Truth and Authority

As our return to Europe looms onto the horizon our thoughts are increasingly drawn towards how our experiences here will impact on our future life. I spend a lot of time thinking about the differences between here and back home.

One very big cultural difference here is the way in which people relate to Authority. This difference isn’t immediately visible, it takes time to see. But once seen it is very clear, people here respect authority, of whatever kind, far more than we do in Europe.

In Europe we have seen a gradual slipping away of trust for authority, be that authority political, religious, academic, scientific or generational. Perhaps it is the consequence of experiencing so many people in authority using that authority so badly. Once burnt twice cautious! Blind respect for authority has given us the Somme, the Inquisitions, the Gas chambers, the atomic bomb, sectarian conflicts and great inequalities. Hence we understandably deny our leaders the right to decide for us what is good and what is bad, we do not listen unquestioningly to presidents, popes and professors.

Our suspicion of authority goes further than a distrust in specific people. We are now suspect of the whole concept of truth. We no longer believe that any person or group can possess truth; the truth always lies ahead of us yet to be discovered. Science can no longer speak or truth only the best theory yet discovered, politicians can no longer claim a grand ideological plan and religious leaders can no longer credibly proclaim absolute dogmas. We no longer trust anything or anyone easily. This lack of trust inevitably spills over into our close relationships and friendships, we form them much less readily than do people in other parts of the world. 

By contrast here in the Philippines (I am of course speaking generally) there is a strong trust in both Authority and in Truth. People here find it very easy to trust, teachers are valued, the elderly are venerated and political leaders and given (often undeserved) respect.

The area where trust in authority is most visible is the Church. In every parish thousands attend Mass and long lines of people queue to receive the sacrament of reconciliation. The traditional rituals and beliefs of the Church are trusted and respected. People here do not see truth as something beyond our horizon waiting to be discovered in the future, rather truth is something present here and now, very much possessed by the Catholic Church.

Bishops and priests are given enormous respect, authority and trust; they are treated as spiritually superior to the laity. The model of priesthood lived out here is a very paternalistic one, the priest is not so much seen as a fellow struggler but as a spiritual father whose role is to lead the simple faithful.

In the Europe this paternalistic model of Church, where it still exists, is an outdated anachronism. A people to whom trust does not come easily cannot relate to this form of spiritual leadership, we balk at its suffocating certainty. Perhaps much of the non-participation of European Christians in their local parishes is due to leaders failing to adapt to these changing realities. In Europe spiritual leadership has to be more humble, our priests must be equals not masters, fellow strugglers also searching for a way to follow God. To claim any kind of higher or privileged status is to risk becoming irrelevant and appearing arrogant. A culture which finds trust difficult yearns for leaders who also struggle.

Perhaps our European approach to truth is the central difference between us and the rest of the world, not just the Philippines. Maybe it is this philosophical difference which is fuelling much of the discord which rumbles on visibly in the Anglican Communion and less visibly in the Catholic Church. We Europeans cannot sit comfortably in a Church filled with certainty and absolutes, the very absolutes in which so many non-Europeans believe so dearly.

A Few Days on the Beach

Some weeks here are really hard. 

Happily this week wasn't one of them! On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week we were away from Cebu to spend a few days on the beach with the core group of students who helped organise the orientation or the new applicants. Officially it was a leadership camp but in reality it was a holiday given to them as a reward for their hard work.

It was a fantastic few days spent relaxing, enjoying the beach, swimming and having the time to simply be. A very special time.

It was also an eye-opener to how the students live. Steph and I and the Salesians who came all had tents which we pitched on the beach, whereas the students simply slept on the beach or under a makeshift shelter built from plastic sheeting and pieces of wood. We all washed both our bodies and our cooking utensils in public using water from two big plastic barrels. The toilet facilities were rudimentary. The food was prepared and cooked by the students, we ate a lot less meat and a lot more rice. We were annoyed by the flies and at noontime we missed our air-con unit. Such conditions are very likely much closer to what they live in ordinary life. 

All in all it was pretty amazing! perhaps the photos describe it best......

Officially Legal

On Monday 11th October we handed over our Passport to the Salesian Provincial so that they could arrange for our tourist visas to be converted to longer term missionary visas.

Today we made our fourth visit to the immigration office in Cebu and have finally finished the process. We have received our shiny new Alien Registration Cards, meaning we are now legal resident Aliens!

And the process only took 228 days! 

