Bicolnon Resiliency in the age of global climate change adaptation

Bicolnon resiliency in the age of global climate change adaptation.

                                                        Rainier A. Ibana*

When hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in August 2005, my sister’s classmates were amazed at how she was able to share food and water with them for many days before they were rescued from their isolated condominium unit.  Little did they know that my sister had typhoon survival skills training while we were growing up in Bicolandia where we stored water, dried fish, canned goods, match sticks and candles whenever announcements were made about weather disturbances.  We learned to wait and pray for the typhoons’ passage while the winds changed direction from their northward trajectory towards the easterly tailwinds that are more dangerous because of the flight of galvanized iron roofs that have been known to strike off the heads of those who have not learned to bow down to nature’s fury.  We were then admonished to learn from the bamboo grass that sways with the winds; unlike narra trees that get uprooted due to their stubborn resistance.    

Bicolano Strategies of Typhoon Adaptation

The tree trunks and branches that littered the streets after the typhoons were immediately picked up by lumber yard owners who cut, shaped and sold them for profit.   Those who were wise enough to tie their trees to the ground prior to the storm, however, were spared from these fallen tree trunks and broken branches that crashed and destroyed roofs and fences. 

        One can even detect the presence of Bicolnons  beyond the geographical boundaries of the region when one encounters chili pepper shrubs that have been tied down to the soil in order to protect them from being ravaged by storms.  These peppers spice up the coconut milk extracted from the wind-blown, heaven-sent, nuts that were collected from the ground along with water-repellent gabi leaves.  These leaves, along with fern sprouts, are some of the few edible vegetation that can survive the raging rains that swamp ricefields and irrigation canals.  Laing, the quintessential Bicolnon dish composed of shredded gabi leaves, coconut milk and chili peppers, is an ingenious concoction bequeathed by nature’s wrath.

        These rootcrops, along with other forms of taro that actually thrive underwater, served as carbohydrate substitutes for the rice that can no longer be harvested from rice paddies that have turned itself into fishponds of mud-and-catfishes that come out from the earth's crevices after the storm.  These omnivorous fishes, along with the cultivated bangus and tilapia, escape fishponds and fish pens; to the dismay of their owners but to the delight of those who barely have anything to eat.

         These strategies of survival have served Bicolnons well through centuries of adaptation to harsh weather conditions.  These strategies, unfortunately, are unfamiliar to the inhabitants of other regions who never experienced typhoons but are now the ones being visited  by weather disturbances – a clear sign of changing climatic conditions.  These vulnerable communities would have to evolve their own ways of adaptation and invent ingenious strategies for survival if they are to emancipate themselves from becoming dependents of external assistance from governments and non-government organizations.  

        Similar to the Bicolnon's enterpreneureal penchant for reusing fallen tree trunks for lumber, recent flood victims have learned to confiscate floating logs that cascaded from the mountains in order to rebuild their homes and school houses.  Replacing those fallen logs by planting new ones is a moral imperative that they must oblige themselves if they are to mitigate and hopefully prevent the harrowing experience of being swept again by those raging rivers. 

        Segregating biodegradable wastes into composts that can be used for urban gardening systems or dumping them into vermiculture pits will prepare the soil for organic farming.  Non-biodegradables can then be recycled, reused and resold in order to save and earn from materials that have been extracted from nature's cycles and to prevent them from clogging drainage systems. 

        If higher water levels become the norm for the rainy seasons, the demand for root-crop consumption might increase as a substitute to rice, the Filipino’s proverbial staple food. I usually tease our local prospectors that  cultivating tubers is actually a more reliable form of livelihood than treasure hunting or illegal mining.

        The so-called Bicolnon resiliency is actually a product of successful strategies of adaptation to their harsh environment.  The lessons of biological evolution tell us that those species that quickly learn to adapt are the ones that can survive their fast-changing habitats.  Even large ecological niches have self-managing mechanisms that adjust to the external conditions of their environments.  The frequency of rain in land masses that protrude over the Pacific Ocean, such as the Bicol region, for example, is a function of the huge reservoir of water that evaporate more frequently as a result of global warming trends. 

