Political Literary Criticism (Afterword to Duke Bagulaya's Waray Literature Book)

Political Literary Criticism

One of the most enlightening points for political criticism has been articulated by Terry Eagleton in his conclusion of Literary Theory.[1] Contrary to the dominant notion of literary criticism that elucidates on style and form and/or liberal humanist content, Eagleton argues that whatever kind of approach and theory in literary analysis is itself an equivocation of the politics in which such approach and theory developed and became integral to individuals and society’s own understanding of its way of seeing the world. Literary theory itself is political theory for it espouses a way of seeing the world, analyzing it and prescribing a prognosis to its imperfect state; thus, a way of perpetuating or changing the world. Literature, like artifacts of material life as we experienced it, becomes a prism to look at the very operation of sight and aura, cognition and, in a la Matrix realm, of misrecognition. Literary analysis becomes the veritable mode of expanding the understanding and misunderstanding of the experience of the world. Literary theory is mobilized to become the tool of analysis to reframe the worlding or way of experiencing of the text, literature and society.

While formalists in Philippine academe would object to the intrusion of political criticism in an object constituted as universal as art and literature, they negate the idea of themselves involved in a political act—the maintenance of purity of art and the humanities against the material conditions of massive social inequity and injustice. Literature and arts become the last beacons of hope, thus the paranoia to sustain this turf in all its para-militaristic glory. Epistemic violence becomes the exemplary act of teaching, as the Little Prince has enlightened us, “what is essential [as] invisible to the eye.” Departments of Literature participate in the generation of invisibility of the material condition, aestheticizing pain, suffering and massive poverty as beholden to the literary experience of the human conditions. Is it not the aesthetic of pain that nurtures the condition of fascism, generating a montage of militaristic beauty in the service of the state? These departments also participate in the generation of the visibility of the universal soul and humanity, giving form and content to the abstractions of the reactionary state.

How can one else characterize the Philippine state other than as reactionary or over-protective of its own inadequacies to either provide basic services to the majority of its people or to legitimize pain and suffering of the historically disenfranchised, delivered unto the silver platters of transnational businesses and their local elite cohorts? The Philippine state itself is primarily operationalized to make politics and politicking its cause for being. Borrowing from a comprador business motto, “In the service of the Filipino,” the state retransforms its role from provider of basic services to the masses to these services and the masses as beholden to state functions. Academe in general and literature departments in particular sanitize the state through the depoliticization of art and education. Neoliberal academics would even contend that education and art, like those of any commodity, should be supervised by market forces. How can Communications 1, Social Science 2 or Rizal, therefore, be political as the delaborized commodities, such as Diet Coke, 555 Tuna or Bid Mac? How can all these commodities be political as the systematic deaths of 28 members of the militant Bayan-Muna party list since 2001 or the numbing murders of 71 journalists since 1986?[2]

Yet as Eagleton contends, “the history of modern literary theory is part of the political and ideological history of our epoch.”[3] The sterilization of the political in academe represents the cleansing of the state of both its inadequacies in alleviating the suffering of the masses and its excessive production of violence to overcompensate for these inadequacies and to protect its real economic stakeholders. On the one hand, as Eagleton has quoted of Barthes, “Literature is [simply] what gets taught,” on the other hand, it is also the censuring of divergent modes of experientiation that is fetishicized in literature that does get taught and the literary theory of choice in the teaching of literature.[4] In a nation where the status quo wears its badge off its sleeves—to be Liberal Party, Lakas, Christian Democrats or Partido ng Masa is synonymous to be neo-Aristotlean, Chicago, formalist, humanist and so on—fascism and corruption are produced with so much non-apology as the citizenry’s own path of living. The Philippine literary tradition, as well as Philippine society and nation-state themselves, are products of branding the status quo as continuous reification of fascist ideology for popular support.

For how can literature be unique to the discourse of the state when literature becomes the very apparatus of maintaining forms of state benevolence—from the heralding of the National Artist to the extraction of reading list for literature courses for secondary and tertiary levels of education, to the manner in which these texts are to be taught, to the selection of the guest speaker in the awards’ ceremonies of the premier literary contest. There is very little doubt that even the perceived contraction of funding and the discipline itself of the humanities merely serves as a flawed logic to the perils of neoliberal education that places a greater emphasis not so much on the sciences as to the shift in the educational thrust that will serve the niche market of the nation’s placement in the global and sexual division of labor. Although as part of the ideological state apparatus, literature also forms parcel to a public sphere that is able to interrogate the state, much to what the bourgeois civil society purports to do, but does so without the transformation of the critical mass. Liberal humanist education, after all, might be able to cohere a critical mass of the intellectual kind, but will not be able to be held solely responsible for the transformation of masses of people to better their lives.

Eagleton would even extend the argument by stating that liberal humanist education is the best effort of the state to articulate its own flawed logic. What literature, literary theory and analysis of the dominant liberal humanist type attempt to formulate is the formulation of the state’s aplogia, “the best ideology of the ‘human’ that present bourgeois society can muster.”[5] As the University of the Philippines, a state university, for example, has pioneered neoliberal education in the country through its postmodern pluralism in its Revitalized General Education Program and the abandonment of state subsidy in the financing of higher education in its proposed modernization of the University charter, the progressive politics is at once negated in favor of a pragmatic politics embellished in critical academic jargon. How can one claim neoliberalism as the culprit when the experience of academic transnationals magnify neoliberalism as accounting for both the borderless flow of goods, people and capital and the further depreciation of the historically disenfranchised? What has become of the trace of progressive rhetorics, articulated, for example, by a bureaucrat president in Marxist clothing, is the usurpation of progressive idealism for the pragmatics of neoliberalism. Spoken by a bureaucrat, progress signifies development politics as a way of bettering the community members’ lives. Spoken by a Marxist bureaucrat, it signifies the twisted logic of positivism made more reactionary—what can and cannot be done as validated by the economics of higher education financing. What has become of the academe is to provide academically attuned arguments to the rhetoric of the nation-state. It is not surprising, for example, to find out how the state university has continued to supply various administrations of high-level bureaucrats and apologists. The intellectuals serve as the state’s crown of thorns for its mismanagement of desires of people and institutions. But then again, how can the state mismanage something that is ingrained in its continuity? To think of ideological state apparatuses, like education, media and the arts, is to amplify how these, in the grand schema of things and events, serve the primordial interest of no other entity other than the state. If at all, the state may be forecasted to have withered away, albeit slowly and violently, but it does so with the continuous reconstitution of multinational capital and U.S. imperialism within the national territory. The state does not wither away, it is rejuvenated and reinvented for the purpose of serving the greater economic and political interests of the global hegemon.

The educational institution has been engineered to serve the para-military emphasis of the state. Academe’s production of critics and specialists form part of the vigilante groups, para-military civil organizations that uphold state interests. Departments of literature produce these graduates and postgraduates in forms of literacy campaigns to be able to read and write in “certain ways.” As Eagleton has noted, “Nobody is especially concerned about what you say, with what extreme, moderate, radical or conservative positions you adopt, provided that they are compatible with, and can be articulate within, a specific form of discourse.”[6] On the one hand, academic Marxists or feminists, for example, find equal footing with the formalists in higher education, even as, from their contending points of views, they are mightier bearers of individual and social transformation. On the other hand, the radicality of Marxists or feminists is only perceived to be real within the academic setting. How then to actually transform society is beyond the confines of the academe and higher learning. It is this edge that distinguishes liberal humanist education from a national, scientific and mass-oriented education.