Prayer and Community

Over the last 7½ months we have been living in a religious community. This is by far our most extended experience of living in a Christian community larger than just the two of us. As a community it is far from perfect, there are many aspects of the community life here which I would like to be improved. There are many inequalities which I think erode the sense of solidarity. However living in the less than perfect often orientates us towards the ideal. At its best living in this community has given me a glimpse of a way of life that I find very inspiring and life giving. The community here both prays together and lives together as a family. These two aspects of life knit together very closely. It is from this life of prayer and community that the Salesians find their inclination and energy to work for others.

To pray is to be infused from within by the presence of God, a presence of absolute affirmation and love. To pray is to be taught how to love yourself. It is from this experience of being loved that we are both enabled and propelled to love others. The most natural action of someone who feels that he is both loved and affirmed is to love others. To the extent that we can love ourselves we are drawn inevitably towards loving others.

Prayer leads us towards community.

Living in community involves both joys and challenges. The experience of living closely with others puts our capabilities to forgive and to be reconciled constantly to the test. Through this process of being pulled closer together in constantly reconciling ourselves to each other we are also drawn towards God.  If we are living closely together in community then prayer follows almost automatically.

Community leads us towards prayer.

That is the theory but Christianity, of course, is not an idea we can learn intellectually; it can only pointed towards, not contained by words. Understanding of the Gospel only comes through living relationships. It is in our encounters with others that we really discover the Gospel.

Knowing how to love the students here has been a source of constant questions for reflection. A certain small section of our students have been persistently lazy and unwilling to work. Knowing the right balance to strike between force and encouragement is not always easy. If I thought that deep down they didn’t want to learn then the right thing to do would be to let them stop. But I know that this is not the case, they do want to learn but just aren’t mature enough to turn this desire into reality. A few weeks ago we finished our final exams. The policy is that each student gets three chances to pass each subject before being given a failing grade. Of the seventeen who failed there are ten who have been constantly lazy, absent, uncooperative and sometimes disruptive, some of them have even tried to blame their failure on us. Justice dictates that they deserve to fail; fairness to the other students requires us to fail them.

But our experience of prayer and community encourages us to look at the world differently. What about love? Love is not interested in justice or in what is deserved; it is interested in reaching out to those in most need. My natural inclination was to fail them and my (I think) justified anger with them impelled me to fail them. But what about love? When can it be said that by their actions they have decided themselves to fail? These questions have been a real struggle. How can we allow our faith to shape what we do?

Steph and I are running additional classes; we are giving them a fourth chance to pass. It isn’t really what I feel inclined to do but it is what I feel I ought to do. Is it right or is it wrong?

Prayer and Community create these dilemmas. Perhaps I am continuing to teach because, just like my students, I have desires to be good that I sometimes lack the maturity to accept.

Corruption in the UK

In my last post I wrote about corruption in the Philippines. I think that one serious risk of commenting on such a topic is that it can give birth to a sense of superiority: “Aren't we great because we aren’t like them”. I have written this post in order to give some balance and challenge this all too automatic self aggrandisement. Some of what follows perhaps cuts close to the bone but I think it needs to. I cannot in fairness make comments such as those in my previous post if I am not willing to judge myself and my own culture just as harshly.

But first the positives. In the UK we do not have direct electoral fraud, our votes are counted correctly. Nor do we have public officials at the local level who take bribes. In our schools we do not have a corrupt examination system. Likewise our judicial system is, in general, run justly and our police are honest. The fact that aberrations from these norms are reported and criticised so heavily is reassuring. We can be proud and thankful for all of these things. What’s more in Britain we do have a righteous indignation which comes to the fore whenever we perceive things to be unfair.

We do, however, accept unfairness of a more hidden kind and maybe at times we are less honest and fair than we like to believe.

In the UK we have laws which set a minimum hourly rate of pay for workers. We consider, at least in theory, that each worker should be entitled to a certain minimum wage. Yet we do not apply these same standards to those who make the goods we import from abroad. Most of us (perhaps all of us) will buy electronic goods, clothes, foodstuffs and automobiles provided by workers paid far below the levels we would consider just if they were working in the UK. Often we allow those who make our luxuries to be paid wages which barely allow them to survive let alone live as we do. What’s more we tolerate, and perhaps even allow ourselves to be deceived by the argument which says that to pay these people anymore would be irresponsible or economically unviable.

We are all complicit in this crime, sometimes through ignorance but more often because we know how few of these goods we would be able to afford if we paid a far price for them. Is not such complicity a form of corruption? Is it not gaining an undeserved advantage at another’s expense? Can I fairly criticise the corruption of Filippinos who are themselves experiencing such injustices.

Let’s consider Education. We still live in a society which tolerates the rich buying privileged education. Is there any difference between this and paying a bribe to past an exam? Would not the Filippino students we teach have done a bit better academically had they been in smaller classes with better resources?

