Dagiti Kritikal a Perspektiva ti Adal Ilokano ken Amianan, 1

Dagiti Kritikal a Perspektiva ti Adal Ilokano ken Amianan

Serye 1

Aurelio S. Agcaoili, PhD
Universidad ti Hawai`i iti Manoa


Isingasing daytoy a papel dagiti perspektiva ken paradaym a mabalin a maaramat tapno ti Adal Ilokano ken Amianan ket mabukel a kas modo ti ammo a kritikal a mangsarsarming kadagiti nagduduma a padas dagiti tattao iti Ilocos ken iti Amianan a Luzon, a daytoy naud-udi ket bukbuklen dagiti nagduduma a padas a lingguistik ken kultural ngem makiar-aramat iti Ilokano a kas linggua frangka iti biag a publiko ken panaggobernar. Babaen iti panangidiskutir a ti pudno, ti hushusto, ken makawaywaya nga adal maipapan iti Filipinas ket saan a mabalin nga agrugi iti predominansia a posision nga it-ited ti nagkadua a pangal ti Inglisisasion ken Tagalogisasion ti nailian ken komunal a padas-Filipino, buklen ti papel ti sumagmamano nga argumento tapno makita ti kinanasken-unay ti Adal Ilokano ken Amianan bilang pangsukal iti sistematiko a pnnakabura a resulta ti ‘sentrista’ a nasionalismo, neokolonisasion, ken globalisasion. globalization. Dagitoy a puersa ket pinapunggekda ti panagdur-as ti kinamanagpartutat dagiti nagduduma a kultura ken lengguahe iti Filipinas. Uppat a perspektiva—pilosopikal, kultural, lingguistik, ken epistemolohikal—ti maaramat tapno mabalabala ti argumento a kasapulan tapno maiabanse ti panangtunton iti maipapan kadagiti adal iti a mainaig iti Filipinas ket dina kabaelan ti mangipakita a namaymaysa dagitoy a politikal nga ehersisio iti nagan ti pagilian a Filipinas ken iti nasionalismo a Filipino aginggana a dina kabaelan a rakisaen ti lingguistik, epitemik, ken kultural nga epekto daytoy mamagmaymaysa nga ehersisio.

Adal Filipino a Kas Radikal a Perspektiva

Adda dagiti nagduduma a wagas a mabalin a maaramat tapno masirig ti Adal Filipino bilang paradaym ti ammo, a ti konsepto ti paradaym a naaramat ditoy ket sumursurot ti panagipapan iti maikadua a panagiyanag a Kuhnian bilang “dagiti pagraranudan nga ehemplo” (1970: 187) wenno “modelo a balballigi iti napalabas” (1970: 175). Ti adda kadatayo ita ket uray no mairaman ti etnolingguistik nga exkursus ni Ferdinand Blumentritt ken ni Jose Rizal, addaantayo laeng iti maysa a klase ti ‘Pilipinolohia’ (‘Pilipino+lohia’) nga agpangpanggep, iti kapintasan a panagipapan, a mangsirig iti universo dagiti Filipino a kas kolonial nga exibit kontra iti opresion; wenno kolonial a tropeo, a ti maik-ikkan iti importansia ket ti ‘barbarismo’ ken ‘kinasalbahe’ ti maysa a grupo dagiti tattao kas St. Louis Fair idi 1904 idiay Missouri a nakaipakitaan dagiti purok ken dagiti pumurok nga inimportda manipud kadagiti nakonkistar nga isla ti Filipinas (cf. dua a pelikula, “Savage Acts” ken “Bontoc Eulogy”); wenno ti idea maipapan iti panagbirbirok iti namunganayan, kas maysa a henealohia wenno pakasaritaan ti kaamaan a naggapuan tapno insultuenda ti panggep dagiti kolonisador a ‘mangsibilisar’ kadatayo, kas iti errado a panangtunton ni Rizal a dagiti tattao iti Filipinas ket naggapu iti puli dagiti Malayo (Azurin 1995: 9). Dagiti kakastoy a panggep ti Adal Filipino bilang modo ti ammo, ken kas naawatanda iti napalabas, ket agkibaltang a mangited iti maysa a modelo ti Adal Filipino a kayattayo a mabalabala itatta. Babaen ti panangidaulo ti Universidad ti Filipinas iti pannakakonseptualisana kadagiti narikor a dekada 60 ken 70 ken ti panangpagraduarna kadagiti adu nga agdama nga iskolar a sindadaan a mangipakita iti panagbalbaliw iti balabala a kognitivo a maus-usar kadagitoy dua a modelo iti Adal Filipino, addaantayo itan iti perspektiva ti Adal Filipino nga agpada a kritikal ken komited—kritikal kadagiti modo ti produksion ken reproduksion ti ammo maipapan iti Filipinas ken komited met iti produksion ti dinamiko ken agtultuloy gapu ta kankanayon nga exploratorio nga adal maipapan iti gimong a Filipino, dagiti tattaona, dagiti kulturana, dagiti lengguahena, ti politikana, ken ti biagna nga ekonomiko

Ti panangited iti enfasis iti exploratorio, tentativo, ken lukat a naturalesa ti adal nga agresulta manipud iti kastoy a panirigan iti Adal Filipino ket dawdawaten ti panangadmitir iti interpretivo a karakter dagiti amin nga ammo a pangtao, ken kasta met a kaduaenna ti panangbigbig ken panangadmitir iti mangibabaet a bileg ti pangtao a lengguahe kadagitoy amin a porma ti ammo a pangtao.

Gapu ta interpretivo a panirigan iti ammo a pangtao ket ibasarna iti bagina iti kangrunaan masapul ken nasken unay a kasapulan tapno mabigbig a ti ammo a pangtao, iti amin a panawen ti pakasaritaan, ket kankanayon a markado iti partikular a historikal a pannakaibalabalana iti situasion, segun iti kadagiti rekisito ti panawen ken lugar, segun kadagiti rekisito dagiti aktor ken aksion a mailagalaga iti maysa ken maysa ken mairaman iti aramid a pangtao ngem kankanayon a maawatan, numan pay tentative, babaen ti agdama a modo ti komunikasion a pangtao nga awagantayo iti lengguahe a pangtao, ket ngarud, ti lengguahe a pangtao a dialekto, ti lengguahe a maar-aramat iti ‘kinaaldaw-aldawna’. Ket gapu daytoy ti lengguahe iti inaldaw-aldaw—ti dialekto—daytoy ti mangisawsawang kadatayo, a makisarsarita kadatayo, ken isuna met ket sarsaritaentayo, kasarsaritatayo, kaduatayo iti saritaan, ken pamunganayan nga agsarita. Ti inaldaw-aldaw a pannakaawattayo itilubong ket ngarud nalpasen a kankanayon a resulta, ken inaramid a posible, daytoy inaldaw-aldaw a lengguahe—ken ngarud, iti udina, awan inaldaw-aldaw a lengguahe a mangiparparipirip kadatayo kadatayo iti lubong iti inaldaw-aldaw nga ammo a final, kompleto, di agbalbaliw, di marakrak, di malaok-laokan, ken puro.

Hon, HI
Mayo 18/08

3rd Nakem Conference

3rd Nakem International Conference,
maangay iti St. Mary’s University


Iti maikatlo a gundaway, maangay ti Nakem International Conference iti St. Mary’s University iti Bayombong, Nueva Viscaya inton Mayo 28-30.

Ti Nakem Conferences, maysa a kultural a tignayan iti nagan dagiti amin a taga-Amianan, iti man Filipinas wenno ti ballasiw-taaw, ket immuna a nainaw ken naisayangkat idi 2006 iti Universidad ti Hawai`i iti panangilungalong ti dati nga Ilokano and Philippine Drama and Film Program nga itan ket ad-adda nga am-ammo iti awag nga Ilokano Language and Literature Program.

Daytoy a programa ti kakaisuna a pakaadalan iti digri ti kinabatsilier iti Ilokano Language and Literature iti intero a Hawai`i, iti intero nga Estados Unidos, ken iti intero a lubong.

Malaksid iti kinabatsilier, mangidiaya pay ti Ilokano Language and Literature ti UH iti minor ken sertifiko iti Ilokanok kasta met a mangisaysayangkat kadagiti nagduduma nga outreach ken community language program iti labas ti Universidad, kas iti Ilokano Plus Program iti Maui Community College iti Estado ti Hawai`i.

Manamnama nga atenderan ti nasao a kumperensia dagiti adu agsuksukisok iti lengguahe, kultura, ken kannawidan dagiti taga-Amianan.

Kasta met nga atenderan dagiti adu nga akademiko, iskolar, mannurat, ken mangmangged iti pannakaitan-ok ti kultura dagiti amin nga etnolingguistiko a grupo iti Amianan a Filipinas.

Mapagsasaritaan iti nasao a kumperensia dagiti nagduduma a topiko a mainaig iti tema a “Panagkakannayon: Kultural ken Lingguistik a Diversidad iti Masirsirmata a Nasion Dagiti Taga-Amianan iti Pagilian ken iti Exilo.”

Pinagsusugponan a binukel ti 3rd Nakem Conference ti tallo nga universidad: ti St. Mary’s University babaen kenni Dr. Bonifacio Ramos; ti Mariano Marcos State University babaen kenni Dr. Alegria Tan Visaya; ken ti University of Hawai`i babaen kenni ni Dr. Aurelio S. Agcaoili.

Kinabinnulig dagitoy tallo a convenors ti sibubukel a puersa ti Nakem Conferences Philippines Inc. nga idaulan ni Visaya ken ti Nakem Conferences International nga idauluan ni Agcaoili.

Manamnama ti idar-ay iti daytoy a taripnong dagiti nagduduma a presidente dagiti universidad ken kolehio ti estado ken ti privado a sektor kas koma ni Presidente Lauro Tacbas iti University of Northern Philippines ken nasional a presidente met laeng ti Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges; Presidente Miriam Pascua iti Mariano Marcos State University; ken Presidente Reverendo Padre Manuel Valencia iti St. Mary’s University.

Kasta met a manamnama ti panagsarita ti madaydayaw a Carlos Padilla, representante ti distrito ti Nueva Viscaya ti formal a panaglukat ti kumperensia iti maikadua nga aldaw.

Ni Dr. Saturnino M. Ocampo, komisioner ti Comission on Higher Education, ti mangted iti mensahe iti maudi nga aldaw ti kumperensia.

Iti formal a panaglukat ti seremonia, agpabuya ti SMU Choir ken Artist Circle ket ditoy met ti panangpasangbay ti mayor ti Bayombong, ni madaydayaw a John Severino Bagasao, kadagiti amin a partisipante.

Iti daytoy a seremonia, maluktan ti maysa a kultural nga exhibit—ti “paddarafunan”—nga insagana ti St. Mary’s University. Kartiben ni Fr. Valencia iti laso ti paddarafunan ket asistiran ni Dr. Pascua.

Iti panagrikep ti kumperensia, manamanama ti pannakapatalged kadagiti resolusion a maidatag kadagiti delegado tapno maisayangkat dagiti adu a gannuat a mangsierto ti pannakataginayon dagiti amin a lengguahe ken kultura iti Amianan a Filipinas.

Buklen ti sibubukel a kumperensia ti 14 a panel nga addaan iti tallo wenno uppat nga agsarita iti kada panel.

Da Ramos ken Visaya, direktor ken presidente ti NCP kas panagsaganadda, dagiti agserbi a direktor ken kadua a direktor ti nasao a kumperensia; isuda met laeng ti mangbukel iti Philippine panel ti nasao a kumperensia idinto ta idauluan ni Agcaoili ti United States panel.

Mapagnunumuan pay iti nasao a kumperensia ti pannakaangay ti maikapat a Nakem Conference a manamnama a maangayto

3rd Nakem Conference

3rd Nakem International Conference,
maangay iti St. Mary’s University


Iti maikatlo a gundaway, maangay ti Nakem International Conference iti St. Mary’s University iti Bayombong, Nueva Viscaya inton Mayo 28-30.

Ti Nakem Conferences, maysa a kultural a tignayan iti nagan dagiti amin a taga-Amianan, iti man Filipinas wenno ti ballasiw-taaw, ket immuna a nainaw ken naisayangkat idi 2006 iti Universidad ti Hawai`i iti panangilungalong ti dati nga Ilokano and Philippine Drama and Film Program nga itan ket ad-adda nga am-ammo iti awag nga Ilokano Language and Literature Program.

Daytoy a programa ti kakaisuna a pakaadalan iti digri ti kinabatsilier iti Ilokano Language and Literature iti intero a Hawai`i, iti intero nga Estados Unidos, ken iti intero a lubong.

Malaksid iti kinabatsilier, mangidiaya pay ti Ilokano Language and Literature ti UH iti minor ken sertifiko iti Ilokanok kasta met a mangisaysayangkat kadagiti nagduduma nga outreach ken community language program iti labas ti Universidad, kas iti Ilokano Plus Program iti Maui Community College iti Estado ti Hawai`i.

Manamnama nga atenderan ti nasao a kumperensia dagiti adu agsuksukisok iti lengguahe, kultura, ken kannawidan dagiti taga-Amianan.

Kasta met nga atenderan dagiti adu nga akademiko, iskolar, mannurat, ken mangmangged iti pannakaitan-ok ti kultura dagiti amin nga etnolingguistiko a grupo iti Amianan a Filipinas.

Mapagsasaritaan iti nasao a kumperensia dagiti nagduduma a topiko a mainaig iti tema a “Panagkakannayon: Kultural ken Lingguistik a Diversidad iti Masirsirmata a Nasion Dagiti Taga-Amianan iti Pagilian ken iti Exilo.”

Pinagsusugponan a binukel ti 3rd Nakem Conference ti tallo nga universidad: ti St. Mary’s University babaen kenni Dr. Bonifacio Ramos; ti Mariano Marcos State University babaen kenni Dr. Alegria Tan Visaya; ken ti University of Hawai`i babaen kenni ni Dr. Aurelio S. Agcaoili.

