What If?: A Personal Take on the recent TEDxADMU 2018
A month ago, I was privileged to have been accepted as a participant in the TEDxADMU, and as such, I was able to attend the event yesterday. This TEDx is not my first time as I was able to attend TEDxDiliman in 2011 and 2015, and TEDxADMU last year. Being a regular TED attendee, I see to it that when available on schedule, I apply as participant to hear the speakers and hone my perspective as an academic trying to innovate and reshape my ideas.
TED, as those who are familiar with the concept, actually means Technology, Entertainment and Design. It is a conference of carefully chosen participants wherein they get to hear presenters who have broken new ground in different fields and who offer unique ideas that can change one’s view of the world. With the tagline, “Ideas Worth Spreading,” TED conferences have been held all over the world, since it was founded in 1984. TEDx, with the “x” means independently organized TED conferences, where localities in different locations can play host to idea pioneers in the local scene, holding the free license of TED.
TEDxADMU is unique, in that, it is the largest TEDx event in the Philippines, and reputedly in Southeast Asia. This year’s theme is “Re:Vision”, asking the question “What If?” Not the what if pertaining to uncertainty, but a pro-active “what if” of what could still be done in the future. There were 8 Speakers and around 4 performances, all of whom attempted to break ground and introduce the participants to really new ideas.
Here is my attempt to summarize what I learned, and my commentary at the end as well.
Henry Motte Muñoz
Muñoz is the co-founder and CEO of Edukasyon.ph, an online portal that makes it easy for students to find the best scholarships and schools for their needs to prepare them for job opportunities thereafter. Muñoz, in his short talk ventured into the fears that students are often plagued in, torn between what they love to do versus their economic needs (dreams versus practicality). Muñoz pushed the idea that technology could aid these students and make it easy for them to choose their path (millenials are perennial indecisive choosers). He used the term “ed-tech” to highlight how technology makes everything efficient. He emphasized that we must not be fearful of what ifs, fearing mistakes because failing is ok. What it important is the future we choose.
Dra. Gia Sison
Aside from being a twitter personality (I follow her Twitter for inspiration), Dra. Sison is the founder of HealthxPH, an advocacy that uses social media to further develop the Philippine health landscape by bringing in medical practitioners and making health relevant to Filipinos. She shared to the audience her turning point in 2013 when upon her neglect on herself, she was found to have breast cancer. Completely devastated as a doctor, she felt like a failure. But having to undergo chemotherapy gave her time to reflect Through a journal, she was able to reflect on her decisions, and that defeats could actually be stepping stones for a comeback. Now that she’s a breast cancer survivor, she challenged the audience to keep a failure journal, where all the failures are listed, and the action plan that should go with it to not repeat it. She is now an inspirational figure on twitter.
“When you fail 5 times, you get up 8. Quote ko yan!” - Dra. Gia Sison
Paloma Zobel
Zobel is the founder of Piopio, advocating Filipino identity and weavers’ welfare in fashion. Standing on stage and wearing a traditional Inabel Ilocano fabric, she shared her passion on protecting human creativity in the onslaught of technology. She said that machines somehow rob us of our creativity, in that in favor of the quick and the practical, we sacrifice the long creative process that is the human element in creativity. Being half Spanish and half Filipino, Zobel saw the Philippines from an artistic lens thanks to her Filipina mother. She brought this perspective to the U.S. where she studied and saw the potential links between art and industry, urban planning and textile innovation. When Zobel rediscovered Inabel, and the weaving techniques applied to it in Ilocos, she was blown away by the meticulous process of the weavers, and at the same time burdened for this dying art. She thought of how to reimagine these blankets, hence Piopio was born. Zobel empathize with the weavers she calls “artisans” who were somehow plagued with guilt for passing on an art that is no longer lucrative. She aimed to disprove this notion, making Inabel the next best thing in the fashion industry.
Cherrie Atilano
If Zobel emphasized the importance of the long creative process in fabrics, Atilano emphasized this same importance in food processing. Atilano is the CEO and founding partner of AGREA Agricultural Systems International, Inc., which advocates the organic way of farming, and the role of farmers as central to our necessary commodity, food. She asked, “What if there are no farmers?” And then she asked the follow up question, that if there are no farmers, “How do you like to be fed?” Atilano’s revolutionary idea is that science is not enough for agriculture. The aim of farming is not only to nourish the body but also the soul. Hence, she said, the role of farmers is crucial because they put the human imprint, the intangible value and care on their produce. She said, let us stop measuring the value of things in terms of economics, but in terms of what makes it human. Atilano emphasized that in order for farming to produce food nourishing to the body, one must uplift the farmers, focus on sustainability of the land with respect to its people, and make it inclusive and financially equitable for everyone.