Literary theory, like all artifacts of material social existence, “is really no more than a branch of social ideologies” or an extension of belief systems of contending and dialoging groups, sectors and their interests.[7] If this is true, then the motivation of the critic is to expound on already foregrounded ideologies. The interest of the critic in not only introducing but dwelling on the political—doubly in using the national democratic framework—in literary analysis is to lay bare the vested interest of the critic. Partisan criticism, after all, is the imperative drive of all criticism, be it in politics or in literature. It is along this logos that the critic’s work is to be criticized and metastasized to another text. The journey of carrying a text to another stream flow is invariably a long tedious one. Duke Bagulaya’s critique of the development of Waray poetry is connected to the ways Gelacio Guillermo and Edel Garcellano have a priori articulated the terrain of nationalist democratic literatures. Bagulaya even conjures connections along Bievenido Lumbera’s theorizing of national literature as these earlier studies have in turn negotiated their own place in the critical literary space production. It is in dialog with “fusion criticism” of the Maoist and western marxist variety, and of the related positionality of Amado Guerrero’s Philippine Society and Revoltuion. In academic practice, the parochiality of self referentiality is intertwined in another’s self reflexive literary mode as contending and dialoging positionality in the guerrilla warfare of literary criticism.

What Bagulaya interjects is a national democratic renarrativization of the historicity of development of minority poetry, from folk to media driven to movement driven. Like other critics of the pasyon or awit who have renarrativized the context in which it might have been used for nationalist agenda from below, Bagulaya lays bare the social and historical contexts in which the national democratic agenda and poetry have become integral in articulating alternative and parallel visions of the bayan and bansa. This is the placement of Bagulaya’s edge in the schema of competing texts, disciplines and ideologies, allowed in the confines, of among others, the acacia-laden trees, of the state university. Like all literary, humanities and social science analyses, or for that matter, even mathematical and scientific paradigm shifts, Bagulaya’s study articulates a political ideology in ways in which all ideologies are vested upon—“always a way of describing other people’s interests other than one’s own.”[8] Like all social ideologies, the use of utopia is a vital impediment to political analysis whether it be notions of beauty and aesthetics or form and poetics. Like all analyses, Bagulaya articulates a political agenda—a framework of speaking about national democratic ideology and utopia.

When Eagleton published his conclusion in 1983, he estimated that there were over 60,000 nuclear warheads, and the approximate cost of these weapons is $500 billion dollars a year, of which, just five percent of the amount is capable of lifting the Third World against hunger.[9] Some twenty years later, there are an estimated of more than 128,000 nuclear warheads built worldwide since 1945.[10] Total world’s arm expenditure has gone to $800 billion a year or $160 per person.[11] With intensified imperialist globalization that has lead to the U.S. in the post-Iraq War era to be the single global hegemon, human conditions have worsened. The global poverty in 1993 has affected some 1.3 billion people, living on less than $1 per day; and by the end of the second millenium, it has already reached 1.5 billion people.[12] There were some 3 billion people living on less than $2 per day, which was approximately the buying power of $2 in 1985.[13] Just with the economic crisis of 1997, poverty incidence in Indonesia, Thailand and Korea increased to as much as more than twice in a year’s time.[14] India’s 300 million poverty stricken ranks in the 1980s swelled further to 340 million in 1997. It is estimated that 840 million live with chronic hunger and 8.8 million people die of hunger-related causes per year; of which, only 10 percent can be traced to emergency causes, such as war or catastrophic weather.[15] Yet only 44 percent of the world’s potential arable land produces food.[16]

If literature and the humanities have set forth the human spirit free, then why has the material body still experienced excess want and lack? Some 450,000 women still die unnecessarily from childbirth every year, 97 percent of which are from former colonies.[17] There are 35 million unemployed in the developed world and some billions in the developing world.[18] Why does the emphasis in military spending that sustains global hegemony remain so much in place than ever before? How has the humanities reproduced the para-military bent of imperialist globalization? Compared to the $800 billion on arms spending, only $50 billion is needed to support debt repayment of the neocolonial world.[19] Clean water could be offered for $300 million.[20] Some 11.65 million children in the developing world could be saved if these children had the same access as those in the developed world.[21] L3.3 (UK pound) billion per year is needed to ensure that every child gets to go to primary school; L1 billion to feed starving people in Africa for a year, and another L1 billion to feed other starving people elsewhere; L7 billion to fight Aids, tuberculosis, malaria and other infectious diseases.[22]

However, the gap between the world’s poorest 20 percent and the richest 20 percent has more than doubled since 1960.[23] And overcapacity in the industries are as high as 30 percent.[24] Are we better off today with our gadgets in easy reach and academic prestige in pedestals? Suburbanized, as Eagleton claims of liberal humanist ideology, critics in neoliberalism excel in producing the cruelest of studies devoid of the historicity of the material condition. Statisticized, mathematicized, scientificized and humanitastized, the human is devoid of actual pain and suffering as he or she is vilified as both victim and abuser or abjected as a massified entity. Scholarship becomes a testament to both human life in general abstracted ways and its barbarism in its depoliticized mode.

What happens is the production of a quasi-stable identity, devoid of politics, and if at all, the political and political struggle. Eagleton suggests that this, in itself, the distancing of the object of study to its relational field of politics of power relations is cogent to the imperialist project, the imposition of “alien ways of experiencing.” I remember my experience as a panelist in a masteral defense on the topic, oil industry in the country. The thesis had to undergo a long journey to being defended because of a double time-lag bind. The scholar had been off from the program for some years now. But more than a time lapse, there was also a perceived paradigm lag. The scholar was calling for the nationalization of the oil industry at a time when this industry has already been liberalized in the country. The thesis had to be passed on from an economics adviser who espoused neoliberalism as a newer frame to a Philippine Studies adviser whose background in the humanities somehow makes him a more liberal coach. Defended as a Philippine Studies scholarship, the thesis passed and was even conferred with a best masteral thesis award in the humanities.

Given the metanarrative of globalization, any analyses that purports to be a primarily a project of nationalization, nationalism and nationalist agenda would prove detrimental to the student’s cause. Philippine Studies acts as a kind of enclave to the normativizing modality of neoliberal and global researches. But these too provide a limited view of the area concerned. What is actually being undertaken is a project of depoliticization in surrounding the research itself—downgraded when failing to use the rhetoric of globalization as the overarching paradigm to dwell on the necessity of the national to be internationally competitive or upgraded for providing a beacon of utopian capitalism or socialism at a time of great deluge. Thus, the award for best thesis becomes the interjection to the real status of the scholarship, deemed otherwise as impalpable at this globalizing age.

But the political contends as politics always contend. As bearers of political ideologies, criticism asserts not just a vision of a social ideology but also a material practice leading to the vision. To historicize is to politicize, and in our nation’s context, to politicize is to organize.[25] This is the adage of the political in criticism, its intended mobilizing factor to swing people to opinion, consciousness, action and organization. Then literature does not simply become allegorical of the material, a symptom of the historical and social.[26] It then becomes the receptacle of the material in historical and social transformation.

