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Balay Mindanaw Foundation, Inc. |
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Kaangayan, Kalambuan, Kalinaw ... sa Mindanaw, sa Pilipinas, sa Kalibutan |
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German city dweller
finds meaningful life
WHY does the development community try to change the traditional life of indigenous people? Are organizations like the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) really helping them by implementing development projects aimed at pursuing western values? Wouldn’t these cultures rather continue to live according to values of their own? Being at a stage of my life where I have to decide whether or not to pursue a career in development, I worked as an intern for the KAS in the Philippines to get first-hand experiences and thus answers to these questions which are rarely addressed in university. Living and working in bustling Makati and having grown up in Germany -- a country where, it is said, everybody has a watch but nobody has time -- then transported into the world of the Higaonon tribe of Minalwang felt like moving from one reality to a different one. From a modern and hectic life to a world in which the indigenous people were able to preserve their vernacular language as well as cultural and religious traditions. After a warm welcome at Minalwang, I was introduced to one of these rituals in which barangay leaders slit the throat of a chicken and let the warm blood pour over my arm in order to ask the spirits of my true intentions. Development assistance critics often raise the question why to intervene in these socio-economic systems that evolved over many generations. After my four day visit in Minalwang, the answer was clear to me: recent projects like the improvement of the water system or the set up of a health center uplifted the living standard of the indigenous people without having a negative impact on the traditions and culture of the tribe. And people receive this help thankfully.
During my exposure trip, I also observed the work of Balay Mindanaw, a local KAS partner which is mainly engaged in peace building. This NGO understands that the key to successful development assistance lies in taking the term literally: assist and empower people rather than impose reforms on them. “To really get an insight in the situation and understand the complexity of the problems, you have to work on the ground,” emphasizes Gilbert “Popoy” Guevarra, a Balay peace worker who has been working in Minalwang for two years. Therefore, the majority of the 40 Balay Mindanaw staff spend most of their time working directly in the development area. By understanding the tribe’s cultural background and spending time with the indigenous people, these so called Sustainable Integrated Area Development Organizers (SIADOs, pronounced as “shadows”) have built up the necessary trust for successful assistance and peace building. During the time of my visit, they successfully mediated a land conflict between two tribes caused by the government changing the political barangay boundaries without regard to the ancestral background. Looking back at my visit to Minalwang, it seems like I travelled back in time, when people lived in accordance with nature. The daily life starts at sunrise and ends with sunset. Night time revealed a peaceful scene of people sitting on candlelit porches, chatting, and often performing the traditional ritual of chewing betelnut. Probably the biggest difference from life in the city was that the Higaonons have a deep respect for their environment and land, which they consider sacred and entrusted to them by the Creator. The fast life, conveniences, and alleged necessities of modern civilization are missing -- and nobody seems to mind.
I realized that while the life of the Higaonon tribe has improved because of development, people in developed places might also benefit from being influenced by the values of indigenous people. There seems to be a conflict between cultural relativism versus universalism in most development projects. What parts of their cultural values and heritage should the indigenous people continue to live in consonance with? Are there desirable values like health, peace, and education that people, regardless of their cultural background, benefit from and development assistance should therefore pursue? Over the last two months I worked with the KAS and its partners, I got the impression that they found a form of answer to this question, making sustainable changes by working locally and collaborating with the people they intend to help. It has become clear to me that development assistance is an important but complex task that requires patience and cultural awareness. ________________ |
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Helping Build Empowered and Sustainable Communities in Mindanao. Helping Build Peace.