What...

Ordinary survives

2009-01-07T13:42:00.007+08:00

A very smart ally of mine recently suggested that I consider the idea that I am no different than anyone else. While this may seem somewhat obvious to some people on the surface, there's more for me in looking deeper at the idea that there is nothing uniquely special about me. Because I grew up without many role models that looked like me in the media and the fact that I wanted so badly to be like successful young (mainstream white) people I saw on the TV and in the schools growing up, I was initially resistant, thinking that I was something special was a survival strategy that served me well. The more I began to think about it and ponder over then next few weeks, the more it makes sense to me.

For a long time, there has been special merit or privilege given to those "special" people. In fact, most of the exploitation and mistreatment in the world by one group to another is based on the idea that the oppressing group is in some way more "special" and justified in taking the resources and or humanity of the other group. You can see this in the Catholic Church with the concept of "original sin." In short, everyone is born bad, but some people can do something about it, redeem themselves and then deserve everyone else's stuff, land, resources, or genetic potential.

Last week, it occurred to me that our whole economic system is based on the creation of this "specialness" or lack of it. Most advertising and or propaganda aimed at getting you to buy things is telling you that in order to be "special" and deserving of attention, love, rest, sex, a vacation, or whatever you are supposed to want in a given minute- you must have special things. Mark Twain said something to the effect of,"beware the pass time that requires you to have a whole new wardrobe. " Billions of dollars are spent each day to get you to think that ordinary is horrible in order to get you to buy stuff or act a certain way to get more resource directed your way.

And in school, no one around me told me to just get a "C" and call it good. Everything is based on competition and being above average, above ordinary. Where are the recycled T-shirts that proudly say "average" on the front?

In addition, I survived by making myself useful...

What happens if you are not useful?

What happens if you are not more deserving of riches than anyone else?

What happens if you are not demanding everyone around you reaffirm the idea that you are special on an ongoing basis every day? What if we didn't have to compete for limited resources among us- fighting over the crumbs thrown our way? What could we accomplish together if we were able to just show up and go from there?

I always hear the argument against socialism or anything vaguely different than our twisted version of capitalism (that doesn't count true costs), that there would be no incentive to excel if people had it too easy. I'm rethinking that. Besides, it seems to me that competition is based on rules that different sides agree upon. There's more cooperation in competition that is usually acknowledged.

Would we really just sit there and do nothing useful, nothing special if there was not an economic and or social pressure to compete with everyone around you? Maybe, I wouldn't make the ultra rich and miserable richer.... It's like the Jewish tradition of Shabbat. Just rest and reflect... that's different than the Israeli and US govt's tradition of waging war on people to destabilize the reason... that's another post.

Maybe....
I don't have the answer, just the question...

Back into the Mix

2008-09-05T01:55:00.002+08:00

I've made it safely back and am now getting back into the fast paced rhythm of the SF Bay Area.
Thanks everyone for your cheers this summer.

Jason

Laguna and back

2008-08-22T13:42:00.006+08:00

For the last part of my trip I went to visit my family in Laguna Province. It's was difficult. They were helpful in many way, in some other ways not so much. One of my relatives and her husband were intensely interested in trying to shame me for not being married at my age, then using deep Tagalog words to highlight my lack of understanding, then following that up with a declaration that it was such a shame that I was trying to learn Tagalog, but that I would never really be able to grasp it like a native speaker. It was one of those things that is so petty and irritating that you don't figure out how many things are messed up about the situation till after it's over. I replied to her that by that reasoning there was really no point in learning anything new and people just shouldn't bother trying. I didn't say much to her afterwards and eventually she left. I figured it was just a matter of privilage being reversed, and now having the upper hand over the privileged American she just couldn't contain her desire to put me in my place. This woman is a teacher also. It's pretty obvious how effective she is or at least the system she represents. That's not to say that it's worst than it is here in the US. More so I'm saying that it was messed up and I'm happy to wish them a good life from afar for all time.

The rest of my family helped me with trying to get to the cemetery and the grave of my great grandmother and other family members. My grandfather here in the US probably won't be able to visit his mother's grave before he leaves this world and I wanted to visit symbolically for him.

My other cousin during this time told me that the water was fine and commanded that I drink it. Her family that visits from far away never had any problems so she concluded that the deep well water was fine. I asked her if she was sure and she was. I made a huge mistake and trusted here. Really I should have taken the extra effort to defy her and buy my own water.

The next day the fever and aches began. I went to bed early and mostly didn't sleep all night. I didn't know what was going on, till I realized that my body was reacting to a systemic infection. I thought maybe it was Malaria, I thought a lot of things in my delirium. Then next day I told them I had a fever and my Aunt just tapped my forehead with her palm and said I didn't. My cousin who told me to drink the water told me I was just upset. I found that funny. I know what happens when I get upset and it looks a little different. It's true that I was very uncomfortable there. I lacked an appreciation for the food and I was far outside of what was normally used to. True, I had gotten the hang of using the tabo instead of toilet paper, but there was just something about the place my grandfather came from that sours me in my bones. I don't really know, but maybe it's just the amoeba. They gave me a couple pills, one for headache and 2 for upset stomach and I got on the jeepney and the bus. I bought some water. The bus ride was long, but the kung fu movie they showed made my day. Then the bus broke down. We waited for another. Then I was stuck sitting in the isle for another hour till I got to Manila. I took a taxi and got back to Ipat's house. They took one look at me a took my to the hospital. I had a 104 fever and some loose bowels. 3 hours later, one IV of dextrose, 2 blood tests and another sample later I had my 4 meds and was on my way back to Ipat's and recovery. I had one day to rest before the 22 hour journey back to the US. I sent my family in Laguna the news that I was recovering and suddenly they were worried about me. My cousin expressed concern and also blame at the same time. I just wasn't use to the water. Yes, I think that was a given.

People in positions of relative power not being accountable for their actions was a common experience in the Philippines for me this summer. I bet if the Catholic Church and the colonial powers had been able to say- hey, I'm wrong, sorry, my bad... then I think some people here might have an easier time being accountable to others. There is a legacy of a lack of accountability here, however I do have faith in the power of a positive example. As long as it starts somewhere, eventually it will grow.

Jason

Pashal tayo

2008-08-22T13:24:00.003+08:00

Pashal Tayo,

let's go around!

Pumunta sa Lipa tapos bumisita Arayat, Pampanga. Nakita kay Ricky and ng magulang ni Ipat.
Bumisita din kay mga risirtsr sa mantika sa Mapua Institute of Technology. Ginagamit ng mantika para tumakbo mga sasakyan sa pulis sa Makati.

I went to Lipa after Arayat, Pampanga. I visited with Ricky and Ipat's parents. I also visited with researchers from Mapua Institute of Technology. The are using vegetable oil to run police cars in Makati.

Sa Pampanga!

2008-08-04T09:28:00.003+08:00

Pahinga ako para dalawang araw dito sa bahay nila Alon, Ipat, at Howie sa Maynila. Mabuti para nakita sila!

May bagyo Julian, pero hindi masahdong makas. Ok lang ang mga daan para sa biahe sa Pampanga at ng bahay ni Tita Lina ko. Aalis mamaya.

I've rested here for 2 days at the house of Alon, Ipat and Howie in Manila. Good to see them!

There's a typhoon, Julian, but it's not very strong. The roads to Pampanga to see my Aunt Lina should be fine. I'm leaving soon.

Visiting with Edward from Manila Playback Theater. I put on a workshop with him and their crew here back in 2004.
Jason

Tapos na ako ng AFAP!!!!!!

2008-07-30T15:00:00.003+08:00

Kauusapan ako sa mga direktor ng AFAP para exit interview.
Pagod na ako. May trabeho sa book pa, pero malapit na sa wakas sa programa. Mayroon kaming graduation bukas. ....

Ngayon pupunta kami sa palenke para bumili ng mga malong para pasalubong at baka mga tsinelas.

I just spoke with the directors of AFAP for my exit interview. I'm tired. There's still work to do with the book, but the end of the program in close. We have graduation tomorrow.

Now we are going to the market to buy malongs for gifts for folks back home and maybe some sandals.

Ingat!!!!

Take Care!!

jason

Bike news from the US

2008-07-30T09:57:00.004+08:00

Mayor Says BFC Program "Critically Important"

As the Bicycle Friendly Community program develops and grows, feedback is pouring in from designated communities that have seen benefits far beyond bicycling. Mayor Richard Howorth of Oxford, Miss. recently wrote this to the League: “I can not overstate how critically important the designation has been to us in Oxford, Miss. The rigorous application process provided a structure that required our Pathway Commission and the Board of Aldermen to intensify our planning efforts—greatly enhancing our knowledge of countless aspects of making our city a better, safer place for bicycling and strengthening our ability to execute those plans. I must add that having been turned down for designation in a previous application only made us work harder! Receiving the designation validated our work, and has inspired us to expand our efforts. It also has been a tremendous public relations tool that, among our citizens, has built awareness and confidence. Finally, it is a source of pride to a community that prides itself in many ways, and this is something that is exciting and fresh. Thank you so very much for what you are doing to help America’s communities be better places for all citizens, and, again, for what you have done for us.”

Source: League of American Bicyclists

Video: Bike Commuting makes CBS National News

The CBS Sunday morning news aired a great story about more Americans choosing the bicycle as a practical and economical form of transportation. San Francisco is named as one of the better biking cities and they visit our neighbor, Portland, and include great coverage of Portland's green bike boxes along with their inspiring Mayor-elect, Sam Adams. See the coverage at www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/27/sunday/main4297624.shtml

Source; SF Bike Coalition

Bakit ang mahal ng Biodiesel?

2008-07-29T20:59:00.004+08:00

A great article! I just read today and am posting here.

The True Cost of Sustainable Biodiesel
by Benjamin P. Jordan, P.E.‚ Jul. 28‚ 2008

Editor's Note: San Francisco is perhaps the largest city in America to implement the use of the alternative fuel, biodiesel. The City's entire diesel fleet, MUNI, Airport Shuttles just to name a few, all use a blend of this more environmentally sound fuel source. The SF Bioufuels Cooperative now numbers over 200 members and alongside the SF Department of the Environment, helped the City to reach it's goal of converting it's entire diesel fleet to the use of biodiesel, ahead of it's December 2007 date. Yet the Bay Area has seen the price of biodiesel rise from it's $3.25 per gallon for B100, or "pure biodiesel" in 2006, to as high as $5.80 today. Why? Benjamin Jordan of the Peoples Fuel Cooperative, is also one of the biodiesel community's leading advocates and co-founder of the Biofuel Recycling Cooperative, one of the architects of the successful "SF Greasecycle", a program run by the BRC & SF Public Utilities Commission, by which restaurant grease is collected around San Francisco and turned into biodiesel. Jordan was kind enough to shed some light on the rising costs of this much needed alternative to our dependance on foreign oil and the important issue of sustainability.

What controls the price per gallon of biodiesel? It seems as though every time the price of diesel goes up so does biodiesel. Why is this when the two industries are so very different? When can I expect the price to go down? All good questions that attempt to decipher the complex road fuel industry that has traditionally been ignored due to the low prices for so long.

Biodiesel will become cheaper than petroleum diesel but it won't be because the price of biodiesel goes down. This change will occur because the price of petroleum will continue to rise. A good place to start to understand some of the factors that affect the price per gallon of biodiesel is to ask where does your fuel come from? Was it locally produced or did it travel across the country or around the world by train, truck, or ship? What is your fuel made from: virgin soy bean, corn, canola, tropical palm oil, rendered animal tallow or waste vegetable oil and inedible kitchen grease?

The base cost of each gallon of biodiesel is the sum of raw materials costs (vegetable or animal oil feedstock, methanol, catalyst, heat), market influences of supply and demand, and taxes. Additional items that affect the final cost are transportation, distribution, permits, state regulation, and consistent quality assurance of the fuel.

Raw Materials

It's all about the oil! Restaurants have typically been paying $40 to $60 for oil collection services. With the new demand for feedstock, biofuel producers are offering to collect for free. Some producers are even starting to pay restaurants for their grease. Waste oils, usually referred to as yellow grease and brown grease are traded in the commodities market. Market price is listed on indexes such as The Jacobson and can fluctuate significantly as we have seen recently with increases of 40% in a few weeks. Other feedstock prices such as soy beans have risen as much as 94% in the past year. The world is now facing the most severe food price inflation in history as corn, grain and soybean prices climb to all-time highs. One key factor in these increases is the record cost of crude oil which recently reached a high of over $129/barrel. As the world's main source of energy, the cost of petroleum has significant repercussions on many other resources. The importance of having a local sustainable source for fuel has never been more important. As energy costs rise, so will the cost of alternatives. The less energy involved in producing these alternatives, the better able we will be to control these cost increases.

Supply and Demand

Biodiesel is a superior alternative to petroleum diesel. Biodiesel producers are unlikely to sell a superior product cheaper than petroleum diesel. There are an estimated 10 million gallons of waste vegetable oil in the Bay Area. Those who have managed to secure a recycled feedstock have separated themselves from skyrocketing soybean prices. A few local producers have successfully managed the cost hurdles of initial investment, feedstock acquisition, permitting and overhead cost of doing business in CA. At the moment the realities are still the same, a locally produced sustainably sourced fuel costs more to produce compared to conventional biodiesel production sources and the petroleum fuel supply chain.

Taxes

Currently in California there is approximately $0.75 of tax on every gallon of biodiesel sold. While states like Texas enjoy paying no state tax, Californians pay a state fuel excise tax as well as significant sales tax. The state of California also regulates all distributors of biodiesel through a state wide alternative fuel variance program. Although biodiesel has become widely accepted and is extensively used around the country, the state of California still considers it an "experimental fuel". This program requires distributors to keep records on everyone they sell biodiesel to and compile and submit quarterly reports. This includes the purchasers name, the make, model and year of their vehicles, their estimated usage, and information regarding the performance of the fuel.

The following taxes apply in California:

Federal Excise - $0.244 California Excise - $0.18 *Sales Tax at point of sale - varies by city and county, 8.5% in San Francisco Total (approx) - $0.75

Quality

Not all biodiesel is created equal. Special care must be taken to analyze and certify all fuel is of the highest quality and meets ASTM standards. We feel it is also important to evaluate fuel on a sustainability standard as well. When sourcing sustainable fuel, verifying quality is absolutely critical. Fluctuating feedstock quality, developing producers, new processes, and small batches are some of the factors affecting fuel quality. Constant vigilance from People's Fuel assures that the fuel you use meets the highest quality standards.

Operating Costs

There are many costs involved in running any business. For a fuel distributor vehicles must be maintained, permitted, and insured. Commercially licensed drivers must be paid. State and local regulating agencies require ongoing reporting. People's Fuel is a not for profit worker cooperative. Most of the labor to run the company has been and is still unpaid.

Commitment to sustainability

At People's Fuel we are committed to supplying fuel from local sources and will not support the influx of imported palm oil biodiesel or virgin soy, canola or animal byproduct biodiesel shipped across the country using petroleum based fuels. We are deeply committed to increasing access through retail stations so more of this fuel can be sold to you. In an industry of volumes, an important cost element will be that the more people who buy sustainable biofuel, the cheaper it will become.

Hopefully this helps to demystify some of the speculations regarding fuel costs. Biodiesel is an industry in its infancy. Start up costs are significant and supply is limited. Biodiesel has struggled to establish itself as a better alternative to petroleum against artificially low costs for petroleum fuel. Many have attempted to make it in the biodiesel industry but have not succeeded. The few who have survived are struggling to make a difference in our world. With over 5 years of experience in the industry there has been no time more exciting than now. The mention of biodiesel is no longer met with the reply of “What” but "Oh, really"... and "where can I buy it?” Municipalities and even entire states have begun to implement biodiesel as a legitimate petroleum free alternative. The dedicated individuals who have shared this vision and made a commitment to sustainable biofuel do so out of the belief in locally produced energy, fuel security, green collar jobs, and a cleaner healthier future for us all.

Rethinking Energy

What are the true costs and scale of our overall energy consumption? The age of cheap fossil fuels is now behind us. Paying $10.00/g for fuel may happen sooner than we think. It is important that we be conscious of our energy consumption. To help reduce the price of biodiesel and energy in general, when possible drive less, walk more. Telecommute, use public transit, bicycle, carpool, and car share. Through our daily choices we can reduce our resource consumption. Together we can find a petroleum free option and create a solution to this energy crisis.

Quick Facts

* With 5% of the world’s population, the United States consumes a third of the world’s resources.

* It is estimated that 53% of US dollars spent on crude oil leave our country. Nationally, more than 60 percent of the oil our country uses comes from foreign sources.

* Californians use more than 16.5 billion gallons of gasoline a year. That's enough fuel to drive a car at 30 mpg, three round trips to the sun and back. * Half of all the energy used by Californians is in the transportation sector. * Eighty-two percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States are from burning fossil fuels to generate electricity and power our vehicles.

Sustainability in San Francisco and the Bay Area

Currently PFC is only suppling the most sustainable fuel available; inedible kitchen grease methyl esters (IKGME) that is as local and ecological as possible in regards to feedstock, production, distribution and quality. In San Francisco this means that restaurant oil is collected through private industries and the SFPUC through the SFGreasecycle Program (www.sfgreasecycle.org). This cooking oil is then sold to local producers for biodiesel (IKGME) production. The short list is Bently Biofuels, BioEasi, Blue Sky Biofuels and Yokayo Biofuels with other sources arriving from Southern California and Las Vegas Nevada.

