The great faith of Jesus empowered him to walk calmly & cross over troubled waters in his life especially in times when he felt a combination of grief, fear & fatigue. He felt grief & fear when he was told that his former mentor, John the Baptist, a prophet of the heavenly kingdom, was beheaded by the shameless Herod Antipas (Matthew 14:1-13). He felt fatigue after a whole day of healing & feeding the souls and bodies of a crowd of thousands of men, women & children (14:14-21).
“He went up on a mountainside by himself to pray” (14:23). Although he was physically alone in his grief & fatigue, he perceived the presence of the Spirit of the loving Father in the sound of sheer silence as he prayed in solitude.
Similarly, while the prophet Elijah felt his failure, fear & fatigue after he fled from the wrathful & vengeful queen Jezebel, he recognized the very presence of Yhwh not in powerful events like a great storm, an earthquake & then a conflagration but in the sound of sheer silence (1 Kings 19:9-13).
The faith of Jesus, his faith in the Father’s great love for him & for all the weary daughters & sons of God, was tested in moments of grief, fear & fatigue & it was nurtured in moments of prayer. His Spirit of faith & not our own merit saves us from the destructiveness of our sinful passions & addictions.
“We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit itself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express” (Romans 8:26). The sound of sheer silence in prayer is primarily God’s gift & not anybody’s achievement, and thus we ought to be sober and never to be arrogant even toward those who are, or are perceived to be, faithless, sinful, or corrupt.
Jesus, the meek Messiah, learned from an assertive non-Jewish woman, and discovered the inadequacy of his initial understanding of his mission as “sent only to the lost sheep of Israel” (Mt 15:24). His faith was enriched by the great faith of the Canaanite woman who wanted the healing of her ailing daughter.
May Christ’s Spirit of faith help believers to cross over troubled waters, to guard against arrogance & to be receptive to spiritual enrichment from the “outsider” & the lowly. (See also my 03 October 2010 blog post; your comments are welcome.)
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Leadership & Culture Change in the Bureaucracy
The gains of the (P-Noy) Aquino administration in fighting corruption and reducing poverty cannot be consolidated & sustained without smart efforts at reforming the bureaucracy & changing the culture(s) within public agencies and organizations.
The book, "Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture: Based on the Competing Values Framework," 3rd edition, by Kim Cameron & Robert Quinn (San Francisco, 2011) offers a formula for organizational culture change based on research done on many business organizations mostly in North America & Western Europe.
The book describes 4 major culture types: a. Hierarchy (Control) Culture, b. Market (Compete) Culture, c. Clan (Collaborate) Culture, d. Adhocracy (Create) Culture.
Applying the descriptions to the Philippine bureaucracy, it appears that the dominant culture in our public agencies is the clan culture. For the book, the competencies of successful leaders in a clan culture are: leading through teamwork & interpersonal relationships, ensuring the personal growth of followers, & leading through collaboration and caring.
The formal norms of the bureaucracy bequeathed to us by the United States, however, belong more to the hierarchy (control) culture in which the competencies of successful leaders are: leading through rational analysis, information clarity, ensuring accuracy & consistency in quality, & leading through measurement.
In the Philippine context, research can be pursued on the key leadership competencies and strategies (e.g. culture-sensitive communication strategy) which can bring about the reconciliation, consolidation, or reform of these distinct cultures so that every
agency can greatly improve the development and implementation of its public service programs & projects.
What are reliable & innovative ways & means to develop the necessary competencies? Also how does a leader introduce elements of the "adhocracy" culture so that the public agency can be agile and the implementation of programs innovative?
One area of research can be the determination of the applicability & limitations of the "competing values framework" to diagnosing & changing Philippine public organizations.
(Your comments or thoughts on the matter are most welcome.)
The book, "Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture: Based on the Competing Values Framework," 3rd edition, by Kim Cameron & Robert Quinn (San Francisco, 2011) offers a formula for organizational culture change based on research done on many business organizations mostly in North America & Western Europe.