Kinabinnulig dagitoy tallo a convenors ti sibubukel a puersa ti Nakem Conferences Philippines Inc. nga idaulian ni Visaya ken ti Nakem Conferences International nga idauluan ni Agcaoili.

Manamnama ti idar-ay iti daytoy a taripnong dagiti nagduduma a presidente dagiti universidad ken kolehio ti estado ken ti privado a sektor kas koma ni Presidente Lauro Tacbas iti University of Northern Philippines ken nasional a presidente met laeng ti Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges; Presidente Miriam Pascua iti Mariano Marcos State University; ken Presidente Reverendo Padre Manuel Valencia iti St. Mary’s University.

Kasta met a manamnama ti panagsarita ti madaydayaw a Carlos Padilla, representante ti distrito ti Nueva Viscaya ti formal a panaglukat ti kumperensia iti maikadua nga aldaw.

Ni Dr. Saturnino M. Ocampo, komisioner ti Comission on Higher Education, ti mangted iti mensahe iti maudi nga aldaw ti kumperensia.

Iti formal a panaglukat ti seremonia, agpabuya ti SMU Choir ken Artist Circle ket ditoy met ti panangpasangbay ti mayor ti Bayombong, ni madaydayaw a John Severino Bagasao, kadagiti amin a partisipante.

Iti daytoy a seremonia, maluktan ti maysa a kultural nga exhibit—ti “paddarafunan”—nga insagana ti St. Mary’s University. Kartiben ni Fr. Valencia iti laso ti paddarafunan ket asistiran ni Dr. Pascua.

Iti panagrikep ti kumperensia, manamanama ti pannakapatalged kadagiti resolusion a maidatag kadagiti delegado tapno maisayangkat dagiti adu a gannuat a mangsierto ti pannakataginayon dagiti amin a lengguahe ken kultura iti Amianan a Filipinas.

Buklen ti sibubukel a kumperensia ti 14 a panel nga addaan iti tallo wenno uppat nga agsarita iti kada panel.

Da Ramos ken Visaya, direktor ken presidente ti NCP kas panagsaganadda, dagiti agserbi a direktor ken kadua a direktor ti nasao a kumperensia; isuda met laeng ti mangbukel iti Philippine panel ti nasao a kumperensia idinto ta idauluan ni Agcaoili ti United States panel.

Mapagnunumuan pay iti nasao a kumperensia ti pannakaangay ti maikapat a Nakem Conference a manamnama a maangayto iti Estados Unidos.

Sirmata

TI SIRMATA TI NAKEM CONFERENCES

A. Solver Agcaoili
University of Hawai`i & Nakem Conferences (International)


Kunada a mainaw ti amin iti idea, nga iti idea nga agruting dagiti sabali pay nga idea a mangdagdag kadatayo tapno manen ken manen ket sirigentayo dagiti padastayo, ti gimongtayo, ken ti universotayo babaen iti lente ti adal a makaisalakan ken makaited iti pannubbot kadagiti amin a babantot ken dagensentayo.

Kasta ti Nakem Conferences.

Nangrugi daytoy iti idea—ket iti idea met laeng a nagruting. Ket ti idea iti komitment iti dayta nga idea ti mangpaspasantak kadaytoy agdama a realidad ti Nakem Conferences a kas taripnong ken tignayantayo amin.

Iti pannakarambak ti sangasiglo a padas dagiti Ilokano ken aminen a taga-Amianan—ken ti lohikal nga extension daytoy, dagiti Filipino—iti Estado ti Hawai`i, dita a naimula ti idea maipapan iti Nakem Conferences.

Maysa laeng ti gapuna: ti pannakasebrar dayta a naisangsangayan unay a padas dagiti Ilokano ken taga-Amianan ket ti pannakaitan-ok metten daytoy a padas iti pakasaritaan.

Ngem iti dayta a panagselebrar ket ti panagpanunot, panaganalisar, ken panagkritikar met tapno iti kasta ket kankanayon a mapabaro ti balabala ken naguneg dagiti adal maipapan iti kina-Ilokano ken kinamakipagili iti deppaarna ti Amianan.

Ti produksion ti adal maipapan iti kinamakipagili iti Amianan ti adda iti pantok ti kastoy a panagtitimpuyog a nangrugi idi 2006 idiay Universidad ti Hawai`i ken nasunotan manen idi 2007 idiay Mariano Marcos State University ket ita a tawen, iti St. Mary’s University.

Awan ngarud gamden ti Nakem Conferences no di ti pannakapartuat kadagiti adal a maaramat amin a taga-Amianan tapno iti kasta ket maitandudo ti kananakem, kannawidan, kultura, ken pagsasaoda.

Daytoy a gakat ti agserbi a pagibasaran no kadagiti sumuno nga aldaw ket ti Nakem Conferences, babaen ti basbas dagiti nagduduma a komunidadtayo, ket agbalinto daytoy a kas maysa a narukbos a kayo a paglinongan—ken pagtaklinan—dagiti amin a makipagili iti gimong dagiti taga-Amianan.


Hon, HI
Mayo 12/08

Intro: Inspirational Speaker Cornelio Acheta

(My introduction of Mr. Cornelio Ancheta, the inspiration speaker at the 2008 B. A. Ilokano Scholarship Banquet held at the Luau Garden of Hale Koa Hotel, Honolulu, HI, April 25/08)



Ladies and gentlemen, good evening:

It is my singular honor to introduce to you an advocate of the struggle for space in the name of Ilokano language and culture in the State of Hawai`i.

They say that you see a warrior when he is before you—and the seeing comes complete when he joins you in the task to wage a struggle for a cause grander than yourself because he understands, and understands fully.

That is how I met our inspirational speaker, less than three years ago, our meeting first in name as I was running a newspaper in Los Angeles while he was starting his own in Hawai`i.

Warriors, indeed, are seeking each other.

One common friend, Professor Precy Espiritu, made it sure that we meet and one day, when I took the helm in running the Ilokano Program two years ago, I finally met the man.

I look at him straight in the eye and there I saw the Ilokano warrior in him.

This is him, I told myself. He is our advocate, I assured myself.

To him we lay bare the soul of the Ilokano Program, I told myself, and which I did.

Until today, this advocate has not left us unaided.

A writer through and through, he had to find a way to vent his inspiration in ways that are of service to the Filipino community in Hawai`i and the United States in general, and to the Ilokano community in particular.

Like our extraordinarily gifted and culturally sensitive students of the Ilokano Language and Literature Program who are here, our speaker takes all the gifts of knowledge to heart, collapsing the boundaries of human knowledge, and looking to all the sources.

Trained in agricultural engineering for his bachelors and his masters under a government scholarship, we have an engineer with us, a scientific mind that is able to see through the chaos and the randomness in our midst, and perhaps spelling out the possibilities for a plausible critical path to alternative ways of looking at our Ilokanoness.

He is not only a scientist but a man of letters: an editor of a technical newsletter, a writer for an agricultural magazine, and a contributing writer for a Manila daily, editor of Ka Leo o Maui, and editor of a chamber of commerce newsletter.

When he moved to Hawai`i, he began writing for a Filipino newspaper until he put up his own, the Fil-Am Observer where he serves as publisher and managing editor.

When I first met him, I told him I needed his help. We were then starting the Nakem Conferences, and lo and behold, our speaker lent us his hand, and has not stopped doing that.

There were evenings we would talk on the phone, talking about possibilities for the Ilokanos, and always with the encouraging tone, he would always remind me that he will always be there for the Ilokano Program.

It is with this gratitude, therefore, that I am proud to say that we have found in our speaker an audacious hope, this hope reminding us that we can do something for the Ilokano people in Hawai`i.

Tonight, his son and wife are with him. Ladies and gentlemen, may I be honored to introduce to you Mr. Cornelio Joaquin Ancheta.

Ilokano: Seed of the Iluko Heritage

(By Cornelio J. Ancheta, Publisher and Managing Editor, Fil-Am Observer, delivered during the 2008 B. A. Ilokano Scholarship Banquet of the UH Manoa Ilokano Language and Literature Program, Hale Koa Hotel's Luau Garden, Hon, Hi, April 25/08; free translation from the Ilokano original into English by Aurelio Solver Agcaoili)



Esteemed members of this assembly, honorable friends, ladies and gentlemen in this happy occasion:

It is my singular honor to have been invited by you in order to give an inspirational talk in your gathering.

I thank you all for this extraordinary opportunity you gave me tonight.

Hence, let me share with you my thoughts about being Ilokano, about this concept we call ‘Ilokanoness’.

My thoughts come from my own experience as an Ilokano, an experience replete with introspection and reflection.

Let me start with what the see of this occasion is all about: the recognition of the three scholars in the Ilokano Language and Literature Program of the University.

For me, this celebration sown in the wisdom of the Ilokano is a mirror.

This is a way by which we get to be united so that together we recognize the ability of the Ilokano.

It is also a way by which we demonstrate that the Ilocos, in that place in the Philippines that we left behind or the Ilocos that is in our dreams is the Ilocos that is home of our heroes and our great people.

Because of this, I give you all my warm greetings.

You invited me to give inspiration. But I feel instead that you are the one giving me inspiration.

This recognition of all our students in the Ilokano Program proves of the triumph of our action of giving importance to our Ilokanoness.

I say, therefore, with joy: You students and you who are teaching these students are exemplars of wisdom and brilliance.

To the young people here, to you I give my salutations.

To the parents of these young people, we give you are greetings.

For us parents, we keep in our chest one dream: that let it be that our children will be like your children who are being honored tonight.

Let me express one metaphor: about you being a seed.

This seed will germinate and bloom.

This seed will become the parent of other seeds, other blessings, and another future that is bright.

And in the passing of time, this same seed will possess the knots of history—a history that puts together all of time and challenges Ilokanos must hurdle in all the corners of the world where they find themselves.

In our comparing our being Ilokanos to that of the seed, there is meaning in here: strength and endurance.

Because we know: inner strength is Ilokano’s virtue even as we face history. And that inner strength is entwined with endurance.

For me, these two—strength and endurance, are the cornerstones of the other virtues possessed by the Ilokano, virtues that she or he must take good care of, virtues that each Ilokano must sow in his or her heart and soul.

Let me start with mindfulness: We Ilokanos take good care of our honor and principles. The Ilokano who is mindful takes honor as a pillar of his character. In all of time, you can depend on him. In the time of need, he is there. He is not careless and his word is one.

Second is his loving nature: yes, the Ilokano loves his neighbor. In Hawai`i, isn’t that love is that which that binds us? Love is the reason why we help each other.

Third is our sense of sacrifice: yes, sacrifice in the face of difficulties and enduring in work. The Ilokano is industrious. He figures out the hurdles he goes through. He is strong in his facing of the challenges of life. His brilliance and wit are his weapons in the pursuit of his goals.

Fourth is the purity of the person of the Ilokano; so also with the rectitude of his deed and word. He has good lessons and attitudes. He knows what is right; he avoids that which is not right. He is orderly, clean, and obedient.

Fifth is his humility: he knows his station, and he knows his place. In this way, he knows how to give proper respect; and he knows the road to humility. He is not boastful. And he knows where he comes from.

Sixth is his friendliness: he knows how to deal with others, he knows that he is not the only person on earth, and he knows that it is only through friendship that his thought, life, and experience could get to be enriched. And that is what he gifts others with.

There are many other qualities of the Ilokano—and we can talk of more/

But for our gathering tonight, these are more than sufficient so that we realize the reason why we give our congratulations and salutations not only to these three awardees but also for all of us who are gathered here.

I know this: you came here so that, like me, you will become a witness.

I testify to the growth and progress of the Ilokano Program of the University.

This is the reason why since the start of Fil-Am OBSERVER, our newspaper, I opened its pages so that the newspaper could serve as an instrument of the Ilokano Program of the University.

I did not hesitate, not a bit, when our friend Ariel asked me for my support for the Ilokano Program and until now—and up to the extent we can—the Fil-Am OBSERVER will always be on the side of the Ilokano Language and Literature Program of the University.

I am very much aware of the challenges fraught by the Ilokano Program at present.

But I am also aware that with us helping together we could achieve many things.

You probably know one good news now: that through the Ilokano Language and Literature Program of the University another Ilokano Program is going to be inaugurated at Maui Community College. I am happy to announce that I will take part in executing this program, with the Filipino Working Group in Maui as our collaborators.

To all those in this audience: I challenge all of you to support the Ilokano Program.

To all the visitors: this Ilokano Program is the proof that we cannot just leave behind our language and our culture, the dwelling place of our soul.

I know that the Ilokano Language and Literature Program needs help and I opened the pages of our newspaper.

This is my dream now: that you will be touched, that in your thoughts you will see how important this work is so that all of us Ilokanos will not hesitate to come to the aid of the Ilokano Program, a program that we are proud to have in the entire world.

It is only in this University that we have this.

We should not permit that this will be lost, be taken away from us.

To the three scholars, we hope that you will come back to the community of the Ilokanos and that you will serve our people in the coming days.

To you we give our blessings.

To all of you, long live!

Thanks you and good evening to all of you.