Biodiversity and Resiliency

        Stamina for survival can be improved, moreover, by diversifying the resources that feed energy systems.  Compost- farming, for example, will increase the yield of farmlands and allow for more species to flourish even within smaller spaces allocated for cultivation.  Diversifying farm products will strengthen the farmers’ resiliency against the price fluctuation of external market forces and protect thieir plants from infestation.  Aside from being able to rely on alternative products to increase farmers' income levels, other plant species serve as buffer zones that block the spread of pests and diseases to other plants of the same species. 

        Indigenous knowledge claims about climate, such as the unusual and agitated behaviour of animals prior to the advent of natural disasters, can also be disseminated and shared to people who do not have immediate access to sophisticated weather forecasting systems.[1]  Indigenous peoples, afterall, know the contours of their terrain in the same manner that seafarers have a more intimate understanding of ocean highway systems and their cross-currents. 

        Climate adaptation must rely heavily on local knowledge.  Even  new technologies must be adjusted to the actual conditions of local environments and the capabilities of their end users. Fisher-folks obviously have different coping mechanisms from those who live in highlands; but even from among the same sector, different adaptation techniques would have to be implemented by those who will be affected because of differences in their terrain and the availability of resources.  Those who have access to clean drinking water, for example, would have to strategize differently from those who do not; while those who dwell on opposite sides of curving river deltas would have complementary strategies since the loss of land area from one side of the river could be gained by those who live on the other side.

Complementarity 

        This principle of complementarity is also applicable when introducing foreign species to a habitat in order to strengthen the stability of an ecological niche.  Complementary species create symbiotic relationships among its individual members that enable them to rely on other sources of energy in the event that their usual preys are adversely affected by external weather conditions. 

        The importance of the principle of complementarity is further exemplified in the daily activities of rural dwellers as exemplified by their reliance for the assistance from neighbours in order to obtain common goods and difficult tasks that cannot be obtained or achieved through individual efforts alone.  Preparing the land, planting, harvesting and transporting products require the assistance of others in order to lighten the work load. 

        The principle of complementarity is at work also when carrying heavy objects that require helpers to position themselves at the opposite side of the object in order to balance its weight and make it seem lighter to transport.  Too many helpers, however, would disturb the balance and could actually add weight to the task at hand.  Proper balance and the capacity to solicit the complementary assistance of diverse participants are therefore important elements towards the attainment of shared tasks. 

Social Capital and Resiliency

        Solicitude for the participation of others requires implicit reciprocal agreements forged by previous gratuitous exchanges of services and gifts such as carrying a house and sharing viands with neighbours.  These exchanges build social capital -- the network of relatives, associates and institutions with whom individuals can rely on for assistance in order to achieve goals that cannot be achieved by individual efforts alone.  Kinship ties are extended by becoming godparents in baptisms and weddings that create shared experiences to establish social alliances that can be harnessed during times of need such as calamities and disasters. 

        Membership in civic and non-government organizations likewise extends the scope of the individual’s network of associates and friends.  Shared tasks bind individuals towards common goals such as providing assistance for the marginalized sectors of society in terms of medical and dental services, dispersal of seedlings, farm implements and domesticated animals.

        These organizations, however, can also be used by malevolent syndicates such as cartels and drug dealers that make their operations more efficient by coopting those who are in positions of authority such as the police and other government officials. 

        It is therefore important to mediate these organizations with higher values such as devotion to holiness, justice and service to others in order to “bridge” social divisions towards the accomplishment of more noble aspirations.[2]  The Bicolnon’s devotion to Our Lady of Penafrancia, for example, demonstrates how shared experiences such as religious rituals and festivals can cement social relationships and transcend social divisions.  Devotees shed their social distinctions during these religious festivities; they walk barefooted and wear simple clothes in solidarity with the congregation.

