By ARTHUR L. ALLAD-IW
www.nordis.net

It is now more than a year since typhoon Pepeng (international name Parma) passed and claimed lives and damaged infra-structures and people’s livelihood in the Cordillera region. It was another bad experience likened to some extent to the damage caused by the 1990 earthquake.

Among these losses caused by typhoon Pepeng is the destruction of roads and bridges in the region. A traveller in the Halsema Highway can see with naked eyes the several landslides and washed out roads not yet repaired or restored to their pre-Pepeng condition. While the Halsema Highway has improved from its tag as the abortion highway after it was paved with the support of a loan specifically from the World Bank; today, the still unrepaired damage from typhoon pepeng, diversion roads and broken bridges complicate the situation for travellers who have heart ailments.

A concrete site, in Ambassador, Tublay was a part of the Halsema Highway. Since the cemented road was totally washed out at the peak of typhoon Pepeng, the waistline of the mountain was bulldozed to build a “temporary” road. It is still used by motorists, and it poses risk because the “temporary” road is slippery, and muddy during this rainy season. It is a sharp curve, and narrow for vehicles to manuever. When typhoon Juan hit Northern Luzon, the said road in Ambassador was the only way through and waiting for the bulldozers to clear the falling debris caused an unending traffic cue in and out of the area.

The washed out road was a year ago.

As the P-Noy administration inherited the problems caused by typhoons Pepeng and Ondoy (ketsana), it reportedly alloted P 1.4 billion for the repair of roads and bridges destroyed by the said typhoons. The amount was a loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). And the administration, through DPWH Secretary Rogelio Singson’s media announcement , divided the amount among the affected regions purposely to fund the repair of 86 roads and bridges damaged by Pepeng and Ondoy.

The Cordillera region, which was among those badly hit by Pepeng, was allocated P 151 million from the P1.4 billion. It intends to fund 18 projects which are all for the repair of damaged bridges and roads. As to when these projects would be done is a question however that has no answer. The projects are yet to be realized. Too slow! I hope that the roads and bridges would be restored and realized before it would be destroyed again by future typhoons as Juan did in some other areas.

The Halsema Highway is important to commerce. Vegetables and other agricultural products from the nearby provinces are transported via this highway to the market in Baguio, La Trinidad and the rest of the country. Basic goods also reach the town centers where villagers have easy access.

Of course, even mineral ore is transported by mining corporations via the Halsema Highway. The mine company men and equipment are usually more visible monitoring road conditions, they are quick and readily clear blocked roads during typhoons or rainy season. The people need not express thanks to them, as they too primarily benefit from the utilization of the highway.

Like other Cordillerans, I hope that the P 151 million alloted for the repair of roads and bridges damaged by typhoon Pepeng is utilized totally for such purpose. I hope that it will not go to graft and corruption and would not only benefit the contractors and crooked government officials. If the amount – totally or partially – would be pocketed by the corrupt officials, then it would be a pity for the Filipino people. They would, of course, pay for the loan through taxes imposed on them (Filipino people). I hope that the slogan of P-Noy “walang corrupt” is a walk of the talk. # nordis.net

By LAYAD EKID
www.nordis.net

One of the reasons I joined Nordis is to force myself to write including the thoughts I say to myself when a storm rages through the night and sleep is hard to come.

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I thank God, I still can make do with pen and paper.There are people who say the thoughts are hard to come without the keys to punch. A laptop that can reserve energy for several hours is thus a necessity and that is, if one can afford.

Afford is a key word in today’s world where everything has a price.If you have the technology that enables you to communicate to someone oceans away like he is just beside you, you would think human society has reached the apex of development.

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But a super typhoon is roaring.

You know that out there experiences of human horror are unfolding because majority of people are vulnerable to disasters both natural and man-made. To them, the amenities of life, including protection in an imminent disaster is hardly affordable. We are sure, after the storm, we shall be counting the dead and those who would go hungry for days to come.

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Human development actually retrogressed.

The earth, we call home, has turned fragile from human activities that it can hardly absorb the battering of a Signal Number 4. It has become the victim of a culture of increasing affordability that knows no limit and with no regard for others and the environment. It has spread into a deadly stage from an individual level to that of a nation and race.

Thus the Homo Sapiens, the creature that likes to imagine they have dominion over all, has created a George W. Bush who refuses to sign the Kyoto Protocol, a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC or FCCC), aimed at fighting global warming . His reason: the American lifestyle is non-negotiable. Never mind if that lifestyle is spending trillions on cosmetics and armaments which can be more than the amount that third world nations spend on food.

Yes, development has reached a remarkable stage. But its benefits has been limited only to those who can afford. And for every person who can afford, there are millions who cannot.

Such is the tragedy of human development. We have optimized the limits of the earth but we have not learned to share.

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After we piled the dead and surveyed the extent of the destruction caused by Super Typhoon Juan, expect another disaster purely man-made.

Our political leaders would take the opportunity to grandstand with powerful rhetoric, probably accompanied by tears.

But behind the rhetoric and the tears are actually figures on how much could be had from the calamity fund to be able to add more to what they can afford including fooling the public. # nordis.net

By ALDWIN QUITASOL
www.nordis.net

“When we are dreaming alone it is only a dream. When we are dreaming with others, it is the beginning of reality.” — Dom Helder Camara

In anticipation of every storm, a father who has a family cannot help but worry as his small house may not be able to withstand it especially if the approaching storm is a very strong one. He fears not only for himself but for his wife and his children. It is just like waiting for the storm to devour their house and leave them homeless and cold.

