Wexistence

I haven’t seen the art installation myself but I get the picture. A penis on the crucified Christ’s forehead, bunny ears on the Holy Family, etc. I can understand why Catholics are angry. What I don’t understand is why they’re not angry about all the other forms of “blasphemy” around them.

As some friends have pointed out, with the exception of the gallery wall, all the components of the exhibit can be found within a five-block radius of Quiapo Church.

Openly displayed on sidewalks next to religious statues and prayer booklets are sex toys and (pirated) porn DVDs.

Ride any jeepney and you will find a rosary hanging from the rear view mirror, a Sto. Nino on the dashboard, a proliferation of lewd messages, and pin-ups of “bold” stars. Millions of Filipinos see this scene every day and yet not a single devout commuter has complained about the unholy juxtaposition.

Go to a mall on a Sunday and you will see priests celebrating mass at altars framed by billboards featuring sultry, half-naked men and women. The body and blood of Christ is raised during the consecration in front the enormous bulging crotch of a Bench underwear model.

I don’t know what the artist’s intentions were, but if Poleteismo has achieved anything I think it has been to show the great irony of the Filipino Catholic response to “blasphemy.”

Dear Representatives Tieng and Velarde,

A bill that criminalizes sex toys? Seriously? What’s next, a bill that bans orgasms? Please don’t deny everyone else the sexual pleasure you are incapable of enjoying because of your puritanical beliefs.

I don’t know how you could possibly enforce a law that defines sex toys as any device that “can be used to stimulate human genitals,” “could trigger sexually impure ideas” or “can give room to sex-related offenses”. Human beings are both horny and incredibly creative and will continue to find sexual functions for everything, and I mean everything. From phallus-shaped fruits and vegetables to common household items to random things for which you cannot, for the life of you, fathom an erotic application. In aid of legislation, may I submit for your consideration: isthisasextoy.tumblr.com.

Conservatives love to talk about colonial mentality and how loose sexual morality is the product of western values eroding our own traditional Filipino values. Actually, this prudishness about sex is the Western influence and what we deem immoral sexual behavior was the norm in these isles before the western powers colonized us. The Spaniards were shocked by the sexual freedom of the natives. Pre-marital sex, multiple sexual partners, sex toys were no big deal. A girl’s virginity only mattered if she was of noble birth, e.g. the daughter of a datu whose marriage was intended to forge a political alliance. Some of those sex toys they sell in Malate and Quiapo are traditionally Filipino, and a lot kinkier than many western inventions.

Wouldn’t you like to know what those are for?

Thank you for your kind attention.

Yours Sincerely,
Harlot, Heathen, Hoor of Babylon

© Neatorama

There are a lot of myths going around, and a lot of incorrect assumptions derived from them. Everyone deserves access to the right information. Mulat Pinoy presents you with Get Real: The Facts vs. Myths on Population, Family Planning, and Reproductive Health, a comprehensive paper with cited facts and figures.

I recommend that you read the entire paper, but the Cliffnotes version is thus:

Myth #1: Contraceptives cause abortion. Life begins at fertilization, so contraceptives kill children.
FACT: Contraceptives DO NOT cause abortion. Research has shown that the use of contraceptives prevents up to 112 million abortions each year and reduces abortion by 85%.

Myth #2: Contraceptives are dangerous to health and cause cancer.
FACT: Contraceptives DO NOT cause cancer, have been proven safe worldwide, and even lower cancer risk.

Myth #3: Mandatory sex education and contraceptives will destroy the family, compromise morality, increase promiscuity and promote HIV infections.
FACT: Age-appropriate sex education and contraceptive provisions will support informed choice and lower the transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.

Myth #4: Family Planning using artificial methods is against Filipino culture.
FACT: National surveys show that a majority of Filipinos believe that family planning using modern and artificial methods is important. Many of them prefer smaller family sizes.

Myth #5: Natural family planning (NFP) is the most effective and safe family planning method, is free, and is the only program that should be supported by the government.
FACT: Both NFP and modern methods are needed to effectively and safely address maternal health, family planning, and sustainable development.

