Green Light

Manila Standard Today

Dr. Emiliano T. Hudtohan

September 30, 2013

 

 In today’s column is speak English, I speak about the Greeks, and I intentionally speak also in Pilipino because linguistic taste seeps down the heart and the stomach for gut feel of what the baboy issue have come to pass.

 

Grecian Pork

The City of Pigs was an ideal in Plato’s (428-348 BC) Republic. The residents of a Greek polis were civilized men [sorry, women were excluded] who were ruled by reason and lived in moderation.  Yes, moderation for this is what Aristotle meant by virtue, by balance, by beauty.

 

According to blogger Jeff Mason, Socrates envisioned “a healthy a society in which everyone shares the work according to ability and the modest sustenance it provides. The people are not greedy or envious, taking joy or sadness in the successes or failures of their collective enterprises. They have no fancy spices, but honey for sweetness, and wine and conversation for their entertainment. In this way, they live at peace with themselves, protected from covetous invaders by their collective ‘poverty.’ They have nothing that anyone would wish to steal.”

 

But Glaucon proposed a Fevered City. He envisioned a world “of great ambitions, great architecture, literature and even philosophy…[where there is] a distinction of noble and base, rich and poor, the superior and the inferior.” More than two thousand years later, it seems to me, The City of Pigs of Socrates is more civilized than the Fevered City of Glaucon.   Socratic Pigs living in Grecian polis were honourable men.

 

Pinoy Baboy

I cannot not say the same for the Philippines.  Our congressmen and senators legally pursued the path of Glaucon.  Their Glauconian separation of “noble and base, rich and poor, superior and inferior” was done with ardour and rigor. The selectively fed pork to the ‘noble, rich, and superior’ men [this time, women, especially to the  woman of substance] who ran away estimated Pesos 10 billion pork and left the barrels empty to the ‘base, poor and inferior.’  Yes, they live in a Fevered City, temperature running high for greed at feverish pitch.  They put Glaucon to shame and debased the City of Pigs of Socrates.  Binaboy and PDAF.  In the City of Pigs,  one becomes what s/he eats.  May I suggest for our congressmen and senators to go vegan.  It is good environmentally.  Less pork and other meet products will help reduce green gas emission. Indirectly, it will benefit the general public and the tax payers.

 

City of God

Before St. Augustine (354-430 AD) became a man of God, history has it that he was porking around too.  His lascivious life produced a love child. But his caring mom, Monica, spent thirty years in fervent [feverish] prayer for his conversion.  And it happened one day when he wallowed his way out of the worldly mire and raised himself from an ‘animalistic’ life to a spiritual life. Lesson learned from his mistake produced a classic, The City of God, where order reigned in the hearts of men and women who follow the path set forth by Jesus.  He became bishop of Hippo [very symbolic Hippopotamus, hayop and closer to lusty touch in Pilipino].

 

His life story, if read and taken to task [he himself got converted because of Tolle et lege].  The door is wide open for those who will make a choice.  But choice is falsely undermined by overwhelming externalities that blind the heart and poison the mind and petrifies the hands and feet if one has eaten the pork, or the pork is served, or the pork is promised in feasta fashion.  Training the body for character then is necessary.  Fasting is good for the soul; but fast food is always within reach. Where are the St. Monicas of Philippine politics?

 

When Jesus exorcised a possessed person, he sent the evil spirit to the pigs.  In eastern culture pigs are indeed lowly creatures and the wisdom of Muslims not to eat pork is physically and spiritually noble.  As soon as the pigs were possessed, they proceeded to the sea and drowned.  I wondered if those who fell in love with the pork were likewise possessed by the spirit of madness to wallow in the mud and muddle the delivery of services. But where is it driving porkies?  Are they headed for the sea?

 

Dante Allegheri’s Divina Comedia would send them to a lower level of Hades.  There is no water there. It is perfect for the porkies because hell fire will cook them to their bones.

