#filipinblr

[arkipelagic]

Jes Aznar: “Apart from photos of environmental degradation that lack context and fail to address the root cause of our planet's plight, I believe that indigenous peoples are among the most exoticized subjects in photography, often romanticized for their colorful attire and innocent gaze. Their real struggles however, are frequently overlooked.

Dispossessed from their ancestral lands and forced into assimilation into mainstream market economies, they face systemic discrimination that hinders their access to education, healthcare, and justice.

[…] They remain the most marginalized because the conflict over land and resources makes them the capitalist's biggest enemy.”

[pusong-mangga]

raises hand. is sari-isip the term for neurodivergence. that is so cool

yeah, it's a Filipino translation for neurodivergent that isn't derogatory lmao. actually was just coined the other night by a linguist friend of mine!

there are three total proposed terms for "neurodivergent" in filipino so far, as it's still in the works and there is no official equivalent as of yet:

sari-isip (different-thinking)

saritanaw (different view/perspective)

saridiwa (different spirit)

they took the structure from the word for biodiversity, "saribuhay" (different life/lives)

[arkipelagic]

[arkipelagic]

at times the treacherous parts of my mind wanders and think, “if only the philippines actually functioned well and managed to retain its citizens, i think i could turn a blind eye to corruption.” because corruption exists everywhere, even in idyllic little places like japan and singapore. it’s not obvious because their countries are nearly uniformly clean; fairly safe; accessible via decent and widespread public transportation; and rich. looking at the trajectory of the philippines in the mid-20th century to the first quarter of the 21st century makes you wanna scratch your head. i look at ghettoes in western europe and america and think, ok na yan. kaya parin yan. whereas one look at tondo or manila slums & it’s just sadness all around.

[arkipelagic]

[pusong-mangga]

literally every single corner of the creative world if filipinos had resources and creative freedom and didn't have to deal with combined capitalism + longterm effects of colonization on both the nationwide and individual scale + ongoing imperialism and exploitation by the global north on the daily

[arkipelagic]

Photographed by Martin San Diego. Turtle Islands, Sulu Archipelago, Philippines.

“There are places where life seems to slow down, then there's the Turtle Islands in Tawi-tawi. Everything, everyone, and life itself here takes its own pace, more often quite literally than it does figuratively.”

[arkipelagic]

i do not like this tendency to frame precolonial filipinos and contemporary indigenous peoples as noble savages. it’s disingenuous; it’s done in direct response to euro-american colonization, not out of true interest for a heritage; and it’s infantilizing of real people and their real cultures and histories. it says, “we didn’t deserve to be colonized because we did XYZ right.” and that implies there is a righteous way to colonize other (lesser sophisticated, more brutish) people, that we were simply mislabeled and badly treated by mistake.