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Endnotes:

[1] Terry Eagleton, “Conclusion,” Literary Theory: An Introduction (1983) in http://webs.wofford.edu/hitchmoughsa/Terry.html.

[2] Quoted in “Letter of Concern of Foreign Church and Development Workers in the Philippines” (unpublished) by Philippine International Forum, 2003.

[3] Eagleton, ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Ibid.

[10] Quoted in “Facts at a Glance,” CDI Nuclear Issues, http://www.cdi.org/nuclear/facts-at-a-glance-pr.cfm.

[11] “Too many people—Too much poverty?” http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/books/globalwarning/7.htm.

[12] “World Bank Updates Global Poverty Report,” http://usembassy-australia.state.gov/hyper/WF990602/epf304.htm.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Poverty Incidence

Year Indonesia Thailand Korea

1997 11.0 11.4 8.6

1998 19.9 12.9 19.2

Source: http://usembassy-australia.state.gov/hyper/WF990602/epf304.htm.

[15] “Global Hunger Alliance,” http://www.globalhunger.net/

[16] Ibid, http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/books/globalwarning/7.htm.

[17] Ibid.

[18] Ibid.

[19] Ibid.

[20] “Technology: Friend or Foe?” http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/books/globalwarning/5.htm

[21] Ibid.

[22] “Bullions Wasted On Warfare,” http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/2003/296/p3.htm.

[23] “World Economy: Will There Be A Recovery?” http://www.socialistpary.org.uk/2003/319/mp6.htm.

[24] Ibid.

[25] This is an idea I borrow from Professor Sarah Raymundo on Judy Taguiwalo’s improvement of Fredric Jameson’s idea on the need to historicize via her involvement in political causes.

[26] For a repository on the documents, essays and discourse of the national democratic literature, see “IPASA: Instityut sa Panitikan at Sining ng Sambayanan,” http://www.geocities.com/ipasa_pagkabasa.

Likhaan call for workshops, fellowships

LIKHAAN offers workshops, fellowships

LIKHAAN: The UP Institute of Creative Writing (UP ICW) now accepts application for the 46th UP National Writers Workshop to be held in Baguio City for one week the summer of 2007.

UP ICW director, Professor Vim Nadera, also announced that 12 fellowships for advanced writers are available. Qualifications are: must be writers in English or Filipino; must have attended at least one creative writing workshop (national/regional, including the UP National Writers Workshops), or earned a degree in Creative Writing/Malikhaing Pagsulat, or won at least one national/international literary award; must have published at least three poems or two short stories or two pieces of creative nonfiction (e.g., essays, memoirs, profiles) in reputable collections or anthologies, journals, magazines (including campus publications), or refereed Internet web magazines. Some of these qualifications may be waived in exceptionally meritorious cases, with the unanimous concurrence of the UP ICW Associates, Advisers and Resident Fellows. Writers who have been Fellows at any of the UP National Writers’ Workshops are eligible.

Applicants must submit the following: (1) one original, unpublished story, poem, or creative non-fiction in digital file plus four hard copies (12 points, double-spaced, 8.5" x 11"), not previously submitted to any other workshops; (2) a 2-paragraph description of a work-in-progress in any of the above genres, in English or Filipino (also 12 points, double-spaced, 8.5" x 11"); photocopies of the applicant’s published works, including publication details; and (4) application form, available at the UP ICW office in UP Diliman and on the ICW website: http://www.up.edu.ph/~icw.

During the UP workshop, the original manuscripts will be discussed. Additionally, fellows will be expected to make a presentation of a chapter or draft of the work-in-progress referred to above, discuss an aspect of their writing or of the genre in which they work in particular.

Deadline is December 15. For inquiries, call 9221830.

Call for articles: Queer cinema in Cultural Studies Monthly

Cultural Studies Monthly Call for Papers

Thinking Queer in Asian Cinema

Deadline: Oct 1, 2006

Guest Editor: Chia-chi Wu

As Brokeback Mountain revamps the iconography of one of the oldest American genres and scores box-office triumphs worldwide as an “art gay cowboy film”, contemporary filmmakers in Asia have also seemed to explore uncharted queer themes and redraw the art cinema/mainstream production divide. To name just a few examples, The King and the Clown (Lee Jun-ik, 2005), an explicit gay-themed film set in pre-modern times, is said to be one of the highest grossing films in South Korea . Beautiful Boxer (Thailand, Ekachai Uekrongtham, 2003) and Splendid Afloat (Taiwan, Zero Chou, 2004) feature male protagonists with transvestite tendencies but engaging in professions of which macho-masculinity is considered as a quintessential constituent. Moreover, Butterfly ( Hong Kong , Yan Yan Mak, 2004) and The Intimates (Jacob Cheung, 2004) have exhibited, in strictly and legitimately female homoerotic terms, visible female-female sexuality that is probably unprecedented in Chinese language commercial productions. For its November 2006 issue, Cultural Studies Monthly is inviting essays or critical reviews on Asian films that evince various degrees and a wide range of queer sensibilities. The issue welcomes contributions (in English or Chinese) on related topics, but is not confined to the follows:

* new theoretical or conceptual frameworks in understanding queer emotions or desire in Asian cinema; or questions for queer theory or practice that Asian cinema raises

* queer subjectivities crisscrossed with other axes of identity formation or in relation to other structures of oppression, such as gender, class, race or ethnicity, age, etc..

* the figuring of nationality, transnationality or globality in queer culture

* films that point to the ties between pre-modern queer traditions to contemporary eroticism

* queer and space, or “queerscape” as molded by peculiar cinematic visuality or stylistics

* survey of any local or international g/l/q film festival, either located in Asia or boasting a strong showcase of Asian queer films

* camp aesthetics

* films resonating with activism, public opinion or other social discourses on queer subjects

* film reviews

Cultural Studies Monthly is an online journal launched by CSA Taiwan (Cultural Studies Taiwan). It is a non-referential, non-peer-reviewed publication. Both English and Chinese submissions are welcome. Strong English submissions will also, upon the author’s approval, be submitted to Film Appreciation ( dianying xinshang, published by Taipei Film Archive, its peer-reviewed film paper section) for its potential publication in Chinese translation.

