Hello, Morocco!

Hello, Morocco!

Updated 11:23pm (Mla time) Nov 29, 2004
By Jimenez-David Rina
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the November 30, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

MARRAKESH, Morocco -- The place names alone were enough to stir excitement: Casablanca, Ourzazate, Merzouga, Erfoud, Fez, Rabat and, of course, Marrakesh. When I found out that I had won a second time as "Best Columnist" of the Global Media Awards, the best part was discovering that the prize this time was a study tour of Morocco, a country I had never visited, in a part of the world, Northern Africa, that I had only set foot on once before.

Downloading the itinerary, as well as travel guides from sites like Lonely Planet, I felt my anticipation building up even more. Planned for our group, consisting of the winners of this year's awards, officers and board members of the Population Institute, which administers the awards, and others who signed up for the study tour, is a varied menu of Moroccan experiences. A night spent in a Bedouin tent, followed by a "typical Berber breakfast." Dinner in Marrakesh's Palm Grove, the setting, so the guidebook says, of the 1001 Nights. A drive through the twisting roadways of the Atlas mountains, which gleam white with their cap of snow over Marrakesh. Lunch in a seaside restaurant in Casablanca, by the Atlantic Ocean.

Truly, there is much to look forward to on this trip, to see, absorb and strive to capture with the puny power of words. And though I have been in Morocco for just over a day, already, I feel the magic beckoning.

* * *

JUST to give us our bearings, our guide Aziz brought us around Marrakesh, pointing out the sights and giving us a sweeping overview of Moroccan history.

One's immediate impression of the city, the third largest in Morocco, is how it seems to have risen out of the red earth of the desert. All the buildings, even the hotels and residences, are reddish ochre, by royal decree. When the Berbers, who founded Morocco and comprise the majority of its people, built this former royal capital, they constructed their homes out of the red clay, seeing no need to embellish the structures with any paint or decoration. Driving through the posh Avenue de France, lined with five-star hotels and modern shopping centers, and then through the poorer areas of the city, clustered around the ramparts of the ancient capital, the visitor's strongest impression is of an ochre landscape, as if the city sprung organically from the soil it settles on. The unremitting flatness of the scenery is accentuated by the fact that there are no high-rises. By law, no building in Marrakesh may be built taller than the Minaret of Koutoubia, the spiritual and cultural heart of the city, thus limiting all construction to about five stories.

The dreariness of the desert landscape is relieved by greenery, mostly date palms, of which, so said our guide, there are about five million around Morocco, with a million found in Marrakesh -- planted on traffic islands and sidewalks, brightening up household gardens, and growing in delightful profusion in the famed Palmeraie or Palm Groves. (Many of the date palms are now looking the worse for wear, blighted by a virus that has attacked some species.) We also drove through a section of the magnificent Agdal orchards that date back to the 12th century, planted to fruit trees like oranges, figs, pomegranates and olives. It's olive harvest time, and the olives harvested from the publicly-owned orchard will be auctioned off, the proceeds to go into funding public works projects.

* * *

BUT even a cursory "orientation" drive through Marrakesh still demands a stop at the justly world-famous Place Djemaa el-Fina, a huge square in the center of the walled old city. As Lonely Planet describes it: "Rows of open-air food stalls are set up here and mouth-watering aromas fill the air. Jugglers, storytellers, snake charmers, magicians, acrobats and assorted benign lunatics take over the rest of the space."

Just as the blazing sun plunged the city into darkness, we alighted from our bus and walked through a paved walkway, lined with tea shops where men clustered around outside tables, glasses of mint tea in front of them. There were also stalls peddling all sorts of merchandise and ubiquitous signs announcing establishments offering "Internet Cyber."

Then we came upon the square itself, filled now with food stalls over which presided men in clean white lab coats. A short walk through the stalls was itself an introductory course on Moroccan cuisine: boiled snails sold by the bowl (I remember an episode of "The Amazing Race" requiring contestants to sell this delicacy), sheep's heads and hoofs roasted over roaring fires, barbecued beef and mutton, a savory soup that seemed to be the most popular item, judging from the capacity crowd filling up the benches of one stall, and a whole array of cut up vegetables and fruits, from which customers could pick and choose to make up their own salads.

* * *

WE WERE too preoccupied following Aziz as he made his crooked way through the crowds to inquire after fortune tellers and snake charmers. But we did spot tribesmen arrayed in their finery of rough red robes and metal adornments. Aziz warned us that before we even took a picture of them, much less posed with them, we should be prepared to pay, though we ran the risk, he said, of having these poseurs chase us around the square, demanding for more payment, if they were unhappy with the amount given.

We also came upon a pair of "belly dancers," attended by musicians and dressed in soft flowing robes, their faces covered. They didn't seem to be swaying so gracefully, didn't have hips or bellies to speak of, and appeared to be taller than most of the women walking by. One of us said she locked eyes with one of the "dancers" and she could swear he was a man.

Maybe we had found our benign lunatics.

Two homecomings

Two homecomings

Updated 05:09am (Mla time) Nov 28, 2004
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the November 28, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


THE SUBDUED public reaction and how the media "behaved" this time around made a striking difference between the homecomings of Angelito Nayan and Angelo de la Cruz.

Of course, De la Cruz enjoyed the "distinction" of being the first Filipino to be held hostage abroad by Islamic militants; so the interest, concern and apprehension over his fate were naturally that much more intense and emotional. But Nayan was just the second, and however jaded we Filipinos may have become to disasters abroad involving our countryfolk, I don't think we could lose our sense of empathy so quickly. Besides, there is still poor Roberto Tarongoy being held in Iraq, and people are just as concerned about his fate.

No, I don't think it was simply a matter of "billing" that would explain why there was no fevered elbowing among press photographers and mob scenes at the airport when Nayan deplaned. Neither was there a wild exchange of accusations of thievery and libel suits between the two broadcast giants. And the reason for this was not because the media didn't care about one more Pinoy hostage successfully sprung from his captors. They did care, but they weren't allowed to run rampage in their coverage.

We need only to look back to the fevered and unruly welcome that De la Cruz received, and to the "saturation" media coverage inflicted on his family and his neighborhood during his ordeal. In contrast, Nayan's family and neighbors were allowed to keep vigil in peace and quiet, their privacy respected, even to the day of his arrival when he read a prepared statement and then refused to entertain any more questions from a curious media.

It took government intervention, in the persons of two women Cabinet members -- Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas and Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman -- before De la Cruz's besieged wife, father and children could find sanctuary from the glare of media scrutiny. And even then, the President was assailed for keeping the De la Cruzes away from the public eye, and for ordering a clamp down on information regarding the very delicate negotiations for Angelo de la Cruz's release.


* * *

IN NAYAN'S case, his family and neighbors in the Las Piñas subdivision took it upon themselves to impose their own news "blackout." His family appointed a spokesperson -- a sister of his if I remember right -- who exclusively dealt with the media, sparing Angelito's parents. His neighbors by and large kept quiet, though the intrepid TV crews managed to get video interviews with a few, who kept to general platitudes about the hostaged diplomat.

Having been sent to Afghanistan by the United Nations, Nayan was, of course, sheltered by UN security and protocol upon his release. But he also seemed quite prepared to deal with the scrutiny. When a Channel 7 reporter, with Nayan on the same flight from Dubai to Manila, approached him for a sneak interview, the young diplomat begged off, saying quite pleasantly that he wanted to concentrate on writing his arrival speech. Now that's a diplomat for you.

On hindsight, there was no way De la Cruz, his family or his neighbors could have prepared themselves for the onslaught of the media, and the sudden attention of local and national officials, which followed in the wake of his kidnapping. But there is also the socio-economic factor. Being poor and powerless, there was no way the barangay folk could have known how to deal with the demands of the media on their own terms. They might not even have been aware that they had the right to refuse to entertain the prying reporters.


* * *

IN CONTRAST, it's pretty obvious the Nayans were prepared to deal with the situation. Perhaps, they had already learned from the experience of De la Cruz and his family. Certainly, Nayan's status as a diplomat may have given them access to advice and pointers on how to preserve their privacy and dignity. And, given their level of educational attainment and economic security, they had enough self-confidence to turn away unwanted media attention, and to resist the siren call of short-term celebrity. I hope Nayan and his family don't prove me wrong.

Which just goes to show that the media are not that formidable a force. You can say no to reporters and to people in my profession, even if they train blinding spotlights on your face. Of course, being a journalist and thus dependent on the goodwill of others and their willingness to give me the time of day, I should hope that not too many people would be as savvy as Nayan and his family in dealing with our constant questions and probing interest.

