water

There are two sports I think all Filipinos should know: arnis and diving.

As an archipelagic state, "a body of water studded by islands," the Philippine territory is comprised mostly of the ocean. It's not enough then to see our islands, one must go underwater to have a deeper appreciation of how our history, food, and culture have been shaped by our relationship with the seas.

Scuba diving with my teachers Chen and Louie Mencias (their blog is here) was a life-changing experience because I didn't expect to see so much color and life beneath the ocean surface: it was an encounter with a secret world that has always existed parallel to my terrestrial one. It came as no surprise when I found out later on that the Philippines has the greatest biodiversity- as well as the one most threatened with extinction- in the world: Galapagos multiplied seven times.

Here I am in Anilao with my lawyer-diving buddies Bebot Cabeguin, Agnes Bailen and Rolly Tulay. After a dive, we're flashing the hand-signal that divers use underwater to say "okay!"

Cast your on-line vote for Tubbataha Reefs National Park or Puerto Princesa Subterranean National Park in the New 7 Wonders of the World.

fire

More than anywhere else on earth, these five thousand miles of islands are where beauty and the beast most dramatically coexist, where you can see the most breathtaking scenery and at the same time enjoy, suffer, or derive vicarious pleasure from the risk that something- and who knows what? who knows when?- may happen. -Simon Winchester, "Beauty and the Beast," Condé Nast Traveler (1998)

In 1992, my high school classmate Dean and I went to Pampanga to integrate with farmers who survived the explosion of Pinatubo volcano. Dean was then an economics major in Harvard and I was taking the same course in the University of the Philippines. Dialectical materialism was the order of the day in UP and I wanted my friend to experience that discursive space. It was the volcano of social ferment that we explored then- the force that explodes now and then to radically change society whenever a ruling class loses its moral ascendancy and overstays its welcome. (Its terrible fire by the way is what Rep. Mikey Arroyo, in his bid for Constitutional change, is playing with.)

We didn't go to the volcano itself, but we did see a new landscape, a moonscape, that geology had created: what were once towns and rice fields were covered with gray ash called lahar.

When a Polish friend visited recently I decided to take him on an exploration of Filipino culture as a product of this geological marvel. Like the Philippines, Poland never surrendered its sense of nationhood through centuries of invasions by neighboring states such as Sweden, Russia, Prussia, and Austria. Its capital Warsaw was the most bombed city after World War II (our capital Manila was the second). In 1989, a mere three years after we overthrew a dictatorship through People Power, the Poles overthrew the yoke of communist oppression through open elections. We would eat spicy sisig, finely diced cheeks of pig with garlic, onion, and siling labuyo (native chilies). We would step on the balcony in Malacanang Palace where Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos waved to supporters for the last time before being ejected to exile. At the heart of this journey, however, would be a physical volcano: I wanted us to see the crater lake of Pinatubo and swim in the entrance to the center of the earth.

It was a three-hour trek past peaks of compressed gray ash, now covered with young forests. Following the course of an old river, we encountered groups of three or five Aeta children who frolicked in the water. Where did they live? How did they find their way back to their nomadic tribe? Moving forward, we travelled further and further back, to the time when fire conspired with the other elements to create these islands, rich in gold, flora and fauna. Short of breath, knees engorged with blood, and soaking wet from intermittent showers, we were finally rewarded with a vista of luminous green waters that lit Pinatubo's mouth, our faces, and the cloudy sky. Now where was that bottle of Żubrówka? The occasion deserved liquid fire.

Aside from Pinatubo, which in 1991 created the second largest eruption of the 20th century, other volcano must-sees in the Philippines are Taal, the world's smallest active volcano, and fickle and fiery Mayon, still the world's most perfect cone. Volcano aficionados may then complete the circuit by seeing the 49 others- a complete list is here. Thanks to Grace Nono for the song "1996 Bayani Ka!"

performative

Since elementary school, I've believed in degrees of friendship: best friends, close friends, acquaintances. I don't know the category to which my relationships with former colleagues in Collegian belong- there were times when we even got sick of and stopped talking to each other. Today however I feel I am most myself around them. Having written, debated, eaten, and semi-lived with each other for many years, we know each other's core humanity and divinity very well.

Some of us had the chance to have a mini-reunion recently in Mag:Net for the launch of Mads Bajarias' first self-published collection of poetry.

The poetry reading was especially memorable because of the readers' choices and interpretation of Mads' poems: the most daring one suddenly shot cream of mushroom on everyone's faces, giving a totally different dimension to the fellatic/ cunnilingual, one-line poem, "creamish." Like Roland Barthes said- or did not say- the reader replaces the writer: "The death of the writer is the birth of the reader."

Taking my cue from the readers/writers before me, I interpreted two poems. The first, "the future is shaped like a pinata," is about the most universal form of the triangle:

My girlfriend
Says
That I'd probably die
With the sound
Of your name on my lips

That I'm obsessed
With you. This is what she tells me...

The second poem, "watching you fast asleep," is about a less pointed triangle:

This is how happiness happens:
next to your sleeping form I am a crumpled stone...

Both advocates and critics of the paradigm-shifting Reproductive Health Bill that Congress is about to pass would do well to read Mads' poems that brim with honesty. To buy copies of the book, write to madsbajarias@gmail.com. Thanks to Boojie Basilio for the above photo.

pursuit of happiness

A number of friends have asked me how the Philippine economy is doing right now. In response, I like to borrow a brilliant phrase from an official of S&P about how the country is an island of calm amidst the global financial crisis. As my economics professor Solita Monsod has pointed out, the Philippine economic portfolio is diversified and not heavily dependent on any one country. The economy continues to grow, the employment rate is increasing, inflation at 11.2% is manageable, and remittances are projected to increase (the Central Bank's economic indicators are here). For all her well-known faults, President Arroyo has done an excellent job as the national cheerleader by focusing on the economy and keeping business people calm and optimistic. Had laws allowed it, I think that she and future Presidents deserve the higher salary that was proposed a couple of weeks ago, both as a means to avoid corruption and an incentive for well-qualified people to run for the position (Singapore provides a successful model for this, with its Prime Minister now earning five times more than the US President).

During challenging times such as these, I get inspiration from cross-country running. It's both an individual and a team sport, since you draw strength from within yourself and your teammates, sometimes even adversaries against whom you pace yourself. In high school, to keep the team motivated during the run, Coach Ernie liked to say, "Keep running! You don't know who's going to win until someone reaches the finish line." Everyone had to run the same distance and face the same obstacles and therefore had the same chance of winning. Here are lines of a poem that best express the spirit of this sport, an attitude that can be applied to all aspects of one's life:

Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger or faster man,
But sooner or later the man who wins
Is the man who thinks he can.

- Walter Wintle, "Thinking"


Thanks to Erik Santos for the song "This is the Moment."