The book describes 4 major culture types: a. Hierarchy (Control) Culture, b. Market (Compete) Culture, c. Clan (Collaborate) Culture, d. Adhocracy (Create) Culture.
Applying the descriptions to the Philippine bureaucracy, it appears that the dominant culture in our public agencies is the clan culture. For the book, the competencies of successful leaders in a clan culture are: leading through teamwork & interpersonal relationships, ensuring the personal growth of followers, & leading through collaboration and caring.
The formal norms of the bureaucracy bequeathed to us by the United States, however, belong more to the hierarchy (control) culture in which the competencies of successful leaders are: leading through rational analysis, information clarity, ensuring accuracy & consistency in quality, & leading through measurement.
In the Philippine context, research can be pursued on the key leadership competencies and strategies (e.g. culture-sensitive communication strategy) which can bring about the reconciliation, consolidation, or reform of these distinct cultures so that every
agency can greatly improve the development and implementation of its public service programs & projects.
What are reliable & innovative ways & means to develop the necessary competencies? Also how does a leader introduce elements of the "adhocracy" culture so that the public agency can be agile and the implementation of programs innovative?
One area of research can be the determination of the applicability & limitations of the "competing values framework" to diagnosing & changing Philippine public organizations.
(Your comments or thoughts on the matter are most welcome.)
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Santisima Trinidad (Most Holy Trinity)
In his very short story, “Santisima Trinidad,” from his 2011 collection, “100 Kislap” [100 Flashes], Abdon Balde Jr narrates:
“I told Cora, my daughter, to look after her son, my grandson Jeco, the stubborn Jeco, to look after his needs. Negligent too, busy with Facebook. So there...
“The naughty Jeco, just three years old, asked for a Stik-O snack from his grandma. And this Trinidad of mine could not refuse the grandson, even with rheumatism & after an operation in which some metal was inserted in her hipbone, she tried to reach for the cabinet, and unable, pulled a chair, climbed up & stood on the chair with a broken leg (sigh)...
“Both Cora & I heard the thud on the floor. I thought it was some heavy sack!
“When Jerry arrived, he, Cora & Jeco are still a whole family—-bound to us. But I...
“Cora can fix the bed, the pillow, but when it is hot, will she be patient enough to keep on fanning me? Who will button me when I am unbuttoned? Clean my dentures? And in the toilet, Santisima!
“Sometimes I tell myself I wish it had been me.” [My translation from the original Filipino]
The Holy Trinity is first a story before it is a dogmatic teaching, doctrine or formula. The doctrinal expression, “Most Holy Trinity,” carries the spark of a story. True believers in the story will appreciate these questions: Do we still know life without the Most Holy Trinity?
Is the Spirit of the beloved Son our “welcome coolness in the heat”? In other words of the Sequence for Pentecost Sunday, have we known the Spirit to “shed a ray of light divine...heal our wounds, our strength renew...wash the stains of guilt away”?
As a story, the Trinity can be summarized thus: God so loved the world that he sent the beloved Son, who has saved the world by sharing for ever the Spirit of authentic love he received from the Father of mercy.
The Triune formula “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” is a symbolic summary of the experience of the community of believers as regards the Spirit of the Son loved by the Father within every believer, among believers & beyond them.
The Trinity is a great story, but is it true? Why are there many believers from generation to generation even though they have never touched the glorified body of Jesus?
The Trinity is a mysterious story of presencing & absencing: the movement & prevalence of inner radiance even in the absence of bodies. The loving Father is the origin of everybody & everything, but has neither origin nor body. The beloved Son originates from the Father, whose Spirit of love is poured first on the Son, whose glorified body is nowhere on earth. The Holy Spirit originates from the Father, is bodiless, and binds the Father and the Son inseparably.
Why are there true believers in this story?
