Of Different Worlds and Different Lives

A woman approaches the front gate. There she stands, a rice cooker in her hands. Share with me some rice, she asks. The woman, or just a girl, has seven children and a husband who cannot fish on account of the storm that keeps him ashore.

Of different worlds and different lives, a family of six or more has nothing to eat again. White rice, salt and oil. Another day goes by. She visits to bring us flowers. We give her bread and butter. That's something at least.

Random Rambling: Office Scenes

Groningen, The Netherlands

Somewhere between 5pm and 7pm cleaning shifts and 9am to 5:30pm day jobs are those individuals who fill and empty trash cans, read and dust books and those that sweep and weep as they make their way through the day. Somewhere between credit card payments and state support, is the thread that links those individuals who come together at the office each day: the janitors and the office staff.

Somewhere between 5pm and 5:30pm two different worlds meet and acknowledge each other’s presence through small talk and numerous exchanges of awkward smiles and gestures. When the office staff and janitors meet during these brief encounters, it sometimes feels like they are all just performing roles in a play wherein reality is a script that nobody thought could be written. It is interesting to say the least.

From this perspective, life seems like a series of scenes consisting of those wearing suits and those wearing rubber gloves that metaphorically resemble the different sectors of the work force and thus the different social layers of society.

The irony is that the common topic of conversation of both actors in this play is the excitement and anticipation of the upcoming vacation. It seems that all everyone just wants to do is move on to the next scene and take a break. Keep on playing I say. Keep on playing, as long as I can play my desired role. I’ll take the 5pm to 7pm shift, but just don’t let me wear those rubber gloves again.

- Scenes & Angles -

(C) Anthony Jake H. Atienza

The Philippines: Sex Tourism and Community Responsibility

An article about an American man residing in Madridejos, Bantayan Island reminded me of how much or how little we often know about our community. The American (Gary Lee Rohn) was arrested in June 2009 for allegedly “intimately touching” children. While this case exemplifies alleged child abuse, the fact is that the Philippines is somewhat of a hub for western, often middle-aged men, who visit the country in quest for Filipina’s (whom are mostly many years their junior). The Filipinas generally seem to be in search for a ticket out of poverty (note that poverty should be broadly defined in terms of economics, education, employment and opportunity). As the case of Gary Lee Rohn and the case of a certain Josef Fritzl from Austria suggest, such visitors to the Philippines (or other South-East Asian nations) can be labeled as sex tourists and can therefore pose a threat to the health of a community.

Article on the American Gary Lee Rohn, resident of Madridejos, Bantayan Island Philippines. - Source: Cebu Daily News

A community’s culture is defined by whatever it does and whatever it thinks. The threat posed by the lingering phenomenon of sex tourists is that people in general grow accustomed to their existence in the community while the opposite should be the case. Reports of abuse are rare. Generally, the Philippines has become a host to a somewhat jaded group of people who allow things, such as sex tourism, to occur. Thus, aside from the threat posed to individuals (the women) who get involved with what are essentially strangers (the sex tourists) it is a threat to a healthy state of mind.

What is the threat?

The women who seemingly are desperate to hook-up with foreign men are blinded by their own desires. Often confined to a situation of poverty, they generally play on their femininity or sexuality in order to attract men, hoping to find one who can provide them with a life of “luxury”. Therefore they place themselves in a potentially harmful position by trusting men who might not be trustworthy (hence the reference to the American and the Austrian). The men seemingly are attracted to women in countries like the Philippines, where desperation is a result of rampant poverty. Their character is satisfied by Filipina’s who feed their need to have a dominant position in relationships and therefore need to be acknowledged as strong, powerful, wise et cetera.

Aside from the bars (found in the cities and in the province) and unofficial red light districts, the increasing availability of the internet in the rural areas of the Philippines has made it a virtual market place for speed dating. Western men find the women by browsing through suggestive profile photos that lead to camera chatting. I was surprised to learn a few years ago (while in an internet café) that Filipinas cam(era)-chat with multiple masturbating men simultaneously. I can only assume that men visit the Philippines as a result of these online “adventures”.

