A change in perspective…

I’m back in the United States now, in a town that may be the complete opposite of Manila. My hometown of Kalama is small, quiet and clean. Comparatively the Cowlitz County area is extremely nicer than Manila. The air is cleaner, the houses are bigger and the cars are nicer. This is funny that I see Cowlitz County this way because I remember after I moved to Seattle and then came back to my hometown and I thought the opposite about it. I remember coming back and looking around and thinking how much nicer Seattle is. Its nice to have my perspective changed again. What's also crazy is all the space I have around me, I’ve gotten so used to being in a concrete jungle next to the people of Manila who are crammed together and stacked in shacks with absolutely no space at all.

As we closed our last week in the Philippines we read an article, about the Southern Island group in Philippines known as Mindanao, by Patricio Abinales. We were unable to go to Mindanao, which is a shame because I have heard it’s a very beautiful part of the country, because of its current political situation. Apparently Mindanao consists of a predominantly Muslim population which is fighting to separate itself from the government of the Philippines. Due to the violence that is occurring as members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (the front pages of national papers were covering the actions of MILF around the time that we left) fight for independence, as well as an Al-Queda presence in the region we had to stay away from the region from our own safety. Mindanao, like most everything in the Philippines, owes some of its current state to the affects of American colonialism as explained by Abinales. Rooted from the wide held belief by westerners that people of color were essentially inferior and unfit to govern themselves the Army was put in control of the Muslim population of Mindanao (91). As a result of this belief the Army decided that they needed to implement a policy of noninterference by Manila (which was predominately Christian) and especially by Filipino politicians (p. 101). This essentially further separated the already geographically cut off Mindanao from Manila politically and ideologically and it makes sense that such a separation has led to Mindanao’s current belief that they should be separated from the government of the Philippines.

The last article that we read by Rene G. Ontal was about Fagen, an African American soldier in the Philippine-American war who actually left the U.S. forces and then became a prominent fighter for the Filipino military, even moving up in rank as he fought against the forces of his homeland. Ontal highlights the racial ideology of the United States policies and actions at home and abroad that without a doubt led Fagen’s, as well as other black military men’s, desertion during the war. I can hardly blame these men for questioning what they were fighting for. They had to join the military in order to make money and in order to survive. This led them to fighting for white men who oppressed at home so that other colored peopled would be oppressed and exploited abroad. As I mentioned in other blogs soldiers like Fagen had to join the war, which occurred so that the United States could acquire an ideal economic location for trade with China, so that they could make money. Money was the reason for the war and also the reason that colored soldiers like Fagen were caught up fighting for something they didn’t believe in. While I could never see myself turning against my country, I of course was never put in a situation like Fagen was, and I am moved by the way that he stood up for what he believed was right when he knew that doing so would prevent him from ever seeing his homeland again if he was lucky enough to survive.

Both of these articles find common ground with the way that Western countries have historically disregarded foreign civilization’s ways of life as well as their potential to develop within their own means. Honestly, this idea is at the basis of everything that we have learned over this quarter from the current economic state of exploited countries to the way that such exploitation harms people not only externally but internally in the way they value their culture and sequentially themselves. In our last week we spent some time in Makiti, one of the wealthier areas of Manila and it honestly bewildered me how the down town of a city can look like Miami while the rest of the city is so poor. I guess it could be said, "that where money can be made it can also be found."

While my eyes have been opened to the disparity that this country faces, which is partly due to the United States of old, and some say the United States of today, I have also come to feel very fortunate to live in here in the States. I’m getting a college degree, and unless I go to law school or graduate school is virtually useless. However, a degree in the Philippines will put someone just above poverty level if they are lucky. I still have the option to do all kinds of work that will pay me enough to live comfortably. I even have the option to go back to school if I want to. I have been saddened but also humbled by seeing the challenges that third world countries have to face. Hopefully this new found perspective towards my own good fortune and the misfortune of others will help guide me through the years to come.