         The solidary bonds that are established by these symbolic activities are carried over to the affairs of everyday life as people learn to cooperate in other shared endeavours such as cleaning up the streets after the floods or typhoons.  These social bonds contribute to the resiliency of social communities in coping with and bouncing back from natural disasters.

Conclusion

        The World Bank defined resiliency as the

“capability to anticipate risk, limit impact, and bounce back rapidly through survival, adaptability, evolution and growth in the face of turbulent change.”[3]  These capabilities, however, cannot be achieved by individuals alone.  They require an implicit investment in the reciprocal cooperation of other individuals and institutions towards the achievement of common goals.  Debts of gratitude, although morally immeasurable and cannot be repaid by the debtor, can contribute to the accumulation of social capital on the part of the giver, especially if these gifts are given without preconditions at that moment when the debtor is in dire need and the benefactor is the only person who is in a position to extend assistance.       

        It is important to institutionalize these habits of reciprocity, moreover, beyond individual acts of charity and to imbed egalitarian principles within social systems as a matter of dispensing the requirements of structural justice.  Modern social institutions can be achieved only when the rights to the good life can be pursued according to the principles of equality and not as a result of noble obligations from above.

        In Bicol, as elsewhere in the premodern contexts of Philippine society, distinctions are still being made between sadit na tao (small people) and dakulang tao (big people) and the former defers to the latter while the latter believe that they have claims for such entitlements due to their priviledged stations in life. 

        New leaders are emerging from the horizons of our political culture, however, that exhibit more egalitarian and populist approaches to public service in the likes of the late Jesse Robredo and Raul Roco who sympathize and stand in solidarity with their marginalized constituencies in their shared efforts to achieve a more resilient and sustainable future.  Democratic forms of governance that broaden the level of participation of empowered citizens actually stabilize the social fibre of a nation in the same manner that biodiversity strengthens an ecological niche.  As Jesse Robredo supposedly puts it:  “Small people can do great things.”[4] These leaders offer hope and strengthen resolutions to bear with the difficulties that may be encountered in the process of equitably sharing the social opportunities that will lead the Filipino people towards the attainment of the good life.

 

 

 

*Rainier A. Ibana chairs the Environmental Ethics Committee of UNESCO’s World Commission for the Ethics of Science and Technology.  He currently resides in Daet, Camarines Norte while on leave as Faculty member of Ateneo de Manila University in order to serve as Chair of Mabini Colleges’ Executive Committee.

---

[1] http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/bhubaneswar/86295-indigenous-knowledge-a-big-help-in-disaster-forecast-management.html

[2] http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTSOCIALDEVELOPMENT/EXTTSOCIALCAPITAL/0,,contentMDK:20185164~menuPK:418217~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:401015,00.html

[3] http://www.resilientus.org/library/CARRI_Definitions_Dec_2009_1262802355.pdf

[4] http://www.rappler.com/video/11222-video-tricia-robredo-on-her-dad,-jesse

 

unesco interview on Ethics of Climate Change with HenryRichardson

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/media-services/single-view/news/we_must_not_irreversibly_damage_the_common_heritage_of_mankind_interview_with_rainier_ibana_and_henry_richardson/

Reflections on the words Kapaligiran, kalikasan and katutubo

draft:

Kapaligiran, Kalikasan at Katutubo: Reflections on some Tagalog words for nature and the environment

Rainier A. Ibana, Ph.D.

This essay will show that some of the Tagalog words about nature and the environment reveal the distinctive worldview of Tagalog speakers. We shall focus our analysis on three significant terms: kapaligiran, kalikasan and katutubo.