The SF biodiesel community then has access through the not for profit cooperative distribution infrastructure, the PFC. The PFC purchases biodiesel from all of these manufactures and makes it available for delivery and at the pump through mobile fueling at Rainbow Grocery. As the PFC is a cooperative distribution network, our costs are transparent, established and do not fluctuate. The higher prices and reduced availability is the result when the PFC and the membership in San Francisco are not able to purchase fuel consistently and if we can, it is at a higher price. This means that increases in fuel price and decreases in availability are a result of the industry in general and the community's buying power.

The communities buying power, or a joining of people creating a fueling network through the fueling cooperatives, will help keep oversight and prices appropriate for the fuel. Currently for petroleum, the US Congress takes care of the policing and oversight of the industry. They could do better for sure. Here locally, community awareness/involvement will be the only way to keep the biodiesel sustainable, available and equitable. Unfortunately there are many more steps for the biodiesel cooperatives of the Bay Area and the rest of California to work more closely to keep the fuel available and as cheap as possible. This is where we as consumers must play our roll and use our cooperatives to establish a supply of consistent high quality fuel from local industries.

Benjamin P. Jordan, P.E., is a Technical Consultant and provides civil engineering expertise for sustainable ecological design projects including water conservation, biodiesel production and permaculture education. He is also the co-founder of the SF Biofuels, Biofuel Recycling and Peoples Fuel Cooperatives, as well as Healthy Fuels, a non-profit organization that promotes sustainable and environmentally sound biofuels. He can be reached at http://www.biofuelrecycling.org

Para po sa dagdagan ng Carbon Dioxide!

2008-07-28T22:44:00.004+08:00

Para po sa dagdagan ng Carbon Dioxide!

Driver sir, please stop increasing Carbon Dioxide!

Malapit kami sa wakas ng AFAP. May maraming pagsasanay iton linggo! Tapos na ako kanina hapon sa presentasyon ng Bicol Risirts.

We are close to the end of AFAP. There are many assignments this week! I finished my presentation of Bicol research today.

Here is my paper. I presented a powerpoint version in Tagalog today. I want to keep developing it. I welcome your comments toward it's improvement.

Jason

AFAP 2008 Bikol Research
Jason Agar
Paksa/Topic:
Government/Pamahalaan:
Influencing Factors in Implementing Climate Adaptation Policy in Bikol Region, Philippines

Introduksyon:
Global Climate Change (Climate Change) is a result of Global Warming trends tied to many factor of human activity. The destruction of forests and natural areas, the production of excessive amounts of carbon dioxide and other gases from human activities, especially transportation, energy production and manufacturing are negatively affecting the entire world.
The Philippines experiences the most extreme consequences of Climate Change. These consequences are hardest felt in the “Typhoon Belt” of the Bikol region. This paper compares two exemplary governments in the “Typhoon Belt” with regard to their current level of action toward addressing Climate Change and suggests what factors may be responsible for this.

Suliranin ng Pag-aaral:
Statement of the Problem:
Across the globe, impacts of climate change on human lives and ecosystems are already being experienced, and new studies suggest that unchecked climate change will have disastrous economic impacts especially in developing countries. The recent groundbreaking study by former World Bank chief economist Sir Nicholas Stern in the UK warns of a major global economic catastrophe which will be far worse than the two world wars and the great depression combined. That is, unless governments take bold steps to stop climate change by slashing the world’s carbon emissions.(1) ”The impacts of climate change will be most catastrophic to countries who are the least able to cope,” said Greenpeace Southeast Asia Climate and Energy campaigner Abigail Jabines. “The Philippines will lose billions of pesos to climate change. As it is, this is money that we can ill afford to spare.” (1) Added to this, Philippine production of carbon dioxide (a main Greenhouse Gas contributing to Global Warming) has doubled in the years between 1999 and 2006.(6)

Across the globe, impacts of climate change on human lives and ecosystems are already being experienced, and new studies suggest that unchecked climate change will have disastrous economic impacts especially in developing countries….That is, unless governments take bold steps to stop climate change by slashing the world’s carbon emissions.

These necessary bold steps to stop climate change represent the greatest challenge facing national and local governments to date. Never before in human history has a single issue affected so many people with such potentially adverse consequences.

The current global economic system has not valued long-term resource preservation or providing for future generations. It has relied upon scarcity mechanism in the economic system to initiate a conservation trend. At the same time it has been more convenient and profitable to ignore “externalities.” In a world where necessary resources such as clean air were unlimited and abundant this dishonest exclusion of the real costs of specific human activities would not be a problem. However, writes Sir Nicolas Stern in the 2006 Stern Report “Climate change is a result of the externality associated with greenhouse-gas emissions – it entails costs that are not paid for by those who create the emissions.”(7) “When people do not pay for the consequences of their actions we have market failure. This is the greatest market failure the world has seen. It is an externality that goes beyond those of ordinary congestion or pollution, although many of the same economic principles apply for its analysis.” (8) “This externality is different in 4 key ways that shape the whole policy story of a rational response. It is: global; long term; involves risks and uncertainties; and potentially involves major and irreversible change.” (8)

Global Climate Change, is affecting communities world wide, however it’s effects are first and hardest felt in the Philippines. “Extreme weather occurrence such as floods, droughts, forest fires, and an increase in tropical cyclones. These extreme weather events associated with climate change, and the disasters these have wrought, have caused losses amounting to billions of pesos. From 1975 to 2002, tropical cyclones have resulted to losses of 4.578 billion pesos due to damage to property, including damage to agriculture worth 3.047 billion pesos. Drought in Southern Mindanao in 1998, the 2nd hottest year on record, incurred crop losses amounting to 828 million pesos. And damages due to four successive tropical cyclones towards the end of 2004 cost the nation an estimated 7,615.98 million pesos.” (1)

Global and National Agreements
The Philippines has been internationally engaged with this issue for some time already.
Significant Milestones on the Philippine’s response to climate change (6)
 Created the Inter-Agency Committee on Climate Change (IACCC) in May 1991
 Signed the UNFCCC in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992.The Philippine Senate ratified on August 2, 1994.
 Signed the Kyoto Protocol on April 15, 1998

The Philippines has a number of international agreements already in place and listed above as well as national guidelines relating to sustainable development and climate change however until last year there was not a national forum to address the issue. On October 22nd-24th 2007 the first National Conference on Climate Change and Adaptation was held in Albay. From this conference the Albay Declaration was created and later approved by both houses of the legislature. It sets a national guideline for implementing Climate Adaptation on a local level.
It specifically calls for “…the mainstreaming of global warming concerns into the national and local planning, accounting and budgeting systems and to support local government, private and civil society initiatives for climate change adaptation.” (9)

Bikol
The Bikol region is especially affected by typhoons and experiences the brunt of the average 18-21 typhoons that pass through the Philippines each year (2). Local governments in this largely agricultural and economically depressed region must therefore manage maintaining and rebuilding it’s infrastructure on a regular basis as well as other tasks normally associated with running a city or region. Preparing for Climate Change is normal part of life for the residents of Bikol. When asked about the effect on the local economy of needing to rebuild so frequently after storms, Naga City Mayor Jesse Robledo answered,”We’re just used to it.”

The next level of tackling the problem of climate change involves examining the root causes and working to reverse them. This is knows as Climate Adaptation. It is one aspect of Sustainable Development, which seeks to preserve humanity and limited planetary resources for the benefit of current and future generations.

This paper asks and attempts to answer the question, “Why is there a difference in the implementation of Climate Adaptation programs between 2 local governments in the same region with similar general priorities (healthcare, education, and disaster preparation) who are affected by Climate Change in similar ways? From these results I will attempt to answer the question of: “What factors contribute to a government’s willingness to engage in activism relating to Climate Adaptation?”

Saklaw ng Pag-aaral
Scope and delimitation of study:
Two provincial governments in the same geographic area of Bikol, Philippines are compared in terms of general governing priorities and also programs to address Climate Change or Climate Adaptation. This paper uses the assumption that the elected officials are speaking truthfully. This paper assumes that Global Climate Change is a reality. This paper is relying on a small sample of qualitative information to make behavioral projections about the motivation to address climate change or not. It is also making projections from this small source of data as to what might be limiting factors in the public implementation of Climate Adaption policies and programs. Given the time constraints on this project I do not have access to more in-depth statistical survey information that could be gathered first hand.

Metodolohiya:
Description of Methodology: Qualitative research and in-person interviews done over 5 days in Bikol.
Government priorities are similar, effects of Climate Change are similar. In addition to internet research. I have been provided with a powerpoint presentation on the specifics of Climate Adaptation by Nong Rangasa from CLIMA in Legaspi City.
I conducted seven interviews over the course of 5 days in 3 cities.
Two interviews with Jesse Robledo, Mayor of Naga City;
Two interviews with Nong Rangasa from CLIMA in Legaspi City;
One interview with Joey Salceda, Governor of Albay Province;
One interview with Noel Rosal, Mayor of Legaspi City;
One interview with Jaime Villanueva, Mayor of Tiwi.
Each interviewee was asked 2 main questions:
1. What distinguishes your local government from others in the region?
2. How is your government addressing Global Climate Change?

Kinalabasan ng Pag-aaral
Findings:
Although Naga City and Albay Province share many similarities their implementation of common Varied implementation between 2 neighboring, but different regions. Albay Province: Naga City: awareness is seen as a class issue and not a city priority by the Mayor. Climate change is seen as a middle or upper class issue, not one that affects everyday people who too busy working and trying to survive. In response to my question of “What programs do we have in regard to Climate Change?” He answered with,’ We have a program to monitor the air and water quality quarterly.” Naga City will be having its first conference as this paper is being persented – July 29th, 2008. “Perhaps that will raise awareness about the issue” said Robredo. It is clear that Naga City is heavily affected by Climate Change because of it’s location in the “Typhoon Belt” of Bikol. It is clear that the Mayor is a highly effective public official and if the issue were clear, then it’s likely that they would be acting on it already.

Both governments compared in this paper are exemplary in their own ways. Both prioritize healthcare, education and their ability to respond to natural disasters. Both governments place Non-Governmental Organizations on decision making committees to better coordinate NGO services to its’ citizens. “When governance works it, means being able to deliver the services…the outcomes, engaging with the citizens, making them achieve the best that they can be.” Jesse Robledo (4)

Naga City is a leader in “Transparent” government and inspiring the trust of it’s citizens. Over his 6 terms as and 16 years as Mayor of Naga City, Jesse Robledo has received over 150 awards. His is the most awarded government in the Philippines. Naga City is geographically a part of Albay province, but as an independent city has it’s own jurisdiction, and makes it’s own local laws. It funds it’s own police force and provides additional services to it’s citizen by agumenting federal incomes with additional local taxes. Naga city has it’s own Localized Typhoon Warning System.

The Governor of Albay Province, Joey Salceda is in his second year as Governor. According to Salceda, “Governance can structured”. If important government services are easy for people to use and access, then the job of governing is easier as well. In only his second year in the role of governor, Salceda is applying that idea to healthcare, education, and economic development. He has made it easier to access the national PhilHealth program in hospitals. A strong believer in
Liberal Arts Education (receiving his from Ateneo de Maynila), he has provided enough support
and incentives to provide “universal access” to a college education for Albay residents. He has also supported Local Action to implement Global Agreements to address Global Climate Change. One result of Global Warming is an increased severity of typhoons). Like Naga City, Albay Province is vulnerable to typhoon, tsunami, and in addition, volcanic eruption from Mt. Mayon. This makes investment in “climate proof” infrastructure (roads and buildings) very important, however not lasting. The Governor recognizes this in the long term and promotes “human capital development.” In other words, because roads and buildings will be washed away with natural disasters, the most valuable place to invest resources is into the people of Albay themselves. Salceda believes that prioritizing the flow of resources to local people will provide them with a “passport out of risk.” It will benefit those who remain here and must adapt the harshness of the climate as well as support those who choose to leave the area (a reality of the current Philippine Economy). This is a novel approach to governance that I interpret as an aspect of his “structural” approach to government. Salceda has a strong background and understanding of economics and is one of the main advisors to the administration of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. He also briefs the US State Department on the state of the Philippines Economy on a quarterly basis. Being that Climate Change is a result of the failure of complex global economic systems, I believe his understanding of these complex systems is a key factor in the activism found in Albay and not in Naga City.

There are 2 government sponsored offices deal with Climate Change in Albay.(10) The Albay Provincial Safety and Emergency Management Office (APSEMO ) exists to provide disaster risk reduction direct services to the region. Housed in the same building is the Center for Initiatives and Research on Climate Adaptation (CLIMA). CLIMA, works to develop “Climate Proof Development.” “The main objective of CLIMA is to enhance the ability to cope of Albay residents in particular and Filipinos in general to climate risks brought about by a changing climate.” (11) CIRCA is the Philippine national model program for Climate Adaptation.

Climate Change is expected to severely affect communities and diminish attainment of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (UN MDG’s) and HDI (Human Development Index). Climate Change would affect the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equity and empowering women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health and combating major diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability, and developing global partnerships. Because of this CIRCA Executive Director Nong Rangasa and staff are working to implement Govenor Salceda’s vision of Climate Proof Development and to ensure that Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction (CRR/DRR) are embedded into the central economic strategy; not as an afterthought or as contingency.

The decision to address the issue of climate change and to what extent communities are addressing it seems to be related to the proximity of the issue, education, in-depth understanding of causes and solutions, influence, and the will or motivation to achieve those goals. There is a reason that Albay Province is leading the Philippines in Climate Adaptation. It is an issue that is regularly faced by it’s citizens and government via typhoons or potential Tsunamis. This is the same for Naga City and Robledo. However, with Salceda there is a clear economic understanding of the impact and cost of Climate Change to the area and to all of the Philippines. There is leadership from officials (Salceda) to implement national and international objectives on a local level, and there are capable people working on a local level to implement programs in a comprehensive manner. Salceda is also a member of the dominant political party and very close to the President of the Philippines. With both Robledo and Salceda there is a philosophy of governance that values addressing the issue from a moral perspective. The Mayor of Naga City, Jesse Robledo goes above and beyond the minimums of government as an example for all of the Philippines in terms of transparent government. The Albay region is going beyond the minimum requirements of a status quo in terms of Climate Adaptation. Both Robledo and Salceda spoke of being motivated by what they believed was the right course of action.

Climate Change is the result of a failure of our market based economic system. Examining the cumulative affect of “externalities” has been avoided by those benefiting most from the current un-equitable system. Externalities such as clean air and water are really necessary inputs into the economic system that would make the current course of economic development deemed unprofitable if honestly accounted for. Global Climate Change is a testament to this.
Recognizing it as an issue to be prioritized is a first step resulting from additional education. The decision to act on the issue is an additional step. Understanding how to act on the issue is a further step hopefully followed by a change in action or behavior. To really address Climate Change and implement it locally takes an in-depth understanding of larger economic systems as well as the ability to implement those solutions on local level. Said Salceda, the way to address climate change is through “Global Agreements” and “local, grounded action.” It takes a “structural” understanding and vision to address the structural nature of Climate Change. After mapping the necessary steps involved and it takes the political will or motivation to follow those steps on a daily basis. “Do it right and do what is right”, said Salceda.
Rekomendasyon:
Recommendations:
Continue to develop the Albay CIRCA National Climate Proof Development program that other communities can replicate and call upon for technical expertise and guidance.
I strongly support their efforts to “mainstream” Climate Adaptation education in all grade levels, as well the rest of their development program. Promote Climate Proof Development ideals embedded into central economic strategies, not as an afterthought or as a contingency. Including Continued education on Climate Change and Adaptation as it relates to citizens at every level of society. Look for innovative way to encourage green business while addressing Climate Adaptation. For example, running Jeepenys and other transportation vehicles off of waste vegetable oil collected from local food vendors. Waste oil collectors profit from expanded markets, less air pollution from a cleaner carbon neutral fuel, waste oil is kept out of waterways and not resold for human consumption, and the streets smell better.

These kinds of actions will demonstrate the success and ignite curiosity and creativity toward the very practical goal of preparing the real challenges that we face in this world. I’m confident that if the program is made clear for others worldwide, more cities in the region, nation and beyond will be following along and building upon this exemplary program.

Bibliography:
1. Manila, 4 November 2006, Philippines Today
http://www.philippinestoday.net/index.php?module=article&view=79

2. Geography of the Philippines
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_the_Philippines

3. Good Governence Definintion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_governance
Global Climate Change: Definintion

4. Interview 1: Mixing politics and good governance, Jesse Robledo
http://pcij.org/blog/?p=1642

5. Klima, Climate Change Center
http://www.klima.ph/science.html

6. ADDRESSING CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE CDM: THE PHILIPPINE INITIATIVES,
Ma. Gerarda Asuncion D. Merilo
www.ap-net.org/docs/miyazaki/21%20Philippines-rev.pdf

7. Stern Review on the economics of climate change, 2006, Chapter 2 Economics, Ethics and Climate Change
http://www.hmtreasury.gov.uk/media/5/7/Chapter_2_Economics_Ethics_and_Climate_Change.pdf

8. The New Economist Blog, 10/30/ 2006, Climate change:
"the greatest market failure the world has seen"
http://neweconomist.blogs.com/new_economist/2006/10/stern_review_2.html

9. Albay Declaration. PS Resolution no. 191. Adopted 11/6/07 by the Fourteenth Congress of the Republic of the Philippines, First Regular Session.

