Bloggers: Walk the Talk
As I was googling Baguio Insider today, I stumbled upon a rejoinder to my comment at Bill Bilig’s “From the Boondocks.” The discussion was about the “20M Cars for the Baguio City Councilors issue.” Bill was asking “How to Spend 20Million?” and everyone was then complaining about this current set of councilors and their shameless appropriation of public funds for their personal gain to allocate unto themselves a luxury car each, and, after a lengthy comment I asked, “Are we just going to blog about it?”A commenter, TrueBlue, gave this rejoinder:
To Baguio Insider who says “Question is, are we just going to blog and comment about all that’s happening to destroy Baguio?” Let me counter that statement or impression in this manner: Personally, it is a disappointment that you as a Blogger yourself would evoke the sense that most bloggers have to prove themselves. (emphasis mine)
Because I did not want to start an argument in someone else’s virtual real estate, although I’m sure Bill would not have minded, I decided to let that comment pass because I am not one to merely complain online, as a blogger. Yes, the influence of bloggers could be tremendous because bloggers can influence their readers.
That’s why I keep saying that this is such an exercise in restraint for me, that’s why I do not eat out, take a photo of the food and give you my 2 cents’ worth, because I have more respect for restaurateurs than others. I still do not feel that by paying for my meal I have the right to feature the food and the restaurant, with my limitations as a feature writer..
However, much as I hesitate to say anything bad about my beloved Baguio, originally I felt that politicians, by the very nature of the office they entered into are ‘fair game.’ In fact, for a while I felt they were to blame for all the ills, since they were in power. In fact I felt very powerless to determine my future in this country.
I didn’t use to be. I used to be filled with so much hope in my youth. But at 43, I am filled with hope (and better yet, the MEANS, to make this world a better place. It is not the government’s fault that Baguio is being destroyed — it’s my fault because, by my apathy, I allowed them to.
Since hardly anyone in Baguio pickets (they call the UP Baguio activists crazy and yet I understand and love the fire they have burning inside of them hence the Kabuluhan kapihans in the early 2000s at the Atenara Cafe and Museum Shop — hi Rose U., Boom, et.al.), and Baguio society is not organized into political watchdog organizations, I figured I could explain or even justify the current ills away to those who condemn Baguio residents for their poor taste in buildings and infrastructure, their poor taste in governance, their apathy towards the environment, and all other ills, in this blog.
After all, as GoBaguio! webmaster, I am “selling” Baguio City as “a most beautiful place where good things thrive.” Baguio Today sometimes makes me out to be a liar!
But the internet, although a powerful communications tool is nothing compared to real, live, face-to-face communication. Although we can wake a few folks up to the reality of life in the Philippines, the audience is limited (to those who can afford to go online and read blogs) and very scattered (it is an international audience). and very flightly (you can only attract your readers for a few seconds before they move on, unless you give them quality content).
The old Baguio residents who love this city are first to hear about the political shenanigans because they keep in touch through the web. So much so that Ric Maniquis, during the Burnham Park Photo exhibit said, “So you’re Baguio Insider! My relatives abroad hear about the Baguio news ahead of us here and call and say. ‘What’s happening?’ Nauuna pa sila.”
God Bless the Fil-Ams! They are more American in the sense of knowing what an active citizenry can achieve than the Fil-Filipinos who feel helpless and hopeless about our situation. They are the only ones behaving as a lobby group for a better city. And honestly, I would love nothing better than to keep their old hometown clean and green for when they return/retire.
The internet can also be a venue for venting under an invented name. While there was comfort in maintaining a website, blogging (or even commenting) anonymously or under a pseudonym, many readers feel the need to TRUST the source of their information. Thus About Pages are most important, and the more successful personal sites are those whose owners’ names and photos are revealed to the public.
Much like an artist laying everything out waiting for the world to judge his work, a blogger invites folks into his world, to agree or disagree, to add to the knowledge that is left behind for the benefit of the world.
So do bloggers still have to prove themselves?
I would say YES. Writing alone cannot be deemed enough. We must ACTIVELY PRACTICE what we preach. Armchair activists can be called by another name — “complainers.” As we have seen, all the complaining in the world has not changed our country for the better. Sorry, Baguio oldtimers in the classic corduroy-jackets-with-leather-elbow-patches-drinking-coffee, discussion and vigilance, though commendable, can sometimes merely cause the politicians to find yet another way of subverting the people’s will.