The word “kapaligiran” can be broken down and analysed according to its four components: ka, pa, ligid, an. “Ka” is the second person singular pronoun that refers to the other person with whom our speech acts are addressed. When used as a prefix, it reveals the intersubjective aspect of the world shared with others. The environment, therefore, is not merely something that we can own by ourselves; it also includes others in the same manner that we share a table (kalamesa) or a conversation (kausap). The infix “pa” is used to solicit favours, such as when we say please or (paki) in order to achieve our goals. The environment, therefore, is not something that we can deal with without any form of solicitude. We do defer to the natural world and offer ceremonial gestures when we pass by a place (“Tabi po”) as if we are transgressing an on-going conversation between other parties. “Ligid,” refers to the surrounding horizon that can expand or contract depending on the breadth of our consciousness. It could be as narrow as our backyard or as expansive as the universe itself. In the Visayan language, “ligid” is equivalent to the word “libot” which also refers to one’s consciousness . Tagalogs also use the rootword libot when they expand their vision towards the whole horizon that includes the whole universe (sanlibutan). Finally, the suffix “an” locates the scope of our finitude, such as when we say “kabukiran,” or “kabayanan.”

Likas, the rootword of the term Kalikasan,refers to the inherent characteristics of objects that define their limitations and possibilities. Art works, for example, are limited by the material that bears the imagination of the artist. Sculptors usually imagine the possible form that can be drawn from the material, such as a stone or a piece of clay, before working on it. But artists adjust their composition according to the limitations imposed by their raw materials. To overextend the possibilities of the natural world would lead to artificiality and even grotesque forms of organisms such as mutants that are incapable of reproducing themselves. The same can be said about the limitations imposed by nature on agricultural and industrial processes. The art of grafting branches to trees, for example, are limited within a given species. As a Filipino saying puts it “kung ano ang puno, siya ang bunga” (A tree is known by its fruits.) The discipline of Economics reminds us also that excessive additional production inputs do not necessarily lead to additional outputs and could even lead to unnecessary wastes as in the case of fishes that get killed because of over population or overfeeding.

Our contemporary experience of global warming trends merely exemplifies this overextenson of nature's intrinsic limitations by our excessive carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere. Nature has its own rhythms that humans must harmoniously live with in order to survive. The cyclical patterns of planting and harvesting seasons have become unpredictable today because of the wicked anthropogenic transgressions that have increased the earth’s temperature.

The idea of “Sustainable Development” or the task of meeting the needs of the current generation without impairing the capacity of future generations to meet their own needs (Brundtland Report ,1987), has been aptly translated into Filipino as “Likas-kayang kaunlaran”(natural capacity for development) in order to account for nature’s carrying capacity as the key component of sustainability. This interpretation of sustainable development suggests that developmental projects must be set within the context of the cyclical rhythms of nature instead of the modern conception of development that relies on the linear exploitation of what is erroneously perceived as nature's unlimited resources and the production of excessive wastes that can be presumably dumped else where. The word "likas" defines the limits of possible abuses that humans can inflict on the natural world.

“Katutubo,” the Filipino word for “native” is rooted in the word “tubo” or to grow. Its prefix“Ka”means growing with others while the infix “tu” is an expression of progressive intentionality. “Katutubo” therefore refers to an organism that grows along with others. In contrast to the Latin etymology of the English word “native” which means to be born (natus, nasci), organisms that have been transplanted from other cultures can be accommodated as co-participants in an ecological niche. The founding leaders of the Philippine revolution have in fact used the word katutubo to refer “to everyone who grew up in these islands” including their non-tagalog members.[i]  Such an inclusive concept is applicable to our contemporary concern for environmental ethics that embrace all earthlings that grew up in the same planet.

The contemporary meaning of the word “katutubo,” nevertheless, refers to the indigenous peoples of the hinterlands who have been marginalized by lowlanders and other migrants. Indigenous peoples, however, serve as reference points for the hybridized identity of the majority of the Filipino people whose genetic constitution has been recognized as one of the most diversified in the world. Its national football team, majority of whom are mestizos, have fondly taken the word “azkal” a name derived from hybrid street dogs (asong kalye) in order to emphasize the virtue of hybridity. As a source of inspiration for Filipino identity, indigenous peoples are then protected by legal instruments that delineate their ancestral domain and their legitimate rights as fellow citizens.