Critique: In the Crucible of Struggle

IN THE CRUCIBLE OF STRUGGLE—
THE TRAGEDY OF A ROMANCE THAT COULD HAVE BEEN LOVE-FILLED: a Critique of “The Romance of Magno Rubio”

By Aurelio Solver Agcaoili, UH Manoa

(Presented at the Kumu Kahua Theatre, Honolulu, Hawai`i, on the occasion of the public presentation of the play, “The Romance of Magno Rubio,” by Lonnie Carter, an adaptation from Carlos Bulosan’s “The Romance of Magno Rubio,” April 1, 2008)

In the Ilokano language of his soul, Magno Rubio, the four-foot Filipino boy who fell in love with Clarabelle he has not seen but only imagined like a phantasm, he could have said:

Nakurapay a babai
(Marigatan, kakaasi)
Masapulna pay ti kuarta.
Babassit ti addina,
Dida pay agsangapulo,
Adu a gatas agindulto
Adu a karne iluto
Balitok siak ti agbirok
Utong pay siak ti agsirok

Kasla nuang agtrabahoak
Kasla aso agbiagak

Nalpasen ti gisantes
Panag-aapion naktidiables
Panagsasanohorian di aglabes

Mangrugi, mangrugi

Nateng
Nateng
Nana-nanana
Tengteng-tengtengteng
Magnoka a dungritan
Iti Ingles ken Muddy Man
Naikali iti daga,
‘nak ti baka
Sueldom ket nalaylay a lechuga
Sige latta
Sige latta
Di agsardeng
Magno a babaonen
Maysa, dua
Tallo a kaban asparagus nagian
Uppat, lima, innem, pito
Ti brokoli maikawalo
Sigarilias, mustasa, istroberi lima ken sangapulo
Sippaw apol, maysa pay nga apol
Timbangem, kurang, dayta’t trobol.

Nateng, nateng
Nanateng a nairteng
Buras a buras a barus kas Hudas
Itudom, itudom kas kasilias
Sige pay
Sige pay
Buenas no adda pay.
Tallo, lima, pito, agtutuonen a tarongen
Kadakkel ti singkamasen
Ti ayatko a tumangtangken
Kas-kas-kas-kas
Ima laeng pangagas
Pas-pas-pas-pas-pas
Karantingam agburas
Maysa, maysa, sibulias
Dua, dua, letchugas
Uppat, ti gardilias
Innem, ti mansanas
Tallo, ti mustasa
Walo, ti patata
No malpas, ikipas.

Dua, samatis
Bawang ibarandis
Iraman ti sitaw
Adda latta ti buttaw
Burasen ti tabungaw
Ti aba, iparabaw
Di umunay a pagtalawataw

Manen dagulliten
Sangapulo a takalen

There is exuberance in this play—its meaning and relevance and import in its being played, acted out by the five actors, with the director’s sensitive signature in the robust juxtaposition of movements and sounds, with life lived in pain leaping from the page as the actors say the word to reveal the hidden in the sad hearts of the Filipino laborers.

Whoever said that the meaning of a play is its being played? The ‘hermeneuts,’ I think, and one of them, perhaps, is Hans-Georg Gadamer when he ‘problematized’ what texts are, and what cultural texts are as expressions of the historical and linguistic experiences of people, also called their 'lived experiences'.

This ‘playing’ of this play is commendable, and it exudes the kind of education that we Filipino Americans or immigrants need to always remember even as we negotiate spaces we can negotiate, however difficult the negotiation is.

There is one problem though: The speech denied of Magno Rubio. And this problem is not to be dismissed.

For one, we have permitted him to speak English.

And now we are passing him off as Tagalog-speaking, thus, depriving him of his tongue, his language, the intimacy of knowledge that he has to remember in order to make that remembrance a lesson for the future, a lesson that could, somehow, teach him the rudiments to self-redemption.

No, I refuse to believe that Magno Rubio, in the depression years, and even today, in Hawai`i, in Stockton, in Anchorage, and in Agana, is Tagalog-speaking even if he knows how to blurt out his greetings in Tagalog.

For pain is better said, and said with more honesty, in the language of one’s soul.

And that language can only be afforded by the speech one has heard when one was young and when the world was beginning to open its magic and secrets to that person.

Anywhere we look at it, Magno Rubio is Ilokano—and the historical accounts from Bulosan to Manuel Buaken, one of the underrated by brilliant chroniclers of the Ilokano exilic experience.

In the June 1933 issue of the Philippine Magazine, Emeterio Cruz wrote of Filipino worker, even as he became part of the predatory system of capital and labor in the United States in those times: “The men toil like slaves from morning till night and are often called upon to work overtime. Some are paid by the piece—three cents for handling a cooler of 168 cans, and others are paid fifteen cents an hour. The work might not be so bad if the workers were well-housed and fed, but the opposite is usually the case, as regards the ‘Asiatic’ workers at least. They are miserably housed in the crowded quarters and the feed is of the poorest—salted fish or meat and rice, supplied by the labor contractor. Only when the contractor’s supplies run low is salmon ever eaten…”

2.

It is from this perspective that I read the “The Romance of Magno Rubio” the play and “The Romance of Magno Rubio” the short story.

Knowing Carlos Bulosan and the difficult historical context in which he produced the literary documentation of the sufferings of Filipino exiles in America before, during, and after the depressions years, I cannot read the play and the story as a Barbara Cartland romance or a Hollywood-ish take on love or what passes for one. At the very least, here is an allegory; here is a political metaphor on that bad, bad condition Filipino laborers had to go through in order for them to keep on with the dream of America, with the dream of Clarabelle, veritably a symbol, or a clue to a symbol, in this story of deprivation and wretchedness.

I am taking ‘romance’ and its possibilities in a broader context, and using the cultural logic of capital and the oppression the results from it, this ‘romance’ becomes an instrument to mediate a social discourse on human labor and its tragedies in the face of the oppressive economic relationship between those who have the money to buy what love they can buy, or its substitutes, and those who only have their sweat and strength to sell.

Magno Rubio, thus, is not the ‘foolish’ simpleton from the provinces of the Philippines who can easily be swayed by what a ‘lonely hearts corner’ of a magazine can promise: a beautiful, blonde, tall lady who is out there to win the hearts of the lonely Filipino boys in the plantations.

I insist: that Bulosan must have known this story from a plantation worker.

For the unsaid stories of Filipinos in Hawai`i, California, Alaska, Arizona, Utah and other places Bulosan had gone to scratch out a life from the hard earth speak of tragedies like this one—a tragedy because one has believed that America is real and that the American dream is worth the pursuit.

This is the reason why Filipino laborers came to America, at least from an economic sense: that El Dorado is found here, the mountain of gold, however fastastic that is.

But this is the same reason why many of them ended up in tragedy that came from the disillusionment that, indeed, “America” as an ideal of democracy, justice, equality, and fairness, is not so much a place but is, in fact, in the heart, as his memoir or novel or critical ethnography, “America Is In the Heart,” declares.

Bulosan’s story which is appropriately and truthfully rendered into a play by Lonnie Carter, is an attempt to document his initiation into the difficult life of contract laborers—and in today’s context, overseas Filipino workers, whose labors provide the backbone of the Philippine economy.

The 'buena suerte' of the Philippines is that we have the contract laborers propping the economy, with remittances amounting to $14.4B in 2007, the amount representing 10 percent of the gross domestic product, the more reliable way by which any national economy could be measured.

Estimates from the Philippine government put the contract laborers—the OFW, or the overseas Filipino workers like Magno Rubio—at 10 percent of the population, the percentage translatable to somewhere between 9 and 9.5 million. In 2007, more than a million (one million 73 thousand) left the Philippines for work abroad.

The $14B remittances of Magno Rubios came largely from the United States, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, Italy, United Arab Emirates, Canada, Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong although Filipinos are found in 181 countries all over the world.

Philippine national census data for 2004 reveal that Filipinos in the Americas constituted the highest number, with close to 4M, with a little bit less than 3M as permanent residents in these countries.

This exportation of warm bodies as matter of tacit governmental policy because of its failure to create jobs began in 1974, officially, during the most repressive years of the Marcos dictatorship, but we know that we can trace this warm-body export policy even before that, with the 1906 importation by the Hawai`i Sugar Planters Association of plantation workers from the Ilocos, initially, and from everywhere else, eventually, including the Bisayans who came in 1908.

This phenomenon has given rise to some metaphors on the exilic condition of Filipino labor, some of these flatter the contract laborer, to wit, “Global Filipino,” “Global Pinoy,” “Global citizen,” “at home in the world,” and “new heroes,” this last one because their remittances keep the Philippine economy afloat.

On the other hand are the sad realities, the same ones we see in Magno Rubio as he say, in exasperation, “Sige lang, sige pay!” Some of the metaphors are about “left-behind households” and “re-integrees,” those who need to be equipped with the social skills to get back into Philippine society, hence, reintegration.

The play, thus, is a refracted reflection of what has happened—yet this event continues to hold in Hawai`i and elsewhere: in Alaska’s canneries, in the farms of Central California, in the orchards of Washington State, in Guam, in Arizona, and many other states.

In Hawai`i, the Magno Rubios who are dreaming of a romance fulfilled, a love coming into fruition in the Clarabelles of their dreams, are in hotels and resorts and other service industries. The hotels are the new plantations and canneries, and the Ilokanos—the Filipinos—have remained the laborers.

One hotel in downtown Waikiki, for instance, has not treated its employees well, and the laborers, 85% of them Filipinos, are the new Magno Rubios dreaming of their Clarabelles. We hear that plaintive, almost a mantra of resignation, "Sige latta! Sige latta!"

I read this play as an act of critiquing where justice is not served. This play clearly demonstrates the layers and layers of injustices in this country and elsewhere.

REVALUATING THE ILOKANO LANGUAGE IN HAWAI`I

Scholars say that historically, Ilokano is the language of the Filipino diaspora in the State of Hawai`i and in the United States. Roughly 85% of the Filipinos in Hawai`i are Ilokanos or descended from the Ilokanos.

Today, however, that history is about to be lost if nothing is going to be done proactively by the community of Ilokanos in this State.

Aside from a handful of civic and cultural organizations that have remained faithful to their vision of promoting, perpetuating, and protecting Ilokano language and culture, all the rest are merely paying lip service to what it means to be an Ilokano or what it means to keep for always the language and culture of the Ilokanos.

Many Ilokanos have even lost the audacity to claim their Ilokanoness, preferring other identities that they are not, even denying that they know Ilokano. Some even have the temerity to say that they have forgotten how their language sounds.

We can be patient, even tolerant to those who have been born here in Hawai`i, knowing that the sounds that they hear are a mix brew of the rich sounds of the diverse languages spoken here.

The ‘local born’ have not had the same exposure as those who were born in the Ilocos, with the Ilokano community providing the linguistic support for acquaintance and re-acquaintance with the sounds of Ilokano that run the gamut of the lyrical to the guttural and then back to the sounds that sing of the sea and the sun and the sand in the Ilocos as in Hawai`i.

And then this: the ‘local born’ who have taken on the task of making it certain that the Ilokano language will not go the way to extinction as the four other Philippine languages have gone, and the six others that are candidates to final erasure, and thus resulting in the irretrievable loss of knowledge systems mediated by these languages.

The Fil-Am Observer thus salutes those Ilokanos, local born or those born in the Philippines but have made Hawai`i and the United States their home and yet resisting that culturally counter-productive temptation to forget their heritage.

These Ilokanos know better: to be an American does not contradict our affirming our being Ilokanos at the same time.

During this International Year of Languages as declared by UNESCO, let the languages of the world find their indwelling in the souls of their speakers.

Editorial, Fil-Am Observer
Hawai`i
April 2008

B. A. in Ilokano Scholarship

UH Ilokano Program to award Ilokano Scholarship


Honolulu, Hawai`i - In an effort to recognize students with exemplary academic performance and taking up Ilokano as their concentration in the Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, the Ilokano Language and Literature Program of this same University will award three scholarships to students working for their bachelor’s degree.

The awarding will be at Hale Koa Hotel in Honolulu during the B. A. Scholarship Banquet dubbed “Panangitan-ok ni Laing” on April 25, at 5:30 PM.

Chosen by an independent scholarship committee whose membership came from the community-at-large, Ilokano Program scholars Rachelle M. Aurellano, John Henry Acidera, and Abraham Flores Jr. will receive $500 each.

The awards committee was composed of Ms. Agnes Malate, member of the advisory council of the Domestic Violence Action Center’s Pilipina Rural Project, and director of the Health Careers Opportunity Program of UH Manoa; Mr. Brigido Daproza, president of GUMIL Hawai`i (Ilokano Writers Association of Hawai`i); and Dr. Belinda Aquino, director of the Center for Philippine Studies, University of the Hawai`i at Manoa.

The B. A. Scholarship was inaugurated several years ago when the University, after about thirty years of Ilokano language and literature instruction, approved the offering, in 2002, of the Ilokano concentration for the Bachelor of Arts in Philippine Language and Literature.

Currently, the offering of Ilokano language and literature courses from the elementary to the advanced levels that leads to a major, a minor, and a certificate is the only one in the State of Hawai`i, the United States of America, and all over the world.

There is no other university aside from the University of Hawai`i that has recognized the importance of Ilokano as the language of Filipino diaspora and exile in the United States.

The offering of the Ilokano courses up to the bachelor’s level has put the Department of Indo-Pacific Languages and Literatures of the University of Hawai`i in the position of innovator and leader in Ilokano heritage language instruction all over the world.

Today, the courses leading to a major, a minor, and a certificate in Ilokano is unparalleled; even the leading universities and colleges of the regions where Ilokano is the lingua franca do not have a full course that leads to even up to the certificate level.

The University of the Philippines boasts of Ilokano language and literature instruction but these courses are few and far between and are part of other degree programs in Philippines Studies, Philippine Language, or Philippine Literature.

The 2008 scholars are exemplary students.

Rachelle Aurellano, a senior, is president of Timpuyog: Ilokano Student Organization, the student association of all those taking courses under the Ilokano Language and Literature Program of the University.

Aurellano is active in the community; she won 1st runner-up at the Miss Oahu Filipina Scholarship Pageant in 2007.

In 2006, she represented the Timpuyog at the First Nakem Centennial Conference and presented a testimonial conference paper on the experiences of local born Ilokanos of Hawai`i and the difficult road that they are taking in reclaiming themselves and their heritage.

This commitment to heritage reclaiming has always been the theme of her self-questioning, a commitment that she has made known to the public when she was a guest at a public television show on Channel 53 in 2007, “Talkback with Dr. Agcaoili.”