10. Powerpoint: CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION AND MITIGATION ACTION,
GOVERNOR JOEY SARTE SALCEDA, ASEAN+6 CITY FORUM ON CLIMATE CHANGE,
The Greening of ASEAN Cities, 26-27 June 2008, Bangkok, Thailand

11. CIRCA Brochure, July 2008

Sunday Streets in San Franscisco!

2008-07-21T18:15:00.001+08:00

I'll be running the Freedom From Training Wheels section in this exciting new event in SF!
Sunday Streets!

August 31st and September 14th!

Jason

Isang Linggo sa Bikol

2008-07-19T16:41:00.011+08:00

One week in Bikol
Bikol Journal- rough copy

Day 1 Sunday 7/13/08
Arrive at 5:30AM
Sleep till Breakfast at 7AM
Church at 8AM with Monsignor
Board Bus and being tour

Trouble on Mayon Volcano

Bus breakdown for 4 hours in New People’s Army territory where taxes are often demanded of those from outside to fund NPA military campaigns. Can be dangerous I hear.
We rode a Jeepney back to Polangui with some folks riding on the roof.

Day 2 Monday 7/14/08
Board Bus to meet NGO contacts at Social Action Centre – SAC – Kuya Nick

Afterwards we travel to visit Mayor Jesse Robledo of Naga City
Afterwards we read our introduction poems at Ateneo University – Naga and there was great pancit at the after poetry performance dinner.

Day 3 Tuesday 7/15/08
Board Bus to Legaspi and SAC
Scheduled meeting with Governor Joey Salceda postponed
Jensine, Mike and I meet with Public Planning and Development Officer for the Province of Albay Marcario Pavia.

Afterwards we go to meet Nong Rangasa at CIRCA. Mike and Jensine get coffee. I have a great meeting with Noong.

Day 4 Weds 7/16/08
Confusion about bus departure time- we board and end up being 30- minutes late to meeting with Governor of Albay – Joey Salceda. His staff drive us up to meet him at the Govenors House above Albay.

He is gruff at first and then warms up. Brilliant conversations.

Jensine and I get a ride from Governors staff to the Van Terminal and take a van to Naga City. We say goodbye to Kuya Nick and adventure on our own. We hand write receipts that van drivers/ticket collectors sign so we can be reimbursed. We eventually make it to Naga, 30 minutes late to meet with the Mayor, but we text message ahead to inform them. Good conversation and his staff gives us a ride to Ateneo Univesity de Naga where we pick up 4 copies of the local paper. It has an article about Tita Ruth and AFAP.

Day 5 Thursday 7/17/08
Return to Legaspi
No pressure or early appointments
Lunch at a restaurant where we run into the Mayors Aid, ordering food for an upcoming meeting.
Afterwards I go to visit with Nong Rangasa again and get more information. At 4pm we have a closing ceremony with the SAC workers and give them gifts.

Back in Polangui, after dinner we have a group meeting about the NGO experience. The administrators call me out on making a mistake in taking the bus and being late to meet the Governor. I own the my actions and model being accountable. There is further debriefing with other group members and a tone of blame and dissapointment. I speak up about needing to make mistakes as part of the learning process for students and staff and encourage people to be accountable, but also create an environment where we can try and fail, but still learn. It shifts the dynamic of the conversation and I think the rest of our visit.

The Pajack (bicycle sidecar) originated here in Tiwi.

Day 5 Friday 7/18/08
A day of touring around and sightseeing with Monsignor. We see 2 different Barangays where approximately 800 people in each one were buried alive by landslides from hurricane REMI in 2006. A welcome arch stands before a field of dark lava earth. There are buried houses, ½ buried houses and people living their lives. RR track and a trestle for the one train route was destroyed during the storm and has not been rebuilt. There is no train from Manila anymore.

We visit Tiwi and the Mayor – Jaime Villanueva- buys us Halo Halo drinks. They are delicious. I ask him about his climate change mitigation plan and he tells me about their inclusion of the content in teachers curriculum. We also stopped by a local textiles and handcrafts manufacturer. Such beautiful things all made from Abaca. Before the invention of Nylon and it’s use for rope, Abaca was one of the most valuable exports from this region to the US and elsewhere.

Afterwards we returned to Polunghi and were treated to an incredible lunch served up by the Sisters at the church. There was real spaghetti and it was delicious. Not kechup and hot dogs with red food coloring, sugar and salt over thin noodles. That’s the norm and as you can tell, I’m not into it. We had an incredible feast and then Allan asked to play the drumset. Edwin brought out Charity’s guitar and then the church staff brought out more instruments. I went outside to try and get my teacher Ate Peth to try and learn to ride a bike. She refused. We played Sipa with the young boys at the church before rejoining the others and leaving back to our bus. We drove to Legaspi to visit the downtown marketplace, which was rather meager. Allan and I hung out and bought pasalubong gifts.

Outside there were BMX freestylers and skateboarders in the town square.*
Walking back to the bus we ran into my new favorite person, Nong Rangasa. I remain so very impressed with the depth of his program and also overjoyed to know world class climate change implemenation work is happening here.

Saturday 7/19/08

We had another day of sightseeing with the Monsignor. We went to a black sand beach resort with warm warm water and some sharp rocks and played around. What a fun day! There was my attempt to climb a coconut tree very briefly as well as some break dancing and cartwheels. While there we were treated to fresh buko- coconut. Here is shot of Allan and I drinking up. YUM!!!!

I was inspired to try a full upper body mud mask and then make some faces at a camera. The mud made me itchy afterwards and I’m glad for the amount that I sweat here. It seems to have cleared everything out of my pores just fine.
After dinner we boarded our bus and departed back to Dasmarinas. There’s been trouble with the bus or at least some uncertainty about it running during the whole trip. We got a dirty batch of fuel at the start of the trip and it’s been a crash course for our drivers on diesel filter cleaning and fuel system priming. About 10 minutes from our destination after an all night 7 hour drive the fuel filter was too clogged to drive. After numerous breakdowns and lots of practice our drivers have the process down to an art and had us back on the road in 20 minutes to complete our journey safely.

* Skateboards are expensive and wear out pretty quickly. In a country where the average daily wage is $4-7.00, the youth riding skateboards or specialty bikes are probably the middle class kids. Bikes are common here, but not the main mode of transportation. I see adults riding small bikes here. They have wide 3 speed style upright handlebars and also a support on the top tube to make it easier for children or family members to ride. There are also many bikes with banana seats. I think that bikes here are used by the whole family. With handlebars than can accommodate a wide range of hand positions and also banana seats that can fit a smaller, larger or double riders, the bikes here are set up for everyone to use.

Mayon Volcano and the Bus

2008-07-14T07:46:00.002+08:00

Yesterday we arrived in Poulanghi, Bikol at 5:30AM. We went to sleep for an hour and then got up for breakfast. I took my first trip to church and sitting in the front row I fought falling asleep while the sermon continued. It was all about choosing God on a daily basis as the key to salvation. The only key. The same justification used for the initial colonization of ungodly people across the globe, now continues to be used to the day. More about this later. I understood the sermon because it was in English. There were bats in the church. I was the only one in my row that didn't go up for communion. One of our advisors asked me my religion and I told him I was Halo Halo, he asked if I was the comedian of the group. The conversation stopped there and I was relived. I don't want to be converted here.

Afterwards we visited the Mayon volcano and the Bus broke down for 4 hours in NPA territory. I'm glad that we made it out before dark.

Jason

B from High School and Sky walks

2008-07-12T16:28:00.002+08:00

I've been thinking about a couple of different things lately. I have always struggled with my academic discipline and preparation, time management and all that. Procrastination, distraction and other variations are where I've spent a lot of my potential study time in the past. Fixing doorknobs, cleaning, fixing my bike or my car, shopping for stuff, and more have been favored alternatives to getting my assignments done. I've learned to use this trait to clean house, make improvements and also get my stuff done - eventually. For a great deal of my time in school, things were somewhat easy to grasp. Or at least, with some effort I could usually figure out what was going on. Studying Filipino or Spanish as an adult has been different. It's been one class a week at night over time. Studying here and there...
I remember a girl from High School Chemistry class. She was a nice person and active in government got good grades generally and I remember her struggling with the concept of balancing equations in class. It just wasn't coming to her, long past the time that I had spent with it not coming to me. She kept working though. She struggled and kept going, and she kept working at understanding it. For the test on that section I think that she got a B. I think I got an B also, but mostly because I was working out authority issues at the teacher and not doing my work, or not able to do it. We both understood the concept and I remember thinking that it seemed tough that she didn't understand for such a long time, but it also seemed kind of cool the way she applied herself. That in and of itself would be more significant than the grade. That memory has stayed with me and now I get to live out the struggle of something challenging and take joy in my own efforts to understand a body of information, regardless of the grade. That reminds me I definately need to sign up for the pass/fail grading option for these Filipino academic credits.

And the thing about Sky.... Sky is the small boy that was babysat at our host families place. In the month that we were then he went to walking on his own. It was beautiful to watch as I went through the first month of this program. I often say that if toddlers where as tough on themselves and self conscious as adults when it came to learning new things, they'd never learn to walk. Well, I had the chance to learn new things and take baby steps. Baby steps are hard footsteps to follow in, and I'm glad to celebrate some for both of us.

jason

Tapos na apat na linggo

2008-07-12T16:14:00.002+08:00

Tapos na kami apat na linggo. Wow.
Totoo nagaaral ako conte conte, lang. Itong araw sinabi kami "Palaam na" sa host family nating. Pumunta para tanghalian sa restaurante ng mga Bahay Kubo. Masarap at "treat" nating.

Ngayon, nakatira sa campus dorms. May maraming batas dito. Hwag lumakad doon kasi nasa mga dorm na babae. Dapat kaming tahimik kasi sa taas ng mga Sisters na babae. Dapat dumating sa alas nuebe ng gabi kasi may kurfew.

Intindihan na ako kasi aking nobia, Helen gumawa AFAP sa 1999. Sa "jail" sinabi siya. Mabuting pagkakataon para mag-aral- tama!

We've finished 4 weeks already. Wow. Today we said goodbye to our host family. We went to lunch at a restaurant with many "Bahay Kubos" or nipa huts. The food was delicious. It was our treat.

Now, we are staying in the campus dorms. There are many rules here. Don't walk there because it is near the women's dorm. You all must be quiet because you are upstairs from nuns. You must arrive here by 9pm because there is a curfew.

I understood this already because my girlfriend Helen did AFAP in 1999. She said it was like "jail". A good opportunity to study- Right!

Jason

Tula Ko

2008-07-09T10:58:00.001+08:00

Bakit gusto mong mag-aral Filipino?
Para makipagusap sa aking Lolo, diba?
Ah, totoo ba, Filipino ka ba?
Opo nga! Pero hindi Filipino lang,
Filipino, Lebanese, and Amerikano din.
Halo, halo ang lahi ko!
Nakitira ako sa San Francisco!

Humito,
Muna kayo, hinto sa pagkat narito.
Ako guro na nais tumulong na pagpapabuti
Na klima and ng kalasugan ng tao.

Dito sa Filipinas nais kong
iparating na maaring gamiting ang mantika,
sa halip na diesel.
Para patakbuhin ang mga sasakyan.

Mabaho ang usok ng sasakyan,
ginamitan and diesel,
Samantalong

Mabango naman ang usok mula sa sasakyan,
Na ginamitan ng mantika
2nd hand lang, 2nd hand lang, 2nd hand lang

Magiging maganda ang ating kinabukasan
Kung papalitan ang pamamaraan!

AFAP Article in Manila Times 7/6/08

2008-07-09T10:57:00.000+08:00

http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2008/july/06/yehey/weekend/mainweek.html

"Gissing Sining " National TV show - 7/6/08

2008-07-09T10:53:00.002+08:00

Our TV appearance on ‘Gising Sining” on NBN Channel 4 did not work out well. It would have been much better to have stayed home and studied instead. We waited for 3 hours and then went on during the last 10 minutes. Our coordinators asked us to write a poem in Filipino introducing ourselves. With some help I finished mine on the bumpy back and forth bus ride to Manila. That was challenging and I’m glad I didn’t suka because of it. We went on and according to alphabetical order I went first. The host urged me to speak and I started to do my poem in Tagalog. I did about half of it and looked up to breathe and saw several camera people giving me the “cut it” signal. I paused, took a breath and stopped with at “Walang panahon, ah…Salamat Po”. I then passed the mic to the next person in our group and so it went. Everyone else got to say their names and where they were from and that was it. That was the culmination of getting the last minute poem assignment the day before and all of our preparation for our spot on national television. I was the single poet from our group. They closed the show with a wildly talented singing group that we had fun listening to in the dressing room.

That was the same day 7/6/08 that AFAP had the big story in the Manila Times.

The reporter didn’t know what to do with my vegetable oil story, although I told her about it at length. So she just left it out. Too bad I guess, but I’m learning that getting press coverage is a lot about perseverance and not relying much on the press to get your message out. I think the exposure was good for the program though.

After the TV show we went out to dinner and performed our poems for each other. That was very satisfying. I believe that the world can always send challenges, but what matters more is how I respond to those situations. “It’s not about them, it’s about us and what we do now.” I keep saying. Or another version is “ it’s not about what they do to us, it’s about how we respond to it.” After all, my reaction is the only thing I truly have control over. So, we had a poetry jam for ourselves and that was beautiful.
I did learn new words- like pamamaraan- future.

The next day we had a very long midterm that I was inadequately prepared for- usually the case given the challenge and the amount of time available to study.

There’s a uniquely Filipino way of doing things that I’m learning about. It’s about many different supervisors telling you different things and then changing their minds randomly. Hard to predict or plan with this dynamic. You’re not supposed to directly say no or confront people- especially supervisors or elders, so instead you say ok and maybe and then do something different later. It’s something I’m trying to understand, although it feels dishonest to say to people. My US bias is coming into direct conflict with the cultural norm here.

Jeepneys

2008-07-08T17:44:00.006+08:00

My field of interest and work in the US is transportation. The idea of how people move ourselves and our things around has a huge impact on our daily lives, our sense of and the shape of our communities, our impact in society and as well, the world. It’s the filter or lens though which I see many things.
My regular commute to De La Salle University in Dasmarinas, Cavite, Philippines takes about 35 minutes. 5 Minutes by motorized tricycle (usually a 125 cc motorcycle with sidecar attached- 20 pesos or $.44 each way), 15 minutes by Jeepney ( 6.5 pesos or $.14 each way) and 15 minutes walking though the beautiful campus (“priceless”).

Reflection….7/7/08
I remember my first ride in a Jeepeny. I was 13 years old and visiting my Stepfather’s family in Quezon City. We took a ride in one with my Mom, sister (3 years old then) and Stepfather. The main thing that I remember are my toes curling up inside my shoes as the Jeep sped along 6 inches from another Jeepney. Quiet chaos inside my head as I battled the urge to freak out. That could sum up a lot of that trip, really. I’ve been thinking back to that trip a great deal since then. More about that later….

For now…I have an idea…
You can tell a lot about a driver by the inside of their Jeepney. Is it clean,? Can you see through the floor to the ground below? Do the seats sway when it goes over a bump. Does the driver swear as he drives? It’s been a novel experience for me to ride in them on this trip. Depending on the driver and the time of day it can be smooth experience or much the opposite. It’s a complex matrix no doubt, but in short, when I see a clean inside with a trash can for passengers, and a smooth driver who’s not out for the checkered flag in morning traffic- it’s a good day.

Two weeks back our Jeepney was rear-ended by another Jeep. It happened in slow motion with tires squeeling from the vehicle behind, as it attempted to stop. The collision was at about 3 or 4 MPH when it bumped into the back of ours. Really it was kind of exciting. Matt and I got out and walked the rest of the way to our NGO assignment that day.

Most of the time here we are travelling with others in our student group. Yesterday however, I was feeling a sore throat coming on. I think I’m one of the last ones in the group to catch it. I went home early and before the spontaneous meeting called by our director and before the birthday party of another director that we were asked to pay for. I just left and went home to rest, eat raw garlic, drink lots of water and try to get better sooner. I rode by myself and I knew it was going to be problematic. I stand out here like a German in a Speedo at the beach (in the US). The drivers regularly “forget” to give me the correct change for my student fare. This one was doing the same thing. I made it easy for him by giving him at 50 peso bill, when my fare was only 6.5 pesos. It’s just easier to give them exact change. I had a politely encourage him to give me the rest of my change, but he just gave me 50 centavos less. Already sick and with a headache, I surveyed the situation. I took a deep breath and decided that I would stop trying to get my change. It ended up being one penny that I didn’t get. Oh well. Still though I didn’t like the principle of it. Then it started to rain very hard. The rest of the passengers got off and it was just the 2 of us. Not long after that, in the pouring rain, the driver grunted something to me and pulled over on the very narrow street. I reminded him of my stop politely and he just ignored me. I got out of the jeep and walked the rest of the 2 blocks in the rain where I got a ride the rest of the way on a tricycle. At home the neighbors (same family) let me into our host stay and I collapsed onto the bed.

