko, bakit ka nagtha-thank you? Kasi,nawala na yung wala kang pakialam.” (My wife thanked me. I asked, why are you thanking me? She said, because I grew out of my apathy.)

Where in the past he didn’t care whether his children had enough to eat, he is now deeply invested in their education, and eager to teach them good values by being a good father. “Hindi ko na po kayang balikan ang dati kong buhay. Bakit ko pa babalikan, alam ko ng mali,” he said. (I cannot return to my former life anymore. Why would I go back to that, when I know now that it was wrong?)

It is this life-changing grace that is the secret of GK Libmanan. “Binabalik-balikan tayo dahil sa pagbabago ng tao,” community organizer Jim reflects. (Visitors keep coming back to us because of the transformation in the people). Tito Jim Salazar is one of seven couples from Couples for Christ who are the caretaker team of GK Libmanan, daily sharing their time, resources and love with the residents.

When asked about what major change has happened here aside from the eighty-five colorful GK homes, “Yung paniniwala nila sa Panginoon,” he shared. Dati-dati, (sabi nila) may Diyos ba? Wala! Dahil hindi na nga kami tinutulungan.” (Their faith in God. Before they asked, is there really a God? No! Because he is not helping us.)

“Ngayon, hindi na ganyan. Naniniwala sila talagang mayroong Diyos, at mayroong mga taong nagmamahal sa kanila,” he said. (Now, it’s not like that anymore. They now believe that there truly is a God and that there are people who love them.)

“Ang pangarap ko makita ko lahat ng mga bata dito na makapagtapos ng pag-aaral,” dreams Cecile Deomano, who is in charge of teaching values formation in the village, and supports her husband Agoy, the village’s Project Director.

“I accompanied them to scout for furniture for the GK health clinic they were setting up. They were so excited window shopping like they were buying for their own house. I thought, “There’s another secret”: loving the beneficiaries like your own family - you give only the best to the ones you love.”

“Alagang alaga kami. Nakakalungkot kahit isang araw na hindi sila pumunta dito, namimiss namin sila. Parang isang pamilya na kami dito. Sila ang mother and father naming sa GK. Mahal na mahal naming sila,” says Ate Grace, as she thinks fondly of their caretakers. (“We are very much taken cared of. It’s actually sad when they are not here even for a day. We are like one family here. They are our mother and father in GK. We love them very much.”)

Even if they were not loved as much, Tito Jim shares,“Yung pagmamahal na galing sa puso na ibinigay namin sa kanila, hindi man ibalik sa amin yun, ibabalik yun sa iba.” (The love from our hearts that we gave to them, even if it does not return to us, it will be given to others.) He recounts the story of a village child who suffered an accident: the whole kapitbahayan gave whatever little money they had - even money set aside for tuition - to get the child to the hospital. If in the past, every man was concerned only for his own survival, here they have truly learned how to love.

“Gusto ko ring makatulong sa iba. Kahit wala kang pera, kailangan makatulong ka naman na galing sa puso mo,” affirms Kuya Ariel who continues to build the unfinished homes for his fellow beneficiaries even without being asked. (I want to help others too. Even if you don’t have money, you need to help out of your own heart.)

Love begets love. And people learn more from what you do than what you say. I learned these things in my brief stay in GK Libmanan. The kapitbahayan learned from the example of their devoted caretaker team. And where does this team, in turn, get their strength to love so generously?

“Hindi lahat ng tao binibigyan ng pagkakataon (na ganito) to serve. We are blessed,” expresses Tita Cecile, who together with her husband faithfully attend their weekly household meetings in Couples for Christ, where their strength for service is renewed.

“Hindi naman kami mayaman, very ordinary, pero proven ko na ito na pag-sinabi mo talagang magse-serve ka sa kanya, He will provide. In the two years, na nagserve kami sa GK, hindi kami nagkukulang.” Tita Cecile, who is herself sending 6 boys to school, says. (“We are not rich – we’re very ordinary - but I have proven that if you really say you are going to serving him (God), He will provide. In the two years we have been serving in GK, we have not lacked anything”).

God did provide abundantly - not only for their family, but for the whole GK village as well - and blessings pour in steadily.

Today, GK Libmanan is expanding in a new direction: Two bed and breakfast cottages are under construction, sponsored by Governor LRay Villafuerte to augment the livelihood of the residents, in addition to the farming and the slippers (made from native fiber).

More and more visitors are coming! Some, like GK Builders Corps nurse volunteer Heather McPhee find it difficult to leave, so inspiring is the hope and transformation shown in GK Libmanan.

And one thing for certain that will draw visitors back to this village is the people - for such treasures I would return again and again.

(By Marjorie Ann Duterte)

Finding Food...

2008-09-15T03:36:00.000-07:00

...here can be quite easy. In Auckland, most kitchens may close at 10:30pm, but with labour so cheap it's a completely different matter.

Still, I really thought this place goes the extra mile.

I'm pictured with a friend of mine, former Reuters and current BBC correspondent Mike.

Pictured on the same night, here I am as a guest vocalist from the audience, at an acoustic venue in the same area (it's easy to be a guest singer when you're a foreigner).

The good thing about Malate is that everything is very low cost and down to earth feeling. This is not an area where the local elite go to promenade.

Food and drink is very reasonable, and there are a great variety of places...just as long as you steer clear of a couple of fairly obvious stretches of street which are a bit less savoury.

Storms in Makati

2008-09-15T02:52:00.000-07:00

The last few days saw storms hitting us here in Manila. When it rains here, it usually rains properly. No all-day dribbling down, as in Auckland, but a proper torrent that quickly fills the streets to overflowing, and turns the manhole covers into bubbling fountains.

I was just leaving a diner when the storm came upon the city suddenly. The rain came first, in a wall of drops larger than we get in Auckland, with the wind blowing it along the road in wave-like shapes.

Then the thunder and lightning hit. Wow...now that was worth waiting for.

I'd already seen some great fork lightning here last year, from a friend's place in a condo 24 stories up. On ground level this time, I could only see the dazzling effects. The buildings lit up in bright flashes. I'm guessing the lightning rods on buildings attracted some spectacular bolts, as I've never seen anything quite like this before.

I also heard thunder I've never heard before. With some of the lightning being so close and strong, the thunder crackled and sizzled on top of the rolling and booming. The most startling cracks actually sent shockwaves that made my clothes flutter. When they're that loud they're also slightly deafening, and were enough to make a few people jump with fright.

The water on the streets rises quickly, even in the financial district. After ten minutes of rain, it was perhaps half a foot deep on the road, and lapping at the curb.

I watched as three people exited the diner and left the shelter to get into an SUV. The man gave not too much thought to his shoes, content to get out of the rain and into the car as quickly as possible. The two girls however, navigated their high-heeled way carefully to the car, perhaps to avoid a more ungainly fall into the rising water beyond the curb...but with the SUV parked a touch too far from the curb, the girls had to lean out, grab the door frame, and try to lift themselves over the water to the inside of the car...no sense ruining nice high-heels I guess.

The first one was inside, and the second one leaning out to swing across, when the lightning and thunder delivered a wonderful blast. The crash, loud enough to make my ears ring, seemed to give the second girl momentum she previously lacked. Though she didn't seem to have the leverage to do so, somehow she screamed and leaped the rest of the way from the curb and straight into the SUV, easily clearing all the water.

Well...you probably had to be there, but those of us sheltering outside the diner without umbrellas all found her athletic performance in equal parts amazing and amusing.

:-) Such is life in Manila...but life in Makati is much easier than other areas here.

The next day I was unable to venture far from my building as we were cut off by floods most of the day. The floodwater on the roads around here was up to the entrance level of jeepneys, probably about two feet.

Most cars leave the road, surrendering it to the foot-powered pedicabs.

Learning a New Norm

2008-09-09T03:42:00.000-07:00

(Apologies in advance to any relatives who thought from the post title this might be about Uncle Norman - it's not)

As friends and I sat in a local restaurant the other Friday night, I watched incredulously as a waiter dropped a stack of serviettes on the ground directly between the main entrance and the restroom - many feet trod this path through the night, bringing the best of germs from both outside and the restroom - only to pick them up again, put them in a holder, and place them on a table (not ours!).

We were in Malate, a more down-market area of town to where I live, on the verge of the financial district Makati.

It reminded me vividly of a conversation between a few of us when visiting a GK village recently. While walking around the village, my fellow long-term GK volunteer shared his insight gained over the years in helping GK.

"It takes a lot of time and effort to create a new norm," he said. "This community used to be squatters in the cardboard shacks you see beside railway tracks." He described how it takes some time for people who have become accustomed to living in such squalor to find their place in the new GK environment - typically a 25 square metre brightly-painted concrete house with steel roof.

"Because GK has strict standards for our communities, sometimes you really have to appreciate how much of a learning experience it is for these people to be living in such a different community," he said. Sometimes residents would genuinely believe they were looking after their houses, while to other eyes they were letting them fall into a squalor they had grown used to over too many years.

Part of creating a GK village is giving dignity back to people through raising what they consider to be normal. No longer is it normal for their house to be blown away in the Philippines' regular typhoons. No longer is it normal for their house to be a place of filth and acrid odors.

But it does take time, and mentoring. Perhaps the most critical element of the work of Gawad Kalinga is the presence of caretaker teams in the villages, couples from a richer background working alongside the poor, growing to love them and receiving love in return, and teaching the residents of GK village a new norm in life.

It's one of the most remarkable things when social barriers are broken down so completely and devastatingly. One authority on development I read stated that social isolation between the poor and the rest of the society is one of the most disempowering characteristics of poverty. Caretaker teams truly restore the dignity of the poor, in the best ways possible.

My fellow volunteer shared a neat anecdote he'd received from a friend in business:

"I was in China, staying at my friend's ultra-exclusive country club," he said. "After he had toured me through all the facilities I noticed another wing of rooms, looking just as exclusive as the ones we had toured."

"'What are those?', I asked him."

"Those are the employees quarters," the friend said. "That's where the maids, the bellboys, the cooks, the waiters, and the maintenance staff live."

"Really? They look just the same as the luxurious rooms we've just looked at," said my workmate.

"They are," said the owner. "All my staff are peasants, poor people from rural China. If they do not know what it means to live according to those standards then they will not know how to look after my customers as they should. Their quarters are the same, because they must know high standards."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

And as my friend explained to me about our night in Malate, the waiter never knew that taking apparently-clean serviettes off the floor wasn't the best. This was vibrant, real, and all-too-often tragic Malate. It simply wasn't part of his norm.

Corporate Social Responsibility - CSR

2008-08-31T09:56:00.000-07:00

As noted in Time magazine recently (the issue featuring a Bill Gates interview on CSR):

"The old concept that the owner of a business had a right to use his property as he pleased to maximize profits, has evolved into the belief that ownership carries certain binding social obligations. Today’s manager serves as trustee not only for the owners but for the workers and indeed for our entire society… Corporations have developed a sensitive awareness of their responsibility for maintaining an equitable balance among the claims of stockholders, employees, customers, and the public at large."

That sounds great. But do you think it's how the past 45 years have played out?

Whether or not creative capitalism will change the world, I don't know. I guess like with most things the right approach is to hope for the best but prepare to be disappointed. One thing that swings me more to the hopeful side of the ledger is that practically every executive I talk to these days says that to hire top talent, they've got to explain what their companies are doing to help the world—the corporate social responsibility routine, often with a hefty bit of eco-awareness thrown in. Young people today, they say (and so does Gates), want more out of a work experience than making money. They want to give back, to know that all that effort contributes to something beyond the bottom line.

As one computer executive, addressing a management-training session, said:

"I think many people assume, wrongly, that a company exists simply to make money. While this is an important result of a company's existence, we have to go deeper and find the real reasons for our being. As we investigate this, we inevitably come to the conclusion that a group of people get together and exist as an institution that we call a company so that they are able to accomplish something collectively that they could not accomplish separately—they make a contribution to society, a phrase which sounds trite but is fundamental."

That was Dave Packard. In 1960.

My Thoughts on Corporate Social Responsibility

This is an interesting closely related area for us volunteers/workers in Gawad Kalinga, because we have many corporate partners (in the hundreds, I believe). Also, there is some level of staff to-and-fro between company CSR departments and non-profit organizations.

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When we look at the effects of participating in CSR on employees, and most especially in an environment of volunteerism where employees work side-by-side with both management (of all levels) and those being helped (often among society's lowest levels) perhaps we can see a less readily recognized effect of CSR - the strengthening or building of a successful company culture.

Good to Great highlights the role of culture in creating a successful company, principally a culture of entrepreneurialism within the vision of the company ("Whatever you can think of to advance our core competency, feel free to create it!").

An earlier book by Wall Street Journal writer Thomas Petzinger Jr. - based on his own travels around businesses in the USA - highlights companies who reinvented themselves spectacularly through capitalizing on the combined creativity of their employees, giving them all ownership and intellectual power in deciding how the companies achieve their core competency. Petzinger describes these companies as having "a few simple rules", with everything else being built on the combined creativity of the employees (employees in one company were so successful they managed to reduce labour as a percentage of product cost to 1.3% - averting any danger of their jobs being outsourced to China)

In effect, both books have described the same phenomenon, employees being moved from mindless "assembly line" style tasks, to being full participating and contributing members of the company - contributing to management of the company as much as if not more than board members, some of whom found their greatest challenge to be restraining themselves as they let their employees collectively find the best ways to carry out their tasks.

Highlighted was the changed dynamic in the companies - a few people left, but many stayed and transformed the companies as well as their own lives, finding much greater job satisfaction in the process. Up-skilling became endemic. Pride in their company grew.

So what role has CSR then?

I would contend from witnessing CSR implemented through building both houses and relationships within Gawad Kalinga that the work builds stronger teams and corporate pride more than any other method I've seen. In a place such as the Philippines, where society is not egalitarian, but still highly stratified (according to some, still to the point of feudalism) such work also appears to break down social barriers, not only between the rich and poor, but between personnel strata within companies.