First, because they have felt the spark and movement of the Spirit of the beloved Son within them. Second, they have tasted the fruit of the Spirit (and have known the joy of sowing seeds for future fruits).
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness & self-control” (Galatians 5:22).
The fruit of the Spirit of the Father and the Son offer seeds or sparks of the Trinity in the day-to-day lives of believers. “The Christian life of full of Trinity” (Origen, 3rd c). Are there enough believers who discover the many sparks of the Trinity in their lives?
“To those who seek, enough signs are given” (Blaise Pascal, 17th c). The believer who seeks the Spirit of love of the Father and the Son will find its presence and the traces of its movement in one’s life. “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13).
In continual prayer for the gift of the Spirit & in the practice of sowing seeds of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness & self-control, believers will discover many sparks of the Trinity in their day-to-day lives so much so that they will find their fulfilment & liberation in communion with the Trinity.
Without rays of Trinitarian light, human life will sink into the "graves of craving" (compare Numbers 11:31-34). “Self-gratification, self-indulgence, self-satisfaction & the abandonment of ourselves to our cravings...is ultimately the way to death of the spirit” (John Navone, SJ).
We have a choice between the closed story of the graves of craving and the open (expansive) story of the empty tomb of Christ. “The Jesus story tells us that our own story finds its source, its direction & its fulfilment in sharing the life of the Blessed Trinity” (Navone).
For believers who discover sparks of the Trinity in the ordinary and historic events in their lives, the story of the Trinity becomes their life-story that continues to expand toward the whole wide world and will never end.
(Your comments, dear readers, are most welcome.)
“I told Cora, my daughter, to look after her son, my grandson Jeco, the stubborn Jeco, to look after his needs. Negligent too, busy with Facebook. So there...
“The naughty Jeco, just three years old, asked for a Stik-O snack from his grandma. And this Trinidad of mine could not refuse the grandson, even with rheumatism & after an operation in which some metal was inserted in her hipbone, she tried to reach for the cabinet, and unable, pulled a chair, climbed up & stood on the chair with a broken leg (sigh)...
“Both Cora & I heard the thud on the floor. I thought it was some heavy sack!
“When Jerry arrived, he, Cora & Jeco are still a whole family—-bound to us. But I...
“Cora can fix the bed, the pillow, but when it is hot, will she be patient enough to keep on fanning me? Who will button me when I am unbuttoned? Clean my dentures? And in the toilet, Santisima!
“Sometimes I tell myself I wish it had been me.” [My translation from the original Filipino]
The Holy Trinity is first a story before it is a dogmatic teaching, doctrine or formula. The doctrinal expression, “Most Holy Trinity,” carries the spark of a story. True believers in the story will appreciate these questions: Do we still know life without the Most Holy Trinity?
Is the Spirit of the beloved Son our “welcome coolness in the heat”? In other words of the Sequence for Pentecost Sunday, have we known the Spirit to “shed a ray of light divine...heal our wounds, our strength renew...wash the stains of guilt away”?
As a story, the Trinity can be summarized thus: God so loved the world that he sent the beloved Son, who has saved the world by sharing for ever the Spirit of authentic love he received from the Father of mercy.
The Triune formula “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” is a symbolic summary of the experience of the community of believers as regards the Spirit of the Son loved by the Father within every believer, among believers & beyond them.
The Trinity is a great story, but is it true? Why are there many believers from generation to generation even though they have never touched the glorified body of Jesus?
The Trinity is a mysterious story of presencing & absencing: the movement & prevalence of inner radiance even in the absence of bodies. The loving Father is the origin of everybody & everything, but has neither origin nor body. The beloved Son originates from the Father, whose Spirit of love is poured first on the Son, whose glorified body is nowhere on earth. The Holy Spirit originates from the Father, is bodiless, and binds the Father and the Son inseparably.
Why are there true believers in this story?