Jorge Wieneke
Wieneke’s long experience as a DJ and founder of the BuwanBuwan Collective says a lot about his question. He posed this question on the audience: Why do people listen to music that they listen to? And how do songs get on the charts? The factors are probably record sales, radio airplay, or how viral it is. It has almost nothing to do with the listener’s own experience. He went on to challenge these “authorities” that tell us what to like and what to listen to. He defined Culture as “(Cult)ure”, its cultic persuasion that renders people not to question the latest fad. Wieneke says, that while culture is not the enemy, we tend to “worship” the trends and the fads because “authorities” tell us to love them. When we obey these authorities, we are not aware what we are giving away in return. In order not to be conformed unquestioningly by culture, we must, in our own way, become cultural engineers. Wieneke and his friends founded a group called BuwanBuwan Collective with its own record label and podcast in an effort to shatter the traditional authorities of music. Wieneke himself create music only through laptop, videogames and synthesizer. From 30 loyal following in 2011, the Collective fan base grew to hundreds. Hence, Wieneke challenged the audience: “Make your own charts. Make your own music. Genre? Ditch the genre. Be genre-less. Make your own genre.”
Alvin Yapan
Known as the award-winning director of Oro, Sayaw ng Dalawang Kaliwang Paa, Debosyon, and EDSA, Yapan poses the question, “What if we can harness our sense of beauty as a cultural capital?” He reiterates this by showing the audience samples of textiles from Itneg, Yakan, and Bagobo, noting the pattern’s repetitive design–one basic unit of design being repeated ad infinitum. Even in music, like the Kalinga, that begins as percussion, then as music progresses, the solo percussion is joined in by one and two ensemble to form a thick music that becomes melodic. Filipinos are, as Yapan said, enamored by the “maximalist aesthetic”, the repetitive to the point of exaggeration and intensity. We feel the need to fill the “visual field” of the artwork. This is seen in how we decorate jeepneys, in how we decorate houses in the Pahiyas, or how we design the art of space in our architecture with the use of a Volada- a covered terrace that surrounds the bahay na bato. This can be seen even in our fashion trends, like the ones done by Michael Cinco, which accounts for the layers upon layers of skirt on dresses making it voluminous. If we can unify this concept and make it a guiding aesthetic for all Filipino artists, it may help raise the discourse of Philippine art and thereby making our art a contributor in the world stage.
Carla Ocampo
Ocampo, a film director of the film documentary Walang Rape sa Bontok, begins her talk with a shocker–she was a victim of rape. She then proceeds, speaking in Filipino, on defining what rape culture is, which is seemingly prevalent in Filipino culture– believing the wrong notion that women like to be forced into sex, or that even in couples, that forcing your partner to have sex even when the other doesn’t want it due to exhaustion from work, these seemingly harmless things would later on root itself out in resentment, because it is rape. As a film director and now a current resident of Bontoc in the Cordilleras, Ocampo made a discovery–that the Bontocs have a culture where rape culture in all forms–catcalling, violence against women, disrespect on genders of all shades are virtually absent. Ocampo proceeds in calling this “Kapwa Culture.” This Kapwa Culture, Ocampo proposes, was prevalent in pre-colonial Philippines, that in fact, this Rape Culture is not natural in our culture. As evidenced by numerous pictures of the Cordilleran ethnic groups in the early 20th century photos taken by American colonialists, photos show that men and women alike share the burden of carrying babies, toiling the fields, carrying heavy loads. One picture she showed, showed Cordilleran men, flanking topless women, ordinarily, with respect. The women were seen as co-equals with men.
Even during the Spanish Colonial Period, she mentioned Tamblot, the great revolutionary of Bohol, a babaylan and an “asog” (gay) who led his people against the Spanish oppressors.
Kapwa Culture, Ocampo said, was the reason why until today, people don’t lock the doors in Romblon at night, that women can drink with men at night in comfort and safety in Batanes, that women can walk around topless in Bontoc without being catcalled. Kapwa Culture is egalitarian, and sees one’s self in others.
In Bontoc, whenever two tribes clash and women are trapped in the middle, the women just pull up their skirts and the men would flee to the mountains. Apparently in their culture, accursed is the man who looks at where he has come from. Indeed, the female genitalia is seen as powerful, unlike today that prevalent culture see it as passive.