But I can't help but cheer for them. There is something to be said at seeing your colleagues toe the line, giving a person who's just gone through a most harrowing experience the space and privacy to recover and regain his bearing, and respecting the preference of his family and community to keep their worries to themselves.


* * *

IT was really heartening to hear Nayan remind his country and the rest of the world of the continuing plight of Tarongoy, who remains a captive in Iraq.

Perhaps, it's not too late for the local media to turn their white-hot attention once more to Tarongoy and his worried family. Given that he is the sole remaining Pinoy hostage in a foreign land, Tarongoy and the family he left behind will have to brace themselves for the rapacious coverage of a media hungry for the next big story.

Even as we pray for Tarongoy's imminent release, let's also pray that he and his family survive the renewed media attention.

What a Dame!

What a Dame!

Updated 01:05am (Mla time) Nov 27, 2004
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the November 27, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


WHEN she was named to the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth in 1988, thereby earning for herself the title of "Dame," The Body Shop founder and chair Anita Roddick says, it provoked not respect and honor from her family, but endless jokes and ribbing. Even her friends got into the picture, she complains, calling her up and singing to her: "There ain't nothing like a daaamme..."

"I don't get any respect from them," she exclaims, laughing.

Since letting go of hands-on management of The Body Shop, Dame Anita has spent much of her time traveling around the world and espousing a wide range of causes from fair trade to environmental protection, from the politics of water to the ideology driving wars, writing and editing a number of books as well as creating content for two websites devoted to her personal causes.

Asked if her husband Gordon and their two daughters don't mind the time and energy she devotes to global politics, she smiles and shakes her head vigorously. "They're exactly like me," she says, from which one can infer that they are as direct and blunt as she, with an instinctive sense of activism that tells her she must do "something" wherever she may encounter human suffering and injustice.

Her recent talk before the British Chamber of Commerce was entitled "Business as Unusual," promising her audience, "I will entertain you." More than that, she may have also discomfited them. "Rarely has business been celebrated and lauded as it is today," she began. "It's the creator of jobs, technological innovation and wealth. It is more creative and 'can turn on a dime' quicker than any other institution. It's no longer seen as the load-bearer of an oppressive capitalism -- it's the embodiment of all progress."

And yet, as can be expected from this maverick of a "Dame," there were more caveats than kudos to business.

* * *

"EVERYONE agrees on one important thing: business is now entering centre stage," she said later on in her presentation. "It is faster, more creative and wealthier than governments -- particularly the governments in developing nations who depend upon their expertise-but if it comes with no moral sympathy, or honourable code of behaviour, God help us all."

A hallmark of the way The Body Shop does business is its ability to draw customers into the various causes that the firm has supported, from the prevention of domestic violence to a ban on animal testing. As Roddick puts it: "Campaigning is our point of difference and separates The Body Shop from most other companies."

But no other issue draws as much outrage from the public, notes Roddick, than child labor, which she bluntly calls slavery. "How are we all contributing to this?" she asks her business audience. "It is our insistence on price competition. This competition makes everyone look at ways of cutting costs, and one of the easiest ways to do this is to use child labor."

* * *

DAME Anita has little patience for cynics who claim her and The Body Shop's activism is little more than a marketing tool. "Human rights and poverty aren't trendy at all," she scoffs. "If campaigning on these issues really gave us a marketing edge, then why don't they copy it?"

At a time when The Body Shop was outgrowing its beginnings as a small chain of neighborhood stores and expanding across the globe, Roddick forsook the advice of experts and ramped-up the company's espousal of controversial causes.

These days, her critique extends beyond unethical corporate practices to questioning the very system that breeds such unethical behavior. "Business must show more developed emotions than fear and greed," she insists.

In her talk, Roddick urged companies to go beyond the comfort provided by talk of "corporate social responsibility." "All too often," she said, corporate social responsibility "has been seen as a way of preserving the status quo -- to lend a brand the aura of morality -- rather than re-think how the company exists in the wider community." But the problem with looking at a firm's social responsibility merely as an institutionalized form of charity, is that it "doesn't seem to be able to stand up against the demands of the markets. Or the main measure of success for CEOs, which is usually now share price."

* * *

DECLARES Dame Anita: "Corporate social responsibility is simply not going to develop into anything worthwhile unless there is some reform of the financial system. So that bold ethical experiments do not actually make things worse for the companies trying them out."

Will this woman, with her wild hair and plainspoken manner, with her wide embrace for the world's downtrodden, finally succeed in overturning the way capitalism works? The odds don't seem to be in her favor, for how can she succeed where socialism and communism have not, and where social reformers through the decades have been met only with cynicism and pity?

Then again, who would have thought a young housewife, desperate for a way to support herself and her children while her husband spent two years living out a dream to ride on horseback through South America, would emerge as a businesswoman of uncanny vision who virtually created her own market? Who would have thought The Body Shop would become the global brand it is today?

Asked about any dreams she may still harbor, Dame Anita mentions her 90-year-old mother who is terminally ill and has her funeral all planned, including having her ashes go up in smoke as fireworks. "She wants us to remember her life as one filled with color and festivity," Roddick explains.

And is she looking forward to "going" in the same way? "Oh, my plans are even more fun and funnier!" And somehow, one knows this Dame will pull it off.

Meeting Dame Anita

Meeting Dame Anita

Updated 02:05am (Mla time) Nov 26, 2004
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the November 26, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


ONE would think the founder and symbol of a cosmetics and skin care company would take care not to appear in public unless her hair was coiffed and shellacked to perfection, she was clothed only in the latest and poshest fashion, and her face was made-up, buffed and polished to within an inch of her life.

But such is not the way of Dame Anita Roddick, who with her husband Gordon founded The Body Shop in 1976 in Sussex, England, and now serves as the inspiration and conscience of a global retail giant with almost 2,000 stores worldwide. Visiting the country for the first time since her last visit eight years ago, she sits through press interviews in black slacks, a simple blouse and soft flats. Her hair is a wiry tangle that nearly engulfs her face, which seems not to bear a hint of makeup other than face powder. For the cocktails hosted by British Ambassador Paul Dimond and the luncheon where she addressed about 200 members of the British Chamber of Commerce, as well as movers and shakers in the worlds of Philippine business, civil society and media, Dame Anita's only concession to the occasion was to tie her hair up in a loose chignon.

She not only walks the talk, she looks it. As she wrote in her first book "Body and Soul," which tells the story of The Body Shop as well as expounds on her business and social philosophies: "To me the whole notion of a 'beauty' business is profoundly disturbing. What is beauty? I believe beauty is about vivaciousness and energy and commitment and self-esteem, rather than some ideal arrangement of limbs or facial features as celebrated in fashion magazines and beauty pageants." And by her standards Roddick is the idealization of beauty, for she is undoubtedly vivacious, energetic, and committed. As for self-esteem, well, it fairly leaps out of her and grabs everyone she encounters.

* * *

"BLOODY amazing" is how Roddick describes the success of The Body Shop in the Philippines and around the globe.

"It still amazes me," she said in an interview, "because we started with what was essentially a European concept and only later did we discover that there are common denominators among women (and men) wherever they are."

Among these common denominators must have been a desire for skin care products that weren't extravagantly packaged and didn't promise impossible cures, and used natural organic ingredients that, moreover, weren't tested on animals. Perhaps timing also had a lot to do with The Body Shop's success, for the late 1970s was also marked by the "trickling down," as it were, to the general public of such values espoused by the social movements of the 1960s as concern for the environment, honesty in marketing, and simplicity in one's lifestyle.

The Body Shop's global success is even more amazing considering that, following the Roddicks' dictum, the company has never embarked on an advertising campaign, that is, advertising that goes beyond its own premises and equipment. Its success as a brand is remarkable because it's a success created mainly out of word-of-mouth.

Vincent Muñoz, whose family holds the franchise for The Body Shop in the Philippines, says he himself was surprised by the great popularity of the brand locally. There are 36 outlets around the country, some of them in provincial capitals, the latest one in Batangas. Four more are scheduled to open before the year ends. One factor that figured in Muñoz's favor over the other Filipino franchise applicants who numbered over a hundred, I heard, was his willingness to take on the "activist" role that has been part and parcel of The Body Shop's marketing and business philosophy.

* * *

WHEN I asked Dame Anita where she draws this energy and passion not just for business but for "changing the world," she recalls a phrase someone shared with her: "Life isn't a dress rehearsal. If you're not the sort who believes in an afterlife, or a higher life, then you have to realize that this life is the only one you'll live. You live your life by your actions, your life will be measured by what you have done, not by what you always wanted to do."