In our political arena there are legions of corporate lobbyists, special advisors and funded researchers whose reason for existence is to pressure elected politicians into making certain decisions, not because they are for the common good but because they will favour a select few with the means to employ these people. We must assume that it works because why else would so much money be spent on this industry. Again, is this not a form of corruption? Allowing the rich to benefit at the expense of the poor.

Here in the Philippines the most worrying part of the culture of corruption is how blind or uncaring so many people are towards it. Corruption here is an accepted way of life. Perhaps in a subtle way the same dynamic exists in the west.

Too many of us, I believe, have developed a certain slackness towards truth. We have allowed ourselves to be convinced that the political and economic direction of our nations is far too complex a question for most of us to think about. There is a blurring and over-complicating of very important public debates which both disconnects normal people and distracts us from what is really important.  In a world where millions earn only enough to feed themselves we allow ourselves to be distracted by ‘Fake’ reality. Society would have us vote on the basis of Ed Milliband’s voice or Boris Johnson’s public demeanour rather than actual policies and facts.

The blurring of the public discourse means that, just like here in the Philippines, our common system of values has become skewed. We are amused rather than scandalised by Wayne Rooney’s hair transplant, we speak about company executives having ‘earned’ their exorbitant bonuses, and we too easily start to believe that time are genuinely hard because we can’t afford a new Ipod. We too easily accept the false alternatives offered to us and let ourselves be lulled into an intellectual slumber concerning matters of politics and economics. We accept the cultural lie that personal wealth should be our dominant God. Is not living in such a bubble of non-reality also a form of non-responsibility? and are we not culpable also for what we haven’t done to help others?

Before we are too critical of others corruptions perhaps we should stop and consider ourselves.

Corruption in the Philippines

Writing about the corruption which occurs here is very difficult. It is difficult because it necessitates being very critical about a nation and a culture which contains many positives. However to ignore this aspect of society would be to fail to paint a full picture.

Corruption here is endemic. According to the some sources the Philippines is the most corrupt country in Asia. Whether or not this is true I cannot claim to know but it is true that corruption permeates all of life here. Elections are rigged, officials take bribes and few people are held to account.

What I find really fascinating is the acceptance of corruption as being normal. Everyone here seems to accept that elections are corruptly run, corruptly counted and end up being won by those with the most money with which to bribe. But rather than being outraged most people just laugh about it.

Many of the Salesians here openly admit that they didn’t take a driving test; the examiner offered them to chance to pay a bribe to pass without taking the test, so they paid the bribe and avoided the test. Similarly before we went to renew our visas we were told that because some former students worked in the immigration office our application would be dealt with more quickly. No one here seems to see such practises as a problem.

In the classroom our greatest struggle has been to prevent cheating. Most of our students have spent much of their school life cheating their way through; homeworks are copied, notes are passed in exams when the teacher isn’t looking, and if necessary teachers are bribed to change the student’s results. When the high school students here were sitting their final exams, that students were talking during the exams was obvious even from a casual observation. So much is all this a part of life that when we challenge our students as to why they have cheated they really struggle to understand why we think that such practises are a problem.

The corruption here is motivated, I think, by various factors. A desire to buy or gain easy success is definitely one motivation. Another is that to be corrupt is not a social taboo; indeed to not be corrupt would be in many cases to put yourself at a disadvantage. However I think there are deeper reasons for this culture. Most of the corrupt practises which we have come across are not done out of malice and often not even for personal gain, rather they are the result of people trying to help each other out. Students pass answers in exams to help their classmates and teachers pass students too easily thinking it will help them in life. Immigration officials will fast-track the applications of those they know because these relationships are important to them. Often corruption comes about more because of a desire to maintain community than for individual gain. Likewise corrupt practises tend not to be challenged for the same reason, a desire not to create disharmony.

All this corruption does, of course, have a negative effect. I think this negative is that it ferments a belief that things are easier to achieve than they really are. If a student of electricity is allowed to pass without the necessary skills then maybe they have benefitted, and may the person who gave them an undeserved passing grade feels that he has helped the student, but would you want them to re-wire your house?

The disposition of most Filippinos and their tendency to favour harmony above justice means that social anger doesn’t generate in the way that it would and does in other parts of the world, but I can’t help wondering how much latent anger created by corruption, injustice and inequality, bubbles under the surface. 

Planning Ahead

On Monday 5^th March I had the following conversation in the booking office of Weesam Ferries:

Matthew: Can I buy an advanced ferry ticket for 8^th April

Ticket Salesman: Yes, what date?

