Fats, Vitamins and Minerals

Local (blog) discussions on Negroponte’s OLPC now center on “why aren’t we included in the list of beneficiaries”? And the “introspection” again dwell on the internalized negative image (i.e. corruption in the Philippine government). (See Technology section of Inq7.net) Such lines of debate need to be completely discarded if we are truly committed to social change.

Yes, change is part of culture and what becomes tradition, but can people discrimminate between what is good or harmful change?

Historically, the introduction of “progress” and “civilization” into the Philippines, particularly the American colonial period, was a very violent one and a very treacherous one. After the war, Manila was the most devastated city after Warsaw, Poland. And, during the period between the world wars and afterwards, the process of education and political and economic “reconstruction” conditioned the Filipino people and most especially its leaders to an uncritical mendicant way of thinking.

Before the US “installed” Ramon Magsaysay as president of the Philippines, the US was wary of the Asian perception of US infringment of Philippine sovereignty. The solution for Asia was “to present American ideas dressed in Asian clothes, coming from Asian mouths…” In the Philippines, the US has always been responsible for the building up of national leaders who can win the confidence of the poor masses while at the same time willing to accept American orders (they say “jump”, we ask “how high?”). Not only is the political leadership shaped into this mould, but the economic, education and cultural spheres as well. All in the name of “nation-building.” (See R. Constantino)

In the Philippies, we can say that we were indeed given tools and allowed to discrimminate (after several years of killings and violent indoctrination), thus, as Jesus Peralta talks about cultures, change and the national system:

“The national market system changed self-sustaining domestic economies; The national (alien) political structure infringed on traditional leadership forms; Western education system transcended ethnic boundaries and changed entire systems of ethnic knowledge, values, loyalties, perspectives, etc.; Official emphasis on a national language (Filipino (Tagalog) and English) degraded ethnic language; Mass media bombarded communities with consumer-oriented tastes and “needs”; Western religion destroyed entire belief systems and indigenous values that bind members of a community.” (See J. Peralta’s “Glimpses”)

This is why I cannot say that people now are intelligent enough and creative enough or even strong enough to discrimminate what is good and what is harmful. This is why we need to question many of our established ways of thinking - about education, culture, economy, politics.

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