happiness becomes me

The book is about understanding myself, being able to forgive myself, being able to laugh at myself and being successful. The first three have been discussed according to natural laws. These laws make me understand and better deal with my own nature. I am able to understand that I may have good points, but I have shortcomings too. This is not just about schooling wherein I get nice grades for studying hard for some subjects while moderate for some. I understand myself in that I try to become a good child to my parents, but fall short sometimes. I realize that I’m an imperfect human, but I can always try to lessen the imperfection. For this, I learn to forgive myself. With this forgiveness comes the desire to continue to lessen imperfection in my school and family dealings. It is a difficult task, especially because no one achieves perfection. It cannot make me unhappy, nevertheless. In fact, I also learn to laugh at myself. Being able to do that makes the situation lighter. I am not made to feel pressured about becoming a perfect student or a perfect child. I laugh at the fact that I just don’t give up on myself. I become happy that I fall short on perfection, but get up to continue the course. Not everyone has the courage to do that. Others may run away, whereas I go on. I credit this for whatever success I have attained so far. I am successful at the formula of trying, for one. I am positive that my next attempts to be a better student and person will yield positive results. It is far from perfect, but self-encouragement is not bad. I even consider it a taste of success to have the heart despite initially losing.
The book is important for the chapters that give insights about myself and my abilities. The first chapter deals with my self-image. It tells that the better I treat myself, the better will others treat me. The next deals with my happiness, depression and humor. It tells that whether I am happy or I am sad, it is laughter that gives my best medicine. The third chapter deals with my thoughts, words and thanksgiving. It tells that my imagination is more essential than knowledge. What I think of, using the power of words, can transform my immediate environment of friends and family. The next deals with my capacity to take risks, to set goals and to commit. It tells that I get what I deserve. If I learn to face my problems, I may find out their solution. If I do not, solutions may not appear clear at all. My set goals and commitment to attain them show that I am taking a step forward toward perfection. My attempt in itself is rewarded because I get repaid through my improved self-encouragement. The fifth chapter deals with nature, learning and changes. It tells that my activity will shield me from getting the biggest pain. I do not suffer in misery because I move on without dwelling on my setbacks. The next deals with the point of my beginning. It tells that what I do, act and am today influence the person I will become in the future.
All these insights are important because right now, I am in the midst of a personal formation. I am still young and many people and ideas shape me into adulthood. These insights give me a chance to see myself and my capacities at a better angle. The things I learn and can do to myself and my surroundings contribute to my attempt at perfection. The effort to maintain a study habit, the effort to respect my family, the bravery despite problems—all these mold me into less imperfection. As a result, I do not become completely flawless. However, I understand myself better, I remain happy despite shortcomings, I gain little successes. Maybe this is even better than perfection, which may create boredom.
All these insights may be used in my student life, personal life and professional life in various ways. As a student, I always gather knowledge in school. For me, I should be able to apply this knowledge. There is no use at being able to memorize the theories without application. Hence, good grades or not, I should be happy to learn. In my personal life, I should create a positive self-image. My current abilities like befriending others and staying positive make me feel good about myself. I love myself, and that is why others get to love me too. Continuing this good self-image helps me achieve les imperfection. In my professional life, I must be able to take risks. This is especially true to businesses which I hope to find myself soon. Risking in the belief that I will eventually get repaid helps me to have less fear. It also brings out my faith in being able to deliver. This self-trust will help me attain professional maturity.
Now is the perfect time to be happy about everything that becomes me. It is not yet too late because I realized this while still young and learning. I may be able to apply the insights I learned in any place, from home to school. After all, happiness exists in believers’ imagination.

dakilang tanga: isang reaksyon sa "apologia"

Sa palagay ko, uso pa ang pilosopiya ni Socrates dalawang milenyo makaraan niyang pormal na ipagtanggol ang kanyang paniniwala laban sa akusasyon sa kanyang pangungurakot umano ng kabataan, kawalan ng pananampalataya sa mga diyos ng estado at paglikha ng mga bagong diyoses. Bakit hindi, gayong inamin niya ang pagiging Dakilang Tanga? Dakila siya sapagkat siya mismo—itinuturing na pinakamarunong na tao ayon sa pasabi ng diyoses sa Orakulo—ang nagkaroon ng lakas ng loob na amining wala siyang alam. May malakas kaya ang loob sa sangkatauhan ngayon na makapagyayabang na alam niya ang lahat? Uso pa rin ang Dakilang Tanga sapagkat ang taong makakaaming tanga siya ang totoong may alam: alam niyang wala siyang alam. Marami na ngayong taong nagyayabang na marami silang nalalaman, porke umani na sila ng sangkatutak na gradwadong digri, o nakatuntong sa pamantasan at iba pang institusyong pandalubhasaan. Kung nabubuhay marahil si Socrates, magagaya sa mga humusga sa kanya ang mga taong nagmamarunong dahil sasabihin niya sa mga ito na wala siyang alam hanggang mapahiya sila sa kanilang sarili dahil mismong ang pinakamatalinong taong nabuhay sa mundo ang aaming wala siyang alam. Mapapamukhaan sila ng pagiging Dakilang Tanga ni Socrates dahil matatauhan silang Diyos lamang ang nagmamay-ari ng kaalaman, ng Meron, ang siyang Meron. Matatauhan silang anumang pagmemeron ang mga taong ito, proportio o bahagi lamang ng hindi naman nababawasang Meron. Kaya nga hindi maluluma ang klasikong kabalintunaan ng pagka-Dakilang Tanga ni Socrates: sa lahat ng panahon, noon man at ngayon, pinakamatalinong tao ang aminado sa sariling wala siyang alam.
Makabuluhan pa sa ngayon ang paniniwalang habang nagkakaroon ng kaalaman, lalo lamang lumilitaw ang kawalang-kaalaman. Sa panahon ng impormasyon ngayon, maya’t maya ang pagkatuklas sa mga bagong kaalaman. Lahat ng disiplina, masugid na sinusuyod upang makatuklas o makaimbento ng dati’y hindi nalalamang kaalaman. Kung gayon, kung lagi at lagi na ay may natutuklasan o naiimbento, hindi pa nalalaman ang lahat ng kaalaman. Kahit aralin pa ng pinakaaral na tao ang lahat ng matutuklasang kaalaman, mamamatay siyang may hindi pa malalaman. Ayon nga sa pilosopiya, walang sinumang nagmemeron ang lubusang makakaalam sa Meron. Malalapitan lamang sa pinakamalapit na lapit ang Meron, ngunit hindi tuluyang maaabot ang Meron. Kaya nga tama lang na aminin nang buong pagpapakumbaba ni Socrates na wala siyang alam. Dahil dito, marapat sa kanya ang taguring Dakilang Tanga. Makabuluhan ang pag-aming ito ng katunggakan dahil kung lahat ng nagmemeron ay aaming tanga rin sila, may pagkakataon silang lumago ang kaalaman dahil pangangailangan nila ang umalam. Samantala, sa pagkakataong atakehin sila ng katamaran sa pamimilosopiya sa pag-amin nilang tanga sila, hindi na sila magsusumikap na magkaroon ng kaalaman. Kung gayon, mas makabuluhan kung ang katangahang ito ang maggaganyak sa kanila para tuklasin ang mga bagong kaalaman. Sa pag-aming tanga sila, nagkakaroon sila ng kababaang-loob na ituring na hindi makatao kundi maka-Diyos ang kaalaman, na sila ay humihiram lamang ng kaunting karunungan sa Diyos at hindi sila mas magagaling pa kaysa sa Diyos. Makabuluhan din ang pag-aming dakilang tanga ang mga tao dahil katamaran ang sabihing marami na silang alam, dahil mitsa ito ng pagkawala ng interes para umalam pa ng mga kaalamang hindi pa natutuklasan malibang halungkatin sa kadiliman ng kawalang-alam. Kung titigil na sa paggalugad ng kaalaman ng tao, mawawalan ng saysay ang kaalamang ipinagmemeron sa tao ng Diyos. Kaya nga makabuluhan ang umaming tunggak ang tao para huwag huminto sa pagtuklas at pag-imbento ng karunungan para sa dakilang misyong mamilosopiya at magpaliwanag sa ibang nadidiliman ang pag-iisip (halimbawa ang matindi ang paniniwalang napakamaalam na nila). Para sa mga taong may sinserong pagtanggap na ignorante sila, makabuluhan ang katotohanang anumang karunungan meron sila ay bumubukal sa kaalaman nilang wala silang nalalaman.

controlling happiness

Being Happy discusses my responsibility for my own happiness. I can claim to be made happy by family, friends, or some inspiration. However, it is all up to me in the end. Even at depressing times, an opportunity at my happiness can emerge. Being responsible for my own happiness is being freed from the possible sadness coming from depression. Thus, I can be happy and feel happier. It all depends on my positive thinking. The inspirational quotes, real-life stories and practical methods in the book lead me to the direction of optimism. This, ultimately, brings me to my happiness.
The book is important for describing things toward happiness in a funny twist. For example, it suggests why I smear my best dress with spaghetti Bolognese. Why can’t it be my less favored shirts? It happens, of course. However, it makes no sense to spend my whole time blasting the spaghetti for losing the chance to wear again my favorite dress. It makes more sense to move on after the ugly Bolognese episode. Also, it suggests why bills arrive all at once. Why can’t it be alternately? It happens. However, it makes no sense praying that bills come at reasonable days apart. Since they cannot come one long after the other, it makes more sense to plan and to try to realize this plan. Also, it suggests why traffic lights stay red for half a day when I’m rushing to get to an appointment. Why can’t I rule time? It makes no sense asking that question in the first place. As far as time is concerned, ruling time lies in my own capacity for management. Lastly, it suggests why old cars do not get scratched for many years while the brand new one gets dented after two days. Why can’t it be the other car around? Of course, it happens, However, it makes no sense to dwell on the misery way too long. It makes more sense to live after disaster. Often, it depends on my capacity to accept and to stay optimistic that happiness comes. I can remain miserable, but it feels better to be happy.
This is the insight that the book suggests: that these painful things happen to make room for growth. The difference appears when I let go of anger and frustration. I can hang on to my pain and hate the world for my stained dress. I can hate the world for the arriving bills, even as my parents will pay for them (and will scold me for them). I can hate the world for the traffic jam. I can hate the world for the scratched car. All these pains, however, cannot be escaped from. Hence, it becomes my choice to be miserable out of these pains. Thinking positively, it becomes my choice too to heal myself after letting out my frustration after 5 seconds. Instead of me, it’s the misery that grows. I cannot allow that. I will make up for the lost time by letting me control the situation. This way, I can be happy.
My academic life, personal life and future life as a professional can benefit from this insight. These phases can be an area for low points or high points in my life. I can make a rash decision at school and regret it later. Say, I can skip classes to make way for my more difficult subjects. However, thatwill just have me catching up on the subject the next time I attend the class. My difficulty becomes more complicated, then. I can choose to burden myself with more hardships, or to consider time management. Of course, I want the easier way out. Say, I can spend all my energy thinking how not to be in speaking terms with my parents who scolded me over bills. That complicates things, since I’m responsible for the bills, to begin with. I would rather not risk personal relations for something out of my own doing. Say, I can wonder why my work is not as fulfilling as I wish it should. Business is not as exciting, and clients are not as many as expected. This can happen if today, I will not erase negative thoughts. It helps to be positive in my dealings today so that it becomes less difficult when I’m conducting real-world dealings inthe future. Few clients and sleepy business are realities, but I can choose to look at these positively. I can see these as challenges to my capacity to improve on client relations and business management. I would rather be happy today so this can be reflected in my future profession. Some people seem to be in the right place at the right time. I learned that I can be one of these people.
This right time is today because every moment is a chance to choose happiness or misery. This right place is any place where I choose between feeling defective or being in control of myself and of events in my life. I choose to be happy and in control.

sa lilim ng maliwanag na buwan: isang pagsusuri sa “the world of the moon” ni gregorio brillantes

