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"Sometimes I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then."

I should be reviewing for my economics exam tomorrow but here I am, surfing the net and all. Anyway, I need to vent out what I'm thinking about activism and apathy. Crap, I haven’t finished some of my articles that I’ll be posting next here in my blog.

I joined a mass organization when I was in first year. I was inspired by my sister who studied in Diliman. If I may consider, I recruited myself in that organization because I was the one who talked to them about me wanting to join their organization. Yeah, I was rare, they seemed to be curious at the same time astounded upon hearing my request if they could orient me coz I really want to join. So there we were in their old tambayan. They began indoctrinating me about their political line and ideology which came as a culture shock for me. I came from a conservative family; my father was super strict and my mother is quite conservative (a good combination,eh?. And as you might have guessed, I was locked inside the box where reality is far from my reach. I must mention here that I used to cry at the sight of a beggar wandering the road and scenes like that. Since I wasn't really aware of the real world, I was deterred to help them coz I'm not yet in the right position (you know what I mean, I don't have money yet to give them and all). Poverty was a natural thing to me that time. Some people are just lazy while some are not. Or probably, I was thinking that equality is a myth. Activism needs a strong and firm conviction because reality bites. Reality is harsh. Sometimes I even think that apathy comes in when people are not that brave enough to understand the reality and care for others. Some people are not apathetic per se. It's just that they're afraid to go out of their comfort zone and see the 'reality' of life. Maybe it's just a matter of perspective. Apathy is not just apathy. It is shape by many factors.

Activism is viewed by some people as a shallow, linear and devoid concept or it is just an activity (to some). To others, it maybe just a phase in their life. It's a focal point for their active engagement or involvement in the society that has nurtured them. Or maybe at some point, some realize that it is a cycle. It entails contradiction: within yourself (internal) and outside (external). When people started caring, I think that's where activism comes in. We are all activists in our own way, we just don't notice. To be a member of a mass organization or progressive organization is not a prerequisite to becoming an activist. You join such organization when you want to be guided by a political ideology and a principle.

Activism, for me, is an act of actively involving yourself in different issues. Say if you care so much about the environment then you could be tagged as an environmental activist. If, just like myself, you want to be active more on politics and social issues then you could be considered as a political or social activist. UP is known to be the cradle of activism in the Philippines. And I was clueless what my college years in UP would be like. Before I enter UP, I was advised by my paranoid father that I shouldn’t join mass organizations. Being the submissive girl that I am, I assured them that I will do as they say. I admit, I hate my father for many reasons, but my membership doesn’t mean rebellion on my part.

Activism is not fun. You need to sacrifice (time, money, even your family). Little sacrifice means big to the organization and to the greater cause of serving the people. Yes, I don’t attend my class at times when the need arises. I don’t make good papers, I always flunk in quizzes (especially in econ), and I was never a good speaker (and I hated recitations). But for me, what I did and what I will do is always justifiable. It’s a matter of perspective. If you view that as laziness, it means sacrifice on my side. I enjoy learning, inside and outside the classroom. I like hearing different opinions from my classmates and most of all, I love thinking. In fact my ultimate dream is to be a political thinker. I once thought of formulating an idea that could make a great impact to the whole world (yes it may sound ambitious to you, but I believe that all things are possible), but for now I guess I have to pass my exam tomorrow. Impossibility is when you give up on trying achieving something.

I was shaped by the things around me. What was done to me created me. I was ‘exposed.’ And I chose to serve. When reality is presented to you, you could have two diametrically opposed reaction; one is to deny it and the other is to accept it and act. The first one is apathy and the latter is activism.

Many times I find myself questioning why I have to explain myself. I have to, not only because it’s considered liberalism (based on our ideology), but because I chose to. It’s also a matter of preference or choice. And activism is also like that.

My petty bourgeois tendency: ‘Sometimes I wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then.’ Playing safe is pathetic, but sometimes you feel the urge of going back to where you came from-your bourgeois orientation and way of living. I am not here to please anyone. Activism is not only excelling in class, it also needs excellence in serving the people. So whenever I feel demoralize because of counter-activism opinions, I go back to the primary reason why I chose this path. I am here because of the masses. I am not a savior and I could not liberate them. But I want to be an agent of change to achieve genuine liberation and equality (if such concept is true).


(I am entitled to my own opinion, you may agree or disagree but that's just natural. This world is full of contradictions anyway.)

A reaction paper on UPs' 300% tuition increase

Yearly, more than 60,000 high school graduates aspire to enter the University of the Philippines for various reasons. One is the promise of quality education and academic excellence. The minimal tuition in UP is also one of the reasons. Being a state university, the cost of schooling in UP is subsidized by the Filipino people’s tax which entails a lesser tuition fee compared with other private educational institutions. Albeit, being a state university, we are presently challenged by an increase in tuition and other fees.