John Henry Acidera is graduating with his B. A. in Philippine Language and Literature with Ilokano concentration and has lately begun working for the State’s Department of Health.

Acidera has been working for the mentally challenged adult, a work where he makes use of his linguistic and cultural competency in Ilokano.

A musician, singer, and dramatist, he has been into many cultural productions involving the UH Ilokano Program and the community.

Acidera was guest of “Talkback” on Olelo and on a radio program, “Filipiniana Variety Show,” both shows tackling the relevance and urgency of promoting Ilokano language and culture.

Abraham Flores Jr. is completing his senior year for the B. A. in Philippine Language and Literature with concentration in Ilokano under the University’s Honors Program.

A court interpreter and translator, he has done researches on the issues involving interpretation and translation with his mentor, Dr. Josie Clausen, one of the foremost scholars on Ilokano linguistics. Dr. Clausen, together with Professor Precy Espiritu, both retired, were two of the longest instructional faculty of the Ilokano Program, with more than 60 years of service between them. Espiritu, until her retirement in 2006, coordinated the program since it began in the 70’s. Clausen and Espiritu mentored Flores, as well as the other two scholars.

Flores’ honors thesis on the journalistic narratives and reportage of Filipino executions, “Sharps, Sex, and Strangulation,” provides a textual critique and reading of the journalistic ‘demonization’ of Filipinos by two of the State’s leading newspapers prior to World War II.

The B. A. Scholarship has been supported by pledges from various individuals and organizations including the United Filipino Council of Hawai`i, the Don and Dr. Patricia Brown Scholarship Fund, the GUMIL Hawai`i, and Gerald Santos of California, United States.

The scholarship awards from the GUMIL Hawai`i and Mr. Gerald Santos are the latest in the funds pledged to support the Ilokano Language and Literature Program of the University.

Santos, one of the visionaries in seeing that the program will grow to include a possible online and a masters program, has pledged initial support for the Ilokano Language and Literature Program’s Development and Enrichment Fund.

In tandem with several cultural and civic organizations, the UH Ilokano Language and Literature Program has launched a continuing Community Language Program that has brought the Ilokano language to the community for cultural competency and for consciousness-raising efforts regarding social issues.

Those who have been helping the program have been invited to take part in the banquet; expected to give an inspirational talk is Cornelio J. Ancheta, publisher and editor of Fil-Am Observer.

Fil-Am Observer, circulated all over Hawai`i and some states of the United States mainland, is Hawai`i’s leading Filipino American newspaper.

This newspaper, through its publisher, has supported the activities of the University’s Ilokano Language and Literature Program including co-sponsoring the 2006 Nakem Centennial Conference and the 2nd Nakem International Conference in 2007 and held at the Mariano Marcos State University in Batac, Ilocos Norte, in the Philippines.

Observer boasts of an array of discourses and interests related to urgent community issues as well as commentaries, narratives, and reportage on varieties and variations of Filipino American life.

Observer has a pool of writers and opinion writers that tackle a host of issues ranging from culture, the literary and dramatic arts, politics, health, religion, and immigration.

To continue to inspire Ilokano students or students descended from Ilokano and all other scholars of the Ilokano heritage language and culture, the Ilokano Language and Literature Program of the University has continued to beef up its scholarship program through a sustained scholarship fund raising campaign throughout the year.

Members of the community who wish to take part in this noble effort to recognize the future Ilokano leaders of this State are urged to contact the University’s Ilokano Language and Literature Program at telephone number 808-956-8405. Or you may write the program at 455 A Spalding Hall, 2540 Maile Way, Honolulu, HI 96822.

A Solver Agcaoili
Hon, HI
3/23/08

An Open Letter to Merlie Alunan, Waray and Sebuano Poet

Merlie, aloha,

Your voice is a voice of reason and the more we have academics and poets like you who do not think only in accord with that narrow political imaginary afforded by Tagalogism and Englishism, the better for us all.

You are right: Florante at Laura is not the "Philippine Literature" what with its atrocious view of place. Its elegant language? Elegant in terms of what? Compared to Waray?

(This is an aside:

I could not understand why you hailed F and L in one commentary you wrote and forgetting Jalandoni and company in the process, the commentary appearing like a way to validate Tagalog dominance. But I could be mistaken. We writers 'from' languages from the regions continue to fight the good fight. But we can only do so much. Writers from the regions--I abhor that phrase 'regional language' because of its false assumptions--are expected to translate their work into Tagalog or English because we have to go 'mainstream', as if our very own people are not part of the mainstream. Whose mainstream,
BTW?)

The critical mass?

We have this mass. But this same mass is not in the league of Jose Javier Reyes who should know better with his aesthetics, if at all. Or that Gloria Diaz who can sleep soundly after mouthing that abominable line against Bisayans.

Of course, this mass has been effectively 'othered' by those false ideologies in the name of the Jurassic view of 'nation' with its requirement of one and only one language: Tagalog=P/Filipino!

What a waste, this idea of absolutely wrong form of isomorphism!

And to think that we have been paying tax money to develop the language that has been killing our soul, our very soul--that very 'national language' that has made us linguistic parrots and intellectual paupers, this, to me, is a mortal collective and social sin we all should not be forgiven unless we make drastic amends, and now.

Imagine if all these tax monies were used to develop as well our own mother and indigenous languages?

The view thus that says that other Philippine languages are not THAT developed does not hold water. We have been hoodwinked!

We need responsible accounting here.

And advocates of Tagalogism--not necessarily Tagalogs but essentially Tagalog-lobotomized many of whom come from the UP System, another of those institutions through which we have supported--propped up--this social injustice in language with our tax money.

The Catholic Universities are not better off, also a bastion of neocolonialist thought that valorizes the political imaginary of the center as well as the aesthetics of Manila and its suburbs.

Many of the literary big shots that made a career out of this prevailing cultural and linguistic injustice (they are interconnected to me, and are linked up with social injustice) need to be reminded that they are a party to this prevailing POV of what makes a Philippine nation.

Many of them lent their names and art to perpetuate this fossilized view of ourselves, a view, that when you scratch the surface, does not even include us who come from the 'margins' and the boundaries.

Fair is fair, and we never had a fair chance.

Now, we should ask for that chance. Our asking ought to be non-negotiable.

And so, let us roll our sleeves and work. Good luck to you and to your vision and mission of bringing back Sebuano and Waray and the other Philippine languages to the living waters of our own remembrance.

I am thinking of the creative uses of rage here. It is high time we brought this back again into our othered soul.

We need to live, and in fullness. And with our language articulating that full life. Nothing more, nothing less.

Your idea of Bisaya Day?

Forget it: this is an illusion mimicking the Linggo ng Wika ad populum strategy of whoever invented this sophomoric week that allowed us non-Tagalogs to speak Tagalog=P/Filipino without being fined for doing so.

This 'linggo ng wika' touted by the language lords and masters of KWF when it was not yet manned by minds with some idea of what culture and language pluralism is all about is a sham, one of the many that we have had to endure since 1935, the beginning of our country's neocolonial regime. We gave--and we still give--our blessing, remember?

No, our languages do not need a day. We are breathing it and it is part of our everyday. What we need is social justice that includes, with no conditions, respect for our languages and cultures.

A Agcaoili
Nakem

Fridays and Redemption in the Land of Exile

The day reeks of everything Judeo-Christian if you have grown up knowing the cross, whatever this suggests. The day speaks of the divine death that serves as a prelude to life eternal, or the resurrection in the paschal mystery for those who know The Narrative, that grand one that promises resurrection on the third day.

In the land of exile, Friday the 7th carried with it some mysticism drawn from a Hebrew overload of reading some of the Cabalistic texts and the carryover, say a relic and a remnant, of the 'Marcosistic' penchant for the same number. On March 7 this year, this Friday was one that was one of my longest of days so far in my almost two years of stay in Hawai'i. The day commenced with a rather hopeful action of putting together the last pages of a course, Ilokano Plus, that I was proposing to be taught at Maui Community College, one of the University of Hawai'i's community colleges on the island of Maui, less than an hour of plane ride from the island of Oahu where the flagship campus of the University system is.

That proposal--sent in on that day with that prayerful wish that it will be approved--was a result of the concerted effort of a group that included the activist Cornelia Sembrano and the memory-keeper of Ilokanoness, Cornelio Ancheta. Native speakers of Ilokano, plus other Philippine languages, Cornelia and CJ felt the need to do what is right to the Ilokanos (here, we do not lump the Ilokanos with 'Filipinos' as we know for certain the injustice of the parsing in this term, with Tagalog=P/Filipino shanghaiing all of us into that erroneous notion of the nation in its 19th and 20th century reliquary form, the concept sanctified by the popes of 'Tagalog nationalism' that include writers who can talk about Florante at Laura but are ignorant of the stories of the other because 'othered' peoples of the country. The beatification, of course, was performed by Manuel Quezon, the number one Commonwealth man, who declared his preference for the Philippines to be run like hell by Filipinos to being run like heaven by foreigners.

This wistful thinking is funny, as we can see from hindsight. 'Funny', of course, is an Americanism, which runs the gamut of the incredible to the outlandishly foolish. We know now that with decades and decades of corruption, he got what he wanted, this president who did not like the idea that an interpreter would be needed when he spoke to the Ilokanos, as is the case when he went to the Ilocos during his dubious reign as a Commonwealth president.

The beginning of that Friday was a sacrament.

This move to claim and reclaim ourselves--this move to bring back the glory of that Ilokano language that had been suppressed for almost eighty years with the imposition of Tagalog as the national language--this, to me, is a sacrament.

Yes, that is the proper term: imposition.

Tagalog being imposed upon us and in the process making our young people forget who they are, making them too embarassed to admit that they are other people other than Tagalog, and making them see that their own language and culture has no place in that oxymoron we call 'Philippine nationalism."

Let us end that day: an attendance of community celebration of one Ilokano politicians of the city down in Kalihi, that bastion of everything Ilokano, aside from another place, Waipahu.

Imagine the in-betweens: a rehearsal with a student who will read 'Maris ti Bullalayaw/Color of the Rainbow' at the Diversity Matters Week, television taping for two shows, with guests that had to be picked, in heavy traffic, in Ewa Beach, about 35 miles away from Honolulu.

And another: the preparation for the 2008 Hawai'i Association of Language Teaching where I was co-chair of the conference.

It is Sunday and two days had gone by.

I made it--and as I keep thinking about how I made it, I realize enough that there could be some energy somewhere where people get their strength, perserverence, and understanding.

I can only thank that invisible source.

A Solver Agcaoili
Hon, HI
March 9/08

Men's Voices Against Violence

(Note: This is an article published in the Honolulu Advertiser on February 20, 2008, and to my knowledge, was written by Mike Gordon, also of Advertiser, but for some reasons, had the byline as simply Advertiser Staff. There is a labor explanation to this issue which I do not wish to share in this blog.

I wish to thank Zenaida Serrano, who together with Mike, worked hard to put together this beautiful piece about the story of a poem, "Another Wife Dies and Goes Home to the Homeland," a piece that I wrote about midnight of that same night that I received an e-mail from Charlene Cuaresma about Erlinda Adviento's stabbing, allegedly, by her husband. The poem eventually declared its own independence from me and I had to let go, believing that one's work is not one's own in the end, with always the universal audience taking a piece of that work.

I had gone on to recite this piece in a number of occasions, this last one during the "Men's Voices" cultural show at Tenny Theatre, February 22, 2008. Even as I recite, whether in English or its Ilokano version, I get the same feeling of profound loss, so deep I can only have awe for the enchantment of word and its capability to transport us to new realities we previously do not know and countries of the sad soul we have not visited. For indeed, word, with its magic, is always a new country--or will always invite us to a new county, if only we tried harder to open up our sorrowing souls to its magic, its vast possibilities, its deliverance.

There is also a video excerpt of this poem. For details, go to:
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2008/Feb/20/il/hawaii802200302.html) &

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080220/VIDEO01/80212082/1076/LIFE)




Word of the murder arrived as author and poet Aurelio Agcaoili tapped on his computer keyboard, pouring out his soul until a small ping told him he had an e-mail. It was nearly midnight, the still time when he often greets his muse.

Another Filipina was dead, a victim of domestic violence in her Kalihi home. Erlinda Adviento had been stabbed to death, allegedly by her Filipino husband.

Agcaoili felt his insides curl.

This was last October, a tipping point for the University of Hawai'i assistant professor in the department of IndoPacific Languages and Literatures.

He didn't know Adviento, but he was familiar with the belief among some Filipino men that they had a right to beat the women in their lives. He'd spent much of the year coaching Filipino writers to tap into that topic.

"The issue to me was so concrete, it had blood on it," he said.

For weeks afterward, Agcaoili wrote about domestic violence in three different languages — English, Tagalog and Ilokano. He went to Adviento's wake where he read a poem about her death. He marched in silence around the Capitol to protest domestic violence.

On Friday he will join his group of Filipino writers to present their work at "Voices of Men," a free community event to bring men together to end violence against women.

AN APPEAL

A one-man play by Mainland comic and activist Ben Atherton-Zeman headlines "Voices of Men," and Agcaoili's group will take the stage with an appeal for peace, delivered in Ilokano, to Hawai'i's Filipino men.

"It's not going to be a walk in the park," Agcaoili said. "What we have here is one aspect of a culture which is so ingrained in a patriarchal setup that has not been questioned or interrogated or cross-examined."

Violent spouse abuse in the Filipino community has long concerned the Domestic Violence Action Center, which until last October was known as the Domestic Violence Clearinghouse and Legal Hotline.

In 2000, the organization found that four of the seven domestic violence-related homicides were committed by Filipino men against their wives. The number of homicides is not a statistic the organization tracks, but as a response, it created the Pilipina Rural Project to educate Filipino women about their rights and options.

The hope was to educate community leaders about the problem so they could help create solutions among Filipinos, said Helena Manzano, program manager for the project.

