Hamlet

This post is not about a famous Danish prince but about a sad phenomenon that is troubling some of the farmer communities in Mount Apo. A ‘hamlet’ is a temporary village to which upland farmers are forced to move due to rebel activity in the highlands. Since the 1970’s, rebels of the communist New People’s Army (NPA) have been operating in Mount Apo. Up till this day, they regularly clash with the army in the lowlands after which they redraw in the upland forests. When hiding uphill, the NPA demands food and shelter from the local farmers. The army, therefore, forcibly moves farmers to ‘hamlets’ to cut off the NPA from food supply.

For upland farmers, this situation is disastrous. Clashes between the army and the NPA often prevent them from harvesting their crops so that everything goes to waste. Since the farmers cannot stay overnight on their farms, they have to hike or ride horseback to their farms every morning and return in the afternoon. As the farmers are malnourished, the trip is tiring and tedious.

Kapwa is working in some of the areas where farmers are ‘hamleted’. In Sinoron, a very sad thing happened not so long ago. Kapwa had supplied rice seedlings to be planted in the uplands. Out of sheer hunger, some of the farmers had no choice but to cook the seedlings and eat them to be able to survive. Kapwa is now helping the farmers to also grow rubber trees to relieve poverty. Rubber trees don’t need much care and once they are full-grown, you can harvest every other day. There is no threat of harvests going to waste and it cannot feed rebels looking for food. Rubber is expensive, so it would bring a good price. It is a long-term investment, though, since rubber trees need some 7 years to grow.

Rainforest

The picture above is what the Philippines call 'protected rainforest'. When I first saw this kind of landscape, I was unaware that it used to be fully covered with trees. I kind of liked the soft rolling hills, the different shades of green. Now, I cannot look at it without feeling sad about what happens to the earth's natural heritage when governments fail to protect it. In fact, Mount Apo has nominally been protected area since 1936. Subsequent governments, however, have failed to adequately manage it and throughout the 20th century, roughly 70% of the forest cover was cut clear. Whenever I visit Mount Apo, the sight of the denuded slopes always leaves me speechless...

Hasta la vista, Kathy y Juan!

Last Saturday we said goodbye to Kathy and Juan, two Venezuelan volunteers for IID, an advocacy NGO closeby here in Matina. They brought some Latin charm to the place and we will certainly miss them. See you in Barcelona!

From left to right: Kathy, Juan, VJ, Gray, Doods, Lilli and me.

Ha?

The language situation in Davao City really fascinates me. It didn't take us too long to figure out that the language they taught us in the language school is not quite what the people speak on the street. People can understand us alright, but the other way around is often... nose bleed. 'Nose bleed' is the expression used to indicate that you don't understand what is being said...

Basically, most people speak a mix (sagol-sagol) of their mother tongue (one of the many dialects of Mindanao), Bisaya (a lingua franca in Mindanao) and English. Having grown up in a country where some linguists risk a heart attack while argueing about spelling rules, the complete absence of language standards here offers a funny contrast. It is very hard to find a book written in Bisaya, although that is the language everyone speaks. People on television speak 'Taglish', a combination of Tagalog and English. TV hosts start a sentence in Tagalog and finish it in English, or the other way around. 'Taglish' is the fancy way of talking ('social', they would say). It works in Bisaya too, which comes in handy. If you cannot remember a word, just use the English word and add a suffix.

Mag-order ta ug beer (let's order a beer)
Nag-enjoy ka? (are you having fun?)
Mag-send ka sa mga pictures? (will you send me the pictures?)

Filipino English is also a funny phenomenon. It is basically English with all the stresses in the wrong places, preferrably on the last syllable. It is interesting that 'World English' is appropriated in very different ways in different parts of the world. Since people hear Filipino English from early on, they find British, American or australian English somewhat weird. since I was taught British English in school, I am now the one with the accent :)

In Bisaya, there is no distinction between 'he' and 'she', both are referred to as 'siya'. Moreover, 'brother' and 'sister' are both translated as 'igsoon'. This can give some confusion, especially when Filipinos speak English and mix up 'he' and 'she' (My brother is 25 years old. She works in the mall') But whereas we may be surprised that Filipino languages do not distinguish sexes, Filipinos are really puzzled that we attribute a gender to things like a chair, a table... And come to think of it, that doesn't make much sense, does it?

It will take me a lot of time still to learn Bisaya well and I don't have much time to study it, but the more I get used to it, the more I appreciate it for its elegance and flexibility. But then again, the beneficiaries of my NGO all speak Bagobo. When I proudly address them in Bisaya, they tend to respond: "Whaw, you can speak Bisaya? That is really amazing! But you know what? It would be REALLY nice if you spoke Bagobo". Sus....

One thing that struck me this week is that I do no longer think in Dutch, my mother language. Since all I write is English and all my conversations are either in English or Bisaya, I have stopped ordering my thoughts in Dutch...

Life in Tudaya

New People's Park, Through the Eyes of Housemate Janice

The Gods Must Be Angry

Something very interesting happened last Sunday. I may have mentioned before that the controversial company Hedcor is building a hydro-electric power plant in the heart of Mount Apo. Last Sunday, one of their bulldozers slipt into the ravine during a landslide...

Why is this interesting? Well, Hedcor has been criticized for a number of things. Environmentalists fear that the construction of roads, the building of a dam and the divergence of water from the Sibulan and Baroring rivers are going to affect the whole ecological balance of Mount Apo. One of the consequences of clearing an area is that the soil becomes prone to erosion and land slides. Having one of your bulldozers topple into the ravine during heavy rain is - to say the least - bad publicity for a company that claims its project does not harm the environment.

The incident is also interesting because it strenghtens the conviction of the indigenous people that the gods are angry. Because Hedcor is building its plant on sacred ground, it is messing with the gospel and challenging the gods. The torn of the gods is called 'gaba' in Bagobo.

But the most interesting thing about the whole matter is how everyone sees his truth reflected in this event. Even if the whole matter is just a simple twist of faith, people will attribute meaning to it. It keeps the discussion alive, doesn't it? By the way, no one got hurt in the incident, fortunately.