Article on Josef Fritzl from Austria - Source: cnn.com

Social responsibility

The existence of questionable relationships between middle-aged western men and young Filipina’s in (especially rural) communities, often merely raise eyebrows or at least result in often humorous sessions of jokes and gossip amongst locals. This general lackluster response raises many questions of which the following seem to bother me particularly as of late: What do we know and what do we not know about our own community? Do people neglect their responsibilities as a community?

Based on experiences in the province, it has come to my attention that due to many reasons (like poverty in its broadest sense) people allow many unnecessary and unacceptable things to happen. The phenomenon of sex tourists is one. Although, the relationships are generally legal as it is a consensual relationship between two adults, I find that the community has a responsibility to acknowledge their role in influencing one another on a (dare I say it) moral level. Furthermore, there have always been many unreported yet well-known local cases of promiscuous middle-aged men with (alleged) under-aged lovers.

Therefore, the situation can be viewed from two perspectives. The perspectives are from the point of view of the women and the community. With a focus on the women in such relationships, the dangers range from the heightened risks of sexually transmitted diseases, abuse to a general failure to develop as an individual. From the perspective of a community contributing to a community culture, the danger lies in a deeply rooted fundamental problem in the Filipino mind set of passiveness simply by accepting this phenomenon.

To my observation, such phenomenon as exemplified in this piece is a mere result or perhaps a symptom that has been allowed to persist due to negligence and a lack of community participation. The best method to fight such phenomenon is tackling ignorance with education, non-involvement with empowerment and in a span of decades, the best we can hope for is for the Philippine people to eventually take responsibility and no longer lend themselves as a play toy for the outside community and their own neighbors.

NOTE: It is important to understand that there is no clear divide between victim and persecutor. Both the foreign men and the Filipina women can be labeled as such because they part-take in a mutual beneficial and consensual relationship. The responsibility lies with the community to create a voluntary response to wrong-doings in their community. This is the true definition of change.

- Scenes & Angles -

(C) Anthony Jake H. Atienza

Random Rambling: On Closure and New Beginnings

It is mid December and I’m unsure whether winter has started officially or not. In any case, the seasonal change has long started and despite the snow and frost that has visited and now seemingly left us-for now- the Christmas jingles ever so present on the radio need not remind me of the fact. Yes, the leaves are still barely hanging on the branches, no we cannot walk on ice yet, but it is approaching. With the coming of winter comes the reminder that the year is drawing to an end. As the year draws to an end, I am still looking for closure and trying to comprehend that my return to the Netherlands signifies a new beginning.

As I make my way through daily life and try to create a new life consisting of my study, work and friendships, I start to think of the life that I have left behind in the Philippines. Yes, granted, the new digital age has allowed all of us to keep in touch on a daily basis with those on the other side of the world and those living in a different world. Yet, I cannot help but ask myself if new beginnings necessarily entail the end of a part of one’s former life? Are we giving up, losing or simply putting a part of ourselves and relations with people into hibernation?

This leads me to the question I pose to all of us as rational thinking individuals but also as persons living in the ultimate age of the inescapable machine of consumerism wherein everything is available at all times and simultaneously. Do we expect to have everything? Do we no longer believe in compromise for we believe in having it all or have we just fooled ourselves into believing in the impossible; long distance relationships and maintaining existing lives while abroad? Perhaps even more striking is that because of our perception that we can have everything, we can tend to hold the false assumption that things and people are replaceable but they are definitely not replaceable.  