Mahalaga ang papel na ginampanan ng buwan sa kuwentong binyag-sa-kamalayang “The World of the Moon” ni Gregorio Brillantes (Nasa Gems 1 in Philippine Literature. Corazon Balarbar, et al, mga patnugot. Mandaluyong: National, 1989). Nagamit ang buwan bilang pampatingkad ng atmospera at tagpuan sa kuwento. Tumalab din ang buwan bilang simbolo sa istorya at makahulugan ito sa naratibo ng pagkapukaw ng malay ng binatilyong si Boy, ang protagonista.
Pamanahong tagpuan ng kuwento ang “gabing kabilugan ng buwan [full moon night]” (p.121). Mula sa pagbanggit na ito ng buwan, paulit-ulit na itong lumitaw sa kabuuan ng kuwento bilang pagkilala sa buwan na lehitimong kasama sa takbo ng naratibo. Ipinakita itong pumapaimbulog sa kalangitan, sinasabuyan ng liwanag ang acacia, naging mala-taong presensya sa paligid ni Boy, at piping saksi sa mga pangyayari ng pagbibinyag sa bida. Sa paggamit sa buwan bilang background ng mga pangyayari, malinaw na simboliko ito sa pagkadiskubre ni Boy sa kanyang tumatandang sarili at badya ng kanyang nagaganap na pagka-mama at pagdagdag ng kaalaman niya sa buhay ang unti-unting pag-akyat at pagtindi ng sinag ng buwan.
Mabisa ang buwan bilang simbolo sa kuwento. Sa wikang Latin, “luna” ang ibig ipahiwatig ng buwan, kaya ang taong lunatiko ay pinaniniwalang nawawala sa tamang pag-iisip sabay sa pagbabagu-bago ng hugis ng buwan. Sinusuportahan ito ng siyentipikong teoryang hinihila ng grabidad ng bilug na bilog na buwan ang mga tubig ng mundo pati na tubig sa katawan ng tao, dahilan kung bakit naapektuhan ang lohika ng ilang tao at ebidensya umano nito ang mataas na insidente ng pagpapatiwakal tuwing kabilugan ng buwan. Sa kuwento, ginamit ng ahente ng gamot sa matatakuting empleyado ng munisipyo ang banyagang idyomang “naapektuhan na ng buwan ang ulo mo [the moon’s got you in the head]” (p.121) upang ilarawan ang inasta nitong kawalang-katinuan kung sakaling maubusan ng gasolina ang sasakyan nila sa madilim na kahabaan ng lansangan, nagpapahiwatig marahil ng pagkatakot nito sa multo o mga masasamang elemento.
Subalit ang pagkawala sa katinuan o pagiging lunatiko ay simbolikong naipakita ng pangunahing tauhan. Bata ang kanyang sarili, at nawawala na siya sa sariling ito dahil nagbibinata na siya. Nabibinyagan na siya sa tinatahak na bagong mundo, at sanhi ng panggitnang kalagayan ng kanyang pagkatao, wala siya sa lohika ng kabataan niya o ng katandaan niya. Sa mga bahaging tila ba tao ang buwan at magkasama tanging ang buwan at siya at ang espasyo sa pagitan nila “[there was only the moon and himself and the space between them]” (p.124), masasabing labas-sa-katawang karanasan ito ni Boy. Nagbibigay ng epektong delusyonal ang liwanag ng buwan, sapat para tila wala sa tamang huwisyong “hindi niya maalala ang eksaktong lugar ng puntod ng ama…saang daan ang hilaga, saan ang timog [he could not recall the exact location of his father’s grave…(w)hich way was north, where was the south]” (p.125).
Artipisyal ang liwanag na galing sa buwan dahil isang makaagham na katotohanan ang panghihiram nito ng liwanag sa araw. Samakatuwid, hindi tunay na makapagpapaliwanag ang anumang sikat ng buwan. Hindi akmang asahan ni Boy ang sikat ng buwan para siya maliwanagan sa mga bagay-bagay na nangyayari sa kanya. Matingkad itong nailarawan sa eksenang nasa sementeryo siya ngunit “nawalan ng dunong sa direksyon [lost his sense of direction]” (p.125) kahit matindi ang sinag ng buwan, at inatake siya ng lunatiko (!) nang istorbohin ng pagdating nila ang pananahimik nito sa mga nitso. Unang beses niyang makaranas ng ganitong uri ng dahas, at hindi niya lubusang naiintindihan ang inisasyong ito kahit pa nakatakda na siyang tumanda, kaya deliryoso at sindak na sindak siyang kumaripas papauwi ng bahay niya. Walang silbi ang simbolikong sikat (ng buwan) dahil hindi ito sapat para maliwanagan ang nasa transisyong si Boy.
Makahulugan ang buwan sa naratibo ng pagkamulat sa kamalayan ng pangunahing tauhan. Kinatawan ng pagkilos ng buwan ang pagbabagong-bihis ni Boy. Sa umpisa, binigyang-diing “pumapaimbulog ang buwan sa ibabaw ng mga bahay, namumurok at naninilaw sa batang gabi [the moon was rising above the houses, swollen and yellow in the young evening]” (p.121). Ilang sandali pa, “lumutang ang…buwan sa silangan, sa ibabaw ng bayan [(t)he…moon floated in the east, over the town]” (p.122), hanggang “nangislap ang malinis na liwanag ng buwan sa bayan sa ibaba [the clean moonlight gleamed down upon the town]” (p.124) at sa wakas, “naabot na ng buwan ang karurukan ngayon sa itaas ng bahayan [(t)he moon had now risen well above the houses]” (p.123). Masasaksihan sa ganito ring pagkagising si Boy “dahil masyado pa siyang musmos [(b)ecause he was too young]” (p.121) ngunit sa kanyang pagbibinata “ngayong panahon ito, nararamdaman niya minsang nasa labas siya ng mga bagay-bagay, walang kinabibilangan, naghihintay [this season, he felt sometimes outside the boundary of things, belonging nowhere, waiting]” (p.121) na lumaki upang maging ganap na mama o tao. Hindi lamang aksidente ang pagpangalan sa karakter bilang Boy (dagdag pang tanging sa Pilipinas makakakita ng mga mama na ngunit tinatawag sa pangalang pambatang Boy, o ng mga aleng may taguring Baby Girl o Girlie) dahil idinidiing bata pa siya, kaya walang malay. Sapagkat bata pa nga, mangmang pa siya sa maraming impormasyon kaya nasasabik siya sa pagdating ng nasa siyudad na kuya “para ibahagi nito ang kanyang nakamamanghang kaalaman sa kanya [(to share) his wondrous knowledge with him]” (p.122) gaya ng mga impormasyong ang kabundukan sa buwan ay mas matataas kaysa anumang taluktok sa mundo, ang mga sangkap ng mundo at buwan ay magkapareho, at isang mukha lamang ng buwan ang nakikita mula sa daigdig ng tao.
Sa eksenang napag-isa sina Boy at ang ahente ng gamot matapos makipag-usap ang huli sa mga kapwa nangungupahan sa bahay ng Nanay ng una, napansin ng ahenteng lumaki na siya at “sa tulin ng kanyang pagtangkad, magmamadali na siyang makipagsayawan sa mga dalaga [(a)t the rate (he’s) shooting up, (he’ll) soon be itching to go dancing with the girls]” (p.122-123). Makaraan pa, nang nagmamaktol ang kanyang ate sa hindi pagpayag ng ina nilang pumunta ito sa sayawan, hindi niya naiintindihan “kung ano ba ang napakaespesyal sa isang sayawan [(w)hat was so special about a dance]” (p.123). Magkagayunman, para sa nagbibinatang gaya niya, “may kalabuang nagugulumihanan at naaawa siya [he was vaguely troubled and sorry]” (p.123) para sa dalagang kapatid na sa dulo ng kuwento ay tumalilis—sa ngalan ng pag-ibig marahil—kapiling ang isang lalaki (p.127). Napupukaw na ang kanyang kamalayan tungkol sa mundo ng mga matatanda.
Matapos makipaglaro sa plasa at maligo sa batis kasama ang kapwa niya binatilyong sina Lito at Ben, naengganyo siyang pumunta sa isang simbolikong lugar para sa walang-balikan, sa sementeryo, kahit sa una ay bantulot siya at tawaging “lunatiko [crazy]” (p.125) sina Ben at Lito sa balak na kausapin ang multong makakatagpo nila. Sa halip makakita ng multo—isang entity na hindi maipaliwanag ng lohika—isang nilalang ang “humambalos sa kanyang likod at nagpagupo sa kanya sa lupa [slammed against his back and hurled him to the ground]” (p.126). Pinilipit ang kanyang kamay ng nilalang na “ang mukha ay madilim, lihim at tago sa anino ng mausoleo [the face dark, secret and unknown in the mausoleum shadow]” (p.126) at “nangamba para sa panghuling kilabot, ang pinal na dahas [tensed for the ultimate horror, the final violence]” (p.126). Sa krusyal na mga sandaling ito, dumadaan na si Boy sa ritwal ng paglalayag mula sa kabataan tungo sa katandaan bunga ng inisasyon sa dahas, sa pagkabilang, sa matinding takot at sa iba pang mga bagay na sa unang pagkakataon, dinaranas niya.
Naging makatarungan ang presensya ng buwan sa naratibo bilang integral na bahagi ng binyag-sa-kamalayan ng protagonista. Maraming pangyayari ang maaaring magawa sa lilim ng pekeng liwanag nito—ang pagtakas ng kanyang ate, halimbawa, o ang (kawalan ng) pagkaalam sa mga direksyon, o ang batang kasidhian na nadarama niya habang papalaki siya. Tugmang-tugma ang pagkilos ng buwan at ang sinisimbolo nitong impluwensiya ng kawalang-katinuan sa pinagdaraanan ng nagbibinatang tauhan. Kumbensyunal na karunungan ang gamit ng liwanag para magpaliwanag, ngunit sa pagkakataong ito, hinamon ng naratibo ang kakayanan ng liwanag ng buwan para patunayan ang liwanag nito.

subverting spring’s silence: a response to rachel carson’s “the obligation to endure”