Indigenization, however, is not only a biological process. It is also a cultural experience that distinguishes human beings from other organisms. The difference between the etymological origins of the English word “native” and the Filipino word “katutubo”is instructive about the more inclusive character of the Filipino world view that makes room for the processes of adaptation to and enculturation with the nation’s natural and cultural environments. Being Filipino, therefore, is not defined merely by the genetic constitution of one’s progeny but is also constituted by a spiritual process of participation in the cultural and linguistic practices of everyday life.

The inclusive nature of Philippine society was eloquently articulated by the founding members of the Filipino nation when they wrote in their Code of Conduct that “Pure and truly highly esteemed, beloved and noble is the person even if he or she was raised in the forest and speaks nothing but his or her own language.” An analysis of our language, such as what we have done in this essay, reveals the profundity of our distinctive understanding of the world and an appreciation for the inclusive character of our culture. As one frequent visitor to our shores puts it, “Despite problems of poverty, the Philippines is a more embracing, more inclusive society in Asia”.[ii]

---

[i] Virgilio S. Almario, Panitikan ng Rebolusyon(g 1896) (Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 1993), p. 156.

[ii][i]Cynthia Balana and Marlon Ramos, “East Timor head breaks protocol to attend funeral,” Philippine Daily Inquirer, August 6, 2009, 15A.

---

    [i]Cynthia Balana and Marlon Ramos, “East Timor head breaks protocol to attend funeral,” Philippine Daily Inquirer, August 6, 2009, 15A.

    2 Virgilio S. Almario, Panitikan ng Rebolusyon(g 1896) (Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 1993), p. 156.

Environmental Ethics in the 21st Century

COMEST Interview with Rainier A. Ibana

1. What do you think is the meaning and role of Environmental
Ethics in the 21st century and what can COMEST do to promote it?

     Environmental Ethics in the 21^st Century is characterized by our awareness of being intricately connected with others.  These experiences of connectivity are articulated by 21^st Century theories that deal with the complex connections between and among the members of the natural world and our contemporary technological culture.  These theories, along with the science of ecology, can serve as dialogue partners for environmental ethicists who would like to deal with this problem. 

     The moral imperative, in terms of an environmental ethics today, is to support the regenerative capacities of nature while restraining the excessive demands of our consumerist culture. The line must be drawn also between innovations that add value and extend life from technolgies that are actually more expensive to produce than their actual added values to human living.  The tension between technological progress and nature’s carrying capacity is becoming more and more extended to the extent that the latter can no longer sustain our contemporary models of social and economic development.

     By putting the environmental agenda to the stage of global discourse, COMEST can initiate the creation of a more expansive level of human awareness wherein individual and collective actors can become conscious of their global responsibility for the many anonymous others that can be adversely or positively affected by their deeds or misdeeds, by their actions or non-actions, towards the environment.  The effects and counter-effects of human activities are shared and felt in a multiplicity of ways, like “ripples on a placid pond”, by many others that include not only humans but also animals, the quality of our oceans and the colours of the sky. Turtles die of suffocation, just to cite a popular example, when they accidentally swallow plastic bags that have been carelessly thrown away after we have asserted our hollow feelings of non-existence during our shopping sprees. 

2. Why is climate change an ethical problem and how could ethics be useful in addressing it?

     The adverse effects of climate change on human and non-human populations are irreparable.  It is very difficult for victims of natural disasters to recover from the sudden loss of loved ones, the destruction of their properties and their shattered plans for the future.  It deprives vulnerable populations of their right to live a decent life that was premised on the predictable patterns of nature in the past.  Today, we are not sure when and where the next natural disaster will strike. I grew up in a province which used to be visited by typhoons many times a year and we have learned how to cope with it.  We now seldom experience these typhoons and the ones who never experienced them before are the ones being devastated and they have not yet learned how to deal with it.

  Ethics is about lifestyles; it is derived from the word “ethos,” or way of living and dealing with the world. Only humans, moreover, have cultivated a variety of ethos. The anthropogenic origins of climate change can therefore be modified, if not reversed, if humans can have a better understanding of the consequences of their ethos on the environment.

