Cultural Priorities / NORSU History: I guess just as I've given Ralph (my counterpart) a bit of a hard time in previous updates, I've also given NORSU's University Professor Dr. Henry A Sojor, Ph.D. a hard time also about his leadership style. Most of that is a lack of understanding on my part about this culture and how things work in the leadership realm.
One thing that I'll give Dr. Sojor is that he is a good speaker. I've heard him on quite a few occasions now and his speeches seem well thought out, very interesting, entertaining, and compelling to listen to. He spoke to all of NORSU staff (about 600) at the beginning of the school year. Along with informing us of the research that he found about people living longer and happier lives in proportion to the amount of education they had, he also spoke about man destroying nature and urged staff to be more conservative with the precious resources we have.
My path to the English Department office on the third floor of the College of Arts and Science building takes me up the north side of the building on a 41-step staircase. When I pass the second floor, where the library and computer labs are, the door is most often left wide open and cool air conditioned air is coming out of the building.
I figured out why the door is left open. It is a glass door and when they take the chain off of it from being locked at night they leave it hooked to the door handle. If you continue to open and close the door the chain bangs against the glass door and sounds like it is about to break the glass. No one is thinking far enough along to slide the chain to the other side of the door handle, the side of the door that is closest to the hinges and swings open the least or put the chain somewhere else. The solution is to leave the door open and air condition the outside world.
I think about all the money that is being used to air condition the library and computer labs and running out of that second floor door onto the staircase that I climb several times a day. I do admit that it feels good when I pass that particular door yet in the big picture I don't find it worth the cost. I especially think about it when Ralph and I are teaching Eng121: Effective Speech in room 304. Room 304 is the room that opens up to the busy street (so it is noisy) so we keep the doors to the hall (also busy and noisy) closed so everyone can hear. The problem with that is there is usually a breeze coming from the hall into the classroom and room 304 has four ceiling fans that are all busted so it is exceptionally hot and the air is still and stale.
No problem, Ralph has a decent size floor fan that he got donated from the NORSU Student Government that he and I tote around from class to class with us. Comical. I was facilitating an activity last week and didn't take much notice to Ralph setting up the fan in the back of the room, we do that often. When the students were working in group I went over to talk to Ralph and noticed he had to set up two different extension cords that ran out of the room, across the 8 foot wide hall, into the other classroom, to get the fan to run. When I asked he what was up, he told me non of the 8 outlets in room 304 were working.
Back to Dr Sojor. I appreciated his speech and urging of staff members to conserve energy. Maybe he is thinking about fixing up the outlets in room 304? Last Friday we celebrated NORSU's Charter Day. 25 June 2004 is the day the President of the Philippines signed Republic Act 9299, which created Negros Oriental State University.
Classes were cancelled and a big day planned. The celebration started with a mass in the NORSU pavilion at 7:30am. Students and faculty from attended, appoximately 14,000 in all. After mass, the NORSU instructors (this included me) left the pavilion then marched right back in as a procession of teachers to begin the commemoration of the day. Then Dr Sojor was announced and gave a long speech. Don't know how he does it, the man is always dressed black trousers and a black sports coat, rarely has a tie on (probably has something to do with all the fans on him and the air conditioned brand spankin' new school Honda truck that drives him around).
Dr Sojor's speech was again riveting; interesting and entertaining. In the first part, he recapped the history of how NORSU was born. He quickly went over the old history of the school; 1927 was the beginning of a few still standing buildings and the school was named NOTS (Negros Oriental Trade School). The school grew and changed its name in 1956 to EVSAT (East Visayan School of Arts and Trade). In 1983 the school name again changed as a reflection of its growth and the times to CVPC (Central Visayas Polytechnic College).
Dr Sojor and still serving Congressman Herminio G Teves started working on the bill to make CVPC the only university on Negros island in 1999. I didn't realize how much politics were involved in such a decision. I also didn't realize how good of a politic Dr Sojor was, of course he was telling his own story. It was a good story about how the bill was created, research that went into its presentation to the Philippines congress, how the bill got turned down a few times before gaining the proper support for its implementation, then the finale of the acceptance of the bill and the celebration that followed. Of course, Dr Sojor was the only person qualified (although he had never been involved in schools) to be the president of the university and has been since. I guess it has been his baby from the beginning and in many ways he deserves to be the president.
The congressman was also at the celebration. He is 91 years old and claimed that although his organs wanted him to retire his brain kept him in the government. Another piece of their leadership culture that interests me and I would like to understand better. His speech was not as riveting as Dr Sojor's as indicated by the decibels of student chatter coming from the pavilion. Also, it had now been 3+ hours that the students and staff had been sitting and listening so I guess I can't blame them.
After the opening ceremony, the speeches, the cultural dances, the signing of happy birthday to the university, the official ceremony was done. An announcement was made to the students that a SMART (one of the two major phone companies in the Philippines)presentation would be made after the closing of the ceremony if they wanted to stick around. I'm thinking, these young people have been sitting and listening for nearly 4 hours, if they are not required to be here, they will be gone! Wrong, not a student moved. All of the staff left though.