Rachel Carson’s “The Obligation to Endure” is an early testament that science has taken over superstition as the New Age’s superstition. This postmodern essay has shown the ugly head of science as not necessarily the answer to everything humankind needs, as is claimed by modernism. The very fact that pesticides and other products of science wreak havoc more than the insects they are supposed to kill attests to the dangers human faith in science has rendered for believing that modernity can address practically all the problems plaguing the world. Meanwhile, institutions with naked interests to protect have slammed Carson for what might be considered the first bleep of ecofeminism in her time, all in defense of science and modernism, with impassioned responses mentioned in the critique “’Silence, Miss Carson!’ Science, Gender, and the Reception of ‘Silent Spring.’” Said critique, though not as sharp-clawed as Carlson’s in its supposed attempt to present a neutral picture of the raging debate on the opposite sides of science, is nonetheless sympathetic of and appears more critically oriented than the argument of the late marine biologist.
Highly rhetorical and moving in its urgency, Carlson’s deliberate discourse on “The Obligation to Endure” is a persuasion for the concerned to alter their view regarding a pressing issue before—the poisoning of nature with chemicals—which continues to create a bigger repercussion in the contemporary times. Banking mainly on showing the boon and the bane of the practices of chemical use, Carlson attempts to convince that these unnatural practices cause destruction to the society, and her alternative practice of eliminating pesticides and of implied resorting to organic farming promote a healthier community. Expectedly, Carlson received tremendous flogging from pro-pesticides critics as she was bestowed praises and support by anti-inorganic advocates.
While her essay on the chemical intoxication of the earth got roundly dismissed as sentimental, amateurish, antimodern and other character-assaulting adjectives, it cannot be discounted that most of those who dissented Carlson’s position composed the very institutions being circumvented by the female scientist—the male-dominated scientific community, the progress-inclined popular press and the chemical companies with economic stakes to secure. It is understandable then that they are in defense of themselves against a prototype of a “wild woman.” By virtue of this, these modern-spawned institutions lambaste Carlson just because she is female, postmodern and, consciously or unconsciously, anti-capitalist. As one browses over “The Obligation to Endure,” one may not fail to have goose bumps what with the terrible consequences to the living those lethal chemical products wield, to be squeamish of the thought of mutated insects dominating the earth and to self-flagellate out of regret for having to depend on a scientific breakthrough that is not bound to salvage man, anyway. It is lamentable that the quest to improve life through modernity only shortens the lifespan being attempted to prolong in the first place, and even more lamentable that this quest is being futilely pursued by man himself. For having “acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world,” man has exacerbated his already-endangered condition by infiltrating the whole earth with chemicals that are unnaturally spawned out of his laboratory. It is frightening to think that the doomsday scenario Carlson’s essay elicits in the concerned mind is really nigh, taking into the light the speed by which the chemical poison operates and the “essential ingredient” time ticking into exhaustion long before anything can be done because it is way too late.
When Carlson noted the disparate pace of man with that of the more patient nature in situations such as the pursuit for better living, her critics invoked the instant benefits of scientific wonders at the expense of the risks being posed by “man’s tampering with the atom,” or the “endless stream” of novel chemicals produced in the laboratories. It is irreparably heartbreaking to approximate progress but to slay the means—nature—by which this progress is harnessed. It really does not help to kill all insects when only a few of them threaten to upset a bountiful food production. Spiders, for instance, indirectly assist farmers in eradicating harmful insects by web-trapping and feeding on them. With the indiscriminate use of pesticides, even those that are deemed farmer-friendly become casualties to such a horrible crime against nature. In an effort to silence Carlson with her human-threatening revelations, her critics hail science as the ultimate refuge to have in these modern times gone wrong. This, it must be considered, is too naïve given the truth that science cannot oversimplify everything, especially when the risks man is exposed to are to be counted. While the ideology prevailing upon the world has science as the enlightener, an agent of progress, the truth is that problems deemed answerable by science still persist, and, as in the case of pesticides, these have not only annihilated pests but also decimated harmless animals and insects. It is not unthinkable that what Carlson and her followers perceived before is graver today inasmuch as these chemicals have affected humans, too.
The ecofeminism manifested in Carlson’s essay makes for an interesting subject of debate in ideological state apparatuses like the scientific society. Given that this community is male-dominated, Carlson may find herself being oppressed just because her gender is female. The boldness of her writing lashed raw nerves of the patriarchy; since science is almost always associated with the masculine and the Western hegemony is so largely androcentric as to engender non-female-related disciplines, Carlson’s femininity is punched at the core by branding her controversial work as emotional, unbalanced and irrational. This action, then, is a double take on women at-large and Mother Nature, both being ravaged heedlessly by the macho consciousness. However, by merely defying the scientific institution, she is one with Mother Nature in defense of womanhood by counteracting the critics’ label of her as a non-feminist, likened to Mother Nature’s unleashing of ire with recurrent physical disasters to punish man’s misdeeds. Like a dexterous driver well heeled at her car, Carlson proves the scientist that she is by presenting the side effects chemical substances will potentially yield with their continued use in the farms, bringing the after-effects to insects at-large and, ultimately, the end-user of the farm products: man.
In a bid to discredit Carlson with her monumental critique on man’s blunder of exposing the whole populace to intoxication, the manufacturers of the pesticides questioned by Carlson issued unfair reviews of her work, going to the proportions of silencing her on a subject she does not know whereof she speaks. This bullying is nothing but an arrogant patriarchal attitude knowing for a fact that it is easy to dismiss her and her organic fellows as primitive idiots not cognizant of respected scientists in support of pesticides and of the end-all and be-all of applied science. They would not hear of her because she is a woman generally schooled in the soft science biology, and her anti-insecticide warning is not to be taken seriously for as long as many opportunities are harnessed from the use of technology. For them, the end justifies the means, so what little poison is threatening if the farm produce will be bountiful? If indeed the chemicals were to be investigated of their effects on the bio-system, then the capitalists’ take at surpluses will be jeopardized because their products will be found to be of high-risk to living things. Obviously, her readers will not have any of these capitalists’ self-serving motives rendered at the expense of their well-being. They wrote letters to the editors denouncing chemical industry’s malpractice, questioning the biases against Carlson’s work or openly backing up Carlson in her organic mission.
It is true that “the chemical war is never won, and all life is caught in its violent crossfire,” but Carlson’s critics are unapologetic in their portrayal of her as a a non-scientist, a sentimentalist. Their attempt to put the woman down was prevalent in the public relations industry of the affected chemical manufacturers. Threats of libel, negative book reviews, parodies and antagonistic reception do not dampen the spirit of ecofeminists’ precursor that is Carlson. As the secondary text will attest, the negative reviews got counteractions from those who rally behind Carlson’s cause, and while the widely-criticized reception of Silent Spring—from the gleeful “See, there were plenty of birds this spring” rejoinders to the television advertisement portraying a lab gown-wearing man showing remorse for not using pesticides—tried to degrade the woman’s person instead of wholly censuring her errors in reasoning, the fact is, people today are more or less conscious of the present detrimental condition of the earth, and, as an active response to this plight, environmental-friendly drives are heightened in order to save what may be left to be enjoyed by today’s and the generation hence. The environmental cause that was championed by Carlson has gained considerable ground, then, and the world has more reasons to regain bliss.
It is indeed unbecoming of man to take control of nature inasmuch as this has ripped off the partnership that is supposed to be kindled between the two of them. For one, nature provides everything necessitated by the whole of humanity, but man is only too grateful to recompense nature by disturbing its balance. To cite Carlson, man has come up with chemical sprays purpoted to kill insects but the aim has widened to cover all other living things. In effect, humans get destroyed with the insects. Moreover, the very insects being targetted, if they ever endure the pesticides, go on to become stronger and “in numbers greater than before.” Science, therefore, cannot be trusted with regarding these misfires because instead of alleviating the situation, the products with which the situation gets mitigated are themselves the cause of faster destruction. The call for science handlers to bring about the best possible outcome for humanity’s progress has not stopped because ecologists get trained continuously but their wisdom get ignored. It is best to take heed of them since their studies are directed for the society’s welfare. The prime interest for their environmental address is to offer the greater good for life and not to compromise this life for the greater good of the chemical products that are slowly but surely killing the world.
Carlson’s proposition to abandon the use of pesticides will inevitably bring humanity back to organic farming, which means that unaided by science, farmers will find it rather difficult to work in farms if only to contribute in making the world a safer place. Critics feared that the consumers will be reduced into eating acorns or that the atmosphere will be replete with the overcrowding of flying or many-legged pests feeding on the fields, but this is ultimately better than sowing food that upset man’s welfare. While critics point out to the futility of having modern civilization and enjoying organic food at the same time, Carlson only appealed for science handlers to improve on their chemical sprays—for these not to be fatal to the living, and for life to abound. The world cannot consider science to be a redemption if its own existence will be sacrificed. This agrees with the point of Carlson to change people’s perception from being an ecological threat to being earth-friendly.
While Carlson must have overlooked the benefits humanity gets with the use of somewhat-helpful chemicals, enough for her to propose that they are unfit for farm consumption, she must have borne in mind that the concept of capitalism has time and again abused the virtual powerlessness of the consumers. The chemical manufacturers must have neglected to produce safe chemicals—unnatural they may be—seeing more the financial benefits of undertaking chemical ventures than the need to be environmentally responsible. Instead of loosening the grasp on the production surpluses and minding their share in providing a risk-free world upon the prodding of Carlson’s rally, they guiltlessly attacked through their paid hacks the arguments of Carlson, even assassinate her character, so as to maintain their corporate image and keep credulous customers at hand. Nevertheless, by refusing to admit the scientific mistake of the ecological hazards of using chemical sprays, these companies manifested their panic over scaring consumers away with defending their corporate interests and painting a gloomy scenario wherein humans will revert to savagery and barbarism with pesticides at bay. The world has been fueled by anxiety, and as people begin to doubt the potency of science, they also unmask the evil motives of corporations in bleeding consumers’ pockets’ dry. It must be contended, indeed, that the corporations manufacturing the chemical poisons be willing to undertake corrective measures in their products for these to be non-lethal and be conscientious regarding the putting of nature at prime in lieu of the venerated wisdom of the New Age that is science.
So much hype has been attributed to science and its offspring modernism that the world’s religion today seems the two. A huge following of both renders Carlson’s critics as a force to reckon with, especially the object of their wrath is a woman biologist—her gender and her variety of science setting her in a double-bind. It is not far that Carlson’s essay will be dismissed as too emotionally infused to be considered as no more than a scienfitic journal or a natural history, but the emergence of postmodernism as an interrogation to the illusory panacea offered by science and modernism opens a leeway for Carlson’s argument to be aired and to be taken seriously. That man has waged war with nature is true and the world feels its horrifying impact more today than it was originally perceived by Carlson and her predecessors decades ago, but man can prevent this by shifting a worldview that is lenient to both the earth and the life depending on it. Going back for the organic is not only an act of reciprocation for nature’s love but an act of man’s self-redemption.
Today, as may be gleaned by the increasing consciousness of the global community to take care of the environment, Carlson’s stake at ecological equilibrium sees positive results despite the whipping it received a generation ago. This goes in full swing with the radical change of women’s recapturing the mainstream, an affirmation that feminism has treaded a long way. With Mother Nature being pampered now with reforestation drives and more discriminate utility of chemicals, the female of the species garnered a more equal footing with the male in terms of rights and privileges. This is of special interest especially as far as feminism and ecofeminism are concerned because both women and Mother Nature have started for the centerstage only in the 70’s, a decade after Carlson’s Silent Spring saw publication. Such development cannot be ignored because the patriachal ideology still prevails in most cultures, and as long as the male of the species are allowed to imperialize, then this feminist growth will be stunted and silence will be cast in both nature and women.

a reading of jm coetzee's waiting for the barbarians

Of the many insights found in J.M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians, the most poignant, I think, is the following:
“However you seem to have a new ambition,” he goes, “You seem to want to make a name for yourself as the One Just Man, the man who is prepared to sacrifice his freedom to his principle.”
This address to the Magistrate as he languished in prison as a result of his “betrayal” of the Empire manifests a messianic theme that people in the majority diagnose in the “enlightened” few. Various historical accounts attest to attempts by some to change prevailing ideologies in order to reduce social injustice, and the very conditions these trials breed are branded bizarre and their doers, lunatic. That the world becomes increasingly riddled with oppressions of sort does not help the situation, but every so often, Magistrate-like characters from Mahatma Gandhi to Nelson Mandela come to rescue, ready to sacrifice even their lives if only to assert a place in the sun for the oppressed.
While it is true that the Magistrate in the novel had the courage to break the general muffling of the tortured screams made by those labeled barbarians, he stood up only to be punished with the very system he repelled being used against prisoners. What is worse, however, is that he was deemed too messianic to be taken seriously. Instead of being an imperial enemy openly regarded as “One Just Man,” he was disdainfully alluded to as an opportunist out “to make a name for [him]self.” This imbalance, I believe, is at the very core of several historical instances wherein the dominant forces propagate the notion that those subversive of their hegemony are merely fishing out of troubled waters. In effect, they, like the Magistrate, are subjected to various harassments that often get translated as their rightful castigation in the onlookers’ clouded perspective. Unless sympathizers begin to rectify the blunder by showing “an interrogator” that wears a “harsh” mask and that speaks in a “harsh” voice and “a free man” who “attain[s] salvation” with his enlightenment, the barbarians remain the oppressed and not the oppressor.
The word “ambition” as used in the passage’s context is already devoid of its inherent lofty aspirations at-large; it has been associated with the Magistrate’s seemingly futile disagreement of the Empire’s horrific flagellation of the barbarians. He is considered too ambitious as to try to go against the grain of the very entity that fuels his political life. He has turned too ambitious to be one with the “pitiable prisoners” and to cease to embrace the Empire he belongs to. He has become too ambitious as to wait for the barbarians’ “black flower of civilization to bloom”—the time the oppressed take up arms and fight the bullying imperialists.
By the sheer fact that the Magistrate is “prepared to sacrifice his freedom to his principles” makes for the ethical extent a man is willing to reach in order to question a system that protects only the interests of the majority at the expense of the minority. Even as he got imprisoned for the rebellion he started to sow against his Empire in compassion of “the pitch of human pain” being heard in the granary, he could smile because “the bond is broken:” he no longer considers himself chained to the barbarism being wrought by his Empire. However, the stinging comment that he did this feat to feed his self-serving ambition of becoming a man of justice is a general overview of barbarians around the world who want to wield retribution over those critical of their rule. In the long run, the Empire seems to succeed in presenting the Magistrate as an opportunist only, not as a justice defender, as were the cases of “messianic people” presented in an unfavorable light by the criticized majority.
The issue of whose claim is valid comes in the offing—that of the system, or that of the enlightened. The prevailing consciousness wishes to secure its position as the true, the good, and the beautiful standard of social justice. On the other hand, a chink in time lets out periodic heroes who “should neither be contaminated by the atrocity that is about to be committed nor poison [themselves] with impotent hatred of its perpetrators.” The society remains the serum in which to prove what holds out justice for everyone, and while the dominant can maneuver the world into thinking that it is the fountainhead of equity and equality, there in the periphery stay the few with ambition, ready to be fettered for their beliefs if this elicits the ultimate liberation.

afraid no more

John Powell's Why Am I Afraid to Tell You Who I Am discusses the means to become the best that I can be. Being human, I have the capacity to grow with myself and with others. Nonetheless, this is not easy. Perhaps my personal best is not acceptable to others. Perhaps, this is not acceptable even to myself. Hence, the inconvenience appears. I become uncomfortable to tell people the real me. I become distracted from developing my personal best. Thankfully, the book says something that can be done regarding this. It says that I can cope up with this inconvenience, only when I am more accepting of myself.
The book is especially meaningful for touching on the reasons why I mask myself from others. I have insecurities that once the real me gets discovered, people will turn away from me. If people find fault in me emotionally, politically, spiritually, even perhaps physically, they will run the opposite direction. This is what I fear: that I will be left alone. I do not want to lead a lonely life. I want to belong, just like any normal being. Hence, I should work out to keep these people near me. This means acting, behaving and being the person that pleases them. Nonetheless, in performing this, there is no assurance that I will not sacrifice a part of who I really am. This conflict is answered by the book. This means not having to lose myself, but accepting myself, imperfections and all. I need to be convenient in my very own skin. If I pretend to be perfect, all the more that I will tend to lose others. This is because I myself do not accept the imperfect me, hence the mask. If I take off the mask and show my imperfection, others will see that I have nothing to hide. Others will see that we are all the same in imperfections. WE will all together realize that we are all working to come close to the perfection that God created us to pursue.
The insight of descriptive catalog of games and roles is important because of self-identification. As a person, I agree that I try to be my best, but somehow fall short. Hence, my weakness characterizes me. This weakness is that which makes me shift my eyes away from other people, at least sometimes. I have this fright that I will not be dealt with carefully. I do not want to be judged against for something that I actually am. I secretly envy many public personalities who have the charisma that attracts people. I wish to be like them, perhaps to be them. Here the problem lies. Because of the imperfect me, I aspire to be somebody else. Aspiring to be somebody is actually being unable to accept my present character. It is like giving up on myself. It is not unlike giving up my capacity for growth and development. I want to play somebody else’s game and to assume someone else’s role without thought for enriching the game and role I identify myself with. It does not even occur to me, until this insight descended upon me, that others may be secretly envying to be like me or to be me too. It is such a lonely business to be wishing to be somebody else whereas there is my own self to be convenient with.
This insight will help me as a student, in my personal life and in future profession by way of enriching my self-concept. No growth and development will happen if I panic over other people’s perception of me. I better anticipate my improvement when I learn to accept the weaknesses characterizing me. I am weak because I do not know everything in class. Nonetheless, that should not prevent me from trying. With persistence, I have learned to know Accounting, which used to be so hard before for me. I did not pretend to know it, so others were helpful in teaching it to me. I did not have to be afraid accepting my weakness on this subject. Like the fear for the Lord, it was the beginning of wisdom. In the same way, I am weak because I cannot be the perfect friend for everybody. Nonetheless, that should not prevent me from pursuing perfection. Since my circle of friends has its own strengths and weaknesses, we can draw so much from each other in the pursuit of this perfection. Lastly, I can be probably weak in my future as a professional. Even the best workers admit to being imperfect. Nonetheless, that should not prevent me from working less for my desired goals. Instead of being a distraction, my weakness should be an inspiration to work hard to achieve my objectives. Accepting my professional mistakes can be a way to caution further mistakes.
I can be what I want to be beginning today. I will have to leave behind my desire to be somebody else just to be accepted. I will have no fright in showing the real me whether in school, home, or such places I have to deal with various persons. I will have no fear.