Dan Brown prophesied that Manila is the gate of hell. The nine circles of Hell

 

First Circle (Limbo)

Second Circle (Lust)

Third Circle (Gluttony)

Fourth Circle (Greed)

Fifth Circle (Anger)

Sixth Circle (Heresy)

Seventh Circle (Violence)

Eighth Circle (Fraud)

Ninth Circle (Treachery)

 

Let us erase limbo for children because Vatican has abolished the first circle.  But note Agustine’s lust is now the first circle; greed as third, and fraud is second to the lowest in Dante’s hell.

 

For some who do not believe in hell, they subscribe to the idea that hell is other people.  A propos,  hell is other people who are hayop, being less human.

 

 

We thought of it as happening in our streets with horrendous traffic and polluted air, with motorcycle tandem robbery and killings, with subdivision home rented for the use of the ‘noble, ricsh, and superior and holy.’  Let us make this into a film series of The Gods Must be Crazy.

 

City of Man

Once upon a time when strongman Ferdinand Marcos rules the Kingdom of the Maharlikans from Malacanang Palace, a lady name Imelda became the governor of Metro Manila and she dreamed of making it a City of Man.  The structures she constructed were indeed meant to raise the consciousness of the Filipino beyond material preoccupation.  She exposed them to culture to be able to understand and appreciate the good, the true and the beautiful. The disconnect between material wealth and cultural richness was there and the wholeness of Filipino soul continues to be fragmented.  We are an interrupted culture.  Malay, Chinese, Spanish, and American  is a culture mix like chopsuey.  And now our moral fiber has been chopped, chopped by the pork barrel.

 

Muddle issue

In the Grecian story of Plato, Jeff Mason concluded that “Socrates acquiesces to Glaucon’s wishes. He builds the Republic to keep the fevered city from succumbing to its own excesses and attachments to unworthy values.”

 

In the Philippines, the Socratic City of Pigs remains an ideal and Glauconian Fevered City is going to the pigs

Can we  regain the City of God?  City of Man? Paradise Gained

 

.

Dr. Emiliano T. Hudtohan earned his doctorate in education at De La Salle University; he is faculty of Management and Organization Department. Ramon V. del Rosario Sr. College of Business of De La Salle University, Manila.  He lectures at the Graduate School of De La Salle Araneta University,   Graduate School of Social Work of Philippine Women’s University, Manila; Graduate School of De La Salle College of St. Benilde and  Graduate School of Business of San Beda College. His email: dr.eth2008@gmail.com and website:  www//emilianohudtohan.com.

 

 

 

Green Light

Manila Standard Today

Dr. Emiliano T. Hudtohan

September 30, 2013

In today’s column is speak English, I speak about the Greeks, and I intentionally speak also in Pilipino because linguistic taste seeps down the heart and the stomach for gut feel of what the baboy issue have come to pass.

Grecian Pork

The City of Pigs was an ideal in Plato’s (428-348 BC) Republic. The residents of a Greek polis were civilized men [sorry, women were excluded] who were ruled by reason and lived in moderation.  Yes, moderation for this is what Aristotle meant by virtue, by balance, by beauty.

According to blogger Jeff Mason, Socrates envisioned “a healthy a society in which everyone shares the work according to ability and the modest sustenance it provides. The people are not greedy or envious, taking joy or sadness in the successes or failures of their collective enterprises. They have no fancy spices, but honey for sweetness, and wine and conversation for their entertainment. In this way, they live at peace with themselves, protected from covetous invaders by their collective ‘poverty.’ They have nothing that anyone would wish to steal.”

But Glaucon proposed a Fevered City. He envisioned a world “of great ambitions, great architecture, literature and even philosophy…[where there is] a distinction of noble and base, rich and poor, the superior and the inferior.” More than two thousand years later, it seems to me, The City of Pigs of Socrates is more civilized than the Fevered City of Glaucon.   Socratic Pigs living in Grecian polis were honourable men.