The SMART company, from Manila, with all it's progressively and fancy dressed / accessoried consultants and presenters, with a powerpoint and on line big screen presentation, had the students attention. They had created, and were prepared to give each NORSU student, for free, a SMART University Simcard. Once this card (a chip really)gets put into a student's SMART phone (some didn't have SMART phones and I'm sure that's where the marketing project took hold), students keep their same phone number, receive all university announcements through text about cancelling of classes and event for free, can access their grades at the end of the semester for one peso, can send the university feedback for one peso, and can participate in university trivia games through text to win prizes.
Already the SMART company had issued over 300 of these cards to students. The presenters showed the student body, on the big screen, in real time, how a trivia question would go out to SMART phones in a text, how students could answer back, how the computer logs the exact time they receive each answer and from what phone number it came from. Then a presenter called the first 5 correct numbers back and those students answered and walked up to the stage to receive their prize. It was like a game show.
All the while I'm watching this and I'm the only NORSU person there over 25 years old. I'm thinking, "All the instructors need to be seeing what these young people are being exposed to." I'm thinking, "It's not going to fly much longer to be doing registration by hand with pencils and rulers." I'm thinking, "I wonder if SMART would come and fix the electrical outlets in room 304?"
Hope: I do have hope for this society and that hope, probably like many societies in the past, stems from my hope in the youth. I guess the young are the part of a society that are creative, innovative, want more, and risk takers, while the elders are more conservative, solid, based in reality, and feed and house the youth while they move the culture forward. If it were all up to the majority of the elders, things would not change and everyone would be fed and safe because elders know how to take care of people. If it were all up to the majority of the youth, things would be shakin' and groovin' and everyone would be dying of hunger because youth can't find the bakery or don't want to do the work to pull the veggies out of the ground. It's a tough balance of priorities that moves a nation forward.
I see the Filipino youth being driven by change, growth, technology, and education. I've been reading the NORSU paper that comes out every week. The editors and writers are progressive, brave, informed, and assertive in their thinking and writing. Here are a few of their comments:
It is a sad fact that the truth has only become something that is pleasing to hear rather than what is supposed to be recognition and eventually realized as factual information. It is also pitiful to see that what our elders term as something pleasing to hear is what the majority also calls "good."
- Riva Marie S Rubia
Philippine justice is incapable of sending nail-crooked politicians and prominent government officials to jail. Perhaps, we Filipinos should start judging and questioning our authorities or else the acts of felony will get worse.
- Ryan E Gantala
Students' money should not be spent for validation stickers but should be allocated for more important expenses, like the improvement of facilities. It is more justifiable if the administration focuses on projects essential to improving students' learning.
- Irene dela Peña
Here are a few other things I see the Filipino youth enjoying and getting used and don't think they are going to be satisfied with anything less in their adult lives.
First, electricity and less brown outs. Brown outs are when the electricity goes out. In America we call them black outs. In the Philippines, brown outs are sometimes accidents happening with the lines or sometimes scheduled for maintenance purposes and happen for up to 8 hours during the day. When we fist got here we experienced them a few times a week in the Bunao area. Now we experience them once a week, only for an hour or so. The elders are used to it, heck most of them didn't have electricity growing up and they don't own anything that needs it. Although Americans brought electricity to the Philippines in 1924, it's obvious that many urban homes and most rural homes have been recently wired for it as an afterthought. The youth are put off by brown outs. When a brown out happens at our school, the youth sign and complain. I think they are getting less accepting of brown outs and soon will be the ones in charge of creating ways to maintain constant electricity availability for everyone.
Second, air conditioning. I remember growing up in Louisiana and not having air conditioning through high school. I remember how difficult it was to learn as my amygdala was working overtime to keep me alive by helping me battle the heat. I clearly remember taking notes in class and sweating on the notebook paper and not being able to write where I had sweat. I am experiencing again, here in the Philippines, how heat (and humidity) constantly deletes my motivation tank to do anything except sit around and work to be comfortable.
I don't think the older Filipino generation is greatly impacted by air conditioning. Oh sure, they like to sit in it when possible, AND, I think they could take it or leave it. They've been hot all their lives. As Harlan Lane said, "Our sensitivity to temperature is very much influenced by our life experiences." When we go to the movies at the mall most young Filipinos won't leave during the credits. The staff literally have to ask people to leave the theater long after the credits have roled. How do we know? We are there for the same reason, to hang out in the cool air! The malls and big shopping stores are packed with people most of the time, air conditioning has created window shoppers out of the Filipino people.