assessing “ethnicity” and “asia without borders”

The emergence of Asia as a potential economic superpower seems like a form of anti-colonialist threat to the West. For one, economic tigers like Singapore, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are continually playing well in the international economic arena. Meanwhile, China is on its way to achieving a superpower status if not only for the eruption of SARS among other internal post-communist problems. These strengthening of Asia mirrors the Vietnamese defiance of the US during the two countries’ war. It appears that the economic boom in Asia is a way to defy colonialism being foisted by the West.
The West had a notion of Asia as a “white man’s burden” because it believes that Asia must be civilized in order to grow out tribalism. This, however, poses no evidence, since even without foreign interference, tribalism does not occur. It is only then a justification for the West to foist its brand of liberalist modernism in this territory. However, there is a problem with regards to this modernizing scheme on Asia by the West. It has not caused a decrease in ethnic tension nor paved the way for a transition period. The West seems conjuring up that Asia needs it to become modernized, which it actually doesn’t.
Ethnicities are imagined into existence and reinforced via mass literacy and the mass media. What we imagine as ethnic Asia is that which we see in National Geographic, among other media construction. Also, iot is what is being taught in school among other social institutions like the Church and governments. Owing to this, erthnic violence erupts. Ethnic violence creates the concept wherein peoples get estranged form one another more psychologically all because of wrongly imagined construction.
Globalization supercedes national sovereignty, rendering states on a scramble to sustain national control and, ultimately, identity. Meanwhile, the relationship between ethnic networks and global capital, a trend in globalization, goes more than the involvement of business firms but extends through political interventions that involve bureaucratic entrepreneurs that push for economic development. Thus, globalization creates a threat to individual national culture by creating just one global culture.
Seeing ethnicity as a way of imagining communities can enrich my culture since I get to appreciate the present culture I have, which is informed by both Chinese and Filipino heritage. However, this mixture gets contaminated by globalization because my culture also gets informed by Western influxes like Hollywoodization, McDonaldization, and other such Western imperialist influences.
Ethnic consciousness should be understood with regard to the relationship between national sovereignty and globalization, and the interaction between local and global network. Globalization leads to diaspora, which has become a contemporary reality. While diaspora has its benefits, it also has its disadvantages. As a result, diaspora poses constant challenge to the contemporary world for both new home and original home since communities get immersed in acculturation and enculturation.
While globalization becomes a requirement in the contemporary times, the status of a global village is yet achieved. Hence, its homogenizing factor is hardly felt in my country, but its threat cannot be less discounted. For all I know, I may be neocolonized already by the tentacles of globalization like onslaught of foreign commodities, culture and ideologies.

why i should not be afraid to tell you who i am

This book is about fulfilling my desire to understand myself personally and socially. It shows how I can possibly be aware of myself. I desire to know myself because I want to have the dignity accorded to God’s creations. This way, I can picture myself as someone capable of personal growth. Also, it shows how I can possibly know the person I project to other people. I desire to know my social self because I want to have the influence that develops other persons too. This way, I can picture myself as someone capable of social change.
The book is especially meaningful because throughout my lifetime, I will meet a lot of people. It is pointless then to show a masked self every now and then. Family gatherings will find me meeting relatives I have not known previously. I do not want to project one face to one cousin at this occasion while another face to another cousin at the next occasion. I want to have a uniform personality when getting acquainted with my own relatives. The book helps me show this one personality that’s my genuine self. Also, the school provides occasions when I will meet new friends through friends or classmates. I do not want to present different personalities in acquainting myself with others in school. I will be more comfortable if I unmask my true self and the book helps me do so. This capacity of the book to let me be myself makes it a must-read for me. It is not uncommon that young people like me are still struggling to discover our identity. However, discovering myself and accepting this self that I discovered are two different matters. I may not like what self I found. It is a matter of accepting myself that makes me find the book special. Without accepting my discovered self, how may I present to unknown relatives and new friends the true self? I may end up showing multiple personalities every time the opportunity to meet other people emerges.
The insight of self-acceptance is important because it is not easy to accept myself. It is not uncommon for me to wish to be somebody else. I wish I were more brilliant. I wish I were famous. I wish I had more money than I have. And I wish all of these thinking maybe I will gain more friends in the process. But now that I know better, it is not as if these are just the bases for acceptance by other people. I may be more intelligent, famous or richer but these do not guarantee the approval of other persons. I gained the insight that being accepted begins with myself. This is the farthest my height can get. This is the character I have become so far. What will I become if I do not appreciate who I am today? If I do not start with myself, how can this appreciation be noticed and repeated by everyone else? The answer boils down to loving my current identity in all its flaws and shortcomings. With this insight in mind, what fear should arise in me?
This insight is helpful in my studies, personal life and professional life since in all three phases, personal growth and social development happen. In my studies, it helps to accept myself if I prove not as clever as other classmates. Of course, I can work hard and get grades as good as theirs. However, with their intellect, they involve considerable effort only. As for me, it takes real effort to match theirs. But this does not make me fear that I will not be approved of by my professors, unlike the really clever ones. Accepting what effortful investment I can give to my studies will not go unnoticed. Also, in my personal life, it helps to accept myself if I prove not as famous or gorgeous as others. I may not be like that, but I have other things to offer like companionship and belongingness. I believe that these two have greater importance than being popular or attractive. Accepting myself for who I am is the beginning of being accepted by friends. In my professional life, it helps to accept myself if I prove not as ideal a leader as I would want to become. That is a part of my humanity: to be imperfect. However, I do not want to rest on this imperfection. As a professional, I would like to give my best so my colleagues will be influenced in doing the same. I will accept the biggest effort I can make. Through this, I hope to earn the admiration of others. I ultimately hope that this admiration will eventually evolve into acceptance of the imperfect professional that I am.I can use self-acceptance today and in the future, in all my dealings with other people in school and my immediate environment. Now that I have no fear about myself, I am more comfortable to deal with everybody. Wherever I meet others, I should never be afraid to tell who I am.

