A Resilient Future

My new issue of YES magazine arrived yesterday. It is always a breath of fresh ideas that comforts my  sense of despair (after having watched the news  for two days about hostage-taking, miss universe, mosque debates, etc). This issue focuses on how to practice resiliency as we are faced with the slow collapse of capitalist civilizations.

*In one editorial, Boy M laments the possibility that  in the near future the $8B remittances of Fil Ams to relatives in the Philippines might dry up due to the economic downsizing in the U.S.
*In the news, GB has hijacked Martin Luther King and plans on a civil rights rally in DC on the anniversary of the I Have A Dream speech.
*It has all been predicted before: the escalation of race wars, escapegoating, war mongering.
*The Chronicle of Higher Ed's front page: How did we become a Nation of Fury?

Yet in this issue of YES, there are stories after stories of how ordinary folks are preparing for a post-peak oil future: from transition towns, to localization initiatives, to urban gardening, redesigning living spaces, redefining the meaning of work, re-defining education, plus insights on how to get out of Wall Street. These people get it. They know that nothing short of a radical shift in American values (of individualism, consumerism, competition, etc) is necessary. Another America is Necessary.

I long to have conversations like this in the Fil Am community. I am interested in the dilemma posed by Boy M: what would happen when the overseas remittance dries up? how can the Philippines re-imagine itself without this overseas remittance? what happens when we run out of oil to transport balikbayan boxes across the ocean or to fuel the airplanes carrying balikbayans? what would shift in the values of Filipinos in the diaspora and Filipinos in the homeland?

As a Filipino in the diaspora and as a US citizen, I join the many who are recognizing that the burden of creating smaller carbon footprint on the planet lies on the affluent countries. I suspect that part of the contraction of the US economy might be from the collective practices of folks who are already consuming less voluntarily or involuntarily. Of course, that's just a sliver of the reality; the bigger piece has to do with the macro: the fatal flaw and consequence of the gospel of free trade.

Furthermore, when asked if white supremacy can be divorced from capitalism, Immanuel Wallerstein at the US Social Forum said NO.

more from the USSF

Transformation, Wellness, Healing as Social Justice work

How can one be well if we are not well together?  And how will we get well when our sense of wellness often does not include the whole?  As Toni Cade pondered in her book The Salt Eaters we have to open ourselves up again to wellness and wholeness, because what is in our memory and intrinsically a part of us has been separated and often taken away from us.  It is something we will need to find again as part of understanding our role as organizers who once were healers, or healers who once were organizers. (Cara Page)

note to self: connect the CFBS work with Incite. It is good to be reminded that the work of healing/transformation/wellness must be connected to social justice movements. Such pursuits often begin as personal development projects but must evolve to become more expansive and inclusive in ways that benefit communities into becoming socially just and fair.  In the absence of such vision, our personal development goals can be easily co-opted by a materialist/consumerist narrative.

I am reminded that my work then is to learn how to articulate this more clearly as a CFBS vision. The beauty of Kapwa psychology is that it already serves as a framework that needs to be enfleshed and embodied.

I am looking for individuals who might want to dialogue with me on this topic.

more on the Social Forum

Lidy Nacpil, Freedom from Debt Coalition: "We are not poor, we are impoverished... Our resources/resource outflow in the South is paying for the affluence of the North."

Invincible, Detroit Hip Hop Artist

Every time I search for more links to the USSF, an upwelling of gratitude and affection happens to me. I become speechless. The links provided here will speak for themselves.

Lidy Nacpil talks about the debt crisis in the Philippines and Invincible talks about the renewal of Detroit from the ground-up. I hear that some folks are now planning to move to Detroit because of their positive experience of being there during the USSF.

The other day a friend asked me "what's next?" I don't know, I answered. The USSF made me realize more urgently the need to be part of the local community. Local to me means suburbia, it means my neighborhood, it means the local Fil Am community. How do I plug in when cyber communities have been more "real" to me than the local scene?

It's time to adjust, enit?