By MARY LOU MARIGZA
www.nordis.net

Recent typhoons and the extreme downpour from the moonsoons are flooding us to second floor levels. Climate change due to global warming is causing sea rise and seasonal flip flops that we have drenching floods then followed by drought. After the earth becomes saturated with putrid water, we suffer next long drought that cracks the earth where again we cannot plant anything.

Some farmers we have met in our travels to the Ilocos and Cagayan regions have told us that they are at wit’s end trying to survive. Earlier planting seasons get destroyed by flood, later if they ever replant rice, suffers from the drought or will be subjected again to the late typhoons that are more ferocious than the earlier ones. Some farmers have resorted to planting camote. Yes, our plain and simple much maligned camote. And guess what – they earned more from the bountiful harvest than if they had replanted rice. Maybe we should tell them to go-plant-camote instead.

Others said peanuts which is a summer plant is also a good substitute apart from restoring nitrogen back to the soil. But then, not all soil is suited for peanuts, especially if the land is irrigated. Baka nasaysayaat pay no tabako laengen, kunada pay. But that means waiting for a suitable crop during the rainy rainy season.

Which brings me to the title of this column. Maybe our foreparents knew something we don’t. They built their houses above the ground then. The bahay kubo has never been on the ground, it had always been built on stilts. And considering that earlier communities were built along river delta and river banks, they were that connected to nature and they knew that come rainy season, the rivers overflowed their banks to create a fertile valley where they could grow their food. The pantar they know is not a suitable place to live since the river will always claim it back during the rainy season.

Our forefathers also structured their houses such that it weathered the strongest typhoons and rains but lets in much, much air during the hot summer season. If you ever lived in a bamboo bahay kubo you know the cooling effect of the datar made of slats of bamboo and nipa or cogon roofs that acts as soundproofing to the pitter-patter of the rain.

Or in the Cordillera, most houses were above the ground with rat guards on the posts. Again the architecture suited the climate. Closed houses tapering to the top to cushion the occupants from the cold and the incessant rains. Again, it was basic necessities serving people who were closely attuned to nature.

Then the Spaniards came and built pueblos away from the waterways. But earlier architecture as preserved in Vigan or Laoag were bahay na bato with wide areas on the ground floor for the calesa or caruwaje and the burnays of wine, vinegar and sugar (muscovado or pulitipot). I remember when I was grade one in Tagudin (ages ago, mind you) that the rich although no longer housing caruwaje on the first floor, used them as stores or storehouses for their grains and other riches. The Lorenzanas had a big bahay na bato in front of the plaza that housed their lucrative loom weaving (inabel and clothing) business on the ground floor while the second floor was the family home. The famous Lorenzana bagoong was in another building. I have not been to Tagudin for a long time so I am not sure if the big house still stands.

The bahay na bato was also a repetition of the concept of the bahay kubo. Although of a more massive scale and showing to one and all who is landlord and who is overlord, it echoed the need for airy spaces during summer and warm, dry place in rainy season where the floods cannot reach.

After the recent habagat flooded large sections of Luzon and after our experiences of massive flooding last year in the Visayas and Mindanao, architect Palafox who after the Ondoy/Pepeng destruction was a voice in the wilderness of good city planning was at it again. And again he got interviewed on the need to raise our houses, our structures and even our road system to mitigate the effects of global warming and rising sea levels. Our country being an island state should know this. And we should know that throwing our garbage into rivers and building on esteros is not good city planning, di ba po?

We should listen and listen closely to what the environment is telling us and make appropriate measures if we do not want to live with the dalag. # nordis.net

By REV. LUNA DINGAYAN
www.nordis.net

“I have seen the afflictions of my people. I have heard their cries… and therefore I have come down to deliver them from their slave drivers.” — Exodus 3:7-8

Second of five parts

(Excerpts from the public lecture I delivered at that National Deacons’ Conferences held at United Theological College in Sydney on 5 July 2012).