bongga ‘to, ‘day: tradisyong oral at pagbuo ng kasarian ng mga pilipinong bakla

Isang buhay na kultura sa pamayanan ng mga Pilipinong bakla ang tradisyong oral na tinatawag na swardspeak. Ang neolohistikong lengguwaheng ito ay nagpapakintal sa kasarian at identidad ng mga bakla. Paano “itinatanghal” ng mga Pilipinong bakla ang kanilang kasarian at pagkakakilanlan sa pamamagitan ng swardspeak?
Gamit ang teoryang performativity ni Judith Butler, nilalayon ng papel na ito na ilahad kung paano “itinatanghal” ng mga Pilipinong bakla ang kanilang kasarian at pagkakakilanlan sa pamamagitan ng swardspeak. Sa Pilipinas, ang performativity ay binigyang-diin ni J. Neil C. Garcia sa kanyang mga kritika upang iangkop ang nasabing teorya sa kaligirang Filipino. Sa papel na ito, susuriin sa bisa ng performativity ang mini-Badingtionary (diksyunaryo ng swardspeak) ni Ram Garcia sa tekstong Gayspeak in the Nineties ni Murphy Red, nakasama sa Ladlad 2: An Anthology of Philippine Gay Writing (Anvil, 1996), pinamatnugutan nina J. Neil C. Garcia at Danton Remoto. Ang pagsusuring ito ay isasagawa upang positibong matugunan ang problematik na nabanggit sa pasakalye ng papel na ito.
Si J. Neil C. Garcia, ang kasalukuyang pangunahing pigura sa pag-aaral ng kabaklaan sa Pilipinas, ay naghatag ng maraming pagbasa sa performativity ni Judith Butler, ang pangunahing teorista ng konstruksyonismong panlipunan ngayon. Ayon kay Garcia, may pormulasyon si Butler na ang kasarian ay hindi isang bayolohikal na kakintalan kung saan nakasalalay ang pagkakakilanlan; manapa, ito ay pagtatanghal o “performativity.”[1] Ang tesis na ito ni Butler na tinipon mula sa isang malaking kaban ng mga tekstong biomedikal, sikolohikal, pilosopikal, pulitikal, popular at sosyo-kultural, ay itinuturing ang kasarian at pagkakakilanlan bilang kolektibong interpelasyon ng mga pagtatanghal na inuulit-ulit ayon sa kahingian ng diskursong “normal;” bukod dito, ang mga pagtatanghal na ito at hindi ang isang panloob na katangian ang siyang bumubuo sa indibidwal bilang resulta ng repetisyon.[2] Maiintindihan kung gayon na ang kasarian at pagkakakilanlan mismo ay normal na mga pagtatanghal na salik sa pag-iral ng isang indibidwal, bumubuo sa proseso ng mga katawang bibigyang larawan nito. Ang pagtatanghal na ito ay hindi isahang akto lamang; manapa, ito ay isang proseso, isang sunud-sunod na paulit-ulit na praktis ng mimetikong akto, isang diskursong sa huli ay eepekto ng isang buong kasarian at identidad ng indibidwal. Sa madaling sabi, ang kasarian ay pagtatanghal: ikaw ay kung ano ang ginagawa mo.
Sa proposisyong ito ni Butler na ang pagkakakilanlan ay hindi isang bayolohikal na sustansya bagkus ay isang resulta ng paulit-ulit na gawaing nagpapairal sa isang indibidwal, binibigyang-diin na ang mga pagtatanghal na ito ay kaakibat ng isang eksibisyon ng espesipikong kasarian (i.e. lalaki o babae, heterosekswal o bakla, etc.) na siya ngang magbibigay-pangalan sa pagkakakilanlan ng isang tao.[3]
Ayon sa dalawang nabanggit na teorista, ang kasarian o sekswalidad—kapwa ilusyon lamang dahil walang tunay na kalaliman o kalooban,[4] ay isa lamang mapagtanghal na pag-uulit ng kasariang normal na lagi na ay hindi napeperpekto. Sa perspektibang ito, ang homosekwalidad (i.e. gaya ng mga may-akda sa librong Ladlad 2, kabilang ang awtor ng tekstong susuriin) bilang epekto lamang ng iba’t ibang pagtatanghal ng imitasyon kung saan walang orihinal,[5] ay hindi matutuos bilang kopya lamang ng heterosekswalidad, na isa ring ilusyong nabuo dahil sa makulit na pagtatanghal. Lahat ng identidad ay panggagaya o imitasyon ng regulasyon na palagiang hinihikayat para isagawa upang ang sariling kasarian ay mabuo[6] kahit pa sa hangganan ay hindi rin matupad.
Kahit pa ang Butlerian performativity ay pangmalawakan ang sakop dahil sa pagbanggit nito ng konstruksyonismong pang-identidad, diskurso at ideyolohiya, mayroon itong kultural at pangkasaysayang partikularidad. Samakatuwid, kahit pa sa Kanluran inilaan ni Butler ang kanyang teorya, ang performativity ay may transkultural na kaganapang maaaring iayon sa anumang kulturang may sariling pakahulugan sa kasarian at pagkakakilanlan, angkop sa kaligiran ng istruktura ng kaunawaan[7] ng nasabing kultura. Halimbawa, ayon sa Filipinong kritiko at makatang si Lilia Quindoza-Santiago, ang kasarian na mula sa salitang-ugat na sari-sari ay espesipiko sa ating kultura dahil sa sari-saring katawagang laan para sa “tamang” sekswalidad (i.e. patunay ang larong pambatang Boy, Girl, Bakla, Tomboy). Ang kasarian kung gayon ay nabubuo depende sa pangkasaysayan at heograpikal na lokasyon, samakatuwid ay ang kalapatan nito sa pagpapaliwanag ng kasarian at identidad ng mga Pilipinong baklang sa bisa ng tradisyong oral na swardspeak.
Ang jargon, argot, lingo o swardspeak ay isang makulay at interesanteng homosekswal na wikang namulaklak noong Dekada ’70. [8] Ipinanganak ng lipunang patriyarkal at konseptong homophobia, ang swardspeak ay instrumentong ginamit ng mga bakla bilang subersiyon sa ilang siglong walang-dahilang pagkamuhi ng mga palaayaw sa mga bakla, na nag-ugat sa sobenismo ng mga aparatong pang-ideyolohiya gaya ng Katolisismo at nitong huli, ng Kristiyanismo.[9] Sa tabi-tabi kung saan itinaboy ang mga bakla, umusbong ang isang uri ng kalayaan sa pamamagitan ng ekspresyong pansarili. Ang pag-usbong na ito ng kulturang bakla ay patuloy na yumabong bilang alternatibong pamumuhay na nakasalig sa liberasyon. Dahil ang wika ay arbitraryo, hindi naging mahirap para sa mga Pilipinong bakla ang pagpapayaman ng isang epektibong sandata laban sa machong palsong kamalayan: ang wikang nakabatay sa prinsipyo ng pun o paglalaro ng mga salita. Nakatulong din ang pambabakla o faggotification sa midya at akademya upang maging matulin ang transpormasyon ng dati na ay mabilis ang permutasyong swardspeak. Lumawak kung gayon ang oportunidad ng mga baklang pasukin at dominahang muli ang umiiral na kultura. Ang kalayaan at bilis ng ebolusyong ito ng swardspeak ay inihahalintulad sa mga diwata ng Stonewall Liberation noong 1969 na nagpagiba sa nakakahong kultura ng kabaklaan upang sakupin ang kalawakan ng mga salita at sa proseso ay iwaksi ang hegemonya ng perhuwisyo at pang-aapi.
Bukod sa radikal na kakayahan ng swardspeak na bigyang-interogasyon ang mga kaisipan ng lokal na kulturang macho hinggil sa kasarian at sekswalidad, sinasagot din nito ang pagkakakilanlan at “paglaladlad ng kapa” ng isang maituturing na miyembro ng “federasyon” sa pamamagitan ng pansarili nitong pagkilala.
Dahil sa pagsasapraktika ng dinamiko, mapagpalaya at popular na gayspeak, buhay sa komunidad ng mga Pilipinong bakla ang wikang ito saanmang sulok ng bansa, mula Aparri hanggang Jolo, wika nga. Sa pag-uulit-ulit ng gamit at pagsasatangi nito sa sariling komunidad, nabubuo ang kasarian at pagkakakilanlan ng mga bakla. Ang mga bakla ay nagiging bakla sa bisa ng pagpipilit na maperpekto—magkaroon ng esensya ng kabaklaan—ang repetitibong mga akto, na hindi man tuluyang magkaroon ng kaganapan ay nagreresulta naman sa pagkakabuo ng sarili na produkto ng pagtatanghal sa pamamagitan ng bigkas ng mga salitang gawa-gawa ng sangkabaklaan.
Ilan sa mga panitikang may relasyon sa papel na ito ang mga sumusunod:
Sa antolohiya ng mga sanaysay sa Ingles ni Danton Remoto na pinamagatang Seduction and Solitude, pinaksa niya ang proyekto ng pambaklang organisasyong Katlo: isang Badingtionary na naglalaman ng mga salitang Anita Linda (‘napapanot’), Antukis (‘inaantok’), at iba pa.
Sa isa pang antolohiya ni Danton Remoto, ang X-Factor, isang buong sanaysay ang inilaan niya para sa swardspeak, kung saan may imbitasyon siyang makiambag ang mambabasa sa itatayong kapihang may mga produktong gaya ng Rolando Tinio (‘tea’), Ophie Dimalanta (‘coffee’), Virgilio Almario (‘beer’), at Kerima Polotan (‘pulutan’). Sa pagsusuri ni J. Neil Garcia ng mga librong The Umbrella Country at Rolling the R’s nina Bino Realuyo at R. Zamora Linmark, ayon sa pagkakasunod, ginamit niya ang ideyang performative language ni J. L. Austin kung saan ang wika ay isang aktong may kakayanang bumuo ng konkretong epektong panlipunan.
Ang mga sumusunod ay mga entri sa glosaryo ni Ram Garcia at ilang makabagong salita para sa Ikatlong Milenyo na gagamitin sa pangungusap ng tagasaliksik bilang patunay na nagbibigay-pagkakakilanlan ang swardspeak bilang tradisyong oral ng mga Pilipinong bakla:
Ana (pangngalan): Ahas. Salitang Ugat: Anaconda. Kasingkahulugan: serpentina, Ana Bayla, ahasera, Ana Roces, medusa, Anabelle Rama, galema, Valentina, anaconda.
Huwag kang ana dahil kakarmahin ang mang-aagaw ng jowa.
Bionic (pandiwa): Magbate. Salitang Ugat: Bayo. Kasingkahulugan: Biogesic, bayas, sarciado, Bayambang (Pangasinan), Bayombong (Nueva Vizcaya), bayam, batibot.
Nakakapayat ang palagiang pag-Bionic Woman.
Career (pandiwa): magpakadalubhasa. Salitang Ugat: Career. Kasingkahulugan: Karerahan, kare-kare, karinderia.
Ikaw ha, nangangarir ka na naman ng mga boylets!
Cheese (pangngalan): Usap-usapan. Salitang Ugat: Chismis. Kasingkahulugan: Cheese whiz, cheeze curls, chismak, chisms.
Huwag kang pa-carry sa mga cheese.
Dramamin (pandiwa): Umaastang lalaki. Salitang Ugat: Mag-dramang mhin. Kasingkahulugan: Bonamin, bolash, bulalakaw, bolaret, bulalo, pamintang durog, pamenchu, pa-hom, PMA (pa-mhin na Ate), pamintuan.
Pulos bulalakaw ang mga host ng ASAP.
Entourage (pandiwa): Pumasok. Salitang Ugat: Entraka. Kasingkahulugan: josok, enter the dragon, shuloy, illegal entry, entrance fee, entrabella. Kasalungat: escape, escaflage, escravu, escape from the Bronx, fire exit.
Enter the dragon na ang byuti mo kasi freezing point sa labas.
Fillet (pandiwa): gusto. Salitang Ugat: Feel. Kasingkahulugan: feelanga, feeling, feeling ng saging, Jose Feliciano, fill in the blanks, Urbana at Feliza.
Fillet kong mangarir ng mga boylet ngayon.
Guash (pang-uri): magandang lalaki. Salitang Ugat: Guwapo. Kasingkahulugan: B.Y., Papa, Daddy, Kuya, puwede, biyaw, boylet, magandech, bongga ang fez, byutella, bianca. Kasalungat: chapluk, ngarag ang fez, chammy, champorado, Chaka Khan, Chewbacca, chopsuey, chapluks, chapa, chapacola.
Panalo ka sa boylet mo, guash na, dakota pa.
Havana (pang-uri): Mahabang mukha. Salitang Ugat: Haba. Kasingkahulugan: majova, Bambi Arambulo, La Bamba, Ali Baba, half-moon junction, siesta ng (jai alai), special llave.
Si Celine Dion O, Havana ang fez.
Imbyerna (pang-uri): Naiinis. Salitang Ugat: Iritada. Kasinkahulugan: Imbyernita, Verna Liza, pachuchay, Verni Varga, imbudo, impatso, imbutido, okray, im, Rita Gomez, Rita Avila.
Ilang-Ilang Tagalog Productions niya, ha! Rita Gomeza na ang beauty ko.
Indiana Jones (pang-uri): Hindi sumipot. Salitang Ugat: Nang-indian. Kasingkahulugan: Indira Gandhi, Indios Bravos, wa appearance, sibuyas bumbay, Miss India, Sushmita Sen.
Kainis ka kasi Waiting for Godot ako sa’yo, pero Indira Gandhi ka.
Joanna Paras (pangngalan): asawa. Salitang Ugat: Jowa. Kasingkahulugan: Jowawa, jowawing, Joanna Raunio, jowawiz, jowa-ers, jowawits, chuva chuchu.
Mag-behave ka na kasi parating na ang Joanna Paras mo.
Kabog (pangngalan): Talo. Salitang Ugat: Talbog. Kasingkahulugan: bog, sholbog, Luz Valdez, Lucila Lalu, Lucita Soriano. Kasalungat: Panalo, win, Winnie Santos, Winnie Cordero, Winnie Monsod.
Kabog na naman ang Ate ko sa Miss Gay kagabi.
Kofas (pandiwa): tsupa. Salitang Ugat: Chupa. Kasingkahulugan: kufing, koflage, kokak, halaya, hada, hala, joflax, confladia, josish, hadus.
Tigilan mo na ang kakokofas mo dahil nagiging anorexic na ang beauty mo.
Lamyerda (pandiwa): gala. Salitang Ugat: Lakad. Kasingkahulugan: Rampa, rampage, rampaging bull, Paseo de Roxas.
Gabing-gabi ka na naman; puro ka rampaging bull!
Manilyn Reynes (pang-uri): Malibog. Salitang Ugat: Manyakis. Kasingkahulugan: Manny de Leon, Makati City, laing-Bicol, Cathy Santillan, Catherine the Great, Cathy Mora, Kate Gomez, katipunera, Makati Avenue, Mommy Kate (de la Cruz).
Nakakita ka lang ng hunk, Catherine the Great ka na.
Mhin (pangngalan): Lalaki. SAlitrang Ugat: Man. Kasingkahulugan: Menachem Begin, julaykis, hombrasta, hom, umbaw, Mindanao Region, minola, Lucky Me, julaki, mench.
Wala kang kabusugan sa Mhin!
Nora Daza (pandiwa): Magluto. Salitang Ugat: dalubhasa sa pagluluto. Kasingkahulugan: Cookery, LM (lutong Macao), Cookie Chua, juto, cookie monster.
Nora Daza ka na ng hapunan natin, bilis!
Nota (pangngalan): ari ng lalaki. Salitang Ugat: Hugis nito. Kasingkahulugan: notrilya, notes, notebook, notary public; [pang-uri para sa malaki] dakota, higher do, Dakila Castro, Ducky Paredes, Hilda Koronel, Dakota Harrison, daks, Dax Rivera; [pang-uri para sa maliit] dyutay, duty free, juts, lower do.
Bakat ang notrilya ng ombaw na iyun.
Opra (pangngalan): utang. Salitang Ugat: O promise me. Kasingkahulugan: OPM, jutang, Oprah, Winfrey,wa pay, balazu.
Majava na ang listahan ng opra mo kaya pay ka na.
Pocahontas (pang-uri): pakawala. Salitang Ugat: Pokpok. Kasingkahulugan: Shukakak, shokpok, pakangkang, pakaratsung, paurangga.
Overflowing ang mga Pocahontas sa Quezon Avenue.
Quality Control (pang-uri): May kalidad. Salitang Ugat: Quality. Kasingkahulugan: Bongga, Bonngacious, Bengga.
In fairness, quality control ang party niya, huh?!
Ruffa (pangngalan): Laklak. Salitang Ugat: Cough Syrup. Kasingkahulugan: kalkaleyshen, Rufina patis, ruffles, raffle ticket, rooftop.
Tigilan mo na ang laklakeyshen na ‘yan!
Siete Pecados (pangngalan): Tsismosa. Salitang Ugat: Siete. Kasingkahulugan: mimosa, chismakera, Mimi Baylon, brigada siete, chsim queen.
Puro siete pecados ang neighborhood natin, Inang.
Thunder cats (pang-uri): gurang. Salitang Ugat: Matanda. Kasingkahulugan: gurangis, Wrangler, majonda, mashunda, Jo Mari Chan, ma-onda, gurami.
Thunder cats ka na nga, isip-boylet ka pa rin!
Uranus (pangngalan): Puwet. Salitang Ugat: Oros. Kasingkahulugan: Juwet, orosan, juwetraks, backdoor, juwetsing, orange juice, juwatra, Orani (Bataan).
Kagandahan ang hubog ng Uranus ng otokwang iyun.
Ate Vangie (pangngalan): gamot pampatulog. Salitang Ugat: Ativan. Kasingkahulugan: Vangie Labalan, Bubbles (Ativan Queen), Evangeline Pascual.
Hmm, magamitan kaya ng Ate Vangie ang hard-to-get na ‘yan?
Washington D.C. (pangngalan): Wala. Salitang Ugat: Waz. Kasingkahulugan: Washing machine, wa,wasiwas, waing,wash and wear.
Washington akong balak maging Donita Horse,’no?!
X-man (pang-uri): mga dating lalaki. Salitang Ugat: Mga karakter sa Marvel cartoons. Kasingkahulugan: vakla, bayot,vinavae,syoke, bakla, alanganin, talyada, charot, éclat, kuñas, eching, charing, ching, chika, ek, echos, jokla, bading, badiding, backless, shuklis, kuning, Nena Cabading, Boni Badella, badidang, Eddie Baddeo, Shaila [siya’y lalaki], Maila [may lawit], Maybeth [may betlog], Basia [bakla siya,], PGH [pa-Girl naHalimaw].
‘Di naman nanganganak pero dumarami ang mga X-men,’di va?
Yayo Aguila (pang-uri): Dyahi. Salitang Ugat: Hiya. Kasingkahulugan: jiya, timidity queen, shy type.
Yayo Aguila ang beauty ko kasi gaka (gatecrasher) ako sa debut niya.
Zsa Zsa Padilla (pang-uri): Sige. Salitang Ugat: O, Siya! Kasingkahulugan: Siya nawa, Camilo Osias, siya na nga,ZsaZsa Gabor.
Zsa Zsa Padilla, tama na ang pangangarir, exit from the Bronx ka na!
Bilang pagtatapos, masasagot na ang swardspeak na isang buhay at dinamikong tradisyong oral ng mga Pilipinong bakla ay isang paulit-ulit na paraan ng pagtatanghal ng mga tagapagsalita nito upang sa wakas ng mimetikong prosesong ito ay mabuo ang isang bonggang identidad na dili at iba kung hindi kagandahan ng Pilipinong bakla.
Iminumungkahi ng papel na ito ang dagdag pang pananaliksik hinggil sa swardspeak upang ang kulturang baklang ito ay hindi lamang magsilbing instrumento ng pagbuo ng pagkakakilanlan ng mga Pilipinong bakla kundi para mapalaya ang isinasantabing minoryang ito sa mapaniil na ideyolohiyang patriyarkal.

***
Bibliyograpiya:
Butler, Judith. Bodies that Matter. New York: Routledge, 1993.
__________. Gender Trouble. New York: Routledge, 1990.
Garcia, J. Neil C. Performing the Self: Occasional Prose. Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 2003.
__________. Philippine Gay Culture: The Last Thirty Years. Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 1996.
__________. Philippine Gay Literature. Nasa Filipiniana Reader. Priscelina Patajo- Legasto, Patnugot. Quezon City: University of the Philippines Open University, 1998.
Red, Murphy. Gayspeak in the Nineties. Nasa Ladlad 2: An Anthology of Philippine Gay Writing. Remoto, Danton at J. Neil C. Garcia, mga Patnugot. Anvil Publishing, Inc., 1996.
__________. Seduction and Solitude. Pasig City: Anvil Publishing, Inc., 1995.
__________. X-Factor: Tales outside the Closet. Pasig City: Anvil Publishing, Inc., 1997.