Myth #6: There is no link between population and poverty. Corruption is the sole cause of poverty.
FACT: There are strong, proven links between poverty, rapid population growth, and large, unplanned family sizes.

Myth #7: The Philippines has enough resources to meet a larger population.
FACT: The Philippines will not develop sustainably unless it slows its rapidly growing population.

Myth #8: Highly populated countries like India and China are successful because of their large populations, while other countries are experiencing a “demographic winter.”
FACT: India and China have been trying to reduce population growth and family sizes for decades, and their growth is due to the improving productivity of their citizens. The Philippines is 100 years away from a “demographic winter,” and even with lowered population growth and fertility rates, will already reach 160 million in 2060. Without this, the Philippines may have an unsustainable population of 240 million people.

Myth #9: Family planning through modern contraceptives is against the Philippine Constitution.
FACT: The Philippine Constitution and Philippine commitments to International Agreements allow family planning and the use of modern methods.

Myth #10: Islam, Christianity and other major religions forbid contraception.
FACT: Islam, most Christian denominations, and other major religions allow couples to use modern and natural methods to plan their families. The governments of Catholic countries have accepted family planning policies with State provision of modern and natural family planning methods.

Mulat Pinoy is a project of the Probe Media Foundation, Inc., supported by the Philippine Center for Population and Development. Its goal is to help the Philippine public understand the issues involved with population, based on accurate facts, figures and research from experts in industry, governance and the academe.

Father Fernando Cuenca, Augustinian Recollect

While I was in Bacolod over the weekend, I sought to find out more about my family’s progenitor, Fr. Fernando Cuenca (or, as I like to call him, Lolo Friar). What I’ve learned about him so far suggests he was a good priest (the obvious indiscretion notwithstanding) who contributed much to the development of the province of Negros. He was apparently well-loved, as people still leave flowers at his statue in the San Sebastian Cathedral.

Gran bienhechor de Negros; Fundador del molino “la hidraulica”; Medico; Constructor de las carreteras provinciales de Negros y Parroco de Talisay por 50 años.

The inscription on his statue reads: “Great benefactor of Negros; Founder of the hydraulics mill, Doctor, Constructor of the Negros provincial highways, Parish priest of Talisay for 50 years.”

A brief account of “The Spaniards” in the Negros Museum mentions that “Recollect Father Fernando Cuenca modernized sugar production by building the first water-powered mill in the 19th century.”

In the Negros Museum: a photo of Fr. Fernando Cuenca from a book, what looks like a page of his handwriting, and a tile with his name and some kind of coat of arms

There’s a short description in Spanish next to his picture, but I only understood the part about him being “Castillan of the city of his name” and the rest I could not translate.

A few years ago I came across a short paragraph about him in the first volume of “Documentary Sources of Philippine History” by Gregorio Zaide, which says that he introduced the use of geothermal energy in Negros. There were no details but I’m assuming that this had something to do with the water-powered sugar mill.

Somewhere in my paternal grandparents’ house there is a book about him that I intend to unearth when I have more time.

Some notes about the Spanish friar as a historical figure:

We would like to think that the Philippines had flourishing civilization before the Spaniards arrived on the scene. But “civilization” presupposes certain tools: wheel, plow, road, bridge masonry, paper, book, etc. We didn’t have any of those things before the Spaniards came, and therefore we cannot claim to have been a great civilization.

We would not have had those tools if the Spaniards – specifically the friars – hadn’t introduced them to us. We owe the friars for our civilization, and yet the friar is portrayed as the villain in our history. When we think of the friar, we think of Padre Damaso. We think of abuse and oppression and exploitation. We fail to acknowledge that the friars were our economic and cultural heroes.

The friars shaped our economy with the crops they planted: tobacco, cotton, coffee, sugar, melon, guava, and many others. We take for granted that these crops are not indigenous to the Philippines — the friars brought them here. When we broke away from Spain, we did not fear economic upheaval. We weren’t a colonial economy, tied to the factories and markets of Spain. We were economically independent.

They revolutionized our agricultural production by introducing the wheel and plow. Most Filipinos seem to think that the image of a carabao pulling a plow is intrinsically Filipino, but it is not. The pre-Hispanic carabao was meat, not a work animal. The wheel and plow lifted a mountain of labor off the farmer’s back and expanded his ability to produce.