Pinoy Baboy

I cannot not say the same for the Philippines.  Our congressmen and senators legally pursued the path of Glaucon.  Their Glauconian separation of “noble and base, rich and poor, superior and inferior” was done with ardour and rigor. The selectively fed pork to the ‘noble, rich, and superior’ men [this time, women, especially to the  woman of substance] who ran away estimated Pesos 10 billion pork and left the barrels empty to the ‘base, poor and inferior.’  Yes, they live in a Fevered City, temperature running high for greed at feverish pitch.  They put Glaucon to shame and debased the City of Pigs of Socrates.  Binaboy and PDAF.  In the City of Pigs,  one becomes what s/he eats.  May I suggest for our congressmen and senators to go vegan.  It is good environmentally.  Less pork and other meet products will help reduce green gas emission. Indirectly, it will benefit the general public and the tax payers.

City of God

Before St. Augustine (354-430 AD) became a man of God, history has it that he was porking around too.  His lascivious life produced a love child. But his caring mom, Monica, spent thirty years in fervent [feverish] prayer for his conversion.  And it happened one day when he wallowed his way out of the worldly mire and raised himself from an ‘animalistic’ life to a spiritual life. Lesson learned from his mistake produced a classic, The City of God, where order reigned in the hearts of men and women who follow the path set forth by Jesus.  He became bishop of Hippo [very symbolic Hippopotamus, hayop and closer to lusty touch in Pilipino].

His life story, if read and taken to task [he himself got converted because of Tolle et lege].  The door is wide open for those who will make a choice.  But choice is falsely undermined by overwhelming externalities that blind the heart and poison the mind and petrifies the hands and feet if one has eaten the pork, or the pork is served, or the pork is promised in feasta fashion.  Training the body for character then is necessary.  Fasting is good for the soul; but fast food is always within reach. Where are the St. Monicas of Philippine politics?

When Jesus exorcised a possessed person, he sent the evil spirit to the pigs.  In eastern culture pigs are indeed lowly creatures and the wisdom of Muslims not to eat pork is physically and spiritually noble.  As soon as the pigs were possessed, they proceeded to the sea and drowned.  I wondered if those who fell in love with the pork were likewise possessed by the spirit of madness to wallow in the mud and muddle the delivery of services. But where is it driving porkies?  Are they headed for the sea?

Dante Allegheri’s Divina Comedia would send them to a lower level of Hades.  There is no water there. It is perfect for the porkies because hell fire will cook them to their bones.

Dan Brown prophesied that Manila is the gate of hell. The nine circles of Hell

First Circle (Limbo)

Second Circle (Lust)

Third Circle (Gluttony)

Fourth Circle (Greed)

Fifth Circle (Anger)

Sixth Circle (Heresy)

Seventh Circle (Violence)

Eighth Circle (Fraud)

Ninth Circle (Treachery)

Let us erase limbo for children because Vatican has abolished the first circle.  But note Agustine’s lust is now the first circle; greed as third, and fraud is second to the lowest in Dante’s hell.

For some who do not believe in hell, they subscribe to the idea that hell is other people.  A propos,  hell is other people who are hayop, being less human.

We thought of it as happening in our streets with horrendous traffic and polluted air, with motorcycle tandem robbery and killings, with subdivision home rented for the use of the ‘noble, ricsh, and superior and holy.’  Let us make this into a film series of The Gods Must be Crazy.

City of Man

Once upon a time when strongman Ferdinand Marcos rules the Kingdom of the Maharlikans from Malacanang Palace, a lady name Imelda became the governor of Metro Manila and she dreamed of making it a City of Man.  The structures she constructed were indeed meant to raise the consciousness of the Filipino beyond material preoccupation.  She exposed them to culture to be able to understand and appreciate the good, the true and the beautiful. The disconnect between material wealth and cultural richness was there and the wholeness of Filipino soul continues to be fragmented.  We are an interrupted culture.  Malay, Chinese, Spanish, and American  is a culture mix like chopsuey.  And now our moral fiber has been chopped, chopped by the pork barrel.

Muddle issue

In the Grecian story of Plato, Jeff Mason concluded that “Socrates acquiesces to Glaucon’s wishes. He builds the Republic to keep the fevered city from succumbing to its own excesses and attachments to unworthy values.”

In the Philippines, the Socratic City of Pigs remains an ideal and Glauconian Fevered City is going to the pigs

Can we  regain the City of God?  City of Man? Paradise Gained

.

