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Comprehensive Human Rights, and the SanibLakas Thrust for Human Development and Harmony |
HDH
Sub-Programs for
promotion of...
.1. Empowering Paradigms .2..Earnest Human ..Conversations (Sanib-Sinag) .3..Synaesthetics..(Sanib-Sining) for helping build the... .4..the National Synergy ..(Filipinos for Life) .5..the Earth Synergy |
By Ed Aurelio C. Reyes
Founder and President, SanibLakas ng Taongbayan
Foundation
and Chairman of the Board of Trustees,
Philippine Human Rights Information Center
[This was submitted on June 22 for inclusion in a primer being prepared for the Commission on Population, with some additions and editing done afterwards in preparation for uploading on the SanibLakas website. It was finalized on June 30, 2000.]
ERY LAUDABLE and challenging. This is how I would describe the 'Pananao' concept reportedly in the process now of being officially adopted by the Commission on Population. This concept is, of course, much better defined and described fully by consultant Marius Diaz and his associates within the Commission.
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..........I say it is laudable because this endeavors to liberate the work of the Commission from a purely-numbers concern and to move this to address the matter of quality of human existence which can never be validly shorn from the very concept of population itself. And challenging because it presents a new paradigm, a new frame of mind, that would make the Commission's work more complex and would also take much time and effort to make the broad sovereign politic, and even their leaders, grasp fully. It is not surprising therefore that the likelihood of active cooperation with the Population Commission about 'Pananao' and with us in the SanibLakas ng Taongbayan Foundation on our program thrust on Human Development and Harmony was instantly and enthusiastically welcomed by the chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights, Hon. Aurora Reciña, when I took it up with her a few hours ago.'Pananao' and 'Taongbayan'
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..........Let me first relate the concept of 'pananao' with the Human Development and Harmony program thrust of the four-year-old SanibLakas Foundation."Saniblakas" is a coined word in Tagalog which means synergism or synergy, which as we know refers to the magnification of the total capability of units that work closely together compared to the total capability of these same units working separately. This principle applies to interactions in physics, in the biosphere, as well as among people in all sorts of groupings and communities. We all know about it in the concept of teamwork.
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..........As its complete name clarifies, SanibLakas ng Taongbayan Foundation works to promote the conscious application of the principle of synergism mainly on the people, on the dynamics among the "taongbayan," a compound word that carries both the sense of individuality, as in the personal tao, and the sense of community, as in the word bayan.
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..........SanibLakas has always believed that there can never be a synergy if there are no individual energies to bring together. This is why all our work has been for individual and collective human empowerment that would overcome all obstacles to full human development, all blocks to the full enjoyment of all the human rights, all impediments to full individual and collective self-realization as humans.Training, InfoShare and website services
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..........We have had various projects and services in building up self-confidence in people, in discovering and developing one's own inborn capabilities earlier hidden due to various insecurities and intimidations, we have been giving trainings and consultancies on effective communication, on organization-building and even on successful preparation and conduct of meetings.
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..........We have gone into information-sharing in broad-based endeavors like three successive Earth Day commemorations to help in coordination and in building a sense of synergy at least in spirit. And we have built up and maintained a website (http://saniblakas.faithweb.com) with an accompanying system of e-mailed alerts (from sanib_alam@yahoo.com), for faster, broader reach with our synergism-oriented messages for all occasions.
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..........All these projects and services have been designed to facilitate empowering education and the building of healthy linkages all around.SALIKA: Synergy for Environmentalism
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..........Recently, we launched two major program thrusts. The first one focuses on synergism-consciousness and actual building of synergies of strong commitmentsand capabilities among more and more people and more and more existing organizations for environment conservation, a real legitimate concern for all the people. For this thrust, we have started building a new organization called Sanib-lakas ng Inang Kalikasan or Salika!
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..........The members of Salika! are to be given free training seminars on the synergism principle which they are to practice all the time in working as members, and on specialized skills needed to perform various complementing tasks in the respective lines of work that they choose. Each Salika! member would be molded to be a model in individual commitment and skill and in building teamwork and linkages of cooperation under all circumstances, all contributory to building a strong "culture of synergy" within the environmental movement...........SanibLakas has formed an organizing committee, led by the Foundation's vice president, which functions as Salika! executive committee until the appropriate time to hold a general assembly of full-fledged members.