More and more, I see the young Filipino culture working very hard to be in air conditioning. I went to Cang's the other day on my lunch period (Cang's is a spankin' brand new store on the National Highway, 4 stories, food, furniture, school supplies, hardware, clothes, eatery)and there were hundreds of young people hanging out in the air conditioning, also on their lunch break from school. Were they there to buy things? Of course not, most of them can't afford to buy what Cang's is selling. They were playing in the isles, looking at things on the shelves, showing each other stuff, playing games through the lanes, mostly just hanging out in the air con.
The funniest things to watch in the supermarket are the fat Filipino kids. There aren't many of them per capita. I don't think I have ever seen a fat Filipino elder. I can only imagine the progress the Filipino culture has made in the comforts of life in recent decades hasn't affected the Filipino elderly culture much. I'm sure most of the older Filipinos had to work everyday to eat growing up, had access to just enough raw fish and vegetables to escape hunger, didn't have much clothes, didn't have much money, little to no electricity, walked everywhere in the heat, uphill, both ways (you know the drill). Many Filipinos still live this way. According to a report I just read this morning, 40% of Filipinos live under the poverty line. So, in general, Filipinos are small and thin.
The ones that have found success and are well fed and comfortable are raising fat kids. We see them at the malls, we see them at the airports, we see them getting out of nice cars at private schools. (An information document given to us about the Philippines read,"Social status is shown through material possessions. Since many families are too poor to own a car, owning a car is a clear sign of status, as is upholstered furniture, an abundance of electrical appliances, and area rugs.")
The funniest place to observe fat kids is in the supermarkets. A vast majority of Filipino people shop at the local outdoor markets. The supermarkets, like Cang's, all air conditioned and stocked with expensive processed food, has been around for less than a decade. In the supermarkets, fat Filipino kids often have their own basket and are filling them up with cookies and candy and junk food. I saw this one boy at the supermarket, couldn't have been more than 8-9 years old, probably 80 pounds or so, both hands on the front of the shopping cart, his mother on the other end, mid-30s, 4 foot 10 inches tall, probably 90-100 pounds. She had her high heel shoes unsuccessfully dug in as brakes for the cart and he (I think he was wearing Air Jordan's) was effortlessly dragging her through the isle to the ice cream freezer. Quite a visual.
I think Filipino youth are more used to air conditioning and will work hard in the future to have it in more buildings they live and work in.
Third, technology. The SMART phones and SimCards are progressing and able to bring more of the world and more choices to phone owners. A hot industry in the Philippines is Internet Cafes. There are tons of them everywhere and they are packed most times of the day with Filipino youth, especially on weekends. There aren't yet many Filipinos with their own computer, and they love the access cafes and libraries provide them, typically in the air conditioning. Unfortunately, most of the young people are playing bloody online video games, blowing up things and killing MegaDeath hologram characters. A few young people near the university are usually on the internet doing some kind of research, which is nice. Heck, Lola and Amador (our first host family) had an internet connection in their home for their children and grandchildren and they didn't have a refrigerator or air conditioning.
I see countless people every day with ear buds in. Those tiny little earphones that come from phones, players, etc. Haven't seen Walkmans. I see a few iPhones and iPods. Mostly people are listening to the radio off of their SMART phones or off of compact media players. Ran into a street person last week; he was carrying a bag of trash, had no shoes, was dirty and grungy, wearing clothes that looked like he had worn for months, and had earphones in and was listening to the radio. I also experienced my first schizophrenic looking Filipino walking around talking into her phone with the head set in (looked like she was talking to herself). Technology is coming . . . and I think Filipino youth are the ones hungry for it.
Fourth, water. Lola told us that the only person to ever drink water from her kitchen sink faucet in the last 30 years was the provincial water district manager. He only drinks out of the local water spigots and from people's kitchens sinks to show his confidence that the local water systems have progressed enough to drink from. I went to pay our water bill last week (PhP 145 [$2.90] for the month) and the building was brand new and nice. Clean, lost of big tented windows, a guard out front, and guess what? Yep, air conditioned.
Locals have been buying water jugs from small water purifying companies for so long I think this one will take a while to catch on. There is progress though, and I feel it coming from the youth. I think they are getting tired of having to buy water in bottles and jugs, it probably "cramps their style." The student government has rallied this semester to provide a brand new NORSU campus water fountain and students can drink water, for free, at school for the first time in the school's history. Of course, it has the university president's name on it :-)
Fifth, tricked out triks. The old school triks we use in Dumaguete as taxis for transportation are held together with rust and spit . The new triks are tricked out and are starting to look like space ships. Alana got a ride from Robinson's (the mall) once and when she pulled up the music was pumpin' and she was laughing. She said he had the nicest, most comfortable trik she had rode in yet, with a surround sound speaker system for his CD player. She ended up paying him 50 pesos for a ride that normally would cost at most 20 pesos.
I have hope. The young people seem to be getting small bite size tastes of nice things that life is appearing to provide the Philippines during this time in history. I think despite the scarcity of opportunities provided and in spite of the poor education the majority of Filipino youth are receiving, I feel like they have twinkles in their eyes that say, "I am ready for a much better life than what my parents and grandparents had." We'll see.
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