-Paying Scholars

Being accepted in UP is indeed a privilege to some because thousands of students compete for the limited slot. I consider myself lucky for having been able to experience some of the opportunities available during my first year in UP which, presently aren’t offered. My friends and I were able to benefit from the one hour free internet use at the Learning Resource Center. The library hour was from 8am to 7pm (if I recall it right). Every room we used had a functional Overhead Projector and air conditioner. Even if our facilities are not the most up-to-date, we are still fortunate because they’re still useful. However, as each semester passed by, the out-of-date facilities we have continue to deteriorate in quality. At the same time, austerity measures were implemented to reduce the university’s expenditure. Internet use is no longer free, library hour was curtailed, and you’re lucky enough if the OHP in your room is not that blurry and if the air conditioner breathes out cool air. We are technologically backward, our reading materials and facilities are becoming obsolete and our professors are transferring to high-paying universities.

Amidst the annual budgetary cuts, the rising inflation rate, cost of living and maintenance of school facilities, the UP Administration resorted to tuition and other fee increases to stabilize finances of the University. As a result, the burden of generating fund for the University is passed on to the students- Pasaload as some of the Progressive organizations say.

The College of Medicine is a test case for the increase. From 11,509php, the tuition in the CM increased to 20,042php. A 100% increase in library fee was carried into effect at the College of Arts and Sciences last semester while the miscellaneous fee increased from 565-965php. Alongside with these increases are other exorbitant fees such as late registration fee, dropping fee and LOA fee.

UP, supposedly, should get 80% of its fund from state’s subsidy while the remaining 20% will come from tuition fee and other income-generating activities of the University. According to our Faculty Regent, Prof. Roland Simbulan, tuition is the primary source of the University’s income comprising more than a third of all the sources. UP receives an insignificant amount from the economic pie due to the austerity measures taken up by the government thus a reduction in budget allotment in some sector including the education sector and misappropriation of the government, giving heavy premium to debt servicing and militarization.


-Why is there a need to increase/adjust tuition fee? (according to the Admin)

It was 17 years ago (1989) when we adjusted our tuition so the monetary value isn’t the same anymore. “It is proposed that tuition fees will be subsequently adjusted annually based on the national inflation rate.” (Primer on the Proposal to adjust Tuition and other fees) However, I have yet to hear of a substantial increase in worker’s wage and employees’ salary vis-à-vis the increasing inflation rate. How will the people muddle through an increase if their income doesn’t multiply? And besides, UP isn’t only affected by the rising inflation rate but everyone as well, so if the university suffers from it, so do we.

Compared with other universities, our tuition is only minimal given the quality of education we receive, according to the UP Admin. We should make it clear that UP is a state university, meaning we are subsidized. UP isn’t a private institution like La Salle and Ateneo, which can increase tuition whenever they want to. Furthermore, in UP, we regard education as a right and not a mere privilege to people born with silver spoon in their mouths. Moreover, an increase in tuition doesn’t necessarily entail a better quality of education.

The UP President questioned UP students who are opposing the increase in her open letter. The new fees are meant for the new and incoming students so why are we protesting it? We are exempted anyway. I, for one, oppose TFI/ToFI even if I won’t be affected by it. UP students play a vital role in shaping the future of our country. I believe in the so called ‘intergenerational responsibility.’ The present generation- our generation has a responsibility to the future and succeeding generations. We must strive not to be the University of/for the Elite but to be a University of and for the People. If we don’t do something about the increase, or if we don’t propose alternative policies and programs, the poor but deserving students will be deterred in entering our premier university. I wonder what UP would be like in the years to come.


Recommendations

Fighting (not pleading) for greater subsidy is still the best solution to augment the increasing university expenditure, upgrading our old facilities and improving services in the university. We should fight for greater state subsidy so that our idle lands and assets will be used for the benefit of UP constituents and for the future of our country. However, I partly agree with leasing our vast land assets to generate fund but not on increasing tuition and other fees. Utilizing land assets and establishing linkages with private sector must be regulated and guarded so as not to encourage commercialization of education.

The bracketing system must also be reviewed because it is flawed. There was a reported case where two students coming from the same family belong to different bracket. A student with a cell phone is instantly place in bracket 9, but what if the cell phone is only a gift from someone? It doesn’t necessarily indicate that a student is well-off.


Conclusion

By increasing tuition and other fees, education then becomes a commodity that one needs to buy in order to enjoy it. Education becomes an investment for the people. Students will be profit-oriented and will only aim at returning the investment made (return of investment).
The real problem isn’t only the inflation rate but the misallocation of the government on the national budget. The government should give heavy premium to education instead of paying onerous debts and bribing corrupt and spoiled military officials.
I believe that education should not only be used to educate people to produce goods and services to respond to the world and to satisfy man’s insatiable needs and aesthetic impulses but it must be service and development-oriented. Let us not repeat history where formal education was available only to rulers and nobles-an exclusivist and elitist type of education.



