Sabbatical Notes. 23 Jan 2014 N1

SABBATICAL NOTES. 23 JAN 2014 N1 

THE CHALLENGE OF OUR LIVES is how the road rises up to meet us while we take that first step to the journey of a journey. 

Even as I prepare for that journey and start to pack up my bag, the road is there knocking on my door. 

The last lights of the yellow-orange Makakilo sun are bidding goodbye and here I am thinking and thinking hard about the more than 10 M Ilokanos in the Philippines who have forgotten how to think for themselves.

A good number of them, I should say.

The 10 M are the first language speakers, and no one knows how to count the second language speakers and the third language speakers.

Whether 10 M or more, what we have got is a number that does not represent any longer an army with the 'utob-nakem' that includes as its obligation to fight for its language.

There is one reason I know, among many other reasons: the Philippine educational system that is so skewed it favors only a kind of an education that makes everyone parrot that same official line about 'isang bansa, isang diwa' as if this phrase is innocent, neutral, or naive.

It is not: it favors and entitles the center, the hegemon, the empire from within.

This is as clear as day breaking.

Come on!

And now, on my sabbatical, I am involved in this struggle to protect our language--and I am thousands of miles away.

Apuuu!

WPH, HI/23 Jan 2014

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