If someone like Gloria Macapagal Arroyo can admit to being the voice in the Garci tapes, which deals with cheating in the last Presidential elections, and yet we do nothing to set the situation right, our silence and political inaction has actually served to legitimize her presidency.
During the Marcos times, we were silenced into submission. The succeeding administrations know us very well by now, that we will complain and not act, which is why our complaints seem to fall on deaf ears. They hear us. But their arrogance and their knowledge of the Filipino psyche has taught them that we will allow ourselves to be abused, so much so that we have accepted that the way to bring food to the table is to breed children for body spare parts, like the vital organ industry we allow to propagate among the slum areas.
During the time of TrueBlue’s rejoinder, I was already working offline to try to get like-minded individuals together to actively work for a better Baguio, and was so disappointed at the apathy of even the members of Baguio society who were going to be precisely adversely affected by the current local government’s moves.
In true Filipino style, we expect to replace a known evil with a lesser known evil and hope the latter will work selflessly and tirelessly for our personal benefit. Sometimes, we are lazy and say,”We support you” making that person take all the risk and hoping to reap the benefits of his effort.
Surprise! Life does not work that way. This country has become so corrupted that by buying pizza and Coke in the Philippines, without realizing it, you are actively supporting the Queen of Evil and her henchmen through your taxes (whether or not the owners of the pizzeria or the softdrinks company pay the right taxes).
So, what has Lisa started to do? On top of gathering an army with the purest of motives of making the Baguio a better place, and getting ourselves equipped with the tools and methods to make it so, I have also realized that, although I deemed myself perfectly fair, generous and trustworthy in the past, I have been made to realize that I must BECOME the change I want to see in the world.
For example, there are more things I can and should do. If I want to see beautiful gardens in my city, my gardens have to be beautiful. If I want less traffic in my city, I have to walk even more than before (despite the vintage car collection). The waste segregation part has never been a problem for me (I’ve been in the hospitality business for the past 25 years), before that, as the daughter of Mitos Araneta, you could say it was simply inborn.
I even realize now that to save the Philippines and Baguio one must become an environmentalist. Once I realized this, without mentioning it to anyone, suddenly so many folks have been wanting to talk to me, about waste water, garbage, clean air, geo-tourism, jeepney franchises, Panagbenga policies, etc. Interesting…
There are many little things we can do to make our corner of the world a better place and infect others with positive acts, with enthusiasm, with hope.
A nice lady who reads this blog (but has never commented) told me offline that she was in the beginning searching the articles for some insight into my personal motives for maintaining Baguio Insider, and finding none (except the love of Baguio) decided she could trust me.
I didn’t even know there were folks out there who would think that way about me initially. For I never used to question motives. It was my default assumption that man is good, that man does things for the good of others, for the good of all. Boy, no wonder I kept getting disappointed.
We may not be equipped with the skills to engage in carbon trading, for example but we can learn. We may not be urban planners but we have extensive experience as commuters to know that the Baguio jeepney routes are inefficient, ineffectual, and improvable. Better than experience or skill, which our politician-kings purportedly possess, we have the purest of motives (coupled with a lot of common sense and practical experience). At this point, honestly, can we still trust the ‘experts?’
The economic expert Gloria Arroyo, my brother’s teacher in Ateneo (Management Economics), has only protected the economy of Gloria Arroyo.
All I want is for Baguio to be beautiful again and for everybody here to be truly happy and successful in their passions.
Well, after this long ’sermon’ let me announce this to all and sundry, and I expect some may take issue with this: Things have gotten so bad in this country that if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.
Blogging is not enough.
BLOGGERS MUST WALK THE TALK.
Otherwise we will not be merely complainers, we’d be deemed charlatans.
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If you have reached this far, you may be asking now the big question “HOW DO WE BEGIN TO MAKE BAGUIO BETTER?”
Another personal promise, attend the 3rd Baguio PAGASA Workshop and awaken to the truth, learn the moves, find your breath, make your life better, learn why motive is the most important of all, become a social entrepreneur, find people in Baguio who think and feel the way you do, find yourself, be successful.