     Furthermore, ethics is not a mere code of prohibitions of what we should not do in relation to others.  It is not a kind of blame game that merely points back at the anonymous others who might be responsible for the voracious kind of humanity that is mirrored by the current state of our natural world.  We are all implicated in this difficult situation by our actions or non-actions against nature.

     The more important aspect of environmental ethics, however, is to reflect on what we can do to regenerate the life-giving powers of “nature”, a word derived from the term natus, to give birth, to a new generation.  Our actions reveal what we have become as human beings and we can develop the more positive side of our humanity by becoming more generous and temperate towards our natural environment.

3. In 1997 UNESCO adopted a 'Declaration on the Responsibilities
of the Present Generation towards Future Generations'. Do you think the declaration is still meaningful? If so, what do we need to do to make it more noted and effective?

     Our responsibility towards future generations is mediated by the quality of life on Earth which we shall pass forward to the future in a state that is hopefully better than when we have found it.  If human progress is to make sense, it would have to mean not merely faster and more efficient technologies but a kinder and gentler world wherein people can become more secure of their lives along with their loved ones in relation to their environments. 

     It is actually very difficult to separate ourselves from our surroundings.  The most common diseases today, for example, are related to the skin and our lungs, areas of our bodies that are most exposed to our environments.  Certainly we do not want to pass on to the next generation these kinds of diseases and the environmental problems that go with it. 

     There are legal and ethical principles that have been developed in order to protect the next generation.  One of them is the so-called “intergenerational solidarity,” which was the result of a legal case filed on behalf of future generations in a successful lawsuit in our country (the Philippines) against illegal loggers. Another emerging notion is the concept of “resiliency” which tries to determine a population’s capacity to endure and adapt to environmental disasters.

     In relation to these new concepts, I believe that we should never underestimate local and indigenous wisdom in terms of their coping mechanisms to environmental problems. I suspect that some of the solutions to our global problems such as climate change are hidden from us by local and indigenous wisdom in the same manner that medical discoveries are being made today from exotic species under the seas and within the rainforests.  The aggravation of the consequences of natural disasters are already sketched from the terrain and contours of local contexts.

     I also trust that the new sciences of complexity and ecology can develop new technologies on the global scale that could address climate change.  But these highly technological innovations are relatively more expensive than the ones being developed “from the ground.” In the Asia-pacific region, small- scale technologies are being invented and are often published in daily newspapers. The most recent Ramon Magsaysay Awards were given to local innovations that harness indigenous energy resources derived from within local communities that are also being consumed by the local people themselves.

     Perhaps we can develop more of these principles and disseminate the success stories of local technologies that could protect and advance the cause of environmentalism for the sake of the next generation instead of merely blaming and extracting punishments for the deeds or misdeeds of our predecessors.  Otherwise, the future generation will also blame us for what we have done or not done towards the environment.

Ant and Mother: a Lao Story for Sustainable Development

Ant and Mother

by  Bounthavy Insisienmay

Ai and Ane are brother and sister. Ai, the brother, is five years old and a bit skinny. Ane, the sister, is three years old and quite fat. Their father works as a government official and their mother with a private company. They live with their grandparents in a big family.

Ai, Ane, their parents and grandparents enjoy connecting with their relatives and other living things around them such as animals, flowers, vegetable and trees. Their grandfather plants orchids in front of his home office and the orchids blossom every month throughout the year. Their grandmother plants other flowers and vegetables. Their parents rear colorful fishes in a big concrete reservoir in front of their grandfather’s office.

Everyday, the parents or grandparents, together with the kids, happily feed the fishes. One morning, grandfather and the kids were feeding the fishes as usual. But the children dropped the feed on the ground. Accidentally, they found an ant picking up a piece of the feed and was bringing it toward the hole. Without thinking, the kids picked up wooden sticks and tried to hit the ant with the sticks. Their grandfather stopped them and explained, “You should not hit or kill the ant because it might be a mother ant who found the food to feed her children who are waiting down the hole. If you killed their mother, her children who are waiting would cry when they could not see their mother coming back and they would die when there will be no food to eat. “The lives of small ants and their mother are the same as grandfather’s life and yours. Everybody loves their own lives, performs their tasks, and survives with nature”. “Therefore, we should not hit or kill them, but share with them the small piece of food we have.”