[1] Garcia, J. Neil. Performing the Self: Occasional Prose. Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 2003, 165.
[2] Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge, 1990, 146-147.
[3] Garcia, J. Neil. Performing the Self: Occasional Prose. Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 2003, 54.
[4] Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge, 1990, 146-147.
[5] Garcia, J. Neil. Philippine Gay Culture: The Last Thirty Years. Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 1996, 216.
[6] Butler, Judith. Bodies that Matter. New York: Routledge, 1993, 125.
[7] Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge, 1990, 9.
[8] Garcia, J. Neil. Philippine Gay Culture: The Last Thirty Years. Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 1996, 89.
[9] Red, Murphy. Gayspeak in the Nineties. Nasa Ladlad 2: An Anthology of Philippine Gay Writing. Remoto, Danton at Garcia, J. Neil, mga patnugot. Pasig City: Anvil, 1996, 41.

the attitude that works

The Winning Attitude is my hope in my struggle against negative attitude. It says that I can improve and actually become a winner. It is about developing a mindset that creates peace, determination and success.
Struggling with a negative attitude is a problem for me. If I have a problem, negative attitude seems to make the problem worse. For instance, if I have lots of schoolwork to perform all at the same time, I begin to feel anxious. How can I possibly finish them all in one sitting? I begin to doubt my capacity for time management. I would think that devoting four hours of study time for all subjects is not enough. As such, my problem does not get resolved. Actually, it turns worse because negative thinking enters my system. If only I learned about The Winning Atittude earlier, I would not have to make this struggle. I would not have to spend some time thinking how and what to finish from among my schoolwork. This time, to begin with, is time which I could have used doing my schoolwork. That is why the book is important because it teaches me to have the right attitude. It is accepted that attitude brings about peace, happiness, acceptance, and success. It is the main force that will ascertain whether I will succeed. In the same way, it can determine too if I will fail. This double face suggests that I can transform a difficulty into something favorable. It suggests that every difficulty presents opportunity, so the book says. Since this is so, it means that I can create the right attitude in dealing with my bulk of schoolwork. I may not have enough time to do them overnight. Nonetheless, it pays to make use of time outside my study habit. Whether on the way home from school or going there, I can start answering schoolwork. Being positive also helps because it takes away the anxiety. If I worry less, my mind becomes clearer. I can think then of ways to resolve my problem. Having the right attitude can teach me to plot my available time. It can teach me to set my priority subjects. I can start with the hardest, say, Accounting down to the easiest. For growing difficulty, I can start with the easiest. I do not have control of the bulk of assignments to be given to me. What I can control is my attitude toward these assignments. If I can see beyond the difficulty of answering everything in one sitting, I will feel convenient. I will have the confidence that I will be able to finish. If I do not get to finish, I can always think positively that before going to school tomorrow, my time is enough to do so.
One insight used in the book is a story about Jesus. This is essential because it enumerates many principles. One, that I should not misuse the Bible. This means I should not see the story in a surface level. I learned that the elements of Jesus’ story symbolize areas in my life as a Christian. The story gives me the lesson of obedience to God. Obeying Jesus can be done even when not in the right place. I understand then that the right place is the church, for going to mass is a form of obedience. I can still be obedient even outside the church. This insight is important because I am not always inside the church. The many places I go to can be areas where I can obey God. If I have to relate this with my schoolwork problem above, this means obeying God even when I have problems like that. What obedience am I being obliged to do? It is to trust God that I can make it. The bulk of schoolwork can be a discouraging problem. Nonetheless, I should not doubt myself because God can help me through it. I can obey God by believing that God makes me wise enough to deal with this problem. Obedience to God is an insight that creates the winning attitude.
This insight may help me in the light of my personal businesses now. I am studying, so I can always obey God by trusting that my schoolwork may be managed somehow. They may be many and difficult, but schoolwork can be easy with God as guide. In my personal life, obedience to God is an ideal attitude. Having God as master can give me the confidence to approach any situation. Obedience to him can make me expect that I will eventually achieve my personal goals, which include getting by in my studies. In my future as a professional, I can have the power to deal with any circumstance with God around me. Obeying Him even when not in the best of times makes me act consistently. Having a focus like this can lead me to my desires, which include success in my own business.
When and where do I practice this winning attitude of obeying God? It is not only when I am inside the church. I can do it in school and home, where His presence can be felt in my classmates and family. When I have problems and even when I have none, an attitude that works is to obey God. This is because I can never think or go wrong when letting myself be led by God.

assessing john rex' "theories of race relations" and sandra wallman's "ethnicity and the boundary process"

A sociology of race relations must begin with unmasking ideologies. This is important because more than the effects of such ideologies, their causes and their operations must be exposed in order to understand the links and the tensions underpinned in race relations.
There is a considerable degree of difficulty in these expositions, considering the difficulty of applying concepts in explaining very fluid phenomena like social relations. Dynamic social constructs could include skin color, which could be exemplified by a black man whose color gets lighter as he gets higher in the demographic ladder. Dynamic social constructs could also show racial discrimination even as no such thing is being intended in theory, except that practice betrays the notion. Dynamic social constructs may also be influenced by certain factors such as colonialism, hence the ideological subjectivity toward the colonizer and against the colonized. This dynamism in social construction explains away why sociology cannot be explained in the way that Marxism or biology can be.
However difficult explaining social relations can get, it shows more sense to explain race in terms of sociology than, say, biology. Ideas in science can actually turn into structure in social relations. In which case, what is simply shown in biology as a mere scientific fact can actually become a subjective thought in terms of sociology.
Sociological schools of thought may be divided into the one who believes in stratification or the horizontal hierarchy of the society. Meanwhile, the other believes in pluralism wherein the society is divided vertically. Any which way, ethnicity contributes to the further stratification or pluralism in societies. Race relations in stratified societies may show the white being on top and as one cascades the hierarchy, the color gets darker. Meanwhile, pluralism offers a theory of segmentation across the strata, which means the society has vertical instead of horizontal division within the society. Pluralistic or hierarchical, the social division shows lack of economic and political equity as it is being linked by a single template.
The other critique points that some distinctions have become an indispensable part of the social groupings. National, cultural, structural, contextual, material, and relational boundaries have become the concern of anthropology. One such concept, race, still finds relevance in terms of social analysis. However, it is a different case for ethnicity, the boundary of which can become variable. This boundary can become transparent as well as permeable.
Structure and process are also juxtaposed. Whereas structure shows the form of the society, organization shows the process which the society undergoes. Structure is shown to be limiting, while organization is shown to show dynamism.
The categorization of people within race and ethnicity can be very limiting. This limitation actually spawn discrimination which the world now is witness to by virtue of associating superior qualities to dominant races while inferior ones to marginalized races. When I come to think about it, all humans just came from one primeval race, so we are all racially connected after all.

getting the right attitude

The Winning Attitude is about lessons from actual experiences which show me how to determine and achieve the winning attitude for me to overcome my life’s problems, convince people and make opportunities out of difficulties.This winning attitude is especially important because my life is not immune from problems. I often encounter problems in school, home or anywhere. For example, it becomes a problem for me if no one is readily available to drive me home from school. Either my parents are busy with their respective works, or my brother is staying late in his own school. Much as I like to take public transport, my family does not approve it. Riding a taxi or a jeep is perceived to be too risky for someone like me. Moreover, I am the only one from my circle of friends living in my area. Thus, no one can hitch me a ride home. Waiting for my family ride is so far the best option available. Even then, it is something that does not satisfyingly solve the problem of spending time on waiting. Since time is precious, it is wise to spend it in worthwhile tasks. The winning attitude taught me that it is wise to do just that. Therefore, while waiting for the car’s arrival, I can read lecture notes in advance. I can also stay in the computer lab and do my assignments online. I can also hang around the library where I can access books needed in class. This is an important insight shared by the winning attitude: maximize time whenever and wherever possible.The insight of the winning attitude is important. It is already great to discover my winning attitude. Moreover, it is great to experience the big difference it makes. Having a winning attitude saves me a lot of trouble. From my experience mentioned above, the winning attitude can develop my patience. For example, I can insist to take a public ride. Because of impatience, I may be exposed to untoward happenings like holdup or street pollution. Of course, I can get home safely even when using public transport. However, riding it does not lessen the risks of exposure to crime or pollution. In fact, it increases them. Meanwhile, being patient can leave nothing to chances. Patience being a virtue is now more relevant to my personal experience. Furthermore, the winning attitude can help me with my personal time management. Waiting does not necessarily have to be wasting. I cannot afford to lose my cool, which is a losing attitude. Hence, I better do any of the worthwhile tasks I mentioned above. I can also do other tasks aside from these. I can update my schedule organizer. I can also write on my journal. Maximizing my time teaches me to value it.The differences listed above are helpful in my studies and personal life today, and professional life soon. Above, I have already mentioned two ways how to have a winning attitude regarding time. In my personal life, winning attitude can be contagious. My positive outlook can influence my circle of friends. For example, my meeting with someone got cancelled at the last minute. Despite this event, I should not get frustrated. My winning attitude should tell me to follow an alternative plan. If the meeting does not push through, I can use my time off. I can tell my friends we can bond instead. Those who are available will learn what caused the sudden bonding time. When they do, they discover that an alternative can be turned up from a cancelled plan. My personal life will then be more meaningful. This is because I have been able to influence people to a shift in attitude. In my professional life, there are also differences my winning attitude can make. For example, if business sales do not perform well, I should not be saddened. This only worsens the problem. I will age suddenly, which I do not want to happen too quickly. Instead of worrying, I should broaden my thinking. Maybe sales do not perform well in specific months such as these. Maybe the economy is just as slow. After pointing out where the problem lies, time to be optimistic. I can hope for sales to perform the next months. I can also work double-time to make up for the previous months’ loss. I can also change strategy that I think will work to increase sales. Whatever I do, it should be a positive reaction to the problem. This way, the threat actually becomes an opportunity.My winning attitude can be shown each time problems arise. This is because a positive way of reacting to problems can turn them into opportunities. Problems arise in school and at home. Hence, these places should be where I shift to a positive thinking. When and where winning attitude shows, my life gets better options and chances.

living hell: a critique of sartre's no exit

Hell. The four lettered word that trembles in the throats of men and children alike; the images of suffering, flame pits and blood, the smell of burning flesh, the shrieking of those who have fallen from grace. For centuries man has sought out ways to cleanse his soul, to repent for his sins and possibly secure his passage into paradise, all evoked by the fear of eternal damnation and pain. The early 20th century philosopher and existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre saw life as an endless realm of suffering and a complete void of nothingness. His pessimistic ideals of life followed through to his beliefs on death, as death for him was a final nothingness. If death was a final nothingness, Sartre's view of hell was really a final statement on life. Jean-Paul Sartre's depiction of hell in the play No Exit reflects his belief on humanity and society.
No Exit's hell is embodied in a single room, decorated in Second Empire style furnishings. The surroundings seem more comforting than the traditional conception of hell, as the ones illustrated in Dante's inferno or even the bible. However, from an existentialist's point of view, the setting in itself is rather hellish, as its lavishness is overwhelmingly superficial and superficiality is rejected in existentialist belief. As existentialists believe that human life is lived in suffering, sin, guilt and anxiety, anything superficial is a foolish and naive way of denying despair. In a sense, Sartre's hell exists for him not in the supernatural world, but in reality. Therefore his hell is just a contained example of real life.
In order to be rejected from heaven and sent to hell, one must sin. Common in all religions, sin exists almost as a written law. For Christians it exists in the Ten Commandments, the seven deadly sins. For Buddhists, it is the crimes against karma. Sartre, however, does not address what prerequisites his hell contains. By conventional standards, it seems that his characters rightfully deserve to be placed in hell. While Estelle's hands were tarnished with the murder of her own baby, both Garcin and Inez are indirectly responsible for the death of those close to them. For Sartre, all three characters are pathetic examples of humankind. Believing that human beings can never hope to understand why they are here, Sartre, like many existentialists, believes that each individual must choose a goal and follow it with passionate conviction, aware of the certainty of death and the ultimate meaninglessness of one's life. Nonetheless, Estelle, Garcin and Inez all exist with no real purpose and therefore are damned to suffer not only in their life, but their afterlife. Garcin may have been the closest to following a goal, but his act of fleeing from revolution and his cowardly death shows that he has no real passion. Estelle is the most superficial of the group, the one with least conviction. She simply uses people to her pleasure and herself as the object of their desire. Inez sees herself as a "damned bitch" and believes that she is in fact damned and belongs in hell. She goes on to explain how she has caused the death of her lover's husband, and her own cousin, and how she does not regret a thing at all. She is insensitive, cruel and merely lives her life to cause people harm. All three character's lives are rather cold and empty, filling them with no real drive or passion for life, damning their to eternal suffering by Sartre's standards.
When the character of Garcin remarks that, "Hell is other people" Sartre is simply having Garcin restate Sartre's own view on humanity and human relationships. Sartre believes that the fate of humankind is to torment and be tormented by others with whom we live. Then how is hell for Sartre any different than his reality? He believes that "every system of values rests on exploitation and oppression". Sartre's hell is merely a system of exploitation as Inez observes it as, "an economy of manpower". Hell is the same as society, where it exploits those who exist in it and fill their lives with suffering and meaninglessness.
Jean-Paul Sartre was known to be pessimistic, and doubled his despair by being existentialist. Could this man really find joy in life? Either way his philosophies would dive into the dreadful, and his outlook on life would be cloudy and dark. To him life was hell. Is it possible that he felt no need to justify how an afterlife operated due to the already insufferable system established on earth? Hell was just a worse suffering, an extension of the human condition; it embodied every aspect of reality and contained no supernatural demons or punishments. Maybe for Sartre there was no salvation, as humans were doomed to suffer in life, they would surely suffer after life. Sartre's No Exit serves not only as a radical view of hell and the afterlife, but also as an observation of human nature and life.