"The way the culture sees this is it is a family matter," she said. "A lot of the people who end up in the court system are surprised that it is a crime."

One of the leaders helping to educate Filipinos was Agcaoili, who wanted to include domestic violence awareness in a series of workshops with the Ilokano Writers Association of Hawaii. About 20 aspiring writers took part in educational and creative writing sessions between February and October last year.

Creative writing became a way to define the problem and share the experience.

"It's a nonthreatening way," Manzano said. "You can present it in a way that is creative or philosophical or you can present it in a performance and the audience can find something they can identify with."

POWERFUL EXPERIENCE

The realities of domestic violence nearly overwhelmed the writers, most of whom did not understand the scope of the problem, but the work they produced was a surprisingly intimate look.

A few of them had firsthand experiences to share, which surprised Agcaoili. His workshop exercises were not intended to prompt personal experiences, he said.

"That would be intrusive and invasive, a confessional," he said. "I was not ready to be their father confessor. But it was so sacred and beautiful."

Workshop participant Lydia Abajo, a legal advocate for abused Filipino women, said the workshops were powerful. Some participants simply stood up and shared their stories, crying afterward.

"It actually opened the minds of the whole group as to what domestic violence is all about," Abajo said. "They saw some hope for those who are still in this type of relationship. Do not keep it to yourself. Seek out help. It is not the end of the world."

MOTIVATED BY LOSS

As a writer, Agcaoili knew the role art could play in creating social change. But he wasn't prepared for his own reaction to Adviento's murder.

An immigrant with Ilokano roots, Adviento was a 44-year-old mother of three who worked as a nurse in a convalescent center in Honolulu. She was originally from the same province in the Philippines where Agcaoili's ancestors farmed.

Shortly before her death on Oct. 28, she told her husband she wanted a divorce, according to court records. Adviento was on the telephone talking to a friend when she was stabbed in her heart and lungs.

Agcaoili still can't explain what moved him to write a poem about Adviento, or why he hasn't stopped writing about domestic violence three months later.

"When I got the e-mail, there was some kind of volcano in my chest," he said. "I thought I needed to get it out."

He thought about his own two daughters and felt a father's fear as he pondered "the evil in this."

It made him write. It makes him write.

"The issue of domestic violence is not a done deal; it isn't over for me," he said. "It is something that we need to be bold about and brave about and committed about. So I am not resting content. I am restless."

Padapadatayo a Siraragsak, Ilocos Norte Birthday Song

(Note: This is a lovely song I heard when I was young but for a long time, in our chaotically urbanized life in Manila, and then in exile, the tune that was so familiar to our healing lost its place. When I moved to Hawai'i two years ago, I found this song again--or this song found me, and here it is, in its glory and grace.)

Padapadatay a siraragsak
A kumablaaw, mangipaduyakyak
Ta nagtengan ti aldaw a pannakayanak
(ni_______) [or] panagtao
A napnuan gasat

Balangat a naurnos dagiti sabsabong
Ti umaymi kenka isaad ita ulom
Kasta met a yawatmi kenka
Ti naindayawan unay a palma
Tapno isu ti mangipakita
Ti ragragsakmi amin a sangapada

Sapay iti Dios ta ilayonna koma
Ta salun-atmo, pia ken regta
Ken ta singpetmo a nagpaiduma
Nga ap-apalan dagiti kas kenka

Blogged for posterity today, Feb. 19/ 2008
Honolulu, HI

A Date with the Honolulu Advertiser--or the Story of a Poem

I am blogging this to document many of the blessings I have received from life these last few days. Today, two things: one, Zenaide--or Z--or Honolulu Advertiser came to interview me and have a shoot of my reciting the poem, "Another Wife Dies and Goes Home to the Homeland," that poem that I wrote on the spot after receiving an e-mail from Charlene Cuaresma that another Filipina has died from stabbed wounds by her husband. Charlene is president of Filipino Coalition Solidarity.

Two, Ariel Tabag, one of Ilokano literature's rare gifts and talents and promise, wrote to tell me that he was commissioned to do a Tagalog translation of some of my winning pieces in that collection called "Epistolario ti Exilo." The translation, except for some minor alterations and revisions, is a perfect work of art that approximated, justly and fairly, the intent and revelations in the Ilokano original, that, even if I am the author of the original, and even if I do translation myself, I would readily give Ariel a credit for having successfully gone past the challenge of residing into the world of the poems and come out of that world, perhaps touched, but nonetheless not bruised. He said he had that wonderful experience and I believe him. And to him, I give my heartfelt salutations. Given the kind of quality work he is producing, I am certain Ariel will go a long way in becoming an advocate and warrior for the Ilokano cause: the preservation, promotion, and production of Ilokano language and culture.

Three, I have had the good fortune of having been interviewed by Mike Gordon, also of the Honolulu Advertiser, for my work on Domestic Violence and for the same poem on Erlinda Adviento, "Another Wife Dies and Goes Home to the Homeland." The Gordon interview, a number of times on the phone for a couple of days, was most productive, most critical, most aesthetically rewarding for me. It challenged me to look at my work, my life work in particular.

All these began with that innocent, or almost, innocent, involvement with the issue of DV, rampart as it is in this State that is being touted as Paradise. With two cases of domestic violence resulting in the deaths of two women in the hands of their supposedly intimate partners, there is cause for alarm, and the Silent March, as is the case of Erlinda, would have to be staged again so that people would sit up and take notice, and take that resolve to help put an end to DV.

I have been asked sharp questions by both Mike and Zenaida.

Always, I answered from the guts, feelings and all.

The questions ranged from the aesthetic to the political. This would be good for the next blog.

In the meantime, I take my hats off to MIke, Zenaida, and Ariel.

Mahalo nui loa.


A Solver Agcaoili
Hon, HI
Feb 2/08

2008 GUMIL Hawaii Cultural Festival and Coronation Night

I am blessed, I am blessed. I had been given a direct hand in putting together the program of the 2008 GUMIL Hawaii Cultural Festival and Coronation Night. Very few people know, of course, that I am tinkering, and critically doing do, with Ilokano popular culture. O, I am a witness, and to put in critical collaboration while giving witness, is something we call privilege. Thank you, GUMIL Hawaii, the enduring GUMIL organization, and the most productive, more productive than the mother organization--truly so!--in terms of production. Hey, GUMIL Filipinas, wake up from your slumber!

So here is the program we put together, including the spiels I wrote for the emcees. Decipher, decipher...Years from now, scholars will be interested in the cultural fossils we will be leaving behind.

So future scholars of our people, here is your clue to the mysteries of Ilokanoness.


Programme
2008 GUMIL HAWAI’I CULTURAL FESTIVAL &
MRS. GUMIL HAWAI’I CORONATION
Pacific Beach Hotel Grand Ballroom, Honolulu, HI
Saturday, February 2, 2008, 5:30 PM-12:00 MN


PART ONE: WELCOME AND CULTURAL FESTIVAL

J:
Naimbag a rabiiyo amin, apo. Naisangsangayan daytoy a rabii gapu ta ita ket masaksiantayo ti ngayed a nagpaiduma. Siak ni Julius Soria, maysa kadagiti mangiturong iti daytoy a pabuya itatta.

S: Good evening to all of you. I am Shery-Lyn Baclig Angala, your co-host for this evening’s affair.

Julius, wow, this is a grand evening.

J: Certainly, it is. We hope you will have fun.

S: Let us all rise for the anthems. Please join the Gumil Hawaii and the Annak ti Kailokuan Choir in the Singing of Himno Nacional of the Philippines in the Ilokano Translation, the national anthem of the United States, and the anthem of Hawai’i.


I. NATIONAL ANTHEMS: The Philippines, the United States, and the State of Hawaii
GUMIL Hawai’i and
Annak ti Kailokuan iti America Choir

J: Thank you Gumil and Annak ti Kailokuan Choir. This is one rare moment that I have had the chance to hear the national anthem of the Philippines in Ilokano.

S: Please remain standing for the invocation to be officiated by Rev. Gerry Saludes. Rev. Saludes is the spiritual adviser of GUMIL Hawai’i and to be recited by Mrs. Cleo Bala Casino, chair of the 2008 GUMIL Hawaii cultural festival.

J: After the invocation, please remain standing for the doxology to be led by….


II. INVOCATION Rev. Gerry Saludes, Adviser, GUMIL Hawai’i
Mrs. Cleo Bala Casino, Chair, 2008 GUMIL Hawai’i
Cultural Festival and Mrs. GUMIL Hawai’i Coronation



III. DOXOLOGY “Itag-aynak,” Ilokano translation
Angeline Limon Duque, Nora Cabico,
John Henry Acidera, and A. Solver Agcaoili

J: Thank you so much. That is the Ilokano translation of ‘You raise me up’ by Josh Groban. Translation was done by Dr Aurelio Agcaoili, coordinator of the Ilokano Language and Literature Program of the University of Hawai’i and teaches our Ilokano translation courses.

S: There is so much Ilokanoness here. I wonder if I can really fit it. It is so good, this feeling of being with your family. To welcome us and to inspire us some more, may we ask Mrs. Cleo Bala Casino, chair of the Steering Committee of tonight’s festival and vice president of GUMIL Hawai’i; Mrs Pacita Saludes, founding president of GUMIL Hawai’i; and Mr. Brigido Daproza, current president of GUMIL Hawai’i.


IV. WELCOME REMARKS
Mrs. Cleo Bala Casino
Chair, Steering Committee

INSPIRATIONAL TALK Pacita Cabulera Saludes
Founding President, GUMIL Hawai’i

Brigido Daproza
President, GUMIL Hawai’i

S: Thank you Mrs. Casino, Mrs. Saludes, and Mr. Daproza. So there, we can now say: welcome, welcome, welcome. The theme of tonight’s affair, as your souvenir program tells you is “Negotiating Cultural, Literary, and Linguistic Spaces.” Julius, tell me, what does this mean in Ilokano. Or, what does it mean in English, in the first place?

J: Let us see…why don’t we as the scholars and poets and writers in this ballroom? For real, Sheril-Lyn, this room is filled with language and culture advocates rooting for cultural and literary and linguistic spaces. There you go, I do not know what it means either? Are there Ilokano poets here? The real ones, I mean? Can you tell me what this is?

S: Let me see… to negotiate a space is to struggle for it, to take it as your own because, firstly, you do not have it. Now, there you go. In the State of Hawaii, you need to fight it out so that the Ilokano language, culture, and the arts will not be lost in oblivion.

J: Kasta. Ti kayatna a sawen ket ti panangirupir iti kultural a karbengan, iti karbenganmo iti pagsasaom, iti karbenganmo iti literaturam. Isu a daytoy ti paglaingan ti GUMIL Hawai’i.

S: Ania ti ranta daytoy a pasken ita a rabii, Julius?

J: Maragsakankami a mangipakaammo a ti GUMIL Hawaii ket naynay ti pannakigingginamulona iti Ilokano Language and Literature Program iti University of Hawai’i iti Manoa. Daytoy a panagsinnugpon dagiti programami—programami, kunakon, ta maysatayo met a mangisursuro iti Universidad—ket agbambanag a nasayaat ken nabunga a pannakitinnunos.

Kayattayo man nga iwaragawag a segun kadagiti pakaammo maipapan iti daytoy a pasken a parte ti mapagket ket mapan iti program ti GUMIL Hawaii nga agilibro kadagiti sinurat dagiti kamengna. Kasta met nga inkarin ti GUMIL ti panangirugina iti maysa nga scholarship program tapno diretsa a matulongan dagiti agad-adal iti Ilokano iti Universidad. Maragsakankami a mangibaga a sumagmamano kadakuada ti adda ita ditoy a tallaong.

Patakderenmi koma ida: ni John Henry Acidera, maysa kadagiti iskolar. Ni Jeremy Sagubo, ti adda iti video camera; ken ni Debralyn Andres, adda met laeng iti videocamera.

(Julius…Make a listing of the guests, and announce their names…quickly)

S: To do the welcome rites are:


V. WELCOME RITES

Welcome Song, solo, Nora Cabico
Song, GUMIL Hawai’i & AKA
Dance, M. Aguilar, R. Domingo, J. Orozco, J. Dulig,
L. Supnet, V. Smith, M. Venegas, and Sarah Aguilar
Dance, GUMIL Hawai’i & AKA Dancers
Dance, Thelma Ortal and Dancers
Dance, Salome, Teru Morton, Phoebe Chrisman, Li
Eulalia Agas-Strong

S: We now come to a premier of an excerpt of an Ilokano opera you will here for the first time. This opera, Imnas nga Indaddaduma, is a stage version of an ongoing radio play, also of the same name. The play and the opera, revolves on the love story between Angela de los Santos and David Agpakawan, both Ilokano lovers whose love is tested by life’s circumnstances.

J: No kayatyo a denggen ti radio version ti Imnas nga Indaddaduma, dumngegkayo iti kada Dominggo iti KORL 1180 AM, alas dos agingga iti alas kuatro. Sinurat para iti entablado ken para iti radio ni Dr Aurelio Agcaoili, premiado a mannurat iti Ilokano ken mangisursuro iti Ilokano iti University of Hawaii iti Manoa.

J: Iti daytoy nga opera, agakem da Angeline Duque as kas Angela de los Santos, John Henry Acidera a kas David Agpakawan, ken Nora Cabico a kas Nanang.

VI. EXCERPT OF AN OPERA, “IMNAS NGA INDADDADUMA”
Angeline Duque, John Henry Acidera, &
Nora Cabico

S: Wow, Julius, did you hear that?

J: I cannot believe it! Sheryl, can you try the high notes: (SINGS) Imnas nga innak Indaddaduma!

S: (SINGS) Imnas nga innak Indaddaduma…

J: With all these singing and dancing and merriment, I cannot ask for more.
Nagpintasen ti Hawaii, apo! Ken nagpintasen ken nagngayeden, ken nagragsaken daytoy a rabii. Adu pay, apo. Ditakayo latta ta agbuyakayo.

