Hope for the Philippines

I have not writ-ten a word since Advent because that is a crazy time for mothers. Then Christmas came in and I had to wear so many hats I’m amazed my head is still vaguely spherical.

After the last of the Christmas guests left, school started and work began for me again. In the last year, I have realized that the work I’ve been doing one weekend a month is the beginning of my life’s work. 

I’ve written about it in passing and several people have asked me about it, but I have never been able to explain it in detail. But the time has come. Just last week, our co-founder and main facilitator, Alternative Nobel Prize 2003 awardee, Nicanor Perlas, wrote an editorial about the work we do. So, instead of reinventing the wheel, I have decided to give him my space today.

In light of recent headlines, the need for these workshops has become even more urgent. We hope to hear from you soon.

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Workshops of Hope by Nicanor Perlas

To say that the Philippines is a failed state, as some international rating agencies would describe it, is a gross understatement. That is only the outer societal manifestation of something deeper. It is more accurate to describe the Philippines as a dying state. It is rapidly deteriorating at its core, its psyche. The soul and spirit of the nation is dying, mortally wounded by incessant acts of betrayal. And this life-threatening situation is aggravated by the equally incessant acts of cowardice and apathy that citizens display in response to in-your-face corruption, violence and intimidation.

Alarmed by the current situation, a small group of determined citizens struggled with how to arrest the moral decay and spiritual decline of the Filipino nation. After much soul searching, this small group hit upon a strategy to turnaround the dismal situation. They will conduct workshops of hope throughout the country, sparking the revival of societal creativity and transformation on the basis of a holistic science of inner and outer change. The workshops will indeed become engines of hope, turning passivity and apathy into revolutionary acts of courage and constructive societal engagement.

The group has called itself PAGASA (for Peoples Assembly for Genuine Alternatives to Social Apathy). In Pilipino, pagasa means hope. PAGASA aims to banish apathy by stimulating creative action by individuals and institutions and networking them together to create a potent movement for non-violent, but revolutionary change for a better country.

PAGASA hopes to nurture hope in six unique ways. The workshops may also be the first of their kind in the world combining unique approaches into an inspiring integration and synthesis leading to massive outpourings of hope.

First is the introduction of a new kind of societal diagnosis that goes three layers deeper than the structural analysis prevalent in capitalist (neo-liberal) and Marxist approaches to social change. This quickly brings participants to the recognition that the mortal crisis of the country can no longer be solved by traditional approaches, including the usual forms of people power or constitutional change alone.

The new, in-depth societal diagnosis leads to the recognition that wide-ranging societal change can only come on the basis of profound inner change. This is the second innovation of PAGASA’s workshops of hope. The workshops develop a clear appreciation of the deep truth that lies in Gandhi’s challenge: “We need to be the change we want to see in the world.”

The inner journey then introduces participants to a surprising discovery and often profound experience: the non-dual and unified world of individual and societal creativity. This third unique aspect of the workshops, when experienced properly, totally shatters the chains of apathy and hopelessness that have shackled individuals for months or even years.

The workshop further intensifies this new-found power and hopes to create new worlds by taking participants into an exhilarating, albeit sometimes mind-boggling, journey to the nature, evolution and laws of the universe as told by modern astrophysics and what these mean for self- and societal transformation. This fourth unique aspect of PAGASA’s workshops of hope introduces participants to a deeper understanding of their own nature and how this relates to the purpose and meaning not only of Philippine society but of humanity as a whole. This perspective creates a powerful foundation, albeit surprising, for engaging in refreshing acts of resistance to a dying societal and world order as well as inspiring and encouraging acts of societal innovation.

With this as a background, participants are geared up to appreciate and be further inspired by the many different ways of creating large-scale societal change by engaging in small acts of creativity. This fifth aspect of PAGASA’s workshops of hope introduces participants to such new societal innovations as prototyping strategic microcosms; inducing the “butterfly effect” through the networks and the science of complexity; harnessing the intelligence of natural (quantum) and societal fields; societal threefolding which transforms potential conflict (where appropriate) inherent between cultures, politics and economics into a common vision of change; leveraging the substance and dynamics of the creative process to produce impacts that instantaneously ripple throughout the country and planet, now and into the future.

PAGASA’s workshops of hope then introduce a dynamic framework, the Lemniscate Process, which integrates all the five unique aspects of the workshop into an even higher level of synthesis. The five unique aspects then take on a new meaning, one that especially leads to an ethic of addressing complex problems and realizing seemingly impossible approaches to creating a better world.

PAGASA has started turning its strategy of hope into reality. In approximately a year, it conducted 10 workshops of hope in Metro Manila and surrounding areas. Around 84 people have attended the two-day workshops of hope. The results have been so inspiring and encouraging that regional workshops are now being scheduled and organized. Simultaneous with its Metro Manila workshops, the first regional workshop is taking place in February 2008 in Baguio City. Others are being planned in the Visayas and in Mindanao.

Aside from more workshops that aim to number over a thousand in a few years, what is equally significant are the actual deeds that participants do after attending the workshops. Individuals, once aware, empowered and in touch with their creative core, are unleashing all kinds of interesting initiatives. Truly, nothing is as dangerous to the old corrupt order as one individual who has truly awakened to her/his spiritual and creative nature. For that individual can never be defeated by the imperial system, no matter how the latter seems to dominate the societal landscape.

Participants have identified over 1,700 other individuals around the country and other parts of the world who have values and aspirations similar to those of PAGASA. The workshops of hope are there to try to reach these individuals and encourage them to act collectively to create a visionary Philippines and a better world.

The PAGASA initiative is timely. For the first defense against massive apathy is to find that ever-creative part of ourselves, which is our spirit, that part which will never surrender no matter what the odds are. For the unconquerable and creative spirit will ultimately find a solution to even the seemingly insolvable problems of humanity. PAGASA’s workshops of hope are truly offering hope, in the best sense of the word: a breath of fresh air in the increasingly toxic atmosphere of apathy and despair that is engulfing the nation. May its initiative and others like it grow like vibrant wildflowers, turning barren wastelands into oases of life.

I’ve received many letters from readers who have said they are not for trapos and want true and lasting change, but they no longer believe in taking to the streets anymore. Many of them have asked, “Where do we belong?” We invite you to explore that question with us and join the potent energy for authentic change that has already exploded in our country. Those who want to know more about PAGASA’s workshops of hope can write us at PAGASA@mac.com or call 09065002747. The next one will be on Feb 16 and 17, followed by one on March 29 and 30 at the Angels’ Hills Retreat and Formation Center, Tagaytay.