EdenH

I am used visiting people who are living in different parts of the world. I am always aware of being a tourist, a temporary guest in another country. At the same time I get an "inside" view of the local culture through relatives or friends who have been living there for quite a while, the Philippines is a good example.

But this time I have to define the term "tourist" a little bit more touristic... "The term “tourist“ is increasingly used as a derisive label for someone who seems content with his obviously inauthentic experiences (MacCannell)". (In contrast, anthropologists are usually looking for the very ‘authentic’ :))

On the island of the Dominican Republic, along the Coast of Punta Cana, there is one fancy resort after the other. A family trip for two weeks -all inclusive - is more than I ever could think of. It sounds so nice: white beach, 5 different swimming pools, 2 pool bars, buffets every day (North-American style), tropical weather and all drinks for free! And that's only the beginning...

You enter a whole different world. Everything is perfectly arranged to suit your eye and your "relaxation". You get a wristband and depending on its color you can move in certain areas and consume certain things. As if we were animals and this mark tells everyone how to treat us.

It's like a set up tourist village and every tourist stands in the center of attention surrounded by many so called "botones" (bellboys) who are waiting to serve you (in exchange for money of course). But even the "Safari trips" outside of the resort are set up for mass tourism.

Most of the tourists are Canadians, just a few Asians and Europeans.

Certainly it seems to me that all visitors are walking on a stage, perfectly dressed up for the five meters between room door and pool seat (or buffet). The stage is given by the clean and fancy surroundings but the tourists are also creating the image themselves. Eyes are wandering down your body while walking by. Kids in the age of 4 or 5, barely walking but already learning how to dress up. You can do all sorts of sport like tennis, golf, beach volleyball, water aerobic and swimming or reading. Some are drinking all day and waiting to get tanned (or sunburned).

Further more, all the staff are locals. Of course the economy of this country is depending on tourism but it seems just too normal that these colored locals have to serve the (white and) wealthy ones, moreover their livelihood is depending on the tip of the rich ones. This circumstance strengthens images of stereotypes on both sides. On the one hand, as a visitor you get the picture that you don't have to worry about anything, you paid to be the "king" and everything will be done for your best comfort, the staff is friendly and happy to serve you. On the other hand, the locals might get the impression that all visitors have lots of money, prefer to be lazy and to consume.

In fact, many people are saving all their money to have a vacation like this. But I'm wondering: Is this supposed to be the peak of human evolution?

At the end you are traveling for hours to another country but you don't get a hint of the local way of living! Practically you don't even have to know a word of Spanish (local language). On top of all this place is called edenH - as if it were the paradise on earth.

I'm missing some mind stimulation, different styles and new impressions.. and something "not-set-up".. maybe you can call it.. "authentic".

Pantukan

I was invited to a day trip from another NGO (SILDAP) to Pantukan in Compostela Valley (about 3 hrs north of Davao). Actually I thought I was visiting a village affected by mining but instead I landed up visiting an indigenous community doing mining. These indigenous people in the area are called Mansaka and as I noticed most of the community members go to church and mix their traditional customs with christian ones. The Mansaka houses are scattered over several hills and most of the man are working down at the river site and extract "maragaha" (black sand with gold crystalls) from the river mud. 

Upstream a big company started a large scale project already 20 years ago and the small scale miners downstream are suffering from the polluted river, so in a way they are also affected by other mining projects. 

A Mansaka woman showed us how to extract the actual gold from the maragaha. The magic tool is mercury, it will be added to the maragaha on the round plate and the gold can be carefully washed out. But it is very laborious work because you need a lot of mud to gain some maragaha and than you need lots of maragaha to extract a gram of gold. Because the river doesn't always offer enough gold for survival the people also do farming.

It was quite a trip, 

coming from Davao I took a bus for 2 hours, a motorcycle ride for another hour and another 30 minutes "habal-habal" (a ride with a (often transformed) motorcycle on a very stony road, usually to place which can't be reached otherwise). Indeed, the road had many slopes and was in an incredibly bad condition. I always wonder how the drivers can manage to get along with no accidents. 

The landscape in this region is awesome but all the hiking (uphill and downhill) plus the many rides are very exhausting. However, it was worthwhile! 

Goodbye Rojenn!

After 4 months waiting my Cousin Rojenn finally got a working place in Dubai! As an architect  he can earn there about 6 times more than in the Philippines. And luckily he got a job in the same company his girlfriend is already working now. But he won't be alone anyway, most of his former class mates are already there. Moreover about 20 percent of the population in Dubai are Filipino oversea workers.. I wish you and Kaye good times there!