Finally, Ai and Ane, satisfied and happy, did not kill the ant and allowed it to bring the food down the hole for its children.

One day the two sisters living next door who were about the same ages as Ai and Ane, came to play and to feed the fishes with them. The sisters also found an ant carrying the food that was dropped on the ground. They also picked up wooden sticks to hit the ants. Ai and Ane shouted to stop them from killing the ant and said, “Don’t kill them. It is a mother ant looking for food to feed its children that are waiting down the hole. If you kill her, her children would cry like us when we do not see our mother coming back; they love and miss their mother, just like us.”

The sisters understood and allowed the ant to carry the food to the hole for its children.

Ant and Mother: A Philosophical Commentary

n  Rainier A. Ibana

                        Ateneo de Manila University

Mr. Insisienmay’s story is set within an ideal family context wherein its members “enjoy connecting with their relatives and other living things around them such as animals, flowers, vegetables and trees.”  For the Lao story teller, all living beings, including humans, animals and plants, are related to one another regardless of their differences.  This egaligarian view of Buddhism is also a key insight towards an understanding and appreciation of the integrity of ecological systems since ecological niches are indeed constituted by relationships among organisms and their environments.   Buddhists also believe that human actions on other life-forms eventually have karmic effects and counter-effects on the actors themselves, especially human beings who have the power to initiate deliberate acts.  Aside from the physical connectivity of all living beings, human actions, when habituated, shape the character of the acting persons which are eventually transformed into an ethics or way of life.

Feeding fishes, ants and children

            Ecological virtues, such as compassion and care for other life forms, are taught to the grandchildren in the story through their morning ritual of feeding the fishes in the reservoir in front of their grandfather’s office. The children learn these virtues by following the daily examples shown to them by their elders.  These lessons are reinforced by their cultivation and care for the living beings in their surroundings that include flowers, vegetables and trees, aside from the ant and the fishes in the reservoir.  

            By drawing the children’s attention to their experience with their own mother who fed and nurtured them as babies, they understood that the mother ant might be looking for food to feed its own offspring.  The grandparents who led the way to feed fishes, their mother who fed them while they were babies, and the ant that was supposed to be feeding its offspring exemplify the kind of attitudes that the elders would like to impart to their children. 

            The grandfather has successfully delivered his lesson to the children by drawing a parallelism between the children’s own situation and that of the offspring of the mother ant.  This is evident in their subsequent ability to teach the other children who were also about to hit the ants the following day.  The real test of learning is when students can teach others the lesson taught by their teachers . 

            Effective teachers make use of familiar examples derived from their students’ experiences and they possess the requisite skills to elevate the particularity of their students’ situations to a level of generality that could be useful for others who might encounter similar experiences in the future.  This is achieved by pointing to comparable situations such as the ant’s offspring, fishes and the children.    

Thinking and moral considerations

The grandfather had to remind the children of their duty to preserve and protect the life of others because they were “without thinking”.    After his exhortations, however, the grandchildren understood his lessons and they were “ finally... satisfied and happy.”  They did not kill the ant, allowed it to bring the fish food to its offspring and even taught other children to do the same.

The key lesson imparted to the children is consistent with the first Buddhist precept: “Do not kill.”  This rule is not a mere negative injunction to inhibit violence but also a positive encouragement to enhance and to promote life because as the grandfather puts it, “everyone loves their own life.”  One must therefore share with others and sustain their life as far as possible. 