Please send submissions to

Chia-chi Wu

jiaqiwu@yahoo.com

(Assistant Professor, Department of English

University of National Taiwan Normal University )

Call for papers: Changing Asian family as site of (state) politics

The Changing Asian Family as a Site of (State) Politics

Date:	26/04/2007 - 27/04/2007
Venue:	Singapore
Organisers:	Dr TEO YOU YENN
Description:
CALL FOR PAPERS organised by Asia Research Institute National University of Singapore, Singapore Programme Registration Speakers Proposal Form The conference aims to bring together scholars of Asia whose work interrogates the state-family relationship. We invite scholars to reflect on the complex political processes that produce “the Asian family” and to analyse the consequences of these processes for state and society. The rapidly changing face of Asia is perhaps most sharply represented in the changing composition, functions, and meanings of its families. Scholarship on the Asian family has highlighted the myriad ways in which changes in the organization of economic lives, demographic trends, social mobility opportunities, migration patterns and global cultural influences have affected the shape, form, and significance of “the family” in people’s lives. Scholars have long acknowledged the family as an important site of state action within the context of these changes. The tendency remains, however, to conceptualize the family and the state as distinct entities—with the state impacting on the family—rather than formed in relation to each other. In this framework, the “public” state steps in to “interfere” with the “private” family only on specific “problems.” In this way, despite the richness of this scholarship, studies of the family continue to stand somewhat outside larger debates about political systems and state-society relations. Contemporary Asian state actors also contribute to perpetuating a view of “the Asian family” as private and primordial, and hence, its own actions as ameliorative and apolitical. This conference focuses on the relational formation of state and family by highlighting the complex and sometimes contradictory power struggles and negotiations that render possible or impossible particular definitions of the contemporary Asian family, as well as the consequences of these processes on larger questions of political culture and state-society relationships. We aim to bring together scholars of the region whose research investigates the politics of state-family relations through these questions: How are familial forms produced—what are the political processes that produce specific definitions of “family members,” “family relations,” and “familial responsibilities and rights”? On the other hand, what are the consequences of these political processes—on individuals, on civil society, on the state’s own authority, and more broadly, on the texture and tone of power relations in society? Key themes that follow: State definitions of “the family”: rhetoric and practice; variations across time and space; “The family” as site of mobilization, movements, contestations and/or cooperation among different actors, vis-à-vis the state. These interactions may include different government agents, non-governmental organizations, and individuals in both national and transnational contexts, and contestations may be based around class, ethnic, gender, and other group interests and agenda; The reach of the state and its limits in relation to its definitions of meanings, forms, and functions of family; The (re)production of inequality and equality through interactions between state and family; The (re)production of political culture and political subjectivity as a result of state and family interactions: the generation of interests, identities, and legitimate and illegitimate political behaviour; “Powerful” families—such as families of political elites and royal families—and their roles in shaping the definition of family in specific contexts, and in shaping state and family relations; The changing family as a site where there is rethinking of the state and civil society in the era of rapid global change. We invite historians, sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists and other social scientists working on Asia to submit paper proposals. We hope to select from the conference papers articles for one to two special journal issues. Please submit paper abstracts (maximum 300 words), by 1st October 2006 to Alyson Rozells. Decisions will be made by the beginning of November. Complete papers are due 15th March 2007. Speakers will be provided with accommodation, and partial reimbursement for air-travel may be available. For further enquiries, please contact: Dr Teo You Yenn Dr Shen Hsiu-Hua Please visit this website again for further updates
Contact Person:	Ms ROZELLS ALYSON ADRIANNE
Email:	ariteoyy@nus.edu.sg, ariaar@nus.edu.sg

Philippine Collegian Under Seige, Sign Manifesto!

Autonomy Under Siege
The Philippine Collegian and RA 9184

The Philippine Collegian bears witness to a lasting tradition of independence as a student institution. It is a publication funded solely by the students, and for years has served as a salient representation of academic freedom and democratic rights. Throughout history, UP students have vigilantly fought for the publication's autonomy from all forms of administration intervention.

Once again, the Collegian's autonomy is under siege.

Using Republic Act 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act, the UP administration since June 2006 has blocked the release of the Collegian's printing funds. According to the administration's interpretation of RA 9184, all fees collected by the university are government funds—including the Collegian's funds. Under this false assumption, the UP administration insists that the bidding and selection of the publication’s printing press be facilitated not by the Collegian editorial board, but by the administration itself.

However, the Collegian firmly asserts that it is exempt from RA 9184. It is not a government unit, as it is funded only by the students. Moreover, the Campus Journalism Act of 1991 stipulates that the editorial board should facilitate the selection of the publication’s printing press. The administration’s sole task is to collect the publication fee during registration, and thereafter give full discretion of handling of Collegian fund to the duly selected editorial board. The administration may not intervene in any of the publication’s operations.

In response to the Collegian’s arguments against RA 9184, the UP administration continues to deny the institution of its right to bidding autonomy. In our dialogues, the administration even questions the publication’s “independence” as basis for its exemption from the particular law.

We, from the Collegian, cannot accept this kind of reasoning. To allow the Collegian to subject itself to RA 9184 is tantamount to surrendering its autonomy as a student institution. Even now that the publication’s inclusion in the law is still in question, the UP administration is withholding the publication’s printing fund to coerce the Collegian to submission. Such is why the previous Collegian issues were delayed, while pending issues have not been printed. RA 9184 thus compromises the publication’s fiscal autonomy.

Moreover, allowing the Collegian to subject itself to RA 9184 would set a precedent for the UP administration to thereafter inflict the same law and intervene in the operations of publications and other student institutions in all UP units. In fact, the UP Diliman University Student Council’s publication Oblation is also being subjected to this law.

We from the Collegian view the administration’s insistence to subject the publication to RA 9184 as an assault against the publication’s autonomy. We call on the administration to recognize fully the independence of the Collegian as a student publication. We demand that the administration uphold the Collegian’s fiscal autonomy, specifically its right to facilitate the bidding process.

The Collegian is accountable only to the students, who are its sole publishers. Thus, we call on all students to protect the autonomy of the publication. This issue is a clear manifestation of administration intervention, and a direct attack on campus press freedom.

Uphold the Collegian’s autonomy!

Defend campus press freedom!

Protect the independence of all student institutions and organizations!

SIGNIFY YOUR PROTEST: AFFIX YOUR NAME TO THE MANIFESTO, http://www.philippinecollegian.net/sign.php.

Never again to martial law! (Tigil-paslang blog)

Ang pagsulat ay intelektwal na gawain (dagli column)

ANG PAGSULAT AY INTELEKTWAL NA GAWAIN

Kakaiba ang papel na pinanggagalingan ng manunulat. Ang kanyang labor ang kanyang puhunan. Pero hindi rin naman siya lubos na laborer. Gawaing intelektwal ang kanyang inile-labor. Binabayaran siya para makapag-isip, at maisulat ang kanyang iniisip.

Di tulad ng kanyang kapatid sa factory, may panahon siyang umangas (angst). At ito ang kanyang pangunahing puhunan. Pinakikinabangan niya ang “I love you world” at ang “I hate you world” modes niya. Parehong pwedeng maging basis ng kanyang bagong kwento o tula. Parehong pwedeng maging dakila.

Kung iisipin, angas naman talaga ang nagpapagalaw ng utak ng manunulat na nag-uudyok sa kanyang imahinasyon para dalhin siya sa mga insight at persperktibang hindi pa lubos na nararating. Angas ang nagpapaikot ng mundo ng manunulat. Ito ang kapasidad ng manunulat na maging kritikong panlipunan o maging pasibong nilalang. Ito ang nagiging paksa ng kanyang love stories, protest poems, columns at one-act plays. Titigan lang ang sunset, maglakad sa beach, sumama sa rally, may nahihimok nang kakatwang statement ang manunulat hinggil sa mga event na ito ay may sinasaad na komentaryo.