trendsetter: the rise of western europe as fashion supermodel of the world

As far back as the Middle Ages, Western Europe has been an influential force in dressing up the modern world. In the modification of costumes from the medieval up to the contemporary times, Western Europe generally prevailed. Today’s elite fashion centers include Milan, Paris, Dusseldorf and London, and while already being seriously challenged by the faraway American city of New York as fashion capital of the world, each of these relatively close cities remains a fashion mecca in itself.[1] What is noteworthy is that these fashion centers are all located in Western Europe. What allure is it that Western Europe possesses which makes it a fashion supermodel since the 14th century?
It is easy to consider the cultural factor in bedecking Western Europe with the world’s most glittering fashion jewels. Until the United States of America loomed in the global picture, Western Europe has been the seat of many cultural movements—beginning from the Renaissance—that helped shape the modern world.[2] Long before America can yet again boast of its imminent dominance, this time in the arena of clothing, Western Europe has already established itself as fashion innovator. However, this paper hopes to explore, besides the area’s history of emergence as fashion leader, other possible yet divergent factors like political, social and economic influences that historically fortified Western Europe’s hold of its throne as fashion queen.
The history of Western fashion is the narrative of the altering fashions in clothing for both males and females from Western Europe’s medieval period up to the present.[3] The habit of continually changing the style of clothing worn is a distinctively Western one,[4] although it is now worldwide, at least among urban populations. Mid-14th century saw the sudden drastic shortening and tightening of the male over-garment, from calf-length to barely covering the buttocks, sometimes accompanied with stuffing on the chest.[5] This created the distinctive Western male outline of a tailored top worn over leggings or trousers which is still seen today.[6] The 1400’s saw the climb of fashion and interior decoration in Western Europe. Style trends were set by royal and prominent personalities and were disseminated by travelers through descriptions in their letters and by the trade of costumed fashion dolls.[7] The latter lost its popular footing when the first fashion magazine was published in Renaissance Frankfurt in Germany.[8] Several magazines mimicked its style, a phenomenon that is as realistic today when differently branded but suspiciously similar fashion magazines crowd a section of bookstores and news stands. The decadently fashionable Marie Antoinette, the infamous Austrian-born wife of the French monarch, was costumed by no less than her period’s most influential designer, Rose Berlin.[9]
The pace of fashion change shortly before the Renaissance accelerated considerably, and women’s fashion, especially in the dressing and adorning of the hair, became laborious and changing.[10] Changes in fashion led to a breaking of what had previously been very similar styles of dressing across the upper classes of Europe. Meanwhile, the development of distinctive national styles, which remained very different until a countermovement in the 17th to 18th centuries imposed similar styles once anew. Though fashion was always led by the rich, the increasing affluence of Early Modern Europe led to the middle class and even peasants following trends at a distance sometimes uncomfortably close for the elites[11]—hence the changing fashion with the elites as trendsetters.
Fashion houses and their in-house fashion designers as well as high-end consumers including celebrities, seem to have some role in determining to what proportion or where fashion change goes. The greatest arbiter of fashion ever since the Renaissance, Paris was witness to the dwindling influence of celebrities and the coincidental emergence of designer-dressmakers in the middle of the 19h century.[12] France’s capital city has continued trailblazing women’s fashion dresses with its haute couture. These fashion houses include such heavyweights as Charles Frederick Worth, Coco Chanel, Lucien Lelong, Elsa Schiaparelli, Cristobal Balenciaga, Christian Dior, and Yves Saint Laurent.[13] Only in the latter part of the previous century did Parisian designers get ferocious competition against American designers.[14] London was the leading house for men’s fashions in the early 19th century under such a Regency leader as Beau Brummell.[15] The English capital was a one-time fashion center, in the middle of 1960’s.[16]
When our own Philippines was suffering a considerable cultural ferment courtesy of the Marcos dictatorship from 1970’s up to ‘80s, fashion designs in Western Europe have already become divergently vibrant. This was due to the rising popularity of ready-to-wear collection by famous designers, an event that paved the way for the middle-class to become fashionably dressed and brand-conscious like the much-imitated elite.[17] European fashion giants like Gianni Versace and Giorgio Armani led other successful designers in broadening their horizons by licensing their names and putting these distinctive marks on such fashion accessories as fabric and perfumes.[18] The ethnic-punk style of the ‘70s and the luxurious look of the ‘80s were challenged in the ‘90s with the proliferation of classic understated clothing.[19] The garment industries of Western Europe led the rest of the West in mass-producing fashion clothes originally draping the rich and the famous.[20]
The aforementioned fashion trendsetting history of Western Europe may be deconstructed in such ways as political, social and economic. While equally important as cultural factor in making Western Europe the world’s leading fashion star, these factors are often overlooked, giving the impression that they have contributed less to the stature of Western Europe as fashion leader. The foregoing shows the truth: that political, social and economic influences helped catapult Western Europe in the forefront of global fashion.
Political activities in Western Europe starting the Age of Exploration contributed to Western Europe’s fashion supremacy. As countries comprising the area began to discover lands with which to conduct commercial links, some went so far as conquer their discoveries and set up an empire there. By the early 19th century, the world had been acquainted with four centuries of continuous European imperialism.[21] This was the offshore expansion of Western European power over continents like Australia, Americas, Asia and Africa. Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, French, and British colonial empires had come in the heel of one another in colonizing lands.[22] These extensions of rule over non-European territories had, in varying degrees, involved trading, missionary works, adventure, homesteading, looting, national pride, conquests, and wars between rival powers.[23] Colonial institutions were founded in the newly acquired territories in order to appropriate the Orientals according to the prospect of the conquistadors. Governments, schools, and the like were established in the colonies, in which case many aspects of the natives’ lives were fashioned according to the colonizers’ will.[24] Needless to say, cultural aspects from language to fashion in these territories were strongly Western-oriented, purposed at amalgamating the old identity with a new, colonial one.
As a result of Western European colonization and imperialism, Western-style fashion has a hovering presence in non-West countries. In the Philippines as in other Asian countries, blue jeans and T-shirts with English-language imprints are more likely to be seen than kimonos or cheong-sams. Western fashion magazines from Mademoiselle to Elle have counterpart editions in former colonies but featuring Western fashion. As popular demand rose and the buying power grew, Western designers have opened fashion boutiques from Tokyo to Johannesburg to Rio de Janeiro.[25] Western European fashion has planted its glamorous flag onto former colonies’ territory. Helped by half a millennia of imperialism, these Western designers’ countries have garnered a dictatorial, colonial role.
In Asia, Africa, and the rest of the colonial world, Western fashion is the “fetishized colonial culture.”[26] The spread of Western designer boutiques and fashion magazines in these territories is patterned after the more formal cultural and political colonialism of the Old Imperialism.[27] These fashion gods of Western designers who attempt to penetrate a large mass market out of the colonies are not unlike the Christian missionaries trying to convert pagans and imperialist rulers foisting their colonial language on the conquered. As the Westerners’ “Other,” colonial consumers are encouraged to copy the colonizers via their dress, makeup, and beauty standards. Hence, seeing blacks or Latinas with hairs dyed blonde or taking whitening products to achieve the meztisa look is no alien apparition. Nonetheless, inherent in this colonial mimicry “is the desire for a reformed, recognizable Other, as a subject of a difference that is almost the same, but not quite."[28]
Paradoxically, the failure of the colonial model to convert colonial subjects wholly is necessary for the colonizer. Only then can the colonial hierarchy remain stable and the dichotomy separating the colonizer and the colonized stay clearly defined. This colonial irony has even given way to the phenomenal mimicry of the colonized by the colonizer, not just the mimicry of the colonizer by the colonized. This fashion anomaly is discussed in the foregoing in order to establish further the point that politics gave Western European fashion an upper hand over its Oriental fans.
This mimicry of the colonized by the colonizer has white models being photographed in magazines, Caucasian beauties like almost all the fashion designers. Visible in the absence of Oriental faces is the colonizing, necessarily white fashion industry’s customization and mimicry of Orientalness. They are milky-complexioned, non-chinky-eyed, aquiline-nosed. These models are sometimes blonde, casting them further from “Oriental.”[29]
The fashion shoots stress that the white models, while wearing Oriental clothing, are almost the same but not Oriental. Using black or Latina or Asian models would not achieve the fortified division between the West and the non-West. Meanwhile, using Oriental dress is done in order to delineate the West from the Orient. Western fashion makes it a point to ascertain the objectification of the Oriental.[30] In which case, the Orient assuredly remains the object of Western gaze rather than vice versa. In other words, the colonization of the Oriental remains to this day through current Eurocentric fashion even as it has seen better days in the Old Imperialism.
By creating Western-mimicking natives, Western fashion has sustained the dominant position of the West. On the other hand, with the subverted position of the colonizer mimicking the colonized, it can attempt to maintain this dominance. Critic Edward Said writes, "as a cultural apparatus Orientalism is all aggression, activity, judgment, will-to-truth, and knowledge."[31] The Western fashion industry, true to its colonizing color, is aggressive, renders itself in an active position, and shows greater knowledge than the Orient. It also wills its version of Oriental “truth”—weak, traditional, ever lacking. This creation of an Orient is agreeable to the imperialist mentality. “[O]nly an Occidental could speak of Orientals," Said continues, suggesting that in speaking of Orientals, Occidentals materialize the idea of them into existence; as a result, they create "Orientals." To make a paraphrase, only an Occidental could create and wear Orientals; fashion designers sketch and sew "Orientals" while magazine editors conceptualize "Orientals" into being. The "Oriental" is the creation of the West, and the West has fashioned an "Oriental" that is colonized. Not only do the Orientals wear Western-style dresses and accessories for five centuries now; also, the Western fashion designers become more Other than the Other with their colonizing creation of the Oriental-mode fashion. By colonizing the “Orient” in more ways than the usual, the Western European fashion remains at its mighty peak of success.
Closely related to the colonizing factor of the Orient, economic ventures also secured Western European fashion’s leadership in the world. During the time the Age of Discovery raged from the early 15th century until the early 17th century, European ships journeyed across the globe in search of new trading routes and partners to support the growing capitalism in Europe.[32] Likewise, they were in search of trading products like gold, silver and spices.[33] Western Europeans have nothing much to offer their would-be colonies in exchange for gold, silver and spices, so eventually their colonizing mission had to be appropriated in these far-flung territories. Once colonized, the territories may become dumping ground for various products, including clothing apparels,[34] of the West.
The West’s imperialism is more than just the sale or purchase of its commodities to its colonies. As such, it should not be confused with commerce or with the opening of commercial markets in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific. It is the West’s complex action on a territory, providing the natives with the use of capitals, among other systems. It opens an area not only to the commodities of the colonizing country, but to its capitals and savings. Since such a transformation of the colonized country cannot be achieved by simple trade relations, imperialism is systematically used to organize the colonized country.[35] It is this system that made the Western European fashion industry flourish not only in the home continent but also in offshore territories.
Colonization by way of capitalism involved the Western European capitalists who placed their savings in an industrial venture which builds railroads, digs canals, erects factories, clears the land in the acquired territories.[36] In putting their savings to this use, the capitalists are not in any way negligent in their duty to their home country. With enormous capitals, the home country finds it difficult where to employ its colossal savings. The substantial funds of these Western European countries can always be put into industrial, agricultural or social improvements in the home country but the export of a part of these funds across the seas to the colonized countries becomes much more productive and lucrative. The same capital which will produce 3 or 4 per cent when invested in agriculture in the mother country brings 10, 15, or 20 per cent in an agricultural enterprise in the colony. It is the same for funds put into building railroads.[37] In general terms, the capitalist countries thus are becoming investors. Their investment included clothing, so this economic enterprise actually helped strengthen Western Europe’s hold of the fashion leadership. Western European dresses find their way to the colonies, and as the natives purchase them, the fashion industry grows robust. The inherent changes in fashion lushly roll in money, for the Oriental fans are much too willing to follow clothing updates being shown in Europe-based Fashion TVs.
The great value of colonies is not only because they serve to catch the overflow population of the mother country, nor even because they open a particularly reliable area of investment for excess capital. It is also that they give a sharp stimulus to the commerce of the country, that they strengthen and support its industry and provide for its inhabitants—industrialists, workers, consumers—a growth of profits, of wages, or of interest.[38] However, these advantages resulting from the prosperity of the colonies are much more manifested in countries of Western Europe. For instance, cheap labor in India or the Philippines means bigger surpluses for the countries with international investment. When this gains large sums of profit, it will further enrich Western Europe. Since this enrichment happens with the bustling industry of Western European fashion among the colonies, the West’ fashion industry remains on top. In fact, there is not a Western European nation which does not derive a real benefit from this productivity of their offshore investment. Imperialism has caused the opening of new sources of production for Western Europe, at the expense of the colonized countries. It is thus that unknown products have been brought to the consumers of Europe supposedly to increase their comfort, to make the natives feel as if they needed the Versace shirts or the Yves Saint Laurent accessories. That is the first and incontestable result of imperialism. The home countries gain a special advantage from their own colonies. It is the capital of the citizens of the mother country which is sent there, and in this more productive field it is assured of higher interest. This case improves the fortunes of the investors. The second result is to open the new markets for the sale of products manufactured in Europe, markets more profitable and more expandable than the limited market in the home country, because the new societies have an ability to grow and to create and accumulate riches infinitely greater than the mother countries. Thus trade is stimulated and extended; industry having wider openings can and must produce more and such production on a greater scale calls for new improvements and new advances.[39] When capitalism grows, it strengthens the owner of the capital. As such, Western European capitalists in the fashion industry make lots of money out of the comprehensive fashion market that includes all colonies with buying power. With tremendously popular economic hold like that over imperialized countries, it is not likely that Western European fashion will experience a financial meltdown.
Finally, social factors such as class can build a strong foundation on which Western European fashion was anchored, making it a star of its own fashion show. If Western fashion indicates robust economy, it is by way of production and, finally, consumption issues. In both issues, class is inextricably embedded. This class underpinning keeps fashion in general into existence and Western fashion in particular into dominance.
Generally, fashion shows semiotic distinction[40] since fashionable clothes, accessories and body adornment are easy for others to spot for their signs. Hence, branded products like handbags, footwear, jewelry, accessories and new hairstyles are eye-catching status symbols. The cycle of class influence goes as such: first, a fashion is approved by the society. Next, it is copied because of class or design competition. Ultimately, when it becomes commonplace and stopped to fulfill its utility of distinction, it gets replaced by a fashion that has the society’s nod. The fashion cycle then has come full circle.
The strong economy sustaining Western European fashion industry was generated by the active role of the capitalists and the labor force in manufacturing the demands of the society depending on the production sector for the realization of their imagined fashion. With the boom of fashion since the last few decades, manufacturers from the advanced industrialized countries (AICs) transferred their resources to less developed countries (LDCs) to cut labor and operational costs. With the exploitation of women and minority workers, i.e. cheap salary, the capitalists can rechannel their sources on more production of fashion as dictated by elite consumers in both AICs and LDCs and, eventually, by the other consumers down the social strata.[41] More capital to use means more production of miniskirts, pantyhose and boots, among others, first for the can-afford elites, and then the larger mass of fashion-hungry consumers. The faddish characteristic of fashion will merit that the elite consumers will demand for new styles (to set trends and to sustain their high-end identity) once their present styles get copied by the rest of the society, and so the production does not die down, sustaining the life of factories empowered by the labor force and funded by the capitalists. Whatever is in vogue, be it a miniskirt, a textured legging and leather boots, it will be manufactured by the production of labor. This fashion production is beneficial to designers in many ways, since this can attract elites who are wiling to pay off a high price just so they can set the fashion trend. The considerably moneyed bourgeois may also demand for branded clothing in order to mimic the elite. The designers may profit from them as well. Since the designers are aware that the larger mass of people will bring in more profit too, it only takes time when they mass produce the fashion of the elite so the low class may eat their cake too while the designers part away with the poor’s money. Therefore, Western Europe’s fashion industry cannot just die down because the social classes count on them less for their clothing but more for the prestige their cloth lends on them. Western fashion remains on top because it caters to all social classes, who are amenable to splurging on clothing if this can give way to social acceptance, elitism, and/or assumed identity.
More importantly, fashion spells consumption issues in that the capacity to purchase indicates an economy alive and well. The class differentiation discussed above shows to what degree consumption is being taken by both the elite and the lower classes. They have both the power to buy, but more so with the elites, so they are the primary targets of fashion designers. They have to show a distinct culture, apart from the rest of the social strata. One such manifestation is the way their fashion distinguishes them from everyone else. Their separation may be observed with outward signs, one of which is fashion. They can buy fashion so they can set its trend. Corollary to this, the bourgeois which is the next closest to the elites will want to copy the elite trend in order to get identified with their social status. They would copy their fashion given their money’s worth of second-class fashion. Emulating the elite gives the bourgeois the sense of superior status associated to the elite. In turn, the classes lower than the bourgeois copy their fashion, still aiming to share superiority of the upper classes and repeating the fashion down the social strata. All of the social strata are now consuming, feeding the economy with its necessary lifeblood: money. When the elite class loses its uniqueness, it will think of novel signs of class differentiation to create yet again the lines demarcating it from the classes down its status. The social stratification remains, though, since those who wore tailor made clothing look richer than those who wore other people’s cast offs. The poor simply looked poor because their fashion sense, or lack thereof, betrayed them. While the rich and the new rich displayed their wealth through an iconography of signs and symbols namely fashion and the accessories, those who saw themselves inferior saw these upper classes with enhanced body image, hence the need to mimic them. After a trend is set, the classes will proceed with its mimicry, fueling the consumption needed to strengthen the economy. Fashion, whether an elitist’s or a low-life’s, is generated through the consumption process, and so are the associated accessories, which are essentially fashionable themselves.
True, the economy is strong because fashion fuels the mutualism between production and consumption. As money evolves in the economic cycle, production will have the capital to manufacture fashion, and consumption will be consummated because all of the social strata can afford to have a varying taste of what is manufactured. As long as this cycle does not get disturbed significantly, economy will remain robust. This points to one thing: the fashion designers can whip the classes into frenzy by way of their creations, so the dominant fashion industry that is Western European will not wane as yet in popularity among the former colonial territories.
Indeed, the rise of Western Europe as the fashion star of the world cannot be entirely credited to cultural factors alone, from which fashion logically springs from. Moreover, political, economic, and social factors played respective roles in cementing Western Europe’s reputation. This institution in fashion still soars high because the factors contributing to its fashion establishment were social systems through which class, status and power were structured. These systems show relationhips between the oppressor, the West, and the oppressed, the Orient, but which are masked by the superficial glamour of fashion and by the workings of social ideologies, here barely noticed and, hence, rarely subverted.
This East-West binary in fashion as in other more socially significant disciplines promotes the Eurocentric view of the West as deserving of occupying the centerstage of dynamic world history, both previous and current. As may be gleaned from the discussion of several factors cementing Western European fashion’s world dominance, this Eurocentrism has saved the Orient by favorably responding to the white man’s burden, by offering capitalism to deliver it from misery and into the light of modernity and by playing up on class hierarchical structures. While this is familiar, popular and even dangerously deceptive, Eurocentrism carries a false note of Oriental salvation for it actually exacerbates the Orient’s plight by way of colonizing it in fashion as well as in other exploitative strategies.
By being bullied into submission to the falsity that the rise and triumph of the modern world is solely the West’s doing, the Orient seemed suggested to have stood by passively as the world developed historically. A graver complication arises from this as this seems suggestive of the need of the Orient to be legitimately marginalized fro world progression for having been a willing victim or bearer of Western power. In fact, the Orient was the West’s predecessor in civilization building, as may be proven by the Mesopotamian, Chinese, Indian and Nile civilizations which all laid foundations to the Western civilization. Peering through the lack of European offering during the Exploration trade will yield the fact that important fashion elements like silk and cotton were drawn largely from the Orient. The aforementioned statements only clarify that while the Orient, with its resources and manpower, can create its own fashion center, why still look up to a foreign one?
Eurocentrism has been accompanied by an ideological power which was used to legitimize, extend, and maintain itself and its rule over the Orient. This also accounts for the top rule of Western European fashion. Drawing from this power’s political, economic, social aside from cultural aspects, Western European fashion has made legitimate its rule in the world. The most succinct examples of this include the predominance of white models in the catwalk as well as white designers in runway projects. Another example is the drawing power of Europe-based Fashion TVs which features the latest in Western fashion. This attractiveness divests the viewers of the chance to see the local fashion, not that the latter is not likely patterned from Western models which, in fact, it is. It remains a question when cheong-sams, kimonos or our very own maria clara or butterfly gowns will figure in world fashion but not in an objectified, exoticized or Orientalized manner. The very idea is already suspect, since Oriental fashion well have to be beamed also in European fashion TVs for all the Westerners to gaze and, pitifully, consumed. Yet another example is the continuous economic and imperial influence of the West over the Orient. This means that the former colonies are deluged with fashion items from the West, the consumption of which generates surpluses that will enrich the capitalist countries of the West. The Western intervention over the local political affairs also crystallizes even in fashion for who will allow foreign products to compete rapaciously against the likely less-favored local fashion items except the West-influenced government? It has to be goaded into submission under the pains of withdrawal of economic or whatever aid.
Showing how cultural, political, economic and social factors contributed to the rise of Western Europe as the star of world fashion also shows how these factors contributed to the overall rule of the West over the rest of the world. This rule, of course, was detrimental to the creation of the unique identity of the Orient. These factors contaminate the Orient’s identity by foisting on it how it should look, feel and think like. The West could revel at the frustration of the Orient to mimic the European model in style, even perhaps in speech and thoughts, only to fail miserably. Besides seeing Western-fashion-crazed Orientals wearing denims and tank tops with hairs in burgundy or mahogany coloring, they speak with independent thinking, often in English. There is something wrong with this especially in the light of juxtaposing these acculturations with one’s unique culture. Changing the appearance of Orientals into something identifiably, more modernly Western is dispensing with one’s identity in favor of a foreign one. There is also a suggestion of self-deprecation, even phobia of the self, by having to embrace decidedly the Western culture. Does it follow that just because the West is in the dominant position at present, it should be held as more beautiful or more acceptable than the Orient? The answer is, of course, not. Never. The politics of Eurocentrism in fashion as well as other aspects of human life corrupts the self of the Orient by virtue of the fragmentized or incomplete identity of the Orient. An oriental cannot justifiably and satisfactorily call oneself as such if one trades one’s own language for a foreign tongue, if one swaps one’s sarong for the perceived modern t-shirt and mini of the West, or if one looks up to a foreign model to emulate, whether that model is a literal six-foot tall fashion model or a political personality whose views are decidedly Western. One can always look for the homegrown culture for models to imitate, for fashion to accentuate one’s identity and for ideas and ideals to believe in. Almost always, one’s culture shows its richness; only, one has to have the appreciation so one does not have to look any further, in a cable-featured FTV channel perhaps or Western brand-carrying malls, to discover, construct and celebrate one’s identity.
Up to the present, the beauty standard is largely Western, and fashion dresses, makeup, and accessories are predominantly oriented from the West owing to cultural as well as political, economic and social factors. Only when the oppressed get to reclaim their position at the center that paradigms will be shifted and the fashion dominance of Western Europe will be challenged not only by its fellow superpower, the US, but also by nationally identified, class empowered people from the margins.