I haven’t seen any women drivers here yet. I saw one woman driving what looked like her family in a tricycle last week, but that’s the only one so far. I don’t know if I’ll come up with a system to assess the relative safety or ease of a Jeepney trip from looking at the insides of the Jeep. We usually jump into the first available one. I think that being here, I’m just going to do what my other group member does and what probably more people than I can tell are doing… that’s pray.

Surrounded

2008-07-07T07:49:00.005+08:00

Immersion.
It's the best way to learn, everyone says.
It's true, and to make the most of learning, I have to continually remind myself to breathe and relax. Otherwise, I'm in a state of allergic reaction and overload and I just want to retreat. Immersion is overwhelming at times. I think about this when I am bitten by mosquitoes at the table, at my desk, while I'm sleeping, on the bus.... I'm not used to that.
Yes, I'm taking my malaria pills- thanks to my superstar girlfriend Helen who sent them in the mail. I did leave home without them.
I think about this when everything inside me is close to boiling over. This morning I was happy to eat fried fish with breakfast, but not wanting to deal with the bones. Yesterday on the bus to Manila I didn't want to see continual trash or the color green. All of these are warning signs that I'm about overwhelmed. I imagine walking down the street and someone trying to steal my camera and me assaulting them and enjoying the workout...or at least wondering if I could keep a cool head if I was in that situation.

And probably the reason for some of this is that I'm about to take a midterm exam- and we had to go to Manila yesterday for a disaster of a TV program and it burned about 10 hours of our study time. Yes, though I am learning, I truly am.

I'll close with a highlight from this morning. A mellow Jeepeny driver, getting off early to do my 15 minute walk through the campus and getting great shots of Jeepneys spewing out exhaust. I've been looking to capture this photo since I've been here and I finally got it today!
Off now for my daily academic "jumping in."
:)
Jason

What if?

2008-07-04T20:05:00.002+08:00

Rent or Own
I’ve had the thought many times. Should I try and get into home ownership where I live or not. It’s pricey here in the SF Bay Area. Do I try and buy now or just rent until industrial collapse? Every day I see headlines and signs that things are not looking up. Or, at least to say the present course of economic policy, and economy based on power and death is about played out. I do think that things are ripe for a change. Instead of more of the inequity that we have now, what if we could build an economy that was honest about the real cost of things involved.
What if we changed priorities to things that could build and sustain life?
What enough of us started asking the question: What do you want for yourself, your family, your community, your world and all things in the next week, month, year, 5 years and so on? ...
and started shifting our priorities to reflect that and an economic system that was honest?

What if?
And why not?
Why not now?

The headlines are telling me that....

The world is waiting.

Tatlong linggo

2008-07-04T17:52:00.002+08:00

Tatlong linggo pagkatapos nang kami! May 60% score ko sa examen itong linggo. Noon linggo, may 33% lang. Conte conte lang! Pagod na ngayon. Mayamang gabi nanaood kami ang cine sa Will Smith. Umpisa kami ang weekend! Pahinga tayo sa Sabado.

Jason

We finished our third week! I got a 60% score on this weeks test. Last week it was 33%. Little by little! I'm tired now. Later tonight we're going to see a Will Smith movie. The weekend has begun! Rest this Saturday for all!

Intention

2008-07-03T07:58:00.001+08:00

Intention
7/2 and 7/3 2008

I was interviewed today for an article on AFAP in the Manila Times Newspaper. Due out on 7/4/2008.
The reporter asked why I wanted to learn Tagalog or Filipino. I answered the best I could but I would have loved to be able to elaborate. By all measures, I shouldn’t be speaking Tagalog or Filipino at all. The use of other languages is actively discouraged in the US. It’s not that people don’t persist and keep their language, they do despite it all, but the main message is consistently speak “English” now, you’re in “America”. My Dad who was thrown into an unfriendly world here at 7 years old had to do it. Now he understands some, but bursts out into laughter whenever he tries to speak. That’s another story. But, suffice to say that my culture actively discourages speaking other languages in generals and especially in schools. That’s another story.

Back to intention. I think that we all start out with some tools and information from our families of origin and their collective experience over time. Some things we do and we don’t know why we do them. Many times it’s a product of what worked in the past for either ourselves or our family members. We learn habits. We also are in an society that values profit over people and seeks to maintain that idea with a logic of it’s own. Does anyone really say outright that they want other peoples lives to be more difficult? Not usually, but so many of us in the US want our retirement plans to mature, develop, and support us in our old age. We have money invested with companies and have given them permission to make money at all costs. That’s our agreement and even if that means mistreating people that get in the way of that goal here or overseas, that’s the goal. If you lost your job because the factory moved overseas or you had money stolen from you from a company’s policies, or if you loved one died in a hospital where they were short staffed of care, although making record profits,…. It’s all connected in the idea of profit over people. I hear a lot of people angry at our President and frustrated by the suffering he has help create, exacerbate and promote worldwide for US economic interests. And that’s valid beyond measure. What I don’t hear people talking or thinking more about is the system that he is serving and that we all participate in on a daily basis. If we can prioritize different things, like people, like our futures, like the beauty in our lives, and especially in the US, the idea of “how much is really enough to have a satisfied life” then I think that will lead to better world for everyone.

Yes, I will have to change my behavior. Move closer to work, create work closer to home…. And many more things. Not flying, not driving as much or at all, but don’t you think that we’ll have to do that anyway eventually.

Working for positive change in your own life is preparation for a realistic future. Like training for a race or studying for a test, would you want to be prepared for a challenge ahead and potentially help to shape the future or unprepared when the time comes to deal with reality (or at least your illusion bursting).

So, I shouldn’t be speaking Filipino, but I want that for myself. For many reasons, again another story, but with using my intention I have the opportunity to reshape my habits, my skills, even my brain (see brain plasticity article last month). And if I can reshape myself, which I am, I can reshape the way I move through the world and my interactions with others, the way we spend our time, and what we focus on and prioritize. And that shapes the world.

Aking Karawan, My Birthday

2008-06-30T13:36:00.008+08:00

Humihinga Pa! Umpisa ang tatlong linggo sa itong AFAP programa ngayon. Conte conte ang buhay dito ay conte mabilis. Tuwing Lunes mayroon ang pagsusuli. Noon lingo ay machadong mahirap. Kanina umaga ang pagsusuli ay conte mabalis.

I'm still breathing. I began my third week of this AFAP program today. Little by little life here is slightly easier. Each Monday there is a test. This morning it was slightly easier.

Here are some photos from my birthday.

There was dinner, videoke, a trip to Manila for a massage and manicure/pedicure (my first manicure)... a fish market where we bought fish and took it to a restaurant where they cooked it for us. Thanks to my classmates for buying the massage for me.
Afterwards we visted the Mall of Asia before going home. The Jeepney terminal is pictured above.

more later.

jason

Utak na prito (fried brain)

2008-06-23T20:36:00.004+08:00

Today... my brain was fried from trying to understand a movie about the parallels of Philippines Literature and History in it's different forms from precolonial till present time. Napaka malalim and I didn't understand a word of it during the 35 minutes we watched. At least I could see the pictures, but the rest was beyond me. A difficult lesson and one that I felt more despair over that usual. Before that we had our weekly test and 1/2 of it was far beyond me. People keep telling me to let the Tagalog flow out, but it's not in there in the first place. My brain is fried.

I'm sad, I'm frustrated, I need to do my regular crying thing... overwhelmed temporarily, I'm so happy to just rest and write in English- it's my revenge for the challenges of the day. I'm not sure it's helpful to think of it that way, but I'm just done for a while. Rest time for now. I'm just glad to be back in my room, done with dinner conversation, done for while with everything. There were no other students on campus, just us. The storm (Hurricane Frank)blew down a great deal of debris from trees and covered all the walkways. The many workers there worked hard all day and it was looking very clean at the end of the day. After class and lunch we switched to a different NGO. This one is the juvenile hall unit for elementary and middle school street children. We sang songs and played basketball with the younger ones. There was no hoop there, so Charity, who is leading most all of the activities there bought one and Ed, also part of our group, just holds it up during the game. The kids have scabies and other skin ailments. We disinfect with hand sanitizer after any contact with them, but I wonder if that is enough. Afterward, we sang songs and did some journal writing with the older youth. Tough tough lives.

After that we decided to join staff from the community NGO to help distribute government food rations to people affected by the big storm. We passes out about 200 rations, but of course ran short. I just got bit by an mosquitoes on my feet while typing. Eventually we made it back to the classrooms and our teacher gave us an impromptu head start on tomorrows lecture, which seemed like another lecture in and of itself. My headache was in affect by then. I get them usually from being out in the sun without my sunglasses, which I was today. They last about 4 hours. I still have it.
We have journals that we write in and I wrote about the challenges. My teacher is sympathizing with me, but also clearly showing where she can't handle my frustration or struggle.

I got a text message earlier in the day that the news team will not have the beauty queen host, but the writer, cameraman...and instead of coming tomorrow, they are coming instead on Weds at 12:30pm to interview me about the use of waste vegetable oil in diesel motors. It's the project that I initiated here, mentioned earlier in the blog. I had to give their names to our program staff so they can be allowed on campus to interview me.
Writing is such good decompression.
After a Jeepney and Tricycle ride, I am back with my host family, done with another great dinner and now in my room. My host Mom said that I was looking handsome, part of that was about me gaining weight and looking healthy. I'm definitely well fed here.
Now, just tired and itchy on my ankles, now covered in socks.
Some people in our group are going to Tagaytay tonight to drink (coffee they said, but I think more will be involved) and do videoke. Everyone else has so much more Tagalog in their backgrounds, minds and systems. I'm going to rest some and study some and then sleep. Also, I need every brain cell. I can't afford to be killing them with alcohol.

Yesterday I covered almost the first 60 pages of my grammar book, review and new stuff.

It's a challenge to keep defining success by my own measures when I'm being evaluated by theirs. I'm already getting a great deal out of the experience and I'm speaking with more and more confidence each day. I made it this far and it's not like they are going to send me home for not being at the same level as everyone else. I did have that fear the first day. This is a good chance to repattern my study habits and fully apply myself at learning and resting and going after my dream of Filipino fluency. It the chance to keep reaching for a bigger mind. All of the concepts from Brain Plasticity and thoughts around rewarding effort vs. success come to mine. See earlier blog from 2 months back.

J

Isang Linggo (1 week)

2008-06-22T11:22:00.001+08:00

I’ve completed one week of immersion study. I am getting more comfortable with the immersion process and also adjusting to life here. I think that riding on the back seat of a motorcycle/tricycle as we navigate thorough between Jeepenys, busses, people, and other tricycles is fun. I look forward to filming a segment and posting it later. There’s a big storm here now. It’s Sunday and one of the first free days we’ve had )to study). This trip is affording me the opportunity to rewrite and improve so many of my habits around school and study. I making the most of this opportunity by really letting myself fully pursue my goal of increased fluency. My host family is amazing. Papajack is the father and does most of the cooking. It’s so good. We joke about him doing a cookbook and take picture of the food. If there’s energy, I’d like to collect some recipes and learn to cook some dishes.

What else? Oh, another interview with the newstation GMA 7 next week. Ricky is bringing the host- Miriam Quiambao, (Former Miss Philippines 1999) here to where I am for the interview. She has a show on GMA 7 and we should be able to explain more of the social and environmental possibilities of our project. Babalik ako sa nagaaral ngayon. Back to studying now for me.

Jason

Pinoy Aboard Veggie Car story GMA 7 - Manila

2008-06-18T22:35:00.004+08:00

We got in the TV news. Ricky and the folks at Gammad Auto in Lipa City were interviewed for a story that fell far short of our hopes. Here is the print article. There is nothing of the social or environmental implications of our work. Oh, well, conte conte lang. Little by little.

Another reminder to me that revolutions are not built by waiting for mainstream news teams to think your idea is timely or important. They'll catch on eventually later when things have built more. Now, we need to work out supply issues and get people who are reselling oil as carcinogenic cooking oil to sell it to Jeepeny Drivers instead where it is much less carcinogenic.

In other news, the SF Municipal Transporation Agency surveyed a 30% increase in the number of people biking to work since 1 year ago! That's just beautiful! Read the Reuters story here.

Bikes outnumbered cars on Market street earlier this week! Wow!

Time to get back to rest, chill and drill, that's my mantra. I am far behind everyone else in my language program, but I just keep saying to myself that this is fun, this is cool, and getting more used to the absolute discomfort of learning so much all at once.

Jason

Dito sa Filipinas

2008-06-17T21:26:00.002+08:00

Dito ako sa Filipinas. May isang araw sa mga pagsasanay sa Tagalog. Hindi ko alam sa "immersion" ako o sa "drowing" ako. Oo, mahirap ang wika, pero humihinga pa ako.
Babalik sa study ngayon.

At din, may newstory sa GMA & dito sa Ricky sa Pusod. Nagconvert kami ng sasakayan siya sa maneka para tumakbo ang motor noong meirkoles. Manood ang newstory sa isang ora sa TV.

Jason

I'm here in the Philippines. I had my first day of Tagalog studies today. I don't know if it's immersion or drowning. Yes, the language is difficult, but I am still breathing.

And also, there was a new story about Ricky at Pusod. We converted his truck to run on vegetable oil last Weds. I'll watch the story in an hour.

Jason

Nagtagumpay! Success!

2008-06-13T04:34:00.001+08:00

Tanong: Ano uminom ako Ricky?
Sagot: Ginebra San Miguel, poor man's Gin.

Question: Ricky, what did I drink?
Answer: San Miguel Gin, poor man's Gin.
4 shots of 70% alcohol as a small celebration or our successful installation of the vegetable oil system at Gammad Auto Shop. A gift from the team of mechanics. Yes, I’m still buzzed and being that this is a rare occasion, making the most of it. Writing.

We were supposed to have the undivided attention and assistance of one mechanic- Noli, but instead we had a team of 6 motivated, curious, and talented mechanics learning how to install the system in Ricky’s vehicle. It was a train the trainer event that wildly exceeded my expectations. We were done in 5 hours from our arrival and very informal viewing of the very informal briefing videos I made with my small digital camera.
After trying it out for a while we'll have a press conference about the project.
Shoe Mart (aka SM) , a huge department store here is interested in the converting a vehicle also. That's cool!
In these photos you can see the finished product with Ricky explaining the system to neighbors. It's exciting to see the excitement spread.

I’m at the Pusod office in Lipa City, Philippines. I first met these folks in 2001 at the Land, Air , Water Environmental Conference in Eugene, OR. Pusod means belly button in Tagalog. It is both the root of origin and also the point of nourishment. It is an environmental newspaper. They report on local environmental and social issues. Today, there is a buzz in the office. Yes, another one besides my own and I hear them talking in Tagalog about the relative cost of using waste vegetable oil or buying normal diesel. It’s a beautiful thing even that I understand them. Taglish helps also.

Now the question I know someone is dying to ask and that I’ve been asking myself and answering to the reporters today are various versions of “will this make a difference?” Yes, I say, because it will get invoke people’s curiosity about different possibilities and that is a powerful thing. There are other ways to do things and that is clearly obvious when doing something so different- that smells so much better also. You hardly notice the exhaust compared to the persistent flavor of sulfur that normally emanates from diesels trapped in the realm of dinosaurs and brimstone..aka sulfur emissions from a dirty fuel/by product of regular diesel. It's true that the supply of waste vegetable oil is limited and not everyone can use it, but if more drivers did, things would greatly improve. I learned from Ipat (with Pusod) last night that there is a market for people filtering and reselling the waste oil and using it again for cooking. That oil contains more carcinogens and shifting the market will keep people from getting sick from it. Also, much of the waste oil gets into into waterways from the sewer systems. If instead they used it for a different purpose as a cleaner fuel, there would be less contamination of these areas. I can't wait to see what else ripples from this.

Later on- at 5am here (I’m still adjusting to the time)
I also had the best Bibinka ever (so far). My cell phone shouldn’t be unlocked and used here.
I’m going to buy a used one here….

Sige na,
(keep on)
Jason

the journey

2008-06-12T00:41:00.003+08:00

I made it. I'm here in Manila at my first spot for 6 hours including sleep and thenoff to Lipa City to start the vegetable oil conversion.

Here are my thoughts on the plane.

6/10/08
I’m chasing the sun in suspended animation. 3 hours till Tokyo and already 7 in the air. A flying bus with bathrooms, meals, movies and technology. This is one of the biggest adventures of my life and I can’t quite grasp it. Night classes for 2 years every Monday from 6-9pm and endless hours of struggle trying to learn a language only my Grandparents speak…. Hearing about this Fullbrite Scholarship program since the start and eventually applying as one of 32 people. I was chosen as one of 9 or 10 participants. Persisting.
I made it, and I don’t quite get it. Some things just seem so difficult, so unattainable, and yet right now they are. The endless list of things to do was mostly done, enough was done… more than I ever thought I could accomplish in the last 5 months.

I don’t get it. I made it, but I wasn’t supposed to. Or at least that’s what goes through my head. You can try your best and you will probably never make it, but in continuing on toward a vision, there is joy. Some things will not change in my lifetime, but how we struggle is important for there is joy in the journey. Most Tears now. I am crying and noticing. I made it (at least to this point) and I am glad for that. How many times have I really noticed that I am here now, and that the unmovable or impossible…it wasn’t true? It just felt true. I hope to notice this more and more, to learn to notice even though my habit is otherwise.