Angas ang hindi pagtanggap sa kasalukuyang kaayusan. Kaya ka nga gagawa nang statement dahil unhappy ka sa kalagayan. Angas ang may hindsight sa mga pangyayari. Binasted ka na nga, may gusto ka pang sabihin sa pagkabasa mo sa ulan. Ang kape ay hindi lamang kape. Ang pagkatimpla nito ay naihahalintulad sa pagtimbang sa pag-ibig. Angas ang puhunan sa intelektwal na gawain ng manunulat. Pero hindi kasobrahan.

Hindi ka maaring maging walking angas. Hindi cute ito. Nakakabwisit din pagdating ng ikalawang araw. Pwede kang magkaroon ng angas day-maging yelo, bato, halaman, cactus, kung anong objek mo nais. Pero hindi pwedeng ito ang being mo. Walang taong gustong kumapit sa cactus, maging partner ito, maliban sa kapwa cactus. Maaring maging co-dependency, feeling cacti kayo sa desert. Walang gustong makapareha itong mga objek na ito dahil mas perfect naman ang mga tunay na objek. Bakit ka magpapabwiset sa isang taong bato kung mas perfect naman ang batong pinulot at itinabi mo mula sa dalampasigan ng Batanes? Walang may pasensya sa mga taong may angas lifetime.

Ano mang sobra ay may kalabisan. Kaya ang angas ay dapat maximahin sa produktibo nitong antas – ang kapasidad nitong makapag-usad ng bagong pagtingin sa kapaligiran. Hindi produktibo ang manlumo sa angas. Ang manunulat ay sumasalok lamang sa balon nito para makapagsulat. Kapag hindi na siya makapagsulat dahil sa angas, mas naging makapangyarihan na ito. Sa ganitong kalagayan, walang laban ang manunulat. Maari niyang pagbigyan ang pagtatagumpay ng angas, pero hindi gawing lubos ang Miss Universe walk at wave nito. Kailangang pahantungin ng manunulat ang angas sa puntong maari siyang mag-snap out of it. Hindi lubusang mag-snap lamang.

Ang manunulat ay kilala lamang sa kanyang huling sinulat. Dahil wala namang full-time na maganda sa pagsulat ang part-time writing at part-time writers. Hindi naman part-time job ang pagsulat. Full-time commitment ito. Kaya kahit manipis ang opus ng manunulat, maari pa rin siyang bansagan ang sarili bilang manunulat. Pero inuunahan ko na ang aking sarili.

Ang gusto kong sabihin ay ganire: kung walang lifetime walking angas, dapat wala ring lifetime walking writer’s block. Hindi excuse ang pagkakaroon ng miserableng buhay sa hindi pagsulat. Kung iisipin naman talaga, lahat tayo ay nasa loob ng isang miserableng mundo. Kung hindi miserable ang mundo, ano pa ang magiging lahok sa ating pagsulat. Kaya nga kailangan ng angas, kailangan din ng akto ng pagsulat.

Ang akto ng pagsulat ay isang memorialisasyon ng kaganapan. Inaalala natin ang isang pangyayari, madalas kalahok ang isang tao man lamang, at ang ating relasyon sa pangyayari at tao. Ine-entomb natin para ma-enshrine ang moment. Para tayong kumuha ng instamatic shot ng pangyayari. Frozen ito pero beautiful pa rin. Kahit anong pait, anghang, lupit o asim ng buhay, kapag isinulat na ine-estheticize o pinagaganda natin ang pangyayari. Sa mga nakalutang na akda air-tight ang capsule -- ang bangkay ng ating akda. Nakalutang sa glass case, beautiful sa kanyang frozen moment.

Mahalaga ang memorialisasyon dahil wala naman, maliban sa rulers at philosophers na gumagawa nito. At madalas pa, nagagawa nila ito dahil sa fasistang ideolohiya. Maaring gayon din ang manunulat, pero ang kagandahan ng kanyang akda ay ang panahong mayroong kultural na pagkakaiba sa paraan nito ng pagbasa. Ang hindi pinansing mga akda ay maaring dakilain sa hinaharap, kapag mayroong matiyaga’t competent na scholar na makaka-unearth nito sa archives. Pero ang hindi maaring mangyari ay ang pagbasa sa mga ginawa ng manunulat, at least, sa kanyang lifetime.

May pagtataya ang gawaing intelektwal ng manunulat. Dahil siya ay part-time writer, part-time someone else, implicated ang kanyang sinusulat sa iba pa niyang trabaho batay sa kanyang iba pang pinaggagagawa. Madalas, hinuhusgahan ang kanyang pagkatao batay sa kanyang non-writing activities

Madali kasing ma-usurp ang manunulat dahil part-time identity lamang ito. Kaya para mabuhay, ang manunulat ay gagawa pa ng ibang bagay, kadalasan, extension ng kanyang intellectual work. Maari siyang magturo o speech writer, maging artistic director, maging undersecretary, at kung ano-ano pa. Ang iba pang gawain ng manunulat ay kanyang nakamit dahil sa kanyang kredensyal bilang manunulat. Mas nauna siya siyang nakilala sa mga larangan bilang manunulat.

Dahil kulang ang kabuhayan ng manunulat, isa na naman itong afinidad niya sa laborer, kailangan niyang magtrabahong makakapagbayad ng bills. At isinasangkalan nga niya ang kanyang prestihiyosong posisyon bilang manunulat. Itinataya niya ang kanyang pagsulat sa timbangan ng ibang mga tao at larangang handang magbayad sa kanyang serbisyo at prestihiyo. Madalas, nilalamon siya ng sistema, tulad ng paglamon sa maraming manunulat ng angas at writer’s block. Sa ganitong pagkakataon, kapag ang kanyang pagiging manunulat ay naging isang mas tagong identidad, hindi na siya intelektwal.

Kaya ang intelektwal ay parating nasa panig sa labas ng establisyimento, bagamat mayroon ding intelektwal ng estado. Pero oxymoronic ang huli, hindi ka maaring maging intelektwal kapag binabayaran ang iyong serbisyo lampas pa sa tunay nitong halaga. Kailangan, tulad ng laborer, nasa survival wage lamang. Sobra pa rito, managerial position na ito kung baga. Iba na ang ipinaglalaban mo, hindi na ang iyong sariling paninindigan. Yung paninindigan na ng lubos na tumatangkilik at nagbabayad sa iyo. Mahirap maging manunulat-intelektwal, pero ito ang higit na kailangan n gating panitikan at lipunan.

Ang pagsulat ay gawaing politikal (dagli column)

ANG PAGSULAT AY GAWAING POLITIKAL

Higit sa anupamang bagay – maliban na lamang sa hayagang politikal na pagkilos, tulad ng pagboto o pakikidigma o pagpapakamatay para sa bayan – ang pagsulat ay gawaing politikal. Kapag sinabing “politikal,” mayroon itong nais baguhin at i-transform, layuning nais makamit, at lipunang nais marating. Ibig sabihin, mayroong mas egalitaryong kalagayan naroon sa makakamit na hinaharap kaysa sa kasalukuyan. Mas magandang tanawin ang “doon” kaysa ang “dito.” Pero kailangan pa ring gamitin ang lente ng “dito” para makita ang hangganan ng “doon.”