First, because they have felt the spark and movement of the Spirit of the beloved Son within them. Second, they have tasted the fruit of the Spirit (and have known the joy of sowing seeds for future fruits).
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness & self-control” (Galatians 5:22).
The fruit of the Spirit of the Father and the Son offer seeds or sparks of the Trinity in the day-to-day lives of believers. “The Christian life of full of Trinity” (Origen, 3rd c). Are there enough believers who discover the many sparks of the Trinity in their lives?
“To those who seek, enough signs are given” (Blaise Pascal, 17th c). The believer who seeks the Spirit of love of the Father and the Son will find its presence and the traces of its movement in one’s life. “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13).
In continual prayer for the gift of the Spirit & in the practice of sowing seeds of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness & self-control, believers will discover many sparks of the Trinity in their day-to-day lives so much so that they will find their fulfilment & liberation in communion with the Trinity.
Without rays of Trinitarian light, human life will sink into the "graves of craving" (compare Numbers 11:31-34). “Self-gratification, self-indulgence, self-satisfaction & the abandonment of ourselves to our cravings...is ultimately the way to death of the spirit” (John Navone, SJ).
We have a choice between the closed story of the graves of craving and the open (expansive) story of the empty tomb of Christ. “The Jesus story tells us that our own story finds its source, its direction & its fulfilment in sharing the life of the Blessed Trinity” (Navone).
For believers who discover sparks of the Trinity in the ordinary and historic events in their lives, the story of the Trinity becomes their life-story that continues to expand toward the whole wide world and will never end.
(Your comments, dear readers, are most welcome.)
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Touch not (the glorified body)
Randy David, in his Easter Sunday piece at the PDI, suggests that Jose Rizal’s use of “Noli Me Tangere” (Touch Me Not) as the title of his 1st novel might give a better understanding of what the phrase meant when the Risen Jesus uttered it to Mary Magdalene in John’s gospel (20:17).
For David, Rizal wanted his Spanish and Filipino readers to let go of, or to stop clinging to, the decadent and morbid colonial society on the islands and instead to work for the emergence of a new nation. David does not make it clear, however, what Mary Magdalene in the gospel had to let go.
Mary had to let go of her incomplete understanding of Jesus as her beloved teacher and her incomplete understanding of her identity and mission as a female disciple. The Risen Jesus is not just her beloved teacher but the beloved Son of the merciful Father in whose Spirit we become true brothers, sisters and apostles. Jesus was ascending to his Father (and our Father) in order to fulfil this higher truth.
Christ wants a personal relationship with each disciple but in community. This is what he intimated to Mary: “she must learn to relate to him in community and she must come to know him as he is in relation to God his Father...He is trying to draw her into the Risen Body of Christ, larger than her personal connection to him.” (Megan McKenna)
Also, Jesus wanted Mary to let go of the pervasive patriarchal belief that women cannot be reliable witnesses to truth. Jesus entrusted Mary with the mission to go to the other disciples to proclaim and bear witness to his resurrection and glorification. Just as Jesus bore witness to his loving Father, every disciple must bear witness, must have an apostolate.
David prefers the translation, “Do not cling to me,” over “Touch me not,” which is closer to the original Greek text, “Me mou haptou” (Not me touch), of John 20:17. What insight does one gain by puzzling over the original text? It could have meant: Not Me but my brothers and sisters (need your) touch (and there you touch Me).
Especially if the experience of touching were potentially very satisfying, to prevent touching would be to prevent clinging and having the memory of the experience as a source of distraction from necessary work (the apostolate). “(There is) a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain” (Ecclesiastes 3:5). The time for embracing the glorified body of Christ is at the completion of the mission at the great wedding feast in the new heaven and new earth.
Christ wanted Mary to focus on the great and necessary work he was entrusting her: courageously go to the community, especially to the male disciples, and bear witness to the full truth and thus turn the community into a true body of Christ in whose communion there is no hierarchy among male and female.
