Rice crisis

While driving home last Saturday night at 3 o’clock in the morning, reality struck hard when we passed an endless line of people queuing towards a shop that sells government subsidised rice. Rice production in the Philippines is low and prices are high. Because very little of the demanded rice is produced locally, rice has to be imported from elsewhere. Since subsequent governments have failed to develop a consistent policy on food sovereignty, the Arroyo administration is now obliged to subsidise imported rice to feed the people. As one journalist noted, nothing is as clear a sign of coming trouble as hungry people roaming the streets. One could argue that the government tries to alleviate hunger by subsidising rice, but ‘charity’ is always the privilege of those in power and people should not be dependent on the government for their daily rice. Because of the shortage, some people spend the night in front of the shop to make sure they can buy the 2 kilos of rice they are entitled to. The only question that popped into my head when seeing the endless queue was why people insist on eating so much rice if prices are so high. I was immediately embarrassed about the foolishness of my question and the shallowness of my knowledge. It goes to show that even when reality is at your fingertips you can still fail to grab it. It is one of the odd consequences of being here without working yet: reality is all around, but it only leeks through the cracks in your perception slowly. Let’s just say I was not too proud of myself being escorted home in a air-conditioned car after a night out and questioning the need of people to stand in line for rice. I guess everyone who works in development goes through moments like these, but I really want to resist becoming cynical about it.

Fragments of a Rainy Season...

When it rains in Manila it drizzles in Davao. Rainy season has started in the Philippines which means we often have heavy rainfalls around nightfall. Fortunately Mindanao is situated just outside the typhone belt so the storms are modest compared to the North of the country. Typhone Frank struck Luzon this week and we might be getting the tail of this 'bagio' somewhere between tonight and tomorrow morning. It seldom rains for hours on end here, but when it does the streets are flooded and people can have a hard time getting to work or getting home at the end of the day. And of course there is always damage to the houses that are built on low ground. Hope we get of easy with some 'taliksik' (drizzle).

Text Message

Text message from a special someone: "don't dream your life but live your dreams".

Vampires in Paradise

Somehow last week had a gloomy edge to it. During the weekend we visited Samal Island and took a motorcycle ride to visit the bat caves there. There is certainly something surreal about peering down a dark cave with 1.8 million bats shrouded in darkness while ten minutes later you are swimming in the hot water of a vanishing island under a radiant sun. Too bad the internet doesn’t allow to capture smells. I’d love to see your noses curl as you look over my shoulder into the bat cave…

But the bats were not the only winged monsters crossing my path this week. Several people told me about a peculiar creature called ‘aswang’ in Cebuano. Local belief has it that some people shift shapes during night time, take on wings and roam the neighbourhood in search of unborn babies. Pregnant women would sprinkle salt on the window panes to protect them from the aswang who has the power to suck the foetus out of a woman’s womb. Unable to enter the house, the aswang would scratch the outside walls of the house or circle the sky in search of blood. Like a vampire, the aswang only comes out at night. Aswangs take on a human shape during daytime, but one particular facial feature gives them away for what they really are: they have a harelip…

PS: for a less gloomy account of our trip to Samal, check out Lilli’s blog :)

Bienvenida at Kapwa.

Last Friday I visited the office of my NGO for the very first time. My colleagues-to-be had prepared a ‘bienvenida’ to welcome me in their staff. It goes without saying that I was pretty nervous about that. I had prepared a short speech in Cebuano and luckily my tongue didn’t turn into a knot too badly so I managed to stutter my way through the little Cebuano that I master now. Everyone was very kind to me and I’m looking forward to getting started at the office (by the way, I already have as many nicknames as there are people working at Kapwa :). A warm thank you to everyone!

Pagbantay sa mga langyaw! (beware of foreigners)

The picture above was taken from the ‘Philippinen Handbuch’, an extensive German guide to the Philippines. Sad but true the warning in the drawing is hardly exaggerated, certainly in Manila. But apart from that, the picture also gives a wonderful insight into cultural stereotypes. Look at the relative height of the different people in the drawing, for instance. Admittedly, Westerners tend to be taller than Filipinos, but this really looks like David meeting Goliath, no? The white man dominates the picture being almost twice the size of the Filipino. In order of importance, the other figures become smaller as they are presumed to have less power. The mother and her children are merely bystanders, the smallest of course being the little girl. Money and gifts change hands as the white man uses his wealth to get what he desires (it’s almost metaphorical for the West’s relationship with developing countries, and it’s clear where the power lies). Also note the size of the white man’s nose – having a big nose is exemplary of being foreign to Filipinos. Above all, the print draws a gloomy picture of one of the darkest sides of foreign presence in the Philippines… And yet there is something strangely comical about this drawing, no?

Cultural show at MTS

Talking about colours, last Tuesday I went to a cultural show with my classmates. The colours of the dresses and the movements of the dancers were amazingly vivid, but as I made a short clip of one of the dances, I'll let you be the judge of that...

The World in Colour

The world would be dull if it didn’t have colour. But I wonder how often we really enjoy colours without interpreting them in some way. Anthropologists have tried to study how strongly our senses are influenced by the culture we were born into. Tough question, that one. Is your red as vivid as mine or is mine dull compared to yours? Do we all see the same colours or do our cultures select them for us? Colours matter, even if you don’t want them to. This is certainly true when it comes to skin colour. One of the odd things about living in Davao is that you really stick out as a white person. I am getting used to it, but when I’m in the company of Filipinos they always draw my attention to the many heads turning my way and the many pairs of eyes seeking mine. It would be interesting to study the significance of the colour ‘white’ in the Philippines. White is ‘puti’ in Cebuano and as far as Filipinos are concerned, puti is beautiful. You would find 30-foot billboards advertising skin whitening creams, young Filipinas going out of their ways to stay out of the sun and mothers proudly smiling when their child is said to be ‘puti kaayo’ (very white). It is certainly strange to be in a city where my skin colour is so rarely seen and so quickly noticed. There is a sting to that, of course. On the one hand, there are certain advantages to being white. It is easy to make connections with important people (which I am not really comfortable with doing, by the way). But sometimes I wonder if for every door that opens there isn’t also one that closes at the same time… And there is always that tricky question: what does ‘white’ really mean in the Philippines?

"I am white thanks to Silka!"