Final Reflection
Ariel Delos Santos
University of Washington
Study Abroad Philippines 2016 CHID 476B
As an aspiring leader of change through
community development I started this program with the intent to gain a better
understanding of the mentality of the Filipino people of the Philippines in hopes
to effectively help foster a drive for independent organization amongst
themselves to work collectively for a better quality of life (health care,
financial stability, available resources, etc.) coupled with integrations of
environmental stewardship (clean air, clean water, ecotourism, carbon
footprint, etc.). As a Fil-Am I feel indebted to help out the country where my
parents were born because of the privilege of having technological
advancements, higher education, etc. available to me as someone who grew up in a
world power country. To me I believe there is more meaning in my life to help
people in need when possible. In order to help others I know that I must first
seek to understand the people and the surrounding forces before even planning
to make a change according to my personal leadership philosophy. My main
curiosity was to figure out what were the underlying reason(s) as to why the
Philippines has may problems from urban planning to social justice, from environmental degradation to lack of
famous/inspiring role models known world wide.
Unfortunately with great sadness I have
learned that America was not the “white knight” to the Filipinos since 1898 when
they secretly signed a pact with Spain to hand over the Philippines to be
controlled by the United States under the Benevolent Assimilation Proclamation
by President McKinley (Zinn 2008).
Forced assimilation hidden in terms of
“friendship” was cemented through education, which I held esteemed, of American
culture and miseducation of Filipino resilience and resistance of the
Filipino-American War 1899-1902 in standard distributed textbooks (Acabado 2016,
Ileto 1998, Twain 2002 & Constantino 1982).
The degradation of culture, identity
and nationalism that quickly followed was so engrained that to this very day,
generations after, colonial mentality has effected what being Filipino is
perceived to mean to the rest of the world. Young Filipino-Americans such as
myself are set up since birth by popular media to experience identity crisis so
lethal to a number of us that we remove and detach all traces of Filipino
culture in order to be, think and act as much as possible the very type of
people who put us in this mess in the first place. It is so woven into our
minds that we catch ourselves using our privilege unaware, of which we are so
strongly against as we study this as a diverse cohort (Andresen 2012).
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| The promise of freedom by the Americans. Quezon City |
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| Filipino students taught by an American teacher |
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| Whitening products flood the beauty industry. Manila |
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| White men with young Filipinas are common. Cebu |
We were conquered and we are still under
influence of the US. We were robbed of our identit
ies and exploited of our
land. The government does move to better protect its own indigenous people and
the popular media ignores the problems like the case of Baseco. With years of
historic oppression weighing us down and strip us of our power how can we be
expected to protect nature, inspire role models, reduce our carbon footprint,
clean up the piles of trash, feel proud to live in the Philippines.
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| Peeling garlic to make a couple of pesos. Baseco |
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| Litter from tourism. Boracay |
I
see the Philippines differently now. I understand why its uncommon for people
to step-up and change systems that are the cause of their impoverished state
when they are not aware of them. They are not taught to think out of the box
but to be content with an honest low paid job. There is no expectation to be
better as a nation but to travel abroad and escape. The mentality that its
possible to increase the quality of life here only exists in whispers if it
even exists. Talking to people everywhere and learning about amazing
influential Filipino people in museums has shown me that there is capability to
create positive change but they are unaware of it. I want to be able to help
bring that awareness out then maybe there will be a change.
Group
4: Ariel, Aedan, Sara & Marijo
Group work, is nothing new to me but I’m
also not nearly a pro, just experienced. I’m not able to handle all
personalities on the spot just because I haven’t worked with everyone in the
world so its always a new learning experience. In general when I work with
others its usually with people I don’t really know too well because we have all
just met. As Group 4 we had the advantage of having more time to mingle and
break the ice with each other before hand. For me personally I had already had
heart to heart talks with everyone in the group so I already knew each person’s
passions and style of expression as well as their strengths to understand our
group dynamic and act accordingly for group development. I believe I gained
flexibility from this group since individual energy levels were not matching on
the days leading up to our presentation. We were travelling through Boracay,
Cebu, and Bohol so there was always someone who was sick. Even so this allowed
me to cultivate productive relationships by checking in with everyone on the
progress of their readings and life as long as we meet on the same page the
individual rates of progress did not matter. I myself did not want to
disappoint my group either so I held myself accountable of the readings too by
making them more portable to read where ever we go.
