Bayanihan: Going Beyond Participatory Communication

I was able to experience and be a spectator of a house being carried by more than a dozen men from one place to another when I was a kid. I said to myself that this is really only in the Philippines when people engage in such activities - in unity to achieve a goal. True to its form and meaning, people in unity and in complete participation can definitely be able to work out and arrive at a goal. Until this date, we Filipinos, inherent in our character can definitely be able to achieve the long dreamed goal of progress if we all unite.

                      "We have that inherent bayanihan spirit in us.."

Participatory communication for development is such an ideal means to achieve development. We do not need to completely wait and rely on what will be given to us in order to act upon every problem and generate a solution. We have that inherent bayanihan spirit in us that should have been waking us up in deep slumber. A barangay can always unite and form a community organisation that can formulate plans to help the Barangay council in preventing the spread of dengue. Or perhaps, women in the town can become avid advocates of the importance of breast feeding to lactating mothers in their town. 

We can always improve our lives by becoming a participating/active citizen rather than becoming passive and wait and cry foul over some politician whose term ended by doing nothing to make your vote worthwhile. Why not engage in community communication, generate a local newspaper where everyone can contribute as to their techniques or best practices in farming? Maybe bystanders, yaya's or mothers who are waiting outside a Day Care Centre waiting for their children to come out can engage in educational communication and talk about means and ways to earn from the used plastics, bottles, cans and other recyclable materials from their respective households. 

Achieving our goals starts from small beginnings. To transfer a house from one place to another requires one to take small steps, a strong arm, a steady and focused mind and a strong passion that after such struggle, the goal will be reached - if only everyone unites and participates.

Photocredit: http://www.entrepinoympc.com/images/bayanihan.jpg

Proper Judgment?

Each one of us has its own set of misgivings whereby we often tend to be sorry in the end. Each one of us has its own keepsake of regrets whereby we learn but in the end, we forget the lesson. And, definitely, each one of us has its own plethora of complexities whereby in the end, we end up with these misgivings and regrets.

Needless to say, every aftermath, we convince ourselves that we should have known better and we should have judged the situation better and that we could have turn up things in a much better way - and not like a rooster who lost his fight. But these are all passe. Most of the time, we end up seeking solace and comfort in the four corners of our room, convinving ourselves that everything is fine and that this is all but a no winner no losser situation. This all boils down to what we say PROPER JUDGMENT.

A proper judgment will be in no way bear similar factors, or bear similar consequences, or entail similar convictions in the end. These two words will always be spelled out with one common denominator - DIFFERENCES. Experience has taught us that life will always be full of differences inasmuch as similarities serve as the bond for every differences we have. Nevertheless, proper judgment is always being governed by a lot of factors, time, day, mood, character and evidently, we are rendered helpless by all these, not to say the least that we oftentimes find ourselves executing WRONG JUDGMENTS.

The use of proper judgment in everyday life's situation is almost inexplicable clouded with a lot of uncertainties, reservations and questions that all has to be resolved urgently, otherwise you end up either taking a wrong turn or being totally abandoned for oblivion. Proper judgment is critical, it is necessary and it is dangerous too. We all have to bear in mind that proper judgment may not be as proper as it may seem, it may just be a means to justify the ends - talk about Machiavelli, or it may be more of a practice up to the point that we end up in pure dependence to our judgments that we already closed the doors to entertain some other factors for reconsideration - talk about being too dogmatic of our own set of beliefs.

If we dig deeper into the uses of proper judgment, we can see that a lot of us would use it as a justification of their so-called "proper judgments". Take for example a person who delays doing something because in his or her own proper judgment, it is still not the right time. Proper judgment in this sense has been utilized to justify that if a task is to be done immediately, there would be repercussions - this is the most obvious implication if we look at it. Or, if we commit ourselves into something only to end up saying,

Hence, as I close this lamentation of mine, let us all be mindful of ourselves at all times.