Struggle as praxis

Now, let us look at the praxis of this emerging people’s theology. The praxis of the theology of struggle is obviously the praxis of struggle. Struggle as a praxis has several important key elements to consider. First of all, it is concrete and historical. It defines the concrete historical experiences of the Filipino people in their continuous quest for a truly free, just and peaceful nation. Struggle in this case, therefore, is not just any kind of struggle. It must be understood as a collective struggle, ever conscious of its goal of giving birth to a new structure of human relationships that would embody the genuine aspirations of our people. A person in the struggle must be able to transcend his/her own individual and family interests for a greater national cause. The success of the struggle for genuine national freedom would largely depend on the willingness of people to sacrifice their individual and family interests for the sake of the common good. The failures of the Philippine Revolution of 1896 against Spanish Colonization and the EDSA Revolution of 1986 against the Martial Law regime testify to this fact. The leaders of these two great moments in Philippine struggles betrayed the people by departing from the common cause for which the struggle emerged.

At the heart of the struggle is a strong sense of self-denial. In short, the struggle is not simply political, economic, cultural or social. It is also spiritual and personal. It necessarily includes the freeing of the human spirit from selfishness and greed.

Struggle also involves a continuous conversion. The struggle for a genuine national freedom and sovereignty is definitely a human struggle. While struggle affirms the fact that human beings are bestowed by God with the ability to make their own history and to shape their own destiny as a people, it is not however blind to the fact that human beings have their own limitations. The struggle has a human face, so to speak. Definitely mistakes will be committed in the struggle. Some may depart from the people’s cause. Others may become traitors and collaborators, and like the Israelites in the wilderness, they may want to return to slavery. But nevertheless, participants in the process should always be open to the possibilities of conversion, of renewal and change.

Moreover, struggle also requires a great amount of hope, of faith and of love (cf. 1 Cor.13) without which the struggle would not last long. Hope gives people an assurance that the victory will surely come. Faith provides them with the courage to endure suffering. Love reminds them of the human community and the common cause for which they are struggling. Faith, hope, and love are abstract terminologies which may find meaning and significance when understood and practiced in the context of struggle. Indeed, faith that is not in the struggle is dead.

Finally, struggle also involves unwavering commitment to the people’s cause. As a matter of fact, in any movement for change or transformation, commitment is necessary. Endurance in the face of extreme difficulties and hardship in the struggle surely requires a strong commitment. Betrayal in the most trying situations is what happens when commitment is not deep. Without commitment in the struggle one will not be able to understand or appreciate the theology arising out of the struggle, for it is this deep commitment and involvement in the struggle that serves as a starting point for theological reflection.

Doing theology of struggle

To discover a more relevant and meaningful approach to theology in the context of the Philippines, we have to look into the composition of those actively involved in the struggle. As it is now experienced in my country, the struggle for a truly sovereign and democratic nation has become multi-sectoral and inter­ disciplinary. It involves not only the vast masses of peasant laborers and unskilled workers but also skilled and professional people. The conscientization programs conducted over the years have swelled the ranks of people whose consciousness is liberated and oriented towards a national cause.

An awareness of this composition means that the approach to a theology of struggle should also be interdisciplinary and multi-sectoral. This would mean that aside from church people, particularly theologians, other sectors of Philippine society such as farmers, workers, students, fisher folks, urban poor, indigenous peoples, professionals and others should also participate in the task of reflecting and practicing the faith that sustains and empowers people in the struggle. Also, aside from theologians, people from different disciplines—philosophers, teachers, sociologists, social scientists, anthropologists, historians, economists, political scientists, natural scientists, and other professionals—should also share their own perspectives on various theological realities. The Forum for Inter-disciplinary Endeavors and Studies (FIDES) referred to earlier was founded on these two basic theological principles.

A meaningful and relevant theology in the Philippines is done not by people who have nothing to do with the struggle. It is done by those who bear the marks of suffering in the struggle, by those who are conscious of the widespread poverty and injustice in our land and their root causes, and are militantly struggling not only to solve these predicaments, but also more importantly, trying to establish a just and humane social order. These are the doers of the theology of struggle. # nordis.net

Continued next week