YPS

“We have to change politics to be the politics of change”

What gains did we see in our areas of work and advocacy in the past 10 years? What still needed to be done? Sitting in the workshop session, I kept thinking, if these walls could talk, they would bear witness to countless similar yet different consultations and meetings, gatherings and fora, plans and assessments of reform groups over the years. These walls and this complex have listened in and housed countless efforts. These tables have been pounded in resonance with passions and leaned on in times of reflective thought. Personally I can recall about 10 instances in the past years where I was within these four walls talking or listening about indigenous peoples rights, peace, social justice, democracy, political reform, constitutional reform, women, youth, and the list goes on…

Just across the road from us, in the same university campus, to the tune of 10,000 pesos a seat I heard, Tony Blair was speaking at the sesquicentennial leadership forum of the university.

Back to our side of the road, halfway through our sessions, I almost tuned out. Not because I didn’t agree with the discussion but ironically because I wholeheartedly did. But within the four walls, it was the same faces the same thoughts, the same feeling of “this is not working”. Same same but different… Different how? Different now?

Across the road, one wonders what could be so interesting a sound byte to be worth a whole month’s salary of the typical Filipino to hear? What truth about our nation’s condition or the condition of humanity would be spoken by a foreign statesman that could command a price? Same same but different? Different How?

Just two days ago, I was in Baguio listening intently and amazed at the efforts of a friend Padma Perez to help the market vendors of the Baguio Public Market retain the low-key ambiance, open-air structure and community-identity of Baguio’s heart of trade. This assertion is a reflection of a community’s appreciation of space and the relationships built within a space amidst the trend for multi-level concrete and aseptic structures of commerce. Would development be simply defined by square footage and maximum rental space? Where would we factor in the joy of walking through open air stalls, the comfort of knowing one corner from the other and of retaining that community built around the rituals of marketing. Would the public market then be as public? Same same but different? Different how?

And just a day ago, I was watching a documentary in UP about the Shoshone Indians who are losing their lands because of “gradual encroachment” by the Federal Government of America. Lands recognized under a treaty were declared as public land and hundreds of cattle and horses were rounded up under the guise of protecting the land from being over-grazed. And in the next years, an open pit mine for gold gouged out this “over grazed” land to allow for mineral extraction. This must be the federal government’s solution to over grazing. Closer to my heart’s woes, the Ibaloi of Baguio are losing our lands to Philippine Government declarations and machinations. Lands now used as economic zones, landfills, military reservations with no recognition of existing rights and resource use regimes. Same same but different? Different How?

“We have to change politics to be the politics of change”

We change the politics we encounter by the way we engage each issue that presents itself. We change the politics only if we risk something that can be lost. Whether it be the gains we have seen in the last 10 years, the chance to do what still needs to be done, the public space and market and the community it represents or the land that defines our identities and heritage… Same same… but different. Indeed this time different how?