It’s not expensive. Php3,000 for two whole days, 8 meals, the wisdom of Nicanor Perlas, and a whole lot of new, enlightened friends. To be held this April 21 & 22 at the Betania Retreat House on Navy Base.
And if you want to attend the workshop so badly but cannot come up with the registration fee, I will find you a sponsor, as long as you email me a 300-word (minimum) essay “Why Baguio Insider should sponsor me to the 3rd Baguio PAGASA Workshop.”*
* Ok, impulsive me says, this is a contest: I will sponsor at least one person to this workshop (and hope to find other sponsors for all the others who want to attend badly and cannot afford to). So now we need a deadline for the contest. How about one week?
- So please email me by April 15, 2008
- at creativenative(at)gmail(dot)com
- we will contact the winner by 12:01 am April 17, 2008 at the very latest.
- Extra points will be given for early submissions
- Sponsorship is limited to registration fee only and does not include transportation or accommodations. With that out of the way, I can now say that contest is not limited to Baguio residents.
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Related Post:
Lisa:
Hit a raw nerve. I’m a writer by profession and by trade; the most I can do to change this country is through my writing…
I would like to join the workshop myself, but it’s on a Monday and Tuesday. I don’t know if I can secure a leave from work to attend it, but I am very supportive of the cause for a better Baguio. If I can scrap up enough money, maybe I can also help sponsor a participant.
Oh Marck,
While the ‘most you can do is change this country through (your) writing’ — it is not the ONLY thing you can do!
You’re also a man, a boyfriend/husband, a son/brother, a boss/employee, a neighbor, a driver if you drive, a commuter if you get out of the house, an owner of the Philippines! This is how you help this country.
There’s one workshop in Manila at Regalia on EDSA`on April 19-20 (Sat-Sun). Details at http://www.pagasa.net.ph/PAGASA/Bulletin_Board.html.
Hi,Lisa!
Your site has finally turned GREEN! Thank you! Finally, it’s a HOPEFUL color, like a sprig of parsley (?). A new leaf! The green green grass of home … Finally!
I read a calmer writer. (Green is calming, as much as blue) … and one that is ready to spring!
See you (again) at the 3rd Baguio PAGASA workshop! Or even earlier!
See you tomorrow, Marie!
Am finally going home. Had to do one last thing in Manila yesterday. Today was bonding time with mom.
Then you can tell me all about Laoag.
I am not much into political issues but I have become more aware of what goes on. Most times I don’t get some people (mostly intellectual activitists) who puts the blame on the system and yet not show a single, even a small act of action/kindness to help out somebody (or plant a flower in their garden.) Most of their talks and articles go over my head. But I get you because you have the heart and bares it unafraid. Maybe that is the reason why that nice lady could trust you. I get you because how you live validates what you say. Your principles in life resonate even out here outside the country and compel us to act on little things we can do. Thank you for keeping us connected and updated on varying issues and to your friends who provide these incredibly beautiful pictures of Baguio.
Hi Cynthia, and thanks for your insights!
The system, kasi, is created by ordinary people like us. The inequity, poverty and injustice is condoned by people like us.
We are all victims of ourselves then. But the good news is, it is also in our power to change things, to determine our future. Sometimes, the ‘intellectual activists’ kasi analyze the system to be able to see where it is best to ‘counter.’
But like Jun Lozada has been saying, we must not be anti-something (else we replace a bad man with a bad woman pala).
We should be PRO-SOMETHING. Pro-family, pro-clean air, pro-walking, pro-good education, pro-safety. The PRO part makes us activists all, not necessarily street parliamentarians, but activists nevertheless.
You’re right! “…act on little things we can do.”
Hmmm…so we, the ones who create the system become the (most powerful)solutions to the problems we create! And we should because we, are the ones most affected by it’s decay. And we can because change only happens for real when it starts from the inside. Okey, I get it.(TOL-thinking out loud!) We are all “activists nevertheless” - all of us. I like that. Sali ako sa PRO! So being PRO-ACTive could also mean PROgressively ACTing to make things better. It does feel good to rise above ourselves.
You got it, Cynthia!
It is in our power to change things for ourselves, for our country, for our fellowman. Wonderful to know that, isn’t it?
But we have to work outside the internet even more, don’t we? The web as an information or propaganda tool is wonderful but we cannot sweep the streets by typing, can we?