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here's to all my devcom hanash

[zyreners]

10 Years From Now

10 Years From Now: As a DevCom Practitioner

It’s all so challenging seeing how the weight of being a DevCom practitioner is. My dream was to create films to educate people and be the voice of the marginalized. I want to open people’s mind about the reality of our society through films. When I entered the college, I realized that my dream wasn’t that much different with the mantra of DevCom.

10 years from now, I’ll probably be done with my undergraduate. I’ll be in the field but there’s one thing I know about myself. It’s that, I probably wouldn’t be doing the things that a usual DevCom practitioner do. Being in actual field and facilitating the marginalized. What they do is beautiful and challenging but I know for a fact that I will not be doing that exact same thing because I still want to pursue my dream, and that is film-making. But what actually changed in my perspective is that I’ll use film as participatory medium in a way that I’ll be more engaged in people and use them as inspiration in my films, instead of just doing the film for money. 

I want to use film as a tool in development, not just for entertainment. I want to create films that makes an impact, that touches the audiences heart and makes them move and do something. In that way, film doesn’t just become a form of mass communication, it will be a form of development communication.

[zyreners]

DevCom as a Passion

Initially, I didn’t really know what DevCom graduates do. I didn’t know what kinds of work they are in. Like everybody else, I thought they do the work same as the work of Mass Comm students until I enter the college myself. After almost 5 months of staying in this course, I think, I already created an idea what DevCom as a profession do. 

From our interviews, I realized that being a DevCom student and graduate means a lot. It’s not just a flexible course wherein you’d get jobs from various fields, but it prepares you to real life. If there’s one word I could describe DevCom, it would be ‘involvement’. Being in the field means engaging to actual people the oppressed and poor. DevCom is the medium of these people to be heard. Being a successful DevCom practitioner comes a great cost because it wouldn’t be easy. You’ll have to encounter different people, go to different and remote places and you might even do things out of your own comfort zone just to empower the marginalized by being their voice and educating them in a way that they could afford.

Our profession isn’t stagnant, we aim and work hard for change and development. For the betterment of everyone’s well-being. Being a DevCom practitioner isn’t just a profession, it’s a passion for we put heart in it. We put heart in everything that we do, in everyone we encounter and in everywhere that we go.

[zyreners]

A Pathway to Development

If we’d take look at the development in the context of the Philippines, some of you might raise your brows or shake your head or even roll your eyes because let’s face it we’re at that point where we’re close to giving up on our country. But let’s try to narrow everything down and specify why we’re stuck and why we can’t seem to progress.

If we talk about technology, I might say that I commend the technological advances happening in the Philippines. For one, we now have our own Diwata 1 & 2 microsatellites. The goal is to send the two microsatellites into space to assist in disaster management programs, weather forecasting, agriculture, fisheries, forest protection, mining, and even the protection of cultural and historical sites. Another project which aims to improve the disaster risk reduction and management of the Philippines is Project NOAH. Here’s the description of the official gazette website about the project: Project NOAH is the Department of Science and Technology’s (DOST) response to the call of President Benigno S. Aquino III for a more accurate, integrated, and responsive disaster prevention and mitigation system, especially in high-risk areas throughout the Philippines. The Project will harness technologies and management services for disaster risk reduction activities offered by the DOST through PAGASA, PHIVOLCS, and the DOST-Advanced Science and Technology Institute (ASTI), in partnership with the UP National Institute of Geological Sciences and the UP College of Engineering. You know what’s sad about this, though? It’s that it has a great purpose but it’s stopped because there isn’t enough budget and support from the government and that’s why  I don’t think that the Philippines is in its right path through national development, structurally.

Let’s simply observe the policies of the current administration. It’s all obscure and too much. First is the famous oplan tokhang, this policy is violating human rights. Next is the people I power are incompetent, take Mocha Uson for example when she was still in post. She frustrated the hell out of all of us. The failed implementation of the TRAIN Law that made our inflation rate blow up making basic necessities pricey is also so infuriating that makes our economic state obviously, underdeveloped and there’s no sign of recovery. Imagine an agricultural country importing rice.

If we’d observe Filipino values as of today, I might say that it is somehow a good thing that most youth are more open-minded, accepting, understanding and most of all, loving. A lot of Filipino youth have been “woke” in social and political issues. The only problem I see is that not everyone is like these “woke kids” because there are still a lot out there in social media who are still being shaped for every meme that they see. One example that makes me cringe is the Larry Gadon memes. It has become his accidental publicity material now to make people vote him and what bothers me the most is that most people will actually vote for this guy just because he became a meme!

I don’t know how long we’ll be stuck in this situation, I don’t know how long will it take for us to recover but one thing is for sure, we have to do something. After reading this, I encourage you to please stand from your seat and do something. Do something for your country. Do something for the people.

Sources:

https://directory.eoportal.org/web/eoportal/satellite-missions/d/diwata-1

https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/programs/about-project-noah/

[zyreners]

UNDERSTANDING THE PARADIGMS

By now, we all have learned that paradigm is kind of a model or a way of explaining things. In the concept of development and underdevelopment, Ongkiko & Flor gave us four paradigms to analyze them briefly.

We first start with technological paradigm. In this paradigm, it explains that the basis of development highly depends on technological innovations. Ongkiko & Flor stated that the primary cause of underdevelopment is the lack of knowledge in technology of the Third World. This paradigm simply shows that in order to achieve development, we have to comply with the technological advances as technology is and always will be present and is ever-changing.