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[1] Cosgrave, B. ed., Sample: Cuttings from Contemporary Fashion. London: Phaidon, 2005, p. 1.
[2] Ellis, Elizabeth Gaynor. Prentice Hall World History: Connections to Today. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2001, p. 180.
[3] Cumming, Valerie. Understanding Fashion History, "Introduction." London: Costume & Fashion Press, 2004, p. 1.
[4] Boucher, F. C. C. 20,000 Years of Fashion. tr. 1967, p. 72.
[5] Cumming, Valerie. Understanding Fashion History, "Introduction." London: Costume & Fashion Press, 2004, p. 1.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Laver, James. The Concise History of Costume and Fashion. New York: Penguin, 1979, p. 62.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Cumming, Valerie. Understanding Fashion History, "Introduction." London: Costume & Fashion Press, 2004, p. 346.
[11] Boucher, F. C. C. 20,000 Years of Fashion. tr. 1967, p. 72.
[12] Laver, James. The Concise History of Costume and Fashion. New York: Penguin. 1979, p. 62.
[13] Ibid.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Ibid.
[17] Boucher, F. C. C. 20,000 Years of Fashion. tr. 1967. p.74.
[18] Ibid.
[19] Ibid, p. 76.
[20] Ibid.
[21] Perry, Marvin. A History of the World. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1989, p. 325.
[22] Ibid., p. 330.
[23] Ibid.
[24] Ibid.
[25] B. Cosgrave, ed., Sample: Cuttings from Contemporary Fashion. London: Phaidon, 2005, p. 3.
[26] Bhabha, Homi. “Of Mimicry and Man.” New York, Routledge, 1994, p. 88-92.
[27] Perry, Marvin. A History of the World. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1989, p. 325.
[28] Ibid.
[29] Steele, V. ed., Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion. New York: FIT, 2005, p 679.
[30] Ibid.
[31] Said, Edward. “Orientalism.” From Orientalism. New York: Vintage, 1979, p. 33.
[32] Perry, Marvin. A History of the World. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1989, p. 340.
[33] Ibid.
[34] T. Agins, The End of Fashion: The Mass Marketing of the Clothing Business. New York: William Morrow and Co., 1999, p. 56.
[35] Perry, Marvin. A History of the World. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1989, p. 340.
[36] Beaulieu, Paul Leroy. “Imperialism: A French Viewpoint.” In Documents of European Economic History. Pollard, S. et al. Vol. 2, pp.165-7.
[37] Ibid.
[38] Ibid.
[39] Ibid.
[40] Batterberry, M. and A. Batterberry. Fashion: The Mirror of History.1982, New York: Greenwich House,p. 536.
[41] Laver, J. Costume and Fashion: A Concise History. New York: Penguin, 1982, p. 43.