What effect does it have on employees of a company to see their wealthy CEO lifting hollow-blocks alongside them, willingly taking orders from a foreman who is one of Manila's poorest? What effect does it have on team members seeing their work come to fruition, being able to stand alongside a village with their company's name on it, knowing that the village stands through a combination of their pawis (perspiration), donations, and corporate contribution of funds? What effect when it is the culmination of days of work that looked incredibly daunting, to the point they felt in their guy they'd never achieve it...but they did?

I have neither quantitative nor qualitative data on the phenomenon, beyond my own anecdotal experience. But I've seen a lot of happy and proud employees building GK villages, and heard more than a few eager to describe their companies' contribution through volunteerism as well as finance, even more when a steady record of giving exists. I don't how you could measure the value of such an effect on employees of a company, to that company.

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As an aside, Bill Gates talks about the ability of software companies to sell at cheaper prices in developing markets:

"Beyond finding new markets and developing new products, companies sometimes can benefit by providing the poor with heavily discounted access to products. Industries like software and pharmaceuticals, for example, have very low production costs, so you can come out ahead by selling your product for a bigger profit in rich markets and for a smaller profit, or at cost, in poor ones. Businesses in other industries can't do this tiered pricing, but they can benefit from the public recognition and enhanced reputation that come from serving those who can't pay. The companies involved in the (RED) campaign draw in new customers who want to be associated with a good cause. That might be the tipping point that leads people to pick one product over another.

There's another crucial benefit that accrues to businesses that do good work. They will find it easier to recruit and retain great employees. Young people today — all over the world — want to work for organizations that they can feel good about. Show them that a company is applying its expertise to help the poorest, and they will repay that commitment with their own dedication."

The one thing he doesn't seem to mention, which seems very important to me (though I could be missing something), is that it would seem to be critical for a company Microsoft to retain majority market share in developing countries, whether through cheap products, not chasing use of pirate products overly much (where large sums of money aren't involved anyway - no one wants to let a multinational off for using pirate software), or whatever.

It would be a major issue, for example, if instead of using Windows, Office, and ASP.net, everyone in developing countries such as India, China, and the Philippines used Linux, OpenOffice, and Java / Php.

With outsourcing of business processing, software development, and an increasing amount of IT work to Asia, Microsoft would lose out greatly if the upcoming workforce had a uniformly strong preference for using other companies' or open-source software standards.

GK CYD Congress & Caring Jesus Elementary School

2008-08-31T09:43:00.000-07:00

One of the events I covered recently was the GK Child and Youth Development Congress.

As with many GK events, this one was pretty inspiring, mainly because it was an opportunity to see how people from different walks of life are coming together in an effort to achieve better outcomes for those affected by adverse circumstances in life.

The Congress had two main topics of discussion:

1. The Rights of GK Children

2. The Value of Education

In regards to the rights of GK children, some of the discussion revolved around how to protect the communities' children from the worst effects of poverty in the surrounding areas, including gang involvement, drugs, exploitation etc. Discussion was also had on how communities can deal constructively with authorities in any cases where kids do get in to trouble, in order to achieve the best future outcomes for the children.

The rehabilitative aspect that is present in prisons in places such as New Zealand (irrespective of how effective individual programs may or may not be) is not present in Manila corrective institutions, according to all accounts.

On the value of education in Gawad Kalinga communities, discussion centered on a couple of key areas: 1) the role of elite private educational institutions in helping Gk communities, and 2) the creation of the very first elementary school inside a GK community.

The coordinator of community projects at Manila's exclusive Miriam school presented inspiring information on what the students of Miriam are contributing to GK schools - entirely through a spirit of volunteerism. In some cases, construction, in others, students are spending time on weekends providing tutoring in maths and English to poverty-affected children in GK villages.

Supplementary tutoring assumes a more critical role once you note that public school teachers in Manila often struggle to teach affected by such conditions as class sizes approaching 80 students per teacher, error-laden textbooks, and shortages of materials despite budgets apparently being available.

Gawad Kalinga's first elementary school is actually the fruit of a vision that spans - so far - three generations of one family. The Pineda family's CJ Foundation (named after grandmother Caring and grandfather Jesus) is providing the funding and impetus behind this school, being built progressively over six years in the 650-family GK Pinagkuartelan village in Pandi, Bulacan (about 1.5 hours drive north of Makati, Manila).

Caring, a one-time professor at the University of Manila, is a 102-year-old woman who felt the loss of moving to the province after getting married (away from her job in education), and after finding herself widowed many years later began to travel around her province, teaching the poor children in order to help them graduate.

Now, years later, the Caring Jesus Elementary School continues her legacy. Her son Eddie caught her enthusiasm for education, and found his own vision for building a school for the poor to finding a good partner organization in Gawad Kalinga. As Eddie says, a conversation over dinner with former GK-exec director Tony Meloto led to a partnership with GK, and the selection of a suitable community, eliminating the need for a protracted search for the right location.

Eddie's son Dino was a businessman who came to a crossroads, found himself freed up temporarily, and took up his father's suggestion of piloting the implementation of the project.

We watched the official opening and blessing of the school last week, and it's amazing to see the coming to fruition of an inter-generational passion, and hear their enthusiastic vision for the ongoing education of the poor. A new classroom will be erected each year, for a total of six (grades 1-6) and other additional buildings. Classes will be kept to one teacher to thirty-five children, with a helper.

Eddie and Dino see the school being part of their family foundation's work for many years, a vocational heirloom to be passed on to their next generations. As I talked to an enthusiastic Dino, he confessed to feeling a brief moment of satisfaction in seeing the school opening, followed by a feeling that much more remains yet to be done.

Just when you get sick and tired of hearing the outrageous stories of injustice from friends struggling to make their way in business here in Manila, along comes a story like this to restore your faith.

Despite the Philippines falling from 127th to 131st place in the Transparency International corruption ratings last year to this year (smaller numbers are better, New Zealand - despite recent years in politics - still ranks 1st equal), on occasion things do give you cause to hope for a better future.

650 families in GK Pinagkuartelan village will have high-quality schooling through the work of Eddie and Dino (his wife Marivic is also a long-term GK volunteer, who I've worked with before). Kids in other GK villages are benefiting from the educational, financial, and direct personal assistance of Poveda and Miriam schools, not to mention many of the Philippines top universities.

Many times as I pass by a security guard, street-sweeper, or tricycle driver, I can't help but notice the similarities in their faces to those of some of the rich I know, both here and in well-paid highly-skilled jobs in New Zealand.

The kids in GK villages can achieve just as highly, innovate just as creatively, as children anywhere in the world. They just need to be given a chance.

Ranking Colonial Masters

2008-08-13T04:07:00.000-07:00

In one of the books I read recently it was interesting to find an author making direct empirical comparisons between the conduct and subsequent effects of different colonial masters, namely the English, French, Dutch, Portuguese, and Spanish.

The author identified key differences in attitudes towards and treatment of indigent populations, as well as longer-term effects on the colonised countries.

So how did the masters compare? From worst to least bad:

Worst equal: Spain and Portugal
Somewhat less bad: Franch and Holland
Somewhat less bad again: England

No light-hearted summary, the author took pains to compare all sorts of different behaviours. From the worst of conquistador blood-lust, to the effect of diseases carried by colonizers (largely unintended), to duplicity on the part of the 'honourable' British (cricket wasn't as big then, hence the term "It's just not cricket" held less weight), to differing attitudes toward intermarrying with native populations.

What was interesting from my perspective of living here in the Philippines for a year-and-a-half, is that the Spanish legacies described in colonies both in the Americas and in Asia were remarkably similar. This legacy can also be clearly seen even today.

From highly-inequitable land distribution, which later slowed down the introduction of schooling for children (other than the rich), to nepotism and corruption in governance, a tradition some locals say is proudly carried on today by some of the same land-owner political dynasties.

While all masters seem to have been racist to some degree, the British tended not to interbreed with those colonized, while the Spanish did. Most would then tend to identify the Spanish as being better in this area, though an unfortunate side-effect did seem to arise. Combined with cronyism (a few indos given power to keep the rest in line) it created a stratification of racial elitism, in which Filipinos have learned to admire somewhat inordinately those with any Spanish blood, while looking down on 'darker' Filipinos (hence, the vast skin-whitening product market here).

Interestingly, the intersection of political power and religious rank present in the Spanish society of hundreds of years ago seems to have played its own part here in the Philippines - historians local and foreign have noted the use of the Church route-to-power by those with ambition. (This same intersection some historians note as playing a role in holding back Spain's economic development - related to banning printing presses, discouraging intellectual curiosity, and throwing out the Jews, who then took their commercial talents to Holland and made it rich.)

I'm sure many locals would be able to fill out this subject a lot more competently than I have here...

Noli Me Tangere

This brings me to another book I've been meaning to read - Noli Mi Tangere, written by the Philippines national hero Jose Rizal. Rizal was a hero who stood up against Spanish corruption, whether it was in civil or religious leadership (both intertwined, leading to those ambitious for power sometimes seeking it through religious position).

I'm planning to track down a cheap copy and write some more thoughts after that, but the entry on Wikipedia:

Rizal's book persistently unmasks contemporary Spaniards in the Philippines of every kind. He exposes corruption and brutality of the civil guards which drive good men to crime and banditry. He focuses on an administration crawling with self-seekers, out to make their fortune at the expense of the Filipinos, so that the few officials who are honest and sincere are unable to overcome the treacherous workings of the system, and their efforts to help the country often end up in frustration or in self-ruin.

The Noli is Rizal's exposé of corrupt friars who have made the Catholic religion an instrument for enriching and perpetuating themselves in power by seeking to mire ignorant Filipinos in fanaticism and superstition. According to Rizal, instead of teaching Filipinos true Christianity, they control the government by opposing all progress and persecuting members of the ilustrado unless they make themselves their servile flatterers.

Rizal does not, however, spare his fellow countrymen. The superstitious and hypocritical fanaticism of many who consider themselves religious people; the ignorance, corruption, and brutality of the Filipino civil guards; the passion for gambling unchecked by the thought of duty and responsibility; the servility of the wealthy Filipino towards friars and government officials; the ridiculous efforts of Filipinos to dissociate themselves from their fellowmen or to lord it over them--all these are ridiculed and disclosed. Nevertheless, Rizal clearly implies that many of these failings are traceable to the misguided policy of the government and the questionable practices of the friars.

Rizal nevertheless balances the national portrait by highlighting the virtues and good qualities of his unspoiled countryman: the modesty and devotion of the Filipina, the unstinting hospitality of the Filipino family, the devotion of parents to their children and children to their parents, the deep sense of gratitude, and the solid common sense of the untutored peasant.

Actually, much of this thinking sprang from a couple of conversations. My friend in New Zealand, a young Filipino priest-in-training, recounted to me a conversation with a certain Kiwi bishop, who after making a point which surprised the young Filipino (in relation to the Bishop's openness to questioning), said "That's part of the New Zealand culture."

When raised in a country where you are (or were, before this current government) taught to question everything you're told - whether from a political dias or a pulpit, I was very surprised to hear a friend here in Manila say, "We were taught from a young age never to question a priest. "

A legacy from Spanish governance of centuries past, perhaps?

The New Pioneers

2008-08-13T03:17:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all for the prayers and support with my recent ear infection. You'll be not particularly cheered to hear that spent a couple of days late last week confined to my boudoir (which doubles as my lounge) with food poisoning. I think it was from some chicken.

Anyway, the forced idleness allowed me to read through a book I'd picked up in a clearance sale:

The New Pioneers:
"The Men and Women Who Are Transforming the Workplace and Marketplace"

This book, by Wall St Journal business writer Thomas Petzinger, is the result of three years spent visiting successful businesses throughout the USA, and documenting the things he found.

According to Amazon, Petzinger "discovered that large and small businesses alike are succeeding by abandoning the old command-and-control ethos. In today's best-run companies, he notes, employees are getting the leeway to manage themselves."

Well, actually, I would probably argue that the Amazon review misguides potential readers a little bit there. The New Pioneers is not about employees managing themselves per se (every job advertisement seeks a self-motivated / managing applicant), so much as the knowledge of employees playing a greater part in finding the best way for a company to carry out its business.

The successful companies in the book were largely moving to leverage the tremendous amount of skill, knowledge, and creativity contained in their employees in order to find the best way of doing things.

Sometimes this was in the face of likely closures and loss of jobs for the local economy. Other times it was simply the decision of leadership to involve employees in finding the best way to do business.

For example, new leadership at a manufacturing plant running at a loss and facing impending closure decided to enlist the help of employees - largely long-term workers demotivated after spending twenty years performing one small task on an assembly line - in finding ways to keep the factory afloat. All suggestions were welcome, and employees were to have great power in their implementation.

Through the course of events, the assembly line was replaced by employees working in teams, employees moved from mindlessly performing a single task to having expertise across the whole process, and productivity and quality increased rapidly.

In another example, similar results were achieved through very similar methods by cellphone tower provider Lucent, which reduced labour as a proportion of production cost to 1.3% - apparently beyond the threat cheap overseas labour.

Common Ground with Good to Great

I found the book displayed a significant amount of common ground in overarching ideas or conclusions (though not in content) with my previously reviewed book Good to Great.

Where Jim Collins research described companies focusing with great dedication on their core concept while encouraging entrepreneurial thinking on how to get there, Petzingers own research leads him to describe these successful businesses as (paraphrasing) "reducing their rules to a few simple things, and using the skills and knowledge of employees to find the best way to achieve these things".

Both seem to depict what Collins described as a culture rich in both innovation/entrepreneurial thinking and discipline. And both found that as employees took part in such a process, finding themselves valuable and intelligently intrinsic to the success of the company, the need for "management" of the employees (actually, more enforcement of work) reduced greatly.

Employees formerly steeped in endless drudgery became innovators, even moving on to take further education, leading others in improving production techniques, and all the while growing in confidence and satisfaction.

The Tragedy of Wasted Capital

It seems to me one of the great tragedies of stunted economic development in a place such as the Philippines is the sheer waste of human capital, even while we enjoy the benefits of "capitalism".