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..........Through our efforts, a loose campaign network, called Love All Life!, has also been started to be formed among such organizations as Salika!, Gunless Society, Haribon Foundation, Mountaineers for the Environment, and the Philippine Animal Welfare Society, to promote an integrated con-sciousness about valuing all incarnations of all forms of life and all their living communities.
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..........There is an opportunity for SanibLakas to participate in organizing the year-long preparations for the United Nations' World Environment Day on June 5, 2001. Whatever our role in this would be, it will definitely be characterized by emphasis on building the unity among the established envi-ronmental groups and all the new ones that can be mobilized, to help further develop teamwork among the former and sustained and higher-level involvement in environment conservation among the latter. The encouragement of creativity all around would be coupled with participatory processes for deciding crucial matters, the better for all concerned to be firmly united in the spirit of "rejoicing in one another's successes" and of collectively owning the entire commemoration.
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..........We anticipate criticisms to come from those who would not see things our way, but we would avoid overreacting to these. We are conscious that anyone who undertakes to lead or even just coordinate must be open to criticisms and must continue seeking ways to resolve any conflicts in a manner that would be building and sustaining a unity in the long run for the sake of the environment.(for more information on Salika! click here -->.)...
C.E.S.: Cooperative Education on Synergism
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..........The second thrust, Cooperative Education on Synergism, entails a long-term education process with cooperatives about the synergism principle. This processis designed to be bi-directional. In the first phase, we are promoting an education campaign for wide and vigorous implementation by the cooperatives themselves focused on the principle of synergism. The principle, after all, is at the very essence of cooperativism, but has been widely violated by a substantial number of cooperatives -- to their own long-term detriment, dormancy or demise -- due to lack of sharp consciousness on this principle.
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..........We have been told many times by certain quarters that synergism is already included somewhere in existing cooperative education programs, that we offer nothing new as we propose that such synergism-focused education work be undertaken. But we have maintained that nothing short of a focused education campaign on the subject would suffice, and this is based on actual studies that would take too much space to elaborate on here. Still, this has been validated by many cooperative leaders and members "on the ground." A pamphlet on this, titled Cooperatives and the Challenge of Synergism has been issued as a seed for drawing in comments and other articles that would be integrated in a book of the same to be published in time for the forthcoming Cooperatives Month (October 15-November 15). This pamphlet has generally been well-received and more than half of the first print-run has been sold. Funds are now being raised to finance the publication of its first book edition to be enriched by additions and feedback received on the pamhlet and to also fiunance at least partially the conduct of the first C.E.S. seminars, which are expected to further validate and enrich the contents of these seminars.
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..........The other direction, under the second phase, will be synergism-focused education from the cooperative sector -- to be fully validated by their own experiences --- to the broad populace. As early as two years ago, the executive director of SanibLakas Foundation, challenged the cooperative sector to gain the full capability to give that kind of empowering enlightenment to the nation as a whole, as only the cooperatives as a sector can.
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..........The C.E.S. program has three prongs: (1) Resolutions -- where cooperatives are lobbied to pass resolutions to support even in most general terms the focused education campaign, with implementation specifics to be worked out separately; (2) Seminars -- where the cooperatives actually undergo seminars either directly under the SanibLakas or indirectly through its modules and trained echo-trainors; and (3) Publications -- where the imperative for this educational thrust, its contents, and the harvest of lessons are issued in a series of widely-circulated publications.
[NEW on C.E.S.: "Sanib-Kolum" (ukol sa mga koop)
nina Ding Reyes at Joydee Robledo]
SanibLakas has also constituted a program committee to lead and coordinate all the activities under C.E.S.
(for more information on C.E.S. click here -->
Overarching Thrust: Human Development and Harmony
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..........Other SanibLakas programs and projects contribute directly to the overarching program for Human Development and Harmony (HDH). Ongoing projects under the SanibLakas HDH program are the following:
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..........1. Study and effective promotion, especially among the youth, of empowering paradigms in various fields, such as holistic health, deep ecology, philosophy and spirituality, sense of history and mission, civics and democratic governance, culture and creativity, gender sensitivity and equality, reconstructive justice, associative economics, synergistic leadership and organizations, science and appropriate technologies, investment in the youth, and various other topics. Researches and educational modules-development on these topics have been started in partnership with various institutions, including the University Research Center of Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM), Asian Social Institute (ASI), and Bahay Liwanag -- Emilio Jacinto Center for Transformative Consciousness which has started operating a library at Earthlite, the "wholistic alternative venue" right at the center of Quezon City.