The friars’ revolt against their superiors in Spain resulted in independent friar provinces in the Philippines.

They organized our dialects into grammars. The propagation of dialects instead of Spanish resulted in an independent Philippine Christian culture that is not merely a mirror of the Spanish or Mexican culture.

They opened up and mapped our lands.

They pulled us out of the midst of folklore and into the era of written history.

They built churches, bridges, damns, and irrigation systems that we still used today.

It’s not widely know that there were never many Spaniards in the Philippines and that lack of manpower translated to an inability to commit widespread abuses. Not that there weren’t any abuses in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but the bulk occurred in the nineteenth century as a consequence of the political strife in Spain and the decline of the empire.

It was in the nineteenth century that civil administrators and soldiers from the colonies Spain had lost came flocking to the Philippines and only then did the widespread abuse become possible. I think that it’s extremely important to make that qualification because otherwise our perception of colonization and the impact of friar influence becomes skewed.

(As an introduction to the historical role of Christianity and the Spanish colonization in constituting the Filipino and the Philippine nation, I recommend the following writings of Nick Joaquin: (1) A Question of Identity: Bringing Out the Invisible Filipino in History; and (2) Culture and History: Occasional Notes on the Process of Philippine Becoming.)

What do Muslims wear when they go swimming? I hadn’t thought to ask until I encountered this query about swimming attire on ClickTheCity. Now that I think about it, I’ve never seen any recognizably Muslim Muslims at the beach or a public pool.

Muslims follow a dress code that is based on the Qur’an and the Sunnah. Men are required to cover the middle part of the body from navel to knee, while women are required to cover the entire body except the hands and face.

It’s stricter for women because “Islam elevates its women to the peak of respect and saves a woman from disgrace and humiliation, giving her a chance to be treated like an honourable human being and not a mere sex object for the lustful desires of bestial miscreants.” The guidelines for women’s modesty are collectively known as the Hijaab. “Hijaab” literally means screen, curtain, partition and concealment. As a verb it means to conceal oneself from the view.

Obviously, swimming poses less of a challenge to men. My quick Google search for “Muslim men swimwear” turned up these wetsuits, which don’t appear to be particularly Islamic. Although I can’t tell from the picture if they’re just regular wetsuits or if they’re of a looser fit. The Hijaab requires women to hide the shape of their bodies but I don’t know if the same rule applies to men.

As for Muslim women, I found that:

Many women… don’t go in the water. Maybe they will go in the water up to their knees, and actually wear an old pair of tights or loose soft pants. The other thing lots of Muslim families do is to find a secluded area of beach where no one else but their families are… Many women actually go to one of their female friends house with a swimming pool and wear swimming clothes, but they won’t be exposing themselves to strange men there… In many Islamic countries, there actually are segregated areas of beach and swimming centers where Muslim women can swim by themselves. (Yahoo! Answers)

And then there’s the sartorial innovation known as the burkini.

Burkinis have been around for a few years, but since I’m not exactly at the cutting edge of conservative fashion, they’re news to me. They allow Muslim women (or women who, for whatever reason, are not comfortable with exposing their bodies) to enjoy the water while maintaining their modesty. You’d think that this would be welcomed as a good thing, but the burkini has not been entirely well received.

…The new swimsuits have drawn criticism from both East and West. “This is like playing a game with Allah,” asserted a poster on the website ShiaChat, complaining that the stretchy fabric reveals curves. (Time.com)

Women’s rights in the Islamic world obviously have a long way to go, and certainly there are more pressing issues than which fashion statements are acceptable in Islam. But the burkini is a bit more than just a fashion statement. It is an assertion of Muslim female identity. It represents a subtle renegotiation of the Hijaab and poses a challenge to the status quo. In which case I say, You go, girlfriends.