I think now that how we do things is more important that what we accomplish. This is because most of learning is failure. It is what doesn’t work. It’s humiliating for us past a certain age. It seems like failure which is usually frowned upon or punished. I don’t think that toddlers would learn to walk if they felt as ashamed of unsuccessful attempts as adults do.
That place where we stop trying and become discouraged, safe, and protected from feeling the humiliation that is heaped upon us…. That place is where we are comfortable. Hiding our pain and protecting it. That is the place where things stop. I had to trust someone in that place and that was one of the best decisions of my life. Now, I am more able to try things that I wouldn’t and that leads me to outcomes I could not have created or imagined on my own. If we could get better at acting in the midst of uncertainty…improvising our lives then new, terrible and surely interesting things will happen. This is what we need if we are to really evolve our minds and our habits beyond the predictable cycles of thoughtlessness, rehearsing the legacy of our best attempts at life, but not going beyond them.

I am off to try and fail. To make a complete fool of myself in yet another situation. I inpire laughter in so many people with my language attempts. I hope to be less shamed, or at least grow accustomed to facing more humiliation and grow more free in the process.
That is what I hope will happen over the next 9 weeks with speaking this foreign language of my grandparents.

Jason at 30,000 feet.

Paalam na

2008-06-10T23:15:00.001+08:00

Bye!
Today is plane day and I'm wrapping up stuff, trying to be less - last minute, breathing more. Saying- Hey, I could be having more fun.

I'm off from SFO today to Manila and then to Lipa City to do the a vegetable oil conversion on a diesel truck. That's what's in my Balikbayan Box (homecoming box). The chocolates are in the purple bag.

After the conversion I'll start my language program.

Hangang sa muli,
Until next time,

jason

Babalik ako sa Filipinas - I'm Returning to the Philippines

2008-05-16T23:16:00.000+08:00

I've been studying Tagalog for the last 2 years at the City College of SF. It's been very difficult and challenging. I remember being able to figure some things out in school pretty quickly. This has not been the case with Tagalog. Difficult, frustrating and ultimately with my persistence, somewhat successful, I was a B+ student in High School, a B student in college (with a national championship in Ultimate Frisbee) and without extra credit, definitely a C student with Tagalog now. School has always been a struggle and now is no different, however I getting something more now out of the struggle that I didn't before. I'm figuring out how to struggle academically in a new way.

My big news for the last month has been that I'm headed to the Philippines soon to study Tagalog for 7 weeks in an intensive AFAP immersion program. My last trip there was in 2004 to visit family and do some Playback Theater. Now I'm going to study and also do a vegetable oil conversion on a vehicle there so it can be fueled by waste oil from restaurants. That's the hope as least..."internal thought....no, just be positive and make it happen.."

Much of my time has been spent preparing as well as wrapping up work projects here before going. For example, I'm moving most of the stuff in my rented room into storage today. Gotta go!

Jason

Reclaim Your Brain!

2008-05-16T23:10:00.001+08:00

Brain Plasticity!

Our brains are adaptable, changeable and we are much more in charge of our incredibly complex and beautiful minds. This program about Brain Fitness is so very cool. Listen for 10 factors of Brain Plasticity. Wow.
Give a listen and let me know what you think!

Jason

Winter Soldier

2008-05-06T01:39:00.000+08:00

I haven't posted much the last few months.
There have been memorable things, but not everything gets recorded electronically. Just like not every picture gets taken, poem written or quote remembered.

What was incredibly moving and memorable was this Winter Soldier event. The original event was held in 1971 by Vietnam War Veterans who spoke honestly and about what the had experienced while in "service to their country" and afterwards. Much like the original event, this latest Winter Soldier illustrated that "service to your country" was more an exercise in "disservice to everyone's humanity".
There were brilliant conclusions drawn between the intersections of gender, class and race in the military and toward people from other countries. I would have liked to see more of illustration of the links between our economic system and the decisions made by our key policy makers, who are servicing misguided short term economic policies set up to maintain and benefit those making the most profit off of this human campaign of mistreatment. We all participate in the economic system and because of that we all can have an impact in creating something different. 51% of the taxes I just paid here in the US will go to my countries' military. Our schools are being shut down and teacher fired because of the elite, owning class-rule the world, government priorities and decisions that so many of us here in the US haven't figured out yet how to stop . People commonly invest money into retirement accounts so that they can be cared for by others instead of family when they are older. This empowers business with a mandate to make as much profit as possible and in the meantime, jobs go overseas and our lives get worse. We hand over our resources so they can wage class war on us as well as raise our children and hand them over so they can die for their agenda. Clearly this is not an interesting long term plan.

Enough for now.

J

How Not to Talk to Your Kids, The inverse power of praise- reprint

2008-05-05T23:48:00.000+08:00

Hi Folks,

I recently read this article and it made not only a big splash in my brain pool, but also continues to ripple out to other areas in my life. It's about the way that we praise/encourage others (and view success and failure).
I hope you enjoy it.
It is in text version below.

Jason

http://nymag.com/news/features/27840/

There are some other articles by the same author, Po Bronson that look interesting also... "Learning to Lie" and 'Snooze or Lose"

J

How Not to Talk to Your Kids

The inverse power of praise.

By Po Bronson
Published Feb 12, 2007

What do we make of a boy like Thomas?

Thomas (his middle name) is a fifth-grader at the highly competitive P.S. 334, the Anderson School on West 84th. Slim as they get, Thomas recently had his long sandy-blond hair cut short to look like the new James Bond (he took a photo of Daniel Craig to the barber). Unlike Bond, he prefers a uniform of cargo pants and a T-shirt emblazoned with a photo of one of his heroes: Frank Zappa. Thomas hangs out with five friends from the Anderson School. They are “the smart kids.” Thomas’s one of them, and he likes belonging.

Since Thomas could walk, he has heard constantly that he’s smart. Not just from his parents but from any adult who has come in contact with this precocious child. When he applied to Anderson for kindergarten, his intelligence was statistically confirmed. The school is reserved for the top one percent of all applicants, and an IQ test is required. Thomas didn’t just score in the top one percent. He scored in the top one percent of the top one percent.

But as Thomas has progressed through school, this self-awareness that he’s smart hasn’t always translated into fearless confidence when attacking his schoolwork. In fact, Thomas’s father noticed just the opposite. “Thomas didn’t want to try things he wouldn’t be successful at,” his father says. “Some things came very quickly to him, but when they didn’t, he gave up almost immediately, concluding, ‘I’m not good at this.’ ” With no more than a glance, Thomas was dividing the world into two—things he was naturally good at and things he wasn’t.

For instance, in the early grades, Thomas wasn’t very good at spelling, so he simply demurred from spelling out loud. When Thomas took his first look at fractions, he balked. The biggest hurdle came in third grade. He was supposed to learn cursive penmanship, but he wouldn’t even try for weeks. By then, his teacher was demanding homework be completed in cursive. Rather than play catch-up on his penmanship, Thomas refused outright. Thomas’s father tried to reason with him. “Look, just because you’re smart doesn’t mean you don’t have to put out some effort.” (Eventually, he mastered cursive, but not without a lot of cajoling from his father.)

Why does this child, who is measurably at the very top of the charts, lack confidence about his ability to tackle routine school challenges?

Thomas is not alone. For a few decades, it’s been noted that a large percentage of all gifted students (those who score in the top 10 percent on aptitude tests) severely underestimate their own abilities. Those afflicted with this lack of perceived competence adopt lower standards for success and expect less of themselves. They underrate the importance of effort, and they overrate how much help they need from a parent.

When parents praise their children’s intelligence, they believe they are providing the solution to this problem. According to a survey conducted by Columbia University, 85 percent of American parents think it’s important to tell their kids that they’re smart. In and around the New York area, according to my own (admittedly nonscientific) poll, the number is more like 100 percent. Everyone does it, habitually. The constant praise is meant to be an angel on the shoulder, ensuring that children do not sell their talents short.

But a growing body of research—and a new study from the trenches of the New York public-school system—strongly suggests it might be the other way around. Giving kids the label of “smart” does not prevent them from underperforming. It might actually be causing it.

For the past ten years, psychologist Carol Dweck and her team at Columbia (she’s now at Stanford) studied the effect of praise on students in a dozen New York schools. Her seminal work—a series of experiments on 400 fifth-graders—paints the picture most clearly.

Dweck sent four female research assistants into New York fifth-grade classrooms. The researchers would take a single child out of the classroom for a nonverbal IQ test consisting of a series of puzzles—puzzles easy enough that all the children would do fairly well. Once the child finished the test, the researchers told each student his score, then gave him a single line of praise. Randomly divided into groups, some were praised for their intelligence. They were told, “You must be smart at this.” Other students were praised for their effort: “You must have worked really hard.”

Why just a single line of praise? “We wanted to see how sensitive children were,” Dweck explained. “We had a hunch that one line might be enough to see an effect.”

Then the students were given a choice of test for the second round. One choice was a test that would be more difficult than the first, but the researchers told the kids that they’d learn a lot from attempting the puzzles. The other choice, Dweck’s team explained, was an easy test, just like the first. Of those praised for their effort, 90 percent chose the harder set of puzzles. Of those praised for their intelligence, a majority chose the easy test. The “smart” kids took the cop-out.

Why did this happen? “When we praise children for their intelligence,” Dweck wrote in her study summary, “we tell them that this is the name of the game: Look smart, don’t risk making mistakes.” And that’s what the fifth-graders had done: They’d chosen to look smart and avoid the risk of being embarrassed.

In a subsequent round, none of the fifth-graders had a choice. The test was difficult, designed for kids two years ahead of their grade level. Predictably, everyone failed. But again, the two groups of children, divided at random at the study’s start, responded differently. Those praised for their effort on the first test assumed they simply hadn’t focused hard enough on this test. “They got very involved, willing to try every solution to the puzzles,” Dweck recalled. “Many of them remarked, unprovoked, ‘This is my favorite test.’ ” Not so for those praised for their smarts. They assumed their failure was evidence that they weren’t really smart at all. “Just watching them, you could see the strain. They were sweating and miserable.”

Having artificially induced a round of failure, Dweck’s researchers then gave all the fifth-graders a final round of tests that were engineered to be as easy as the first round. Those who had been praised for their effort significantly improved on their first score—by about 30 percent. Those who’d been told they were smart did worse than they had at the very beginning—by about 20 percent.

Dweck had suspected that praise could backfire, but even she was surprised by the magnitude of the effect. “Emphasizing effort gives a child a variable that they can control,” she explains. “They come to see themselves as in control of their success. Emphasizing natural intelligence takes it out of the child’s control, and it provides no good recipe for responding to a failure.”

In follow-up interviews, Dweck discovered that those who think that innate intelligence is the key to success begin to discount the importance of effort. I am smart, the kids’ reasoning goes; I don’t need to put out effort. Expending effort becomes stigmatized—it’s public proof that you can’t cut it on your natural gifts.

Repeating her experiments, Dweck found this effect of praise on performance held true for students of every socioeconomic class. It hit both boys and girls—the very brightest girls especially (they collapsed the most following failure). Even preschoolers weren’t immune to the inverse power of praise.

Jill Abraham is a mother of three in Scarsdale, and her view is typical of those in my straw poll. I told her about Dweck’s research on praise, and she flatly wasn’t interested in brief tests without long-term follow-up. Abraham is one of the 85 percent who think praising her children’s intelligence is important. Her kids are thriving, so she’s proved that praise works in the real world. “I don’t care what the experts say,” Jill says defiantly. “I’m living it.”

Even those who’ve accepted the new research on praise have trouble putting it into practice. Sue Needleman is both a mother of two and an elementary-school teacher with eleven years’ experience. Last year, she was a fourth-grade teacher at Ridge Ranch Elementary in Paramus, New Jersey. She has never heard of Carol Dweck, but the gist of Dweck’s research has trickled down to her school, and Needleman has learned to say, “I like how you keep trying.” She tries to keep her praise specific, rather than general, so that a child knows exactly what she did to earn the praise (and thus can get more). She will occasionally tell a child, “You’re good at math,” but she’ll never tell a child he’s bad at math.

But that’s at school, as a teacher. At home, old habits die hard. Her 8-year-old daughter and her 5-year-old son are indeed smart, and sometimes she hears herself saying, “You’re great. You did it. You’re smart.” When I press her on this, Needleman says that what comes out of academia often feels artificial. “When I read the mock dialogues, my first thought is, Oh, please. How corny.”

No such qualms exist for teachers at the Life Sciences Secondary School in East Harlem, because they’ve seen Dweck’s theories applied to their junior-high students. Last week, Dweck and her protégée, Lisa Blackwell, published a report in the academic journal Child Development about the effect of a semester-long intervention conducted to improve students’ math scores.

Life Sciences is a health-science magnet school with high aspirations but 700 students whose main attributes are being predominantly minority and low achieving. Blackwell split her kids into two groups for an eight-session workshop. The control group was taught study skills, and the others got study skills and a special module on how intelligence is not innate. These students took turns reading aloud an essay on how the brain grows new neurons when challenged. They saw slides of the brain and acted out skits. “Even as I was teaching these ideas,” Blackwell noted, “I would hear the students joking, calling one another ‘dummy’ or ‘stupid.’ ” After the module was concluded, Blackwell tracked her students’ grades to see if it had any effect.

It didn’t take long. The teachers—who hadn’t known which students had been assigned to which workshop—could pick out the students who had been taught that intelligence can be developed. They improved their study habits and grades. In a single semester, Blackwell reversed the students’ longtime trend of decreasing math grades.

The only difference between the control group and the test group were two lessons, a total of 50 minutes spent teaching not math but a single idea: that the brain is a muscle. Giving it a harder workout makes you smarter. That alone improved their math scores.

“These are very persuasive findings,” says Columbia’s Dr. Geraldine Downey, a specialist in children’s sensitivity to rejection. “They show how you can take a specific theory and develop a curriculum that works.” Downey’s comment is typical of what other scholars in the field are saying. Dr. Mahzarin Banaji, a Harvard social psychologist who is an expert in stereotyping, told me, “Carol Dweck is a flat-out genius. I hope the work is taken seriously. It scares people when they see these results.”

Since the 1969 publication of The Psychology of Self-Esteem, in which Nathaniel Branden opined that self-esteem was the single most important facet of a person, the belief that one must do whatever he can to achieve positive self-esteem has become a movement with broad societal effects. Anything potentially damaging to kids’ self-esteem was axed. Competitions were frowned upon. Soccer coaches stopped counting goals and handed out trophies to everyone. Teachers threw out their red pencils. Criticism was replaced with ubiquitous, even undeserved, praise.

Dweck and Blackwell’s work is part of a larger academic challenge to one of the self-esteem movement’s key tenets: that praise, self-esteem, and performance rise and fall together. From 1970 to 2000, there were over 15,000 scholarly articles written on self-esteem and its relationship to everything—from sex to career advancement. But results were often contradictory or inconclusive. So in 2003 the Association for Psychological Science asked Dr. Roy Baumeister, then a leading proponent of self-esteem, to review this literature. His team concluded that self-esteem was polluted with flawed science. Only 200 of those 15,000 studies met their rigorous standards.

I am smart, the kids’ reasoning goes; I don’t need to put out effort. Expending effort becomes stigmatized—it’s public proof that you can’t cut it on your natural gifts.

After reviewing those 200 studies, Baumeister concluded that having high self-esteem didn’t improve grades or career achievement. It didn’t even reduce alcohol usage. And it especially did not lower violence of any sort. (Highly aggressive, violent people happen to think very highly of themselves, debunking the theory that people are aggressive to make up for low self-esteem.) At the time, Baumeister was quoted as saying that his findings were “the biggest disappointment of my career.”

Now he’s on Dweck’s side of the argument, and his work is going in a similar direction: He will soon publish an article showing that for college students on the verge of failing in class, esteem-building praise causes their grades to sink further. Baumeister has come to believe the continued appeal of self-esteem is largely tied to parents’ pride in their children’s achievements: It’s so strong that “when they praise their kids, it’s not that far from praising themselves.”

By and large, the literature on praise shows that it can be effective—a positive, motivating force. In one study, University of Notre Dame researchers tested praise’s efficacy on a losing college hockey team. The experiment worked: The team got into the playoffs. But all praise is not equal—and, as Dweck demonstrated, the effects of praise can vary significantly depending on the praise given. To be effective, researchers have found, praise needs to be specific. (The hockey players were specifically complimented on the number of times they checked an opponent.)

Sincerity of praise is also crucial. Just as we can sniff out the true meaning of a backhanded compliment or a disingenuous apology, children, too, scrutinize praise for hidden agendas. Only young children—under the age of 7—take praise at face value: Older children are just as suspicious of it as adults.

Psychologist Wulf-Uwe Meyer, a pioneer in the field, conducted a series of studies where children watched other students receive praise. According to Meyer’s findings, by the age of 12, children believe that earning praise from a teacher is not a sign you did well—it’s actually a sign you lack ability and the teacher thinks you need extra encouragement. And teens, Meyer found, discounted praise to such an extent that they believed it’s a teacher’s criticism—not praise at all—that really conveys a positive belief in a student’s aptitude.

In the opinion of cognitive scientist Daniel T. Willingham, a teacher who praises a child may be unwittingly sending the message that the student reached the limit of his innate ability, while a teacher who criticizes a pupil conveys the message that he can improve his performance even further.