She is perhaps the most famous and successful British businesswoman, and Roddick says, that given her "energy, resources and network, to do nothing (with these) would be tantamount to a sin."

It was when her "little" business became the runaway success that it is that Roddick first realized that she could use her company's reach and resources "to tackle the big issues like trade, social justice and human rights." But unlike most businesses that claim to embrace "corporate social responsibility" but only as an "extracurricular" activity that has nothing to do with internal arrangements and making shareholders happy, The Body Shop began its social involvement by looking after its own house, taking care of employees and later, tailoring their internal trade arrangements.

* * *

BELIEVING that "the workplace is a community," Roddick says her first "big idea" was to transform The Body Shop's original factories and offices into "a place of wonderment and delight."

Facing the demands of a largely female staff under the age of 27, Roddick also set up a Child Development Center, "one of the first to be attached to the workplace" for the young children of employees. Childcare support for employees was not seen as an additional "burden" for the corporation or a "perk" for employees. Rather, says Roddick, "we viewed childcare as absolutely essential for the business."

And from looking after their own, it was but a short hop for Roddick to begin thinking of ways by which the business could reach out to the larger community. And it was this resolve to build partnerships with communities that has become The Body Shop's trademark.

Literary franchises

Literary franchises

Updated 04:59am (Mla time) Nov 21, 2004
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the November 21, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


IT was Bibeth Orteza who first alerted me to a literary franchise that is apparently taking the reading world by storm. "You must look for this guy Fforde," said Bibeth. "He writes mysteries set inside famous books and literary characters make an appearance. Nakakatuwa!"

Bibeth's enthusiastic recommendation triggered a memory: a review of a book called "Something Rotten" where a literary detective works with, among others, Hamlet the Prince of Denmark. I remember reading the rave review and telling myself I should get hold of a copy.

It turns out that "Something Rotten" is the latest-and heftiest-volume of Jasper Fforde's novels about Thursday Next, who at the start of "Something Rotten" is the head of Jurisfiction, "the policing agency that operates within fiction to safeguard the stability of the written word."

Having just finished this latest installment, I can assure potential readers that you can begin with "Something Rotten" and still follow the crooked chronology of Thursday's voyages through the world of fiction and of Swindon, the English city that is her temporal home. In this one volume alone, readers travel back and forth and even sideways through time, even as characters from the past, present and future materialize and disappear with little notice or reason.

Still, "Something Rotten" is not the mess it may appear to be. There is method in Fforde's madness, and order in the "alternate" reality he creates within the world of Thursday Next, her family, friends, workmates and enemies. Though I have read only one in the series of four (so far) books, I can promise that people who love books, who take fictional characters to heart, and who gladly surrender themselves to the invented reality that authors beguile us with, will find plenty to laugh at, empathize with and be touched by.


* * *

"SOMETHING ROTTEN" and the other Thursday Next novels should be on the reading list of every literature major, and of every caring reader for that matter. Though one gets the sense that Fford is showing off, it's fairly obvious that he regards the written word, but especially fiction, with fondness and familiarity. And characters, even in the most revered of classics, are to him not icons but real people, with real people's weaknesses, foolishness and insecurities.

In "Something Rotten," Hamlet is allowed to step out of his play so he could "see for himself" if it was true that he was being "misrepresented as something of a 'ditherer' in the Outland." While "fictional characters are rarely troubled by public perception," the author notes, "Hamlet would worry about having nothing to worry about if he had nothing to worry about." Unfortunately, the world Hamlet visits is currently in the grip of anti-Danish fever so the Prince of Denmark must pass himself off as Thursday's "Cousin Eddie." A most amusing portion is when Thursday and Hamlet drop by Swindon's version of Starbucks and the prince is caught in the horns of a dilemma: "To espresso or to latte, that is the question...whether 'tis tastier on the palate to choose white mocha over plain, or to take a cup and go..."

I am, by the way, doing a bit of time-shifting myself through Fforde's world, having started with the last book and getting ready to read the second volume, "Lost in a Good Book." I'll have to take a chance on making sense of Thursday Next's history when I read through "The Eyre Affair" and "The Well of Lost Plots," but of one thing I'm sure: I'll have great fun in the process.


* * *

ANOTHER literary franchise worth tracking is the "No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" series, set in Botswana and featuring the plucky and utterly sensible Precious Ramotswe, "Botswana's only-and finest-female private detective."

The series is authored by Alexander McCall Smith, a professor of medical law in Scotland and noted bioethicist who was born in Zimbabwe and lived for a spell in Botswana. His fondness for the land of his childhood is quite obvious. He paints Precious and her people with a simplicity that rarely crosses the line into condescension.

When her father dies and leaves her with an inheritance of a herd of cattle, which in Botswana is considered good as gold, Precious decides it's time to follow her dreams, which is to be a private detective even if she must send for a "manual on detection" to acquaint herself with the basics of the trade. Selling off her father's cattle and buying a small house just outside her village's boundary to house her agency, Mma Ramotswe establishes herself as her country's first woman private eye, with her first (and only) employee, the redoubtable Mma Makutsi, who finished at the top of her secretarial class but finds potential employers are more interested in a woman's looks rather than her typing skills.


* * *

I HAD the good fortune of following the series in the right order, beginning with "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency," and the sequel, "Tears of the Giraffe," both books accompanying me through long plane voyages to and from London. I also have with me an unopened copy of the third book in the series, "Morality for Beautiful Girls," which the blurbs say has to do with mysterious mishaps during a beauty contest.

Each book consists of a series of mysteries and investigations that Precious is commissioned to solve or at least embark on, with plenty of help from her ever-reliable fianc‚, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni. But it is not just the suspense or intrigue that keeps one enthralled with this fictional franchise set in Africa. It is, rather, the humanity and humility of the village folk, their simple take on the world, and their commonsensical views on life, that keep us interested in the goings-on at the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency.

Population and poverty

Population and poverty

Updated 00:54am (Mla time) Nov 20, 2004
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the November 20, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


TO CAP a forum on population and poverty held at the Senate Thursday, Sen. Rodolfo Biazon, who co-chairs the Philippine Legislators Committee on Population and Development (PLCPD), told the story of a widow with five children, the eldest of whom was just seven at the time of her husband's death.

Barely able to provide for herself and her children after her husband, a baker, passed away, the widow was forced to choose who among her children could get a college education, and ended up choosing only two, "whom maybe she recognized as having more gray matter between their ears." But even poverty could not deter the other children from achieving their own dreams. One of the "excluded" three decided to work to earn money for tuition. He left home and lived with relatives in the city, studying and working as a laundry boy, accepting washing chores from students in nearby colleges. The hardworking young man was then able to enter the Philippine Military Academy and carved out a career for himself in the Marines. After serving a stint as AFP chief of staff, he went on to forge a new career in politics.

He is, of course, Senator Biazon himself.

The senator was moved to tell the story mainly in response to contentions made at the forum that a large family does not necessarily doom a family to poverty. While his story might prove the contention right, Biazon asked everyone to "think of the pain such a situation creates." When parents have more children than they have the resources or ability to raise properly, he said, the whole family suffers.

* * *

IT was Dr. Roberto de Vera, of the School of Economics of the University of Asia and the Pacific, who challenged the links that population management adherents have made between population size and poverty. The title of his presentation said it all: "Too Many People Doesn't Cause Poverty, Bad Governance and Policies Do."

De Vera mentioned eight "assertions" made by population management proponents and then set out to debunk each of them. One was that "higher population densities lead to lower incomes per person." He compared the population density of the Philippines with those of Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea, all of which are denser with less natural resources but which report higher average per capita income.

The economics professor asserted that "there is no causation between population growth and economic decline." While "there may be a link," he said, population growth cannot be said to be "guilty" of causing poverty. When people argue that the Philippine population is growing too fast for the government to cope with the demand for basic services, De Vera said they are missing the point because what is needed is not fewer births but rather "good governance and well-implemented economic policies." He said the "classroom gap," for instance, could be closed in an instant if only the estimated P132 billion a year lost to corruption were recovered.

* * *

MY main beef with De Vera's presentation was that he was setting up a "straw man," simplifying an argument so he could take potshots at it.

To be fair, economists calling for a more rational and indeed aggressive population management policy have never said that population size or growth alone lies at the root of our economy's underperformance and the country's entrenched poverty. I remember one study by a team from the UP School of Economics that put the "impact" of population growth on development at 20 percent.

De Vera takes an argument raised by those taking the opposite position then looks for evidence that would contradict it. For instance, on the assertion that "larger families are poorer," De Vera admits that national figures do support this contention but looks for other possible causes for the poverty of families. He finds this in a table that shows that families where the "head of family" has not finished high school are poorer than families headed by a parent/s who at least had a secondary education.