The second paradigm given to us is economic paradigm. This paradigm claims that economic policies greatly affects development. The state of economy reflects if a country is developing or not. Let’s take our current economic status for example. The growing inflation rate because of TRAIN Law which is being poorly addressed and solved increases the rate of poor Filipinos. This economic dilemma hinders the country from growing and developing

Next paradigm is the structural paradigm. This paradigm encompasses societal issues in a larger picture. We all know that there is an existing social order and this social order that creates classes, castes, ruling classes and the ruled, and even laws have deficiencies and contradictions that result to inequality, poverty and corruption (Ongkiko & Flor). The bottom line is, social order is one factor in development and underdevelopment.

Lastly, the values paradigm. This paradigm refers to the values, culture and behavior of people. We, Filipinos, have values that could positively contribute to development but we also have attributes that could result to underdevelopment and those are the values that we should all look out for. We need to address these problems and find solution to it.

Understanding development and its factors shouldn’t be limited to these four. Development is way more complex and branches out to lots of things and these four paradigms were made to simplify for us to have an idea of the basic factors affecting our development.

[zyreners]

Sila [ang mga bata] ang binhi ng anumang lipunan, ang dapat pinkaaalagaan, ang dapat pinakapinahahalagahan. Dahil anumang sakit ng lipunan, bata ang tiyak na unang makakaramdam

Kara David, I-Witness: Mga Anak ng Pugad Lawin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKeEMv7mRw8

Habang pinapanood ko ang dokumentaryo ni Kara David ay hindi ko maalis ang bigat sa aking dibdib. Hindi ko maiwasang malungkot, maawa at magalit. Nalulungkot at naawa ako dahil sa sitwasyon ng mga tao sa Mercedes at hindi ko lubos maisip kung paano sila patuloy na bumabangon sa umaga upang mamroblema lamang sa kung anong kakainin nila sa maghapon. Nagagalit ako dahil sa sitwasyon nila at sa katotohanang hindi lamang sa Mercedes nangyayari ito kundi maging sa iba’t iba pang parte ng Pilipinas at ito’y tila hindi nasosolusyonan.

Napakaraming problemang nararanasan ang mga taga-Mercedes, mula sa malnutrisyon at kalusugan ng mga bata hanggang sa sanitasyon ng lugar. Napakaraming bata ang buto’t balat na lamang sa iba’t iba ngunit konektadong mga kadahilanan. Kawalan at hindi sapat na trabaho ng mga tatay ng mga bata. Dito tila nagpapanting ang aking tainga dahil hindi ito kasalanan ng mga taga-Mercedes. Walang magandang oportunidad na naibibigay sa mga taong nasa laylayan ng lipunan at ito’y tila hindi nabibigyan ng pansin ng ating gobyerno. Walang sapat na pera at sapat na pagkukuhanan ng pera ang mga taong ito upang tustusan ang mga simple at basic na pangangailangan. Isa pang maaring dahilan na kaakibat nito ay ang kakulangan ng edukasyon ng mga magulang lalong-lalo na sa family planning. Dahil wala silang ideya dito, nagkakaroon sila ng maraming anak at dahil nga hindi sapat ang pera nila, hindi sapat na natutustusan ang pangangailangan ng bawat isa. At kahit pa alam nila kung pano magplano ng pamilya, mas ilalaan nila ang pera nila sa pagkain kesa sa mga kontraseptibo. Ang napakaduming kapaligiran ng Mercedes ay nakakaapekto rin sa kalusugan ng mga bata, dito maaari natin i-sisi, parehas sa lokal na gobyerno at sa mga mamamayan. Sa gobyerno dahil  sa kakulangan sa mga programa at pasilidad. Sa mga mamamayan dahil sa kanilang kakulangan sa disiplina.

Hindi mawala-wala ang usaping kahirapan sa ating bansa at sa ating lipunan, tulad ng sabi ni Kara David, mga bata ang unang naapektuhan nito. Nakakalungkot dahil hindi ito dapat maramdaman ng mga bata pero nangyayari. Walang tamang dyastipikasyon sa sitwasyong ito at matapos panoorin ang dokumentaryong ito, mas nais ko nang makiisa sa mga programa sa aking komunidad at maging sa labas na naglalayong tumulong sa mga taong nasa laylayan ng lipunan dahil ito sa tingin ko ang pinakakaya kong gawin sa ngayon. At bilang estudyante ng DevCom, nais ko pang gumawa ng mga blog tulad nito na naglalayong magpahayag ng mga nangyayari sa ating lipunan upang malaman ng lahat, mamulat ang kanilang mga mata sa ganitong sitwasyon at higit sa lahat, magkaroon ng aksyon upang ito’y masolusyonan.

[zyreners]

3 main role in national & local development

Media and communication has always contributed and helped not just our individual lives but also in the development of our society. Based on the previous activity, I narrowed down the roles of communication into three:

✔ Inform & Educate

The main purpose of communication is to share and gain information. Through media, this purpose is fulfilled. This is an important role for national and local development because being informed is the first step to development. Having an idea of what's happening in the world, or more specifically in the country we live in is the key in knowing what's the next step we have to do.

✔ Be the voice of the marginalized

In DevCom, we are for the marginalized. And that's how we are unique compared to other communication courses. Media becomes a way of spreading out the voice of the marginalized for them to be listened to. This way, the people who have more privilege will understand and empathize with them. And with this, they'll make an action. An action to help them not to get stuck in that situation.

✔ Reach a wider audience

What's the use of the information if it doesn't reach the people it intends to inform and educate. To get the understanding and action from the 'powerful' we need to spread the word, the information, and the experience to a wider audience. And how are we going to do it? Simple, through media and communication.

Communication facilitates our individual lives but more importantly, the development of our nation. Without communication and media, we can't progress. Problems won't be solved if we'll have our mouths shut.