Buddhism teaches that deliberately killing living creatures, either by committing the act, instructing others to do, it or not stopping others from doing it, would ensnare the actor in the causal path of “brevity of life, ill health, handicapped and fear.” Promoting life, on the otherhand, “cultivates the attitude of loving kindness to all beings by wishing that they may be happy and free from harm.” [i]

            The ants, with their love for life and quest for survival, are “just like us” who depend on others for sustenance.  They are also capable of feeding those who are in need, if we allow them to do so.  Aside from love for life, grandfather Bounthavy also taught that everyone must “perform their tasks and survive with nature.”  We all have our own special place in the moral universe and if we merely do the job set before us, without transgressing on the tasks to be performed by others, we can complement and complete the harmony inherent in the natural world as depicted in the ideal family situation at the beginning of the story.   Our various linkages strengthen the food webs that support the life of ecosystems where all living things belong and are interrelated.   If we allow life to flourish and we refrain from killing others, the diversity of our ecological niche will flourish and we all stand to benefit from the various forms of life in our midst. 

Education for Sustainable Development

The Brundtland report defines sustainable development in terms of meeting “the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”[ii] “Just like us,” all living beings of the present and of the future, are basically trying to survive and to live the kind of life that we are supposed to lead.  This is achieved, as grandfather Bounthavy puts it, by sharing, as much as possible, “our small piece of food we have for them.”  By allowing other beings to survive and flourish, they will eventually share their goodness to us, like a causal chain of karmic events that create multiple ripples of compassion and caring for others throughout the moral cosmos.    

Acts of compassion and caring therefore require an awareness and appreciation of the connectedness of all beings to one another.  Everything, including garbage and pollution, must go somewhere.  We are mere earthlings, dwellers within this one planet that we cohabit with others.  Whatever we do to others, even to the weakest and most powerless such as fishes, ants and grandchildren, will eventually redound to us in some form or another, such as contracting diseases, hunger and other forms of retribution.  Teachers must therefore continue to serve as guideposts of compassion and care for others in order to pass forward towards the future the necessary virtues that will allow for the sustainability of our living conditions.  

Future generations, somewhat like fishes, ants, flowers and trees, are especially vulnerable because they cannot speak and assert their fundamental rights to exist and to live.  It is therefore incumbent upon the present generation to assure that future generations can likewise, at the very least, enjoy the harmonious kind of life that they have lived along with and in relation to the other living beings in the environment.

[1] http://web.singnet.com.sg/~alankhoo/Precepts.htm

[1] http://www.earthsummit2012.org/historical-documents/the-brundtland-report-our-common-future

Southeast Asian Wisdom Stories for Sustainable Development 4

Teaching Guide

Ms. Jesusa M. Antiquiera

Master Teacher II

P. Gomez Elementary School

Philippine Department of Education

Comprehension Question

1. Who are the two children in the story?

2. With whom are they living in their house?

3. What do the children usually do with their parents or grandparents?

4. What happened when they were feeding the fishes?

5. What did they see?

6. What did they want to do with what they see?

7. Why did their grandfather stop them?

8. What did they realize?

Objectives

I. The child should be able to

A. 1. think critically, reflectively and creatively

2. formulate and answer probing questions

3. make distinctions and connections

4. imagine new possibilities

5. identify good reasons

6. construct and analyze concepts

7. use thinking maps/graphic organizers to express thoughts, ideas and feelings in verbal

and non-verbal ways

B. 1. Enhance “community of inquiry”

2. share agreement/disagreement with mutual respect

and considerationSoutheast Asian Wisdom Stories for Sustainable Development 235

II. CONTENTS

Ant and Mother

III. LEARNING STRATEGIES: The Ant and Mother

A. Mind-Setting

1. A. How many of you like insects?

B. What kind of insects do you like? Why?

2. Vocabulary Development using semantic association

(survive)

3. Visualization exercise

The teacher will expose the title of the story to be read. The students will sit back and relax. Close their eyes and imagine the main idea of the story.

4. Sharing predicted main idea.

B. Actual Reading of the Story

(Silent reading of the story)

C. Exploring Ideas

• Why did grandfather stop the kids from hitting the ants with the sticks?

• Do you agree with what grandfather said that it might be a mother who found food to feed her children and if she was killed her children would cry because there was no food to eat? Why?

• What character traits of grandfather would you like to imitate? Why?

•                 .    Do you like ants? Why? Why not?