Matthew: 8^th April

Ticket Salesman: Ok sir, 8^th March

Matthew: no, 8^th April.

Ticket Salesman: Yes sir, 8^th March

Matthew: No, 8^th April.

Ticket Salesman: 8^th April?

Matthew: Yes.

Ticket Salesman: you can’t buy tickets that far in advance

Matthew: But it is only a month ahead

Ticket Salesman: Yes, but it isn’t possible

Without doubt the aspect of life here which I have found most difficult to cope with has been the lack of organisation and planning ahead. The total lack of forward planning here is truly phenomenal.

When we arrived at DBTC in October we were asked us to teach English and Maths and to put together a curriculum for these subjects. Naturally we asked for more details. How many weeks is the course? We don’t know. When are the school holidays? We haven’t decided yet. Can we see a list of the public holidays when the students won’t be in? There isn’t any list. When will the Semester end? We don’t know yet. Can we see their exam papers from last semester? No, we haven’t got them anymore.

As I write we are unsure as to whether or not the students will be having a week’s holiday or not starting less than a week from now.

At the beginning of April we were eventually given a date by which all the different courses must be finished, the final deadline for everything to be finished and completed was Friday 11^th May. So very diligently Steph and I planned our lessons and exams, leaving enough time to fit in any re-sits, to be completely wrapped up by this date. Not so anybody else! To speak of a deadline in May at the beginning of April is just too far ahead. Some teachers immediately reacted and gave their students an immediate final exam finishing their courses prematurely; others seem likely to carry on way beyond this already passed final deadline.

Another example of this extreme lack of looking ahead can be seen in their attitude to maintenance. The building we live in suffers from an infestation of termites. Little piles of wood dust periodically appear in little piles fallen from the ceiling, this dust is the result of termites eating into the wooden ceilings. When we first arrived we took to reporting these piles to the Salesian in charge of maintenance assuming that, if the ceilings of the first floor in a two-story building were being eaten, then it was quite serious, he seemed uninterested. Maintenance work tends to be left until there is a crisis rather than problems solved earlier.

Such disorganisation permeates life here to an extent which I find quite difficult to cope. One lesson I have certainly learned is that I have a very low tolerance for disorder and chaos!........aaargh

Something different to read

A few weeks back our Friend Janet came to visit us, she has shared some of here experiences, thoughts, ideas and reflections on her own blog.

So if if your interested in a different perspective from that of myself and steph then I recommend you take a look...........

http://jeepneyskaraokemutantcoconut.blogspot.co.uk/

Some More Photos

Here are some more photos .....some of which are from a little while ago
 

Transport

According to the different measures of national wealth The Philippines ranges between 125th and 139th richest country in the world out of the 193 countries generally listed in these statistics, so as a nation they are at the bottom end of middle income.

Statistics can however be deceptive. The percentage of working age Filippinos working outside the country is among the highest (perhaps even the highest) of any country in the world. This exodus is not balanced by foreigners coming to work here. Generally speaking it is the better educated and more highly skilled who leave to find jobs abroad. A huge proportion of those who qualify as nurses, doctors, engineers and teachers leave to earn more money abroad. The largest contributor to the countries income is remittances sent back by Filippinos working abroad. The tuition fees of many of the students who study in the High school here can only be afforded because they are paid by parents working abroad.

However the downside is that this money earnt abroad is also taxed abroad. Thus the tax income of the government is much lower than is the case in other countries of a similar income level. Consequently the wages of public workers are relatively low.

This reality means there are certain odd situations here, such as that someone who is good at English can earn more working in a call centre situated here by an American or European company than they will earn as a teacher.

The clearest example of a lack of public funds is that of the transport infrastructure, it is truly woeful. The roads are too small and on the whole badly maintained. The airports and ports are antiquated, and there are no railways worth mentioning. For most people travelling is a very slow enterprise. Short journeys which in Europe could be completed in less than an hour can here take several uncomfortable hours.

 

On the roads the two most used forms of public transport are the motorcycle taxi and the Jeepney. Both of these trundle along set routes picking up and setting down at any point on request.

Motorcycle taxis are an interesting experience of disregard for any safety concern, frequently eight or nine people will squeeze onto one cycle crammed together while the engine struggles to move you along much faster than walking pace.

Jeepneys are a little more comfortable. Passengers sit on benches perpendicular to the direction of travel. The driver has to both concentrate on driving through congested, pot-holed streets and on taking the fares. Passengers pass notes and coins along the line up to the driver and the change is passed back down the line, the system relies on trusting each other to pass the money up to the driver and change back to the correct passenger, I have yet to see any conflict emanate from any accusations of dishonesty.