minding the gap, all the time
Actionable Items
Events
"At a meeting I had yesterday," says Lorna, "I realized that all the women gathered around the table were over 50. I turned to one of them, a very old and close friend. 'My God, we're about to die and we're
still doing all the fighting? Where are all the young activists?'"
Lorna is one of the pioneers of the women's movement in the Philippines. I'm having a conversation with her and Gizelle, a journalist visiting the Philippines from Canada. We talk about many things, including succession in the social justice movement in the Philippines.
Where
are all the young people? I sprang in defense of the community of young activists... who surely must exist. I mean, logically speaking, there must be a population of dissidents in any given society, right?
Of course there is. I gave the example of
Rock Ed, a volunteer group working on "a ten-year series of alternative education projects". They certainly appear to draw in a lot of young volunteers.
Lorna, however, has never heard of them. This leads me to suspect that there is a lot of work being done for positive social change, but the connections are just not being made between groups that should be connected.
I propose an online directory that indexes members of Philippine civil society. Lorna objects, pointing out that in the Philippines, being publicly listed would draw unwanted attention from the military. (A thought flits through my mind: although her objection is well-founded, I nevertheless wonder how much mentorship, as a general concept, prevents the emergence of new ideas.)
Gizelle also points out that most activist networking doesn't happen online. It's not like young activists put up
Craigslist notices. ("21-year old lesbian anarcho-feminist from Bicol looking for grizzled Wise Woman with substantial portfolio of organizing work in ASEAN region to provide inspiration and historical grounding.")
At any rate, why does is it seem that it's
taking so long for young people to grab the reins? In my own experience, at least, I found choosing "the perfect agenda" difficult. (Climate change? Gender inequality? Poverty?) At what scope and through which channels? (Local, urban-centered education? Regional policy-making?) Of course, they all link together. I do what I do best: I fumble along, trust my instincts, and accept the mistakes I make. I refuse to let the bewildering array of choices slow me down.
Anyway, here's a thought on a plan that anyone can act on to start bridging gaps in generational and expert knowledge for anyone who is also interested in entertaining and culinary experimentation: regular dinners themed around a topic and facilitated with a lot of care. Diners could be asked to read or watch a selected work and prepare to talk about and around the issues. One of the participants is tasked to record highlights of the evening's events in return for, say, a box lunch, or extra dessert. The record could take any form: a video, a painting, a website. Or (gasp!) minutes.
(Names have been changed. You know, in the interest of Asian-style harmony preservation and the dislike of being targeted by various armed groups.)We really are a feelingless people. When we feel, we will feel the emergency; when we feel the emergency, we will act; when we act, we will change the world.
Julian Beck
Start anywhere.
John Cage
The other night, I proposed to some friends an idea that almost immediately got shot down because "it just wouldn't work"... which of course made me want to do it even more. I would like team-teach a class with someone from another university. The class (which would have to be small) would be open to students from both schools. When students enlist in the course, they do it precisely to learn from each other. A large emphasis will be placed on dialogue and celebrating difference. What is good dialogue, and what skills are required to engage in it?
Incidentally, I find school braggadocio divisive and counter-productive to creating positive social change. It is precisely this better-than-thou, status-affirming attitude that prevents us from getting out of the mire we're in. I have been an Isko since kindergarten, but if another person sends me another {UP}/{Ateneo}/{La Salle} joke about UP's putative superiority, I will send them a stern talking-to.
On a related note, I've been thinking that it'll probably be useful to scout for other, local programs similar BAMS. It'll probably be good to get dialogue going on and thoughts being bounced about (yes, I ended with a preposition--leave me alone), as well as know what the "competition" is up to. See, I hate competition. A certain amount of competition is healthy, I know, but all we really need is a tiny amount. Evolutionary theory merely describes how organisms have evolved; it does not tell us how to live as moral agents. It has nothing to say about what constitutes an ethical choice. I know that market forces operate (supposedly) on the premise of pure competition, and many people would like us to believe that market forces alone can take care of the needs of society. I don't buy it. There's probably a good balance to be struck here.