Dr. Emiliano T. Hudtohan earned his doctorate in education at De La Salle University; he is faculty of Management and Organization Department. Ramon V. del Rosario Sr. College of Business of De La Salle University, Manila.  He lectures at the Graduate School of De La Salle Araneta University,   Graduate School of Social Work of Philippine Women’s University, Manila; Graduate School of De La Salle College of St. Benilde and  Graduate School of Business of San Beda College. His email: dr.eth2008@gmail.com and website:  www//emilianohudtohan.com.

Green Light

Manila Standard Today

August 26. 2013

Dr. Emiliano T. Hudtohan

With no strategic intent to make a round of talks at various schools, I found myself engaged this month with the faculty of Celedonio Salvador Elementary School (CSES) in Paco, Manila.  I was already scheduled at San Juan de Dios, Pasay City for a follow-up session on creative fidelity with Val Alejandro, Dr. Trix Ponsaran, Jeanne Aberion, and Rolly Capistrano but the flow of energy brought me to the campus of CSES.

Re-visiting

When Bamcref catechist Rebecca Oliza invited me to give a talk on relationships I immediately said yes, thinking that it would be an opportunity to re-unite with the De La Salle catechists.  After all, they, together with former director Louie Lacson, facilitated my research in the public schools.

 

I did not realize that my audience would be the CSES faculty.  On August 2, 2013, I revisited CSES and I met Principal Evelyn de Vera. I recounted to her that I was at CSES 8 years ago to validate the survey I made on the performance of the Grade IV pupils.  With 20-minute lessons they out-performed the other Grade IV and VI CSES pupils and those who had 30, 40 and 50-minute classes from three other selected public schools.

 

It was catechist Soledad Nabos who made the difference.  A master catechist for more than 30 years, she used the PESO [Munich method of presentation, exposition, summary, and orientation] approach with engaging stories and customized visual aids for rapid content delivery. In a 2005 critical incident survey her pupils showed superior moral choices.

 

Re-visioning

The presence of the catechists in the public schools was justified under Sec. 928 of the Revised Administrative Code, which became part of the Sec. 5 of the 1935 Philippine Constitution. It provided a window of opportunity for religious instruction in public schools. Br. Andelino Manuel Castillo, FSC, together with De La Salle College President Br. Gabriel Connon, FSC and Confraternity of Christian Doctrine Director Msgr. Faustino Ortiz, professionalized the teaching of catechism to gain access in public schools, thereby replacing part-time student catechists.

 

Br. Manuel, FSC was assisted by first supervisor Faustino Diaz in managing the De La Salle catechetical program in 1952. His innovative staggered scheduling hardly disrupted the schedule of classes and the teaching of catechism was readily accepted by the school supervisors and principals.  They welcomed the catechism lessons because the catechists reinforced the good manners and right conduct (GMRC) of the pupils.

 

In 2003, the Br. Andelino Manuel Castillo FSC Religious Education Foundation [Bamcref] was registered and accredited as a donor institution.  Today, the DLSU catechetical center  has 21 full-time Bamcref catechists teaching in 16 public schools and the DLSU Center for Social Concern and Action manages the service learning of the students.

 

Upon the suggestion of Br. Andrew Gonzalez, FSC, I researched on Bamcref’s 50 years of catechetical service.  I found out that one of the first schools to enjoy the professional services of De La Salle catechists was CSES [Celedonio Salvador was the first director of the Philippine Bureau of Education].  The school was founded in 1918 and was named Thomas Jefferson Primary School. But in 1952 the municipality of Manila renamed it to Celedonio Salvador Elementary School.

 

Today, CSES has 1,900 pupils.  It is managed by  Principal Evelyn A. de Vera, with the assistance of Master teacher-in-charge Elizabeth Labaclalo, Jocelyn Torres, MT-III, Susan Tolentino, MT-I, Imelda D. Geronimo, MT-I  and Agnes  P. Cabe, MT-I, and faculty members. The catechetical program is managed by Bamcref head catechist Ma. Rebecca Oliza together with Marilyn Montemayor and Chona Pascual.

