Ateneo de Manila University: Journals Online
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Ginggala: The Tai-Yai's Divine Gift Through Music and Dance
No full textIn this article, the authors look at the present-day Tai Yai who live within the city of Chiang Mai but whose roots could be traced back to the Mae Hong Son Province. They practice a music and dance form called the ginggala inside the compound of the wat (temple), and in the streets during the end of the Buddhist lent. By looking at each element of the ginggala, from the people involved, the instruments used, the costumes, religious ceremonies and parades of present-day street performances, the article traces the ginggala back to a mythic creature, half-bird and half-human, who welcomed Buddha in the forest with a dance. The article discusses how Buddhist cultural practices with music-making and dancing are perceived as living gifts to Buddha. Through the ginggala, the displaced Tai Yai— priests, monks, nuns, musicians, dancers, teachers and laypersons—renew and ground their identities through fellowship with each other and with the audience who belong to the larger Chiang Mai society
Sustainability Values of Students as Influences on the Image of a University Transitioning to Sustainability
Get PDFThe journey toward sustainability is a difficult process for a university given the complex requirements necessary for becoming sustainable. To implement sustainability initiatives effectively, therefore, it is important to obtain the support and commitment of university stakeholders. Having a good image as far as the school’s efforts at sustainability are concerned engages stakeholders and encourages that commitment. It is an important element of change as it provides evidence that the school is indeed serious in its activities. Yet is the perception of the school’s image influenced by the students’ sustainability values? A survey of 798 college students at a private university in Metro Manila, Philippines was conducted to establish the relationship of the students’ sustainability values as these influenced their perception of the university’s image. Structural equation modeling (SEM) with the EQS program was used to examine links between student sustainability values, perceptions of the impact of school initiatives, and school image. Results indicate that the school’s image as a contributor to sustainability is influenced by the perception students have of the long-term impact of school initiatives and the importance they place on environmental management. Such results highlight the need for creating awareness about, as well as encouraging involvement with, sustainability initiatives among students, especially with activities that have long-term horizons. Creating such a positive image through the route established by this research wouldhelp provide focus and efficiencies in the university’s sustainability initiatives
Toward a Quintuple Bottom Line in Higher Education Institutions: Sustainability Practices in Higher Education
Get PDFAs the “trendsetter in education,” the experiments and experiences of Mar Athanasios College for Advanced Studies Tiruvalla (MACFAST) already show it to be an exceptional model of education, innovation, and sustainability that leverages the triple bottom line (TBL), focusing on how projects disturb the planet, affect people, and address profit. Yet MACFAST added two more areas of concern—the passion for study and the purpose of life, making for a quintuple bottom line. Such a “MACFASTian” praxis for action and reflection is evident in various projects. For example, MACFAST became the first education institution in India to be fully-powered by solar and energy self-sufficient. The college also began the Clean and Green Campus project, an awareness-action-research programme that was subsequently expanded into a campaign for the surrounding town—Clean and Green Tiruvalla—which eventually led to an award for best municipality in the state. MACFAST’s “go green” praxis has resulted in biogas generation from toilets for use in various cooking purposes, and the institution owns the first campus-based community radio station in the country, Radio MACFAST 90.4, which has become one of their main sources of income. Indeed, by rereading its vision both in continuity with and discontinuity from tradition, MACFAST innovations continue to rise and endure, allowing their brand to remain noticeably secular, neutral, inclusive, and professional.
Sustaining Temporal Peace: A Worldview for Sustainable Living Inspired by Saint Augustine’s Philosophy
Get PDFMy paper aims to use the philosophical resources of Saint Augustine’s thought, particularly as found in the City of God, in order to sketch a basic worldview which can educate and lead people towards living lives that promote sustainable development. Specifically, I wish to show how Saint Augustine’s concepts of order, rightly ordered love, and temporal peace can serve as material to create a rough metaphysical framework in which human beings are understood to be an integrated part of a greater whole which is the earth. The ethical corollary of this framework is that human beings should act in such a way that does not damage this greater whole but rather preserves its order and integrity. In doing this, I also hope to show that Saint Augustine’s thought can still have relevance for contemporary issues
Fostering Gender Equality in China: Empowerment Strategies Used by the Voice of Women — ENGLISH, Translated by Franz David Lim
No full textMedia has radically transformed in the twenty-first century culminating in platforms for anybody and everybody to publicize news. A “news blog” called WeMedia offers people from different walks of life a space to publish an array of news. An increasing number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are using WeMedia to transmit agendas as a result of the popularity of new media technology. With new media communication being interactive, immediate, and polymerized, WeMedia communication can overcome the shortage of traditional media and maximize the communicating effect of the NGO. Through the Anti-Domestic Violence communication of China’s Gender Watch Women’s Voice (hereinafter referred to as the “Voice of Women”), this paper tackles WeMedia’s strategies and methods of empowerment via the concepts of media and gender. By classifying WeMedia into two types, social WeMedia and group WeMedia, this study found that the Voice of Women creatively used the news to fight for women’s rights. Using the theoretical system of empowerment (via the media and gender), this study attempts to summarize the strategies and methods of WeMedia empowerment through literature research and semi-structured interviews
Rethinking “Liberal Peacebuilding”: Conflict, Violence, and Peace in Mindanao
No full textConflict and violence have prevailed over the last four decades in conflict-affected areas in Muslim Mindanao, despite the signing of several peace agreements between the Philippine government and Islamic insurgents, and peacebuilding activities on the ground. Liberal or post-liberal peacebuilding theory—that emphasizes democratic institution-building, local politics and society, and hybrid possibilities for the transformation of both the “liberal” and the “local”—is not helpful in explaining why the Philippines, known as a liberal democratic state, is unable to bring about peace in Mindanao. From a historical perspective, the paper argues that conflict, violence, and peace in Mindanao should be analyzed through the lens of the tripartite relationship among the state, clan, and insurgents, taking into consideration local politics and the predominant customary governance structure instead of the simple dual relationship between the state and insurgents, and using the framework of the historical tripartite—a collaborative and cooperative relationship among three actors
Interdisciplinarity in the Philippine Academia: Theory, History, and Challenges
Get PDFForum Kritika on Interdisciplinarity in the Philippine Academia discusses the history of how universities and academics construct their respective notions of disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity. Our decision to engage with this development in tertiary education takes off from a historical phase in our educational system. Questions on the character of disciplines have heightened in the last half-century, and this phenomenon does not only emerge out of the critical practice of the people who are part of universities, but the external world of the universities have started to knock on the university doors. Informed by the present situation of our universities and the educational system at large, we both argue that both disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity are modern constructs that should be understood by elucidating dialectics of theoretical and historical underpinnings. The tandem of history and theory provides the frames for us to better see the challenges when universities implement such paradigm, and this forum hopes to shed some light to our fellow academics as the Philippines undergo crucial changes, revamps, and overhauls in our educational system
GM Foods, Power, and Globalization in Oryx and Crake
Get PDFFood is taking on a new character in the twenty-first century; it has transformed into a rich site that brings together discussions about race, species, subjectivities, environment, and so on. In the era of the Anthropocene, when human activities have exerted a decisive and unprecedented impact on the earth, the role that food plays deserves closer examination. This article examines genetically modified (GM) food in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake through close reading and looks at how GM food transforms into a global actant that influences nature and culture on a global scale. Investigating the transformation of GM food in the novel, this article argues that GM food raises important questions on issues about power, race, gender, and nation, and becomes a crucial semiotics of environmental ethics in the Anthropocene time