New York University professor of psychiatry Judith Brook explains that the issue for parents is one of credibility. “Praise is important, but not vacuous praise,” she says. “It has to be based on a real thing—some skill or talent they have.” Once children hear praise they interpret as meritless, they discount not just the insincere praise, but sincere praise as well.

Scholars from Reed College and Stanford reviewed over 150 praise studies. Their meta-analysis determined that praised students become risk-averse and lack perceived autonomy. The scholars found consistent correlations between a liberal use of praise and students’ “shorter task persistence, more eye-checking with the teacher, and inflected speech such that answers have the intonation of questions.”

Dweck’s research on overpraised kids strongly suggests that image maintenance becomes their primary concern—they are more competitive and more interested in tearing others down. A raft of very alarming studies illustrate this.

In one, students are given two puzzle tests. Between the first and the second, they are offered a choice between learning a new puzzle strategy for the second test or finding out how they did compared with other students on the first test: They have only enough time to do one or the other. Students praised for intelligence choose to find out their class rank, rather than use the time to prepare.

In another, students get a do-it-yourself report card and are told these forms will be mailed to students at another school—they’ll never meet these students and don’t know their names. Of the kids praised for their intelligence, 40 percent lie, inflating their scores. Of the kids praised for effort, few lie.

When students transition into junior high, some who’d done well in elementary school inevitably struggle in the larger and more demanding environment. Those who equated their earlier success with their innate ability surmise they’ve been dumb all along. Their grades never recover because the likely key to their recovery—increasing effort—they view as just further proof of their failure. In interviews many confess they would “seriously consider cheating.”

Students turn to cheating because they haven’t developed a strategy for handling failure. The problem is compounded when a parent ignores a child’s failures and insists he’ll do better next time. Michigan scholar Jennifer Crocker studies this exact scenario and explains that the child may come to believe failure is something so terrible, the family can’t acknowledge its existence. A child deprived of the opportunity to discuss mistakes can’t learn from them.

My son, Luke, is in kindergarten. He seems supersensitive to the potential judgment of his peers. Luke justifies it by saying, “I’m shy,” but he’s not really shy. He has no fear of strange cities or talking to strangers, and at his school, he has sung in front of large audiences. Rather, I’d say he’s proud and self-conscious. His school has simple uniforms (navy T-shirt, navy pants), and he loves that his choice of clothes can’t be ridiculed, “because then they’d be teasing themselves too.”

After reading Carol Dweck’s research, I began to alter how I praised him, but not completely. I suppose my hesitation was that the mind-set Dweck wants students to have—a firm belief that the way to bounce back from failure is to work harder—sounds awfully clichéd: Try, try again.

But it turns out that the ability to repeatedly respond to failure by exerting more effort—instead of simply giving up—is a trait well studied in psychology. People with this trait, persistence, rebound well and can sustain their motivation through long periods of delayed gratification. Delving into this research, I learned that persistence turns out to be more than a conscious act of will; it’s also an unconscious response, governed by a circuit in the brain. Dr. Robert Cloninger at Washington University in St. Louis located the circuit in a part of the brain called the orbital and medial prefrontal cortex. It monitors the reward center of the brain, and like a switch, it intervenes when there’s a lack of immediate reward. When it switches on, it’s telling the rest of the brain, “Don’t stop trying. There’s dopa [the brain’s chemical reward for success] on the horizon.” While putting people through MRI scans, Cloninger could see this switch lighting up regularly in some. In others, barely at all.

What makes some people wired to have an active circuit?

Cloninger has trained rats and mice in mazes to have persistence by carefully not rewarding them when they get to the finish. “The key is intermittent reinforcement,” says Cloninger. The brain has to learn that frustrating spells can be worked through. “A person who grows up getting too frequent rewards will not have persistence, because they’ll quit when the rewards disappear.”

That sold me. I’d thought “praise junkie” was just an expression—but suddenly, it seemed as if I could be setting up my son’s brain for an actual chemical need for constant reward.

What would it mean, to give up praising our children so often? Well, if I am one example, there are stages of withdrawal, each of them subtle. In the first stage, I fell off the wagon around other parents when they were busy praising their kids. I didn’t want Luke to feel left out. I felt like a former alcoholic who continues to drink socially. I became a Social Praiser.

Then I tried to use the specific-type praise that Dweck recommends. I praised Luke, but I attempted to praise his “process.” This was easier said than done. What are the processes that go on in a 5-year-old’s mind? In my impression, 80 percent of his brain processes lengthy scenarios for his action figures.

But every night he has math homework and is supposed to read a phonics book aloud. Each takes about five minutes if he concentrates, but he’s easily distracted. So I praised him for concentrating without asking to take a break. If he listened to instructions carefully, I praised him for that. After soccer games, I praised him for looking to pass, rather than just saying, “You played great.” And if he worked hard to get to the ball, I praised the effort he applied.

Just as the research promised, this focused praise helped him see strategies he could apply the next day. It was remarkable how noticeably effective this new form of praise was.

Truth be told, while my son was getting along fine under the new praise regime, it was I who was suffering. It turns out that I was the real praise junkie in the family. Praising him for just a particular skill or task felt like I left other parts of him ignored and unappreciated. I recognized that praising him with the universal “You’re great—I’m proud of you” was a way I expressed unconditional love.

Offering praise has become a sort of panacea for the anxieties of modern parenting. Out of our children’s lives from breakfast to dinner, we turn it up a notch when we get home. In those few hours together, we want them to hear the things we can’t say during the day—We are in your corner, we are here for you, we believe in you.

In a similar way, we put our children in high-pressure environments, seeking out the best schools we can find, then we use the constant praise to soften the intensity of those environments. We expect so much of them, but we hide our expectations behind constant glowing praise. The duplicity became glaring to me.

Eventually, in my final stage of praise withdrawal, I realized that not telling my son he was smart meant I was leaving it up to him to make his own conclusion about his intelligence. Jumping in with praise is like jumping in too soon with the answer to a homework problem—it robs him of the chance to make the deduction himself.

But what if he makes the wrong conclusion?

Can I really leave this up to him, at his age?

I’m still an anxious parent. This morning, I tested him on the way to school: “What happens to your brain, again, when it gets to think about something hard?”

“It gets bigger, like a muscle,” he responded, having aced this one before.

Additional reporting by Ashley Merryman

Wait a minute!

2007-12-21T07:44:00.000+08:00

I have to say that it has been a darn "minute" since I wrote. Here in the bay that means a while. It's not that things have stopped happening, indeed they've been going full speed ahead in exactly the season that is about slowing down, going inward, reflecting and resting. It's been a tug of war between the pressures to move faster and produce/consume more and just wanting to sleep.
I've had some rest and some play time and here I am with the sun shining out over the ocean here in San Francisco, taking a moment of reflection.

While I was on my adventure this last summer I picked up a copy of a book I'd heard so much about, The Revolution Will Not Be Funded, Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex (imagine that is underlined as proper titles are usually). It is Edited by Incite! Women of Color Against Violence and published by South End Press, Cambridge MA. ISBN: 978-0-89608-766-8. This compilation of authors who presented at the same named conference in 2004 took me 3 months to read, little by little. It's the kind of book that is like a oxy-acetylene cutting torch in a world of candles. I had always been troubled by the contradictions of working in the non-profit field and taking money from mainstream organization who's shadow side worked to destroy the gains made by it's seemingly benevolent foundation side. Little did I know the usefulness of the non-profit organizational tax structure in containing and redirecting the frustrations of those for which the economic and class system are not benefiting. I've often brainstormed different programs to be offered and always compared what seemed needed with what was "fundable." More personally, I think we all picture the way we'd like to spend our time and then do what we needed to in order to make rent or mortgage "payable." There is always some force seemingly far away and on high that decided who gets rewarded financially and who doesn't. That's just the way things are structured. Our system has a logic of it's own and it is geared for it's own survival. I had no idea that the whole non-profit setup was developed and promoted to contain the successes of previous social movements in the US during the 1960's while giving corporations not only a huge tax break, but an opportunity to advocate for their own future interests in a manner beyond any kind of public accountability. Imagine if corporations paid the same taxes as most folks- 25-30% of income, (nevermind that I'd like to see a different tax structure that taxes things that we don't want like pollution....another topic for later). That money would go the government where theoretically we as voters could advocate for the way it was spent via our elected officials. Instead, corporations get to give away 20% to a foundation instead of pay it out to the IRS. That foundation gets to invest and grow it's assets and is only required to give out 5% of it's total worth. That includes grants as well as paying staff, rent and phone/internet, ect. Foundations have no public accountability in terms of who doles out the money and the can specify whatever conditions they'd like to for how the money will be spent.
That means that the foundation can do the bidding of the corporation and fertilize the soil or minds of masses in order to enrich exploitation opportunities for the corporation. And this extended beyond the realm of just private business....

"In 1976, a select committee appointed to investigate US intelligence activities reported on the CIA's penetration of the foundation field by the mid-1960s: during 1963-6, of the 700 grants over $10,000 given by 164 foundations, at least 108 involved partial or complete CIA funding. More importantly, CIA funding was involved in nearly half the grants made by these 164 foundations in the filed of international activities during the same period. " p.88

In other words, foundations were used to implement change beneficial to US Corporate interests both overseas and at home. An effective compliment to covert military operations. And what did the people in those countries want for themselves?

There's a lot more in the book that is informative and brilliant. I hope you are able to pick up a copy and read it.

Night Reflectivity

2007-10-10T03:08:00.000+08:00

This last weekend I helped out with a League of American Bicyclists instructor certification training in SF. 14 people from around the west coast came out for about 30 hours of training and evaluation.
Here is a video showing our different kinds of reflectors and lighting systems. Geeky for sure, but better with some Ben Harper in the background.

New York gets a separted bike lane!

2007-10-10T03:06:00.001+08:00

http://www.streetfilms.org/archives/ninth-avenue-gets-a-physically-separated-bike-lane/

New York is trying out something that is already done in some of those European countries where lots of people bike.

Upcoming Shows!

2007-09-22T02:16:00.001+08:00

That's right folks, we're back together for a show with the
APAture Theater Festival in SF.
We're on for 20 minutes between 4-6pm Saturday 9/22/07. The venue is the new International Hotel. The site of a historic struggle for Filipino and Elderly housing from 1968-1975. It's an honor to be in that space with other great performers.
Tickets are $10-20 sliding scale

FLOW THE BUCK UP!
9/28 and 9/29
8PM Zeum Theater at Yerba Buena Gardens- SF.
3 of us from the Playback Troupe will be preforming with Anthem Salgado those nights.
Trailer

Tickets
www.brownpapertickets.com/event/19186
$20

SF Bike Coalition Family Day

2007-09-14T04:07:00.000+08:00

This last weekend I was part of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalitions' 1st Family Day. I led family cycling workshops and we met at the "Purple Head" in Golden Gate Park.
It was hilarious to yell "Purple Head! Family Cycling Workshop in 10 minutes!"

Here is a video from the day as well as other pictures.
I'm wearing safety orange...

The image that sticks with me is of 5 small children with training wheels, spread out and speeding down the road in front of me... the noise of the wheels was deafening and just a glimpse of what is to come.... Muhahahahahahaha!

How to do a quick turn

2007-08-20T08:22:00.000+08:00

Here is a photo sequence from the League of American Bicyclists Bike Education conference I attended in Austin, TX this year.

This is me being coached on improving my emergency turn by League Cycling Instructor (LCI) Preston Tyree.
You would use this turn if someone turned in front of you or ran a red light and you suddenly needed to turn right or left, usually right. I'm told that you can do this up to 17 mph and I was doing it at about 11 or 12 mph. There were a couple of warm ups before I got it, this was the successful run.

Start at a comfortable speed for learning this very awkward and counter intuitive maneuver.

Turn your handlebars quickly in the opposite direction that you want to turn. This leans your bike in the direction you want to go instantly.

Turn your handlebars quickly back toward the direction you want to turn. Now your bike is in a sharp lean in the direction you want to turn.

Breathe and Commit.

Follow through the turn putting weight on the inside (of the turn) handlebar and the outside leg. For me it was important to keep my inside elbow low and center of weight low in the turn.

Breathe continued...

Look at where you want to go.

Finish the turn. This turn was much sharper than I expected and I would probably have to do another turn to keep from going too far to the right and off the road or into a parked car.

Get encouragement from League (of American Bicyclists) Cycling Instructor (LCI) Preston Tyree.

And for all those worried souls out there- yes, next time I'll try it in shoes instead of flip flops.

Thanks to LCI Chris Daigle from the Eagle Wheel Cycling School and Photography for the photos!

Jason

The Bittersweet Life

2007-08-15T16:15:00.000+08:00

Life at it’s best is bittersweet.
I’m not jaded, just hear me out here. As we grow up and become adults we gradually get more control over our choices and our life. With these choices come consequences, good ones, bad ones and all the mixed ones. It’s pretty easy to choose between a horrible option and a good one. I’m a child of immigrants and my parents and or great grandparents chose as best they could and gave me more options than they had. Many times, they lived with fewer opportunities than do now. So, because they worked and still work very hard I have more options. Also, if I’m being smart about my life I might be able to use the privilege they built for me to create even more options for myself. At that point, I’m choosing between two or more great options and that’s painful because I have choose one thing over another. You will always have to face disappointment and loss as you let something come into being and send others into unrealization. John Trudel speaks about our value of responsibility (you can listen to it from “my favorites audio links on the right side of this page). He says that we should value responsibility more than freedom. If we are being responsible for making something happen then there are steps involved and choices to be made and follow though with and accountability to the goal. It’s not easy, and it’s not often clear.

Also, it’s not something that those previous generations want to hear about. “Must be nice to have choices” is what my Dad would often say to me with a tone of resentment.

So goodbye. Maybe another time or maybe just never…

So, for all of you out there....
If you’re wrestling with a major choice I’m here to say, you’re not alone and it’s a sign that things are getting better!

Exit Interview USSF- Jason

2007-08-15T15:08:00.000+08:00

Here's a full interview of my experience at the Social Forum.
I wrote a summary of the Playback Theatre part that you can read on the July 10th archive page.

The real work in unifying our movements has to do with our one to one relationships with each other. I was so busy with our 2 shows and 2 workshops at the Social Forum (all led by different group members) that I was usually either preparing to rehearse, recovering from rehearsal, or interacting with our Playback group. That meant that I didn't get to that many of the other presentations. It was frustrating at first, but at the forum we did significant work in figuring out how to move through conflict and trust each other so that we could improvise and function together, ultimately benefiting us and the stories of people beyond ourselves.

Exit Interview USSF- Joyce

2007-08-15T14:51:00.000+08:00

Joyce was a member of the Playback Delegation at the Social Forum. I'll include her summary of the experience here later.

NOLA Contingent at March

2007-08-15T14:28:00.000+08:00

There were about 20,000 people at the US Social Forum sharing their work, their passion for change, asking the question, what do we want and figuring out steps for how to get there. It started off with a big march. Here is some footage from the New Orleans Contingent. We joined the march en masse all together and the image of our group joining the larger mass of people was a powerful moment for me. Here is some video before and during the march.

Rewind to 6/27- On the phone to Bush

2007-08-15T14:18:00.000+08:00

"People want fantasy, what they need is reality." Lauryn Hill

Here's a little of both on the bus as we arrived in Atlanta on 6/27/07.

Selma Revisted - with video

2007-08-15T12:20:00.000+08:00

Visiting Selma, Alabama was a brief, but memorable experience for me. This was the place that 42 years ago Alabama police brutally beat masses of people including the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. on their way to the polls to vote. Local "Jim Crow" laws prohibited Blacks from voting although it was their constitutional right. Known as "Bloody Sunday", that day was a glimpse or moment from a larger struggle where acts of liberation were met with overwhelming state violence. And still people continued forward. The Black and White racist system of limiting access to resources on this continent was implemented as economic policy starting in the 1680's and then instituted into public policy soon afterwards. After the freeing of slaves during the Civil War "Jim Crow" social control laws were passed. During all this time the forced labor of African Americans and other groups built wealth for a white power structure that police were charged to protect. Bloody Sunday is remembered as a "turning point" in the Civil Rights Movement, turning in a positive direction that is. Since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the various efforts to apply those laws there have been change. There as also been the rise of the "Prison Industrial Complex" and the simultaneous encouragement and criminalization of drug crimes actions in low income communities of color by the US government. These are the newest incarnation of racial social control polices.

"Bloody Sunday" was a moment in time that has been repeated as people have tried to free themselves from unjust systems of dehumanization. In this instance it was to take back the right to vote. Violence and injustice are things that most of us have experienced and fear in one way or another. Taking action and facing that fear with others has usually skull crushing consequences, but possibly a large reward. Like Ghandi's raids on the Salt Mines of India, confronting fear showed that people's spirit and determination were greater than the weapons or violence used on them. What would it be like not to live in fear? I think that in taking on those figures of authority and facing that fear, they are in better position to answer that question.
With less fear, we are better able to imagine the world that we want and to build toward that vision. Without the fear of others, we'd be able to do much more together.

When Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton came to Selma to celebrate the Jubilee and remember "Bloody Sunday" it celebrated a worthy battle in 1965. It pushed against the white power structure and predictably that structure pushed back.

See the Houston Indy Media article on this.

Here is a video I took there at the school in Selma.