One of my book 'pointers' on the right-hand side of this page highlights 'Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations, covering the move initiated by economist Paul Romer from economic thinking in terms of "land, labour, and capital" to "things and ideas". An earlier blog post of mine discusses a World Bank report demonstrating that 77% of the world's wealth is now intangible capital (people and institutions).

When you have a lot of Filipino friends in New Zealand and Australia (as I do), the tragedy of wasted human capital hear in the Philippines is driven home powerfully every day.

Witnessing the talents and strengths my pinoy friends bring to my own country, it's sad to see how many here in Manila never have a chance to contribute what they easily could, given the chance. Not only do the poor benefit from being given the chance to develop, but so does the whole society.

Hoarding of natural resources and wealth holds the whole nation back from achieving what it could, ironically in the end also holding back the hoarders from becoming truly wealthy, as many who have fostered and utilized the talents of developed human capital have come to be in today's world.

As Bill Gates and Warren Buffett said in Buffet and Gates Go Back to School:

"You have to look at where our wealth currently is - most of it is invested in companies that create jobs and wealth for many more people, not spent in consumption of mansions, clothes etc (though there is some for nice living also). If you compare that to a person who is worth, say $50 million, and is spending most of it on consumption simply for their own enjoyment, it's quite different."

The Late Randy Pausch

2008-08-06T04:34:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd jump on the internet bandwagon and share something that people back home in NZ (and some of my other readers) might enjoy but not yet have been exposed to. That is:

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

Known widely by the title 'The Last Lecture', this lecture was given as one of a series designed to be 'the lecture you'd give if it was the last lecture you could give'. The difference in Randy Pausch's case that it truly was to be his last lecture - he was aware at the time that despite feeling in excellent health, he had only months to live due to invasive cancer.

Randy, a computer-science lecturer at Carnegie-Mellon University and specialist in virtual reality (including Disneyland attractions) spent his last months with his family, and recently passed on. A couple of quotes from his entertaining, inspiring, and thought-provoking lecture:

"It’s about my childhood dreams and how I have achieved them. I’ve been very fortunate that way. How I believe I’ve been able to enable the dreams of others, and to some degree, lessons learned.

I’m a professor, there should be some lessons learned and how you can use the stuff you hear today to achieve your dreams or enable the dreams of others. And as you get older, you may find that “enabling the dreams of others” thing is even more fun."

"...experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted. And I think that’s absolutely lovely. "

"The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people. "

"One of the things he told me was that wait long enough and people will surprise and impress you. He said, when you’re pissed off at somebody and you’re angry at them, you just haven’t given them enough time. Just give them a little more time and they’ll almost always impress you."

You can watch the full lecture on Youtube, but for New Zealand users (for whom internet connectivity is still based on paper cups linked by string, I've uploaded the full text of the lecture here (this may be distributed freely, for non-commercial purposes - I downloaded it from the original site which struggles under a heavy load, hence the re-post here).

Watching Rugby Together

2008-08-06T03:43:00.000-07:00

As noted in the previous post, one of the sole events in the last sickness-plagued week or so occurred last Saturday night. I joined roughly 150 other Kiwis and Aussies to watch the Bledisloe Cup Rugby game at New Zealand Ambassador David Pine's residence in North Forbes Park village, an event arranged by the Australia and New Zealand Chamber of Commerce.

With reasonably ample space, a couple of projectors casting the rugby onto large screens, and catered food and drink, the occasion was improved further as the All Blacks crushed the Wallabies by around thirty points, a relief after the previous two week's efforts.

It was also Ambassador Pine's last night in Manila. He returned to New Zealand, and I understand he will be taking an economic advisory post to the next (cough, National) government. At least one suspects it will be to National...

I briefly caught up with David Pine at the event, and it sounds like the initial discussions had between NZ-AID and Gawad Kalinga a few months back are bearing fruit - there's a good chance that in future the migration trend between the Philippines and New Zealand might see a group bucking the trend in future: Some of our smiley black-and-white dairy cows will likely be migrating to a couple of picturesque higher-altitude regions of the Philippines to take part in community-run dairy farming, providing livelihoods and fresh milk products for people here.

These ex-pat cows should provide a valuable resource in these areas - if there's one thing that much of the Philippines seems short of, it's fresh milk and dairy products. I've only once had fresh milk here, and that was from Cagayan De Oro - a likely area for some of these ex-pat cows.

I also met a few other interesting characters at the rugby, including an economist working in development here, and a freelance journalist and public relations writer (for some pretty major organizations) who came here nine years ago on assignment and ended up staying. I'm due to catch up with the journalist later this week.

'Ere's to Good Health

2008-08-06T03:30:00.000-07:00

The past week or so has been a little uneventful, strictly in terms of events (with one exception - see the rugby post).

Instead, I've been suffering from an ear infection, something which brought with it great pain both in the ear and in the wallet. I realised at one point prior to receiving medical attention that having taken six paracetamol tablets in under six hours, I had better tone it down a little.

While the pain in the ear has since diminished (through stronger pain killers, antibiotic tablets and ear drops)the infection seems remarkably hardy. I remember now my doctor's admonition five years ago, to "not use cotton buds to clean your ears". However, hopefully things will be cleared up this week..

The pain in the wallet is a sobering reminder of the predicament many Filipinos are in when it comes to medical care. A single consultation at Makati Medical Center (admittedly a more expensive place, even if it doesn't seem particularly flash inside) is equivalent to three days worth of a minimum wage in Makati. Medical insurance can be had by those with large enough salaries, though the more affordable of these schemes often only pay out for cheaper hospitals - often located much further away.

But for many, medical care must be completely out of reach, at least save for the generosity of non-profits and medical specialists who provide limited heavily subsidised care. And neither is medication cheap - it remains very expensive relative to average incomes.

It does make you appreciate some of New Zealand's care - even if you must often maintain one or two insurance policies to balance our excellent emergency care with the very tardy elective surgery care.

Oh well, it's all been a little momentum-sapping really, with the physical and financial effects...

Finished 'Guns, Germs and Steel'

2008-07-25T21:51:00.000-07:00

Well, I got through Guns, Germs, and Steel, partly through the assistance of disrupted sleep patterns. Reading about the rise of food production and animal domestication in different sites around the world is quite a useful tonic at 2am on a sleepless night.

As I described in a post last month, this book is a good one with which to follow David Landes' The Wealth and Poverty of Nations'.

I did feel at times that author Jared Diamond distrusts his readership's ability to retain points he has already made. In the first chapters he lays the foundation of why the rise of food production and animal domestication are important (excess food -> population growth & diversification of activity ; animal domestication -> added labour/industrial resource, mobility, transfer of diseases from animals to humans - which later decimated colonized populations where animal domestication had never taken place). Later chapters then build upon these initially made points...but it seems many times he makes the point that depends on the first chapters, then proceeds to summarize the points made in the first chapters again, making parts of the book feel a little repetitive to me.

Still, it was a very useful and informative read. For instance, one gets a sense of why the 'fertile crescent' (situated in the middle east, including Israel) was such a spring-board for ancient societies, including the fact that it had the most domesticable animals, the most productive and domesticable cereals with the best calorie ratios (other places had comparitively dismal resources) , and some of the easiest similar-latitude areas surrounding to which and from which to spread and gain new knowledge, resources, and populations. He also gives a good look into the effects of such factors on cultural formation, including the generation of writing, technology, and the like.

On the other hand - and this is where reading David Lande's book 'The Wealth and Poverty of Nations' comes in very useful - he only briefly, in the last chapter or two, touches on why Europe came to prominence, why Islamic society stumbled, how China went from an outward looking potential world-dominator to an inward looking superior 'Celestial Kingdom'.

It's almost as if the two authors wrote two successive volumes of one story...

Well, it was good to get it finished, especially considering I read 'Good to Great' at the same time.

Update in Brief

2008-07-25T21:30:00.000-07:00

I've been quite tardy in updating my blog this month. Just a few notes on what I have been doing:

1. Some meetings regarding information systems in Gawad Kalinga, and work we have to do there. It's interesting to be involved with, and also another good chance to work with excellent people, including our main partners. It's also impressive just how willing people are to contribute to the work of GK.

2. Bureaucracy: A little bit of dealing with government departments, which is always a great time soak. Take a number, wait in line, let the mind wander, play 'Checkmate in One Move' on dad's (apparently my) now-fairly-old but remarkably sturdy Nokia. it was another chance to spend some time in Quiapo, so another chance to grab a decent short-sleeved dress-casual shirt for NZ$3-4 dollars.

3. Speaking of said Nokia, it fell off the arm of the chair the other night (not a very great height) on to the wooden floor, after which the screen went blank. I could still receive calls, and texts, but I couldn't read any texts. I went to the market the next day and thankfully I was able to get it repaired for NZ$7.

Reminded me of when Kirsty was here last year. Her Sony phone had a software error which rendered it unusable, and Sony service agents in New Zealand informed her nothing could be done - she would have to buy a new phone and consign that $800 phone to the past. NZ$20 at the market here in Makati had it working as good as new (and that was when she was overcharged for being a tourist). There are clearly some excellent benefits to being here in Manila.

4. Speaking of Quiapo (point 2. bureaucracy), I also accompanied a friend's father from provincial-Philippines down to Quiapo to search for some electronics parts. While he certainly had the edge on me in local language and cultural knowledge, as well as being military (local people always tell me "Be careful in Quiapo!"), it was a new experience to be the knowledgeable one when it came to getting around Manila, Quiapo, finding our way through Quiapo to the right rail line etc. All good fun.

5. On the military front, I met an interesting character in a US soldier posted in Mindanao but in Manila for a few days leave. He serves principally as a technology specialist (IT), and has served in Afghanistan as well as here in the Philippines. From Virginia, he has certainly had a very interesting life. It turns out he moved to the USA from Sierra Leone at age 12, and later completed a four-year degree in IT in Virginia, before joining the US army. He speaks English and Krio, the lingua franca of Sierra Leone.

I guess many people today know Sierra Leone from seeing the very interesting movie Blood Diamond.

According to the soldier, one of the great benefits of such a background is that he has no hesitation nor qualms in being posted to places such as Mindanao conflict zones, Afghanistan, or wherever. When your whole life has been an adventure, why fear more adventure? And as he says, the Army is like any other organization - if you want to move up, you have to be seen as one who puts their hand up.

Book: Good to Great

2008-07-15T00:10:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately I've been a little tardy in updating my blog, at least compared to last month. But with books being so comparatively cheap in Manila - compared to New Zealand - I thought I'd give an update on a good book I've just finished.

Good to Great is a business book by former Stanford professor Jim Collins. The book is based on a study carried out over a number of years, on why some companies make the leap from good, reasonable, competent companies, to become great. The measure great in this study was based on how much the companies - 11 from a pool of 1435 Fortune 500 - outperformed the rest of the market.

Collins' previous book 'Built to Last' provided the initiative for this book, through head of McKinsey San Francisco Mr. Bill Meehan's observation that Built to Last wasn't very helpful to companies, because the firms studied had always been great. What should these companies that have been good but never great do?

Collins and his team of researchers combed through articles and research, conducted interviews, and brainstormed a great deal to come up with ideas about why these 11 companies made the transition from being merely good, to great. (Btw, Kiwis can buy the hardback cheap here)

They came up with seven factors that marked all these companies, and differentiated them from comparison companies in their own industries. They also found that the industry the companies were involved in was not an important factor in regards to their success. I won't discuss the seven factors they found here, but I should mention that the CEO factor they decided upon was quite surprising - loud and flashy CEOs were not found here, rather, personally modest yet ambitious on behalf of the company CEOs.

At the end of the book Colllins makes a couple of interesting points of wider application:

The real question is not "Why greatness?" but "What work makes you feel compelled to try to create greatness?" If you have to ask the question, "Why should we try to make it great? Isn't success enough?" then you're probably engaged in the wrong line of work.

Further,

Perhaps your quest to be part of something great will not fall in your business life. But find it somewhere. If not in corporate life, then perhaps in making your church great. If not there, then perhaps a nonprofit, or a community organization, or a class you teach.

Get involved in something that you care so much about that you want to make it the greatest it can possibly be, not because of what you will get, but just because it can be done.

Along these lines, Collins has since written a supplemental and much shorter book to expand Good to Great specifically for readers in the nonprofit sector. I've had a glance through this at the bookstore, but not bought it.

To finish, I should in fairness provide a link to an excellent review of this book on Amazon, one that also raises some excellent counterpoint questions regarding the books conclusions.

All in all, I did quite realise while reading this book that I would have enjoyed being part of such a research team.

Visiting Poveda School

2008-07-08T03:27:00.000-07:00

Last week I spent an afternoon visiting one of Manila's private schools, the Poveda School (full title: St Pedro Poveda College). This is a pretty exclusive school, from the sounds of it, and caters to students from pre-school to college-degree age.

The reason we were there is because of a partnership between the school and Gawad Kalinga.

In GK villages, SIBOL Schools are built to provide values-based pre-school education for the children. Often times a lack of budget means that teachers are volunteers, though in some cases we also have sponsors for the school costs and teacher salary. And because many teachers are volunteers, not all are professional teachers.

Poveda School has a long history of providing education of a high standard, and some of their pre-school teachers have taught at this school since the 1980s (though they still don't look old).

I believe it was a joint initiative between the school and a former student now GK worker that brought about the partnership, with the result that Poveda School has designed a trial curriculum for GK village SIBOL schools (based on their own cumulative Poveda experience, and syllabus). They have also provided training for the SIBOL teachers involved in the first trial stage.

The result is that some of the Philippines' poorest children will now be receiving pre-school education based on the skills and syllabus of the exclusive Poveda school, from "para-educators" (the term coined) trained by Poveda.

After a few months time the teachers of Poveda will be visiting the GK villages to observe the teaching, to see how the program is going, and what can be improved or adjusted.

Though this is all exciting enough - former slum children now being given free private-school standard education - what is most exciting, as usual, are the attitudes that can be seen in the people involved.