Well, duh. Of course, families whose income-earners have only rudimentary education will be poorer because they will be able to find only work that pays poorly. But if, say, a father who didn't finish high school had only two children, it could be safe to say that those two children would at least be better fed, better clothed and better educated than if they had to share their father's meager income with, say, four other siblings.

If we accept De Vera's method of reasoning, then we could also offer other factors for a family's poverty, including a parent's vices, such as gambling or drugs.

* * *

PRESENTING the other side of the picture was Dr. Nimfa Ogena, director of the UP Population Institute, who cited longitudinal data (that is, gathered across a number of years) that showed that indeed "vulnerability to poverty increases with increasing family size."

She also cited a study made by UP economists, Dr. Ernesto Pernia among them, that compares the patterns of economic development and population growth of the Philippines and Thailand, which in the 1970s stood at fairly equal levels in terms of population size and economic performance. Today, Thailand enjoys double the Philippines' economic growth rate while the Philippines reports double the population growth rate of Thailand.

The UP study also projected economic scenarios of "what could have been" had the Philippines followed the Thai model of population management. If we had followed the Thai model, said Ogena, the Philippines could be saving as much as P52 billion on health care costs, and as much as P128 billion on education.

As Biazon reminded the audience: "Think of the pain."

A contraceptive for men

A contraceptive for men

Updated 03:21am (Mla time) Nov 19, 2004
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the November 19, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


AT THE HEIGHT of the furor over contraception and family planning in the 1970s, a family planning organization came out with a famous poster that showed a man with an enormous pregnant belly standing in profile, with the headline: "What if men got pregnant?"

The implication, of course, was that if men could get pregnant, they would not only wholeheartedly support (and practice) family planning, they would also use all their power and resources to ensure more and better research into human reproduction, and fight tooth and nail to make sure they could gain access to all forms of contraception and maybe even abortion.

A TV ad, produced by Campaigns and Grey for the Foundation for Philippine Adolescents and directed by Sockie Fernandez, picks up on the theme, with three "pregnant" men seriously discussing their need of and right to reproductive health services.

Why the need to turn the tables on men? Because, as research findings show, the majority of men believe that preventing a pregnancy is a woman's concern since only women get pregnant. Some husbands would even go so far as prevent their wives from using contraception for fear that with the women no longer at risk of pregnancy, they would be emboldened to embark on extra-marital affairs. (Based on the men's own attitudes, perhaps?)

The belief that only women worry about preventing pregnancy has had serious implications on health policies and research. Governments, for instance, have historically targeted women as the main clientele for family planning and other reproductive health services, believing that men have no need for or interest in these matters. Most methods of family planning that have been developed over the last 50 years have also been targeted at female users, with men having only a limited number of methods to choose from: the condom, vasectomy, and abstention from sex.

* * *

BUT are men really all that indifferent to protection from the unwanted consequences of sex? It isn't only fear of HIV/AIDS infection that has made men more conscious of the need for safe sex. A local study of men's attitudes toward reproductive health (conducted by De La Salle University, if I remember right) shows that men are just as concerned about attaining their desired family size and raising their children well as their partners. The problem is that men either are made to feel that childcare and reproduction are none of their business (except as sperm donors), or they don't know how they are supposed to do their part. If women complain about lack of information on and access to services, men have even greater reason to complain, since very little has been done to inform them about their role in family planning and where they could go for services like vasectomy.

Only lately, too, has it been recognized that men just like women enjoy sexual and reproductive rights, including the right not to become a father when they have neither plan nor desire to do so. The problem with contraception for men, some say, is that the methods available to them are either too embarrassing or messy (the condom) or permanent and nearly irreversible (vasectomy).

Well, here's good news for men. Tests conducted among monkeys in the United States have yielded positive results that augur well for the development of a reversible immunocontraceptive injection that works 78 percent of the time -- "at least in monkeys."

* * *

USA Today, citing a study published in Science magazine, says the contraceptive injection uses a vaccine that targets a protein called Eppin that coats the sperm surface. "Seven of every nine animals [injected with the vaccine] developed an immune response, indicating that the vaccine was working," said M.G. O'Rand, a professor of cell and developmental biology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill School of Medicine. None of the monkeys tested "fathered babies while taking the shots," he added.

The study provides "the first clear evidence" in primates that antibodies to sperm-coating proteins can prevent conception," added John Herr, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Research in Contraception and Reproductive Health.

There is, however, one hitch. O'Rand cautions that two of the seven monkeys remained infertile even after the shots were stopped.

Another cautionary note was issued by Susan Benoff, former president of the Society for Male Reproduction and Urology. While some men might be willing to take a contraceptive pill, she said, "most of her male patients aren't crazy about needles." Most men would still prefer condoms, she said, which are "inexpensive, widely available and help prevent sexually transmitted infections," a service which the injectable contraceptive for men (and other methods) does not provide.

There is one more obstacle to the popularization of this contraceptive for men. And that is the unwillingness of women "to trust their partners with such a weighty responsibility." Says Benoff: "If you are a woman, you are the one who's going to be pushing out the eight-pound bowling ball, so you really have to trust that he's going to do what he says he's going to do."

* * *

IF you can't trust him, then here's even better contraceptive news for women.

According to the New Zealand Herald, Australia will be the first to participate in a trial for the "world's first spray-on contraceptive" which is expected to get underway before Christmas. The fast-drying spray is applied to the inner side of a woman's forearm once a day and provides a "measured dose of the progestin Nestorone." It might even be used for hormone replacement therapy if proven successful, said the report.

If the trials prove successful, then the spray could be available to the public in four years.

'Cabaret' is our world

'Cabaret' is our world

Updated 01:48am (Mla time) Nov 17, 2004
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the November 17, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


"CABARET" the musical is set in Berlin, in the waning days of the Weimar Republic, when Germany was in the throes of economic and social depression, humiliated after its defeat in World War I. Germans were thus vulnerable to any leader promising to restore Germany's glorious past and thus their self-esteem. Whatever they may have thought personally about Adolf Hitler's vainglorious attempts to revive German pride and his sinister motives in focusing public resentment on the Jews, Germans could not but be swept along with the tide, giving rise perhaps to a dark cynicism and hopelessness, as well as an almost manic search for temporary escape, embodied in the performers and clientele of the Kit Kat Club.

Against this backdrop, "Cabaret" tells the story of two couples searching for love and comfort. Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz literally dance around their budding romance, two people rich in years but completely innocent of the world, believing they could create a separate space for themselves where they would be safe. Sally Bowles and Cliff Bradshaw are scarred veterans of life, but even then remain pilgrims in search of meaning and companionship. But we know, ranged against the forces gathering strength all around them, the fragile spirits hovering about these lovers stand no chance. Their love-and they-are doomed.

It seems farfetched to look for parallels between the world of "Cabaret," Berlin in the 1930s, and the world of its local audience, Metro Manila in 2004. And yet, stepping out of the Music Museum and out of "Cabaret's" nocturnal world, one feels a chilly resonance, the mood into which the musical plunged us, particularly this dark and mordant re-interpretation, seeming to be just right for us, for this time.

* * *

FOR like the Germans slipping inexorably towards the darkness of Nazism, we are a people with battered egos, our sense of belief in ourselves and our nation wobbly and tenuous. We are beset all around by a national insecurity, fearful for our economic and political well-being, pushing vainly against the winds of despair and grasping for straws. How else to explain the hold on the popular imagination of politicians like Joseph Estrada and presidential aspirant Fernando Poe Jr.? Action stars both, they offered to substitute their cinematic personas for the political leadership they knew the majority of Filipinos hungered for. Of course, through accidents of history and political machinations, their bids for illusory salvation were eventually frustrated. But I think it is precisely their inchoate rescues, which in the movies would have been accomplished with rapid-fire fisticuffs and witty repartee, which have created this miasma of frustration we find ourselves in.

Like Berlin in the years between the wars, Philippine society is an illusory bourgeois society floating above swelling waters of decadence and moral corruption. In our country today, our so-called social arbiters and moralists worry about the impact on public morality of contraception and singers' plunging necklines on TV while remaining silent on truly horrific but profitable crimes like child prostitution and pornography and graft in high office.

* * *

IT SURELY is a testament to New Voice Company's commitment to theater that disturbs and disrupts that it chose to stage this darker, menacing version of "Cabaret" to mark its 10th anniversary.