Stepping back somewhat and thinking beyond the US I know that more people have died in the Philippines under their current U.S. supported government than in all the 20 years of Ferdinand Marcos and his brutal enactment of Martial Law. Over 1000 people so far. And still there are people acting to change intolerable conditions, facing and living with fear of being disappeared every day. This is nothing new to many places in the world, especially ones that have governments friendlier to U.S. interests than to the prosperity and welfare of it's citizens. Isn't it time to think about the cost that fear takes on all of us? Clearly, acting in our own interests for a more human and thoughtful world will make it easier for others to do the same worldwide.

Rewind to 6/26 Omar pre-dawn moment

2007-08-07T14:18:00.000+08:00

I'm gradually unpacking bits and pieces of my trip to the US Social Forum. Here's a moment of my roomate Omar in Selma on 6/26/07 on the way to Atlanta. It's 30 minutes before sunrise and the yellow light of that old hotel room is a too early dawn of it's own.

Re Creation

2007-07-19T05:50:00.000+08:00

Something I want to do more of is play and exercise. Today I surfed and watched the sunset from the water. The wind had died down and the water was close to glassy. The water at Ocean Beach was warm and the waves were small and fun. It was perfect. A welcome break from no or bad wind blown waves, male competition and aggression in the water, and other usual barriers to fun. I appreciated it greatly.

Here's one of the few videos I have of me surfing in Big Sur on the California coast in March. My stellar friend Paul filmed with his little camera.

Rewind to 6/27/07 - Eloise Speaks in Selma

2007-07-16T14:28:00.000+08:00

Eloise, a resident and activist in New Orleans speaks on elected officials and the land grab that is being attempted there.

Dougie Beatboxes!

2007-07-16T12:57:00.000+08:00

On the bus from New Orleans to Biloxi, MS 6/26/07

Joyce and Deb report on the group experience

2007-07-11T23:55:00.000+08:00

This first report is from Joyce from Oakland's Living Art's Playback Troupe. The next one is from Deb from Asheville Playback. Both reports are posted here with authors' permission.

Joyce:
I joined the IPTN delegation at the US Social Forum (USSF) in response to an email I received calling especially for “people of color” to join what Susan Metz, who organized the delegation, described as a “mostly Euro” group of Playback practitioners. I was initially a bit concerned about what this meant. Obviously, it was an attempt to achieve some kind of diversity, but what kind? Physical, or cosmetic diversity, or something deeper? Despite my concerns, I did want to meet and learn from other Playback practitioners, and I was also interested in attending the first USSF.
In the end, it was great for me to meet and work with others who share a love of Playback Theater. I found that we all share the desire to serve humanity through our art, and that we share a certain language in terms of the major conventions of Playback. We also discovered the ways in which we speak this language differently.

Part of the challenge of collaborating came from coming from troupes with different styles of doing Playback. In our troupe, Living Arts PT in the Bay Area of SF, we are accustomed to a short huddle with the other actors before doing an enactment. It was challenging for me to perform without this opportunity to verbally check-in with others in the ensemble.

Another challenge came from the fact that we come from different cultural and class backgrounds. Especially difficult for me, as a Chinese-American, (or would you identify yourself) was one story in which a South-Asian American woman described her experience of living in the U.S., including relationships with and inspiration from different cultural traditions. Enacting this story challenged us to not simply reiterate a long history of cultural appropriation that supports European colonial and imperialist ventures. Minstrelsy and other forms of cultural drag have been used for centuries to paint pictures of people of non-European descent as inferior, or inhuman. “White” people may also dress-up as non-“white” people in various festival, Halloween, or frat party contexts as a way of expressing desires that have been repressed by certain dominant Christian traditions. (?) For what? Do you want to say more? Meanwhile, however, they retain the privilege of being insulated from the everyday oppression that non-“white” people face in the U.S. and beyond I would delete beyond unless you want to explain. (OK!)

Some members of the audience and our ensemble felt unsatisfied with the enactment of this woman’s story, because some elements seemed to fall into a – albeit unconscious and unintentional – mocking of other cultures. This experience launched a conversation about what the responsibility of a Playback practitioner is in terms of working with material or populations with which one is less familiar. We talked about emphasizing the relationships described in a story rather than trying to portray the culture. For example, the teller’s partner is Arab. It is more important to play the love relationship than it is to try to play an Arab. Afterwards, another audience member expressed discomfort at seeing a European American actor attempt to sing the blues. We talked about if there might have been a way to represent the essence of the blues without having to try to play a blues singer.

There is a certain pleasure we derive from playing dress-up, and a certain license that the history of white supremacy gives us to perform the cultural traditions of others. But being a responsible Playback actor means being vigilant of this history and of our own social locations relative to this history. In a split second I must be able to distinguish when I am making a choice to serve the teller with my knowledge of other cultures versus when am I just showing off or playing for my own satisfaction that I can speak another language, sing someone else’s song, or dance someone else’s dance. Jason Agar put forth his model of having his group study an issue together; i.e. taking the initiative to use one’s Playback company, and the form itself, to educate ourselves on issues we would like to know more about in order to become more culturally proficient. Deb Scott talked about bringing PT skills to communities outside of our own in order to give the tools to people who can start their own groups that may then adjust the work to be relevant to particular histories and/or cultures.

Working with folks from Ashé Cultural Center in New Orleans, the agency that sponsors the New Orleans Playback Theatre company, was a highlight for me. I could see how they integrate Playback with other structures. I especially appreciated how John O’Neal prepared the space by asking us to form a circle and to dedicate the work to someone significant to us. We also prayed together as a group. This reinforced the necessity of a ritual preparation of the ground for working with each others’ stories, and the possibility of finding new ways of calling on the support of the spirit that can work in diverse groups. Especially in this strange environment of the U.S., where we are all still struggling with a legacy of genocide, sexism, heterosexism, and racism, we must continue to educate ourselves, or take the initiative to heal ourselves, and to work to bring light to our own blind spots. I believe with support from spirit in holding the stories that are entrusted to us, we can do what is in the best interests of the teller.

Despite the challenges we faced, it was a highlight and a privilege for me to meet people from different Playback groups and work/play together. I am also very grateful that we were able to communicate with each other about our discomfort. I hope that we all can continue to find better and better ways to use Playback Theater to work together towards decolonization and positive social change.

This next report is from Deb, a member of our Playback Group at the Social Forum. Posted with her permission. Photos and photo captioning are added.

Impressions from the US Social Forum, Atlanta, 2007
Deb Scott – [Asheville Playback Theatre, North Carolina]

I went to Atlanta with the hope of introducing playback to the Social Change movement, (pretty grand ambition!) and the desire to be stretched by performing for, and with, a new and diverse group of people.

I had forgotten what it is to be in a great sea of people, intent on their work and causes, passionate and articulate, in the crucible of a very, very hot city. The streets of Atlanta were almost 100 degrees every day, and every indoor space was refridgerated. Events were all over the city, and the densely packed schedule allowed only a half hour between sessions. Of great interest to me was the street life that surrounded our somewhat seedy hotel, sandwiched in between one of the parks and a large and welcoming Drop In Homeless Center. This scene was juxtaposed with the throngs of workers for social change who moved on through the living room of the homeless with minimal interaction. One suggestion many of us felt for the next Social Forum is to consider programs that interact with the host city—in this case a shared meal or an invitation to the residents to participate freely at the conference. In fact, in retrospect, I wish the playback group had spontaneously offered a performance at the Drop In Center some evening.

We offered 4 playback events, two workshops, a performance, and a collaboration with Ashe Cultural Arts Center from New Orleans. The context of the work made me acutely aware of assumptions and the importance of moving gently into others’ experiences. This deliberation required focus and attention, and I found myself exhausted by constantly taking stock of my responses: Is this a cultural bias vs. a personal preference? Am I holding onto the “Master Narrative” as I listen to what is being said? Where are my blind areas? What does it take to educate the privileged (me), so often unaware of our privilege? And what does it ask of our neighbors who find themselves in the tiresome role of constantly enlightening us? I feel gratitude to those who continue to teach people like me out of their dedication to the creation of a new world and new understanding, one conversation at a time.

The publicity for the USSF proclaimed “Another World is Possible”. I saw once again that any tool kit for making a paradigm shift can benefit from the playback principles—listening, honoring human experience, being willing to initiate and to follow, and making everyone right. These principles allowed members of 5 playback companies to become an ensemble in a matter of hours, and allowed us to create a safe place for some difficult learning to happen. How I wish more groups carried such tools into their meetings and board rooms…

I conducted the first event, the performance on day one of the Conference. There were about 25 people in our hotel ballroom and I felt very confident that the team of actors would work well together. The stories we heard reflected several themes from the conference. A man told of his rich family tradition of gathering together, his divorce that forced his son from his life, and then recently coming back into relationship with his son when a crisis in his own marriage made him vulnerable. I heard in that story the cost of alienation, and a father’s inability to speak words of love and regret to his son.

The next story was told by a college student who described the endless parade of meetings in his life, and the uncomfortable discovery that in the heat of argument he was capable of behavior he did not respect in others. A young woman told of being drawn to the Conference across the country, and following this impulse knowing she had no way back home.

"The meeting agenda and group agreements"

The last story was told by a woman from (now I forget—Pakistan?) originally, but who has lived the life of an international, working here in the US with immigrant factory workers, finding moments of belonging through music and cross-cultural relationships. She did not specify what became her center, or a moment when she felt “at home”. It was a difficult story to conduct (and not an easy life to live) and I felt a sadness coming from the teller. The actors created a kaleidoscope of impressions, swirling around the teller’s actor, and ended with a chorus of voices saying “home”.

While the teller seemed to leave the chair moved, we got feedback from another audience member after the performance raising the question of cultural appropriation. She felt for example that it was inappropriate for a white actor to sing the blues (and Kerry from NOLA Playback did a really fine blues) even though this was specifically mentioned by the teller. I do not personally think cultural appropriation was an issue with this story, but the question has burned its way into my thinking about how to handle stories that are culturally specific. How do we honor the spirit of the story without resorting to cliché or cursory “playacting” when the actor is unfamiliar with cultural references? Is it enough to bring the emotional dynamics to the fore front, and in a general way honor the common humanity that we all can relate to? I think not.

So I am learning in real time some of the lessons Jonathan and others at the School have taught for years. About the responsibility of playback conductors and actors to be grounded in a broad and inclusive awareness of the world around them, of cultural and power dynamics, of historical and geographical facts, of Roles people play, and of what we do not know and how to ask for the information we need. The days in Atlanta were filled with discovery and I had a great time with my expanded playback family, asking hard questions and playing together. Thank you all!

Playback Theatre Photos from the USSF

2007-07-11T14:47:00.001+08:00

Most of our group during the introductory sections and shorter improv forms.

This is an encatment scene from a father's story about his divorce and caring for his son through the process.

"Pairs" is a Playback Forum that contrasts 2 or more conflicting emotions.

This scene is something that we thought about a great deal afterwards. How can we as actors represent a different cultural background without instantly appropriating a cultural experience outside of our own?
How can we be true to the teller's story amidst this?

Our group at the end of our 1st of 4 events. 2 were performances, 2 were workshops.

There were 10 or us total, Karel from NOLA Playback Theatre (PBT) is taking photos here.

Pictured from left to right: Carie from NOLA PBT, Montaine and Ike from Asheville PBT, Susan from Brooklyn PBT collaborative, Joyce from Living Arts PBT- Oakland, Daniel from Asheville PBT, Lloyd from NOLA PBT. In front , myself Jason from Pinoy Playaback - SF and Deb from Asheville PBT.

We were from 5 different Playback Companies and all had different ways of doing things. Coming together and sticking together amidst the sea of activity that was the Social Forum surrounding us and building our relationships within our group was a powerful experience.

My experience of doing Playback Theatre at the Forum

2007-07-11T14:44:00.000+08:00

This is something I've written to be included in a larger article from our delegation.

My journey to the US Social Forum was a roundabout one. In the Playback sense, it would a rich “chorus story” for another telling. For now I’ll share that I had decided to go the Social Form first and later found out that there would a Playback Troupe that I could join while I was there. What an excellent combination, Social Change networking with people from all over and Playback! I just needed to figure out a way to make it work for myself.

Our group was mostly “Euros” and they were looking for “people of color” to balance them out.
This is a mirror for the way that racial equity is being framed in a broader sense presently. The solution to racism is laid out as one of representation. If there are people of color in the group or “diversity” in the group then racism will have been addressed. This however does not change the economic or social power structure or misinformation about others that we are raised with. It does not bridge the gap in our experiences of daily life. Being able to hear each other out and be accountable to each other, in the process of working together can bridge that gap. Playback as an improv form relies on connection and trust between everyone at the performance. When that trust breaks down, the whole process breaks down. Barriers and conflicts are opportunities to build a group that can go to challenging places and do difficult stories because they have dealt with them personally first. During our first time together at the Social Forum I asked people in our group to make a commitment to take me seriously if I brought something up and really consider what I was saying, even if it was outside of their realm of experience. In turn, I agreed that I would bring up the issue “gently’ with the goal of building trust and respect within our ensemble. This was a necessary agreement for my participation in the troupe. It put into place a framework to address issues on different topics outside of race. It also grounded our group in a common agreement to respect each other through differences and conflict.

My highlight was the way that we worked together for 4 different workshops/performances, figuring out how to support a different leader for each one. We came from 5 different companies all with their own Playback “dialects” and figured out common performance language. We had our challenging conversations and we had our fun also. For me, all of this is an affirmation that how we work together is the main factor in what we accomplish together. The only thing better was my surprise birthday cake from the group. Thank you all!

Jason Agar
San Francisco, CA
Pinoy (Filipino) Playback Theatre

Onward beyond video

2007-07-11T14:27:00.000+08:00

I have many short videos to share and currently I'm not able to put them up here. I'll keep working on it though.

As soon as we pulled up to the Civic Center, groups from the other Freedom Caravan buses were massing for a short march. It was great to join up with the rest of the group that I hadn't seen in a couple of days- since the NOLA Playback Theatre show in Congo Square in New Orleans.

Helpful folks, (Sunny, Karel, Riley and B) making sure everyone was fed.

This is the New Orleans contingent after joining the larger march on the opening day of the Social Forum.
The march was brilliant and I saw many people from different places in my life all converging in Atlanta. We ended up back at park by the Civic Center and shortly afterwards I met up with my Playback Theatre Delegation.

Rewind 6/26- 6/27 The bus from New Orleans to Selma

2007-07-05T12:17:00.001+08:00

On June 26th I boarded the bus caravan in New Orleans en route to Biloxi, Mississippi for lunch and then Selma, Alabama for the night.

This is Pamela from One Torch taping signs on the bus.

There were people from different organizations on the bus and one of the intentions was to have conversations about current struggles and ways to move forward through them.

This Ancient African Symbol was part of the icebreaker in the discussion. It signifies 2 alligators that share a common stomach. When one eats, it feeds the other. A nice way to think about nourishing or supporting each other. The energy on the bus was upbeat and playful. Although there were 3 buses in our caravan I was on the best one. I was traveling with a group of talented, playful, intelligent and fun high school students. They brought "Dougie" the puppet with them along with songs, jokes, statements on intention for the Social Forum and great energy.

I met some folks from the Fourth World Movement Organization. It's been a while since I was able to live on about $600.00/month and these wonderful people, Jill, Diana and Diana had me rethinking the question of "how much is enough" in this materialist culture. $600/month is an approximate stipend for them within their organization. The director is paid the same as the other staff and some folks have been working with this organization for over 20 years. Room and board is provided by the organization. If the world was to survive and you could make the difference by figuring out "how much was enough" for you, would you walk away from the rest? Forget the rest of the world for a moment.... Would you do it anyway because your own life would be better by focusing on the most important things? What would it look like?

Lunch was in Biloxi, Mississippi and we heard from several groups working to rebuild from storm damage from Katrina. Possibly Hurricane Rita also, I'm not sure. The damage to New Orleans was vast, but it didn't stop there. We met with a woman from the Coastal Women's Center there, doing fundraising to start a Head Start early education program there.

One thing that is very clear to me on this trip is that people are getting little if any assistance from our government. If anything, the government is allied with developers in trying to further take from the public sector and give it over the private. There is a monumental land grab that is being attempted in New Orleans, trying to take land from people and make lots of money redeveloping it. Also there is a public housing in great condition being taken down in favor of "market housing" that would provide only 30% low income units. New Orleans and other damaged areas illustrate that nothing is going to get better without a continued and coodinated effort to make it better for ourselves. Additionally, the government, which bows down to money over morals isn't there to help, especially if you are poor or a minority.

Arriving in Selma we went to a Black Community school where hate crime vandalism had been perpetrated. An estimated $200,000 dollars of damage was done including the tagging of "Nigger" and other phrases on the walls. Communications wiring was destroyed outside, plumbing was destroyed, cords on vacuum cleaners and copy machines were cut and other malicious acts were done to disable the school. Clearly they were making good progress at challenging white privilege there. Hence the reaction. I was thinking about it that way initially and it helped me deal with what I saw there. Many people remarked that it looked like Katrina had left the mess. Difficult to believe that it was a group of people so hateful and out of touch with their own humanity. Like I said, I was taking a positive view on it, but hearing from a black State Senator at dinner about the continual and direct assaults he deals with from white lawmakers I think that making progress is a daily, direct and exhausting fight here.