S: We now come to the introduction of our guest of honor and the crowning guest in this evening’s cultural festival and coronation. May we now call on Mrs. Cleo Bala Casino to come upstage and introduce our guest speaker.


VII. INTRODUCTION OF THE GUEST SPEAKER KEN MANGORONA
Mrs. Cleo Bala-Casino, VP, Gumil Hawai’i

VIII. SPEECH OF GUEST SPEAKER

Hon. Ariel Abadilla
Consul General, Philippine Consulate General of Honolulu
Honolulu, Hawai’i


S: Thank you….
J: Thank you. We now have the banquet…(TO DO: Make people dance; ELECTRIC SLIDE…ETC. )


PART TWO: CORONATION


S: How is the food? (TALK ABOUT THE PROGRAM, THE AFFAIR…
J: We now come to the second part of the program…our coronation night.
S: Those to be crowned are: Mrs Evangeline Somera, Mrs. Press
J: Mrs. Rita Sagucio, Mrs.Freedom
S: Mrs. Remy Baclig, Mrs. Wisdom, and our queen,
J: Mrs. Perlita Tapec Sadorra, Mrs. GUMIL Hawaii 2008!

S: Julius, what is panagtapat?
J: Diak nagtaptapat sika. How should I know?
S: Is that the way Ilokanos woe their women? The love of their life?
J: I think it is.
S: So, let us see.
J: Buyaentayo, apo ti panagtapag kadagiti reina. Ipanguluan ti panagtapag ti GUMIL Men’s Choir, ni Joseph Gabor, ken ni Epifanio Baclig iti gitara.

I. PANAGTAPAT KADAGITI REINA
Gumil Hawai’i Men’s Choir
Joseph Gabor; Eppie Baclig on the guitar

J: Itan ti panagpakada ti 2007 Mrs. GUMIL Hawaii, ni Mrs. Rose Daproza. Magna ni Mrs. Daproza ket agbitla iti panagyamanna.

S: Ladies and gentlemen—amin a gagayyem iti tallaong, ti Mrs GUMIL Hawaii 2007, Mrs. Rose Daprosa! Kaduaen isuna ti Ms. GUMIL Hawaii 2007, ni Mrs. Andrea Mendoza.

(VOICE OVER HERE……VOICE OVER…VOICE OVER….)


II. BITLA A PAMMAKADA, Mrs. Rose Daproza, 2007 Mrs. GUMIL Hawai’i
accompanied by Ms. Andrea Mendoza, 2007 Ms. GUMIL Hawai’i

J: Ita, buyaentayo ti panagsala dagiti uppat a reina iti 2008 GUMIL Hawaii Coronation Night!

S: Ladies and gentlemen, the four queens of 2008 Mrs. GUMIL Hawaii: Mrs Perlita Sadorra, Mrs. Remy Baclig, Mrs Rita Sagucio, ken Mrs Evangeline Somera.

III. DANCE OF THE QUEENS
Mrs. Perlita T. Sadorra, Mrs. GUMIL Hawai’i 2008
Mrs. Remy Baclig, Mrs. Wisdom 2008
Mrs. Rita Sagucio, Mrs. Freedom 2008
Mrs. Evangeline Somera, Mrs. Press 2008

S: Thank you, love ladies. Thank you to the four queens!
J: Salome, a dance teacher, and a good friend of Mrs Perlita Sadorra, will dance for
the four queens.

S: No malpas nga agsala ni Salome, agsala met dagiti grupo ni Mrs. Thelma Zales.

IV. SPECIAL DANCE, Salome

V. SPECIAL NUMBER, Thelma Zales and Dancers

J: We now come to the coronation rites.
S: Ladies and gentlemen, we are proud to present to you, the four queens of 2008 Mrs. GUMIL Hawai’i (ANNOUNCE NAMES AND ESCORTS)

VI. CORONATION RITES, with escorts A. Solver Agcaoili, Epifanio Baclig,
Joseph Gabor, and Benjamin Somera

J: Maysa kadagiti tradision ti panangorona ket ti pannakaidaniw iti Daniw ti Panangorona.

S: Let us now call on Mr Bernard Collo for the coronation poem in honor of our four queens.


VII. DANIW TI PANANGORONA, Bernard Collo, GUMIL Hawai’i

J: The community is now ready for celebration. We call now Mrs. Lucia Geronimo and Dr. Aurelio Agcaoili to lead the Arikenken and Kurriti. May we also call on John Henry Acidera and Angie Duque to do the same.

S: All the rest of the audience, you may join the Arikenken and kurriti.

VIII. DANCE OF CELEBRATION: ARIKENKEN KEN KURRITI,
COMMUNITY RITUAL DANCE
To be led by Mrs. Lucia Geronimo

(TO DO: PLAY UP, PLAY UP…SPIN, SPIN UNTIL YOU CLOSE THE EVENING)

IX. SPECIAL DANCES AND PERFORMANCES

PART THREE: PUBLIC DANCING

Julius Soria & Sheri-Lyn Baclig Angala
Masters of Ceremonies

STATEMENT ON THE HOUSE BILL 3398

I am furnishing you this statement in my capacity as a stakeholder, first and foremost, of the Ilokano heritage, being myself an Ilokano, and second, as program coordinator of Ilokano Language and Literature of the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. It is in these twin capacities that I wish to revisit some of the key concepts of the Bill that, in my opinion, need some re-conceptualization.

First, on the merit of the Bill.

I must say with all honesty and pride that Dr. Amy Agbayani has taken on the cudgels to craft this Bill that takes into account the furtherance of the virtues of pluralism in this State, and in particular, the recognition of the contribution of the various ‘peoples’ of the Philippines in Hawaiian life. Initiatives such as this one done by Dr. Agbayani are laudable. They make us remember that we need to do much more to create a cultural, political, and economic space for our people. For seeing this need—and for responding to this same need—Dr. Agbayani has my admiration. Her farseeing ability to negotiate that space that we can negotiate, however difficult the process is, is something extraordinary, and this will not remain unnoticed.

Second, on what I think would be needed in revisiting the Bill.

One, on the ‘Report Title,’ page 1. : For a more ‘inclusive’ spirit of the Bill, the reference to ‘Filipino language’ needs rephrasing so that what I think we should have is ‘Philippine languages.’ There is a certain inconsistency in this phrase if checked against the broader intents, definitions, and the ground the Bill wishes to cover.

Two, on the ‘Description,’ page 1: The use of the narrow phrase ‘Filipino language’ runs counter to the intent to open up the possibility of teaching Philippine languages, at least, those languages that are veritably being used in our communities in Hawai’i.

I understand the practical implications of the broader view of ‘Philippine languages’ as a catchall phrase. But the suggestion of the phrase ‘Filipino language’ in this part of the Bill delimits the very nature of what the Bill wishes to pursue, and which intentions, nevertheless, are quite clear—properly spelled out—in the body of this Bill, to wit,

(a) ‘curriculum offerings in Filipino languages,’ [Section 1, page 2];

(b) ‘professionals trained in the Filipino languages and cultures,’ [Section 1, page 2];

(c) ‘these courses in Filipino languages and cultures on University of Hawai’i’
[Section 1, page 3],

(d) ‘taking Filipino language course, and the University of Manoa,’
[Section 1, page 2];

(e) ‘lectures on Filipino languages’ [Section 1, page 3]; and

(f) ‘Filipino language and culture programs’ [Section 2, page 4].

These phrases invite some slippage—and the slippage may result in an interpretive scheme that eventually may run counter to the linguistically just and culturally democratic intent of the Bill, laudable as it is now.

The caution that I ask us to look into is to completely rephrase these references to anything that even suggest ‘Filipino language’ and ‘Filipino culture’ and instead write out ‘Philippine languages and cultures’ consistently throughout the Bill.

This is to provide a broad view for an interpretive scheme following a hermeneutically fair understanding of the key concepts of the Bill so that we do not end up—‘do not fall into’ could be another phrase here—in the trap of a too-inclusive interpretation of what constitutes ‘Filipino language’ and ‘Filipino culture’ in both conceptual and practical terms, and in terms that are at the same time sensitive to the unique experiences of the ‘peoples’ of the Philippines in the State of Hawai’i.

For truly, there is not only one kind of ‘people’ that came to Hawai’i from the Philippines, as the records of our historical memory would show.

Many kinds of ‘peoples’ of the Philippines came over here since 1906 and we need to acknowledge them, even if, in the current state of affairs, the social and historical circumstances of our immigrant lives have, in a way, conveniently rendered them invisible.

This sense of rendering into invisibility the other ‘peoples’ should be corrected by the Bill, at least, in spirit, even if not currently ‘practical’ because of budgetary and other fiscal constraints. The premises do matter. They provide the élan vital to our next initiatives.

In acknowledging the vision and the tremendous impact of this Bill to the endless task of equipping our ‘peoples’ with the linguistic and cultural skills they need to claim and re-claim themselves in a to-and-fro manner as all exilic and immigrant experiences are, I have taken the initiative to ask some organizations to give their testimony in support of this Bill.

I hope that this statement sets the context for a reasoned discussion on what we need to do to keep on addressing the many issues affecting us.






To Dr. Agbayani, thank you for this opportunity of making us involved in something that is historical, and something that is historically correct, such as this Bill.

If we can find the common ground to revisit these concepts that I have bracketed, in the end we will be able to plumb the inner resources of our memory so we can keep on looking for the apt means and methods to claim ourselves in this State.


Aurelio S. Agcaoili
Program Coordinator, Ilokano Language and Literature
University of Hawai’i at Manoa
February 1, 2008

Diskurso Sa Estado ng Estado 2008

GOBERNADOR LINDA LINGLE
DISKURSO SA ESTADO NG ESTADO

Enero 22, 2008

Magandang umaga kapwa residente ng Hawai’i, ating ‘ohana…kama’aina at malihini…keiki at kupuna…sibilyan at militari. Ispiker Say…Presidente Hanabusa…iba pang mga halal na opisial…at kagalang-galang na mga panauhin. Aloha kakou.

Buong pakumbaba at buong pusong nagpasasalamat na humarap ako ngayon sa inyo sa umagang ito para sa aking ikaanim na Diskurso sa Estado ng Estado.

Ang aking taunang report sa mga taumbayan nga Hawai’i tungkol sa estado ng ating minamahal na Estado ay isa sa mga pinakatanging pribilehiyo ng Gobernador.

Binibigyan ako ng oportunidad upang ibahagi kung saan tayo nakarating…at pagkatapos ay magbibigay ng pokus kung sa aking paniniwala ay kung saan tayo patutungo…at kung papaano tayo makakarating doon.

Bago ko talakayin ang mga ideyang ito sa inyo, ibig ko sanang malaman ninyo kung gaano katindi ang aking pasasalamat sa inyo sa tiwalang ibinigay ninyo sa akin.

Sa pagharap sa mga isyung dumarating araw-araw, ipinapaalala sa akin kung gaano kalaki ang responsibilidad na nakakabit sa aking trabaho…at buong pakumbabang humaharap ako sa inyo ngayon.

Mula noong ako ay nahalal muli noong huling bahagi ng 2006, tinatanong na ako ng mga tao at ang mga peryodista ay sumulat na tungkol sa kung anong puesto sa pamahalaan ako susunod na tatakbo.

At meron nang mga kolum ang nasulat tungkol sa kung susundan ko ang padron ng mga gobernador na bumabagal na ang kanilang paninilbihan sa kanilang pangalawang termino.

Ang aking mga direktor ng gabinete, si Tenyente Gobernador Aiona, at ako ay hindi ganoong mga tao a humihina sa paggawa…at nangangako kami na bawat araw ng mga susunod na tatlong taon ay maglilingkod kami ng buong husay.

Sa katunayan, lahat kami ay pare-parehong nagkaroon muli ng pagpapanibagong sigla at komitment sa aming pagsipat sa kinabukasang punumpuno ng dakilang pangako at potensial.

Mga kababayan…ngayon ang unang araw ng aking nalalabing Administrasion.

Inilalaan naming ang sarili sa pagsemento ng isang malinaw na direksyon para sa ating Estado: isang direksyon na nanghihikayat ng personal na responsibilidad, nagpapabago sa ekonomiya, nagbibigay ng pokus sa kasarinlan sa enerhiya, nagpepreserba sa ating mga kultural at natural na resorses, at nagdaragdag ng pangkalahatang kalidad ng buhay.

Mga kapwa mamamayan, wala na akong iba pang ambisyon kundi makamtan ang mga layuning ito.

PERSONAL NA RESPONSIBILIDAD

Ang nakaraang reduksyon ng inaasahang pagdagdag ng paglago ng rentas sa buwis ay nagpi-prisinta sa atin ng isang oportunidad upang magpanibago ang ating diwa sa ‘ohana at upang tanggapin ang higit na responsibilidad para sa kinabukasan ng Hawai’i.

Ang personal na responsibilidad ay higit pa sa pagiging responsible para sa mga desisyon na nakakaapekto sa atin bilang mga indibidwal.

Ang ibig sabihin ng personal na responsibilidad ay ang ating pakikisangkot sa pagtulong sa ibang nangangailangan at sa paglikha ng higit na mabuting Hawai’i.

Makikisangkot tayo sa mga lugar na kung saan tayo nanampalataya, sa ating mga eskuwelahan, at sa ating komunidad.

Hindi lang natin ipinapaubaya sa iba ang mga bagay-bagay.

Lahat tayo ay nakikibahagi sa isang paniniwala na tayo ay pamilya…‘ohana tayo…mga bilang na lumalagpas sa mga nakatira sa ating mga tahanan.

Kamakailan lamang, nagkaroon ako ng pagkakataon na makasalamuha ng ilang oras ang isang grupo ng mga kababaihan na naninirahan sa isang transitional housing facility na tumutulong sa mga babaing naka-parole, at ilang sa mga naroroon pa sa kulungan, upang matagumpay na makabalik muli sa ating komunidad.