Ocampo proposes our need to restore back to our culture this Kapwa Culture–the solution to our problems of disrespect, misogyny, and rape culture. Because it is truly Filipino.
*After the talk, Ocampo earned a standing ovation. An applause well-deserved!
Gina Lopez
Having been the pioneer of the Bantay Bata, and having served in government as the Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources under the controversial Duterte administration, Lopez begins with a question, “What if the foundation of economic growth is love?” She says that it’s not the money but the heart that makes a difference. She cited the GDP growth of the Philippines in 2017, in that we have a growth that surpassed that of China and Vietnam. Yet for her, this is meaningless because what should be important is GNH, or what she calls, Gross National Happiness. She questions for example how we could tolerate the droves of OFWs going out of the country while they keep our economy afloat, or how in the southern regions in Mindanao, the conflict is prevalent because of the high incidence of poverty in the area. She presented what she did in DENR, when she was able to preserve the environment and give livelihood to the locals. She cited Lola Sayong Eco-Surf Camp, the Buhatan River Eco Adventure (both in Sorsogon), Tagabinet in Palawan. Lopez said that we cannot have matter/money as the sum of life. It is possible to prioritize welfare (love) where the community primarily benefits, and the economic dimension will follow. She also shared numerous plants that were discovered and have now been patented by foreign countries. Our islands, Lopez said, are so rich and we do not see it. Lopez challenged the audience to make “love” the center of our economic growth.
Synthesis
Alvin Yapan’s concept of Filipino art seem to imply a monolithic Filipino art that trumps others. While I admire his all-encompassing concept that Filipino art forms have commonalities in principle, I won’t go as far as to impose a certain kind of art that I see recurring, to all other Filipino art forms that don’t follow suit. I myself am not a fan of exaggerations in art, hence my dislike for abstract art or flamboyant ones such as Baroque. I’m more realist that way and I lean towards the minimalist (which is not any less Asian). But agreed, these commonalities deserve further studies, and these may serve as unifier of our fragmented national culture. It may help us find common ground in discourse, especially in a deeply politically polarized society we are in.
I am especially inspired by Carla Ocampo’s talk. While I do not completely agree that pre-colonial culture was THAT egalitarian in our sense of the word (that would be anachronism because the standards of that time were definitely radically different in terms of worldview, if compared from ours today), I would be remiss if I do not agree to what she says which basically, that we can draw from our own history and culture to repair the damage done to us by rape culture. I still believe that rape culture is not just some concept brought to us solely by our colonizers, but it has become part of us (a part of our human depravity), as seen in our capacity to do wrong to ourselves and others. That is why for me, Kapwa Culture is not enough to change our culture. The change needs to come from within, which is more than a simple resolve. This change should permeate everything we do. We need a personal transformation.
Regarding the choosing of Gina Lopez as the last speaker, this may court controversy given the associations she had with a very polarizing and divisive administration marred by allegations of human rights violations and strong aversion to democratic dissent and anti-liberalism, which is so un-TED-like. Furthermore, some of my learned friends have told me some of her policies as DENR secretary are questionable and uninformed. I’ll let them talk about it since I’m no expert in these policies. But I also acknowledge that TED is an arena where ideas are presented. So I choose to see her presentation this way.
To further summarize, this is my synthesis of the event.
Failure is not the end. It is necessary for success. Don’t evade it. Pursue it, record it, and write down your action plan. Sulking won’t change your situation.
We have the resources around us, if we only see it. And we can see it when we see the need around us. The secret is Empathy.
Sometimes one has to go beyond the mundane, utilize it and seize it. Sometimes the times call for us to break the rules that have been outdated. We need to break the wheel, and be innovators and creators, lest we become unquestioning herds for slaughter.
One can face death and live, and use it to empower others. As in Game of Thrones, “What do we say to Death?” “Not today.”
Art and culture are powerful, and that elements of our culture can be utilized to help our people. It takes intention, innovation and out-of-the-box thinking.
Some aspects of our culture are still oppressive and still need to change. Maybe the solution is by digging more into our forgotten past and/or simply recognizing ourselves in others.
We need not sacrifice the long creative/thinking process. There are no shortcuts to this. The way to get there is as important as getting there.
The way to go forward is not forgetting who we are (our Filipino culture, history and heritage), and not forgetting those we fight for (empathy to the voiceless). *Also applies to histories being silenced.*
There is so much uncertainty for the future to cower in fear, but there are more possibilities to explore that should propel us in confidence and faith.