On earth Christ wants his witnesses, ministers and missionaries to touch his glorified body by taking care of the body of believers. (In the case of Thomas the Twin, Christ responded to his challenge by inviting him to touch the scars of his glorified body, and this would have reminded Thomas how he abandoned and wounded his beloved teacher despite his bold declaration to his peers: "Let us also go, that we may die with him" [John 11:16].)
For those of us who derive satisfaction, or perverse pleasure, from periodic self-flagellation on everything that is wrong about our country, may this Easter season help us gain the courage and the focus to do our share in the challenging work of building our nation, community by community, family by family, house by house, stone by stone, board by board, day by day.
For David, Rizal wanted his Spanish and Filipino readers to let go of, or to stop clinging to, the decadent and morbid colonial society on the islands and instead to work for the emergence of a new nation. David does not make it clear, however, what Mary Magdalene in the gospel had to let go.
Mary had to let go of her incomplete understanding of Jesus as her beloved teacher and her incomplete understanding of her identity and mission as a female disciple. The Risen Jesus is not just her beloved teacher but the beloved Son of the merciful Father in whose Spirit we become true brothers, sisters and apostles. Jesus was ascending to his Father (and our Father) in order to fulfil this higher truth.
Christ wants a personal relationship with each disciple but in community. This is what he intimated to Mary: “she must learn to relate to him in community and she must come to know him as he is in relation to God his Father...He is trying to draw her into the Risen Body of Christ, larger than her personal connection to him.” (Megan McKenna)
Also, Jesus wanted Mary to let go of the pervasive patriarchal belief that women cannot be reliable witnesses to truth. Jesus entrusted Mary with the mission to go to the other disciples to proclaim and bear witness to his resurrection and glorification. Just as Jesus bore witness to his loving Father, every disciple must bear witness, must have an apostolate.
David prefers the translation, “Do not cling to me,” over “Touch me not,” which is closer to the original Greek text, “Me mou haptou” (Not me touch), of John 20:17. What insight does one gain by puzzling over the original text? It could have meant: Not Me but my brothers and sisters (need your) touch (and there you touch Me).
Especially if the experience of touching were potentially very satisfying, to prevent touching would be to prevent clinging and having the memory of the experience as a source of distraction from necessary work (the apostolate). “(There is) a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain” (Ecclesiastes 3:5). The time for embracing the glorified body of Christ is at the completion of the mission at the great wedding feast in the new heaven and new earth.
Christ wanted Mary to focus on the great and necessary work he was entrusting her: courageously go to the community, especially to the male disciples, and bear witness to the full truth and thus turn the community into a true body of Christ in whose communion there is no hierarchy among male and female.
On earth Christ wants his witnesses, ministers and missionaries to touch his glorified body by taking care of the body of believers. (In the case of Thomas the Twin, Christ responded to his challenge by inviting him to touch the scars of his glorified body, and this would have reminded Thomas how he abandoned and wounded his beloved teacher despite his bold declaration to his peers: "Let us also go, that we may die with him" [John 11:16].)
For those of us who derive satisfaction, or perverse pleasure, from periodic self-flagellation on everything that is wrong about our country, may this Easter season help us gain the courage and the focus to do our share in the challenging work of building our nation, community by community, family by family, house by house, stone by stone, board by board, day by day.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Glory & Beauty of Christ's Scarred Body
The glorified body of Christ is beautiful with his scars, and thus the lives of his believers can radiate & captivate through their scars & wounds.
In his book of inspirational essays, “Ah, Wilderness! A Journey through Sacred Time” (Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2008), which won a National Book Award in 2009, the Cebu writer and Regional Trial Court judge, Simeon Dumdum Jr, talks about the beauty of the Risen Christ who, in the Gospel of John (20:19-23), stands among the fearful disciples who abandoned him, offers them peace, and shows them his wounded hands and side. He writes (pp 122-23):
“This is how the Lord wants us to discern his presence in each other – by our wounds, those that the world considers the marks of defeat. And above all, by our joy, our sense of triumph over our bitterness for the dreadful & unpleasant things that have happened to us…
“Only when we begin to show the wounds on our hands & sides – loss of loved ones, unemployment, drug addiction, failure of relationships, depression – will we start to recognize each other. Because then we will be shedding off our masks & will be most ourselves, unprotected by pride.