Sources:

A dissenting vote to the 300% tuition fee increase at the University of the Philippines by Roland G. Simbulan

Primer on the Proposal to adjust tuition and other fees

Intelligence is a social construct

At age three, I started reading and memorizing lengthy poems and prayers. They said, before, that I was a gifted child because of that talent. I won’t mention that my milk was Promil, the milk that produces genius as what the ad in the television says. I started schooling at that same age. I was the youngest yet I was able to perform well in class even surpassing the academic performance of my other classmates.

When I reached Grade One, my teacher doesn’t want to accept me because I am underage but my parents insisted and so did I. Next thing I found myself inside aroom full of children aged 6, most are tall and talkative. Since my sister and I studied at the same time, we were classmates since nursery. She wasn’t a caring sister that time, probably due to immaturity. I am a very quiet person; well sometimes I get a little noisy, compared to my sister. At times, people find me sitting alone, ever solemn and it’s as if I have my own world where I explore things, alone, while my sister is playing hide and seek, even playing spiders and jolen.

You know what is the disadvantage of having a parent that is a teacher? It’s when people expect a lot from you. They think that you’re intelligent enough to know everything because your parent is a teacher, which is not true at times.

Intelligence matters to people nowadays. When applying for a job, a person must have good communication skills and good academic performance (meaning the person has good grades), among others. Even in schools, intelligence matters. As what they say, “In UP, the stratification isn’t based on ones wealth but with ones intellectual capability.

How then should we judge if someone is intelligent or not? Through IQ tests or from his /her grades in school, or the ability to use the knowledge one has? People have created different criteria to measure ones intellectual capacity, but how sure are we that they are right? I, for one, don’t believe that some people are stupid and have low IQ. People will always excel in one thing if not all. We all have that x factor because we have brains. We just have to get them working. Work, brain! Yeah!

Now what should I tell you? I believe that intelligence is a social construct. During the primitive stage, the intelligence of a person wasn’t measured. It didn’t matter. No one is called stupid or fool. No one is adored because of his good intellectual ability. Then the idea of intellect came, which also became a weapon to oppress and discriminate people. In our society, observe who are the intellectuals. They are mostly the wealthy ones because they have access to knowledge. Yes, you heard me right. Have you ever heard of people hoarding knowledge? I’m not referring to people who hide books in the library when you need them, or to people who pretend not to know things when you ask them about it. Capitalists hoard knowledge in different ways. Sometimes, they don’t publicize new discoveries; say a cure for AIDs, because they want to be the sole supplier of that drug. They want total control or monopoly. Intelligent people are also being used by capitalists for their gain.

Intelligence matters because of society’s standard particularly because of the capitalist system. We need people who are intelligent because they are the machinery to think and produce something new for the consumerist society.

The bottom line is that intelligence is a social construct. I’m not sure if I am able to write my point. Now, I don’t care if I’m intelligent or not. What matters is that, whatever it is that I learn in school and in my organization, I apply it in practice. That’s what learning and intellect is all about.

Activism in the Web

I learned using the computer when I was in my third year high school. That’s pretty much late because compared with other nationalities, say Americans, they learn using computers at a very early age. But here in the Philippines, there are still children who haven’t seen computers and cell phones. The most modern gadget they have seen could be an old model of a radio with antenna, or maybe a television set that is half screen. I could just imagine how amaze they would be at the sight of an airplane, or how curious they would be seeing a machine talking. That is the pressing reality. While few privileged people have access to different high tech gadgets, the other half, even the majority of the populace is left in complete ignorance.

My younger sister who is in Grade three has this computer lesson. She’s luckier than me. She is studying in a private school, which, most often than not, have complete technology or more technologically advance.

I’m not into net surfing and stuffs like that before. I really think it’s a waste of time, MONEY and energy. The most trivial thing I did in the net is to have a friendster account. Well up to now I still have an account. Friendster is an online community. It’s a virtual place where people can meet, be friends (or even lovers), etc.

Lately, I had this addiction with blogging. Blog is an online diary where you can write everything you want, and I mean everything. It became a venue for people to write their thoughts and ideas. As for me, I want to use (and I will use) the internet as a venue to voice whatever is in my mind that is socio-politically and economically related. And here applies what we call internet activism or cyber activism. I’m not saying that this is the right and the only way to be politically involved, but this could be a way to reach out thousands and even millions of net users around the globe not to mention that this is the fastest way to disseminate information and propagandize stuff you advocate.

I’m still an activist after all, just trying to exhaust every means available to promote my cause.