Nick Joaquin on Filipino Smallness

A Heritage of Smallness by Nick Joaquin:

The depressing fact in Philippine history is what seems to be our native aversion to the large venture, the big risk, the bold extensive enterprise. The pattern may have been set by the migration. We try to equate the odyssey of the migrating barangays with that of the Pilgrim, Father of America, but a glance of the map suffices to show the differences between the two ventures. One was a voyage across an ocean into an unknown world; the other was a going to and from among neighboring islands. One was a blind leap into space; the other seems, in comparison, a mere crossing of rivers. The nature of the one required organization, a sustained effort, special skills, special tools, the building of large ships. The nature of the other is revealed by its vehicle, the barangay, which is a small rowboat, not a seafaring vessel designed for long distances on the avenues of the ocean.

[pdf] Who Owns Nick Joaquin Now? (July 2004): Who owns the copyrights to Nick Joaquin's extensive works, now that he has died, gotten cremated, and romantically gone to the eternal beer garden?

Philippine Graphic reissued 'Bat Lake', Joaquin's last novel (2004).

Ethnomathematics

[pdf] Peace, Social Justice, and Ethnomathematics (2007) by Ubiratan d'Ambrosio:

Issues affecting society nowadays, such as national security, personal security, economics, social and environmental disruption, relations among nations, relations among social classes, people's welfare, the preservation of natural and cultural resources, and many others can be synthesised as Peace in its several dimensions: Inner Peace, Social Peace, Environmental Peace and Military Peace.These four dimensions are intimately related. Social Justice, the theme of this book, naturally leads to Social Peace. Although, as I said, the four dimensions of Peace are intimately related, in this chapter I will focus my reflection on Social Justice and how can Ethnomathematics contribute to it.

Ethnomathematics: an absolute key for Mathematics education (1998): Needless to say how native algorithms to perform these operations are culturally-dependent and, therefore, are different. That is why the (Ethno)-Mathematics becomes absolutely essential for mathematics education.

Ethnomathematics Digital Library (2005): Around seven hundred items relevant to the Pacific region.

[old video] Filipino must-see, popular 'Ethnomathematics': If you're Filipino, once you see it, you will know the 'algorithm', then you will want to wash your eyes.

Manila Envelope

Manila Envelope (1989) by James Fenton is a limited edition collection printed in the Philippines. It has thirteen poems, ending with the Tagalog "Maski Papaano" above. Fenton explains: When I lived in Manila, I knew several aspiring poets who felt some frustration at the lack of any outlets for their work. I suggested self-publishing as the answer. This is what I had done over the years with John Fuller and with my brother. Poetry publishing is anyway a small-scale operation. In Manila, where the situation was ideal for the small press, such ventures were not well known.

[audio] 'The Milkfish Gatherers' cleverly translates two naughty Tagalog names of fish ('tampal-puki' and 'tarugo') into English [detail pointed out by J Neil C Garcia]:

Rummagers of inlets, scourers of the deep,
Dynamite men, their bottles crammed with wicks,
They named the sea's inhabitants with style--
The Slapped Vagina Fish, the Horse's Dick.

Polillo 'mets' means it is far away--
The smoking island plumed from slash and burn.
And from its shore, busy with hermit crabs,
Look to Luzon. Infanta melts in turn.

The collection begins with Blood and Lead:

Listen to what they did.
Don't listen to what they said.
What was written in blood
Has been set up in lead.

Lead tears the heart.
Lead tears the brain.
What was written in blood
Has been set up again.

The heart is a drum.
The drum has a snare.
The snare is in the blood.
The blood is in the air.

Listen to what they did.
Listen to what's to come.
Listen to the blood.
Listen to the drum.