Kapag nagsusulat, mayroong nais baguhin. Kung laging maganda na lamang ang kasalukuyang sandali, lalamlamin na lamang ito. O di kaya, gagawing Kodak moment – ifo-fossilize ang sandali, at pwede pang i-mass reproduce. Pero hindi parating ganito ang kasalukuyan. Hindi parating gumigising tayong may ngiti sa ating labi at natutulog na may mas malaking ngiti pa. Ang kasalukuyan ang bukal ng kasiyahan at angas natin. Hindit ito wagas at dalisay. At kahit pa ito wagas at dalisay, may masasabi pa rin tayong angas hinggil dito.

Kaya bawat akda na isinusulat ay isang manifesto hinggil sa mga posibilidad ng mga bagay at lagay – kung paano tumula, kung ano ang silbi ng kwento, kung ano ang paninindigan ng manunulat sa mga bagay na kanyang sinasambit sa kwento at dula, kung paano mabuhay at mamatay. Sa kasaysayan, may kaunlaran ang papel ng manunulat sa lipunan – mula taga-dokumentaryo tungo sa pagiging pilosopo at pantas ng lipunan. Samakatuwid, ang manunulat ay hindi nalamang nagrerekord ng kaganapan, namimilosopiya o nagsasateorya ng kaganapan.

At ito ang boom at bane ng kasalukuyang manunulat. Sa isang banda, masyado siyang nahihiwalay sa mga taong kanyang kinikilusan at pinaghahalawan ng kanyang mga akda. Sa kabilang banda, may bago siyang lengguwahe na isinisiwalat para sa lalong nagiging kumplikaodng panahon – ang wika at retorika ng pagninilay-nilay. Pinag-iisipan niya nang husto ang mga bagay-bagay. Hindi kagaya ng maraming mga politikong di naman politikal – nauuna ang dakdak bago ang isip.

Binibigyan ng manunulat ng bagong kapangyarihan ang sarili at ang mga tao para unawain ang mundo. Ipepreserba ba niya ito na parang jam o de-latang sardinas o lalansagin ba? Walang patlang na arena, dalaw lamang ang pagpipilian ng manunulat kahit hindi pa siya pumili. Ito man ay isang panig sa preserbasyon ng status quo.

Kaya sa huli, ang kanyang isinusulat ay isang paraan ng pakikisalamuha sa lipunang kanyang kinikilusan. Ito ay isang interbensyon sa isang lipunang ayaw na pinakikialaman. Ito ay isang mediation sa isang lipunan na sa isang banda ay sanay sa panunulay at go-between, at sa kabilang banda, may sariling paglahok sa mga debateng kinakaharap ng lipunan.

Pero sa una’t una pa lamang, ang pagsulat ay isa nang politikal na aktibidad. Marami namang maaaring gawin – tumuklas ng sandaan pang variety ng hibiscus o gumamela at bougainvillea, butingtingin ang kotse at sirang alarm clock, gumawa ng compost pit, magsegregate ng basura, o mag-“Final Fantasy”. But no, pinili ng tao na magsulat. Sumasagka na ito sa daloy ng kalakaran sa lipunan.

Gayunpaman, hindi naman ibig sabihin na ang akto ng pagsulat ay isa nang politikal na pagkilos. Kailangan ng manunulat na malinaw sa kanyang sarili ang kanyang dahilan kung bakit siya nagsusulat. Unang senaryo: gustong sumikat. Hindi ito politikal dahil hindi naman lumalampas sa hangganan ng indibidwal na sarili ang kanyang sinusulat. Ikalawang senaryo: gustong yumaman. Hindi ito politikal; may kahunghangan ang taong ito. Walang yumayaman sa malikhaing pagsulat. Ito ay maaari pa ngang maituring na vanity publishing dahil sa maraming pagkakataon, abonado pa ngang maituring na vanity publishing dahil sa maraming pagkakataon, abonado pa nga ang manunualt. Kailangan pa ngang magkaroon ng ibang trabaho para makapagsulat. Ikatlong senaryo: dahil may nais siyang sabihin sa mundo. Ito pa ang may trace ng politikal.

Sa isang mundong nais tayong gawing pipi at pawang tagapakinig lamang, nagsasalita tayo at naririnig ang ating tinig sa pagsulat. Lahat naman tayo ay may posisyon ng marginality – babae, bakla, lesbiana, manggagawa, at kung ano pa man. Lahat tayo ay iniipit ng lipunan para di natin ganap na magawa ang nais natin. Lahat tayo ay pilay, at ginagamit natin ang at ng panulat bilang sakla para umusad, para makakilos, para magkaroon ng buhay.

Mayroon tayong lahat na pisikal at mental na kapansanan na nagbibigay sa atin ng moral na karapatan para magkatinig, para makapagsulat. Kapag alam natin ang ating posisyong pinanggagalingan, alam natin ang ating magiging claim sa mundo. Hindi naman kayang saklawin ng isang tao o manunulat ang lahat ng “truth-claims,” “ang suwapang naman nito”, o dili kayang “aping-api naman.” Mayroon lamang tayong claims na makakapagbigay sa atin ng politikal na ahensya para makapagsalita.

Pero itong claim ay may shelf-life. Halimbawa, ang angas ng mga na-deprive na “Voltes V generation” noong naunang bahagi ng dekada otsenta ay hindi naman pwedeng magnguyngoy forever and ever. Maaari itong produktibong magamit sa pagsisiwalat ng kultural na claim, ang karapatan ay di deprivation ng impormasyon at kasiyahan.

Kapag kasi hinusto ang mga claim na lampas pa sa kanyang shelf-life, maaaring dalawa ang rasyonal nito. Una, may martyrdom complex ang indibidwal – parating api kaya parating nagko-complain. Ikalawa, kapag pinatagal ang isang bagay, may desire na gawing preservative ang claim. Kapag nagkagayon, tulad ng reintroduksyon ng Voltes V halimbawa sa kamalayan sa bingit ng ikalawang milenyum, di naman sa interes ng claiming group ang itinataguyod. Sa interes ng negosyo at kita ng korporasyon ang pinapalawak. Nagiging bahagi na ito ng status quo. Nanggagamit na lamang ng interes ng mga naisantabi para mapalaganap ang sarili nitong kapakanan.

Kaya kapag nagsusulat, mainam din ang mayroong humbling effect. Walang akda, kontraryo sa mga romantiko at klasikal na pananaw, na timeless at unibersal. Marami sa mga akdang inaakalang ganito ay mga historical piece na lamang. Halimbawa, bilang magandang karakterisasyon at plot, magandang tema at kung anu-ano pa. Ito ang mga akdang nasa mga literature books, mga akdang nagdudulot ng aral tungkol sa panitikan, kaysa sa buhay o lipunang ininugan ng mga ito.

Nagsusulat tayo dahil may politikal tayong layunin; lampas ito sa sarili. Nagsusulat tayo dahil mayroon tayong nais baguhin. Mayroon tayong sarili at kolektibong bersyon ng isang mas matiwasay na lipunan sa hinaharap. Nagsusulat tayo dahil kailangan natin at ng lipunan. Nagsusulat tayo ng buhay para mabuhay. Pinili natin ito. Panindigan natin ito.