Ang mga kababaihang ito ay bahagi ng ating ‘ohana.

Sa kabila ng abusong sexual na kanilang pinagdaanan, ng mga taong nalulong sa droga at kawalan ng tahanan, o sa bilang ng mga panahong sila ay naaresto, ang mga kababaihang ito ay tinatanggap na nila ngayon ang personal na responsibilidad sa kanilang buhay.

Sila ay mga inspirasyon sa akin sa kanilang pakikipagtunggali upang maintindig nila ang kanilang bagong buhay pagkatapos ng mga taon ng pagkaimbi, kabiguan, at masamang personal na pagpapasiya.

Buong tapang ang pagsasagawa nilang mabura ang kanilang nakaraang kasalanan at kahihiyan at takot sa pagkabigo.

At, bilang bahagi ng kanilang programa, sila ngayon ay tumatanggap ng responsibilidad para sa iba sa pamamagitan ng pagsasagawa ng boluntaryong serbisyo sa komunidad.

Ibig ko sanang ipakilala sa inyo ang pambihirang direktor ng TJ Mahoney, si Ms. Lorraine Robinson, at ang anim na kababaihan mula sa sa pasilidad:

Fay Mdereiros, Masina Faoulo, Ipo Kock-Wah, Gina Ishida, Jackie Bissen, at Lynick Ayau.

Mangyaring tumayo upang makilala kayo.

Ang personal na responsibiliadad para sa karaniwang mamamayan ay maaaring ipakahulugan ito bilang pakikisangkot ng tama upang maireport ang pang-aabuso o pagpapabaya sa bata sa inyong kapitbahayan.

At ibig sabihin ay ang pagtanggap ng mga ahensia ng gobierno ng kanilang mga pagkakamali at ang pagsasaayos sa pagkakamaling ito upang maisaayos ang sistema.

Ibig sabihin ay ang mga magulang ay tuturuan ang kanilang mga anak ng tama sa mali, at pagpapakita ng aloha para sa ating mamahaling lupa at dagat sa pamamagitan ng di pag-abandona ng mga sasakyan sa gilid ng mga kalsada o ng mga bangka sa ating mga bahura.

Ang ibig sabihin ng personal na responsibilidad ay ang pagmamaneho na may aloha, laging nakabantay sa mga naglalakad, at hindi pagpayag na magmaneho ang mga lasing na kaibigan.

Ang ibig sabihin ng personal na responsibilidad ay ang paghahanda sa ating mga tahanan para sa mga emerhensiya, at ang pagkain at pag-ehersisyo sa mga paraang namamaximisa ang ating mabuting kalusugan.

Sa kasaysayan ang mga tao sa Hawai’i ay nagpakita ng di pangkaraniwang kaluwagan sa pagtanggap ng personal na responsibilidad hindi lamang para sa kanilang mga sarili…kundi para sa kapakanan ng iba.

Subalit mayroon pa rin sa ating higit na ‘ohana ang naghihirap—yaong mga merong karamdamang mental, yaong mga mayroong disabilidad na pisikal, yaong mga kupuna na pihado lamang ang kinikita, yaong mga biktima ng pang-aabuso, at yaong mga nagsusumikap na maigpawan ang adiksyon sa droga o alkohol.

Kahit kaisa ako sa inyo sa pagnanais na sana ang gobyerno ay makakakagbigay ng tulong sa bawat nangangailangan ng tulong, at isaayos ang bawat problema na hinaharap natin bilang komunidad, hindi maaaring mangyari ito.

Tulad ninyo, naniniwala ako na ang gobyerno at ang mga nagbabayad ng buwis ay mayroong kapasidad na magsagawa ng dakilang kabutihan…subalit ang kapasidad na iyan ay hindi di-limitado.

Kaya, kinakailangan ang matalino at nasa ayos na paggasta, at kinakailangang gumawa tayo ng mga desisyon na naggagarantiya ng isang malusog na hinaharap pampinansiya.

Sapagkat tanging ang gobyernong malusog sa piskalia ang may kakayahan na magmantene ng isang sapat na lebel ng kinakailangang mga serbisyo sa higit na mahabng panahon.

Mga kulang-kulang dalawang linggong nakararaan, ang Konseho ng Rentas ay nag-adjust pababa ng $59 milyon ng halaga ng general fund tax revenue na aveylabol hanggang sa Taong Fiscal 2009.

Ito ay dagdag sa naunang reduksyon noong Mayo at Agosto noong nakaraang taon.

Kaya sa kabila ng pagpapanatiling lakas ng ekonomiya, ang suma nito mula noong Mayo noong nakaraang taon noong inadap ng Lehislatura ang biennium budget ay ang pagbaba ng estimeyt sa reduksyon ng rentas sa buwis ng $353 milyon.

Hindi kailan man malulutas lahat ng mga problema ng lipunan ang gobyerno.

Sa pamamagitan lamang ng ating nagbabahaginang diwa ng ‘ohana…at ng kaluwagan ng pagtanggap sa personal na responsibilidad para sa ating mga sarili at para sa iba…natin maiigpawan ang panahong nanghahamon maging ang hamon ay piskal, sosyal, o natural na kalamidad.

Ang kabuuang tagumpay ng ating Estado, sa kadulu-duluhan, ay nakasalalay sa kolektibong mga kamay ng mga tao, hindi ang gobyernong nag-iisang gumagawa.

Nasisiyahan ako sa balanseng ito…at may kumpiyansa ako sa kanyang resulta.

At mga halal na mga opisial ay kinakailangan ding tumanggap ng personal na responsibilidad, hindi lamang para sa higit na mahabang panahon ng piskal na kalusugan ng ating Estado, kundi para sa atin ding ekonomikong kalusugan.

Ang ibig sabihin nito ay ang paggamit sa ating may-takdang pinansiyal na resorses upang mamantene at mapalawak ang ating kasalukuyang impraisktruktura.

Binabati ko ang mga mambabatas sa inyong suporta sa pagkumpuni at pagmantene sa ating mga eskuwelahan, sa pagsasaayos ng ating sistema ng highway sa mga bahagi ng Estado na may mabilis na paglago, at ganoon din sa mga planong modernisasyon para sa ating mga eropuerto at mga puwerto.

Mayroon mahirap na mga pagpapasiya na kinakailangang gawin natin lahat sa darating na mga linggo at buwan, at pinakaasam-asam ko ang pakikipagkolaborasyon ko sa inyo upang makamtan natin ang pinakamainam na mga desisyon.

Inaasahan ng publiko—at karapat-dapat ito sa kanila—ang lahat ng mga ito sa atin.

Kasama sa mga desisyon na ito ang pagsasagawa ng mga istratehikong determinasyon tungkol sa direksyon tatahakin ng Estado sa nakakatuwang ika-21 na siglo.

INOBASYON

Nitong nakaraang 12 buwan, ibinahagi ko sa inyo ang isang malinaw na bisyon para sa pundamental na transpormasyon ng ating ekonomiya mula sa ekonomiyang sobrang nakabase sa makipot na debelopment ng lupa…tungo sa isang ekonomiyang base sa infinitong talento at intelektuwal na kapasidad ng pono’i ng Hawai’i…at mga tao mismo ng Hawai’i.

Tiyak tulad ng pagsunod ng gabi sa araw na di kayang magbabakabaka-sakali o dili kaya ay ipagbibili natin ang mga sarili sa karangyaan.

Bagkus, kinakailangan ng kaluwagan ng isip na mamuhunan tayo sa mga programang pang-edukasyon at workforce na nagbibigay ng kahandaan sa mga tao upang magtagumpay sa isang mundong padagdag na padagdag na kompetitibo.

Magiging napakalaking hamon ito sa ating pagbibigay ng reoryentasyon ng ating ekonomiya mula sa pagiging base sa lupa, patungo sa ang muhon nito ay ang preserbasyon ng ating mga resorses na kultural at natural.

Subalit isa itong hamon na kaya at kinakailangan nating harapin!

Magagawa natin ito sa pamamagitan ng pagtatambal ng mga natibong Hawayanong kultural na halagahan ng aloha ‘aina at respeto sa dagat, at ng sanay, at sapat na edukadong populasion na naniniwala na ang inobasyon ng mga bagay ay landas tungo sa tagumpay.

Ibig kong pasalamatan ang mga kasapi sa komunidad na tumangkilik sa ganitong bisyon sa kinabukasan ng Hawai’i.

At gusto ko rin pasalamatan ang mga mambabatas no sumuporta sa ekonomik na transpormasyon sa pamamagitan ng pagsuporta nila sa ating mga ideya, kahit ang suporta nila ay hindi sa lebel na ating hiniling, at ating kinakailangan, kung ibig nating magtagumpay.

Kung ang kinabukasan ay katulad din ng nakaraan, ang ating mga nakagawiang praktis at bilis ng ating paghakbang ay nakakasapat sa atin.

Subalit ang kinabukasan ng mundo at ang kinabukasan ng Hawai’i ay sadyang kaiba sa ating nakaraan kung kaya ay wala na tayong panahon para sa ganitong praktis ng nakaraan at para sa isang mabagal, at paunti-unting pagbabago.

Kinakailangan nating gumawa ng mga higanteng hakbang na magbibigay ng mahalagang progreso.

Kumbinsido ako na ang nakaraang malakas na ekonomiya ng Hawai’i ay nagbigay sa atin ng palugit upang ipagpaliban natin ang pagsasagawa ng desisyong mahirap at importante-importanteng, at nagmantene ng mga istruktura ng edukasion at workforce na di na angkop sa ika-21 siglo.

Sabi ng mga experto na hinaharap natin ngayon ang isang piryud ng pagbabago na kasingdakila ng panahon na ang lipunan ng tao ay dumadaan sa Rebolusyong Industriyal.

Sa prediksyong ito naniniwala ako na ang mga experto ay maaaring tama sila.

Upang makarating tayo sa ating paroroonan mula sa ating kinaluluklukan sa ngayon ay maaaring nakakatakot…subalit ito ang daan na kinakailangan nating tahakin…kahit minsan ang pagbibiyahe ay may katagtagan.

Ang tanging daan tungo sa ating kinabukasang ibig natin ay ang pagpapanatili sa bagong daan na ito.

Ang progresong atin nang nakagawa sa nagdaang 12 buwan ay nakakatuwa at nagbibigay-sigla:

• Nakapaglunsad tayo ng pang-estado programa na nagdaragdag ng global na edukasyon sa mga guro, estudyante, at residente ng Hawai’i.

Nagagalak ako sa presensiya ngayon ng aking natatanging panauhin, si Madam Wu Chi-Di, bise ministro ng Chinese Ministry of Education, na inaasahan nating makakasama sa marami pang educational exchanges.

• Sinimulan na natin itatag ang mga akademya sa middle at high schools na nagbibigay pokus sa siensiya, teknolohiya, enhinyerya, at matematika.


Binibigyan natin ng empasis ang edukasyon na STEM sapagkat ito ang tumutulong upang magbigay ng kasanayan sa mga nagtapos ng pag-iisip na analitikal, mga kasanayan sa problem-solving at teamwork na kinakailangan para sa isang mataas na kalidad ng trabaho para sa ika-21 na siglo.

• Sinimulan na natin ang programang MELE sa Honolulu Community College upang higit na maitatag ang artistiko at komersiyal na tagumpay ng industriya ng musika sa Hawai’i.

Ibig kong pasalamatan ang sistema ng community college para sa kanilang pamumuno sa mga inisyatib nga ganito.

• At nakipagpartner na rin tayo sa NASA, na mag-iisiponsor ng First Robotics Challenge sa Stan Sheriff Center sa Marco, na kung saan 25 sa mga eskuwelahang publiko at pribado ang sasama sa 12 mainland teams sa tinatawag na “Super Bowl of Smarts.”

Sa kabuuan, ngayon ay mayroon 95 eskuwelahan sa buong Estado ang nakalahok sa programang robotics na hands-on.

Ibig kong kunin ang sandali upang kilalanin ang ilan sa mga estudyante at ang kanilang mga tagapayo na kasama sa mga makikipagpaligsahan sa Regional First Robotics Challenge sa Marso.

Ang mga batang ito at ang kanilang mga may gulang na guro ay inspirasyon para sa akin sanhi ng kanilang walang takot na pagharap sa kanilang kinabukasan.

Ang kanilang sigasig ay nagbibigay sa akin ng pag-asa para sa kinabukasan ng ating Estado.

Ang ama ng robotics sa Hawai’i, si Art Kimura, at ang kanyang kabiyak, si Rene, ay naririto ngayon kasama ang kanilang mga estudyante at ang kanilang mga guro mula sa Waiakea at Hilo high schools sa Big Islang; Waimea High School sa Kaua’I; Baldwin High School sa Maui; at Nanakuli, Maryknoll, Punahou, McKinley, St. Louis, Farrington, Moanalua, Kapolei, Waipahu, Hawai’I Baptist Academy, Campbell, ‘Iolani. Waialua, Sacred Hearts Academy at Kamehameha high schools sa O’ahu.

Mangyaring tumayo kayo at makilala.

Ang ating mga gawain sa promosyon ng inobasyon ay kinilala noong nakaraang taon ng National Governors Association noong piliin tayong isa sa mga anim na Estado na tumanggap ng grant na pinondohan ng Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation at Intel Corporation.

Sa kabila ng aking pagkasiya sa ating progreso, alam kong marami pa tayong kinakailangang gawin upang masiguro natin ang higit na marikit na bukas para sa susunod na henerasyon.

• Iminumungkahi natin ang pagsisimula ng Creative Academies, na nakapadron sa tagumpay ng STEM Academies, upang maaruga at masuportahan ang mga talento ng mga keiki ng Hawai’i.

Ang mga akademyang ito ay magbibigay ng pokus sa animation, digital media, game development, at pagsulat at paglathala sa elementarya hanggang high school.