The staff of Poveda exudes an incredible passion for this project. I interviewed two of their staff - Pacia Concepcion (college teacher in Education, and English Subjects Consultant to Poveda), and Mawie Bernas, one of Poveda's Preschool Teachers involved in designing the GK syllabus, and both seem so enthusiastic and genuinely excited to be involved in bringing education to GK village children! Their smiles were huge as they spoke of the project, what had been achieved already, and what the next stages are to be.

The probably fifteen or so GK teachers present at Poveda were looking forward to the new school year, equipped not only with materials but also with training based on Mawie and other teachers' considerable years of experience.

I still have to write an article based on this...should probably do that before blogging about it I guess, but I'm yet to transcribe my soundfiles...

Echoes of a Voice, in Dancing

2008-07-06T04:31:00.000-07:00

Every now and then I find myself inspired all over again, even by the seemingly most peculiar of things. But I think perhaps they're what Bishop NT Wright calls "echoes of a voice", something - even apparently non-sacred in nature - that resonate with something deep within us, something that reminds us of all that we were made to be.

A little while back it was the Journey from Potential that Arnel Pineda has found himself living a wide-awake dream of - the same sort of soaring journey that is now taking place amongst some of the Philippine's poorest, through the care and mentoring of volunteers giving of themselves in GK villages.

Then I found something else on the internet (convincing me once again that an internet-connected laptop really is a superior invention to sliced bread, even if mine is infected with MS Windows).

As it happens, a few years back a random Australian fellow named Matt was on his big OE (overseas experience). With Matt being famous among his circle of friends for a particular dance, his friend suggested he do that little dance in every place they went, to be saved on video for posterity.

This being the internet age, the videos were posted, some small amount of fame resulted, and he even attracted some fan mail, after which he ended up taking another trip, inviting those who had written to him to dance along with him.

So what's nice about this, and how does it relate to the first three paragraphs?

Well, I've just caught up with Matt's 2008 video…and it's a video that resonates with something in many people, the same "echo of a voice" that I think NT Wright speaks of, the same echo of a voice that fired through the hearts of those who watched a Muslim pray for his Christian Filipino brothers in Mindanao, and the same echo of a voice that we hear as some of the Philippines poorest children began to move ahead into new lives they wouldn't have dreamed of before.

I like Wright's words, given in a lecture on why the Resurrection matters: "Love in action, beauty, and justice. Art is love creating new worlds. Justice is love rolling up its sleeves to heal the old one. Anticipating, pointing forward, saying yes there is pain, yes there is grief, yes there is awfulness, but yes there is also beauty, and we're waiting for that to be fulfilled. If you're an artist a musician, a painter or poet, I believe that's what you're called to do. And we're all called to be involved with justice in all sorts of ways!"

The echoes of a voice deep within us are something that all of us have in common, despite our differences…perhaps that's what makes this video beautiful. As people commenting on the place I saw this said (and there are some pretty cynical people there):

"For some reason this made me very happy", "I watched this and just couldn't stop myself from smiling. Just made me feel happy. No idea why but it did." And, "Reminds me that there's so much more to this world than my petty problems." Others spoke of a mixture of tears and smiles, especially with all the news today of pain, suffering, injustice, and war.

Watch the video here

The beautiful song you hear in the background features a seventeen-year-old Bangladeshi-American girl Pablasha Siddique, who has lived in the USA since age seven. You can buy the MP3 track of this song from Amazon.

Playing Aussie Rules in Manila

2008-06-30T07:59:00.000-07:00

I played my first game ever of Australian Rules Footy last Saturday.

Actually, a Kiwi bloke I met watching the rugby invited me to have a go. Adam is a personal fitness trainer to quite a few rich clients here, and has lived here on and off for four years.

So off it was once more to the beautiful Manila Polo Club, to join a group of Australian expats. We played for about an hour I guess.

All in all, it's not a bad game to play. As a playing experience, it feels a lot more like soccer than rugby. The positioning and marking is similar, and strangely enough I ended up playing in my traditional position of left defender (back in the days when I used to lope around NZ soccer fields in a slightly ungainly fashion).

Though it always looks pretty tough on television, it also seems lower impact to play than rugby - you have to let go of the ball as soon as you're held in any way, so the amount of heavy tackling is significantly less. Some of the competition in the air can be a little dangerous, but Saturday only saw one heavy landing from high up.

As if to contradict all this, however, we did have one American player head off to hospital with some sort of break in his collar bone / shoulder area. He came back a while later, and is deciding whether to have the surgery done here or fly back to the USA.

After the game we spent some time enjoying a barbeque and socialising, and it was good to meet some more expats and gain some insight into the culture here. Most of my time here has been spent almost exclusively with local Filipino friends - nothing to complain about, but it's also good to get linked with some of the expat community.

Sitting in Manila Polo Club having a barbeque and a drink after running around, one also gains an appreciation for the expat lifestyle here. While perhaps not a traditionally highly-sought posting, expat life in Manila seems to be enjoyed by all.

Chatting to one of the expats, it seems many of the spouses who are not working here spend a lot of their time contributing to local charitable causes - so we're planning to catch up on that angle, and see how we might be able to work together, including giving some expats more exposure to Gawad Kalinga.

First Impressions of Mnemosyne

2008-06-29T07:58:00.000-07:00

In a couple of recent posts I lamented my lack of perfect recall, something common to us all but annoying all the same. What's the use of reading so much if we retain so little?

As a result of this predicament I downloaded Mnemosyne, a program that uses an algorithm to calculate for each user how often they need to be reminded of information in order to memorize that information.

I did try downloading one of the geographic map-learning card sets, but I think I'm losing interest in that fairly rapidly - it seems a nice idea to instantly recognise the countries of Asia and the Middle East…but I'm not sure I can justify the time for something that's not directly useful.

So for the moment I'm learning almost a hundred new Tagalog words, though some are more phrases I'm learning for memorising grammar. It's a shame in a way I didn't stumble upon this piece of software earlier in my time here, as it seems a pretty easy way to learn.

With initial enthusiasm though, it's difficult to leave the program to do what it does - instead of being satisfied with the words it says I need to review for the day, I've clicked "Learn more in advance" once or twice so far…It's not an entirely bad thing, though it does reduce the reliance on the memory algorithm on which the software operates.

Still, the software is easy and quick to use, and I'd - at least from my brief experience so far - recommend it to anyone wishing to memorize language, whether foreign language or more unusual English words.

Sometime I'll have to check out the SuperMemo product though…the ability to add whole articles or snippets of information and have it remind you of them at the time you need to be in order to increase overall knowledge seems a pretty useful thing...

For New Readers...

2008-06-26T18:16:00.000-07:00

To my recent new readers, thank you for visiting. As my blog is a mixture of everyday life experiences, reflections on personal reading etc, and articles written for Gawad Kalinga, I thought I'd give some pointers to posts that may interest the newer readers:

The Journey from Potential
In case my Filipino readers don't already know, the new singer of the US band Journey is a Filipino, from Quezon City. He's also someone who spent some of his youth living in Luneta Park, recycling garbage to eat...but what's that got to do with Gawad Kalinga? Click Here

Evangelizing with Gawad Kalinga
Is the work with the poor, as a former CFC leader once said, the cornerstone of our evangelism? This story was written by me for Bo Sanchez magazine Kerygma, and also printed in CFC's Ugnayan magazine - it's my story on why I moved to Manila to volunteer for GK, and how our work is an evangelistic one - proclaiming the good news of a new king. Click Here

Songs, Hope, and a Nation
It was back in January 2006, while I was in Manila on vacation, that Tito Tony Meloto suggested I consider coming to help...what I saw when visiting Gawad Kalinga eventually resulted in my moving to Manila one year later. For me, the Philippines already held strong memories from 1996-7. Click Here

Interviewing Sultan Saripada in Lanao, ARMM
I was privileged to be able to interview Sultan Saripada, a Muslim leader in Lanao, during the 2008 Bayani Challenge / Highway of Peace. Click Here

Thomas Stern took a Step, Maybe a Leap
T.S. Eliot was a great poet, one perhaps afraid to be so. He was on my mind when I was considering whether I should take the risk of leaving my job to move to Manila and volunteer with Gawad Kalinga Click Here

Where is the Wealth of Nations? ...and GK
One of my more reading-based posts - thoughts on Gawad Kalinga's role in uplifting the human capital of the Philippine nation Click Here

Typhoon Fengshen hits Luzon

2008-06-23T19:09:00.000-07:00

The last weekend was a particularly eventful one for the Philippines, if not so much for me. Typhoon Frank (as Fengshen was known locally) changed course suddenly, cutting a swathe across much of Luzon, including Manila.

Things were fairly uneventful here in Makati. The worst we get where I live is flooding, which merely serves to curtail travel and cut off electricity for hours at a time. Some trees have been toppled, lines brought down etc - though the toppled billboards of October 2006 did not happen this time. In fact, I was able to walk to Greenbelt on Sunday night - the floods in my area had receded enough by then...Greenbelt was very quiet, compared to normal nights.

But things have been much more difficult for many families here. Some areas of the Philippines have huge flooding, many displaced residents, and some deaths. It's quite likely many in the GK village featured in my previous post had to deal with significant flooding, as many houses in that area lie in quite low land.

One of the biggest maritime tragedies in Philippine history occurred days ago, when a ferry traveling from Manila to Cebu was caught as Typhoon Frank changed course. 849 passengers and crew were on board the ship when the storm caused it to capsize. Only 57 are known to have survived so far, so a lot of families are tremendously affected. I think I saw in the newspaper that one young women lost her siblings and parents.

More information on Philippine Inquirer

Singapore Team Visits SIBOL School in Cainta

2008-06-20T19:53:00.000-07:00

Last week I spent some time with a visiting team from Swiss Reinsurance Singapore. The team of volunteers was the culmination of an ongoing fundraising effort at Swiss Re aimed at giving the pre-school and early elementary aged children of a Cainta-based Ben Ileto GK Village access to effective schooling.

For the Kiwi readers, Cainta is where Peter and Karen Brookes lived when we visited them in 1996. It's right next to Antipolo, where Faith Academy is located. (Note to Karen: I finally visited Sta Lucia East again - for lunch)

What's sad about the young GK village in Cainta is that many of the elementary (primary) age children in the surrounding community (pictured left) are not in school, in many cases due to the costs involved. It's in such a context that the village's donor from New York and the team from Swiss Re Singapore have gotten involved in raising the funds and participating in the work to uplift the community, piece at a time, through the building of houses and the creation of a SIBOL school.

The team from Singapore has a specific focus on the school, including giving a great deal of thought and effort to making the school an environment that will truly foster learning, improving the future prospects of the children.

The team's leader, Sandra Capay (Singapore based Filipina, black top, second from left), was also the driving force behind the project. Even she was surprised by just how fully her colleagues supported the initiative, with fundraising projects including an auction (when they ran out of things to auction they started auctioning their talents to each other - e.g. Chinese language lessons) and through their direct voluntary participation in the Philippines.

After arriving in the Philippines the team had some desks and chairs made for the school, bought paints, brushes, and other decorative materials, and set to work creating an uplifting educational environment. Curious kids watched on during the process.

Due to having to reformat my laptop after catching a bad case of adware infections I've been behind in transcribing my interview files and writing an article on the event, but I have some photos of the event below.

What is an ongoing challenge with SIBOL schools is funding - of the teacher and the school. In some schools we have volunteer teachers, but it's very hard to retain these teachers when they need to provide for themselves and their families. In some cases we have sponsors for the teachers - their monthly salary costs about NZ$240.

Photos (note, in the background of the first one you can see the kids-size toilet the team managed to find):

Retaining More Knowledge

2008-06-20T17:54:00.000-07:00

In my last post I said the following:

"What I realise most is how much of the knowledge I'm losing soon after I've read it. Despite having a naturally decent recall, I simply can't retain everything I read. It might not sound like a big thing - it's pretty normal actually - but it's remarkably frustrating."

Well, I actually read an interesting article a few days back on this exact problem, and one man's long-term effort to overcome it. What's amazing is that he seems to have been very successful in his quest. I've read varying statistics in a couple of different articles, but a 95% retention rate seems pretty common.

While he originally designed his program to help retain a broad range of knowledge, it has since become sought after by students learning languages.

From the Wired article: "SuperMemo is based on the insight that there is an ideal moment to practice what you've learned. Practice too soon and you waste your time. Practice too late and you've forgotten the material and have to relearn it. The right time to practice is just at the moment you're about to forget...

...Fortunately, human forgetting follows a pattern. We forget exponentially. A graph of our likelihood of getting the correct answer on a quiz sweeps quickly downward over time and then levels off. This pattern has long been known to cognitive psychology, but it has been difficult to put to practical use. It's too complex for us to employ with our naked brains.

Twenty years ago, Wozniak realized that computers could easily calculate the moment of forgetting if he could discover the right algorithm. SuperMemo is the result of his research. It predicts the future state of a person's memory and schedules information reviews at the optimal time."

You can read the whole article here

This quote was particularly interesting: The spacing effect is "one of the most remarkable phenomena to emerge from laboratory research on learning," the psychologist Frank Dempster wrote in 1988, at the beginning of a typically sad encomium published in American Psychologist under the title "The Spacing Effect: A Case Study in the Failure to Apply the Results of Psychological Research."

SuperMemo website here

I'm very curious to try SuperMemo sometime, but it does cost US$45 - a little much a the moment, I'm afraid. Might have to wait until I have a job.

However, on there are a couple of open source (read: free) alternatives out there. This Japanese language student has written a review of two options he has compared to SuperMemo (having used all three) - Mnemosyne and Anki.

He says Mnemosyne is very simple but works well. Might give that a try.

I look forward to having another game of Trivial Pursuit with my family when I return to New Zealand.