Tag-ulan at Pagsisimula ng Siklo (Sapantaha Column)

TAG-ULAN AT PAGSISIMULA NG SIKLO

Ang hudyat na nagsisimula na naman tayo ng bagong siklo (cycle) ay ang pagpasok ng panahon ng tag-ulan. Simula na naman ng klase, ng pagpasok, ng pagtuturo, ng akademikong kalendaryo, ng buhay sa university. Sa isang banda, ang pagpasok ng tag-ulan ay isang cleansing, lalo pa’t dumarating ito ng walang anunsyo, matapos ang katingkaran ng tag-init at ang dulot ng mahabang anxiety nito. Sa kabilang banda, inihahanda lamang tayo ng tag-ulan sa ating mismong pagpasok at pagpalaot sa mga dating gawain at dating realidad.

Tila nagbabago ang paligid sa tag-ulan. Mas matingkad ang kaluntian ng mga halaman. Muling tumutubo ang damo sa sunken garden matapos mapulbos sa summer. Inaanod ng bigat ng patak ang bulak ng kapok, pulang bulaklak ng fire tree at dilaw na bulaklak ng narra. Sa isang mabilis na iglap, iba na ang kapaligiran. Hindi ito tulad ng summer, nakakainip at nakakabagot antayin ang pamumulaklak at iba pang transformasyon ng paligid.

Dahil kagyat itong pumapasok, walang lubos na handa. Paratihang sinisipon at nilalagnat ang ating mga pakiramdam. Parating kulang ang kasuotan sa dobleng lamig ng mall. Parating nababasa ng ulan dahil hindi pa bahagi ng peryodikong kamalayan ang pagbibitbit ng payong at kapote. Paratihang sablay sa mga plano ukol sa pag-over-extend ng nanatiling bakasyon. Pero kaagad din tayong pinapapasok sa ibang molde, ang molde ng pagsisimulang muli.

Sa isang guro, mabilis na dumadaan ang panahon dahil sa hindi pagsubaybay sa siklo. Ako nga’y nalingat lang ay pumatak nang apat na taon na ang nagdaan nang bumalik ako sa U.P. Tila walang nagaganap sa siklo, maliban na lamang sa pagsisimula’t pagtatapos nito taontaon. Paratihang kabataan ang kliyente. Paratihang isyu ng imperialismo’t feudalismo, ng komersyalisasyon at privatization ng edukasyon ang taunang umaalingawngaw sa loob at labas ng klasrum. Paratihang may umaalis at may bagong nauupo.

Sa isang banda, paano lumalampas ang mga siklo ng gayon na lamang? Sa bigat at dami ng gawain, mahirap magkaroon ng pagkakataong magnilaynilay pa sa mga bagaybagay, lalo pa’t ito naman ay patungkol sa mga realidad ng trabaho at buhay sa university. Sa liit ng sweldo, ang konsern ay kung paano ito madadagdagan, na katumbas ng pagdagdag pa sa dati nang mabigat na trabaho. Paano ka ba naman maalimpungatan pa kung wala ka nang ginawa kundi kumayod-kabayo? At ito ang afinidad ng mga guro sa iba pang manggagawa. Alienated ito sa kanya-kanyang trabaho. Trabaho ang buhay ng guro’t manggagawa, gayong trabaho rin ang nagpapawala sa kanila sa kanilang mga pagkatao. Ang kaibahan nga lamang, intellectual value ang pangunahing sangkap ng guro para kumita, hindi physical labor, na siya rin pangunahing lumulusaw sa kanya.

Ang pagkakaroon din ng paratihang kabataang kaharap sa klase ay nagdadagdag pa ng ilusyon na “bata” pa rin ang ating mundo, gawain at realidad. Maari ba namang tumanda kung ang nakikita mong refleksyon ay ang mga eager na mukha ng estudyanteng umaasa at umaasam na matuto sa iyo? At dalawang beses itong ipinapamukha taontaon.

Sa kabilang banda, kahit pa malinaw na may wakas ang siklo, paano pa rin tayo inihahanda sa ritual ng pagpasok ng bagong siklo? Bakit may excitement na sambit ito sa bawat pagpasok? Bakit nawawala o nagpla-plateau rin ito kada semester? Maaring dahil may bagong liderato. Pero may intrinsikong panghatak ang klasrum. At ito ang aura ng mass production. May direksyon ng transformasyon ang pangunahing komodity na inihahanda ng university--ang estudyante. Kada semestre ay may matutunghayan na magical transformation ang work-in-progress na produktong ito, unti-unti itong nagbabago para mabenta matapos ng produksyon. Nitong nakaraang akademikong taon, may 9,272 estudyante ang grumadweyt, nagkaroon ng pagbabago mula sa mga nene ng una silang tumuntong sa university.

Ang nililikha ng university--o ng anumang institusyon ng edukasyon--ay ang ilusyon ng kalitatibong pagbabago sa pamamagitan ng mga nakatagong proseso. Ang tinutukoy ko rito ay ang pag-aambag ng bawat guro sa paglikha ng prototype ng “skolar ng bayan” kahit pa sa limitadong resources ng university. Unti-unti, nagkakaroon ng pagbabago ang estudyante, kundi man ay napapaniwala tayong may pangako itong matransforma sa malapit na hinaharap. At may mahigpit na mekanismo ang institusyon para tunghayan ito sa mga estudyante. Tignan na lamang ang burukrasya ng Registrar, Disciplinary Tribunal, at Vice-Chancellor for Student Affairs, halimbawa.

Ang kakatwa sa estudyante ay may value-added siya mismong inilalangkap sa proseso. Hindi tulad ng gurong binabayaran, ang estudyante pa (kahit malamang, ang magulang naman talaga) ang nagbabayad para sa posibilidad at realidad ng kanyang transformasyon. Doble ang sangkot sa ritual ng pagpasok ng estudyante--nagbabayad at nagtratrabaho para sa kanyang pagbabago.

At ito naman ang afinidad ng guro sa estudyante. Hindi man siya nagbabayad, siya naman ay nagtratrabaho para sarili nitong transformasyon maging katanggaptanggap na guro ng pangunahing university ng bansa. At may mga institusyonal na alituntunin hinggil sa hiring at firing, tenure, promotion (o ang kawalan nito sa matagal na panahon), at iba pa. Siya man ay naglalangkap ng value-added labor para maging tapat na ahensya ng institusyon.

At kung maunawaan natin ang realidad na ito, maari tayong magsimulang maghanap ng katarungan. Kaya ang siklo ay hindi parating lubos. Ayon nga sa pelikulang Before the Rain, isang Macedonian production, “the circle never completes its cycle.” Kaya ang paratihang ipinapaalaala ng tag-ulan na hindi mauudlot na paratihang pagdating nito ay hindi rin lubos. Mas ipinapaalaala sa atin ng pagpasok ng tag-ulan ang ay pagdama sa ating mortalidad, na ang tag-ulan ay panghabampanahon habang tayo ay naglalakbay lamang. Maligayang muling pagsisimula ng mga klase at buhay natin!

Summer at Ang Pakiramdam ng Wari (Sapantaha Column)

Summer at Ang Pakiramdam ng Wari

Tag-init na, tuyo ang kapaligiran at dulot nito, namumutiktik ang buong katawan ng pawis. Ito ang panahon na nakatayo ka lang ay pinagpapawisan ka na. Ang buong non-ariconditioned area ay tila isang malaking sauna. Sa taunang pagkakataon, may centralized heating ang buong paligid.