As far as conflicts it was
relatively difficult to come together and discuss our plans. For example on the
boat ride from Bohol to Cebu, there was no way for us to be able to hear each
other over the open-air seating. Instead of experiencing major conflicts our situation
was more about-facing obstacles that prevented us from having an ideal group meeting.
What we did in order to progress bit by bit over travelling was to state the
purpose of our meeting and decide on a time and place. We would then prepare
personally what we felt was strictly necessary to bring to the table when we
met that way our little time was used most efficiently. After our minutes exchange
we made a decision about our presentation. In between those meet-ups Sarah and
I were able to build off each other and encouraged each other’s ideas because
we were roommates/van mates the whole time. This process repeated until we were
comfortable and stable in UP to tie all our inputs together. There were some
opposing opinions in choosing our group activity because we wanted to create a
space of transformative learning than personal debates that could potentially
be too much for our fellow classmates to handle. I played mediator and
translator in order to cut out what could have been wasted time frustrated at
each other’s miscommunication. Our group was relatively respectful towards each
other and we set aside our pride so that we can move on from the planning
process to physically put our slideshow together.
The readings were divided on first
come first serve basis backed by personal wants. Marijo created the Google
slide while each team member was responsible for inserting their own PowerPoint
slides. The next morning I made sure that people awake to complete our final
touches on our presentation. I’d give ourselves props for adapting to having to
present in an open classroom without a projector. We weren’t frustrated and we
supported each other very well. Even during the presentation I believe we
demonstrated unity to keep the dynamics of the classroom flowing. By the end of
it we knew that we could work together again, Go Group 4!
Final
Project, Tourism Group: Ariel, Aedan, Sarah & Enoch
The disadvantage of being in Group 4
was that the team members had to prepare back-to-back presentations. I felt
sorry for Enoch who really wanted to meet the day we came back to UP but Group
4 was more of a priority and he understood. During the whole trip Aedan
checked-in with us individually to see if we were gathering enough pictures,
interviews and video clips. As an aspiring videographer/photographer I was
always on it and made sure that I had enough memory and battery to last the
day. Enoch, Sarah, and I were focused on the day scenes while Aedan was our
correspondent for the night scenes. Interviews and interactions were mostly
taken over by Enoch and I by the nature of our personalities. If it wasn’t for
Sarah’s persistence to take part in as much fun tourist activities as possible
then our observations would have been limited especially in ecotourism.
Thankfully I had a past experience in touring Bohol to identify progress in
ecotourism in the last 6 years.
Personally I experienced more
headaches and frustrations with this group’s dynamics than I wanted to. As
always team members have to work it out no matter what to produce a presentable
product. As with everyone there was a lot of stress the evening before our
Final Presentation. We were excited to put all our amazing footage and photos
together into a documentary style video but unfortunately our programs on our
computers didn’t allow for that. This created confusion, disorganization and
more frustration. I’m glad Sarah took the initiative to delegate topics for
each team member to cover. I presented an alternative solution in using
PowerPoint as our platform to get us started. My PowerPoint skills came in
handy and I’m glad people were ready to learn them. In order to calm the output
of intense energy from Enoch we had to tell reassure him that our tasks were
complete and that complaining ate up more time and used more energy that we
already had little of. It’s ok, stress doesn’t bring the best in us sometimes
but to break the trend, I transferred the attention from making last minute
final touches to realizing how great our presentation looks. I’m starting to
see that I tend to play the optimistic role but maybe because I’m merely
fulfilling the need. If there needs to be an initiator then I will step-up just
as if there is a need for constructive criticism, decision maker, etc. For our
group there needed to be confidence, patience and, believing in each other to
keep that glue that holds us together as a group. Could we have done better? Of
course! We held it together though and enthusiastically shared our findings to
our fellow classmates.