“Eostre is Batman… and the bunny is Robin. For a long time they were always together but then Robin decided to leave Batman and joined Teen Titans. Jesus would be like Cyborg. So now, Robin and Cyborg are on a team… like the Easter Bunny and Jesus.” (Overheard at College)

Recent surveys say:

• 76% of Filipinos want family planning education for the youth (SWS)
• 71% favor the passage of the RH Bill (SWS)
• Family planning education and RH Bill are supported by 76% of Catholic and 78% of non-Catholics (SWS)
• 75% of men and 77% of women support family planning education and the RH Bill (SWS)
• 82% of Filipinos think that government should not only educate couples regarding modern methods of family planning but also provide them with services and materials on these methods (Pulse Asia)
• Almost all Filipinos consider it important for one to have the ability to plan the family for the welfare of both the family (93%) and the country (90%) (Pulse Asia)
• Most Filipinos are aware of the reproductive health bill pending at the House of Representatives (68%) and are in favor of the bill (63%) (Pulse Asia)

Yay!

• The RH Bill remains a priority of the House of Representatives.
• Despite the vicious backlash from the “pro-life” camp, all 113 co-authors continue to support the bill.
• The plenary debate in congress resumed last 27 January 2009.

Nay!

• Anti-RH legislators are delaying the proceedings.
• This is not only obnoxious, it’s expensive. For every day that drags on, they’re wasting about about P12.5 million pesos (the House’s daily budget) of tax payers’ money.
• The deceitful tactics they’re employing are disgusting. Rep. Roilo Golez was recently slammed for deliberately misleading the House and the general public when he misrepresented data during his interpellation. He claimed his figues came from the Department of Health, the National Statistics Office and the Food and Nutrition Research Institute but all three agencies officially denied producing such data.

Hey!

We’re not going to stand for this. We RH Bill advocates will be heard. Ms. Elizabeth Angsioco, Secretary-General of the Reproductive Health Advocacy Network (RHAN) suggests five simple things we can do:

• Write to your Representative and let him/her know your stand on the issue.
• Write Letters to the Editor and send them to your favorite broadsheets.
• Monitor the proceedings in Congress.
• Sign/invite more people to sign the Declaration of Support for the Immediate Passage of the Reproductive Health Bill into Law
• Wear your sentiments on your sleeve or your car, as the case may be. (Pro-RH stickers and pins are available from the RHAN Secretariat. Call 927-1766 from 9 am to 6 pm.)

In addtion, let’s harness the power of the Internet and use our e-mail, blogs and social networks to engaged others. Let’s use every opportunity to educate people and counter propaganda with factual information and sound arguments.

If you believe that access to comprehensive reproductive health programs is a basic right, if you are against eleven women dying every day due to pregnancy and childbirth complications, if you are against the growing number of medically unsafe back-alley abortions, if you are against the youth engaging in risky sexual behavior without understand the full consequences of their actions, if you are against more children being born into poverty because their parents simply don’t know any better — now, more than ever, is the time to make your stand.

On the Reproductive Health Act of 2008: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

I’m currently reading A History of God: The 4000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam by Karen Armstrong and while it’s not exactly your typical page-turner I can’t put it down.

My interest in God is far from spiritual. The closest thing I’ve had to a religious experience was the profound sense of peace that descended upon me when, after years of trying to reconcile the Catholicism I was born into with my increasingly secular world view, I finally decided that I was perfectly capable of living a meaningful life outside the purview of the faith. I prefer to discover meaning for myself, rather than have it neatly packaged and handed to me as a ready-made belief system (created, I might add, by an institution that I’m not entirely fond of).

My interest in God is mostly socio-political — how the concept of monotheism has influenced the development of human civilizations (and vice versa). A History of God is a chronicle of how men and women have perceived and experienced God, from the time of Abraham to the present. It traces the intellectual history of monotheism from classical philosophy and medieval mysticism to the Reformation, the Enlightenment, and the modern age of skepticism.

The human idea of God has a history, since it has always meant something slightly different to each group of people who have used it at various points of time. The idea of God formed in one generation by one set of human beings could be meaningless in another. Indeed, the statement “I believe in God” has no objective meaning, as such, but like any other statement only means something in context, when proclaimed by a particular community. Consequently these is no one unchanging idea contained in the word “God”; instead, the word contains a whole spectrum of meanings, some of which are contradictory or even mutually exclusive. Had the notion of God not had this flexibility, it would not have survived to become one of the great human ideas. When one conception of God has ceased to have meaning or relevance, it has been quietly discarded and replaced by a new theology. A fundamentalist would deny this, since fundamentalism is antihistorical: it believes that Abraham, Moses and the later prophets all experienced their God in exactly the same way as people do today. Yet if we look at our three religions, it becomes clear that there is no objective view of “God”: each generation has to create the image of God that works for it.