Guns, Germs, and Steel

2008-06-19T07:49:00.000-07:00

I find that in recent reading - including 'The Wealth and Poverty of Nations' (NZ link), 'Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations' (NZ), 'The End of Poverty' (NZ), and the current book 'Guns, Germs, and Steel' (NZ), - what I realise most is how much of the knowledge I'm losing soon after I've read it. Despite having a naturally decent recall, I simply can't retain everything I read. It might not sound like a big thing - it's pretty normal actually - but it's remarkably frustrating. No wonder some say that the way to really know something well is to teach it to others.

The book I'm reading at the moment, 'Guns, Germs and Steel', goes nicely as part of a reading duet with 'The Wealth and Poverty of Nations'. Where Wealth & Poverty's author David Landes focuses on the immediate causes of economic growth specifically in the emerging industrial revolutions of the world over the past few centuries - the sub-title of the book is 'Why some countries are so poor and some so rich' - Jared Diamond (Guns, Germs and Steel) focuses on how some of these progenitor regions - even more so than countries - became the places where such conducive-to-growth conditions arose in the first place.

Chronologically speaking perhaps I possibly should have started with Diamond first, then Landes, but no matter.

Diamond's focus is on the role that guns, germs, and steel have played in human history, and why these elements first came about (and/or came about in greater prevalence) in some regions rather than others.

He notes that five chapters focus on the move from hunter-gatherer societies to farmer societies, given that this was a key factor in the formation of large sedentary communities. He is also going into reasons why this occurred in some regions, yet not in others where we might have expected it to happen.

Well, that's about as far as I'm up to in the book. As he warned, there's a large focus on food in those first chapters.

To summarise then: Landes covers the last few centuries, Diamond the 15,000 or so years before that.

As an aside, it's interesting to see that some readers/reviewers have branded Landes book as an 'out of date' theory, or one or other similar disparaging statements. Perhaps this is because Landes is uncharacteristically blunt for coming from the Ivy League - mainly about cultural factors he identifies as encouraging or discouraging growth.

However, I think people are somewhat off-base in branding the book outright as 'Eurocentric' - he's equally happy to praise factors that encouraged growth in Japan or Korea as he is those that encouraged it in England and parts of Europe. He's also forthright about factors that discouraged similar growth in other parts of Europe.

In the updated version I read he does take some time out to address the arguments of his detractors.

Apart from that, to label the book an 'out of date' theory makes the assumption there is one unifying theory, where it's really more of a journey through a multitude of different human societies , looking at the factors that fostered or hampered growth.

Anyway, why not take a look at where you fall on the world's rich list: http://globalrichlist.com

From the Mouths of Businessmen

2008-06-17T00:21:00.000-07:00

I had the chance to discuss things with two quite different but equally interesting business leaders recently.

Businessman #1: The Young Entrepreneur

One is a young entrepreneur, a starter of his own companies from age eighteen. His first employee pay-check was from his own company. He divides his time between the USA and the Philippines.

I asked him what he values most in an employee. His answer:

"Loyalty! Not so much in terms of that they'll never leave my company - you can't expect that, of course - but a loyalty to the vision. An employee is most valuable who will take hold of the vision and own it, be loyal to it - they'll work to make that vision a reality."

"People like that are very valuable because they adopt the vision and work to make it happen. When issues or problems arise, they work to make the vision happen - until it does."

On entrepreneurship, he said, "Well, either you work for someone else or you work for yourself. I decided I'd rather run things myself. It's not necessarily more risky - all companies make or lose money, and that doesn't change whichever side of the equation you're on - but you have to be prepared to start again if things don't work out."

Businessman #2: The Veteran CEO

The second businessman I spoke to recently formerly had eight companies reporting to him. He worked in a senior position for a large USA-based parent company. As it happened, the parent company decided to grow one of the businesses he oversaw into a much bigger and more multi-national outfit.

So he made a decision - to leave his own position overseeing eight companies and take leadership of the single smaller company in order to grow it internationally - specifically into Europe and Asia-Pacific.

When I asked him about this decision, he said, "Well, it's exciting to lead a company into new markets, and to try to build it into a much larger company. I decided to take this job because I wanted the excitement and enjoyment of this task."

And had it been fun so far? "Yes, very much," he said.

It's interesting to hear from leaders who enjoy what they are doing immensely. Both can easily receive significant incomes given their skills, but work the way they do for the enjoyment and satisfaction of achievement.

A Local Taipan

I also chanced upon an interesting looking book on a local Chinese-Filipino business leader, Mr Gokongwei. He started in selling at a market stand at age 13 or 15, building a business empire through a progression from trading, to manufacturing and services. Initially it was a matter of survival - he needed food, as did his siblings. It seems he enjoyed business so much that he worked at it constantly, striving to build greater success.

Although of retirement age, like Warren Buffet he also goes to the office most days simply because he genuinely enjoys what he does. He also had an interesting thing to say about being in business: "You must be prepared to always work harder than your employees."

Buffet & Gates Go Back to School

Speaking of Warren Buffet, I watched an interesting program the other day: Buffet and Gates Go Back to School. They visited the Nebraska University School of Business for a night, making themselves available for preselected students to ask questions of them.

A couple of interesting tidbits I remember off the top of my head:

Buffet defined success as being genuinely loved by those around you. He contrasted this with people he knew - including some on the Forbes 500 - who had schools and buildings named after them, but who nobody thought particularly much of them, really. "I have to believe they know this, deep down." He said.

Interestingly, both said that while their children will be wealthy in some measure from inheritance, they will not inherit the bulk of their father's fortunes. Both said something along the lines of,

"I have no interest in setting up some sort of family dynasty, hoarding huge amounts of wealth only for our selfish use. You have to look at where our wealth currently is - most of it is invested in companies that create jobs and wealth for many more people, not spent in consumption of mansions, clothes etc (though there is some for nice living also). If you compare that to a person who is worth, say $50 million, and is spending most of it on consumption simply for their own enjoyment, it's quite different."

Interestingly, they both saw the hoarding of billions in order to create for themselves a long term family dynasty as going against the values of their nation, one they saw as being founded on the opportunity for all comers to have a chance to make good. Quite different really to some of the historically well-landed families here in the Philippines, one must note - it is some of these that cause the biggest issues in the attempts to enact land reform here.

Oh, another thing Buffet said was interesting. If he could have a particular gift, it would be the ability to read much faster than he can. He spends a vast amount of time reading, studying, and thinking on where to focus his now quite considerable capital.

At least I have the reading thing right, so far.

My Culinary Post

2008-06-16T04:28:00.000-07:00

It's interesting to read the different food entries on family members' blogs.

Paul's typically feature a good eye for market shopping and a level of creativity in his enjoyment o f cooking, whilst Andrew & Sonia's - over above the encyclopedic descriptions of Eggs Benedict the world round - serves up an interesting assortment of restaurants many others of us would like to try but probably never will. Anyway, thought I'd better post a culinary blog item too.

I've noticed my own culinary tastes and experiences have expanded somewhat since living in the Philippines.

I have, of course, had more balut (see left) since my initial experience of this unborn duck with the Brookes family back in 1996 - three more, so far - but I've also grown used to other oddities.

I realised while attending a wedding back in New Zealand last January that eating the eyes of fish seems quite normal to me (previously I baulked at this). A school friend and I challenged each other to savor one eye each during the wedding reception - a somewhat unfair contest given my recent experiences. My friend almost wretched.

Other things I've come to regard as delicious?

Chicken Intestines

Hmm…chicken intestines on a skewer, barbecued with hot sauce, known locally as Isaw. Surprisingly enough these genuinely are quite tasty. Just the thing for munching on while walking down one of the Philippines' many beautiful beaches. According to Wikipedia, "The intestines are cleaned, turned inside out, and cleaned again, repeating the process several times. They are then either boiled, then grilled, or immediately grilled on sticks." click close up pic on right

Pork liver. Well, I've always enjoyed chicken and lamb organs, so this was not too surprising. Chicken liver is available quite cheaply from the supermarket here, and they throw the little hearts in too, which are quite tasty! I wonder how popular foie gras is in NZ…?

Sizzling Pork Sisig

I also realised when Kirsty and Hannah were visiting last year that some New Zealanders probably wouldn't really enjoy sisig, something I regularly consume if out with friends. According to Wikipedia:

"Sisig as is popularly known today is actually sizzling sisig, a Philippine dish made from parts of pig’s head, liver and usually seasoned with kalamansi and chili peppers.

Preparing sisig comes in three phases: boiling, broiling and finally frying.For example a pig's head is first boiled to remove hairs and to tenderize it. Portions of it are then chopped and grilled or broiled. Finally, it is fried with onions and served on a sizzling plate. Variations of sisig may add any of the following: eggs, ox brains, chicharon (pork cracklings), pork or chicken liver, and even mayonnaise. Recently, local chefs have experimented with ingredients other than pork such as chicken, squid, tuna and even tofu."

I don't suppose my family will easily be convinced sisig is delicious...

Getting it Right the First Time in Makati

2008-06-16T04:18:00.000-07:00

A short walk from where I live is a construction site. This site had some serious issues last year, if I remember correctly. I believe some parts were simply not constructed up to scratch, and the construction contracting company was fired and replaced with the company now building.

Happily, this company has the right attitude to construction - if not the right sign supplier:

Building a Legacy

2008-06-09T03:01:00.000-07:00

A driving motivation for many contributors to Gawad Kalinga is the desire to leave a legacy of changing the lives of others. The desire to be able to look back on making a difference, or to be able to visit those whom you were able to help - it's powerful…

Following my other Saladmaster post I wanted to include a few statements from the man who was the driving force in the partnership between Saladmaster and Gawad Kalinga: Toronto-based Director of Filipino Business Development Pidoy Pacis.

On leaving a legacy…

"I don't want to be remember for the trophies or awards I won. I would like to be remembered as a person who put roofs over less fortunate brothers and sisters in the Philippines

I look forward to when we're able to build a cluster of villages, provide scholarships, provide livelihood and that kind of legacy…

You know one day when you retire and you go to these villages mingle with the residents - I think that's true happiness, satisfaction, fulfillment: when you see that you've truly changed the lives of other people.

This will stay with you…For the rest of their lives, their family, their children, their grandchildren will remember that you're part of their lives…I think it's an incredible opportunity."

On meeting the children in GK Visayas Avenue...

"Well, I'm deeply touched.

You know, sometimes you get goose-bumps, you get really emotional. Because it goes beyond just giving a roof to them, shelter - it goes beyond that.

I mean when you hear the testimony of the kids, you know there's no amount of money that can buy that."

The poor changing us…

"The poor are changing us, the poor are changing the way we think and behave and the way we look at things in the future and the things that are important. And in our individual case we may not be able to change the whole nation on our own, but what is most important is to change the lives of a few - and that few will eventually be your testimony and legacy."

All things considered...

"At the end of the day when you sit down it's not the amount of money that you have in your bank account, or the jewelry, but the personal satisfaction that you have changed somebody's life.

"Life changers" - that's what we in Saladmaster stand for and changing lives is what our wish is, so we are truly now a living example of this. That's why I think it's easy for us to embrace this project because truly this is 'changing lives'.

I think we who are born in the US and Canada, we are blessed, we have abundance in food and everything else..and I think it's time to help, it's time to give back.

It wouldn't hurt us, you know, building one or two houses. And if there are 2500 consultants in SM around the world, if everyone spends to build a home that's a lot of houses, a lot of villages.

Or sponsoring a student - if you're paying for one year, when you break it down it's only $50 a month or so. That's one cup of coffee a day that you sacrifice but you're changing a life!

And I think it's a matter of perception, attitude: this is unadulterated passion for the poor. I like the poor, I've always sympathized with the poor - I love the poor, that's why I feel this is a wonderful chance to work with them.

Especially through GK - it makes our job easier, because all we have to do is source the finance. GK has the manpower, the volunteers, who achieve tremendous impact!

The Journey from Potential

2008-06-09T01:37:00.000-07:00

I recall a story I heard once, of someone who arrived in Heaven, and being naturally the curious sort asked God, "Lord, who was the greatest general ever to live?"

Ever patient, God said, "Watch with me." As they flew across the spread of time, the man saw flashes and images of lives both great and small - as judged by human standards. They passed by Napoleon, Alexander, and many others. Finally, they walked together through the hall of a small university in an unremarkable city.

God pointed to a man stooped over a mop. "Here is the greatest General I ever created," God said.

"Him?" the man exclaimed, "But he's just a janitor, not a General! How can he be the greatest General who ever lived?"

"He's a janitor because my creation was broken and damaged: you know my word - the Bible - talks of how all of creation groans to me," God said. "Well, due to the choices of others, this man was never given a chance to fulfill what I made in him. Others chose not to help when they could have…"Whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me" - remember?"

"But he was he greatest General ever to live - if only he'd had the chance."

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I recall back in March 2007, a short while after I moved to the Philippines. Andrew and Sonia (my brother and his wife) were visiting the Philippines for the weekend - likely to make sure I was still alive and not emaciated. That Sunday night we visited the Hard Rock Makati café for dinner and to catch some music.

The singer in the band there was clearly very skilled. He has really paid his dues in the local music scene - he is forty years old, and a veteran of the local music scene. (In New Zealand terms most good bands probably get paid between NZ$30-50 per person per night.) He sang excellent versions of cover songs, from Sting to Led Zeppelin to Journey.

I didn't hear much more of him for a long time. However, in late 2007 an exciting story began to emerge.

Journey is a band whose greatest success was in the eighties, but whose songs have remained popular for decades - apparently they've sold over 70 million records. I played their song Open Arms with the CFC NZ band Reborn in our concerts, prior to moving to the Philippines. Songs like Open Arms and Faithfully have accompanied many a blossoming romance around the world - even more so in the Philippines!

I first heard the story on a guitar forum I browse - the band Journey, still touring around the world playing peoples perennial favourites - had found a new singer. Strangely enough, they'd found him on Youtube - the internet site that lets people post their own videos for others to watch.

As the story goes, someone had posted videos of the band we watched that night in Hard Rock Makati. Come mid 2007, and Journey was scouring the USA for a new singer - without success.

Then their guitarist stumbled across the videos of Arnel Pineda - the singer we saw at Hard Rock Café Makati - on Youtube. After tracking him down - and convincing him his friends weren't playing a practical joke - Journey flew Arnel Pineda to San Fransisco to audition.