• At hinihiling namin sa Lehislatura na ipasa ang tax deduction hanggang sa $20,000 kada taon para sa mga magulang o alin mang miembro ng pamilya na nag-iipon para sa edukasyon sa kolehiyo ng isang bata.

• Iminumungkahi naming ang paglikha ng Commission on Higher Education na binubuo ng mga presidente ng mga medyor na unibersidad ng Hawai’i, ng mga miembro ng komunidad, at ng mga lider ng negosyo.

Ang Commission na ito ang magbibigay ng oportunidad upang maharap ang mga bagong ideya at mga bagong paraan sa paggamit ng dolyar pang-edukasyon mula sa federal at estado.

• At muli sa taong ito ang mungkahi natin na maglaan ang state retirement fund ng $100 milyon na puhunan para sa creative ideas at mga talento ng mga kumpanya ng Hawai’i at mga tao.

Sa inyo ang aking panata na hangga’t ako ang inyong Gobernador, sisikapin kong matamo ang mga ito at iba pang mga aksyon na maghahatid sa transpormasyon ng ating ekonomiya at sa higit na mataas na istandard ng buhay.

Ito ang pinakadakilang pamana nating lahat na ating maiiwan sa panahon ng ating panunungkulan sa gobierno.

ENERHIYA

Isa pang layon na ibig kong makamit ng buong pagsisikap sa susunod na tatlong taon ay ay kasarinlan at seguridad sa enerhiya.

Kasing-importante ito ng lahat ng ating mga gawain sa susunod na talong taon.

Sa ngayon, ang Hawai’i ang pinakadependenteng sa langis sa lahat ng estado ng Amerika…at kinakailangan mabago ito!

Ibig sabihin ay ang pangangailangang lumayo sa kasalukuyan nating sobrang pagdepende sa langis at paboran ang renewable energy…at gawin natin ito ng higit na mabalis kaysa sa gusto ng iba at higit sa paniniwala ng iba pa na posible ito.

Marami ang ating naisakatuparan mula ng ilunsad natin ang programang Energy for Tomorrow 2006, na una nating tunay na kolektibong pagtatangkang mabago ang ating energy paradigm.

Tunay na nagpapasalamat ako sa komunidad at industriya sa kanilang suporta sa programang ito, at ang suporta ng Lehislatura ay buo at bipartisan.

Mayroong apat na mambabatas sa partikular ang naging kabahagi sa aking nais sa pagbabago, at tunay na tumulong sila sa matingkad na pagkurba mula sa abot todong dependensia sa langis tungo sa isang landas sa seguridad sa enerhiya.

Ibig kong pasalamatan sina Senador English at Hemmings at Diputado Thielen at Morita sa kanilang tuloy-tuloy na paghihikayat at sa kanilang sigasig.

Upang mapabilis ang progreso natin tungo sa energy security at sa kinabukasang may malinis na enerhiya, nirereoganisa ngayon ang Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism upang maitatag ang Energy Division.

Bawat lingo, ang aking mga departamento ay binibisita ng mga developers ng renewable energy—mula hangin hanggang solar, mula alon at ocean thermal tungo sa biofuel, mula algae hanggang sa enerhia ng kalawakan!

Kinakalangan nating umaksyon upang magiging madali para sa ganitong mga proyekto ang kanilang pagsisimula at upang magtagumpay sa Hawai’i.

Ipagpatuloy natin ang pamumuno sa pamamagitan ng ehemplo, kapwa sa mga uri ng mga gusaling ating itatayo at sa paghihikayat ng intra-governmental purchases of power upang ang mga gobyernong federal, estado, at county ay magagamit ang kanilang assets sa pagsisimula ng kanilang produksyon ng kanilang enerhiya, at, kung angkop, bigyan ang mga gobyerno ng pagkakaton na bumili ng power na diretso mula sa mga suplayer na bago at non-utility.

Mga kulang-kulang na dalawang linggong nakararan, inanunsiyo ng ating Airports Division ang isang planong historik na magdebelop ng malaking solar power arrays sa 12 lugar ng gobyerno sa buong Estado.

May potensyal ang proyektong ito na bawasan ang pangangailangan ng Hawai’i na mag-import ng 130,000 na bariles ng langis kada taon, at makagawa ng sapat na power para sa 9,000 na kabahayan sa bawat taon.

Ito ang isa sa mga pinakamalaking solar initiatives ng isang gobyernong estado sa buong bansa.

Ito at iba pang ating mga pagsisikap ay nakakakuha ng atensyon at suporta sa bansa.

Ikinagagalak ko ngayon na ipaalam sa inyo na sa susunod na linggo, ang Estado ng Hawai’i at ang U. S. Department of Energy at papasok sa isang walang katulad at inobatibong partnership na tinatawag na Hawai’i Clean Energy Initiative.

Ang partnership na ito ay base sa bisyon ng Hawai’i na kinakailangan ang puspusang transpormasyon nito tungo sa isang clean energy future sa pamamagitan ng paggamit ng mga pinakabagong pambansa at global na tuklas, at ang ating mayamang natural na sorses ng enerhiya ay magbibigay sa ating posisyon upang magiging modelo sa mundo at ipakita ang maaaring magawa sa pamamagitan ng pagdebelop ng indigenous renewable energy.

Ang partnership na ito ay magbibigay ng ayudang teknikal at pondo sa proyekto sa Hawai’i.

PAGTATAPOS

Ang subheto ng partnership ay naghahatid sa akin sa pinal na subheto tungkol sa ibig kong talakayan sa inyo sa araw na ito.

Kanina, sinabi ko na hindi natin maaaring gawing baka-bakasali o kaya ay ipagbibili ang ating mga sarili sa karangyaan, subalit naniniwala ako na mayroon tayong kakayahang bilhin ang kapiraso ng ating kinabukasan.

Iminumungkahi ko na bilhin natin ang 850 na acre na Turtle Bay property sa
O’ahu North Shore.

Naniniwala ako na ito ay isang minsan-lang-sa-isang henerasyon na pagkakataon upang mapreserba kapwa ang estilo ng buhay para sa mga libong residente, at ang bahagi ng Hawai’i na natutuhan nang mahalin ng milyong tao sa mundo at nakikilala nilang tunay na Hawai’i.

Ang pagbili sa importanteng pag-aaring ito ay maglilikha ng oportunidad para sa komunidad upang mabigyang hugis ang bisyon para sa parteng ito ng North Shore.

Ang isinaayos nga Turtle Bay Hotel at mga condominiums ay kasalukuyang nagbibigay ng mga trabaho sa komunidad. Ang kanyang mga restoran ay nagsisilbing isang mapag-anyayang lugar para sa mga pamilyang lokal at mga bisita sa kanilang pagkakasiya sa isang Sunday brunch o ispesyal na family meal, at ang mga golf courses ay mga kilalang host ng mga internasyunal na mga tournament.

Kinikilala nating ang mga kontribusyon ng mga ito sa ating Estado, at ibig natin magiging tuloy-tuloy ang kanilang tagumpay.

Subalit kung papaano na ang balanse ng lupa ay makatugma ng kung ano ang umiiral ay isang bagay na kinakailangan ng pagpapasya nating lahat kasama ang komunidad.

Binigyan ako ng sigla ng mga lider ng komunidad at mga residente ng North Shore, na sa pamamagitan ng kanilang pagkilos, ay nagawang ipreserba ang iba pang mga lupa para sa publiko.

Inimbita ko ngayon ang ilan sa mga lider ng komunidad upang samahan tayo sa araw na ito.

Ibig kong makilala ninyo si Larry McElheny, pundador at miembro ng board of directors ng North Shore Community Land Trust; si Denise Antolini, direktor ng Environmental Law Program at UH Richardshon School of Law; at Lea Hong, direktor ng Hawai’i sa Trust for Public Lands.

Mangyaring tumayo sina Larry, Denise, at Lea upang makilala ang inyong pagpupunyagi na maprotektahan ang mga importante lupa para sa henerasyon sa hinaharap.

Inaasahan ko na may mga ilang tao, kasama ang mga mambabatas, na magtatanong tungkol sa mungkahi kong ito na mabili ang mga lupang ito sa panahon na hinaharap natin ang maraming pangangailangan, at sa panahon ng pagbaba ng paglaki ng ating rentas.

Risonable ang ganitong tanong na tatanungin, subalit si Larry, Lea, at Denise, at libo pang iba na nababahala sa kung anong uri Hawai’i ang ikatutuwa ng mga henerasyon sa hinaharap, ay nakahanda upang tulongan tayo.

Ang mga nakaraang tagumpay natin sa pagpreserba sa Waimea Valley at Pupukea-Paumalu at ang abilidad nating isalba ang Kukui Gardens affordable housing ay nagbibigay sa akin ng sigla upang maniwala na ang Lehislatura at ako ay maaaring magtrabaho kasama ang komunidad upang maisakatuparan ito.

Iminumungkahi ko na ang Lehislatura, ang aking Administrasyon, at ang mga lider ng komunidad ay magbubuo ng isang working group upang siyasatin ang mga opsyon at madebelop ang planong aksyon upang masiguro na ang pag-aaring ito ay mananatili sa mga kamay ng publiko.

Pinag-isipan ko ng mabuti ang iminumungkahi ko ngayon, at naniniwala ako sa aking puso na ito ang tamang bagay na gawin ng mga nangabubuhay sa ngayon, at para sa mga isisilang sa mga dekada sa hinaharap.

At naniniwala ako na ito ang pinakatangi-tanging sandali para sa ating lahat—isang sandali na nagsisiwalat sa mga bata na inaaruga natin ang kanilang kinabukasan higit sa ating pag-aruga sa ating kasalukuyan.

Kaya, imbis na sipatin ang mungkahing ito na mahirap o dili kaya ay imposibleng mangyari, hinihiling ko na tingnan natin na ito ang tama nating gawin, at kapag nagsasama tayo ay makakahanap tayo ng paraan upang ito ay mangyari.

Pinag-isipan ko na ang di bababa sa isang dosenang paraan na maaari nating pagkakambal-kambalin sa revenue streams upang makalikom tayo ng pondong pambili.

Kasami rito ang pagbili sa resort portion ng pag-aaring ito upang mabayaran ang pagkakautang, ang pakikipagpalitan sa iba pang lupa ng Estado, ang malikhaing paggamit ng tax credits na ilalagak sa mahabang panahon, ang tax check-off para sa ating income tax returns, ang private grants, ang paglaan ng Legacy Land Funds, ang federal conservation dollars, at and buong mundong Internet fundraising campaign, “Save Hawai’i’s North Shore.”

Alam kong may mga iba pang mga ideya, subalit ang punto ay ang aking paniniwala na ito ay kapwa maaaring gawin at esensyal sa proteksyon ng estilo ng ating buhay.

Ang North Shore ay isang importanten balbula ng pagtakas sa patinding urbanisadong estilo ng buhay ng O’ahu.

Isa itong lugar na pagdadalhan natin ng ating mga bisita kung ibig nating maranasan nila ang “tunay” na Hawai’i.

Isa itong lugar na nagbibigay sa atin ng kasiyahan sa pamamagitan lamang ng pagpunta doon, kahit hindi tayo madalas magpunta.

At ito ay isang komunidad ng mga residente na pinili ang North Shore sapagkat nagbibigay ito ng higit na mabagal, at mas rural na estilo ng buhay.

Isang walang muwang ang pag-iisip ang magsasabi na ang pagbili ay magiging madali.

Ang istruktura ng land ownership ay masalimuot at ang utang ay napakalaki.

Subalit, komited ako na ang mga lupang ito ay mananatili sa mga kamay ng publiko.

Ang tawag ng mga residente ay ang “pagpapanatili sa nayon na nayon.”

Ang tawag ko dito ay pagtutupad sa ating mga komitment sa susunod na mga henerasyon…at hinihling ko sa bawat isang nakikinig ngayon na samahan ako sa gawaing ito.

Bago ako magtapos sa umagang ito, muling ibig kong pasalamatan ang mga tao ng Hawai’i sa inyong tiwalang ibinigay sa akin, sa inyong pagtanggap sa akin bilang bahagi ng inyong ‘ohana, at sa pagbibigay sa aking sigla upang maharap ang mga malalaking hamon ng ating panahon.

Sa huli, ibig kong malaman ninyo na tunay na minamahal ko ang aking trabaho. Pinahahalagahan ko ang pagiging Gobernador ng Hawai’i…gobernador ninyo. Wala nang hihigit pang trabaho sa mundo.

Habang dumadami ang oportunidad para sa aking paglalakbay sa ibang estado at sa ibang bansa, nagiging lalong malinaw para sa akin na ang mga tao sa Hawai’i ay katangi-tangi sa buong mundo, at, wala nang hihigit pang lugar sa mundo kundi ang mga islang ito.

Madalas, ang musika, higit sa mga salita lamang, ang nakakapagsiwalat ng ating tunay na damdamin.

Ibig kong tapusin ang aking Diskurso sa Estado ng Estado itong taong ito sa pamamagitan ng di kumbensiyunal na paraan…subalit isang paraan na inaasahan kong makakasalig sa inyong puso.

Iniimbita ko kayo na makinig ng mabuti sa mga salita at pakiramdaman ang musika ng Kaukahi, na buong ganda nilang nasapol ang esensiya ng kung ano ang nararamdaman natin para sa ating tahanan—ang Hawai’i.

Ang Kaukahi ang nanalo sa 2007 Na Hoku Hanohano Awards for Group of the Year, Song of the Year, at Graphic Art for Album Design.

Ang mga miembro nga Kaukahi ay sina: Barrett Awai sa upright bass, Dean Wilhelm sa gitara, at Kawika Kahiapo sa electric bass.

Alam kong masisiyahan kayo sa pag-awit para sa inyo ngayon ng Kaukahi sa kanilang “Life In These Islands,” ang kanilang Na Hoku Hanohano Award winning Song of the Year.

Mga kababayan, damhin natin ang mga salita at musika ng…Kaukahi!