“And if, besides, we acknowledge that we need, and ask for, grace to heal our wounds, we might even see in each other the beauty of Christ shining through.”
Christ entrusts believers with the mission to show to one another the beauty & peace of his Father through their wounded & scarred lives in the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, wisdom & discernment. Thus, at proper instances, Christian preachers, teachers & "witnesses," to be more effective or persuasive, have to talk about their personal or deep wounds and how the Spirit of Christ within & around them has healed or is healing them.
Dumdum mentions that, after the pain of the death of a daughter, he yearned “for a faith that had in it something more certain & solid than blind trust.” His reflective essays show the Spirit's response to his yearning: faith that is enlightened, enlightening & enthralling.
In his book of inspirational essays, “Ah, Wilderness! A Journey through Sacred Time” (Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2008), which won a National Book Award in 2009, the Cebu writer and Regional Trial Court judge, Simeon Dumdum Jr, talks about the beauty of the Risen Christ who, in the Gospel of John (20:19-23), stands among the fearful disciples who abandoned him, offers them peace, and shows them his wounded hands and side. He writes (pp 122-23):
“This is how the Lord wants us to discern his presence in each other – by our wounds, those that the world considers the marks of defeat. And above all, by our joy, our sense of triumph over our bitterness for the dreadful & unpleasant things that have happened to us…
“Only when we begin to show the wounds on our hands & sides – loss of loved ones, unemployment, drug addiction, failure of relationships, depression – will we start to recognize each other. Because then we will be shedding off our masks & will be most ourselves, unprotected by pride.
“And if, besides, we acknowledge that we need, and ask for, grace to heal our wounds, we might even see in each other the beauty of Christ shining through.”
Christ entrusts believers with the mission to show to one another the beauty & peace of his Father through their wounded & scarred lives in the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, wisdom & discernment. Thus, at proper instances, Christian preachers, teachers & "witnesses," to be more effective or persuasive, have to talk about their personal or deep wounds and how the Spirit of Christ within & around them has healed or is healing them.
Dumdum mentions that, after the pain of the death of a daughter, he yearned “for a faith that had in it something more certain & solid than blind trust.” His reflective essays show the Spirit's response to his yearning: faith that is enlightened, enlightening & enthralling.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Suicide as Enigma
Anybody who wants to wrestle with the baffling suicide of a former high official with a "strong" personality ought to look for and read the book, "Jaime Ongpin The Enigma: A Profile of the Filipino as Manager," by the late National Artist Nick Joaquin, & published in 1990 (ISBN 971-91184-1-5) by the Jaime V. Ongpin Institute of Business and Government of the Ateneo Graduate School of Business. The Jaime Ongpin Institute later became the Ateneo School of Government.
Before he committed suicide on 07 December 1987, Jimmy Ongpin was the first Finance Secretary of Pres. Corazon Aquino. When he was the first Filipino president of the multinational mining company, Benguet Corporation, Jimmy Ongpin dared to publicly criticize the cronyism of Pres. Ferdinand Marcos from 1981 onwards. He was part of the core campaign team, if not the primary campaign finance manager, of Cory Aquino when she decided to challenge Marcos during the 1986 snap election. He was an alumnus of the Ateneo de Manila University, where he studied from high school to college, and became Chairman of the University's Board of Trustees.