[A Network of Centers for Empowering Paradigms, called Lambat-Liwanag, has been formed as a project under this sub-program, led by social research centers and equivalent bodies in the University of Sto. Tomas, PLM, Philippine Normal University, University of the Philippines - Manila, ASI and Earthlite. Click here for details.]
.........Factors are also present for this circle to grow into a broader network for these empowering paradigms and eventually embrace such other communities as Titus Brandsma Center of the Order of the Carmelites (O'Carm), University of the Philippines Philippine Studies, Philippine Social Science Council, Philippine Human Rights Information Network, Health Action Information Network, Communication Foundation for Asia, the National Secretariat for Social Action of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, Medical Mission Sisters, the Tam-awan Village in Baguio, the Maryknoll sisters also in Baguio, and the National High School for the Arts in Makiling, among others.
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..........2. The promotion of a new set of ethics for earnest human conversations, for the "the synergy of information, views and feelings that are shared with honest humility and are heeded with genuine respect," through face-to-face freewheeling sharing sessions called "Sanib-Sinag" and through its publication and cyberspace forum versions. "Sanib-Sinag" conversations have been held weekly at the Earthlite venue in Cubao, Quezon City, for more than a year now, and during its first anniversary, even with its planned continuance at the regular schedule and venue, a call was raised to do it "anytime and anywhere, even on the phone." Of course we have to take steps to insure that the basics of the concept ("purely personal sharings, no lectures, no debates, no binding decisions made, no exclusions or inclusions on the basis of organizational affiliation or non-affiliation") would be kept intact as this is propagated. A pamphlet for this is currently being prepared.
are all served by the SanibLakas CHOSEN
Sites Project. "CHOSEN" stands for "Centers
of Holistic Synergies for Enlightenment."].
..........3. The promotion of a synergism-oriented view of aesthetics or'synaesthetics' that art is a basic faculty that belongs to all humans, a view of art that is more embracive than competitive, and a view of artists as all humans belonging to only two categories -- those who know that they are artists and those who don't -- with the those of the former category being challenged to help those of the latter to "discover, develop and share" their artistic talents.
..........A movement for this artistic school of thought and ethics, called "Sanib-Sining" has been quietly launched, spearheaded by the Sanibkulay Visual
Arts Group, a SanibLakas-inspired organization which has also started giving "easy art lessons" at very affordable rates and is preparing to give free art lessons to out-of-school youths in indigent communities.
Upon the belief that art is a community affair, the "Sanib-Sining" campaign has started organizing art-jamming sessions (like the monthly "Sanib-Tinig" sing-out jamming "For free expression and happy togetherness") where there would be no distinct performers apart from all who come together for these nor high walls separating the various forms of art. Group art has also been started as in participatory painting or "Sanib-Pinta" (like the piece titled "Hands for Homeplanet Harmony" done by participants in the recent commemoration of World Environment Day and six groups of students of Sanibkulay Easy Art Lessons done for the same occasion.
[This was promoted to the status of a full program thrust in January 2001. Click here for more details.]
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..........4. The promotion of a collective sense of history and sense of missionfor the Filipino nation with the launching of the "Filipinos for Life" network for Loving All Life, Integrity, Filipinism and Empowerment, in cooperation with the Kamalaysayan (Kampanya para sa Kamalayan sa Kasaysayan) campaign network for sense of history, which would promote a sense of mission based on the "bayanihan" and "kabayanihan" heritage and the Filipinos' advantageous mix of strong spirituality, high literacy and global dispersal. This project and similar ones covering smaller-scale groupings would develop consolidated constituencies for these ideals and likewise build mechanisms that would synergize more human and material resources for socially-uplifting and empowering endeavors of non-government and people's organizations who can gradually be weaned away from substantial dependence on foreign, albeit sincerely friendly, benefactors.
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..........5. The promotion of international human harmony and sense of planethood as "the 'Earth Synergy' of all nations and races, of all species, of all land, air and water,and of all their energies" for environment conservation. Late last year, SanibLakas propagated through the Internet an Earth Synergy poem titled "A Giant Leap for Humankind" which has been translated into more than a dozen languages, and upon this poem successfully proposed a "simple worldwide activity," the holding of the "Handshakes and Hugs" ceremony with as many nationalities represented as possible in each case, and this was held last April in various countries such as Sweden, Pakistan, Ireland, Japan, the United States and the Philippines.