The book is interesting from an academic perspective, but it also speaks to me on a very personal level. I can relate to the author’s struggle with religion; I felt the same doubt and I asked the same questions. The author, who was born Catholic, attempted to experience God by entering a religious order. As a young nun, she studied apologetics, scripture, theology and church history. She learned a great deal about the faith, but she failed to glimpse the God described by the prophets and mystics.

Jesus Christ, about whom we talked far more than about “God”, seemed a purely historical figure, inextricably embedded in late antiquity. I also began to have grave doubts about some of the doctrines of the Church. How could anybody possibly know for certain that the man Jesus had been God incarnate and what did such a belief mean? Did the New Testament really teach the elaborate – and highly contradictory – doctrine of the Trinity or was this, like so many articles of the faith, a fabrication by theologians centuries after the death of Christ in Jerusalem?

She eventually left the religious life, but her interest in religion continued.

When I began to research this history… I expected to find that God had simply been a projection of human needs and desires. I thought that “he” would miror the fears and yearnings of society at each stage of its development. My predictions were not entirely unjustified, but I have been extremely surprised by some of my findings, and I wish that I had learned all this thirty years ago, when I was starting out in the religious life. It would have saved me a great deal of anxiety to hear – from eminent monotheists in all three faiths – that instead of waiting for God to descend on high, I should deliberately create a sense of him for myself. Other rabbis, priests and Sufis would have taken me to task for assuming that God was – in any sense – a reality “out there”; they would have warned me not to expect to experience him as an objective fact that could be discovered by the ordinary process of rational thought. They would have told me that in an important sense God was a product of the creative imagination, like the poetry and music that I found so inspiring. A few highly respected monotheists would have told me quietly and firmly that God did not really exist – and yet that “he” was the most important reality in the world.

This idea seriously blows my mind. I’d never heard such a thing in any of the Catholic schools I attended. This book is giving me a lot to think about.

I don't know why my mother insists on plunging headlong into the cemetery craziness on November first. Our relatives aren't going to be any more or less dead if we visit them on the weekend before or after the holiday. We were on the road for four hours and we live just fifteen minutes away from Manila Memorial.

The Filipino capacity for merrymaking is a sight to behold. Even something as dour as commemorating someone's death is transformed into a festive occasion. I can relate to some extent, because at our family's wakes you'd likely forget that someone actually died. When Filipino families get together, regardless of the circumstances, it's cause for celebration. But I don't understand why they insist on having their family bonding activities at the cemetery itself. I mean, you could go to the cemetery, pay your respects, and then go to someone's house and hang out and stuff. You don't have to camp out and set up the karaoke machine on your dead relations' graves. The phenomenon amazes and slightly disturbs me.

The temporary dwellings people set up are kind of cool though. Some of them are pretty elaborate, and aside from the every-present karaoke they've got dvd players and game consoles, water dispensers and microwave ovens. I've always wondered where they get their electricity.

This two-storey tent was next to my grandfather's grave:

My family didn't even bring so much as a cooler of sodas and this family brought their own scaffolding.

There's a kid in a sleeping bag on the “second floor.”

CATHOLICS CAN SUPPORT THE RH BILL IN GOOD CONSCIENCE

14 Ateneo professors: ‘RH bill adheres to Catholic social teaching’
Carmela Fonbuena, abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak

Fourteen faculty members of Catholic school Ateneo De Manila University are out to prove that not all Catholics agree with the Catholic Church’s opposition to the controversial reproductive health bill pending in the House of Representatives.

In a 16-page position paper full of quotes from Catholic Church teachings and scientific studies on health, population, and poverty, the faculty members expressed their strong support for House Bill 5043 because “we believe that the provisions of the bill adhere to core principles of the Catholic social teaching.”