Field trip to Bukidnon

Bukidnon is a province in the heart of Mindanao. I went to a Talaandig community, one of the Indigenous Peoples here in Mindanao - also called Lumad. From Davao City I travelled around 6 hours to their place. Datu Victorino Saway (the term Datu refers to a community leader) and his wife Bai Liza were hosting me, I could stay at their school for livelihood and tradition. I actually enjoy being close to nature but that place was really really cold! I slept with 4 shirts, 2 blankets and a sleeping bag, not to mention the cold shower in the morning - like needles on your skin. 

Luckily it was sunny these days and my first day started with a welcoming ritual which

 was thought to get a permission from their spirits for my stay. Some women and children dressed in their traditional costume gathered around a white cloth with a plate of betelnuts and 8 Peso coins (standing for the Datu's in that region). I was sitting infront of Bai Liza and the elderly women started praying to the spirits in their own language "Binukid".

 After the prayers the children (Kindergarten age) started singing songs and practicing traditional dances. Maybe after more than an hour the ritual went on: a chicken I brought was killed and sacrificed to the gods.

 I enjoyed playing with the kids and watched how they learn the customs of their culture by playing and participating. I just stayed for 4 days in all, I went to their fields, visited some houses and met several community members. One morning I woke up early to watch the sunrise from a bamboo house. Waway, who just finished building it, acompanied me, we chatted and drank native coffee and than he played some music on his self made instruments..

Most of the "batan-on" (youth) are artists and musicians. That is also a main source of income for them by selling paintings, hand made instruments and necklesses. Because their place is really a rural and forest area plus they are

 practicing a very different culture you could think modern technology doesn't fit there. But in fact, I wasn't surprised to find laptops, digital cameras, big music boxes and a stereo - of course cell phones (you can even find internet connection there), but no TVs. Actually, not only Datu Vic and his wife Liza already visited many places outside of the Philippines, also the batan-on are traveling all around the world. Most of the kids can study in nearby cities like Cagayan de Oro or even in Manila. 

Unfortunately this certain community doesn't represent the live of other Lumads. The place of the Talaandig is luckily inside a national park which makes it a preserved area and their land is somehow secured. But in fact many other Lumad communities have really to struggle for their land and life. 

At the end, these trip seemed to me like a very relaxing vacation with some cultural insights. 

Street vendors

Fruits already sliced up - like green mangos, papayas, guave
Coconut juice
Ice cream
Peanuts (mane) in different tastes
Piña
MARUYA - fried bananas, sweet potatoes, ube & jackfruit
Candy
Chicheron - chips made out of pork skin

Lizard

I like Lizards because they eat mosquitos! You can find them everywhere... 

Anyway, last week I thought there was a mouse in my closet so I put a trap infront of it. Mice are quite common here, most people don't even care anymore when there is a mouse running thru the living room. My trap just consisted of a paper with poisened glue. Apparently there was no mouse in my closet but a Lizard! It was stuck on the paper. So I removed it and washed it. That gave me the opportunity to get a closer shot because they are pretty fast.

In the end, it lived happily ever after. But I don't think it will visit me again.. 

WFDA

The World Forum for Democratization in Asia (WFDA) is an international network and platform of democracy advocates in the region. It is forum committed to promoting and advancing the merits of democracy as a universal value and fundamental right to which all peoples in Asia are entitled and which is indispensable for sustainable peace and development. Specifically to this mission in Mindanao, the goal was to support democratization processes, encourage people's participation, seek international support, sharing experiences, address local concerns and support peace-building efforts by civil societies in conflict areas. Two teams were formed for two different trips. One went to the conflict area of Cotabato/Maguindanao and the other one to Zamboanga/Jolo. Basically the mission consisted of a mixture of kaonferences (from kaon (=food) and conference, because these two components go hand in hand in the Philippines!) with government representatives, refugees, civilians and civil society organizations to get a picture of the situation in Mindanao and Sulu.

As background might be said that the government keeps on the dialogue for more than 3 decades, first with the MNLF (Moro National Liberation Front; they had a "Final Peace Agreement" in 1996 which had the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) as a result) and now with the MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front). In the peace talks with the MILF, both sides developed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) which gives greater autonomy and a bigger

region defined as Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE; which includes a bigger region than the ARMM and even includes regions in Palawan) to the Moros. This MoA should be signed on Aug. 5 2008 but the Surpreme Court stopped the signing because of insufficient consultation of the affected areas and refusals from several provinces.