If all it wanted to do was celebrate a milestone, New Voice could very well have chosen a big-budget, feel-good production that would both have drawn huge audiences and let them leave the theater humming the songs and feeling upbeat about the world. They could even have staged "Cabaret" in the spirit of the award-winning movie directed by Bob Fosse, where Liza Minnelli portrayed Sally Bowles as an eternally optimistic woman-child.

Instead, following the recent Broadway revival directed by Sam Mendes, New Voice Company's staging of "Cabaret" evokes the darkness of the time, and swathes the production in a spirit of impending doom, as symbolized by Jamie Wilson's Master of Ceremonies, who beguiles the audience with a certain slimy charm, but who hovers over the lovers as a silent commentary on the futility of their romance.

Monique Wilson's Sally Bowles retains the perky appeal of Minelli's version, but to this accomplished actor's credit, her Sally is less a child than a jaded character who cannot quite trust or believe in her luck. When Cliff lures her to join him in Paris and thence to a life of subsidized respectability in America, Sally is suddenly the world-weary adult to her lover's innocent child. She knows such a life is not for her, and her anthem is not so much a call to celebrate life and wring every minute of enjoyment out of it, as a dirge for dead hopes and imprisonment in the world of a cabaret.

* * *

EQUALLY accomplished performances are drawn from the rest of the cast. Jamie Wilson astounds with his unstoppable energy and command of the stage. It's too bad the role of Cliff Bradshaw has few "moments" for Michael Williams, but even within the confines of this role, he manages to shine. Joy Virata and Leo Rialp as the aging lovers are truly a joy to behold, their repartee played out delicately and honestly, without descending into caricature. Lyn Sherman as Fraulein Kost is given a more comically broad role, but her strong presence gives the character a measure of gravitas.

Finally, a special mention for the Kit Kat Girls who throw themselves freely into their roles, dancing up a storm, singing their hearts out. But always, they keep true to their personas as women symbolizing a society on the verge of a breakdown.

Bringing back the trains

Bringing back the trains

Updated 10:18pm (Mla time) Nov 15, 2004
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the November 15, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.


I AM old enough to remember, on car trips to Baguio, encountering along Kennon Road a stream of black limousines that, so my parents told me, were service cars ferrying first-class train passengers who had gotten off at San Fernando, La Union. Later, in my teens when my uncle Nicanor Jimenez became general manager of the Philippine National Railways (PNR) in the 1970s, I would join my parents on these same trains, getting off at Dagupan City on our way to my mother's hometown of Alaminos in the province of Pangasinan.

Students of history might well remember that the North Luzon train line is the same line that was managed in the late 1800s by the Englishman who married Leonor Rivera, Jose Rizal's first love.

Long before highways and expressways were constructed to link the provinces of Northern Luzon to Metro Manila, trains provided a vital artery, ferrying passengers and cargo from as far north as La Union to Manila, and, if needed, all the way south to the Bicol region. Unfortunately, in the 30 years since we took what would turn out to be among the last railroad runs to Northern Luzon, the northern lines were abandoned in favor of an extensive infrastructure frenzy that saw the construction of not just the Northern Luzon Expressway but also a system of highways all the way to the northernmost province Cagayan.

Nowadays there's talk once more of reviving train service to Northern Luzon and rehabilitating the train tracks that have since fallen victim to neglect and to thieves running off with the iron rails for sale to junk yards and the wooden ties to sell to landscapers, with “travieza” having become a staple of home and garden décor.

For good or ill, the time for a revived train service to Northern Luzon has come. Traffic congestion, especially on national holidays, has made the land trip to popular tourist and business destinations like Clark, Subic, La Union and Baguio not just longer but also more aggravating. The constantly rising price of gasoline has made long bus and car trips also quite expensive. Most importantly, improvements in railroad technology have made train rides faster and more comfortable. With the country still reeling from the death and injuries sustained in the recent derailment of a PNR train in Quezon, improvements in safety features should also be a welcome boon.

* * *

JOSE Cortez, who was handpicked by the President to chair North Rail Inc., the firm that will undertake the revival of train service to Northern Luzon, assures us that safety was foremost on their minds when they finalized plans for the project's various phases. Foremost among these features is the use of a double track, which will not only prevent collisions but also cut travel time. Also planned is the construction of a high wall all along the train route, not just to prevent settlements along the necessary easements, but also for the safety of both the train system and the commuting public.

With construction of Phase 1 scheduled to begin this month, Cortez says North Rail is only waiting for the final clearance of informal settlements along the original PNR line in the Metro Manila cities of Malabon and Valenzuela, then through Bulacan province. Funded by a soft loan of $421 million from the Chinese government, the North Rail project is expected to run the length from Caloocan to Malolos for Phase 1, Section 1, and then from Malolos to Clark Special Economic Zone for the second section. Phase 2 covers San Fernando, Pampanga, to Subic. Phase 3 runs from Caloocan to Fort Bonifacio, and Phase 4 from Clark to San Fernando, La Union.

As Cortez explains it, once completed as envisioned by 2008, North Rail will serve three purposes: as a commuter line for residents of Bulacan to Metro Manila; as a special transport service for airline passengers to and from Fort Bonifacio and the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in Clark; and to ferry passengers and cargo to and from Manila and the Freeport Zones in Subic, Clark and the rest of Northern Luzon. Once completed, North Rail foresees being able to bridge the distance from Metro Manila to La Union in as little as four hours!

* * *

ONE of the biggest issues being raised against North Rail at this time is the number of urban poor families who will be dislocated. Concerns have been raised about the company's plans for the relocation of communities that have been living along the railroad tracks for decades, and whether adequate facilities have been offered them in exchange for vacating the easement properties.

Cortez stresses that the relocation of the railroad communities is primarily the responsibility of local government units that have received funding from North Rail to carry out the demolition of the shantytowns and the relocation of the communities. North Rail is likewise consulting with the National Housing Authority on the construction of low-cost houses in the resettlement sites.

It must be stressed that railway lines have generous easements primarily for safety reasons. It has always been dangerous for both the train system and for the residents to have entire communities living right on the edge of train tracks. That entire communities have sprung up all along the busier sections of our railways is proof of the benign neglect of our railway authorities as well as of local and national governments, as well as our casual disregard for public safety.

I only hope those legislators striving to block the North Rail project by citing the welfare of the families to be dislocated don't mean to suggest that some of those living along the railways should be allowed to remain where they are. This is not only reckless, but populism in its worst form. Sometimes, we just have to bite the bullet if we want progress to take place.

Two books on women

Two books on women

Updated 05:38am (Mla time) Nov 14, 2004
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the November 14, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


JUST in time for the celebration of the Centennial of Feminism in the Philippines next year is the publication of "The Women of Malolos" (Ateneo de Manila University Press) by Nicanor G. Tiongson.

Even if they did not know it themselves, the 20 women from Malolos-described by Marcelo H. del Pilar to Jose Rizal as "from the elite class of the town, respected for their reputation and daughters of maginoos (gentry)"-could be said to be among our earliest feminists. They are best known for being the recipients of a letter-"to the young women of Malolos"-from Rizal, recognized as the document that best sums up the national hero's views on the role of women in society.

Rizal's letter was provoked by a report on the women's daring. In defiance of the powerful parish priest, they presented a petition before Governor-General Valeriano Weyler, asking to be allowed to attend a "night school" so they could learn Spanish. As Tiongson points out, the women were not simply "ladies of leisure who just wanted to be more Hispanized and sophisticated by learning the prestige language of the period." Rather, they were part of the broader reform movement in Bulacan, led by Del Pilar and among whose leaders were the women's husbands, brothers, fathers and other relatives. Their desire for education beyond the rudiments allowed at the time spoke of their desire to take more active part in the shaping of the nation.

Their letter to the governor-general also showed early recognition of a woman's double burden that requires her to be solely responsible for the home while striving to carve a place for herself outside it. Explaining the need to hold classes at night, the women said this was "because (our) domestic duties prevent (us) from studying during the day."


* * *

WHILE Tiongson situates the women's activism within the historical circumstances-the brewing restiveness among the native and mestizo elite for greater autonomy and participation in governance-"The Women of Malolos" is enriched by individual portraits of the 20 young women, all of whom were linked to each other by ties of blood, marriage and affinity, and from most of whom Tiongson is descended. As he relates in his introduction, Tiongson had long wanted to write a book on the women who populated his family's lore and picture albums, but was constrained by the fact that he was related to them, fearing this would "color" the historical accuracy of his accounts.

But, inspired by a movement that seeks to retell history "from below," that is, from the viewpoint of ordinary individuals and communities, Tiongson decided to forsake any attempt at objectivity and instead used his kinship to ferret out previously unknown and undisclosed details about his subjects.