Nakakatanaw ka rin ng usok sa horizon sa dulo ng iyong pananaw. Parang gusto mong pumasok sa komersyal ng ice tea o sabong pampaligo. Marami kang gustong gawin para guminhawa ang pakiramdam. Summer na at nasa katingkaran tayo ng pakiramdam ng wari.

Ang ibig sabihin ng “wari” ay pag-iisip, at resulta nito, may pagtingin o bisyon na nakikinita bilang manifestasyon nitong pag-iisip. Ang irony sa wari ay paratihang nasa proseso ng pag-iisip, mahirap kumawala, magdesisyon at umaksyon.

Ang pakiramdam ng wari ay ang pakiramdam na parati na lamang kailangang mag-isip. Halimbawa, ano ang gagawin para labanan ang init? Mag-iisip ka ngayon: maghahalo-halo, manonood ng sine o magpupunta sa beach. Pero ang mangyayari rito ay mas mahaba ang panahon ng pag-iisip ng gagawin kaysa sa aktwal na gagawin. Ang nangyayari, madalas, ay nauudlot ang paggawa ng desisyon.

Hindi na lamang maghahalo-halo dahil mainit sa labas. Hassle din magbiyahe papuntang mall. Malayo pa rin sa Manila ang pinakamalapit na disenteng beach. Nakapaloob na lamang ang indibidwal sa fetisismo ng pasakit sa proseso kaysa sa pagkawala’t paglaya mula rito. Nakasanayan na ang wari, at wari ko, ito na ang normal na kalakaran sa ating predikamento’t buhay sa kasalukuyang panahon.

May pakiramdam ang wari, karaniwa’y pagdurusa’t pasakit. Sa unang banda, hindi naman marami ang may materyal na kapasidad na makaigpaw sa kanilang larangan. May pasok o trabaho, kaya hindi pwedeng mawala at mag-beach. Hindi rin naman pwedeng araw-araw ay laman ka ng mall. Pati ang pagtunganga ay may bayad at magastos.

Sa ikalawang banda, habang nagtatagal, lalong tumitingkad ang kontradiksyon ng kawalan. Ang fantasya ay hindi pwedeng lumaki, ito ay paratihan lamang sinusustena ng iba pang sub-tema ng fantasya. Sa kabataan, malling o outing, kasama ng barkada. Sa matatanda, family picnic o pagbisita sa probinsya.

Ang nangyayari ay paratihang nasa estado ng discomfort at anxiety ang pakiramdam ng wari. Paratihan kang idinidiin at kinukwestyon sa iyong kasalukuyang kinasasadlakan. Ang nangyayari, paratihan mong napapansin ang iyong kakulangan. Kung naniniwala ka kay Freud, sasabihin mong mas malaki ang ari ng iba, at hindi ka masaya rito. Kung ikaw ay may sosyolohikal na pananaw, hindi rin tama na mayroon ang iba at ikaw o ang marami ay salat.

Kung hindi makokontrol--hindi masa-sublimate sa sarili o mapro-project sa iba--puputok itong pag-repress ng pakiramdam ng pakiwari. Kung ang paniniwala ng sikolohista ay mas maraming suicide kapag pasko dahil sa katingkaran ng pambansang kasiyahan at indibidwal na kalungkutan, ang paniniwala ko naman ay mas matingkad ang pag-iisa at isolation kapag summer. Kung salat ka sa materyal na resources, nanasain mo na lamang na magkulong sa bahay, maging lantang gulay sa panonood at pag-surf ng TV.

Lahat ng masagap mong komentaryo sa iyong kondisyon ay reinforcement ng estado. Nasa “I-hate-you, world” mode ka. At maliban na lang kung magpapatiwakal ka, ang iyong kondisyon ang nagiging predikamento ng kasalukuyang estado. Inaapi ka pero wala kang magawa. Gusto kang gawin produktibong mamamayan ng estado. Pero ayaw mo ito dahil ang rekisito ay ang panggitnang uring yaman--na makakapaghatid sa iyo ng kumpyansa sa sarili sa iyong malling at outing--na wala ka naman. Imbis na mag-rally ka sa harap ng Mendiola at ibagsak ang estado, magre-retreat ka na lang sa iyong maliit na sulok ng mundo.

Kung gayon, nasa “semana santa” mode ka naman. Ibig sabihin nito, hinahanap mo ang kasagutan sa iyong kondisyon sa pamamagitan ng pagninilaynilay at pag-iisip: ano ang ginawa kong mali, ano ang tama, bakit ako malungkot, bakit ako walang magagawa, bakit tila nasa gitna ako ng ere? Nangingilin ka, at hinahanap mo sa bukal ng iyong pananampalataya ang kasagutan sa mga katanungan mo sa mundo.

Samakatuwid, hinahanap mo ang imposible. At dahil hindi nakikita ang imposible, paratihan ay nasa pakiramdam ng wari ka na lamang. At walang lusot dito, lalo lamang pinaiigting ang kondisyon ng init ng summer at ng kasalatan ng marami na umagapay dito.

May ginagawa ang estado para ikahon ang pakiramdam ng wari at nang hindi ito pumutok at sumiklab. Naglalabas ito ng sariling mito, mga naratibong pang-agapay sa paglutang kahit pa bumibigat na ang predikamento. At dito’y naalaala ko ang nasagap kong dalawang graduation speeches. Ang una ay kay John Nathan Cruz, graduate ng Kolehiyo ng Arte at Literatura, na nagbigay-diin sa kanyang abang pinagmulang lugar sa Taytay, at pagiging anak ng katulong. Ang ikalawa ay ang commencement speaker, ang Pinoy engineer-scientist sa Silicon Valley, si Diosdado “Dado” Banatao, na nagmula sa pamilya ng magsasaka.

Sa dalawang kaso pa nga’y marami ang napaiyak sa pakikinig. Pag-iyak pa rin ang lagusan ng mismong kondisyon ng pasakit at pighati, tulad ng martyrdom. Ginagawang highly exceptional cases ang dalawa. Tila kung nagpursigi lamang ang mga tao’y maiigpawan nila ang kanilang materyal na kondisyon. Pero hindi ba ang katulad ni Cruz ang dapat lamang na pinapa-graduate ng U.P.? Hindi ba’t tayo ay unibersidad ng masa? O ano naman kaya ang trade-off ng pagkilala kay Banatao bilang exemplar ng Filipino global at IT (information technology) mind sa panahon ng pagguho ng suporta sa humanities at nasyonalismo?

Gayunpaman, hindi nagiging mahalaga ang mga ganitong katanungan. Ang mahalaga ay ang afekto o ang dating na magbibigay-kalinga at kalma sa palpitation at anxious state ng pakiramdam ng wari. Ang mga ganitong mito ang nagpapatuloy ng ating pagdurusa, ang ating bagong sikoanalitikal na relihiyon sa panahon ng matinding transformasyon ng mga bagay at nilalang, maliban na nga ang batayang kondisyon ng pambansang paghihirap.

Happy vegetating sa harap ng ating mga telebisyon! Happy pagpaypay at pagiging bugnutin at mainitin ang ulo sa gitna ng matinding init! Ginagawang happy ang ating mga pasakit at pagdadalamhati.