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| so much to mull over |
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| Follow me on YouTube later this summer "Student No. 30672" for compiled vlogs of my experience |
Basically I said that I was loving it here no matter how hard it was. Even though the maid said it was going to rain, typhoon season, I said that I was still happy and that it wasn't going to ruin my mood. I'm so sad I don't want to part this place even though I'll be staying in the Philippines for another month but just the fact that the program is already over saddens me. "The program itself is very meaningful. The experiences, the people...is something that you can't get by just being a tourist" How can you have the same experience as a tourist if you don't have professors lecturing while visiting sites that have no plaques to read or provide additional information? How would you know to observe social systems and forces if you did not read about them? A typical tourist just wants to enjoy the beach, the sun, and the cheap food. "No one goes to another country for critical thinking or to sharpen the mind" as a tourist. This program allowed me to expand my perspective and learn about my culture in a manner that I wouldn't have been able to do so on my own. Its more than that though because the delivery hits me to the core. Another dimension of learning that I wasn't aware of was that it was shown to me by other Filipinos through their perspective instead of a White observer. This enabled me to connect with my surroundings more in a meaningful way then just learning facts. I just want to say thank you Dr. Third, really, for putting this program together. For me, this program feels like my whole college career was set up for this. Every class I chose to take, every seminar and workshop related to social justice, leadership and environmental stewardship was a path that lead to something important. Going through college I was lost about my future as was with any other undergraduate. This program was the stepping stone that I was searching for from the beginning, the round about that tied everything about me as a student together for a path that is becoming more defined and more specialized. This is the road that I must create for myself to inspire others to also take the less beaten path. Words cannot describe how much emotion that wells up from being broken down and transformed while filling in this emptiness I was only aware of as if seeing the tip of an iceberg from Titanic. Oh how much I didn't know I was missing from my cultural identity its almost a crime. "I'm reclaiming it." This program is more than just a linear educational program its a metamorphosis experience. My life's story makes sense and I have the historical context to show you. "This is what I needed." So for sure my other Fil-Ams who are left wandering around feeling disconnected from themselves and/or society would also greatly benefit from this program. Learning our identity and culture is not fostered back home in the States so more programs such as this one will always be needed and should be more widely available. Even though our program was not able to experience and see what was planned that we have only scratched the surface then what more would this experience would have been if it was longer than 30 days.
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CHID Philippines 2016 Cohort, our last day! Through the lows and highs, the arguments, the frustrations, the tears, the uncontrollable contagious laughter of living together for 30 days created a unique bond. These are the group of people who I am most comfortable to struggle with all over again in all of UW. Remember everything that we've learned here, it's time to spread and ignite the fire. Love you all my dear "mamsirs"
~ACD
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References
Acabado, S. (2016). The Archaeology of Pericolonialism: Responses of the unconquered to Spanish Conquest and Colonialism in Ifugao, Philippines. International History Archeology. Springer Media: New York.
Andresen, T. (2012). Knowledge construction, transformative academic knowledge, and Filipino American identity and experience, In E. Bonus & D. Maramba, (Eds.) The “other“ students: Filipino Americans, education, and power. (pp. 65- 87). Charlotte, NC: IAP.
Boracay Island: A Case for Reversing Island Tourism Over-Development to Promote Sustainable Tourism
Constantino, R. (1982). Miseducation of Filipinos. In I In A.V. Shaw & L.H Francia, Vestiges of war. (pp. 177-192). New York: New York Press.
Ileto, R.C. (1998). The Philippine-American War, Friendship and Forgetting. In Shaw, A.V. & Francia, L.H.Vestiges of war. (pp. 3-21). New York: New York Press
McIntosh, P. (1988). White privilege and male privilege: A personal account of coming to see correspondences through work in women’s studies. In K. Tupper, Introduction to women’s studies: Women 200 (2nd ed.) (pp. 62-71). New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Twain, M. (2002). To the person sitting in darkness. In Shaw, A.V. & Francia, L.H. Vestiges of war. (pp. 57-68). New York: New York Press.
Zinn, H. (2008). Invasion of the Philippines. In A people’s history of American empire. (pp.53-72) NY: Metropolitan Books.
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