 

Relating

The second professional development meeting of CSES was focused on Relationships.  The forum, sponsored by the Grade V faculty under the chairmanship of Estrella Lanusa,  was part of the faculty development program of the  faculty club headed by President John Francis and Vice-president Agnes Cabe

 

My talk opened with a good news. I announced that Filipino relational quotient is very high and it pervasive influence was earlier recognized by Jaime Bulatao, SJ who termed as smooth interpersonal relationship (SIR) .  Carucci and Pasmore (2002) call it relationship intelligence or rQ.  High rQ is a valuable quality in promoting multistream management (Dyck & Neubert, 2011) which underscores practical wisdom, participation with courage, experimentation, relational self-control and human dignity and exercise of justice and fairness by being high sensitive to others.   Unfortunately, western bias against the Asian ‘face value’ mistakenly tags SIR as a negative trait, resulting to a low self-esteem and delaying growth in being assertive.

 

In reality, Filipinos have extremely high rQ based on our cultural DNA and Christian heritage. A Filipino relational self is better seen from Ken Wilber’s sensitive self, where relationship ranks even slightly higher than spirituality.

 

Mark Michael Lewis interprets the sensitive self as communitarian, and ecologically sensitive. It establishes lateral bonding and linking.  Its emphasis is on dialogue, and group  relationships. Its decisions are made through reconciliation and consensus. The sensitive self  brings harmony and enriches human potential. It is subjective, nonlinear in thinking and shows a greater degree of affective warmth, sensitivity, and caring for earth and all its inhabitants.

 

Re-commissioning

I concluded my talk CSES by raising human relationship to a spiritual level, making a distinction between spirituality and the traditional practice of Catholic religiosity.  I dared say that we are spiritual beings with human relational experiences.

 

Spirituality based on the Lasallian mantra of “I will continue to do all my actions for the love of You” creates a horizontal and vertical web of human relations. At the horizontal plane our daily chores are at once spiritual in Lasallian faith-zeal context for communitarian common good and our actions enter a vertical relationship in form of human consciousness of a universal force [God] and an experience of the sacred through the sacraments and sacramentals.

 

As spiritual beings, we must re-commission [re-baptize] ourselves to a much higher level of relationship that surpasses our humanity immersed and drowned in materiality [matter reality].

 

 

 

 

 

 

Green Light

Manila Standard Today

August 26. 2013

Dr. Emiliano T. Hudtohan

With no strategic intent to make a round of talks at various schools, I found myself engaged this month with the faculty of Celedonio Salvador Elementary School (CSES) in Paco, Manila.  I was already scheduled at San Juan de Dios, Pasay City for a follow-up session on creative fidelity with Val Alejandro, Dr. Trix Ponsaran, Jeanne Aberion, and Rolly Capistrano but the flow of energy brought me to the campus of CSES.

Re-visiting

When Bamcref catechist Rebecca Oliza invited me to give a talk on relationships I immediately said yes, thinking that it would be an opportunity to re-unite with the De La Salle catechists.  After all, they, together with former director Louie Lacson, facilitated my research in the public schools.

I did not realize that my audience would be the CSES faculty.  On August 2, 2013, I revisited CSES and I met Principal Evelyn de Vera. I recounted to her that I was at CSES 8 years ago to validate the survey I made on the performance of the Grade IV pupils.  With 20-minute lessons they out-performed the other Grade IV and VI CSES pupils and those who had 30, 40 and 50-minute classes from three other selected public schools.

It was catechist Soledad Nabos who made the difference.  A master catechist for more than 30 years, she used the PESO [Munich method of presentation, exposition, summary, and orientation] approach with engaging stories and customized visual aids for rapid content delivery. In a 2005 critical incident survey her pupils showed superior moral choices.

Re-visioning

The presence of the catechists in the public schools was justified under Sec. 928 of the Revised Administrative Code, which became part of the Sec. 5 of the 1935 Philippine Constitution. It provided a window of opportunity for religious instruction in public schools. Br. Andelino Manuel Castillo, FSC, together with De La Salle College President Br. Gabriel Connon, FSC and Confraternity of Christian Doctrine Director Msgr. Faustino Ortiz, professionalized the teaching of catechism to gain access in public schools, thereby replacing part-time student catechists.