Not surprisingly, one finds out that the women of Malolos were among the founding members of the Asociacion Femenista de Filipinas (Feminist Association of the Philippines), setting up its first local "chapter" in Malolos, and turning their convictions into service, by helping establish "Gota de Leche" (the first "NGO" in the country dedicated to the amelioration of impoverished women), as well as the local Red Cross chapter.

Finally, "The Women of Malolos" is a fascinating read, painting a portrait not just of 20 proto-feminists who defied convention and broke free of traditional constraints, but also of their town and their world, and the aspirations of a nation a-borning, midwifed by women like them.


* * *

HUMBLER in scope, but no less riveting are the "stories on living, loving, leaving and learning" that make up "Speak Up, Woman!" The book is a collection of essays by members of the Maryknoll College High School Class of 1980, edited by Marivi Soliven Blanco, and published on the occasion of their class' silver jubilee. Proceeds from the sale of the book will go to projects for the empowerment of underprivileged women.

The women's stories cover a wide range of experiences and life stages, from accounts of both early and late marriage and motherhood, the careers they plunged into-from medicine to broadcasting to law enforcement-while surviving various diseases and other catastrophes, including divorce, domestic violence and mental and emotional breakdowns.

Who would have thought a group of women from similar privileged backgrounds, who went to the same "exclusive" Catholic school for girls in the late 1970s and 1980s, and shared much the same youthful passions and obsessions, would end up carving such divergent, unusual but always interesting paths?


* * *

THE IMPORTANT thing to note, though, is that no matter the varied roads and byways they followed, they all somehow made it through. They survived to tell their stories, showing off scars, confessing to past foibles, celebrating their own or their children's milestones, and realizing the value of the friendships and sisterhood that bind them.

As Blanco writes in her introduction: "Classmates helped deliver our children, comforted us in heartbreak, consoled us in widowhood, and cheered us through debuts, weddings, promotions; sometimes for no reason at all, other than that they were soul sisters who wished us well. We owe them our lives, our sanity, our very survival in this terrifying, infuriating, yet ever enchanting world.

"The last time we were teenagers was over two decades ago, but that is irrelevant. What matters is that we kept faith in our adolescent bonds and are stronger, wiser and infinitely happier for it."

We may not all have gone to Maryknoll or matured into adulthood in the era of big hair, super-padded shoulders and frosted eye makeup, but there is something in the stories in "Speak Up, Woman!" that speaks to every woman of whatever time and hair style.

Proud of the Pinoy

Proud of the Pinoy

Updated 11:17pm (Mla time) Nov 12, 2004
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the November 13, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


THE FILIPINO consumer's tingi or super-retail mentality, the bahay na bato whose adaptability to our tropical clime contemporary architects and homeowners seem to have forgotten, the "balikbayan box" and what it says about our relationships and aspirations, the all-too-Pinoy fondness for karaoke and song in general, even the popularity of soap operas on radio and television. What do all these have to do with Filipino culture?

Well, if your idea of "culture" has to do with elitist art and refinement, with established art forms like the opera, concertos, classical drama and ballet, with hoity-toity audiences and limousines pulling up the driveway of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, then perhaps you'd say: Why, nothing at all! But then you're probably the type who thinks culture is, as a friend once put it, "kool-chure," an arena of life accessible only to those who have had higher education, good breeding, social pedigree and exposure to the finer things in life.

But if your idea of culture is of a way of life, the sum total of habits, beliefs, behaviors, superstitions, preoccupations, history and heritage that make a people and a nation, then you might concede that anything uniquely and quintessentially "Pinoy" deserves to be included in a study of Filipino culture.

What is it that makes us, Filipinos, Filipinos? How do we explain ourselves not just to ourselves but also to our children and to the rest of the world? Most importantly, how can we be proud of our identity as Filipinos?

* * *

SCHOLARS of Philippine culture, history and society have long recognized that pride in the Filipino identity cannot be imposed but must evolve from an awareness of who we are and why we are that way. Nations with a strong identity, whose people are proud to be who they are and don't feel they owe foreigners any favors or obeisance, did not become that way by accident. Their institutions, especially their schools, systematically created a sense of nationhood by educating their citizens, from childhood, in their history, heritage and identity, thereby giving rise to a sense of shared destiny, a vision that everyone could take part in fulfilling.

That's where our institutions and leaders have failed us. Given the breakdown of the public school system, and the amazing persistence of the colonial mentality exacerbated by the emergence of overseas employment as the highest aspiration of most Filipinos, is it any wonder that there's little evidence these days of a sense of pride in being Filipino?

If we took national pride and Filipino greatness for granted, why then the proliferation of public service ads exhorting us to display the national flag, to be proud of our fellow Filipinos but especially those who have made good abroad, to bring out the best in the Filipino by doing our individual best?

Then again, some might argue, how can we be proud of being Filipino if we have yet to recognize what it means to be Filipino? How can we honor our culture as Filipinos when we know so little about it?

The debate could go around in circles until, as the native saying goes, the crow turns white. Instead of wringing its hands, though, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts decided to "bring" culture to Filipinos by way of a free publication called Tipong Pinoy, which comes out twice a month inside an issue of Libre, the free tabloid published by the Philippine Daily Inquirer for passengers on the LRT and MRT.

* * *

TIPONG PINOY bills itself as "Ang Dyaryo ng Masang may K," translated roughly as "the newspaper for ordinary folks with class." With articles written mostly in streetwise Filipino, with a dash of Taglish and English, it comes across as a breezy, hip, with-it publication (though its layout and appearance could stand some jazzing up) that tackles fairly serious, if not scholarly, matters.

Thus we have an article on the Filipino skill-or rather, gift-for what one scholar called "creative coping." Coming out in the middle of the storm over our "fiscal crisis," the article takes the reader back to past crises and then interviews sociologists and culture historians to explain how we have managed to lurch from one crisis to another without committing "mass suicide."

Ateneo professor Soledad Reyes, interviewed by writer Ces Rodriguez, attributes the Pinoy's resilience to our "sense of romance," to an abiding belief that life's problems will resolve themselves in the same way they work out in our stories, novels, movies and soaps: "good always triumphs over evil; a champion always emerges to defend the dispossessed; love conquers all; purgation rids the spirit of moral baggage; life is a cycle of sowing, reaping and above all thanksgiving."

It may not help our financial executives, legislators and number-crunchers find their way out of our economic mess, but such insights do soothe the anxious Pinoy soul.

* * *

ELSWHERE in Tipong Pinoy are articles on Filipino artists of note, traditional artists and craftsmen who are themselves living national treasures, and tidbits of our past. It even has a section called "Pinoy ka kung..." that presents superstitions and practices that only other Filipinos would recognize and understand. For instance, you are Filipino if: you don't want to have your picture taken when there are only three of you, because you believe the one in the middle will die ahead of the other two; you don't sleep with your hair wet because you might go blind; and you cut your nails only on Mondays, because to do so on other days of the week would bring on a toothache!

We laugh at such foibles even as we recognize them. But we accept them as simply part of being Filipino. And that is really where pride in one's own begins.

Child prostitution and family values

Child prostitution and family values

Updated 03:27am (Mla time) Nov 12, 2004
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the November 12, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


WHEN the Optical Media Board, which he chairs, first started raiding shops selling pirated VCDs and DVDs, Edu Manzano disclosed in his radio show "Pasada Sais-trenta Sabado" over dzMM, they would find many discs containing child pornography, but mainly from foreign sources.

But he was shocked to discover that in recent raids "we have found more and more evidence of child porn, so that up to 40 percent of all the materials we confiscate now consists of child pornography." Even more shocking and disheartening, he noted, is that an increasing number of these sex videos with children as subjects are made in the Philippines, with Filipino children.

Sen. Jamby Madrigal, who was also a guest in the show, gave testimony to this growing business. Joining a raid on a facility in Angeles, Pampanga, offering cybersex with child "actors," the senator said they found boys and girls, in various stages of dress and undress, prepubescents among them, in cubicles with computers and video cameras. The raiding party also found a number of "sex toys," including dildos, which the children were being asked to use by their customers who would log on for a fee.

Indeed, the Philippines is said to be fast becoming known as one of the primary sources of child pornography in the world, though many of the production houses here are owned by foreigners who use their international networks to market the sex videos.

I don't know if anyone has bothered to do empirical research, but cybersex could be the fastest-growing segment of the sex industry in this country. All around the country, I'm told, young women, sometimes accompanied by their parents, regularly drop by Internet cafes, enter curtained-off cubicles and there spend hours engaging in cybersex with customers who pay them to undress and even engage in self-pleasure all the while being caught on live streaming video.