Almost straight away, they decided they'd found what they were looking for in this veteran singer from Quezon City. Journey is currently touring with Arnel Pineda as lead singer, and together they have just released a new album.

For Arnel, who spent part of his youth homeless in a Manila park, a packet of crackers for three days food, his true potential is now being realised. Arnel's mother taught him to sing before she died (when he was thirteen), and he eventually found his way to earning a living through this gift...

It reminded me once again just how much potential there is in the villages of GK, where lives are being turned around , where hope and ambition is being brought to the future of so many of the Philippines poorest children. As Keith Peterson said when I recently interviewed him, it's the children that move you the most. "When you see the potential to change those children's lives, as they become adults, from the environment that they're coming out of, that creates passion!" He said.

Recently we had a GK resident qualify for the University of the Philippines - one of the top three universities, and a place where people must either have a lot of money, or qualify with an elite level of scholastic accomplishments in order to gain financially-aided entry. In another case we had a girl graduate Magna Cum Laude from her university.

When we first worked in one GK village, all the boys dreamed of driving tricycles and all the girls dreamed of working as dancers/entertainers in Japan (where historically they've often been forced into prostitution, even to the point of slavery). In that same village a few years later, the children dream of being doctors, engineers, teachers, nurses etc. Life is not without challenges - college is still expensive - but the journey from potential is taking place more and more.

Like the Philippines is proud of Arnel Pineda, we GK workers are honoured to be part of God's work in GK, bringing to fruition the potential of children…Sometimes unrelated things remind me that a part of what we're doing is empathizing with creation as it groans to God, in its current brokenness - and taking part in His work of setting things to rights.

The following is an inspiring video from CBS Sunday Morning telling the story of Arnel Pineda and Journey in greater detail - worth watching! - I think most people will find Arnel's account of his earlier difficult life and his tribute to his mother very moving.

And watch Arnel and Journey here playing a song that probably launched many a romance - Open Arms. Open Arms starts two minutes into this video:

Kiwi Connection

2008-06-05T08:56:00.000-07:00

Wednesday morning I paid a visit to the NZ embassy, accompany former GK Exec Director Tony Meloto and a few others to a meeting with Ambassador David Pine. We met regarding possible cooperation between NZ and Gawad Kalinga, through agricultural development that would be based in a few model GK communities.

Ambassador Pine is younger than I expected, though just at the age that is difficult to guess. He's coming to the end of his Philippine posting this August, at which time he'll be returning to NZ. I understand he's an economist by training, and will be taking up some sort of central economic role.

It would certainly be nice to see some level of cooperation between NZ and Gawad Kalinga. We'll see how things pan out.

Overall, we seem to be attracting a lot of attention from all quarters at present, local and international. A recent text message poll in one of the major national newspapers attracted remarkable feedback - according to the newspaper staff it was the first such poll in which contributors had been unanimously positive.

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In other notes, I've been working on an article summarizing some of our recent experiences working for peace and reconciliation in Muslim Mindanao. So it was interesting to see Time Magazine featuring an article on former British PM Tony Blair's work in interreligious understanding...

Meeting a Partner: Saladmaster

2008-05-30T04:49:00.000-07:00

Meeting at 7:15 in the morning is not my normal idea of fun, but when it has the redeeming quality of sharing a Hyatt breakfast buffet with a visiting GK partner, that certainly brings more to the table, so to speak. I managed to make it to breakfast only a few minutes late, joining Saladmaster President Keith, VP Mark, and the one who initiated the partnership, Pidoy, a Filipino living in Canada.

After making the most of breakfast - to be honest, living on NZ$2 foodcourt meals and noodles & tuna at home has given me a craving for nicely cooked food (partly my fault for watching Gordon Ramsay TV shows too, admittedly) - we set off to GK Visayas Avenue, located nowhere near the Visayas, in the heart of Quezon City.

Being there for the first time a GK partner sees a the fruit of their collaboration with us is always a good thing. Walking in to GK Visayas Ave, we were greeted by rows of well-dressed children, lined up to welcome their visitors. It's a very moving experience for sponsors to meet the children in person - these are the ones whose future options are most recognizably transformed through the involvement of GK.

Rows of SIBOL (3-6 yrs), SAGIP (7-12 yrs), and SIGA (13-19 yrs) kids welcomed us to the village, shaking hands or blessing the guests by touching the back of the guest's hand to their forehead.

Following a tour of the village, where some houses are complete, others are under construction, and some have been beautiful decorated inside, we visited the community centre for a presentation. The community leaders showed the guests a video of the before and after, talked of the methodology of GK, and introduced the children, who were eager to perform dance items for the guests.

Above the community centre is the SIBOL school, where the sponsorship of another partner - Citibank - enables the children to have both resources and a teacher (sponsorship is needed for the salaries of teachers in GK villages - some work as volunteers, but are always under pressure to earn their living too). The school is a place of unthinkable beauty when one looks out the windows to the nearby slum areas. It's amazing to see what the children have now, compared to a few years ago.

After lunching with some of the community, we bid our goodbyes and moved on, and I had a chance to interview Keith (President) and Pidoy (Director of Filipino Business Development, Canada) regarding their thoughts. I've only had a chance to transcribe Keith's so far, but Pidoys will suit their own post anyway.

Keith's Thoughts

Impressions…
My impression was that GK777 was doing a wonderful job of bringing supporter structure, raising the quality of life, and then most importantly for me was providing a totally changed opportunity for the children growing up to move on to a different life. I was impressed with the methodology and the structure they have brought to the project

Surprised...
What surprised me was the orderliness, and the depth of the thought that was behind the structure of the project. The detailed approach to all the underlying causes that have to be addressed, I think, was unusual. I was very impressed with that.

On Corporate Social Responsibility...
You know it's one thing to understand the logic and the reason behind this kind of project - and we got into it to a large degree because of the soundness of the thought behind it - but being here adds the passion!

Built on volunteerism...
"I think the thing that I'm impressed with is the desire of the Filipino community to raise itself to another level and not wait for someone else to do it but to take the responsibility and ask for help and support but not be asking other people to do it. I'm extremely impressed with that pride and the commitment they make."

Children...
When you see the potential to change those children's lives, as they become adults, from the environment that they're coming out of, that creates passion. And, combined with the soundness of thought and logic behind it, well, I'm just very impressed.

On forming values...
There is one other thing I'd like to mention and it's that I am so very impressed with the part of the program where people have to attend seminars, or classes, on the responsibilities, the standards, the ethics, and the effort that goes into building that moral foundation as a bedrock for that community. I think that was something that I got out of this trip today that I didn't fully appreciate.

Getting involved...
When Pidoy first brought the subject up my first response was - good or bad - well, there's another good cause looking for support. As Pidoy explained it and as the GK representatives in Canada and USA came to meetings and did a wonderful job of explaining the specialness of the program - people started getting it! I think GK777 has a unique strength in that people can understand it - they get it, they can relate with it.

And so we're at the very beginning really of the support scheme for us. To a large degree it's been individuals within the organization, individual dealerships, the company is just now getting involved in making contributions.

So I think we have graduated from the first impression of it being another good cause to it being something that we feel we can embrace and make it a special cause for us.

Saladmaster
Regarding Saladmaster: Given quite a few of my readers enjoy cooking, and are quite good at it, you might find the Saladmaster website quite interesting: www.saladmaster.com They do sound like very good products, and upon closer look seem to have some interesting advantages.

Bagong Silang and a Mobile Library

2008-05-19T04:40:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday afternoon I went with a workmate to cover the presence of a Mobile Library project at the original Gawad Kalinga site, Bagong Silang. It was in Bagong Silang that the work of GK began, years before the first GK house was ever built. Today, the GK houses have become such a ubiquitous image that housing is the first thing many associate with GK.

However, from GK's website:
This journey began in Bagong Silang with a group of people who sought to find answers to 1) why Filipinos who are naturally gifted and hard working are poor 2) why those born in slum communities have difficulty in getting out of poverty and 3) why gentle Filipinos become criminals when brought up in slum communities.

1995
The work started with the juvenile gangs of Bagong Silang, Caloocan City, one of the biggest slums in Metro Manila (present day GK in Bagong Silang picture on left), who attended a youth camp in Dec 26, 1995 conducted by Couples for Christ. Among the participants were some of the most notorious gang members in the area. But at the end of the 3 day camp, the sincerity of service team prevailed over the hardened youth. In 5 years, programs for theatre, sports, livelihood training and scholarships were introduced to rehabilitate the youth. But the team soon realized that it could not change the slum behavior unless there is transformation of the slum environment.

Mobile Library

The work we covered last Saturday was a cooperation between Globe, one of the largest telecommunication companies, and National Bookstore, one of the largest booksellers in the Philippines. The National Bookstore foundation has for some years been conducting the Buklat-Aklat Mobile Library program, to encourage reading among children ages 5 to 12 by visiting schools and communities with a selection of 500 books.

The project between Globe (a long-term GK partner) and National Bookstore commenced last April, designed to take the Buklat-Aklat Mobile Library to GK communities throughout the Philippines. The current outreach to six GK communities was completed last weekend.

According to the Globe and National Bookstore Foundation staff, the GK SIBOL (3-6 years) and SAGIP (7-12 years) children found the mobile library visits - five days in each GK village - very enjoyable. The aim of the project is to instill a love for reading in these youngest of children, something that will hopefully remain and provide a strong foundation for their later studies.

With well-practiced story-tellers present in the teams visiting each village, the kids sat enthralled, more silent than I've ever seen SIBOL kids (or any large group of Filipino 3-6 year olds). Volunteers attested to many of the kids reading their way through large numbers of the books during the five days spent in each of the six communities. And in one-on-one reading, many children were keen to understand and read each word with their guide.

At least 100 books were donated to each village, left behind for the children in order to foster ongoing reading. Globe and National Bookstore representatives are also working to engage more and more volunteers, hoping to have a presence in the village during weekends, reading with kids and instilling a love for knowledge.

Death Gives Way to Life

2008-05-15T02:48:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd share with my readers an article written by my fellow news bureau writer, Marjorie Duterte. It's an inspiring story from our recent time down in Bukidnon and Lanao Del Sur.

Death gives way to life in Wao
by Marjorie Duterte, peace correspondent, GK News Bureau

Seeing the hope in Tomas "Tam" Carumba's eyes while walking around GK Darussalam village, one would not think that he had lost a close cousin, killed by a Maranao during a Muslim-Christian conflict between their families. To stop further bloodshed, the warring factions had negotiated for "blood money" as a peace offering.

"This blood money was given, but was used to build a GK house for our Muslim brothers," Carumba related.

From the blood money to appease the death of his cousin, the Carumba family chose to build instead 10 GK homes for the Muslim community,to start the GK Maranao village, also in Wao.

"Yung mga Muslim brothers have been so deprived, most of their lands have been sold to Christians but when they saw the sincerity of Christians, (it) encouraged them to also work for peace," Carumba affirmed.

"Tito Tam", a member of Couples for Christ and the GK Provincial Board was one of the pioneers that started Gawad Kalinga in Wao, Lanao del Sur.

Two years ago, their local officials, the Muslim community, Church workers, the Wao Development corporation and the Bishop of Malaybalay came together to embrace Gawad Kalinga as a peace initiative. They wantedto build houses for Muslim rebel returnees who have no homes.

The Muslims participated in the build and despite the lack of budget, the work was done through bayanihan (cooperation). This gave birth to GK Darussalam and GK Maranao villages, a haven for Muslims and Christians in the former war zone area.

"Malaki ang contribution sa peace initiative ng presence ng GK dito. Nakita nila ang samahan dito kahit hindi mo imbatihin, tumatawag, lahat ng tao gustong makisali sa GK," Carumba said.

(GK's presence here has made a big contribution to the peace initiative. They (Muslims) see the brotherhood here and even if you don't invite them, they call, everyone wants to join GK.)

A native of Wao, Lanao del Sur, Carumba recounted how his kababayans used to be paranoid and suspicious and how most residents here have been fully armed.

Today, "wala na po yung takot, wala na po yung alinlangan. Nandito na po ang trust." (The fear is gone, the doubts are gone. The trust is here).

"Ang strength po ng Wao ay unity, nakita po nila ang GK and they are so proud to be part of it," he added. (The strength of Wao is unity, they see GK and are so proud to be part of it.)

"Very peaceful yung place,kasi nabigyan na lahat ng opportunity, nabalik na ang dignity," he added. (The place is very peaceful because the people have been given opportunity, dignity has been restored.)

The former victim of conflict has now become a good friend. "You are very much welcome into the houses of our Muslim brothers," he said.

Peace has been planted and is growing in the rich and fertile Mindanao land.

White Water Rafting in Cagayan De Oro

2008-05-13T02:32:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in the last post, one of the attractions of Cagayan de Oro is the white water rafting. I joined with the group of SFC Las Pinas, led by my workmate Marc. He'd done the rafting before, and chose the best local company (safety first!), at a very reasonable cost of 800php per person.

The first question we were asked was "Wild raft or mild raft?". With ten of us, we had two rafts, and I immediately chose the wild raft.

The second thing in the rafting adventure was the safety lecture. This consists of lining the rafters up and telling them scary stories of maiming and death. Well...there had only been one fatality on the river (last year), a few broken arms and legs, and a bunch of smaller injuries from holding the paddles wrong. Was the wild raft the best idea?

Left: "There was a broken leg, but it was just a small one."

Apparently the trick is simply not to panic if you fall out or get capsized...and be careful not to breath until your head comes above the water (I do remember this once being a problem for an LRBC youth group girl at Parakai a decade or so back). Also, don't try to swim, just sit and float, facing downstream. Most likely, the sole fatality was panic-related. (Oh, the fatality was not on one of the rides our guides' company conducted.)

We decided not to be capsized, an option the guides can happily oblige rafters with.