When I am asked about religion, my standard response is explaining that I’m a non-practicing Roman Catholic who believes that there is so much more logic in the cycle of nature than in a book that nobody seems to be able to decipher accordingly. If one looks at the cycle of nature, it offers so many answers. Yes seasons change, winter entails the “hibernation” of trees but it makes way for a new flock of birds. It is the closure of a seasonal cycle but it is the start of a new one. In a few months time, the trees will return to their state of green with even greater glory and the sun will shed new light on things unappreciated afore. Perhaps the key issue is the importance of patience. Maybe, yes we have to give-up, give-in, compromise, but maybe patience will allow us to make informed decisions and patience will prove that we can be all-round consumers but things we consider valuable will remain even if we have to leave it behind- be it for a few semesters or a few seasons.

I do not know the answers to all the questions posed in this piece but I will get back to these questions and topics. Know that sometimes the awareness of the mentioned is momentarily enough and it will initiate a discussion within yourself and perhaps if you’re lucky, a discussion with your community.

- Scenes & Angles -

(C) Anthony Jake H. Atienza

Dawn Scene

It was sunrise. The sky turned a light color blue with traces of orange seeping into its vastness. A woman sits at an airplane window. As I looked through her thick glasses, I wondered if she saw what I saw – a world of beauty, a world of opportunities, the future.

A woman from Cebu city sits next to her American husband. Her hand slipped upon his. His hand is wrinkled and dry. Hers tell stories of places and people, travels and memories. Things forgotten, things remembered. She had always longed for foreign flesh and the day that she got something old, something new and something blue was the day that she left her country behind. He did not love her and that feeling was mutual. Theirs was a mutual beneficial relationship, almost business –like. He needed a woman who did not ask, did not challenge and followed him in his late night drinking sessions. He needed her to follow his every step which she did. Like a shadow she walked by him. Her children were white skinned. Vastly different from her own skin which she religiously bathed and painted a color white – with no avail. Life was comfortable, for her husband offered more financial stability than she ever could dream of. Her children went to decent schools and her house looked like those in magazines she used to see in shop windows and on telenovela’s.

Yet at every sunrise, every color and every cloud floating by reminded her of the laughter echoing through her old neighborhood in her hometown back in the Philippines. That morning when I looked at her from afar must have been no different. She could see nothing but her past.

- Scenes & Angles -

(C) Anthony Jake Huiskamp Atienza

Graves without Names

His nickname was Momords or Marcial. He got old and sick. He died. He got buried. This was last year, yet until now his grave has not been painted. As I walk around a local cemetery, I notice that it’s divided into “districts”. Among the many graves I notice that many have no names – no identity.

On his grave there is no name, no date of birth and no date of death. The only hint at his existence is his nickname, Marcial, which was written and spelled incorrectly in the cement with a stick. Decades ago he worked as a driver for my parent’s company. During his last years he lived in my family’s compound until he moved out because of personal differences. I have no idea where his family and friends are or if they are still alive.

A grave can be seen as a final resting place – a final tribute to a person. Though it’s more important to take care of a person whilst alive, I see it as a sign of respect to take care of matters once someone has passed away. The emphasis therefore lies in the fact that an untaken care of grave makes it seem as if that person never existed and it seems that it won’t take long before that person is forgotten. It makes me think about legacies and life after death - literally.

Marcial’s case is not uncommon. The cemetery is divided into “districts”. Regular graves are a contrast among big elaborate structures (much like the contrast between “classes” in the Philippines). Walking around the cemetery I see more of the same graves. The unfinished and unpainted graves scattered throughout the cemetery are mere traces of people who once had a life. The contrast in the size of graves is not a manifestation of these people’s character or importance. It’s a mere manifestation of possible negligence within society due to social circumstances particular to a person. Some people’s spirits are kept alive through stories while others are truly forgotten. All these people once walked the streets and had conversations. They once worked odd jobs. They were once hardworking or passive, once careless or caring, once happy or unhappy.

As I look and see the many unnamed graves’ I think that at the end of some people’s lives for one reason or another they are left alone and they make a lonesome exit. It is a mere observation. Let us not forget those who live amongst us in the present and in the future when they pass away.

- Scenes & Angles -

(C) Anthony Jake Huiskamp Atienza