Shortly after the alleged signing of the MoA were the elections of the ARMM. Hence, it was reported that many of the elections were officially peaceful but at the same time most of them dishonest.

Because of the NOT signing of the MoA the situation between the MILF and the Philippine army became tense and in some regions they started shooting. Therefore there are many refugees and civilians (both Christians and Muslims) affected by these political conflict. With this background and the MoA or BJE as main discussion point we went on the mission to explore the situation in different regions and from different perspectives.

The mission ended in a press conference in Manila (we were even on TV but I didn't see it!). Last but not least we visited Nur Misuari, the leader and founder of the MNLF, in his house in Quezon City!

Zamboanga City

As part of the WFDA mission (World Forum for Democratization in Asia) I was in the team going to Zamboanga and Jolo. This was just a 3-day trip full of meetings. Our team consisted of 4 IID staffs, an American Professor (but resident of Japan) Paul, Nazwir from Indonesia (Aceh), Kristian from Spain and myself. Zamboanga City is also called "Asia's Latin City" because the Spanish influence is still quite visible or better hearable. In fact, they have a language which is called "Chabacano", it's a mix of Spanish and Filipino with a very strong Spanish tendency (The mayor gave us a Chabacano learning book). 

Besides, we had three "angels", in other words 3 Muslim women who took care of us, guiding our way. The first stop after our arrival at the airport was the City Hall. There we met with the Mayor of Zamboanga City, Celso Lobregat. 

He was prepared to meet us and held a powerpoint presentation

 regarding his position to the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) and the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE). As we already read before entering the City Hall, he doesn't want an inclusion of Zamboanga in the BJE. 

After listening to his point of view we went on to a meeting with Civil Society organizations of Zamboanga City. This meeting was as well informing and interesting, although we all were tired from the early flight and traveling. 

The last stop was the Western Mindanao Command, a headquarter of the army.

 Of course, similar to all our other hosts, we were friendly welcomed, food and drinks were offered. But unfortunately, we were just "playing soft ball" because the army wasn't prepared to meet us and weren't able or refused to answer most of our ("hard ball") questions. 

Visiting Sulu

Coming from Zamboanga City, the Western Mindanao Command (army) gave us the advice not to go to Jolo, the Capitol of Sulu island, because we wouldn't have an army escort and might not be safe. Nevertheless, we took a night fairy for 8 hours and arrived in Jolo at around 4 am with trust to our fellow Octavio Dinampo (a University Professor living in Jolo and a peace advocat who is closely working together with IID; he was lately kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf in Sulu with a famous Filipino reporter). We thought of going for a low-profile-visit to be more safe. But at our arrival, Prof. Octa was welcoming us with a big banner! So much for low profile..

With our WFDA mission (World Forum for Democratization in Asia)

  we made up appointments with the Vice Governor of Sulu, Lady Ann. We discussed our issues with her and asked questions about the situation and position of Sulu regarding current happenings in Mindanao. After that we met the Mayor of Jolo and later on we discussed our findings with different Civil Society groups which apparently were all women. The inhabitants of Sulu are mainly Tausug, Muslims with a long history and many traditions (like i.e. mechanisms of conflict solution) which are still used today. The government wants to promote tourism and change the "terroristic" image but the local civilians are complaining about a lack of basic services. Both, Government and Civil Society emphasized that Sulu is different from Mindanao but safe. Both parties were also concerned about the heavy militarization on this small island. There are about 3000 U.S. and Filipino soldiers running after 50 Abu Sayyaf terrorists (who are mostly just teenagers) in Sulu. Locals are used to see guns around and although they have nothing to do with the operations going on, they often get labelled as terrorists by outsiders. After all, we had very interesting discussions, learned a lot about Sulu from different perspectives and didn't see any Abu Sayyaf. Maybe because we were escorted by six heavily armed police men and some secret agents from Prof. Octa. Octa took really good care of us, we were even able to visit his house and eat lunch there. The food variety and Sulu specialities were amazing (Sulu Durian is really masarap)! His house is located close to the sea, that means he has a beach as backyard! Unfortunately, our stay was only planned for one day and we had to leave in the evening back to Zamboanga City.

Kadayawan Floral Parade

Kadayawan Festival

For a description pls click on "Pieter's Filipino Blog" or "Dabawpinoy".