What drove the 49-year-old achiever & a father of 5 children (of which the youngest was 15) to shoot himself? The apparently disrespectful way in which he was removed from the Cabinet in mid-September 1987? The grilling he got from four Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearings in August and September in which he was accused of dishonesty in the sale of assets of a governmment corporation? The persistent media criticism that he was unpatriotic & over-accommodating to the international bankers and creditors of the massive State debt that the Marcos dictatorship left behind? All of the above & some more?
The book is such a good read.
Before he committed suicide on 07 December 1987, Jimmy Ongpin was the first Finance Secretary of Pres. Corazon Aquino. When he was the first Filipino president of the multinational mining company, Benguet Corporation, Jimmy Ongpin dared to publicly criticize the cronyism of Pres. Ferdinand Marcos from 1981 onwards. He was part of the core campaign team, if not the primary campaign finance manager, of Cory Aquino when she decided to challenge Marcos during the 1986 snap election. He was an alumnus of the Ateneo de Manila University, where he studied from high school to college, and became Chairman of the University's Board of Trustees.
What drove the 49-year-old achiever & a father of 5 children (of which the youngest was 15) to shoot himself? The apparently disrespectful way in which he was removed from the Cabinet in mid-September 1987? The grilling he got from four Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearings in August and September in which he was accused of dishonesty in the sale of assets of a governmment corporation? The persistent media criticism that he was unpatriotic & over-accommodating to the international bankers and creditors of the massive State debt that the Marcos dictatorship left behind? All of the above & some more?
The book is such a good read.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Book Development for Philippine Development
I humbly propose the following contributions of the National Book Development Board to the Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP 2012-2016):
(1) The NBDB shall provide technical support to the Department of Education and Philippine book publishers for the development of textbooks, both printed and electronic, for the additional 3 years of the Enhanced K+12 Basic Education program.
(2) The NBDB shall pursue programs to assist local publishers in increasing the quantity, quality and variety of higher education books, and improving their distribution in all regions of the country.
(3) The NBDB shall monitor periodically the level and quality of book readership among all age sectors of the citizenry, and formulate programs to improve readership.
(4) The NBDB shall pursue programs to support the creative sector in the book industry.
As regards (1), Section 10 of Republic Act 8047 or the 1995 Book Publishing Industry Development Act provides that “the DepEd shall consult with the NBDB in prescribing guidelines, rules, and regulations in preparing the minimum learning competencies, and/or prototypes and other specifications for books required by public elementary and secondary schools.”
As regards (2), our college students and their parents would spend less on imported books if local publishers increased the quantity, quality and variety of higher education books, both printed and electronic. In 2008 and 2009, the US book exports to the Philippines amounted to USD$19.997M and USD$21.281M, respectively (http://www.ita.doc.gov/td/ocg/exp2731.htm). The UK book exports amounted to £ 2.223M in 2008 and £ 2.246M in 2009 (http://www.publishers.org.uk).
To develop local knowledge and create local content in print and electronic formats, the NBDB has organized Academic Publishing Conferences (APC) to offer to higher education institutions several training and development opportunities in which local and foreign book industry experts are involved. We have organized APCs in Quezon City (2007), Cebu (2008), Baguio (2009), Davao (2009), and Makati City (2010).
As regards (3), the NBDB organized the NBDB Readership Survey in 2003 and 2007 with the help of the Social Weather Stations in order to provide to the reading public, educational institutions, and the book industry accurate, up-to-date, and relevant information on the state of Philippine readership nationwide. The NBDB Readership Surveys are the most comprehensive attempts to determine the reading preferences, attitudes and habits of our citizenry.
As regards (4), the NBDB introduced book development interventions to support the creative sector in the book industry by catalyzing the organization of the Filipinas Copyright Licensing Society (FILCOLS), a local collective management organization that pursues fair remuneration for copyright-holders and which helps curb illegal photocopying and book piracy.
We have held copyright training activities, and represented the interests of book development stakeholders in the National Committee for Intellectual Property Rights (NCIPR) since 2005. According to a World Intellectual Property Organization study by Atty. Emma Francisco, the press and literature sector, which includes book publishing, was the most significant contributor (2.13%) to Philippine GDP among the creative industries.