Setting off, we headed towards the first set of rapids, me pearched on the front left of the raft. On the front, you're the first to career downwards into the large troughs, the first to tip precariously over the peaks. But after the first initially scary set of rapids, this becomes the prime of all prime seats! The experience is fantastic...

As it happens, you begin to feel quite safe and secure in your helmet and lifejacket. Between sets of rapids we all got out of the raft and floated down beside it for a while, getting used to the river...thinking about it later it's a strange idea, becoming comfortable bobbing along in a fast moving river.

Towards the end, we enjoyed the experience enough we decided - apart from one holdout - that we'd like to capsize. However, having one uncomfortable with the idea meant we couldn't do it.

Fortunately, even the best guides are imperfect. In the last set of large rapids, we entered a deep hole too sideways (my expert opinion), hit the bottom, and attempted to ascend the other side right side first.

This didn't work.

Being on the left side, we went under first, while the people on the right got to have a few moments up in the air before joining us. Everything went black and a little bit more wet, and I concentrated on not breathing in water, as directed by the guides earlier...

The upside down boat was directly on top of me, keeping me underwater for the first few moments until I could grab a handhold and push myself out from under the inflated crossbar into the air pocket under the main boat. Once there, things felt dark but surprisingly comfortable. The lifejacket worked, I was unhurt, and I could breathe, even if I couldn't see anything due to the darkness.

A moment or two later, the boat was lifted up from the water by a guide, and I could see the guides and most of my friends in the water outside, holding on to the boat. The boat slipped down again, putting me back into darkness. Another moment, and the guides lifted the side of the boat once more, grabbed me by the lifejacket, and hauled me out from under the boat. Note: we were advised beforehand that the best thing to do in most situations is to wait for the guides to rescue you - never swim, as you'll exhaust yourself.

Righting the boat, the guides got in first (not an easy task for the inexperienced), then hauled each of us in by our lifejackets. Our own quick count revealed we'd lost a member, now smiling and waving from the second boat (the guides already knew this).

The experience of capsizing it turns out is a lot of fun, demonstrated by our widest smiles yet upon our return to inside of the boat. I'm certainly glad it accidentally happened!

The area of Aurora, in the northern Philippines, is also said to have great whitewater rafting. According to stories, a few of our GK leaders went rafting there, and while the Cag de Oro river we did is around grade 3 or so, the one in Aurora is a more dangerous level.

At one point, so the story goes, the leaders feared themselves doomed to a watery grave. Navigating huge rapids, at one point they fell from the boat, and one in desperation called out to God, "Lord, don't let me die!"

Seeing where the leader had been swept to, the guide too called out, "Stand up!!!"

The leader stood up, sheepishly finding himself in knee-deep water...

Singing in the Rain, Malaybalay Style

2008-05-13T02:15:00.000-07:00

The last night of the Bayani Challenge was spent in the higher altitude city of Malaybalay. Filipino artists including local high-profile acts Sponge Cola, Brownman Revival, and Glock9 provided an entertaining concert for the thousands present.

As we arrived in our buses, dump trucks, and other assorted vehicles, fresh from leaving behind our GK building sites, we entered the park in Malaybalay, the stage already set up for the night's concert. The field in front of the stage would also be our sleeping area...without tents, just with whatever you have (unfortunately for me, I only brought t-shirts, not even a jacket).

Of course, not long in to the concert, torrential rain began to pour down. As the water saturated everything, tarpaulins were brought out by those who had them in their vehicles, and I found a little shelther. Other more enthusiastic people danced in the heavy rain, becoming soaked through.

Fortunately, local people found us somewhere dry to sleep. A university gymnasium/theatre provided a roof to shelter under (and, as with local architecture, no sides), bathrooms, and padded single seats to line up next to each other to make a bed. The rain during the concert had wet the bags of quite a few of us, so most of our clothing was wet. And unfortunately, with the colder high-altitude climate, I spent the night shivering, and caught a cold I could take back to Manila.

The next day, we rose around 6am and set off straight away on the Highway of Peace, a drive to the village of Wao in Lanao del Sur. After the event, another six or seven hours travel on a couple of buses brought us back to Cagayan De Oro, a hot dinner, and a bunk bed in a hotel.

What luxury! A mattress! And the length of the bunk was almost enough to straighten out my legs. After a week of being wet (perspiration or rain) and waking up with aches and pains (either the work, sleeping on the ground, or both), it was just nice to be dry, warm, and comfortable.

Dryness didn't last long. Cagayan de Oro is famous for its white water rafting...which we did the next day.

Interviewing Sultan Saripada

2008-05-12T01:35:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in one of my previous posts this month, I was fortunate to spend some time in Lanao Del Sur, interviewing Sultan Acraman Saripada. GK volunteers were present in the Sultan's municipality for the Bayani Challenge and Highway of Peace events, building houses for poor Muslim families in this former war zone.

Here's a draft of the interview article:

A Sultan’s Dream for Wao
By Jonathan Rickard, GK News Bureau

Wao, in Lanao Del Sur, Philippines, is a place of natural beauty and abundance. But, wracked by decades of conflict, it has also been a source of great competition for this wealth. As in many parts of Mindanao and the greater Philippines much land has ended up in the hands of the few, with many others dispossessed and cast into landless poverty.

Restoring Dignity

Now, 130 of the municipality's poorest Muslim families are to become residents of the GK Darussalam village, built by volunteers of Gawad Kalinga.

Gawad Kalinga’s work in Wao was begun with the welcome of Sultan Acraman Saripada (left), who saw the difference made in other parts of Muslim Mindanao.

Initially contacted by GK Executive Director Luis Oquinena, former MILF commander Sultan Saripada travelled to see GK areas in Mindanao and Manila in order to find out just how GK might benefit his own poor Muslim folk in Wao.

As a result, Wao became a destination for many volunteers in GK’s Bayani Challenge and Highway of Peace events. People came from all around the Philippines and even overseas, simply to build houses for those in desperate need.

For Sultan Saripada, Gawad Kalinga is different.

"The difference between GK and many other groups that have wanted to help here is that with GK everyone is equal," the sultan says. "It doesn't matter what your religion is, whether you're poor or rich."

"You build the houses together, you work together," he describes.

And for Saripada's Muslim people, the Filipino values embodied in Gawad Kalinga had a strong effect.

"The Muslim community embraced Gawad Kalinga through the bayanihan way of working," says Sultan Saripada.

Land for the Landless

For most poor families, the biggest struggles remain economic, impacting on every area of life. Many labor in other people’s fields.

"They're farmers and the income is not enough to sustain their everyday life," Saripada describes.

With the government sponsored migration policies of the 1950s and onward, many former landowners have become dispossessed tenant workers and agricultural laborers, working on larger lands belonging to other both Christian and Muslim families.

And over the decades, violence between Christian and Muslim has wracked the land.

"They're very sad, because before their parents were ones who were prominent families in Wao. In the conflict, land was taken from many Muslims, and now former landowners are working as tenant workers."

For others, forced to the mountains, where even after planting crops transport to market areas remains a key issue, their hold on land remains tenuous.

"Some of these are asking even now for titles to their land in the mountains." The Sultan notes, "Even though they've owned the land for a long time they don't have legal titles."

Christian Service

With such a history of conflict, one of the biggest surprises for the residents was when help came in the form of Christians, previously only associated by many Muslim residents with the migration, dispossession, and decades of conflict.

Now, the Christians have come to write a new history, to build homes for the would-be Muslim residents of GK Darussalam.

He continues, "They're very thankful to Gawad Kalinga that - even though they're Christians - they have come here to help the Muslim community."

As a leader of many, he has seen just how invaluable such direct action has been in opening the minds of poor and uneducated families to a reality where Muslim and Christian can coexist peacefully.

"For Muslim families here in Wao, maybe the best thing to do is introduce them to GK." He says, "That's why we selected the poor and uneducated Muslims to become GK beneficiaries, so that they will learn GK and accept GK, and learn that the intentions of Gawad Kalinga are good."

"Before, in Wao, it was Muslims and Christians fighting. Now with Christians coming in to help the Muslims, it's a way of educating the closed Muslims that there is a solution: Even though they're Christians they're still helping the Muslim community."

"For the most uneducated Muslims, GK is a way to educate the community - not only the houses but also the education programs. GK opens the minds of the closed minded Muslims."

A Faith Community

The Sultan notes that for many Muslims who join rebel groups, they seek in the first place to preserve a strong sense of their Islamic faith and culture.

"They start joining a rebel group mainly to follow and protect the faith of Islam," he describes. "In Islam we have five pillars of Islam, so they follow that. They joined a rebel group not mainly to fight against people but to protect their faith. Our plan for our people is to help them embrace the faith of Islam more fully."

And in an example of exceptional interfaith cooperation, the work of Gawad Kalinga has in turn become a foundational factor in turning lives around. Though most GK workers are Catholic Christians, the work in Muslim Wao has not been one of forcing their faith on others, or providing help conditional upon conversion to Christianity.

In the face of such, unexpected common ground has been found.

Through the work of GK, including programs such as education and values formation, the community is being strengthened even though their practice of faith is different from most of the GK workers.

"The Muslim community considers Gawad Kalinga as a third level for living life." Saripada notes, continuing "Because on the first level is God, Allah, Almighty God; the second level is the religion of Islam and their people; and the third level is Gawad Kalinga."

"Those are the things that are helping our people live and work as a Muslims" he says.

A Legacy of Peace

For Sultan Saripada and many of his Muslim constituents, their prayers are for peace in Wao, a restoration of their livelihood, and a restored relationship with their land. Moreover, they desire that their land be known not for conflict, but for peace, community, and achievement.

“We want for people to say that, even though they're Muslim and Christian, they can work together," Saripada notes, "They're praying for peace and unity in Wao."

In addition to working for peace, Saripada is working to strengthen the faith of his people. Along with improving access to regular Filipino education, the Muslim community is praying and striving for greater madras (Islamic) education, wishing to retain a strong faith and culture in future generations.

For the Sultan, working with and accepting Gawad Kalinga into the community of Wao is also a legacy he can leave to the future generations. Where decades past have been marked by conflict and violence, he sees a brighter future ahead.

"GK is a legacy for me, because it brings love and peace back to the community."

And as we sit inside a nearly-complete Gawad Kalinga house, volunteers from all around the Philippines work alongside Wao locals, striving through bayanihan to raise up homes for impoverished families. Alternating Muslim prayers and Christian praise songs ring forth from the PA system, an unlikely combination of sounds floating through the picturesque construction site.

"We're thankful for the 130 houses." Sultan Saripada says, "This work shows that Christian and Muslim can work together, stay together and live together with no war, and no troubles."

"GK is the only solution to the problem - to help Muslim and Christian unite,” he says.

Left: Ibrahim Balabagan, president of the village community association. Right: a future village resident.

Challenged Heroes

2008-05-01T03:05:00.000-07:00

If it's not perspiration, it's rain. The experience of being a Bayani is one of staying hot and often wet, being unsure of where one might sleep, and perspiring for the sake of others. Nice bathrooms, comfortable beds, feeling clean - they're all forgotten in the experience of a week striving to complete the houses so that others may have a home.

Water becomes a means of protecting endurance. Sugar, salt, and food become things to be maintained to provide energy and prevent headaches.

Many of the heroes gathered must fundraise for transport expenses, struggle to gain leave from employment (not as easy as in NZ), and even miss family birthdays and other occasions. Some travel for long distances in many means of conveyance. Some of our friends traveled in the backs of dump-trucks and pickup trucks. But this is all normal (I guess there's no OSH).

One bayani shared tearfully how she felt a pang of pain as she realised she was building a home for a family - a home she and her mother and sister now lacked following her father's walking out. However, she remained thankful to God for the opportunity to make a difference for others, and to share in fellowship with the her team and the recipients of the houses.

The sacrifices that many make just to help others is inspiring. As the talks of visiting leaders maintained, when Filipinos are stepping up like this, there is hope for the country's future.

Here are a few comments from some of the heroes gathered to build homes for others, as well as other locals and visitors:

"I am just overwhelmed and blown away by all the amazing wonders I saw at GK this morning. I've always been impressed with what I saw and head of GK. Now, after having seen it myself, I am at a loss for words of gratitude and inspiration. God has given you charge of so noble a task and what a tremendous blessing and responsibility. May all of you never get discouraged and lose heart when trials come. GK must be very pleasing to God for I have seen today so many unsung heroes!"

- Fr. Savio, Bukidnon

"I was inspired to join because you can see all kinds of people gathered here with one common goal. I could really see the work of the God's spirit here because if you won't do it out of love, it would be really hard. It's pure sweat and you really give your all for others.

I am doing this because I want to show my love for my brothers and for my God. I just put my faith into action. Within the 5 days we are going to build, the families here see that they are not alone, and they are having hope because they see that there are other people who are here for them, even ready to risk their lives for them.

My inspiration is the foreigners working here. They do not belong in this country but they embrace the Filipino maybe because they see the love in Gawad Kalinga. It's really all about love. If not for love, this won't probably last long."

-- Weng Cahindo, Team Pagadian

"We are building houses and building family. Even if I come from a broken family, I see families being made complete and whole through Gawad Kalinga. We can see that there is really hope for our country in GK. We also see that whatever nationality you have, there is unity here, everyone is a hero."

-- Charmie Pedrosa, GK youth

"It's my first time to experience the Bayani Challenge, and it's beautiful. Next year, hopefully, I can find more others in our department to join. I am inspired by the way we help each other regardless of position whether you're staff or a teacher. Our team is a combination of partners (La Salle and St. Benilde) kapitbahayan and caretaker team. It's really a showcase of Filipino greatness, the bayanihan spirit."

-- Bocboc Benson, DLS-College of St. Benilde

"I was helped by GK and I want to help too. I am happy, I celebrated my birthday here last night. We are in the mountains, and everyone is good here unlike what we here in Manila. I feel very safe here."

-- Gary Gatdula, kapitbahayan – Hiyas ng Maynila

I want to share with our brothers here that the police is ready to give whatever we can do to help. In all my yeares of being a police, this is the first time I've seen something like this. The mere fact that we have different faiths already serves as a gap, but we would like to erase that gap and we want to bring ourselves closer to the people in the mountain.