"Sometimes, the mothers are even the ones encouraging their daughters to show more flesh," a local leader in Cebu told me. "The more daring one is, apparently, the higher the payment. And the mothers tell me they see no harm in it since their daughters are not 'touched' anyway."

Apparently, none of these mothers and daughters realize that once an image is captured, it can be stored forever and re-broadcast anywhere in the world.


* * *

NOT surprising then is the finding of a study on child prostitution that revealed that "family and close friends sometimes help to recruit children for prostitution," with the recruiters reasoning that they are simply "helping" the children.

The report, put together by the advocacy group End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (Ecpat), contained interviews with 74 former and active child prostitutes around the country who recounted how they first entered the sex industry.

According to a news report, "most recruiters initially told the children they would be getting jobs as domestic helpers, factory workers or entertainers. But they later pressured the children into prostitution, sometimes forcing them to take drugs and often denying them adequate food, sleep and leisure time." While some of the recruiters confessed to feelings of guilt, they often justified their actions by claiming that they merely wanted to help the child and the child's family keep a step ahead of starvation and abject poverty.

But, as the study found, the recruiters also stood to make considerable profit from trading in children. Commissions could range from P500 to P4,000 per child.

An interesting finding of the Ecpat study was that many of the children recruited into prostitution entered sex work willingly because of "(their) perceived obligation to support the family." The children, overwhelmingly female, were also found to have had "dysfunctional, poverty-stricken, rural families" with some of them "having been abused by parents or siblings in the past."

All of which merely underscores the assertion of women's and children's advocates that the problem of child prostitution-and its adjuncts child pornography and trafficking-cannot be addressed only through law enforcement or legislation, although these, of course, would help.


* * *

THE REALITY is that the Philippines already has one of the most comprehensive and stringent laws against child prostitution. And yet, apart from the problem of spotty implementation, the reason the number of children drawn into prostitution continues to increase despite the law is that victims are too often unwilling to pursue cases against their victimizers. And a major reason for their unwillingness is that oftentimes the recruiters, if not the pimps of the children, are their parents, who argue that they are doing it only for the family's survival.

I would think the root of the problem is not poverty, for there is no guarantee that if these parents were better off, they would be able to resist the temptation of "easy" money. Call it a clich‚, but I think the problem is one of values, particularly the "value" parents and families put on children, seeing offspring as their "property" whom they can exploit as they wish.

Still very common is the thinking that children, but especially daughters, are obliged to their parents, born with the responsibility to "pay back" their parents for the privilege of being born and raised, even if it means paying with their virtue, well-being and even their futures.

Our social institutions have the duty, I think, to drum into the heads of parents that the obligations run the other way, that raising our children into healthy adults is our obligation and privilege, and that exploiting a child, even your own, is a crime.

Keeping kids in school

Keeping kids in school

Updated 00:44am (Mla time) Nov 10, 2004
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the November 10, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.


TO BE launched this Friday is a small book, entitled "Tulong Aral ng Petron: A Corporation's Response to Fight Poverty," a "casebook," that details the concept behind "Tulong Aral" the program, and its accomplishments since its launching.

Prepared by Petron Foundation (and written by Asuncion Sebastian), the book, in the words of Petron chair and CEO Nicasio Alcantara, was planned as a means to "share our experiences so that others may benefit from it in terms of program development, resource mobilization and management, and institution building."

"Tulong Aral," says Marilou Erni, executive director of Petron Foundation, is precisely that, a program that "helps" put children through school. "The DSWD [Department of Social Welfare and Development] estimates that in Metro Manila alone, there are 516,000 children at the elementary level who do not or cannot go to school," Erni cites. The reason is that even as public education at the elementary and high school level is supposed to be free, there are other costs involved with going to school, such as uniforms, school supplies and even meals. With a goal of assisting 1,000 children each year, "Tulong Aral" helps ensure that children at risk of dropping out are able to continue their education by granting them allowances for meals, uniforms (including shoes and socks), school bags and supplies.

As recounted in the book, Alcantara challenged Erni in 2002 to "come up with a program that would support the country's education sector." Erni then consulted with the DSWD, particularly Metro Manila regional director Alice Bala, who had the right answer for Erni's goal of establishing "a sustainable development program instead of a mere one-shot, dole-out activity." Bala's vision was a "continuum of assistance for marginalized children," what would eventually become a "scholarship program that would send the graduates of DSWD's daycare centers to public schools," and ensure they would remain in school.

* * *

ERNI has a wealth of heart-rending anecdotes from two years of "Tulong Aral," such as children going to school on rainy days with their "Tulong Aral" shoes wrapped in plastic, or of meeting a couple who work as “magbabakal” [scavengers] with seven children, only one of whom is able to go to school as a "Tulong Aral" scholar.

Of the 930 "Tulong Aral" students who finished Grade 1 on the program's first year, 120 were adjudged outstanding, with 20 of them awarded first honors. "Imagine, without 'Tulong Aral,' none of these children would have been able to go to school," says Erni.

What pleases Erni most, though, is how Petron, as a corporation and institution, has fully embraced "Tulong Aral." At least 80 percent of Petron officers and employees, she notes, have donated their time, talents and resources (mostly through pledges of salary deductions) to "Tulong Aral." "The pledges range from an hour's wage to P100,000," says Erni, who times the fund-raising drives twice a year, in June and December, to cash in on the "feel-good" vibes that come with bonuses.

Just recently, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the DSWD gave away bags of rice to public school students as an "incentive" to their parents to keep them in school. "Tulong Aral" operates along the same line, but counts on the willingness of the private sector to join in a cause most everybody says needs urgent attention.

* * *

MARYKNOLL sisters serving in 11 Asian countries met in Tagaytay City, outside Manila, recently to discuss their work and missions, especially in the light of globalization and the increasing problems of poverty and violence around the world.

Aside from sisters working in Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, East Timor, Japan, Korea, Nepal, the Philippines, Taiwan and the Maryknoll Contemplative Community, participants also included members of the Maryknoll Sisters Congregational Leadership Team: Sisters Suzanne Moore, president, Connie Krautkremer and Jeanne Rancourt; Sister-representatives from the Maryknoll Sisters Middle and Central America World Section, Africa World Section and the Central Pacific World Section as well as lay representatives from the Maryknoll Mission Association of the Faithful and Maryknoll Affiliates.

A profile of participants showed that among the 70 participants who were born in nine different countries, 67 ethnic groups were represented, speaking and understanding 32 languages. Members of the group had given a total of 2,327 years of service in 25 different countries.

* * *

EXPLORING the theme "An Integral Vision for Viewing Reality: Application to Maryknoll Sisters Mission in Asia and Multicultural Living," the conference featured Dr. Sixto K. Roxas as its main speaker.

Sessions highlighted the urgency of re-examining "vision and mission" in terms of the current realities of globally increasing poverty, destruction of indigenous and local communities and ecological systems, and world power struggles for control of resources and economies. As if to illustrate this reality, exhibits which depicted positive and negative effects of globalization on the countries and peoples of Asia among whom the sisters live and work had been prepared by each country group and were displayed throughout the meeting.

The speaker's parting message to the participants was a message of hope. Because of the widespread involvement and relationships long fostered by presence and service in so many countries throughout the world, and especially among the indigenous, women and the marginalized peoples, the role of Maryknoll and others can be as tiny but vital cells which, like yeast, interact in ways which expand into life-giving communities which truly support the hope and promise for which all long, and without which the planet will not be able to support the life of its inhabitants.

Woman power

Woman power

Updated 02:04am (Mla time) Nov 07, 2004
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the November 7, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


IT was Gilda Cordero-Fernando, during the first gathering of Gabriela-which began as a "General Assembly" gathering various women's groups for two days of discussions-two decades ago, who first put a finger on the "problem" that bugged the women's movement at the start.

Sitting in on the focus group of media women, the irrepressible Gilda exclaimed: "You're all so angry!"

Well, to be fair, there was -- and still is -- so much to be angry about. But there's so much to celebrate, too! The problem, of course, is that so much of our energy is being depleted by doing battle against a multitude of evils such that when we do win a few -- as we do from time to time -- we no longer have the time nor the will to acknowledge our victory.

Perhaps, the next time we plan a skills-building workshop, women should also include a session on taking it easy and building on our natural strengths as creators and nurturers, and our gifts for friendship and sentiment.