Our fried chicken dinner was much appreciated, even more so for breakfast the next day after about 5 hours of sleep the night before.

I have videos from this section of the trip that I hope I'll be able to upload at some point. A glitch in Blogger is preventing me from doing that currently.

On the Bus from New Orleans to Selma, Alabama - June 26th

2007-07-05T03:19:00.000+08:00

On June 26th I boarded the bus caravan in New Orleans en route to Biloxi, Mississippi for lunch and then Selma, Alabama for the night. There were people from different organizations on the bus and one of the intentions was to have conversations about current struggles and ways to move forward through them. The energy on the bus was upbeat and playful. I was on the best bus in that I was traveling with a group of talented, playful, intelligent and fun high school students. They brought "Dougie" the puppet with them along with songs, jokes, statements on intention for the Social Forum and great energy.

Upon arriving in Selma we I had an abrupt awakening to the nature of southern racism.
Read about it here:

http://houston.indymedia.org/news/2007/07/59407.php

B Speaks on the US Social Forum and "Kids"

2007-07-03T10:49:00.001+08:00

Beatrix from New Orleans a couple of days before the forum.

Activism at home vs. away

2007-07-03T09:07:00.000+08:00

Janick speaks in New Orleans about making change at home vs. away from home.
This is from about 6/24/07.

Hate Crime in Selma, AL

2007-06-27T12:07:00.000+08:00

We are in a motel in Selma, AL. In less than 6 hours we're getting back on the bus - bound for Atlanta. Today we visited a school established for the Black community that was severely vandalized in a brutal and malicious way. I'll have photos and video maybe later. We also heard from a State Senator on the daily blatant ways that racism affects people every day. It's very direct here and obviously they are making great strides here as they are continuing to threaten the white power base and elicit drastic responses. Young Black children have to go to schools named in honor of KKK founders. Imagine Jewish children going to Hitler Elementary School.

Bukas ang Atlanta!
Atlanta tomorrow!
Jason

NOLA Playback Theatre "People's Freedom Caravan" Show

2007-06-26T07:56:00.000+08:00

This morning I performed with NOLA Playback Theatre. We were part of an event welcoming the People's Freedom Caravan that started in Albuquerque, NM on the way to the US Social Forum. The original Freedom Rides happened in 1961 and were an effort to take direct action fighting racial segregation.

In this incarnation, the People's Freedom Caravan has a broad focus...

"By bringing together indigenous nations, displaced peoples of New Orleans, migrant workers along the border, and youth and civil rights veterans in Mississippi, the People’s Freedom Caravan will break down the geographic, political, racial and cultural barriers that have been used to marginalize our communities. Starting in Albuquerque, the caravan will weave its way across the country, converging at cities to highlight local struggles for justice, share cultures and hold media events. The Caravan will arrive marching into Atlanta, where participants will be met by thousands of delegates at the first U.S. Social Forum."

Our show this morning was mixed with the Story Circle format from John O'Neal's Free Southern Theater\. It was great to play back people's stories as part of the day's many events (tours included).

I'm on the BUS!

There was a change with my transportation to the US Social Forum and tomorrow morning at 8am I'm boarding the bus also. We'll be headed to Selma, Alabama tomorrow night, arriving at the social forum on Weds at noon. I'm excited to see something of Selma, where so much happened in the 1960's and beyond around civil rights.

By the way, it rains a lot here. Big DROPS!

Levees

2007-06-26T06:30:00.001+08:00

This area is the river side of the levee.

I'm riding my bike over the bridge in the picture above and it's a long way down.

To the left is the river. To the right are the lots where houses used to be. The fact that the levees are not built any stronger than before Hurricane Katrina has to be a big psycological barrier to rebuilding also. A major strategy in the rebuilding of the city has been to focus on and subsidize business's first as a means to rebuild the economy. At the same time, the value of profit ahead of people means that there is an enormous land grab being attempted here.

In 1965, during Hurricane Betsy, these same levees were dynamited and many of the same neighborhoods destroyed in order to keep the richer and white areas - like the French Quarter from flooding. This is a familiar routine for poor and black people here.

Lower 9th Ward Photos

2007-06-26T06:22:00.000+08:00

Have tools, will travel

2007-06-26T05:33:00.000+08:00

One thing I haven't mentioned yet has to do with some of the culture that I've experienced here. It's difficult to be in New Orleans. Chances are, if you aren't fighting for your home or to stay or for a better world, then you're not here. There's a energy here that says "put up" and start doing something or get out. I've me so many committed, intelligent, passionate and skilled people here doing all different kinds of work. It's exciting. It's a great reminder that humanity is capable of much more than we often think it is. Thousands and thousands of people have come to this place to try and make a contribution.
There are many young people in their 20's who are taking on big issues, finding solutions and moving forward through different struggles they've encountered.

Tools for the making change (the minimalist utility belt: cell Phone, folding knife, blue sharpie marker for meetings and more, keys, bottle opener. Not pictured, but present: Background work on understanding privilege, social skills, compassion, love, dedication, creativity/ability to improvise, tolerance for harsh situations, blinding intelligence and sense of humor.

Here's some graffiti from the bathroom at the Common Ground headquarters in the Upper 9th ward, where RUBARB bikes is located.

More RUBARB photos

2007-06-25T00:26:00.001+08:00

Co-Founder Liz from RUBARB

Co-Founder Lani from RUBARB

Michelle and Jen working on Michelle's bike

RUBARB crew
"Mr. Smiles (far left) and I worked on several projects."

Onward to the US Social Forum

2007-06-23T07:33:00.001+08:00

A couple of days ago I decided to extend my trip and try to make it to the US Social Forum in Atlanta , GA (6/27/07 - 7/1/07). The question I think that we need to keep asking ourselves is "What would we like to see?" in the future for ourselves, for others and expanding to include more and more. We are going to have to deal with the consistent assaults on ours and others humanity that our present economic and class situation inflicts. That is the world we have inherited and created so far. However, it's easy to forget to visualize our direction and or the questions to ask just to start to visualize our direction with so much going on. It's hard to reclaim our ability to dream amidst, the chaos and violence of this world. I do take consolation in that as humans we've figured out a great deal so far and we can go much further in our evolution. There is a reality out there and no amount of denial will keep it from being there for a million tomorrow either just outside our door, in the room or inside of our heads. That is until we deal with it. A little at a time and with time to recharge and have great lives in the process. In the Philippines there were 81 documented revolutions in 323 years against Spanish colonization. Those folks were prepared to fight for something bigger than themselves that might never see the resolution of. If you are facing that I think you develop long range expectations, patience and endurance to see something through as much as you can in your own lifetime.

So, I'm headed to Atlanta with that question in my mind. I'm joining a Playback Theatre delegation from New Orleans, Asheville, NC with folks from the Bay Area and Canada also. We'll improvisationally reflect back the stories that we hear at the Forum and give a training workshop there.

Here's a picture our Pinoy (Filipino) Playback Theatre, my troupe/ project in San Francisco.

Bike Projects

2007-06-23T07:10:00.000+08:00

I'm volunteering with 2 Bike Projects here. One is the Rusted Up Beyond All Recognition Bikes
RUBARB bike project. A part of the Common Ground Collective.
Below is an earn a bike participant/ young bike mechanic.

This is the RUBARB Building.

Below are their rules. I like the one about cursing.

I''ve also been volunteering with Plan B, a community bike shop here where adults learn bike mechanics and can come away with a new bike that they learned to assemble with help from volunteer staff for an average cost of $35.00.
One of my highlights from yesterday was working with 2 Egyptian exchange students, Aman and Amad who were all smiles after making substantial progress on their project bikes. I'll see them again on Saturday and hopefully they'll be able to finish their bikes and teach me another Arabic word. "Masalam!" (Hi and Bye)

Donated bikes from Chicago being unloaded.

Part of the inventory of bikes waiting to be built up.

Plan B is next door to the Anarchist Book Library where someone there had discovered the best stapler for social change.

First Glimpses - part 2

2007-06-23T06:48:00.000+08:00

Being here, this place, it's a kind of post apocalyptic frontier lite. I'm staying in the Lower 9th ward where about 1 in 20 houses are occupied. Military helicopters fly overhead and Humvees patrol on occasion. The architecture is similar to the that of Oakland and Berkeley and it's not hard to imagine this happening there.Here are some of the surrounding houses. I'm in a house with one small solar panel on the roof with a do it yourself water flushing toilet and we use the unoccupied neighbors hose and backyard (with permission) for showers and non-potable water. It's not recommended to drink the tap water here. I hear that in the Upper 9th ward there are only foundations of houses with front and rear steps. The rest was washed away.

The difference between those who have and those who don't is startling.

One of the many beautiful things about this place is that so many of the people I've met here are here because they have a contribution they want to make, if only for a short time and off and on again. People say that they decided to stay for a week and ended up being here for 2 months or 2 years. There's so much organizing happening here and that's been the case for a long long time. I've seen so much active and young postive energy and young people in their 20's dealing with multitudes of issues and finding solutions each step of the way.

Rewind- First Glimpse of New Orleans

2007-06-23T06:25:00.000+08:00

First glimpses - part 1

On the way into New Orleans on the Greyhound I looked for signs of what had happened almost 2 years back. I saw the Superdome. I remember that. Next was a fenced off and unoccupied office building and a street sign bent at a strange angle. Little clues in an area that got about a foot of water I was told. It rains a lot here off and on, big raindrops with lightning and thunder.

Then next welcome was our arrival at the Greyhound Station. It was a familiar scene from Walidah’s Documentary “Finding Common Ground” that moved me to think of coming on the trip. When I saw the Amtrak train behind it, I realized that I had arrived at what was the makeshift prison for the New Orleans after Katrina.

Being inside the station listening to Frank Sinatra and his friends as background on the PA system was such a strange experience. Then and now.

I stopped into a small café and tried to get a New Orleans breakfast. It was pretty standard bacon with eggs scene except for the big pile of grits. The Vietnamese shop owner warned me about riding my bike on smaller streets because he thought I would get jumped and my bike stolen. Since then individuals have been fascinated by my folding bike, but not as motivated as the shop owner warned. I was riding last night about midnight on quiet and calm streets and one man called out “Hey, give me your bike!” in a commanding voice and with a big smile. I smiled back, waved and said “Hey Man! (Hello) and kept riding. Unlike what I had feared, it was an absolutely friendly interaction.

Smiling on Offense

2007-06-21T11:42:00.000+08:00

Thoughts continued. June 20th - 21st 2007

At my temporary home in the squat.

I went to a potluck with many members from the Anti-Racism Working Group tonight. I was waiting for a break in the torrential downpour and then rode to the address listed in a steady downpour. On the way I picked up 3 more bags of Zap’s chips and a box of plastic garbage bags. I donned my first garbage bag rain suit in years. It also doubles as a California Raisin costume that covers both myself and my backpack.
At the potluck there were beans, rice and very spicy and salty crayfish. It seemed like black and or red beans to go with the rice, but it was dark in the kitchen and I couldn’t tell the difference

We had introductions and paired off to think about what “accountability” means in our different activities and as outsiders here in New Orleans.
For me that means looking at my assumptions and initial thoughts about working class Black folks and also being very clear on why I'm here. People are genuinely friendly and I appreciate that. Figuring out where my fear comes from is a great opportunity on this trip. There's so much junk in my brain. A high water mark from a racist tide of misinformation that has to be reconciled, one piece of misinformation at at a time. I have a racially mixed heritage and that means that sometimes I pass and sometimes strange stuff is said or done in my direction. We all get the hurricane though. The were other great conversations and threads of thought at the potluck. Some things that I took away from the evening were:

In my mind the debate around public safety usually gets framed as either having unsafe streets or more police. I watched that happen last year in the Excelsior District of San Francisco after a surge in youth violence. There are other options that we don’t think about that exist between nothing and more militarism. On the way home I saw my first Humvee out front of our place, just as we were arriving home. I was friendly and cooperative, smiling like an idiot to the 18 year olds with guns looking somewhere for a college degree, opportunity or job training. They had guns.

When I was in Eugene, Oregon I used to compulsively smile at people. One day I found myself doing it while I was in the worst mood and late somewhere. The contradiction of it felt awful. What was worst was that my face was doing something beyond my conscious control. A few days ago in Austin I rode past some houseless folks under a tree partying and they were superfriendly. I mean spooky friendly, like it was an offense tactic in a football game. "Break right, be friendly (through them off) and sneak on past, to the 20, the 10 and Touchdown!" I knew they were up to something. I was on offense with the compliant smile to the Military Police, just like back on the river bike path in Eugene, OR. Compliance worked for me this time.

I hear a lot about the police in this town. The unanimous consensus is to avoid them. I heard that there was a midnight capture the flag game going in a public square and that someone ran past a police officer and then was tackled and taken to jail. Running is against the law here. It's called disturbing the peace. I asked if it was a white or black person and had to laugh at myself. Who else would be out in the middle of this city at night thinking that they could play sports at midnight and not be hassled. Of course they were white. It's not anyone is going to put on a midnight Arab or Black rugby league tournament in a public square or near a city or government office anytime soon. That being said, I do sincerely hope that 20 something clean cut middle class white male gets out of the jail soon.

I have this image in my mind of dancing and partying New Orleaneans who really know how to have fun, especially after sunset. I have news for you folks, they're not really so good at having fun. It really about the mosquitoes here. Really it is.

More photos to follow.

Ingat Ka,
Take Care/Go Carefully - in Tagalog/Filipino

Jason

Longhorns & Goat in Austin. Rain in New Orleans

2007-06-20T07:34:00.000+08:00

When I flew into Austin I had it in my mind that every place in Texas has tumbleweeds blowing across dusty highways between oil wells eventually leading to modern skycrapers. Why is Austin so green? Another perception shattered...
I went there to present at a the national bicycle education conference. A couple of days laterI was sitting in a workshop and the presenter said "start you Blog now! You all are intelligent and passionate people and I need you to put your voices out there." It was on the topic of bicycle education, but I realized that I am indeed a passionate person and am often putting out my ideas, and indeed it is time.

We were staying close the University of Texas. GO LONGHORNS! I really liked seeing this statue and thinking of this statue at a heavy metal concert. ROCK ON TEXAS!

I presented a tool for teaching bicycle and pedestrian safety concepts at the conference, got people of color together to begin conversations and visualize moving forward in the generally white field of Transportation Advocacy. Being a minority within a minority movement is an interesting position. I think that as cyclists what we are asking of the world is our share of space on the road and yes this involves following the common language of traffic laws. When we face drivers who are livid and upset because of our request, sometimes dangerously so we are facing their discomfort in giving something up that they take for granted. The privilege of driving with all of its assumed benefits are like a lot of other forms of privilege. Going where ever you want to in your vehicle whenever you want to may seem like freedom, but it's supposed benefits are the leading cause of death in the US for people after surviving infancy and before heart attack or cancer comes on the scene. The "benefits" are obesity, lack global climate change, war, destruction and so much more. I think that automobiles are a good option at times, but currently we aren't given much access to other options. That's a thought for later. It's the same from other types of privilege where the supposed benefit is harmful all around. I want folks to take on the work of examining what we have over others and what they have over us. Being the in group is a very fluid thing. Class, race, gender, age, sexual orientation, immigration status can affect who has the high or low hand in each given moment.
I think that if folks in the cycling and Transportation Advocacy world kept moving to understand this and step out of the perceived privilege of not working on race then they would join folks on the cutting edge that are rapidly building "the world we could have" vs. settling for a world that values profit over our one lives as a survival strategy. Paraphrasing my friend Art, "We haven't been around as humans for all that time and I'd like to think that we're gradually figuring all this out." I agree with Art. I think we are.
We all have an interest in transportation and it will be around for a long long time. Transportation is more ordinary and inevitable than death or taxes.

Currently I'm in a New Orleans coffee shop and it's raining much more than I'm used to as a west coastie. It's raining ALOT. Hurricane season in upon the Gulf and I'm getting an introduction to the Creole version of normal precipitation.

Before my 12 hour Greyhound trip down here I visited with a bike artist and activist I knew in Eugene, OR when I lived there. She had a pygmie goat with a wicked vertical jump, that liked to steal food and liked to head butt your knees, all in the name of fun. It was so darn cute when sleeping. It tried to eat everything including the wheels of my suitcase trailer.

In Austin, I had a conversation with a man who had been in the military for 12 years and over the course of the evening and many beers told me he had killed 2600 people personally. He repeated that the US public didn't want to know what he was doing in the name of our national interests. Personally, I think we do need to know and that the people who are in his position need a place to tell their stories.

Today in this coffee shop I rolled my eyes at a sensationalist statement about the Iraq war and was invited to join a conversation with a self defined "liberal" Jewish woman about the legitimacy of preemptive war and Israel's treatment of Palestinians the middle east. It was a good conversation, hard to keep my mind clear at times, but a good dialog. My family is Arab heritage and I have relatives in Beirut.

I'm volunteering here in New Orleans doing bike work and some bike work with youth.
I found a place to stay in a 6 person squat and it's like camping in an urban/frontier setting.
It's pushing my comfort zone, but even after just one day it seems more normal.

I'm off to an anti racism gathering /Potluck. I didn't read the Common Ground Anti-Racism reader, but I will later.

There are excellent potato chips here called Zap's and they come in many different flavors.

That's all for now,

Jason