Guild is good

During the campaign period, a friend told me about a politician who promised that his first project would be to put a kisame (ceiling) on all public school houses. We all laughed at this ridiculous idea considering the need for other more important priorities. Recounting the amusing story to others, I was thrown a dose of very profound lessons. First of all, the heat in a schoolhouse with metal sheeting and without a ceiling is unbearable for the schoolchildren. Secondly, it is a status symbol, a sense of arrival to have a home with a kisame, and therefore a gesture of concern and empowerment.

Most of all, I learned that my view of what is important, sitting from a chair, is not the view of more than 70 million of our countrymen who are sitting on a banig (straw mat) on the floor. Thinking about this I realized that those in more privileged positions have a responsibility to either join the 70 million Filipinos sitting on the floor to truly listen and to understand their point of view, or to pull them up one by one to join us at the table.

Mary Judd, Mindanao coordinator and senior anthropologist at the World Bank, told me about her similar experiences. Working on programs to alleviate poverty, Mary says she is amazed at what people at the grassroots desire as a step up from poverty.

As we embark on these early days of the next crucial six years, we need to search, with simplicity and humility, for solutions to engage people at the lowest levels in our plans. While we grapple with globalization, politics, the budget deficit and our external debt, business, government and civil society should work together to identify projects that excite and give pride to the man on the street.

For example, Joanne Zapanta-Andrade – a UNESCO commissioner, also known for ensuring that our President looks great – is working on revitalizing our embroidery cottage industry together with fashion designer Inno Sotto. Over lunch, we talked about how wonderful it would be to revisit the concept of the guild that had its beginnings during the Roman times and became very powerful trade associations in Medieval England. The purpose of the guild was to teach and train apprentices, control quality and the amount of production, and provide for the social security of its members. The guild organized skilled quality teachers and improved working conditions.

According to John Charles Thornley and George Hastings, "(The guild) worked as follows: The master worked and explained, the apprentice watched and copied. In time the apprentice became skilled and, as a master, passed his knowledge on. There existed a close, meaningful relationship between teacher and pupil. Objectives were clear and relatively simple and each participant knew and performed what was expected. Many a guild gained much from such efforts and many improvements in working and in dealing with materials was due to the joint action of the bright intelligence of the young who were encouraged to think out improvements and suggestions and the experience of the old master-craftsman."

One of the reasons the guilds were so successful in teaching and quality control was the development of pride in a tradition. Quality control was strictly adhered to since and the main emphasis of the guild was to produce quality work. Giving honor to the master/teacher allowed for a hierarchy that acknowledged that the more masterful should be paid a greater value for his labor and his masterpieces. Thus a bowl made by a master laquer craftsman in Japan can demand a huge amount of money and is a valuable piece of art.

Local governments could put effort to organize workers with common interests like the carvers in Paete, embroiderers in Taal, artists in Laguna and many more into guilds. With shared resources, the guild would be able to invest in research. For embroidery, there is a goldmine of information in the Intramuros Administration Museum of 19th Century Costume that the Asia Society brought to New York to the awe of Americans. It could also ensure quality control, branding, marketing and promotions. The guild could act as a great bridge between those sitting at the table and those on the banig. It could very well propel pride and wealth at the lowest levels, allowing for many more to sit at the table with us.

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Thanks so much for your comments at dorisho@attglobal.net.