The insolence of an ungrateful alien

NB: This article is a reaction/open letter of the blogger to Mr. Herdy La. Yumul's article on http://riknakem.net/2013/08/06/for-speaking-ilokano-3-students-expelled-by-christian-school/

Photo courtesy of http://anti-oppressive-education.uregina.wikispaces.net/

Dear Herdy,

 

I just read your article about the three young students who were kicked out of school for speaking our native vernacular—Ilokano.

I am saddened and at the same time alarmed to learn that those students enrolled in that school (Saviours Christian Academy, Laoag City) are arbitrarily deprived of their right to speak in their local tongue, within the school premises.

Over the last decade, as our country grows more diverse, mostly from the influx of recent immigrants, we are seeing increased number of cases of language-based discrimination, particularly in schools and in the workplace. English-only rules, accent discrimination in hiring or promotion practices, and lack of translation of safety information are some of the common complaints—all of which are constitutive of coercion and deprivation of the right to freedom speech.

For Mr. Brian Shah, he has a responsibility to be culturally aware of his students and encourage diversity. His immersion in this country and him being an alien, should strike a chord on him of the respect and admiration we have accorded to him when he first set his foot to our land. Thus, such respect and admiration should be also reciprocated with high regard to our heritage as Ilokanos—as we speak naturally, the vernacular Iluko despite of some of us being educated with Spanish, French, and English languages.

It is shameful that people discourage others from speaking their native language. Wouldn't it be nice if everyone had the freedom and right, to speak their own language in public without fear of persecution from those that cannot understand them and have no desire to do so? Some day it may be illegal to speak Ilokano or Iluko in this province. Logically and in case of doubts, then just remember that English is not the native language of Ilocos Norte.

By the way, the 1987 Constitution guarantees the freedom of speech as the political right to communicate one's opinions and ideas using one's body and property to anyone who is willing to receive them. It includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used—and that should mean to include all kinds of vernacular including Ilokano. Such right is accorded to all human beings, young and old. In fact, freedom of speech and of expression is a universally recognized human right.

In one case, the Court declared that it is incompetent for the government to prohibit the teaching of the German language to students between certain age levels since there is nothing inherently harmful in the language that will impair the upbringing of the child, and in fact, such a subject could improve his academic background.

Relative to this, speaking of Ilokano within the school premises should also be viewed the same way, as “there is nothing inherently harmful that will impair the upbringing of our children if they speak in Ilokano.”

Simply put, to educate children on our native tongue is an imperative. In fact, in these times when children are exposed everyday to myriad of information in the television, internet and other mass media, it is even past the time to ask if the inclusion of the Ilokano language should be discussed in formal education. Why? Because Ilokano or Iluko is a recognized form of verbal communication.

The development of our children is a concern of all institutions in the society especially the schools who are responsible in teaching and molding them. It is in schools where we partly or wholly entrust the future of our kids.

The act of Mr. Shah in dealing with the three young people is a reminder to all of us that such a type of oppression still exists. I hope, that this example of ignorance will not be forgotten and may all of us continue to move forward while creating a world that fosters children to embrace their heritage.


Sincerely,

Anton

Life's one, two, tree

“What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Planting a Neem tree in Paayas, Burgos, Ilocos Norte during the International Arbor Day Celebration, June 25, 2013. Neem tree is a tree in the Mahogany family Meliaceae which grows in the tropical and semi- tropical regions. It is a fast growing tree which can reach a height of 15-20 meters.

Said Herman Hesse; "For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers. I revere them when they live in tribes and families, in forests and groves. And even more I revere them when they stand alone. They are like lonely persons. Not like hermits who have stolen away out of some weakness, but like great, solitary men, like Beethoven and Nietzsche. In their highest boughs the world rustles, their roots rest in infinity; but they do not lose themselves there, they struggle with all the force of their lives for one thing only: to fulfill themselves according to their own laws, to build up their own form, to represent themselves. Nothing is holier, nothing is more exemplary than a beautiful, strong tree. When a tree is cut down and reveals its naked death-wound to the sun, one can read its whole history in the luminous, inscribed disk of its trunk: in the rings of its years, its scars, all the struggle, all the suffering, all the sickness, all the happiness and prosperity stand truly written, the narrow years and the luxurious years, the attacks withstood, the storms endured. And every young farmboy knows that the hardest and noblest wood has the narrowest rings, that high on the mountains and in continuing danger the most indestructible, the strongest, the ideal trees grow.

Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.

A tree says: A kernel is hidden in me, a spark, a thought, I am life from eternal life. The attempt and the risk that the eternal mother took with me is unique, unique the form and veins of my skin, unique the smallest play of leaves in my branches and the smallest scar on my bark. I was made to form and reveal the eternal in my smallest special detail.

A tree says: My strength is trust. I know nothing about my fathers, I know nothing about the thousand children that every year spring out of me. I live out the secret of my seed to the very end, and I care for nothing else. I trust that God is in me. I trust that my labor is holy. Out of this trust I live.

When we are stricken and cannot bear our lives any longer, then a tree has something to say to us: Be still! Be still! Look at me! Life is not easy, life is not difficult. Those are childish thoughts. Let God speak within you, and your thoughts will grow silent. You are anxious because your path leads away from mother and home. But every step and every day lead you back again to the mother. Home is neither here nor there. Home is within you, or home is nowhere at all.

A longing to wander tears my heart when I hear trees rustling in the wind at evening. If one listens to them silently for a long time, this longing reveals its kernel, its meaning. It is not so much a matter of escaping from one's suffering, though it may seem to be so. It is a longing for home, for a memory of the mother, for new metaphors for life. It leads home. Every path leads homeward, every step is birth, every step is death, every grave is mother.

So the tree rustles in the evening, when we stand uneasy before our own childish thoughts: Trees have long thoughts, long-breathing and restful, just as they have longer lives than ours. They are wiser than we are, as long as we do not listen to them. But when we have learned how to listen to trees, then the brevity and the quickness and the childlike hastiness of our thoughts achieve an incomparable joy. Whoever has learned how to listen to trees no longer wants to be a tree. He wants to be nothing except what he is. That is home. That is happiness.”