The bill is controversial for promoting contraceptives and imposing sex education in schools starting in Grade 5. Catholic bishops have tagged the bill as “pro-abortion” and “anti-life.”

Although they are aware of the Church’s position, the faculty members said in the paper “our reason, informed by our faith, has led us to believe and say otherwise.” They argued that the bill is actually pro-life, pro-women, and pro-poor.

They argued that the HB 5043—by providing universal access to medically-safe, legal, affordable, and quality reproductive health services—will improve the country’ maternal and child health situation, prevent abortion, help poor families, and make the youth more responsible sexually.

“We ask our bishops and fellow Catholics not to block the passage of House Bill 5043…. To campaign against the bill is to deny our people, especially our women, many other benefits, such as maternal and child health and nutrition; promotion of breastfeeding; adolescent and youth health; reproductive health education; prevention and management of gynecological conditions; and provision of information and services addressing the reproductive health needs of marginalized sectors, among others,” the paper said.

Theology department, too

The faculty members came from various departments of Ateneo. One of them belongs to the Department of Theology. They stressed that they are only speaking for themselves and not for the University.

Their position paper came out after the results of Social Weather Station’s poll on public support for the reproductive health bill were released. It showed that 68 percent—7 in every 10 Filipinos—want a law on contraceptives.

The following are the signatories:

1. Marita Castro Guevara (Department of Interdisciplinary Studies)

2. Raymond Aguas (Department of Theology)
3. Liane Pena Alampay (Department of Psychology)
4. Fernando Aldaba (Department of Economics)
5. Remmon Barbaza (Department of Philosophy)
6. Manuel Dy Jr. (Department of Philosophy)
7. Elizabeth Uy Eviota (Department of Sociology-Anthropology)
8. Roberto Guevara (Department of Theology)
9. Anne Marie Karaos (Department of Sociology-Anthropology)
10. Michael Liberatore (Department of Theology)
11. Liza Lim (Department of Sociology-Anthropology)
12. Cristina Jayme Montiel (Deparment of Psychology)
13. Mary Racelis (Department of Sociology-Anthropology)
14. Agustin Martin Rodriguez (Department of Philosophy)

‘Pro-poor, pro-Life, pro-Women’

In saying that the “Scripture teaches us that God has a special concern for the poor and vulnerable,” the faculty members stress the provisions of the reproductive health bill that are “explicitly pro-poor.”

Section 11 of the proposed bill mandates congressional districts to acquire, operate, and maintain “a van to be known as the Mobile Health Care Services” to deliver reproductive health care services to the poor and needy.

The poor’s lack of access to health services is blamed for the poor maternal and child health situation in the Philippines.

• 10 women die every 24 hours from almost entirely preventable cases of related to pregnancy and childbirth.

• 6 out of 10 women deliver at home, where they rarely have access to a skilled birth attendant.
• 24 out of 1,000 babies under one year old die every year.

The paper also stressed the importance of planning the family. “There is no question that poverty in the Philippines is exacerbated by our rapid population growth,” the paper said.

It cited studies showing that women in the lowest quintile, who usually bear an average of six children, have at leas two children more than their ideal number (3.5). They noted that the increase in family size also means a decrease in per capita income, a decrease in per capita savings, and a decrease in per capita expenditure on education and health.

This will be prevented if Filipinos are familiar with the family planning methods, they said. “The inability of women in the poorest quintile to achieve the number of children they want stems from their high unmet need for family planning,” the paper said.

It will also prevent abortion, they said.

Based on 2000 statistics, there were about half million recorded abortion cases—or 27 abortions per 1,000 women. According to the position paper, this is because “abortion has become a family planning method, in the absence of information on and access to any reliable means to prevent an unplanned and unwanted pregnancy.”

Earlier, 27 professors from the University of the Philippines economics department issued a statement, backed by research, supporting the reproductive health bill.

PDF Downloads:

• Declaration of support for the Reproductive Health Bill’s immediate passage into law from individual faculty of the Ateneo de Manila University

• Position paper on the Reproductive Health Bill by individual faculty of the Ateneo de Manila University

Thanks to Carlos Celdran for sending me the files.

On the Reproductive Health Act of 2008: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4