Check out this somewhat suspect but nonetheless interesting article on cultural differences in workplaces around the world. The following notes were from a colleague of mine:
Notes on Hofstede's Culture's Consequences (download PDF file
)
116,000 surveys distributed distributed in two rounds of data collection
in 72 countries, translated into 20 languages. Supposedly, the use of a
statistical shorthand called "ecological factor analysis" enabled
Hofstede to view national cultures, rather than individuals within them.
Four dimensions:
- Power Distance - Comfort with inequalities and hierarchies, which are viewed as the natural order of things. Obedience is highly valued.
- Uncertainty Avoidance - Discomfort with a lack of clarity; often clarity is found in tradition, precedent and ritual.
- Collectivism vs. Individualism - One's integration into family, society and nation takes precedent.
- Masculinity vs. Femininity - in masculine cultures, male and female roles are highly differentiated. In female cultures, these boundaries are blurred.
Fifth dimension developed later:
Long term vs. short term orientation - the degree to which a society's members are socialized to expect delayed rewards for economic, social, and emotional domains of living.
Today (my first day as a faculty member at
UP Open University) I learned about the triumvirate requirements for tenure: extension, teaching, and research (which, at least for the purposes of the university, I gather simply means publication).
Right off the bat, I wondered what would happen if we look at the boundaries of these categories of activities. One possibility would be a new triumvirate of
something-as activities: extension
as teaching, teaching
as research, research
as extension. (Of course, the converse of each relationship would also count, i.e., teaching as extension, and so on.)
But what would exactly does this mean? I think the Simon Fraser Public Interest Research Group's
Action Research eXchange program is a good example of r
esearch as extension. The ARX program connects community needs with academic resources. Under the supervision of participating faculty members, grad or undergrad students work on a research project requested by members of civil society, such as non-profit and non-government organizations. The students' work receive credit, sometimes in lieu of a regular class assignment or research project. It's a win-win situation: students get to work on a project that provides much-needed research for an organization that otherwise couldn't have afford it.
Now, I can't really think of an interesting, novel example of
teaching as research, although to my mind UPOU
is pretty much that. Neither can I come up with an example for
extension as teaching that is more interesting than volunteering to teach other institutions or in some non-academic setting... any thoughts?
In actor training and some somatic techniques, "neutral" is a crucial (and often problematized) concept. The actor in a neutral state, for instance, can make organic character choices. On the other hand, a neutral body is one that is ready to spring into action. Alexander Feldenkrais pointed out that in a standing position, if bones are in a properly aligned "neutral" position (which manifests to the external observer as "good posture"), very little muscular effort is required to move the body. Switching directions--for example, moving forwards then backwards then sidewards then forwards again--requires minimal effort, since gravity and momentum takes care of most of the job. In fact, in a properly aligned, neutral position, making physical choices not only is easy on your muscles; it also
feels easy. (Sometimes it feels so easy that it almost feels wrong!)
The ability to see choices and to act on those choices underpins the
capability for agency. This capability is a good candidate for the central organizing principle of what we commonly know as "free will". And just as some people have an innate ability for proper skeletal alignment, some individual have a greater capability for agency than others. Or as biologist Delia Co succinctly observed, some people have more free will than others. Pushing the analogy further, however, just as proper skeletal alignment can be taught to people, so can free will be developed.
The individual that is possessed with a well-developed sense of free will can examine any situation with equanimity and grace. But that is not enough. The individual inevitably determines a direction to which the situation can be led, and the choosing of the direction is always a moral act.
This is what I would wish for the youth of this land: the ability to
see choices, the moral agency to
pick choices, and the commitment to
enact choices. Scenario planning and futures thinking incorporated in childhood education could help precisely with this, argues James Ogilvy. Youth can learn to envision futures that are possible. They can then choose futures that they
desire and act towards those futures.
After all, the future doesn't just happen to us; we
create it.
Ashley |
November 28, 2007 5:39 PM
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December 21, 2007 5:38 PM
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