-- Erickson Banaga, Deputy Group Director, Police, Wao, Lanao del Sur

It's a little bit of a sacrifice. For the first couple of days, you feel like going back home because you have a lot of things to attend to but as the days go along, you have a goal to accomplish parang ayaw mo nang umalis hangga't hindi matapos eh. With our team, medyo tapos na kami, that's why we're helping out other teams as well. It's really nice to work hand in hand with the beneficiaries. It's our pleasure to build for them. I hope it's a start of a good family life, for your children as well

-- Mike Giloan, Team World Youth Alliance

I am inspired by our volunteers in the province, they are showing me a good example. Like what was said last night, God will disrupt you… The Lord is not contented when we are not helping the poor.

-- Alexis Bituaran, Compostella Valley team

This is what we've always wanted to do. We're here to support GK. I started to think of wanting to do something bigger than myself. Most of the young people in my team come in thinking punch a hole in the wall. When we attend builds, we still see the bigger picture, but it becomes more real. We become friends with the community.

-- Tammy Tan, Team World Youth Alliance

We saw one house not being built and we requested from our mayor if we can do it. Whatever we see that we can do, that's what we do. We are thankful; to the volunteers here because even when we see that they are very tired, they still do their work.

--Engineer Raul Umbai, local government of Kitatao, Bukidnon (The vacant site was next to ours, and the local engineers and their friends absolutely charged through the work - around forty locals took part, making construction very rapid! They also fed us some pig off the spit at one point too.)

It's a good experience because the Bayani Challenge taught me more about Filipinos. For me, I was really surprised with this friendly country and all the people here. It's a change from the west. It's so different from what they were telling me in France that it is dangerous, I come here and I feel safe. My hope is to participate to build the country.

-- Pierre Henri Berard, volunteer from France, Ateneo de Manila University

The Wao Factor

2008-05-01T02:26:00.000-07:00

For much of one day I took a trip to one of the other sites: Wao. While Kitaotao is in a historically Catholic area of Bukidnon, Wao is a Muslim area that also has a history of conflict. In the case of Wao, I'm told that much of this conflict arises from dispossession that occurred as a result of government sponsored immigration to the area, during the 1950-70s. Many of today's Muslim poor in the area are tenant workers or agricultural labourers on land their forefathers used to own.

As a side note, the indigenous population of Bukidnon does not ever seem to have been particularly high, and leaders in the Wao area informed me that this part of the province was not home to indigenous population in earlier centuries. From what I can gather through quick online searching, in some places both indigenous and Muslim populations have been displaced, in some cases by Christian immigration, in others by Muslim immigration.

In any case, Wao has been an area with a history of MILF (Moro-Islamic Liberation Front) activity. While some in the MILF have been focused primarily on creating a stronger Muslim culture in the area, the MILF has also been home to militant elements.

I was privileged to interview Sultan Acraman Saripada, the Muslim head of the Wao region and a person welcoming of Gawad Kalinga. The interview was conducted through the translation of Bailinda, a GK friend, herself a former MILF member.

130 of the area's poorest Muslim families are to be housed in the Wao GK village, and the environment during the Bayani Challenge was one of cooperation and friendship between Muslim and Christian. Many of the volunteers building are Christian, and for some of the poorest Muslim families this is a new face of Christianity being presented.

Though many of history's greatest religious malpractices have clearly been committed with non-religious motivations, it's clear that religion often bears the brunt of resentment for many of these acts, even in cases where this is not justifiable. Such is the case in an area like Wao, where in truth the cause of conflict was always about land, and the Christian religion of the colonists was by far a distant second.

According to this paper, both corporate and personal holdings have played their part in the dispossession of Mindanao's poorest, including both Christian over Muslim, Muslim over Muslim, and pretty much everyone over the poor indigents.

Back to Wao then.

In the case of Wao, Sultan Saripada is glad that his poorest and most understandably closed-minded families have seen another face of Christians. Where once colonists dispossessed families, today a Christian organization restores families to homes and land.

Where once the word Christian meant government forces who (in the case of another Muslim impression GK once found) always had guns and never prayed, the poor families of Wao have now seen Christians as people who are willing to work hand in hand for both justice and the alleviation of poverty.

It was certainly a privilege to interview Sultan Saripada, especially in a land where once it would have been quite unsafe for me to be (although there are apparently still some possible ambush danger points on some of the roads in the wider areas - a Sultan committed to peace and religious dialogue can't always prevent time-honoured gangster behaviour).

But most interesting was the Sultan's perspective on Gawad Kalinga and its role in his area's Muslim culture.

Paraphrasing (until I transcribe my notes), "GK is teaching us about life," he says, "First is Allah – God – second is our faith of Islam, and third is what GK is teaching our people. These are the values that our people can base life on in the future."

Interesting, especially in a Catholic country, and in light of the fact the Vatican listed interreligious dialogue as one of five components of evangelism...

The village in Wao was also the final destination of our Highway of Peace caravan, to be described in a later post. It's a very scenic village, surrounded by crop fields in a lush landscape flanked by distant mountain ranges.

A nice location for Christian and Muslim to come and build homes - and peace - together.

In the words of the Wao GK village community president:

"We thank Allah that the Highway of Peace will be held in our land. If anyone sees us, they will know that the relationship between Christians and Muslims are well. We thank you because Allah gave you the blessings to give to us. To our Christian brothers, we hope that you will love us we will also love you. We hope you will open the door for us Muslims and I ask the Muslims to open their door to Christians to love and help in all things, because that it the true Filipino."

- Ibrahim Balabagan, KB President, Wao, Lanao del Sur

Left: Natural abundance characteristic of Bukidnon. Pineapples are very cheap - beef and milk are both said to taste excellent due to the cows being fed pineapples.

The author, messy, hot, but feeling Wao...

Building Our GK House

2008-04-30T03:48:00.000-07:00

The first day of the Bayani Challenge began at 5:30am, immediately after the previous day spent almost entirely traveling, followed by a night's fitfull sleep on the hard ground. Previously unbeknownst to me, the sun is actually up at 5:30am.

The LGU kindly provided a local professional DJ to wake us each morning, and while one initially appreciates - if only slightly - such a professional alarm clock, I must admit my affection for the fellow waned somewhat as the week passed.

Each Bayani Challenge team has between seven to fourteen members (or more, or less), and is allocated to a site where a house is to be raised. In some cases, construction of the houses has already commenced, while in others, a plot of land is marked for beginning. Instructions are provided to the team leader on how to proceed, and one or two skilled workers are normally available to guide the work and carry out the most skilled/dangerous tasks.

Our site had the initial foundation ditch almost completed, and from this beginning we were hoping to complete a house by the week's end.The first few hours of the challenge feel quite daunting as you realise how much work is to be done, and how slowly the first parts seem to move. Not to mention, with the strenuous physical conditioning that office work naturally provides (or not), muscles start to be used and in some cases complain in new ways.

The morning sun feels remarkably hot, and I remember feeling discouraged when checking my watch to see it was only 8:30am on the first day. How on earth could we get through everything by the end of the week?

However, you start to become accustomed to things. Perspiration becomes a constant companion, only banished by the end-of-day bucket shower. The heat was mercifully restrained in the afternoon by shade provided by trees next to our construction site. I managed to escape the week with only a slightly sunburnt neck, and browner arms.

We spent a while that morning transfering hollow-blocks perhaps 50 metres to our lot. Our aim was to build the house wall four blocks high by the end of the day, after completing the foundation ditch and laying a measure of stones over the bare dirt.

As it turns out, my natural strengths don't really tend toward wall construction (well, we had more than enough builders too), but I found a satisfying task in digging our home's septic tank hole. This task provided plenty for us to get through, right up to the last day in Kitaotao.

The ground was too hard and our spades too flimsy to dig straight in, so I enjoyed a lot of time spent swinging a pick-axe. The only downside is the need to stop and shovel the loose dirt out every few minutes. Other more experienced team members began the wall, and by the end of the day we did indeed reach our goal - our house wall stood four blocks high.

We found new friends in the operator of one of the make-shift eateries residents set up to feed us. A resident and her three daughters provided smiling service and food that seems so much more satisfying after a hard day's construction than many of the meals you eat in a normal day. Each mealtime saw us gathering as a team for our meal of rice, two choices of meat / vegetables, and a glass of filtered water (one glass, second at extra cost).

Simple things like cola and bananas also become more fully appreciated when working under the sun all day. The business we all brought to the local residents must have been quite a boost on its own, such was the demand for cola, electrolyte drinks, energy drinks etc.

Bayani Challenge 2008 - Bukidnon, Mindanao

2008-04-29T23:45:00.000-07:00

For the last almost two weeks I've been largely out of internet circulation, working at the Gawad Kalinga Bayani Challenge 2008. This year's Bayani Challenge - Challenge for Heroes - was held in Bukidnon, part of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao.

Bukidnon

Like Cotabato, a nearby province and subject of earlier posts, Bukidnon is a province of great natural beauty and abundance, though the abundance is not enjoyed by all.

The province seems to be a mix of Muslim and Christian pockets, spaced out fairly well, along with some areas inhabited by the native Bukidnon population. The average population density in Bukidnon is 128 people per square kilometre (total around 1.1 million), according to Wikipedia. The province's total land area is 829,378 hectares (8, 293.78 square kilometers). It accounts for 59 percent (59%) of Northern Mindanao.

Adventures, part 1

We arrived at the airport at 5am or so on the morning of Sunday 20th of April, some of us more bleary-eyed than others. I stayed up the whole night rather than attempting to rise for the occasion.

Bukidnon is accessed through flying to Cagayan De Oro, capital city of the neighbouring coastal province of Misamis Oriental. From there we had a few hour van ride to Valencia, Bukidnon, a stop for a couple of hours for a welcome ceremony from the Valencua LGU (Local Government Unit), GK, and people, and another bus ride for a few more hours as we all split into teams going to build in the five different sites.

Our site was in an area called Kitaotao, quite far south in Bukidnon, and close to the province of Cotabato which I visited last December-January.

We were located perhaps 20 minutes from the town of Don Carlos, in a small and very friendly community.

The welcome was amazing as our caravan of bus, dumptruck, vans and cars arrived in Kitaotao. The LGU was incredibly supportive of GK's presence to build, providing an impressive contribution of hospitality and practical help, with the full support of the local residents, who turned out in force.

From top left, the welcome party at the gate, one of the food stands prepared by the local ladies for our arrival, and the stage area the LGU set up for the local population to give us nightly cultural song and dance presentations. Bottom row: The welcome gate we entered the site through on the first night, and the eatery we had our meals at (run by a local resident).

Bayani Summit, April 13th

2008-04-15T03:23:00.000-07:00

GK had a Bayani Assembly (assembly of heroes, essentially) at the University de Ateneo campus last weekend. Ateneo is up in Quezon City, the largest city in Manila. QC's a place that always feels a little too large for me, what with living in Makati where I walk everywhere much of the time. There's no way to walk around places in QC.

Ateneo is one of the most exclusive and highly-rated universities in the Philippines, and the campus was suitably attractive for such an institution. One of the things that struck me was how many parking areas there were for students, an indicator of the position of Ateneo in a country where around 50% of the population teeters around the poverty line.

Anyway, much of the Bayani Assembly, held in an outside covered gym area, was in tagalog. I did manage to catch that in one GK area volunteers recently achieved the feat of building 280 or so houses in a mere thirty days. A pretty impressive accomplishment.

A few photos from the Bayani Assembly (none of the Ateneo campus, sorry):

A Few More Trips to Intramuros

2008-04-15T02:27:00.000-07:00

The last week and a bit included a few more trips to the old Spanish City of Intramuros, to update the visa. I happened to notice that my visa was running out, so got the documents ready and headed down.

Unfortunately, upon my arrival I discovered I had left my passport in the photocopier back in my building. A wasted forty minute trip to Intramuros was then followed by a hasty retreat back home to secure the passport - still sitting in the photocopier.

Another trip the next day found me paying more than usual. A new certification has been introduced, which essentially means immigration checks its computer system to see if you're blacklisted, and if not prints out a page to say so, all for only 1,000php or so. Bargain.

Anyway, long story short, on the next trip down I forgot to take my receipt. After four trips to to Intramuros on four different days, I finally have my updated passport.

On the last day I had a little spare time, so decided to ride the LRT (Light Rail Transport) all the way to the end of the line, Monumento station in Caloocan. Caloocan is not a particularly nice area, nor is much of the area on the way there. The first GK village was started in Caloocan, if I remember correctly, and three people lost their lives during the earliest work in the slums.

The LRT weaves its way through Binondo (Chinatown), and past a host of stations before Monumento. On either side, buildings are decorated with rusted precariously hanging gutters, blackened sometimes-smashed windows, and orange-rusted air-conditioning grills.

Rain fell that day, and the cloud stayed dark even when the showers ceased. As the LRT progresses through the depressed-looking buildings, one can't help but be reminded of images of Gotham City (more erudite readers please insert a suitably more lofty cultural reference).

Stepping off in Monumento, I walked from the LRT station into the Gotesco Mall. Odds are, there'll be a mall close by, wherever you are, and this one is attached directly to the station. Ten minutes into the mall I had wandered into a shop, passing the time, when the power went out. We were plunged into total darkness, with an accompanying hum of the air-conditioning winding down. Perhaps ten seconds later a few emergency lights came on. Staff rolled the corrugated steel door down, preventing theft and keeping us all inside.

"Is this normal?" I asked a sales attendant.

"Yes sir, when it has been raining outside," she replied.

"How long does it normally take to come back on?"

"Maybe ten to twenty minutes."

For those twenty minutes I stuck close to the salespeople. The door was rolled up after a few minutes of preparation, and I was told I could leave if I wished to. I chose not to, preferring to stay inside with salespeople and guards than be the only white person wandering through a dark mall.

All's well that ends well. Power returned, I navigated my way outside and across the street to the return station, and back to Makati, still able to write a long blog post about not particularly much.