To support the creative sector the NBDB has organized the 1st Manila International Literary Festival, the 1st National Children’s Book Awards, and the National Book Development Trust Fund to support Philippine authors. We have also professionalized the annual National Book Awards.
For its part, the Philippine book industry increased its yearly output of new books in 2007 (5,518), 2008 (5,819) and 2009 (5,983), based on records from the National Library.
Source Consulted:
Francisco, Emma et al. “The Economic Contribution of Copyright-Based Industries in the Philippines.” http://www.wipo.int/ip-development /cen/creative industry/pdf/1009E-1.pdf p. 20.
(1) The NBDB shall provide technical support to the Department of Education and Philippine book publishers for the development of textbooks, both printed and electronic, for the additional 3 years of the Enhanced K+12 Basic Education program.
(2) The NBDB shall pursue programs to assist local publishers in increasing the quantity, quality and variety of higher education books, and improving their distribution in all regions of the country.
(3) The NBDB shall monitor periodically the level and quality of book readership among all age sectors of the citizenry, and formulate programs to improve readership.
(4) The NBDB shall pursue programs to support the creative sector in the book industry.
As regards (1), Section 10 of Republic Act 8047 or the 1995 Book Publishing Industry Development Act provides that “the DepEd shall consult with the NBDB in prescribing guidelines, rules, and regulations in preparing the minimum learning competencies, and/or prototypes and other specifications for books required by public elementary and secondary schools.”
As regards (2), our college students and their parents would spend less on imported books if local publishers increased the quantity, quality and variety of higher education books, both printed and electronic. In 2008 and 2009, the US book exports to the Philippines amounted to USD$19.997M and USD$21.281M, respectively (http://www.ita.doc.gov/td/ocg/exp2731.htm). The UK book exports amounted to £ 2.223M in 2008 and £ 2.246M in 2009 (http://www.publishers.org.uk).
To develop local knowledge and create local content in print and electronic formats, the NBDB has organized Academic Publishing Conferences (APC) to offer to higher education institutions several training and development opportunities in which local and foreign book industry experts are involved. We have organized APCs in Quezon City (2007), Cebu (2008), Baguio (2009), Davao (2009), and Makati City (2010).
As regards (3), the NBDB organized the NBDB Readership Survey in 2003 and 2007 with the help of the Social Weather Stations in order to provide to the reading public, educational institutions, and the book industry accurate, up-to-date, and relevant information on the state of Philippine readership nationwide. The NBDB Readership Surveys are the most comprehensive attempts to determine the reading preferences, attitudes and habits of our citizenry.
As regards (4), the NBDB introduced book development interventions to support the creative sector in the book industry by catalyzing the organization of the Filipinas Copyright Licensing Society (FILCOLS), a local collective management organization that pursues fair remuneration for copyright-holders and which helps curb illegal photocopying and book piracy.
We have held copyright training activities, and represented the interests of book development stakeholders in the National Committee for Intellectual Property Rights (NCIPR) since 2005. According to a World Intellectual Property Organization study by Atty. Emma Francisco, the press and literature sector, which includes book publishing, was the most significant contributor (2.13%) to Philippine GDP among the creative industries.
To support the creative sector the NBDB has organized the 1st Manila International Literary Festival, the 1st National Children’s Book Awards, and the National Book Development Trust Fund to support Philippine authors. We have also professionalized the annual National Book Awards.
For its part, the Philippine book industry increased its yearly output of new books in 2007 (5,518), 2008 (5,819) and 2009 (5,983), based on records from the National Library.
Source Consulted:
Francisco, Emma et al. “The Economic Contribution of Copyright-Based Industries in the Philippines.” http://www.wipo.int/ip-development /cen/creative industry/pdf/1009E-1.pdf p. 20.
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