Br. Manuel, FSC was assisted by first supervisor Faustino Diaz in managing the De La Salle catechetical program in 1952. His innovative staggered scheduling hardly disrupted the schedule of classes and the teaching of catechism was readily accepted by the school supervisors and principals.  They welcomed the catechism lessons because the catechists reinforced the good manners and right conduct (GMRC) of the pupils.

In 2003, the Br. Andelino Manuel Castillo FSC Religious Education Foundation [Bamcref] was registered and accredited as a donor institution.  Today, the DLSU catechetical center  has 21 full-time Bamcref catechists teaching in 16 public schools and the DLSU Center for Social Concern and Action manages the service learning of the students.

Upon the suggestion of Br. Andrew Gonzalez, FSC, I researched on Bamcref’s 50 years of catechetical service.  I found out that one of the first schools to enjoy the professional services of De La Salle catechists was CSES [Celedonio Salvador was the first director of the Philippine Bureau of Education].  The school was founded in 1918 and was named Thomas Jefferson Primary School. But in 1952 the municipality of Manila renamed it to Celedonio Salvador Elementary School.

Today, CSES has 1,900 pupils.  It is managed by  Principal Evelyn A. de Vera, with the assistance of Master teacher-in-charge Elizabeth Labaclalo, Jocelyn Torres, MT-III, Susan Tolentino, MT-I, Imelda D. Geronimo, MT-I  and Agnes  P. Cabe, MT-I, and faculty members. The catechetical program is managed by Bamcref head catechist Ma. Rebecca Oliza together with Marilyn Montemayor and Chona Pascual.

Relating

The second professional development meeting of CSES was focused on Relationships.  The forum, sponsored by the Grade V faculty under the chairmanship of Estrella Lanusa,  was part of the faculty development program of the  faculty club headed by President John Francis and Vice-president Agnes Cabe

My talk opened with a good news. I announced that Filipino relational quotient is very high and it pervasive influence was earlier recognized by Jaime Bulatao, SJ who termed as smooth interpersonal relationship (SIR) .  Carucci and Pasmore (2002) call it relationship intelligence or rQ.  High rQ is a valuable quality in promoting multistream management (Dyck & Neubert, 2011) which underscores practical wisdom, participation with courage, experimentation, relational self-control and human dignity and exercise of justice and fairness by being high sensitive to others.   Unfortunately, western bias against the Asian ‘face value’ mistakenly tags SIR as a negative trait, resulting to a low self-esteem and delaying growth in being assertive.

In reality, Filipinos have extremely high rQ based on our cultural DNA and Christian heritage. A Filipino relational self is better seen from Ken Wilber’s sensitive self, where relationship ranks even slightly higher than spirituality.

Mark Michael Lewis interprets the sensitive self as communitarian, and ecologically sensitive. It establishes lateral bonding and linking.  Its emphasis is on dialogue, and group  relationships. Its decisions are made through reconciliation and consensus. The sensitive self  brings harmony and enriches human potential. It is subjective, nonlinear in thinking and shows a greater degree of affective warmth, sensitivity, and caring for earth and all its inhabitants.

Re-commissioning

I concluded my talk CSES by raising human relationship to a spiritual level, making a distinction between spirituality and the traditional practice of Catholic religiosity.  I dared say that we are spiritual beings with human relational experiences.

Spirituality based on the Lasallian mantra of “I will continue to do all my actions for the love of You” creates a horizontal and vertical web of human relations. At the horizontal plane our daily chores are at once spiritual in Lasallian faith-zeal context for communitarian common good and our actions enter a vertical relationship in form of human consciousness of a universal force [God] and an experience of the sacred through the sacraments and sacramentals.

As spiritual beings, we must re-commission [re-baptize] ourselves to a much higher level of relationship that surpasses our humanity immersed and drowned in materiality [matter reality].