The recent dinner hosted by Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman and Ayala Corp.'s Vicky Garchitorena for the outgoing Cabinet members is a case in point. Originally, the dinner was meant as an informal get-together among the women in the Arroyo Cabinet, who had bonded through three difficult years by meeting for frequent late-night sessions (usually at Vicky's home), where they un-wound by sharing stories and heartaches, knowing their confidences would be kept safe. It would have been an all-woman affair if the Cabinet men who were leaving had not gotten wind of the dinner. And with President Macapagal-Arroyo and Vice President Noli de Castro attending, a simple low-key affair inevitably turned into a major production.


* * *

HELD at the Filipinas Heritage Library, the dinner was attended not just by the President, Vice President and the honorees, but also by most of the present Cabinet members and other senior officials and media women.

Despite the mixed crowd, though, Vicky took pains to point out that the evening was still a celebration of woman-power. At one point, GMA had as many as 12 women in her Cabinet of 40. And it wasn't just the number that counted, Vicky pointed out; some of the women headed "heavyweight" departments, such as finance, foreign affairs, and justice.

Honored that evening were the departing Cabinet members: Delia Albert of foreign affairs (she had flown in from London the day before), Bebet Gozun of environment and natural resources, Ve Villavicencio of the National Anti-Poverty Commission, Mai Jimenez of the Cabinet-level office for foreign-funded projects, DJ de Jesus of education and Joey Lina of interior and local governments. With them were two former Cabinet members who had just been elected senators: Dick Gordon and Mar Roxas.

Despite the presence of bigwigs, the evening turned out to be quite an intimate affair, with Cabinet members paying tribute to their former colleagues and sharing known and little-known stories about them. But the responses of the "graduates" were most notable. Ve Villavicencio, who had served as undersecretary at the NAPC before taking its helm for a few months (after the appointment of Ging Deles as presidential adviser on the peace process), noted that "three years in government is like 30 years." Bebet Gozun thanked the President for giving her the chance "to make a difference" in her field of advocacy, the environment.

Mai Jimenez, who now sits on the board of the Asian Development Bank, was interrupted several times by the President who kept teasing her that from "coordinating" the foreign-funded projects, she was now "the source of foreign funds." De Jesus, who said he had hoped to "fade away quietly and quickly," remarked that those who really needed a testimonial were his colleagues "who have the stamina and fortitude to stay behind."

Lina, who is now president of the Manila Hotel, was quick to point out that, with three years in the DILG, he had "stayed longest" in the department, noting that there had been 12 DILG secretaries in the 14 years of its existence. He added that even if he and the other two "tenors" are booked for a series of concerts, it was not true that he was headed toward a career in show biz.

Delia Albert, who is staying on in the diplomatic service, paid tribute to the country's diplomatic corps, pointing out that the current "stars" at the DFA are women. She expressed the hope that it won't be too long before a second woman is named to head the department. Obviously, women are quite accomplished at lobbying for other women!


* * *

THE NEXT day, another intimate affair underscored the value of woman power. This time, it was a gathering to mark the 25th anniversary of the Maryknoll/Miriam College Alumni Association (MMCAA), and to honor the Maryknollers among the awardees of The Outstanding Women in the Nation's Service (TOWNS), both past and present.

This year, among the 12 outstanding women are Maryknoll alumni Ces Ore¤a Drilon (represented at the dinner by her mother), Cathy Babao Guballa, Dita Sandico Ong, Chin-chin Gutierrez, and Aleli Arroyo Morales (represented by a niece), bringing to 20 the number of TOWNS awardees with links to Maryknoll. But it was also quite thoughtful of the MMCAA to remember past awardees, a few of whom were present, including TOWNS Foundation president Nina Lim Yuson, Maryknoll nun Sr. Teresa Dagdag, Nieves Confesor, Bing Carreon Buck and this columnist.

Quite apart from the honor and the dinner, we were also quite touched by the knowledge that each of us would have a tree planted in our honor at the Miriam College Southern Sierra Madre Wildlife Center in Barangay Laiban, Tanay, Rizal. Proof, perhaps, that woman power is for the ages!

The hymen, again

The hymen, again

Updated 06:38am (Mla time) Nov 06, 2004
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service



Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the November 5, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


TUESDAY'S column on the hymen, or rather, bleeding as a result of a ruptured hymen, as an "indicator" of virginity drew responses from women working with survivors of sexual abuse. They said a statement I made -- that the hymen may sometimes tear because of vigorous activity like biking or horseback riding -- was inaccurate and might even make their work in prosecuting abusers much more difficult.

Dr. Bernie Madrid of the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital Child Protection Unit called and later sent an e-mail to set the matter straight. While she "totally agrees" that "bleeding is not a proof of virginity," Bernie made clear that "biking, doing vigorous exercise, etc., will not result [in] an injury to the hymen."

"What most people do not know is that majority of hymens already have an opening at birth and that as the child becomes older, the hymen becomes more elastic. This is the effect of the hormone estrogen. A well-estrogenized hymen can be penetrated without resulting in any injury," says Bernie.

While a virgin may not bleed or experience pain during her first sexual intercourse, notes Bernie, neither does the absence of bleeding or of tears, lacerations, abrasions and other signs of injury mean that a woman or girl did not have sexual intercourse, with or without her consent.

"What we emphasize in our training on the medico-legal examination of the sexually abused child is that normal findings do not exclude sexual abuse," Bernie adds. "In 80 percent of sexual abuse cases, physical findings are normal. We do not accept requests to 'find out if the child or woman is still a virgin.' It is a useless exercise. Virginity is not even a medical diagnosis. The hymen is insignificant to the health of a female unless she gets hurt or killed by an ignorant male because of misconceptions over it."

* * *

TWO articles published in CPU-Net Medical Alert, a bi-monthly bulletin of the Child Protection Unit Network, "demystify" the alleged link between injuries to a child's genitalia ("anogenital trauma") and the child's virginity or lack of it, or whether she had consensual sex or not.

A study (Jones and Hartman, 2003) in the publication of the Academy of Emergency Medicine involved 523 female adolescents, between ages 13 and 17, some of whom reported having consensual sex, while the others alleged having been forced into having sex.

The study's findings show that 70 percent of the adolescents who reported consensual sex had "documented anogenital injuries" while 85 percent of those who alleged sex abuse reported similar injuries.

The conclusion: "Injuries are not inevitable consequences of sexual assault, [but] the lack of genital injury does not imply consent by the victim or lack of penetration by the accused."

Another study, discussed in an article entitled "Genital anatomy in pregnant adolescents: Normal does not mean nothing happened," the authors studied the genital examination findings of 36 pregnant adolescents and looked for evidence of "penetrative genital trauma." Of the 36 subjects, only two showed genital changes "that were diagnostic of penetrative trauma," this despite proof (pregnancy) that they had undergone sexual intercourse.

* * *

A POSSIBLE explanation, the authors said, is that "penetration does not result in visible tissue damage or [that] acute injuries occurred but healed completely."

In its conclusion, the study notes that "medical, legal and social professionals as well as lay juries [or even the media] need to understand that, in most cases of childhood sexual abuse, there will be few if any clinical findings that are diagnostic of penetrative trauma." The authors emphasize that "vaginal penetration does not result in observable evidence of healed injury to the hymen." What investigators and legal authorities need to do, notes CPU-Net, is to conduct a "good investigation, including a forensic interview and collection of collaborative evidence in the persecution of child sexual abuse cases."

All too often, the investigation and pursuit of a report of child sexual abuse results in inflicting even more abuse on the young victim. I remember one child advocate complaining that the "usual" procedure in the physical exam of a child reporting sexual abuse (which I hope has already been discarded) was to insert round metal tubes of varied circumferences into the vagina or anus to ascertain whether a child had undergone penetration or not. At the very least this would mean requiring the child to relive the experience, if not inflict even more pain, shame and trauma.

And might I add, as well, a reiteration of an earlier appeal to the media to cease the horrendous practice of interviewing child survivors of sexual abuse (often on-cam), with reporters asking them how they feel (how else are they supposed to feel?) and if they want the abuser, who is sometimes the child's father, to be put to death (go ahead, deepen the pain!).

* * *

INVESTIGATORS and judges, as well as lawyers and even the parents of abused children, should stop relying on physical evidence of forced or consensual sex, or even of virginity at the time of the incident, to prove or disprove a child's allegations of sexual abuse. Instead, authorities can rely on the child's testimony and demeanor, as well as an appraisal of the child's state of mind by professionals, among other evidence to get to the truth of the child's report of sexual abuse.

Meanwhile, those of you who are concerned about the increasing number of child sexual abuse cases may want to learn as much as you can about the issue, as well as approaches to the healing of survivors during the Third Annual Conference of the Child Protection Unit Network on Nov. 8 and 9, at the Traders Hotel.