And during a storm while their house is being whipped and trashed by strong winds nearly removing the roof, he cannot bear seeing the fear in the eyes of his family. From there, he could almost read their minds, their fears, where will they run to in the middle of the storm if their house gets blown away? He can sense the anxiety and the fear they may not survive the storm.

Every year, before the rainy season comes, the father would love to buy materials needed to make necessary repairs and additions to their house. But, reality sucks as he cannot afford to buy them because his and his wife’s income is not enough to buy even one fourth of the needed materials. Their salaries are not even enough for their daily expenses and needs amid the rising prices of basic commodities and services. They dream to make their family live in better conditions but their economic situation does not allow them it.

This is so hard for fathers who are receiving pegged wages, facing unsecure job tenure, contractualization, retrenchment, worker’s rights violations, inexperienced leader and corrupt officials and an unfair system. Every time they see their children sleeping in the small rooml, they cannot help feeling sorry and guilty that they cannot even provide better sleeping quarters for them. It brings tears to a father’s eyes to see that his children looking at big and beautiful houses and even if the children will not say it, he know they want to have such.
But there are many fathers, mothers and others who are dreaming for better houses to live in. There are many who love to make their family be in the most comfortable feeling even if a super typhoon comes.

They know that in such a system at present, it is hard to have a better house while you are earning low. The rich can always build many big and beautiful houses whenever they want. But the impoverished people especially the workers cannot do anything but make the best out of their small houses and prepare it for coming storms that may bring big damages if not total destruction to their houses.

These dreamers for better homes once united and bonded in one aspiration, will make a big difference. If they will be ever mobilized to create a society wherein it is not hard to build houses that will stand any weather and will make their occupants feel safe, then no children will ever have eyes full of fear of losing their houses because of typhoons. Parents are happy that their children sleep soundly in comfortable sleeping rooms. # nordis.net

By REV. LUNA DINGAYAN
www.nordis.net

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…And the Word becam flesh.” — John 1:1,14

Indigenous People’s Month

October is designated as Indigenous People’s Month. It is a time for us to reflect on indigenous peoples’ situation and concerns. In an age of fast developing globalized culture, indigenous peoples’ way of life are threatened to be dominated and assimilated by the culture of the wider society, particularly by those who control the instruments of culture, especially the mass media. Nowadays, the mass media is perhaps one of the strongest, if not the strongest instrument of cultural formation in our contemporary life. Religion used to be the strongest molder of cultural values.

In any case, religion, being one among the instruments of culture, is not spared from serving as channel through which the dominant culture tries to subjugate the indigenous culture by alienating indigenous peoples in Christian communities from their own culture. Hence, you have a funny situation wherein Christian indigenous peoples would not like to use their own musical instruments, like gongs, in their own worship services, but instead they use the guitars, drums, and synthesizers, and praise and worship songs patterned from the rock music of the sixties and the MTV music in more recent years introduced by the missionaries.

The conflicting point of views among Christian indigenous peoples relative to their own culture is a product of two contradictory approaches to mission among indigenous communities: the acculturation approach, and the inculturation approach.

Acculturation vs. Inculturation

On one hand, the acculturation approach happens as missionaries try to gradually replace the culture of the indigenous peoples with their own culture presumed to be Christian, and declaring the indigenous culture as pagan or even satanic. As a result, the indigenous peoples who became Christians and embraced the culture of the missionaries are now alienated from their own culture.

On the other hand, the incultration approach happens as missionaries try to show great appreciation of the indigenous peoples’ culture even as the people receive the Christian Gospel into their own way of life. Unlike in acculturation, the chief actors in inculturation are not the missionaries, but rather the people belonging to the indigenous culture in which the Gospel takes shape. Acculturation is the work of the missionaries, while inculturation is the work of the indigenous peoples themselves. Understandably, missionaries who would like to subjugate indigenous peoples using religion would make use of acculturation as an approach to mission.

Inculturation as Incarnation

Inculturation is God’s own approach to mission. The Gospel of John says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us ” (John 1:1, 14). God becoming flesh is what we call incarnation. In other words, the good news of God’s love is shown concretely in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Hence, inculturation can be understood as the incarnation of the Christian life and message in a particular indigenous culture and through members of that culture, in such a way that Christian experience is expressed in terms of that culture, and it also becomes a source of inspiration, direction and unification, transforming and remaking it so as to bring about a new way of life.

Inculturation as incarnation of the Gospel primarily means that the Gospel is to have a concrete shape in a culture expressed in worship, social activities and structures proper to a specific culture. In other words, the Gospel has to take root in a culture.

God in Christ is universal and addressed to all cultures. It is therefore possible and necessary for it to become incarnate, in many ways, in all cultures, including indigenous cultures.

Hence, missionaries who would like indigenous peoples to really embrace the Christian way of life and make it their own should make use of inculturation as an approach to mission. In this case, indigenous peoples would be free to develop their own unique expressions of the Christian faith using their own music, musical instruments, dances, and other cultural forms. Instead of hating their own culture and declaring it evil, they would rather take it seriously and develop it further and make significant contributions to Christian way of life. And thus, Christianity can truly become a religion of the indigenous peoples. # nordis.net