Synergetic Implementation
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..........How does SanibLakas envision to accomplish even just a fraction of all these programs, plans and dreams? We have been doing our work, and we intend to continue doing so, mainly by building the teamwork or synergy of all groups and individuals who would readily resonate with our ideals, who would share our dreams, who would see the value and logic of our plans, and who would help us carry the torch forward. We firmly believe there are more than enough such people and groups who would join in the broad synergy for even more synergy and empowerment. After all, this is what SanibLakas is all about. Skeptics would be asked to be more open-minded, and to bear with us and not overreact even as we harp on the words synergism and synergy.
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..........We are not begging, much less forcing, anyone to help us or work with us (even incumbent Board Members are free to resign any time they ascertain that working for human development and harmony, in the spirit of consciously applying the principle of synergism, is nowhere in their respective personal life missions); and of course working with us does not even have to be formal. In fact, we dare claim to be working with us all who promote synergism consciousness even if they, for any reason, dislike using that precise term, and prefer similar ones like harmony and teamwork.Comprehensive Human Rights
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..........Allow me now to also comment on this whole 'pananao' concept and the Human Development and Harmony theme as the Board Chairman of the Philippine Human Rights Information Center or PhilRights. Along with the entire family of the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA) which gave it birth, and in partnership with the Commission on Human Rights of this Republic as well as with pertinent agencies of the United Nations and various other entities overseas, PhilRights has been playing an active role in propagating the information that the universal and indivisible human rights go well beyond the more popularly-known civil and political rights, and cover as well the economic, social and cultural rights. We have been helping substantially in evolving clear bases for standard-setting on the enjoyment of these rights, raising their recognition from the level of motherhood statements to that of measurable implementation of official social policy.
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..........Comprehensively speaking, human rights cover all the rights of all humans to the full enjoyment and full development of their being human. The international community has mandated all legitimate governments on this planet to insure this for all human beings under their respective jurisdictions whether as citizens or as visitors. And PhilRights is proud to be part of the overall effort to make this a living reality in the Philippines up to the grassroots and even to the household and individual levels.Peace and Human Harmony
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..........SanibLakas Foundation has been asked about its position with regards to armed conflicts such as the ongoing ones in some parts of Mindanao. I have thus been given the occasion to write that war itself, that glaring indicator of failure of human harmony, is a wholesale violation of the universal and comprehensive human rights, and that even if combatants were to observe fully the international covenants and rules on engagement the indivisible human rights and human development as a whole would automatically be the main victim. There are no real victors in a war.
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..........On the other hand, the way to stable peace in Mindanao could be trod only if all three major ethno-religious groupings (the Muslims, the Christians and the lumads) were to embrace as a binding element the unified view that, synergistically harnessed, diversity is a distinct wealth of the people of that island group, and if they henceforth unmistakably manifest their genuine respect for, and enjoyment of mutual enrichment by, one another. Any government claiming jurisdiction over them has the responsibility to build this kind of peace, not an eerie silence of smoldering mosques and churches amid human corpses.'Pananao' : Total Human Development
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..........This discussion on peace would underscore the intertwined and interdependent ideals of human development and human harmony. It's like a pair of feet that can march forward (or be tied up together in captivity): human development can only proceed fully under an atmosphere of human harmony; and human harmony can only thrive and last if there is enough human development away from overemphasis on distinctions and divisiveness and away from the primeval instincts that are predisposed to the use of brute force.
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..........Peace, even that based on justice, would still be hollow unless all potentialities for human synergy and harmony and for well-rounded human development are deeply appreciated and actualized. Such appreciation and actualization must be felt in the lives of entire populations.
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..........Pananao pertains to the total development of the human person in the context of human harmony. Its adoption by the Commission on Population would represent an historic development in the work of the Commission, dovetailing with the anti-poverty programs being bannered by the incumbent administration.
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..........We of the SanibLakas Foundation are ready to help. And PhilRights has always been ready to collaborate with all entities promoting a widescale awareness on all our indivisible and universal human rights.
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..........Hopefully, all our efforts will soon cause the desired historic development in the lives of the more than 70 million people living in this archipelago, so that all of us and all our descendants in their time would be living fully human lives in the years, decades and centuries to come.
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